Bay 12 Games Forum

And the sad part is that the latter is going to get more of a spark out of people than the fromer

Nngh... because the latter is a multi-billion dollar industry with gods only know how many lobbyists. That's basically the sole reason banning it's more unlikely than the former.

So, question. Anyone have any thoughts as to what this Santorum fellow is actually doing? It's reached the point where every few hours this thread is giving another display of him committing political (and social, really) suicide; if that's even remotely representative of what's going down in wider media, the dude's basically dead. I, personally, have trouble believing that the fellow is genuinely that mindbogglingly stupid; I think I genuinely don't buy that someone that's managed to rustle up millions worth of backing can be an actual, full blown, idiot. It just doesn't seem to follow. I'm not even saying the guy might not believe what he's saying; I'm saying he's not stupid enough to not know what the public reaction to those kind of statements would be. Either him or his handlers (for sake of my sanity ) have to be aiming for something else.

I mean, yeah, people are people and people can be stupid, but it'd seem to me that the writing's not just on the wall, it's been painted on with rapidly flashing neon/florescent paint, that's screaming out its message in every language on earth and about fifteen invented specifically for that moment, while tap-dancing Morse code on the guy's skull and massaging braille into his rectum. This isn't stuff you just miss.

So. Any conjectures as to what the actual intent could be? Is it just trying to go down in flames? Drawing attention from something else? Just trying to add to the media furor so actually important shit gets drowned out? Trying to make the other candidates look better? Something else? Without going into full blown conspiracy madness, is there any conceivable reason to be taking this sort of path? The path to the presidency doesn't seem to be something you'd just... go and do, willy nilly. There's gotta' be intent, somewhere in there.

... what is this thing called, and, is it in english?

Abstinence is sin-free and 100% effective.

I'll give yeh the first one, because its truth or lack of truth is utterly irrelevant, but do you have the numbers to back that second one up? I've yet to see news of any area pushing abstinence based pregnancy prevention actually have a drop in unplanned pregnancies. Most everything I've seen and heard shows a fairly direct correlation between abstinence programs going into effect and unplanned pregnancies rising.

It make it a bit more clear, I can understand how you can say that's true on an individual level, but on a policy or wide-spread level, the latter half of that statement has been fairly well proven to be completely wrong.

On the flip side, there's a pretty direct correlation between the rise of contraceptive availability and the decrease of unplanned pregnancy. For a policy maker trying to reduce the prevalence of unplanned or unwanted pregnancies, the better point of policy is pretty obvious.

Well, there are these special unscientific comments by Santorum: " I reject that number completely, that people die in America because of lack of health insurance"

http://thenewcivilrightsmovement.com/santorum-no-one-has-ever-died-because-they-didnt-have-health-care/politics/2011/12/06/31304

Welp, there's my rage quotient for the week. It apparently is possible to be that frakking blind. I'm not entirely sure how it's possible, but it's apparently possible.

How can someone say that, really? What combination of factors results in saying something like that, that flies completely in the face of reality? I mean, we're not talking somewhat understandable, such as religiously fueled self-deception or possibly contestable axioms; death due to the inability to access or afford health care is an absolute fact in the US. Shit, I've known a few people, if somewhat indirectly, that's died because they couldn't afford care. And this sumbitch fellow is telling me it didn't happen? I cannot properly express in English how this makes me feel. Some sort of indignation raised to a factor of N, I guess. If it was more personal, as in I'd heard that in person, rage would be an appropriate descriptor.

Sadness shared is divided. Let us all suffer together, to a lesser degree, rather than me suffering alone. Well, me and everyone else who had that thought without prompting.

In my mind, marriage as a word should be a mostly religious type thing.

So freaking much would be fixed if marriage was nixed as a legal entity and it was (the exact same sort of) civil unions for everyone. So very, very much.

Bleeargh, I just remembered that time I mixed green tea with hot chocolate. Sheeot was nasty.

There are things in this world chocolate does not make taste better. That, in itself, is a sad thing.

Sometime tomorrow I'm probably going to mix some chocolate syrup into coca-cola. Wish me luck~