jlawson

54 ms·

511.
by jlawson 7y ago
We were talking about highways in the sense of the things built in the New Deal. You're talking about roads. These are not the same thing and I think you're playing dumb about it (or at least I hope so).
512.
by jlawson 7y ago
Highway comparison doesn't work. There was no highway funding before the New Deal because there were no highways. There were wages in 1790. They chose not to implement a minimum wage, but they could have if they wanted. --- Regarding &
513.
by jlawson 7y ago
I actually thought of both of these and discounted both. Here's why. Post-WW2 buildings in Japan were crap so I can see why they'd replace those. But I think recent buildings are a lot more long-term. My sense is that they replace
514.
by jlawson 7y ago
Well I'm not saying the Amish are "successful" in any sense of morality or human flourishing; I'm making no claim on that. I'm just saying they multiply fast. Not a judgment, just an observation. I agree the pathway
515.
by jlawson 7y ago
You can just flatly assert that, but it'd be more interesting if you supported your assertion with some kind of argument. What exactly do you think is going to dissolve the Amish that didn't do so already? Do you not think fertili
516.
by jlawson 7y ago
I wish someone with a deeper understanding would go to Japan and study how they got this so right. Their zoning laws don't separate uses, only nuisance levels, so you often see residential in commercial areas and small shops in residen
517.
by jlawson 7y ago
These predictions are laughable because they ignore the fact that fertility, like everything else, is heritable. The people who aren't reproducing will die out. The people who are reproducing will do so, and their kids will keep reprod
518.
by jlawson 7y ago
Non-biodegradeable plastic is a carbon sequestering scheme.
519.
by jlawson 7y ago
Likewise, thanks for having a conversation.
520.
by jlawson 7y ago
I guess I just don't see why that would cause the names to be "Insane". Random pet first name + owner's last name/sire's name seems fine.
521.
by jlawson 7y ago
The issue is that (leaving aside the pacifism), your morals are the same as your enemies'. It's only your factual beliefs that differ. Can you see how a pro-life person might apply your principle, and thus justify violence against
522.
by jlawson 7y ago
Now I want to hear more about insane official horse names... DDGing it didn't get me anywhere.
523.
by jlawson 7y ago
I think there's a lot of contradictions and circularity in your rationalizations here. Obvious example: "your beliefs have in the past empowered violence against humans, you don't get to sit in the park with a megaphone and e
524.
by jlawson 7y ago
Issue is the definition of "intolerance". Back to Popper, who uses intolerance as: "they are not prepared to meet us on the level of rational argument, but begin by denouncing all argument; they may forbid their followers to
525.
by jlawson 7y ago
The law protects peoples' rights in certain ways. However this does not mean that those legal protections limit the definition of those rights. The rights are in fact more expansive than the laws which protect them. Hence just becaus
526.
by jlawson 7y ago
You believe the Republican position on Putin right now is "uncritical enthusiasm for the guy"? As with the above, this sounds like something from another dimension to me. Who exactly are you referring to? What words/actions?
527.
by jlawson 7y ago
Serious question - Are they serious about being evenhanded? Or did they just handpick a list of organizations with the same politics as them to serve as cover? I guess this should be easy to tell. Are any of their partner organizations doin
528.
by jlawson 7y ago
There was littering, yes. But in 1959 America you generally wouldn't see: -Mothers supervising their kids as they defecate on a city sidewalk, or in the garbage bin in a busy train station. -Dead mules left rotting and bloated in the s
529.
by jlawson 7y ago
None of this tries to demonstrate that the plastic flowing out of Chinese rivers was originally from the West.
530.
by jlawson 7y ago
People keep saying this, but is there any evidence for it? I'm curious where this comes from. At first estimate we could just Google images of polluted rivers in Asia and Africa and look at the logos on the garbage. From my priors, I&#
531.
by jlawson 7y ago
But social media and TV shows are what is making me feel anxious, unhappy and nervous... I put my phone away for relief, not the other way around.
532.
by jlawson 7y ago
An interesting case, since this seems to be reversed. Democrats mocked Romney's anti-Russia position in 2012. And remember the "reset button"? Now many think Putin controls American elections and the US President himself. Whi
533.
by jlawson 7y ago
I think this just shows you believe some ugly stereotypes about 'some parts of the US'. Your example is wholly imaginary, where Muslims murdering people for mocking or criticizing their religion has many many examples in modern an
534.
by jlawson 7y ago
I do this too. Same principle applies in the gym - you start out the workout with the super strenuous squats and deadlifts, then move to the difficult bench press and dips, then finish with relatively easy bicep curls, tricep pushdown, and
535.
by jlawson 7y ago
Is that really the worst part of US poverty? I didn't see anything about drug addiction, abuse, prostitution, or prison. Chinese poverty, I suspect, gets far worse than that. Just seems like straightforward frugality, and she probably
536.
by jlawson 7y ago
Many systems would be "better and more efficient for a nation as a whole" if everyone was 100% selfless and treated the welfare of others as exactly as important as their own welfare. Sadly, the way the universe works, any such sy
537.
by jlawson 7y ago
It 'keeps coming up' because it's a strawman people love to punch. People literally only bring up this concept in order to tear it down - because it was only created in order to be torn down. Nobody actually argues for '
538.
by jlawson 7y ago
The real issue here is the struture of the US healthcare system, which massively penalizes the provision of healthcare as part of any plan besides benefits from a job. We should have either a heavily government-subsidized user-pay system li
539.
by jlawson 7y ago
>Imagine that Euclid's algorithm was patented? Or Pythagoras theorem? Or the definition of exterior derivative? Or the expression of a function as Fourier series? This is an interesting point and I'm not sure it cuts the way yo
540.
by jlawson 7y ago
I am not super pro-patent, but I don't think it's totally wild to patent an algorithm. Algorithms can be extremely hard to discover and extremely valuable. Together these facts are why the patent system can usefully apply, same as

More ›