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    The morality of catch-22

    The U.S. Congress has independent power to declare a finding of "in contempt" for those who do not cooperate with their investigative ability. This leads to a few possible solutions. (It's all over our news, so I know a LITTLE about it.) They can give the contempt case to the U.S. Department...
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    Feeling weird after coffee

    Yep, decaf coffee isn't for waking up. It is for socializing. Even in New Orleans (which has the reputation of being a major coffee-drinking city) we have that scenario quite often. When I was working with the Navy, I would use decaf instant coffee to help with fluids (had to stay hydrated)...
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    Does argument entrench or shift perspective?

    My analogy wasn't perfect. A good politician (meaning one who really cares about his constituency) would recognize that the proportion of damaged ballots would be an important statistic and would try to figure out what it was all about. On the other hand, that is about a different question...
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    Who owns the Moon?

    The philosophy of the Native American on land ownership was that you only owned the land on which you walked for the duration of the time that you were walking on it. But then, they were mostly comprised of migrating hunter-gatherer cultures with no fixed location, no cultivation, and no...
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    Who owns the Moon?

    I do. I own the moon. I bought a deed for it just last year. They guy who sold it to me said he needed the money so the was willing to part with it. He said he had already lost the lease to his office and was out in the street selling off his assets. :):giggle::LOL::ROFLMAO::giggle: It...
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    Feeling weird after coffee

    Red Bull contains caffeine and the coffee contains caffeine. You were having a reaction to too much caffeine. It IS, after all, an alkaloid poison. You can look that up if you need to. Other caffeine relatives are used to control your heart rhythm - e.g. belladonna, a natural source of the...
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    Does argument entrench or shift perspective?

    Oh, no, I won't let you off the hook THAT easily. To get "none of the above" you would have to actively vote for it.
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    Does argument entrench or shift perspective?

    We see this differently. Just as pressure is the sum of the individual atomic collisions by all gaseous atoms in a container, so an election result is the sum of the votes putting pressure towards or away from a given candidate. To remove atoms from the container reduces the pressure inside...
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    Does argument entrench or shift perspective?

    Let's take a different tack here. It is the ultimate in hubris to say that your vote counts individually. However, there is the matter that in the aggregate, the direction of that aggregate is determined by its members (components?) and thus, removing enough components will redirect the aggregate.
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    Does argument entrench or shift perspective?

    And yet if you take away enough atoms you have no pressure at all.
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    Does argument entrench or shift perspective?

    Individual votes contribute, just not obviously very much. But the pressure that powers a steam engine is the contribution of quadrillions of atoms (or more, depending the displacement of the cylinders.) Your vote contributes to the political pressure that presses someone into or out of office.
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    Does argument entrench or shift perspective?

    If we are talking about a knock-down, drag-out argument then it is already too late. A logical, reasoned argument works where there is doubt on either side, but once it becomes intense enough, the entrenchment has already occurred before you got to the argument. Look, for example, at the...
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    Bee scared of the Doc

    With my skin being sensitive, I frequently get folliculitis. We have recently changed detergents for the clothes washer because apparently what we were using was too harsh. When I was younger, I battled a clogged pore that became a lump. Eventually I went to a dermatologist who had to do a...
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    Bee scared of the Doc

    At my age, I have encountered those "every so often" check-ups and the month of May apparently has the "every so often" sub-title, though I don' t see it on the calendar. I am not generally afraid of doctor visits for things like dermatology, general practice, dentistry, or even the liver...
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    The Mueller Report

    It might seem that way to you, but most of the time we only have one or two bond issues on the election. This weekend we are voting on a teacher pay raise which requires a new millage and a different millage that is a renewal. Every couple of years we get to vote on the members of the Parish...
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    Can you compromise on a binary decision?

    Comes back down to communication or lack thereof. "I am sure you believe you understand what you think you heard but I am not sure whether you know that what I said is not what I meant." Can't remember when I first heard that, but it is a perfect example of non-communicative communication.
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    The Mueller Report

    About 18 months for the big federal elections. In November of 2020 we vote for presidential electors (Electoral College), all members of the House of Representatives, and 1/3 of the Senate. The Senators have staggered terms so every six years each has faced one election. It is not uncommon...
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    The Mueller Report

    Yes, the Homeland offices such as CIA, FBI, DEA, ATF, etc. have "Directors" that report to the Secretary of Homeland Defense. As to the partisan nature of the Mueller team, it didn't seem to make a difference. They STILL didn't discover much. However, the way the USA employment rules work...
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    Can you compromise on a binary decision?

    It is partly about mindset and partly about the language affecting the mindset. I'm convinced that the divisive politics in the USA is at least partly due to the "winner take all" mindset where if the Democrats or Republicans don't get everything they want, they see to it that NOBODY gets...
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    Can you compromise on a binary decision?

    All decisions, binary or not, produce winners and losers because the very act of saying "win/lose" is itself a binary designation. Compromise situations mean people get some of what they want so you have to talk about "partial win" or "getting some benefit" or "not being totally trampled." The...
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