dctoedt

55 ms·

901.
by dctoedt 4y ago
(Replying to my own comment because I can't reply to the one below) If right and wrong are not matters of opinion, then what objective test does one use to discern which is which? For example, is contraception right or wrong — and wh
902.
by dctoedt 4y ago
1 + 1 != 3 only because we agree on notation to represent the real, physical world; "right" and "wrong" aren't in the same category, because they're matters of opinion, and for practical purposes on the time sc
903.
by dctoedt 4y ago
Ah, I see you've emerged from cover.
904.
by dctoedt 4y ago
> Right and wrong exist independent of the capacity of Man to do evil. That seems like a variation on the old "if a tree falls in the forest but there's no one there to hear it ...." By analogy: For 300-plus years, mill
905.
by dctoedt 4y ago
> My words are not a fist, and your eyes and ears are not your nose. If you spread lies at scale, with the purpose of getting voters to elect officials who will fuck up others' lives, then that's a distinction without a diffe
906.
by dctoedt 4y ago
> countered with basic facts You're disregarding the key distinction: Malevolent actors are (in Steve Bannon's words) flooding the zone with shit, which they're able to do at trivial cost. The rest of us shouldn't h
907.
by dctoedt 4y ago
> Purveyors of Prior Restraint are thieves of our natural rights 1. Recall the old chestnut that your freedom to swing your fist ends where my nose begins. 2. There ARE no "natural rights" — what we call "rights" is
908.
by dctoedt 4y ago
> Should we persecute every author of fiction novels too for wasting peoples time with their disinformation? People read fiction novels voluntarily, and the authors don't lie about their work being fact. (Also: You mean "pros
909.
by dctoedt 4y ago
> explanations of the truth Mass purveyors of disinformation are thieves of the time of the rest of us, and should be treated accordingly.
910.
by dctoedt 4y ago
> Focus on education and providing more information, not suppressing the information you don't like. A: Education is at best only partly-effective as a response — too many malevolent actors follow Steve Bannon's largely-costl
911.
by dctoedt 4y ago
> The Three Body problem where the aliens halt human scientific progress by stealthily interfering with science. I remember reading a sci-fi short story (this was in the 1960s) in which a scientist started to suspect that hidden, hosti
912.
by dctoedt 4y ago
> No, the Several States are the Sovereigns. They ceded a small amount of authority to the Federal government in a limited Federal Constitution that outlines the powers of the Federal government. See the 10th Amendment. That ended at A
913.
by dctoedt 4y ago
What carrier were you on (and air wing) that still had F-4s in 1979? By the time I got to the Enterprise in early 1976, the embarked air wing, CVW-14, had no F-4s anymore, just F-14s (and A-7s and A-6s, etc.). The article's picture of
914.
by dctoedt 4y ago
> We’re a federation of 50 sovereign states, not a single state. Not since Appomattox and the subsequent enactment of the Civil War Amendments — and arguably not even then (see the Supremacy Clause and the Oath of Office Clause in the
915.
by dctoedt 4y ago
I think he did get some kind of VA disability compensation after he retired, but not while was still on active duty, and it wasn't much dollar-wise.
916.
by dctoedt 4y ago
> Why did you say "what we call" in reference to the Vietnam war? I guess I was thinking that HN is a very multinational forum, and I don't know what people in other countries would call the Vietnam War. (I'm remind
917.
by dctoedt 4y ago
Thanks, but it's mostly that I've been around a while and am still on this side of the grass (spelled O L D).
918.
by dctoedt 4y ago
>> “This is very serious,” I thought. That's typical of military pilots — their ethos is to present a calm, unruffled mien to the world. Phrases such as, "I was a bit concerned" would translate as "I was this clo
919.
by dctoedt 4y ago
According to my dad, flight surgeons are the natural enemies of military pilots.
920.
by dctoedt 4y ago
See, e.g., the unbelievable heroics — and losses — in rescuing a shot-down American flier during (what we call) the Vietnam war, including a Navy SEAL who was awarded* the Medal of Honor for his astonishing feats in finally getting the guy
921.
by dctoedt 4y ago
> There's likely a similar argument to made for the military, but involving morale and willingness to take personal risks in emergencies or times of war. Esprit de Corps and all that. Yup. But it's not a conscious calculation
922.
by dctoedt 4y ago
Something similar happened to my dad (USAF fighter pilot) in around 1961 or 62: He was test-flying a T-33 single-engine jet trainer assigned to his unit after it'd had repair work. The engine quit and wouldn't restart. He ejected,
923.
by dctoedt 4y ago
> I am a Libertarian mostly because they are the only viable party against forever wars I mean this gently and not as snark: In the U.S.'s first-past-the-post electoral system, at the national level no third party is "viabl
924.
by dctoedt 4y ago
> Is your ego more important than moving the company forward? I can see why the poster's use of the word "disrespectful" might make you wonder about that, but the full context seems to make it clear that it's not a
925.
by dctoedt 4y ago
> Southern Mountain Speech and/or rural American dialect Funny, I thought it was a phonetic transcription of Scottish dialect (whence are derived many Appalachian speech patterns, of course).
926.
by dctoedt 4y ago
> How much of PG's blog is based on setting up strawmen and using them to bash on the liberal arts? It'd be surprising if PG wanted to bash the liberal arts, given his longstanding interest in fine arts, specifically painting
927.
by dctoedt 4y ago
The article points out that Florida is NOT one of the states with licensing reciprocity.
928.
by dctoedt 4y ago
> Even in the Catholic Church, the longest unbroken chain (i.e., for which records survive) of apostolic succession (i.e., which bishop consecrated each bishop) goes only back to the 1400s Our (Episcopal) parish used to have a small fr
929.
by dctoedt 4y ago
An old Boy Scout trick.
930.
by dctoedt 4y ago
Hang in there for the long haul. My (our) adult kids have turned out to be the greatest joy in my life, by a long shot — this, even though I've enjoyed a modicum of professional success and, in my late 60s, am lucky to still be healthy

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