March 2018 – The Government is a Platypus

That David Hogg Video that was Removed by Facebook

Posted on 03/29/201803/29/2018 by Platypus

Facebook removed my post which contained the below video. They simply said it was in violation of their standards. They were not specific about which standards, they did not specify what about the video, or my text, was in violation, nor did they provide any opportunity to grieve the decision to remove it. https://youtu.be/dHFK6W6DWa8 It is not my desire to offend. Meaning I do not try to be...
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Gun control is nothing more than pro-gun and pro-violence rhetoric from the uninformed

Posted on 03/29/2018 by Platypus

Wee, sleeket, cowran, tim’rous beastie, O, what a panic’s in thy breastie! Thou need na start awa sae hasty, Wi’ bickerin brattle! From Robert Burn's poem we get that famous line, "The best laid schemes o’ Mice an’ Men". This highlights that sometimes, what we plan out, no matter how much we think about it, isn't the thing that happens. Sometimes though, the failed plan is due to a failure t...
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Former Justice Calls for Ban on 2nd Amendment

Posted on 03/28/2018 by Platypus

You may have heard by now that former Associate Justice of the Supreme Court John Paul Stevens wrote an editorial in which he calls for the 2nd Amendment to be repealed. First off, for those who are saying they aren't calling for that, they are. Don't for a moment let anyone get away with saying they aren't. This is a high-profile individual saying in a very high-profile way. Secondly, take...
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Facebook Privacy Scandal and Scandals in General

Posted on 03/27/2018 by Platypus

A couple of observations about this story, three actually. First, It's frustrating when a story becomes a story only because of the figures associated with it. We know, since they admitted it, that the Obama administration did the same thing. But people seem upset now, because it's Trump. "On its face, the incident read as confirmation of many people’s worst fears — that the online platforms we li...
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Trump Signs Terrible Bad Terrible Omnibus Spending Bill

Posted on 03/23/2018 by Platypus

As a general rule I dislike listening to politicians drone on about their policies and motivations for them. They always sound empty to me. Today, as Trump explained why he signed the Omnibus Spending Bill he reached new lows of political emptiness. He was unprepared, inarticulate, and contradicted himself. Oh, he gave his reason - military spending. https://youtu.be/1rBoaLCRH1s
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Warrantless Surveillance Ineffective & Illegal

Posted on 03/16/2018 by Platypus

I still maintain there should be no such thing as a warrantless search. They call it surveillance, but that's not an accurate term. Surveillance can be done passively, with coffee and doughnut in hand while your partner sleeps in the seat next to you. What the FBI and NSA do actually requires more than just looking. It requires that information you don't intend to share with the world be gathered ...
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Who should you have sex with?

Posted on 03/15/201803/15/2018 by Platypus

The basics of the linked article* is this: who you want to have sex with is racist, transphobic, abelist, and whatever other word spell check doesn't recognize as a word if you refuse people who fall into those categories. If you don't find transgender women attractive, you're a bad person. The article asks the question, "does anyone have a right to sex?" The answer should be an obvious and resoun...
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Rose is the Best Character from The Last Jedi

Posted on 03/13/201803/13/2018 by Platypus

**SPOILERS AHEAD** Rose, from The Last Jedi is said to be the most hated Star Wars character since Jar Jar Binks. So perhaps I will ruffle a few tail feathers when I say she was my favorite character from the movie. I often say this on forums I frequent related to Geek culture (I am indeed a Geek, but you knew that) and my comments are often taken ironically. Which is really funny for me. I say h...
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Subjective Happiness and Cynicism Amidst Prosperity

Posted on 03/13/201803/12/2018 by Platypus

I think the term "subjective happiness" is redundant. Isn't all happiness subjective? Haven't we seen people who should be happy by our standards act miserable? And seen people with joy in their hearts who others think should be miserable? According to the video below there is a real connection between the outlook of conservatives and their happiness and the outlook of what the video terms as libe...
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Teachers and Teachers Unions

Posted on 03/12/201803/12/2018 by Platypus

Often the link I share with you all has little or nothing to do with my comment. There was just something in the article as I read it that sparked a though. In this case the article is about a teacher in Ghana who is teaching the students how to use a computer. The only problem is, they have no actual computers so he's drawing the screen on the board and explaining to the students what it would lo...
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Corporations are people. Lots of people. People with rights.

Posted on 03/06/201803/06/2018 by Platypus

Literally speaking corporations aren't people. Literally speaking corporations are legal authorizations recognizing multiple people as a single person under the law. So, in a legal sense Wal-Mart is a person, a legal person, not a literal person. But figuratively speaking corporations are people in that they represent many individuals. A larger corporation could have more than a thousand people re...
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Incest tests the boundaries of the liberty movement

Posted on 03/05/201803/03/2018 by Platypus

I share stories like this one, not because I support the behavior, but because they bump up against the ideas of liberty. They are the stories that make people squeamish. In the world of liberty no laws would be passed to prevent this behavior. It's actually a story you've heard similar told before. The man has a child but it's put up for adoption. The child turns 18 and wants to find that man,...
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Guns and the Mentally Ill: What do we do?

Posted on 03/04/201803/02/2018 by Platypus

So, I realized I need to be consistent in my criticisms. I often say that those who call for "common sense gun laws" never give any specifics. I've made my specifics clear on what I think should be done in the short term - remove gun free school zones and allow teachers to carry concealed weapons. I personally think that what we have is a mental health crisis but what are the specifics of fixin...
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Do Active-Shooter Drills Harm Children?

Posted on 03/03/201803/02/2018 by Platypus

I still maintain a child will feel far more secure thinking that perhaps some teachers have a gun and will protect them than thinking they have to hide in a box, under a desk, or pray that the police arrive quickly and pray even harder that they actually enter the school when they arrive. "There’s always at least one kid in tears, as they huddle under their desks in the dark. Still Beth Manias, a...
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