Simon you don't think black people are more likely to be stopped and searched or more likely to be shot? One fact that's hard to dispute is more black people are in prison. How do you account for that?
slimboyfat
JoinedPosts by slimboyfat
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44
Thoughts on African Americans and Slavery
by Simon inlet's start by saying that slavery is of course a terrible thing, one of the worst crimes imaginable, and that "slavery" rarely implies good treatment, anything noble or defensible.
nowadays, even god doesn't escape judgement from our enlightened views with passages about slavery in the bible usually glossed over because they are shameful.. but not all slavery was equal.. because of the media, movie industry, racial tensions in the us regularly shown on the news and our taught history, i think most people's knowledge and idea of slavery is that of the north atlantic slave trade where white people took africans to work in cotton fields.
this idea is probably also re-enforced because the largest group of descendents of slaves we see today are african americans (usually in the us or places they subsequently migrated to).. but it's incomplete.. it's only when you look into it more that you discover that there was much more to the slave trade than that, otherwise it would have been just called "the slave trade" and not "the north atlantic slave trade".. some 12.5 million slaves were taken from africa to the us with just under 11 million surviving the trip so it obviously took a terrible toll immediately, even before any maltreatment once they landed in the americas where conditions and treatment were truly awful.
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slimboyfat
A quote from Wikipedia to send shivers down your spine.
Journalist Ron Rosenbaum has pointed out that the operational plan for nuclear strike orders is entirely concerned with the identity of the commanding officer and the authenticity of the order, and there are no safeguards to verify that the person issuing the order is actually sane.[10] Notably, Major Harold Hering was discharged from the Air Force for asking the question "How can I know that an order I receive to launch my missiles came from a sane president?"[11]
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slimboyfat
Trump has the football and the biscuit. Layers of security above? We wish.
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39
Why the resurrection must be true
by slimboyfat inokay i was thinking about it.
and it is a transhumanist argument and nothing new, i do realise that before anyone points it out.
but it struck me afresh today that the resurrection must happen.. firstly, to state the obvious, a rational materialist conception of reality seems to exclude resurrection.
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slimboyfat
Things like laminar flow make me reach for Google.
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slimboyfat
She's from Kilmarnock. The competition she won was in New Zealand.
Apparently I missed the end, which is the best bit. A reference to Scottish politics.
So USA, in ma conclusion,
Know we Scots feel your confusion:
We are also chained ti those
Not of oor choosin’.
Stand firm fur unity will break
Through Trump’s delusion.I am loath to link such a unionist rag but here it is for the rest of the poem and recited.
http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/scotland-now/burns-inspired-comic-lament-walloper-9637480
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slimboyfat
Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders or Joe Biden. If any of them (if any of us) are around in four years time, let's hope.
Melania Trump speaks six languages. But I'd like to see her in conversation with Zizek in their native language. They both went to Ljubljana University too.
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39
Why the resurrection must be true
by slimboyfat inokay i was thinking about it.
and it is a transhumanist argument and nothing new, i do realise that before anyone points it out.
but it struck me afresh today that the resurrection must happen.. firstly, to state the obvious, a rational materialist conception of reality seems to exclude resurrection.
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slimboyfat
Thank you bohm for wiriting that. I've read it a few times. So you are arguing against the proposition that intelligent beings will ever be able to gather information about the exact composition and dynamic of the universe. And you argue against the proposition using chaos theory rather than quantum theory as in the video posted above. It seems you are basically arguing against a deterministic universe.
Or maybe not, maybe you are saying that the universe in itself may be deterministic, but not in a way that we will ever be able to decipher, because our measurements wil never be precise enough. I think this is an important distinction because, if the universe in itself is not deterministic, that would seem to imply there is something more than purely a material aspect to reality. What is that extra causal element in reality and how does it square with a materialist understanding of the universe?
On the other hand, if you are saying the universe is deterministic in itself but we can never measure it well enough for it to divulge its secrets, I am still left wondering how do you know? No matter how complex the system, no matter how small the measurement required, if the universe obeys reliable laws, then in principle its trajectory should be discoverable. It is simply a matter of time and progress.
Plus my very rudimentary understanding of chaos versus classical mechanics suggests there is a problem with your suggestion that uncertainty at a micro-level due to chaos theory is multiplied as you go up. As I understand it, classical mechanics largely "works" precisely because this chaotic feature of reality is not multiplied up the scale, but tends to be cancelled out at the macro-level. The macro level at which human beings exist and function.
I still think a purely materialist conception of reality, given a progressive accumulation of information, inevitably proves future resurrection.
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HOUSE, M.D., Jehovah's Witnesses, and '75
by compound complex inseason 7, episode 18: "the dig".
house picks up "thirteen" -- dr. remy hadley -- upon her release from prison.
she asks him to take her to a certain location in order to take care of a personal matter.
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slimboyfat
Cool, and once again interesting that "worldly" people have a more accurate and realistic picture of JW history than JWs themselves.
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slimboyfat
if there is such a thing as a redeeming consequence for this experiment, is that in 4 years, the pendulum will swing ( i think) completely the other way.
That was the theory when Hitler took power. And I guess the pendulum did swing back to liberal democracy in Germany - 12 years later and tens of millions dead.
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slimboyfat
Part of a wee Scottish poem especially for today by Lorna Wallace:
America, aw whit ye dain?!
How could ye choose a clueless wain
Ti lead yir country? Who wid trust
A man sae vile?!
A racist, sexist eedjit
Wi a shite hairstyle?
Yet lo, ye votit (michty me!)
Ti hawn’ this walloper the key
Ti pow’r supreme, ti stert his hateful,
Cruel regime.
A cling ti hope that this is aw
Jist wan bad dream.
But naw, the nightmare has come true,
A curse upon rid, white an’ blue,
An’ those who cast oot Bernie
Must feel sitch regret
Fur thinkin’ Mrs. Clinton
Was a safer bet.
So noo we wait ti see unfold
Division an’ intolerance, cold;
A pois’nous bigotry untold
Since Hitler’s rule
As the free world’s hopes an’ dreams
Lie with this fool.
Alas, complainin’ wullnae change
The fact this diddy has free range
Ti ride roughshod ow’r human beings
That fall outside
The cretinous ideals borne of
His ugly pride.