nemo's Liked Comments

Liberty is not diminished by economic stimulus. Capitalism is not diminished by economic stimulus. "Big Government" is a leading phrase, a dishonest rhetorical tactic inserting an opinion as something presupposed. Data based economics has showed the effectiveness of stimulus spending, but libertarians, like the Marxists they mirror, care much less about empirical reality than their perfect ideology, and ignore the facts when they contradicts their ideology. It is a comforting delusion to imagine one has all the answers a priori.
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True, Edison didn't invent the bulb (nor did he claim to) - he invented a usable bulb with a long lasting filament. Inventing a working lightbulb was a major contribution to the modern world. Edison's phonograph was not the first sound recording device, but it was the first sound recording and replaying device. The gramophone was invented decades later and was a further refinement on Edison's invention that used flat discs instead of cylinders.

Because of a bizarrely misinformation filled Oatmeal article it's popular to bag on Edison these days, but a lot of those criticisms are unfortunately repeating the Oatmeal's fabrications.
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To be fair, the elephant had gone rogue and was going to be executed. Animal rights groups of the time didn't want it to be hanged so Edison electrocuted it (after it had been fed cyanide) as a form of euthanasia.

Edison was a mixed bag (like the anti-semite Tesla), but did a lot to bring about the modern world as we know it.
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When I was in school I had run-ins with the Black Studies dep't, since I was a Classics major and they mistreated ancient history, esp. that of Egypt, for very political purposes, ignoring established history, archaeology, and just generally inventing facts. But a course on W.E.B. Du Bois makes a lot of sense. Sure, he's controversial (mostly to white conservatives), but the man had a huge legacy and a far longer career as an activist than MLK, so the course makes sense.

The complaint that schools don't teach courses on the teachings of Christ in religious studies departments is absurd. There are plenty of courses on Christianity in religious studies departments where one can learn about the teachings of the religion including the parts Jesus said, and the various interpretations of those teachings over time. They study the topic academically, so they don't proselytize, but they certainly exist in the typical religious studies department.

The author seems to be one of those people who is very attached to his economic, political, and religious dogmas and is upset that universities have the academic freedom to teach other views. These kind of articles make the rounds pretty often, but they are usually a bit more veiled in their bias. If you want to do a better job of hiding your bias all you need to do is list off the more absurd things that go down in the Lit. Crit world - touch on some classes that delve into weirder corners of Marxist Critical Theory, Queer-Theory, and find one of the zanier courses on a Postmodernist theory of science, then list off a few salacious courses in Human Sexuality, and you've got it covered without wearing your politics on your sleeve.
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Transit is never free, you pay for the benefits it brings. Overall rail transit adds value (even if there a places it could be more efficient). Besides that, the amount of money wasted in spending related to roads and highways make $800 mil over ten years look like chickenfeed.
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>Evolution is a fact-based Theory (big T) and the proofs are quite “convincing” to all but the willfully dumb.

That doesn't help the discussion at all. First, proofs are for Math, not Science. Second calling people who disagree with you "willfully dumb" is anti-rational. Third, in this particular case there was certainly no proof, nor, more importantly, is there any evidence. There was just a made up story to fit the few facts we have. Realistically, we can't know how the Venus Flytrap evolved, all the evidence we would need to know that is gone. Plants don't leave nice fossil records. All we have are educated guesses. It's better than saying "God did it," but it's really not science, it's speculation, and should be taken with a huge grain of salt.

There are a lot of places where we can clearly illustrate evolution happening thanks mostly to the evidence of fossil records. This is not one of them.
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  • Member Since 2012/08/04


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