141

Philosophy, Religion & Society / Re: Coronavirus Vaccine and You

« on: May 23, 2022, 10:38:24 PM »

Totally normal

Look at the fog / mist / pollution they were running through. No wonder something went wrong.

142

Philosophy, Religion & Society / Re: Trump

« on: May 15, 2022, 03:26:52 PM »

Most everyone going "LOL, wut?" at The Former Guy's false equivalence between the shooting in Buffalo and the conflict in Afghanistan ...

Including https://www.businessinsider.com/video-donald-trump-uses-buffalo-mass-shooting-make-misleading-boast-2022-5?r=US&IR=T

Former President Donald Trump used the racially-motivated Buffalo mass shooting to make a misleading boast about the lack of deaths in Afghanistan during his presidency, a video shows.
Speaking in Austin, Texas, on Saturday, the former president took to the stage shortly after an 18-year-old opened fire on customers and employees, killing 10 at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York.
"I think they had a tragic event in Buffalo, just as I'm coming on the stage, tragic event in Buffalo with numerous people being killed," Trump said, per the video. "In 18 months in Afghanistan, we lost nobody," the former president continued in an apparent non-sequitur. He went on to talk about negotiating with Abdul Ghani Baradar — the co-founder of the Taliban.

Trump's claim that nobody died in Afghanistan during 18 months of his presidency is misleading. It's not clear which 18-month period Trump was referring to. Insider reached out to Trump's post-presidency office for clarification but received no response. He may have been referring to claims popularized on social media, described by USA TODAY, in which Trump supporters said there were no US military deaths between February 2020 and August 2021. According to a USA TODAY fact check, these claims are misleading. There were four US deaths recorded in Afghanistan during that period, according to the Pentagon's casualty tracking system, per USA Today, though not in combat situations. Eight of those months were during President Joe Biden's time in office.

If Trump was referring to the last 18 months of his presidency, a period between July 2019 and January 2021, this is also factually incorrect. In 2020, 11 military deaths were recorded in Afghanistan. Throughout the final 18 months of Trump's presidency, a total of 22 US service members were reported dead in Afghanistan.

 

143

Philosophy, Religion & Society / Re: Bye Bye Abortion

« on: May 14, 2022, 05:06:53 PM »

... you are now arguing that abortion is only acceptable for medical reasons.

Um, don't think I am...

144

Philosophy, Religion & Society / Re: Bye Bye Abortion

« on: May 14, 2022, 08:45:39 AM »

Referring back to the "clump of cells" argument around page 8, there's a few other thoughts that may well need consideration ...

Does child support start at conception? If, so -
Can the foetus be considered eligible for life insurance?
If an immigrant or tourist gets pregnant while on US soil, does she then have to stay in the USA for 9 months, as she has a US citizen inside her?
If the foetus is now regarded as a person, how can pregnant woman be imprisoned? Surely the foetus is innocent, and it's immoral to imprison it as well as the mother carrying it?
If the mother dies in childbirth, but the foetus/baby does not, then does its new-found status make it guilty of involuntary manslaughter? 
Americans currently cannot claim a foetus as a dependent for tax purposes, as the IRS does not regard it as a person. Should this change?

145

Philosophy, Religion & Society / Re: Bye Bye Abortion

« on: May 13, 2022, 04:54:22 PM »

A woman gets pregnant and aborts her unborn child to "do what was best for herself". This is considered acceptable.

A man learns that his girlfriend is pregnant and immediately abandons her and his unborn child to "do what was best for himself". This is considered unacceptable.

Why?

There are no medical or social consequences for the man. She might have to suffer medical complications, she might be unable to work at some point over the 9 mth pregnancy and thereafter, and a whole host of other downsides that will not affect the man at all.

In simplistic terms, he's not walking away from the same things as she is. He's shirking support and financial issues only, far lesser issues than the mother.

146

Philosophy, Religion & Society / Re: Bye Bye Abortion

« on: May 12, 2022, 10:03:59 AM »

I was almost 16 and did not want my parents to know  ...

"My parents told me I had one option, abortion or get kicked out of the house and go to a shelter in the city.

So your examples are simply examples of parental intolerance.

Give the choice, without abortion available, your second example would have been kicked out on the street. Is that what you want for the young female populace of the USA?

147

Philosophy, Religion & Society / Re: President Joe Biden

« on: May 11, 2022, 04:11:04 PM »

So you have no defense at all about Biden whispering into the microphone during speeches?

Why does this require a "defence"?

The whole idea of having a microphone and associated public address system is that the speaker does not need to raise his voice or shout.

I don't see any problem with him lowering his voice.  If the best critique that you can manage is that you think it is "creepy", that's not much of a critique.

148

Philosophy, Religion & Society / Re: Bye Bye Abortion

« on: May 10, 2022, 09:31:27 AM »

... the fact that people very overwhelmingly have abortions out of personal irresponsibility

Where is the data to support this fact?

149

Philosophy, Religion & Society / Re: Bye Bye Abortion

« on: May 09, 2022, 04:44:48 PM »

In the 1700's and 1800's when abortion was widely illegal and taboo society was built around it. Sex leads to pregnancy, so men and women were taught to carefully select their partners. Ideally it was best to wait until marriage ... etc.

I would prefer society to return to that type of existence.

Why? What difference do the family planning choices of others make to your life?

In regards to rape, only about 1% of abortions occur as a result of rape. This is hardly a factor for keeping mass abortion and allowing people to be so reckless with their lives.

So you're OK with abortion in that limited set of circumstances, where pregnancy has been forced upon the woman against her will? Limited abortion as opposed to mass?

150

Philosophy, Religion & Society / Re: Bye Bye Abortion

« on: May 08, 2022, 11:16:08 AM »

I would prefer society to return to that type of existence.

Are you any kin to SCOTUS Judge Barrett?

151

Philosophy, Religion & Society / Re: Bye Bye Abortion

« on: May 08, 2022, 11:12:35 AM »

That sounds like 40% of people want more restrictive laws ...

... or they have no specific view on the matter.

And 40% (or less) is still a minority.


EDIT Only 37% specifically opine that abortion should be illegal. An even smaller minority than stated above. Of those, 27% opine it should be illegal "in most cases",  8% in "All cases, no exceptions", 2% "All cases, but with exceptions"  So 29% of that 37% would allow for some flexibility in circumstance, as opposed to a blanket ban.

61+37 = 98, so 2% either had no opinion or abstained.

152

Flat Earth Community / Re: What makes the shape of the Earth obvious?

« on: May 08, 2022, 11:02:18 AM »

I wanted to hear from the Flat Earth community. Since you made the jump from Round to Flat Earth, I would love to hear your perspective about what makes the shape of the Earth seem obvious to Round Earther types, and if that feeling of obviousness carries over to Round Earth.

What you appear to ask for here is Flat Earther views on how Round Earthers think about the shape. I can tell you directly, as an RE, how I feel about it, without this being filtered into an FE view on how I feel.

Tom refers to the sinking ship effect, but it's perfectly possible to determine the seas are Not Flat without reference to ships or other objects on or over the horizon. I've determined this from my own observations, and from those of others. This, allied with all the other "textbook" determinations of Earth shape, 60+ years of orbital space flight, etc. will suffice for me.

153

Flat Earth Theory / Re: Addressing Wiki Articles #1- Lunar Eclipse due to Electromagnetic Acceleration

« on: May 05, 2022, 09:15:41 PM »

That animation on that Wikipedia page with the Moon sliding from right to left into the shadow which appears to come in from the top-down is incorrect: It tries to explain why the shadow is coming in from the top-down. But we can see that the face of the moon is actually tilted in the eclipse:

If we compare that to the Lunar coordinate system means that the shadow is actually coming in from a Western direction to the lunar face, and is not coming in from the North of the Moon:

The animation is from the perspective of an observer aligned at a right-angle to the solar ecliptic. Practically nobody on Earth will be aligned this way. There's nothing on the Wiki to suggest it is "explaining" a top-down shadow....

The alignment of the shadow in your second image matches the shadow in the animation. They both enter the Moon's face at broadly the same area. The Moon is tilted in the photo montage because the photographer was not aligned at a perfect right-angle to the ecliptic. Take any eclipse, and compare (for instance) photos taken from American and Japan. Each sees the same eclipse, but one sees it with the shadow top down, the other with the shadow bottom up. Because they are "upside-down" in relation to each other, exactly as globe mechanics dictates.

Of course the shadow will encroach on the western edge of the Moon first, because that matches the direction of the Moon's travel.

154

Flat Earth Theory / Re: Moon landing hoax question

« on: May 04, 2022, 01:34:43 PM »

During the Space Race they were clearly working on lots of different space projects.

Is it the basis of your argument that all of things actually happened for real?

155

Philosophy, Religion & Society / Re: Terrible Political Memes

« on: April 30, 2022, 04:19:23 PM »

So who's the face with the glasses and the beany hat?

156

Philosophy, Religion & Society / Re: What religion do you practice?

« on: April 24, 2022, 08:21:07 PM »

Apatheticism.

157

Philosophy, Religion & Society / Re: Trump

« on: April 23, 2022, 05:06:55 PM »

Happy Disinfectant Injection Day to you all...

""The disinfectant, where it knocks it out in a minute, and is there a way we can do something like that by injection inside, or almost a cleaning. It gets in the lungs"

The Former Guy said this two years ago to the day, appearing to suggest that injecting disinfectant inside people could be a treatment for the coronavirus.

158

Philosophy, Religion & Society / Re: Trump

« on: April 23, 2022, 07:58:08 AM »

Weird.  I knew about this months ago.  Maybe different show?

I think there was news comment about it then, but the edited footage has only just been released .....

159

Flat Earth Investigations / Re: ISS Photo From The Ground

« on: April 22, 2022, 04:04:03 PM »

How do you know it was the same object? What if ...

The overwhelming preponderence of evidence supporting it, and the total lack of any firm evidence to show that it could be anything else.

Do you have anything in support of your "What if ..."

160

Flat Earth Investigations / Re: ISS Photo From The Ground

« on: April 22, 2022, 02:33:24 PM »

Round-earthers say it’s moving at 17K mph.

... which is entirely consistent with both the stated orbital height, and duration of orbit.

I've seen it twice in an evening, on more than one occasion; each appearance separated by 90 mins or so. Calculate the length of orbit, based on stated speed, height and textbook radius of Earth, and you arrive at an orbital time of around 90 mins.

It's also consistent with the first orbital satellite, Sputnik 1, which was not only seen, but heard, as folks on the ground both watched it and listened to its beep-beep radio transmission. Accounts of what people saw and heard also mention an orbital time of around 90 mins, implying similar speed.