61

Philosophy, Religion & Society / Re: Trump

« on: February 13, 2024, 04:54:39 PM »

Trump is not the first conservative to question the value of NATO. In fact, he mostly gets his opinions from pre-existing positions that have existed for at least a decade prior. Rush Limbaugh and others have echoed all of his general sentiments years ago.

At this point there are no deep cultural ties between America and most of the NATO countries, such as Estonia and many others. It is a service. If some people want to abuse the service by using military resources and not paying, then they are deserving of rejection and even animosity for wasting the resources that are necessary to protect others. Trump has touched on the animosity a bit, and I agree with him.

62

Philosophy, Religion & Society / Re: Terrible Political Memes

« on: February 13, 2024, 03:05:18 AM »

63

Philosophy, Religion & Society / Re: Trump

« on: February 13, 2024, 02:57:11 AM »

None of what Trump said is detestable.

Because of the word I bolded. You don't care what he said, he said it so it's OK.
If someone you don't like says something then it's "bad". Again, not because of what's said, because of who said it.
You're either programmed beyond hope or trolling. It doesn't really matter which, neither leads to productive debate.

You seem to believe that I secretly care deeply about NATO allies. I do not.

I don't care if Estonia gets invaded. Why should I?

64

Philosophy, Religion & Society / Re: Trump

« on: February 12, 2024, 04:03:16 PM »

Trump is on the right track here.

lol. There’s a good cult member.
Trump loves people like you, you’re so easy to program. Literally doesn’t matter what he says.

You guys should pay the amount you agreed to for protection. America shouldn't protect dead beats.

Well, that seems fairly reasonable.
But encourage?
The mental backflips you do to justify anything your cult leader says or does are ridiculous. You’d come across as more credible if you were more honest. You don’t believe America should actively encourage nations to attack NATO nations just because they haven’t paid.

The NATO expectations are very reasonable. Each country is expected to contribute 2% of GDP. An alliance is a two way street. You can't just take. If you are not contributing then you are putting everyone else in danger by using the alliance's infrastructure and resources to cover you. How is NATO supposed to protect everyone if they have multiple military bases and high tech infrastructure that they are maintaining in your territory that you are not paying for?

Wolf packs are known to drive out or kill the sick or injured members in their packs, and arguably rightly so. It slows them down and invites predators. None of what Trump said is detestable.

65

Philosophy, Religion & Society / Re: Trump

« on: February 12, 2024, 07:21:16 AM »

He recalled that the leader of a "big country" had presented a hypothetical situation in which he was not meeting his financial obligations within Nato and had come under attack from Moscow.

Mr Trump said the leader had asked if the US would come to his country's aid in that scenario, which prompted him to issue a rebuke.

"I said: 'You didn't pay? You're delinquent?'... 'No I would not protect you, in fact I would encourage them to do whatever they want. You gotta pay.'"

Trump is on the right track here. You guys should pay the amount you agreed to for protection. America shouldn't protect dead beats.

66

Philosophy, Religion & Society / Re: President Joe Biden

« on: February 09, 2024, 04:09:53 AM »

Is this headline even satire?

https://babylonbee.com/news/man-ruled-too-senile-to-stand-trial-still-fine-to-run-country

67

Philosophy, Religion & Society / Re: Trump

« on: February 02, 2024, 10:26:55 PM »

Trump disagreed with his lawyers offering that. If you can't say that you would take the people prosecuting you out to lunch then this sounds like a rules for thee but not for me situation.

68

Philosophy, Religion & Society / Re: Trump

« on: February 02, 2024, 06:36:41 PM »

https://www.cnn.com/2024/02/01/politics/roberta-kaplan-donald-trump-deposition-maralago/index.html

This fucking child could actually be elected president again, I can't even

If someone comes to your house and wants to deposition you on a crime that you have allegedly committed, who should be taking who out to lunch, if anyone?

69

Flat Earth Theory / Re: The Conspiracy Theory of Space Travel being a Hoax

« on: February 02, 2024, 02:33:06 AM »

That's not the Zetetic method. Please read the material.

Also, those sinking ship observations have been studied and debunked - https://wiki.tfes.org/Sinking_Ship_Effect

The effect is not consistent and and tends to change constantly. There are plenty of examples of this, some in the above link

Bobby Shafto, who came to our forum as a Round Earther (and presumably still is), was interested in this in apparent honesty (more than most people who have come here) and has looked at the material and concluded that the sinking ship effect is not consistently reproducible, and he has also concluded that the sinking doesn't even match the RE curvature.



Video description:

"These are stills from the last 23 panning videos captured by Pablosdog from UCSB Campus Point and sweeping across the panorama from Santa Barbara's Mesa Lane to Point Mugu. This is of oil rig Platform Henry at a distance of 16.88 miles in the foreground with the hills of Ventura County at 50-55 miles and the Santa Monica mountains at 70+ miles in the background.

Details:
Camera location: varies slightly. Within 50 ft north/south of 34°24'32"N 119°50'32"W
Camera height: approximately 45 ft with tripod.
Platform Henry: 34°19'59"N 119°33'42"W
Ventura County "ridge" in background aligned with Henry: 34°09'35"N 118°55'46"W
(see    / @pablosdog2808   for more information)

None of these depict the earth as one might expect if it is a globe with radius of 3959 miles without the optical effects of an atmosphere under varying conditions."

70

Philosophy, Religion & Society / Re: Trump

« on: January 31, 2024, 08:00:14 PM »

The case honk lined to was a defamation case, just like the case in the screenshot was a defamation case. Trump also called Stormy names which 'defamed' her character. But alas, in the end it was Stormy who was told to pay Trump and not Trump who was told to pay Stormy.

So she has to pay him $300k, and he has to pay E. Jean Carroll $83 million.
I guess that pretty much evens out.

He doesn't have to pay anything until appeals are played out.

From honk's link:

"The jury awarded Carroll $65 million in punitive damages, $11 million for the damage to her reputation and another $7.3 million. Trump is almost certain to appeal the verdict."

71

Philosophy, Religion & Society / Re: Trump

« on: January 31, 2024, 03:58:32 PM »

The case honk lined to was a defamation case, just like the case in the screenshot was a defamation case. Trump also called Stormy names which 'defamed' her character. But alas, in the end it was Stormy who was told to pay Trump and not Trump who was told to pay Stormy.

72

Philosophy, Religion & Society / Re: Trump

« on: January 30, 2024, 08:17:56 PM »

https://www.npr.org/2024/01/26/1226626397/trump-defamation-trial

Winning bigly.

Trump is actually winning 1 - 0 on these sex lawsuits after all appeals are concluded. As I recall you guys spent years gloating over this person.

73

Flat Earth Theory / Re: The Conspiracy Theory of Space Travel being a Hoax

« on: January 30, 2024, 02:30:45 PM »

If all of my examples give reasons to distrust, then does this mean that you distrust the flat earth community; this was on the examples list. I mean Bob Knodel of the flat earth community did say "well, we can't accept that" in regards to the 15 degree drift he observed from his own test. And, some of the test setups referenced in this Wiki are very inaccurate and faulty - for example the referenced YouTube video where the test setup uses a solid piece of magnifying glass to simulate earth's atmosphere. Should we conclude that the flat earth community should inherently be distrusted along with the claim that the earth is flat?       

You stated that I want to believe them (NASA?) in regards to space travel just because I love space.

I suppose that I am to infer that you don't want to believe them (NASA) in regards to space travel just because you hate space.

I've never spoken to Bob, and his theories or assumptions are not relevant to this website. One guy saying something somewhere is also not "the flat earth community", or even a representation of the FE community he was part of. The Wiki on this site is more representative to some kind of community consensus than the word of a single person. The information on the Wiki is collected from the TFES discussions, which at least generally involves more than one person. You will find that there is different information there on the operation of the Ring Laser Gyro than from what Bob thinks.

What you are referring about daylight pattern in the Wiki is accurate in the sense that the seasonal daylight patterns can be explained in that manner. There is a way to explain it in that particular model, and that is all it presents itself as in the Wiki - an explanation of what may be happening - "If the light is shining through imperfect affecting phenomena it may widen into a non-circular shape." It does not claim to take any further steps to prove that it is occurring in that way. Your demands on that next step is irrelevant to the statement that an explanation exists for those shapes.

Since you don't deny that your main foundation for defending NASA is based on your love of space, and want to divert the discussion to other topics now, I will assume that you concede on the conspiracy discussion. I therefore don't really see any point in continuing the discussion with you.

74

Flat Earth Theory / Re: The Conspiracy Theory of Space Travel being a Hoax

« on: January 28, 2024, 06:22:25 PM »

All of your examples give reason to distrust.

Ie. "In the early 1980's Milton Bradley released their Dark Tower Board game which a few years later went into litigation due to trade secret's being stolen from several independent game developers. Does this mean that board games are a hoax?"

This is not a reason to implicitly trust Milton Bradley on the IP rights for their games. This is a reason to distrust them. They stole that game, so why should we just assume that they are honest good working people and that all of their games are legitimate?

But this is essentially what you are asking us to do here, despite the government having essentially lied to us thoroughly and often about many of their "games".

You want to believe them in regards to space travel just because you love space, while you perform a 180 to distrust the government on a whole host of other topics which you aren't as passionate about.

75

Flat Earth Theory / Re: The Conspiracy Theory of Space Travel being a Hoax

« on: January 28, 2024, 12:19:05 PM »

The only reason most people are enamored with NASA is because of a childhood space fantasy.

I rarely see any defense of the US Government and others over lying to the people to get into wars, poisoning its people in illegal medical experiments (which they have admitted), or showing us phony inflation and unemployment numbers. Because your defense of NASA and Co. is mainly rooted in your fantasy, and it is otherwise generally conceded that the governments are prolific liars and sociopaths who have ulterior motives and countless secrets, is it a weak argument that government space agencies should be inherently trusted.

Based on all we know, government claims should be inherently distrusted.

76

Philosophy, Religion & Society / Re: Get a haircut, you hippie!

« on: January 26, 2024, 06:55:08 PM »

I believe the state is required to put the alternative school in his area and not force people to move. There can be multiple grade levels in a classroom, or there can even be no classroom. There are often options for the student to complete most of the work in packets at home, with occasional meet with their teacher, or occasional proctored test.

There are ways to put alternative schools in the student's area cheaply without the full infrastructure of a traditional school, meeting the education needs of students with disciplinary issues, allowing them to get their accredited High School diploma.

77

Philosophy, Religion & Society / Re: Get a haircut, you hippie!

« on: January 26, 2024, 06:32:12 PM »

In the link I posted the school is objecting to that interpretation of the Crown Act and believe that it doesn't prohibit length restrictions.

The state owes you an accredited secondary education, but that doesn't mean that you can go to a school which requires a school uniform and refuse to wear that uniform. If you refuse to abide by uniform or grooming regulations you will simply be placed in a school which is more flexible in that regard, which is what happened here.

The state says that there is a school for his choice of style. It's just not that one.

78

Philosophy, Religion & Society / Re: Get a haircut, you hippie!

« on: January 26, 2024, 05:28:53 PM »

I don't believe the state is refusing to provide an education to this guy. They enrolled him into an alternative school. He just can't go to a school with high standards for grooming and conduct. I don't understand why all schools must be forced to accept and tolerate this:

https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/trending/article/barbers-hill-isd-upholds-hair-policy-18614557.php

At one point, George was sent to an alternative school in October for what the school district’s spokesperson said in an email was “multiple infractions,” including classroom disruption, tardy policy violations and violation of the district’s “dress and grooming policy.” He returned seven weeks later and was placed on in-school suspension again for not complying with the hair policy.

Many schools have always had conduct and grooming standards. Dress and grooming is a matter of discipline, which is historically part of the educational curriculum.

79

Philosophy, Religion & Society / Re: Get a haircut, you hippie!

« on: January 25, 2024, 07:17:15 PM »

Where have I said anything negative about mask mandates?

80

Philosophy, Religion & Society / Re: Get a haircut, you hippie!

« on: January 25, 2024, 03:12:05 PM »

Not my country, not my legal system, not my school board and not my choice of tonsorial elegance but, ffs, what is this; the 1960s?  Isn't a State court a rather heavy steamhammer against bad hair?  Jeepers, if your hair/attire/adornments aren't endangering or offending the public, what's the problem?

Dress code requirements are also not endangering the public, so what's the issue?