MeanMrMustard

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Posts by MeanMrMustard

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  92

  Scientists Warn of Rising Oceans as Antarctic Ice Melts

  by bohm in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  the collapse of large parts of the ice sheet in west antarctica appears to have begun and is almost certainly unstoppable, with global warming accelerating the pace of the disintegration, two groups of scientists reported monday.. the finding, which had been feared by some scientists for decades, means that a rise in global sea level of at least 10 feet may now be inevitable.

  the rise may continue to be relatively slow for at least the next century or so, the scientists said, but sometime after that it will probably speed up so sharply as to become a crisis.. this is really happening, said thomas p. wagner, who runs nasas programs on polar ice and helped oversee some of the research.

  theres nothing to stop it now.

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  MeanMrMustard

  What should we do?
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  125

  Making 607 crumble

  by ellderwho in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  during my eight month long study with "elder bob" (moms husband) we have batted around many subjects to say the least.

  but the one that really stands out is the dreaded date of 607 bc.

  im sorry i just will not let up with this date, and him having to prove it can stand.

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  MeanMrMustard

  scholar sounds like fun. we need more of those users around....

  MMM
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  108

  Lifting the Veil on "Islamophobia"

  by cofty in

  1. social
  2. current

  the late christopher hitchens decribed the word islamophobia as "created by fascists, and used by cowards, to manipulate morons.. please take half an hour to read a fascinating conversation between sam harris and ayaan hirsi ali.. ayaan is an apostate from islam.

  she fled to the netherlands in '92 to escape an arranged marriage and went on to become a member of the dutch government from 2003-2006.. ayaan is now a fellow with the future of diplomacy project at the belfer center for science and international affairs at the harvard kennedy school... she lives with round-the-clock security.. "some moderate muslims hate meand yes, thats a strong word, but i think what theyve said supports itbecause i make them feel uncomfortable.

  the things i talk about put them in a state of dissonance that they cant live with.

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  MeanMrMustard

  Boil it down to this:

  Does Islam mandate Muslims to conquer the world in the name of Allah and rule it under Sharia law?

  Note: this has nothing to do with "nice" Muslims. Muslims are the people, Islam is the ideology. Just like Christians are the people, and Christianity is the ideology.

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  9

  BREAKING NEWS ! Pope denounces Jehovah's Witnesses

  by raymond frantz in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  the pope denounced jehovah's witnesses in a televized interview on sunday 11th may .read more here.

  http://jwdoctrine.com/pope-denounces-jehovahs-witnesses/.

  *if you make a friend on facebook ,my posts will appear on your timeline automatically .don't worry if you don't i will understand*.

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  MeanMrMustard

  He's a little late to the game - the JWs have been denouncing the likes of him for over a hundred years.

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  108

  Lifting the Veil on "Islamophobia"

  by cofty in

  1. social
  2. current

  the late christopher hitchens decribed the word islamophobia as "created by fascists, and used by cowards, to manipulate morons.. please take half an hour to read a fascinating conversation between sam harris and ayaan hirsi ali.. ayaan is an apostate from islam.

  she fled to the netherlands in '92 to escape an arranged marriage and went on to become a member of the dutch government from 2003-2006.. ayaan is now a fellow with the future of diplomacy project at the belfer center for science and international affairs at the harvard kennedy school... she lives with round-the-clock security.. "some moderate muslims hate meand yes, thats a strong word, but i think what theyve said supports itbecause i make them feel uncomfortable.

  the things i talk about put them in a state of dissonance that they cant live with.

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  MeanMrMustard

  I think a distinction needs to be made: There is a difference between Islam and Mulims. In every religion, you will have some people that don't know a lot about the teachings, and yet still claim membership. You will have some people that go to the church/mosque/KH and watch the leaders preach about what they should be doing according to God, and then go home, eat, and don't do any of what the preacher/preist/s heikh/elder said to do.

  But that doesn't change the ideology, it doesn't change the distinction. Just because there are more moderate Muslims, doesn't mean the ideology isn't violent. I am worried that the "extremeists" are simply the Muslims that are following their religion, and the "moderate" Muslims are the ones that are choosing to ignore parts of their religion/political system.

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  6

  Correlation does NOT mean causation!! Shown graphically by this site...

  by ILoveTTATT in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  http://www.tylervigen.com/.

  these are some funny correlations... which of course are not causations!!.

  enjoy!

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  MeanMrMustard

  This is my favorite. If you have ever done any web development, then this represents 100% causation :

  

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  24

  Angry Health Care Rant

  by ctrwtf in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  for those of you who live in truly first world countries (uk, australia, canada, etc etc) you can skip this.

  for those of us stuck in the usa, not a first world country at all, please feel free to read on.. i've done my best to be fiscally responsible my whole life.

  i bought my first house at age 25. and because of having a little loot to protect and not wanting to end up in some overcrowded emergency room waiting hours to be seen by doogie howser, i purchased health insurance.

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  MeanMrMustard

  jgnat,

  You don't have to be as convinced as I am.

  You did respond to the video, but my intent was not to imply that you didn't repsond, or that even your response wasn't sufficient. I felt that a response in this thread was a good idea because, surprisingly, even from a free market perpective, the vlogbrothers video is not far off. The problems are there - but it's the "therefore we have to do XYZ" that troubles me.

  You wrote in the other thread (you have to go to page 16):

  The Vlog brothers always talk fast. They have a self-imposed limit of five minutes, and they cram in as much as they can. They are also factual.

  I fail to see how you have concluded from all this that too much government intervention has led to rising prices. Canada has loads more government intervention, and our costs are lower. As does Europe. As the brother says so well, it's the loaded gun to your head - inelastic demand - that leads to high prices.

  By the time you said that, the user DogGone was discussing inelastic demand with me. Our discussion then went on to patents.

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  51

  BREAKING NEWS ! Finland attacks judicial committees

  by raymond frantz in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  the finish minister of justice has publicly attacked the practice of judicial committees in her country which are in violation with the basic rights and freedoms enjoyed from citizens in her country .read the full article here :.

  finland attacks judicial committees.

  please like and share article so more get to see it!.

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  MeanMrMustard

  jgnat had an interesting post that I glossed over:

  Didn't the old USSR allow dissidents to leave but they had to leave their families behind? That's surely breaking a human right; severing natural familial bonds.

  Assuming the USSR did this (let's assume for the sake of the argument), then I would agree there was a rights violation. But I don't think it is comparable to the WT. It seems like it is on the surface because to walk away from the WT is like walking away from your family. However, the difference here is that the USSR is forcing the family to stay within the country. In the case of the WT, the family chooses to stay. In the example above, the USSR would not be violating the dissident's right to association, rather it is the rest of the family's right to association that is being violoated.

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  14

  Breaking News! Azerbaijan to ban Watchtower Magazines

  by raymond frantz in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  police and other security services have been handed a list of banned books that they will seek to remove and destroy in raids planned for the future in azerbaijan.the list mostly contains muslim texts and books such as those by dr. said nursi a muslim theologian.

  i addition , this list contains .... .

  read the rest of the post here.

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  MeanMrMustard

  Sucks to live there..
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  24

  Angry Health Care Rant

  by ctrwtf in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  for those of you who live in truly first world countries (uk, australia, canada, etc etc) you can skip this.

  for those of us stuck in the usa, not a first world country at all, please feel free to read on.. i've done my best to be fiscally responsible my whole life.

  i bought my first house at age 25. and because of having a little loot to protect and not wanting to end up in some overcrowded emergency room waiting hours to be seen by doogie howser, i purchased health insurance.

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  MeanMrMustard

  jgnat,

  I responded to the video you posted above (vlogbrothers) in a previous thread. I agreed with most of what he said, but I don't see that as an all out reason to go into single payer. Here is what I said in that other thread, since that thread was very long:

  Your first video: (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qSjGouBmo0M&feature=player_embedded) - I did watch it but I did not comment on it. The maker of the video (vlogbrothers) fires off many many points, hard and fast. It makes it tough to respond to everything there. However, since I agree with a lot of what he says, it is somewhat easier. I have no reason to really disagree; he is right, we spend way too much on healthcare. The problem is not over utilization, it is not that we are inherently sicker, and it is not because things just cost a lot here. I keep bringing it up that people aught to ask why it costs so much, not attempt to just pay for it. I also do not think it is because of inelastic demand. It is because we have systematically, over a long time, gone away from the free market and caused all sorts of distortions in the pricing mechanism.

  One interesting point - he mentions malpractice insurance somewhere around minute 4. He states that it can't be that either because Texas enacted Tort reform (although I don't know the details, I can assume it was meaningful reform for the sake of the argument) and the cost of healthcare fell only 0.1%. I have no reason to disagree, after all, what is pushing the price down? It is not enough just to remove the barrier for the price to fall, you must also have a meaningful market with competition to push down the prices. That doesn't happen the way we currently do things (employer based insurance or medicare or medicaid).

  I think the point I've been trying hard to make is that the way things are now - as messed up as they are - have come about by a process, a process that started with wage controls during WWII, and continued on to today. More and more of the free market was replaced with subsidies, distortions, or special privileges....

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