StrangeSox

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Jan 10, 2011 -> 10:42 AM) It is not a fallacy, unless you take it as your philosophy that for all issues, you take the middle point, and that must be right. That is the Argument to Moderation stance, which I disagree with. When someone says APPEAL to moderation, that is entirely different. It is saying the polarity of the two parties has gotten out of hand, and we need to get SOME things done via compromise. Not only is that not a fallacy, its something I wholeheartedly agree with. But look at one of the specific examples called out in that article--Health Care. If the Democrats stay put for two decades while the Republicans hop, skip and jump to the right, then the "middle ground" also shifts to the right. People get rewarded for increasingly outlandish and extreme positions since it shifts the window in their favor.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Jan 10, 2011 -> 10:05 AM) Appeal to moderation and Argument to moderation are not the same - grammatically or othewise. Appeal to moderation has helped any number of politicians, and its something that will probably become more prevalent. Argument to moderation is the assignment of righteousness. Maybe lostfan meant the latter, I can't tell for sure. But's it's still a fallacy to assume that because B lies between A and C, B is a good compromise. It could be that A is terrible, B is bad, C is good, so compromising from C to B would be a bad idea. Basically it assumes that the current political window represents the true range with extremes on each end and good, pragmatic solutions in the middle. edit: here's a blog post I found expanding on the idea a little more. http://www.raisethehammer.org/blog/1718/pu..._ground_fallacy

I'll restate this:

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Jan 10, 2011 -> 08:58 AM) 100% disagree with the bold part. What it REALLY means isn't going to be overly popular, but it is still definitely a real political dynamic. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argument_to_moderation

Duke Energy to buy Progress Energy (pending regulatory approvals). That would make Duke the single largest utility in the country.

I think Bears fans are happy they're getting what appears to be the weakest NFC team next week. It's far from a guaranteed win, but it's still nice to play a team with a losing record in the playoffs.

The Bears really have gotten a ton of breaks this year.

QUOTE (SoxFan1 @ Jan 9, 2011 -> 12:04 PM) LMFAO, someone is a little overconfident after a win. Oh yeah, you're still 8-9 and won't be hosting anymore opponents. Good luck with that. The Seahawks need to win the Super Bowl in order to finish with a winning record.

QUOTE (mr_genius @ Jan 9, 2011 -> 11:46 AM) the violent liberal rhetoric of Anti-Flag combined with crazy Ron Paul speeches pushed him over the edge. A potent combination. What do you suggest we do? How can we live in a society that has both things available for the public to hear? Ban Anti-Flag for the good of the country. Seriously.

From another message board, pretty much my thoughts: "I don't think this had anything to do with Sarah Palin. This guy seems to have unmanaged paranoid schizophrenia and thought the government was brainwashing people and so on, so he went and shot the representative in his home district. I'd really like to see the right wing stop using violent rhetoric, but it's not really clear to me that this had anything to do with political rhetoric on either side. It seems more likely this guy was just f***ing crazy."

Some of his nuttier positions, like gold-backed currency, are typical libertarian stances. Grammar mind control, who the f*** knows what this guy was.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jan 7, 2011 -> 08:12 PM) So how exactly do you contextually teach the ills of racism if you pretend that it didn't exist by wiping it out of history? What? I'm arguing against censorship and white-washing here.

FYI here's the series of posts where he said he was leaving. He hasn't logged back in since then. QUOTE (Alpha Dog @ Nov 17, 2010 -> 09:40 PM) Two cults enter, one cult leaves....... Westboro Baptist crazies picketing the Dearborn Islamic Center, on 11/18. Oh boy. QUOTE (Rex Kicka** @ Nov 17, 2010 -> 10:47 PM) This is ridiculously disrespectful. There is nothing extremist about the Islamic Center of America in Dearborn, MI. The Imam at this mosque works endlessly for religious reconciliation and understanding. His teachings have ecumenical underpinnings and is a prime example of moderate Islamic religion. So much so that George W recognized him for it. QUOTE (KipWellsFan @ Nov 17, 2010 -> 11:16 PM) Stop being politically correct. QUOTE (Alpha Dog @ Nov 18, 2010 -> 06:48 AM) There has been much worse written here about Catholics, so I am not worried. QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Nov 18, 2010 -> 07:18 AM) You seriously are putting the religion of Islam in the same category as the Westboro idiots? Cults? This after your recent posts extolling the virtues of racial profiling. I don't know how you expect anyone to react to your posts with anything but disdain, if this is the best you can do. QUOTE (Rex Kicka** @ Nov 18, 2010 -> 08:30 AM) In the rules that you agreed to in order to post here, you agreed that the following posts are not acceptable or permitted in this forum. Your previous post violates this rule. Referring to one of the largest religions in the world as a cult is not acceptable discussion on this forum, at any time. QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Nov 18, 2010 -> 08:34 AM) Really? Show us. I do know there are a few people who post in here who have derided all religions as a group. Some people find the very idea of religion as repugnant. I've also seen people criticize the catholic church for specific policy or doctrine, just as people do so regarding Islam. No problems there. What I haven't seen anyone do is "much worse" than calling a major global religion a cult. What would be worse than that, anyway? QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Nov 18, 2010 -> 08:38 AM) I'm sure the Catholic Church has been raked over the coals a few times here over the pedophilia issues and how they handle it. But they deserve that. QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Nov 18, 2010 -> 08:41 AM) That's my point - people rail on the Catholic Chuch on a specific action, one that pretty much everyone agrees is awful. Similarly, people rail on the more fundamentalist Ismalic atrocities, like the Taliban, or stoning women who supposedly commit audultery. What no one other than Alpha Dog is doing, is referring to either religin as a cult, as if they millions or billions of members are all drones or something. QUOTE (Alpha Dog @ Nov 18, 2010 -> 09:04 AM) So when someone makes jokes about priests molesting kids, that's not mocking the religion in general? Nobody takes those as singling out just the few (or many?) priests that have and do molest kids, they all hear and take it as an inditement of the religion as a whole. And I refered to it as a cult because it made the 'two cutls enter, one cult leaves' flow better. But let's see. It has members willing to die for it, members that follow rules that most of the rest of the world think are silly and/or arcane, has its members so devoted that their life centers around it, not their family, work or anythgin else. Devotion to it is higher than devotion to family or country. Sure, most other religions fit into a few of these, but that first one, it is a biggie. On that note, I am done with this thread, and site. It has been a pleasure chatting with most of you, a headache cahatting with a few others. Go Sox.

Why is everyone going head-over-heels for him? Yeah, he deserves a shot, but this is just ridiculous.

He got pissed off in one of these threads about a month ago and said he was done with the site. I don't remember which thread, the topic, or who provoked the response, though.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jan 7, 2011 -> 02:23 PM) David Beckham's porsche is currently up on ebay. Ugly. Jerry Seinfeld's a big Porsche nut and randomly turns up at events. CJ Wilson, starting pitcher for the Rangers, also posts regularly at Rennlist and has one of these: Sorry for cluttering up the thread, from everything I've heard the Spyder is a nice car.

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ Jan 7, 2011 -> 02:13 PM) J4L rule number one. Do not use words that I don't know the meaning of. What the hell does accerdiplation or whatever you said means? The process of being accredited. An accredited school (you're a prof. ptact, right?) has met the standards of some national standards-setting group. Degrees from unaccredited schools aren't worth much and would probably have a hard time getting accepted at other institutions. It takes a ton of paperwork and effort and if you lose your accredation, you can be in serious trouble. From a Frontline I watched on for-profit schools, an accredited program at a small college is worth something like $10M.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Jan 7, 2011 -> 02:06 PM) What do you think of the M? Looks like a decent car on the website, although I haven't seen it in person yet... I researched that Boxster Spyder all night and I think I must have it. Going to keep my eye on the private party used market to see if I can avoid paying sales tax. Checked the insurance and while it isn't cheap, it's not a huge increase either. I watched videos of the car on youtube all night ) Check out www.rennlist.com, the largest online Porsche community.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Jan 7, 2011 -> 02:06 PM) Again, a teaching point. Instead of telling a kid "hey, this word is bad" you provide context. You make its use more real. Right, words don't have magical power, and pretending they don't exist doesn't make the ideas and thoughts they convey disappear.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Jan 7, 2011 -> 02:07 PM) Did you grab his autobiography? I haven't yet, but I hear it's like 600 pages in 8 pt font. And that's only the first part of it. No, but I watched the Ken Burns doc and I've read a lot of his Innocents Abroad and some other short semi-autobiographical stuff.

QUOTE (Middle Buffalo @ Jan 7, 2011 -> 02:01 PM) They could substitute the pc words, footnote the change with an explanation, and his intention is known and open for discussion. Repetition of the words adds no value. The casual, frequent use of such a dehumanizing word in the antibellum south was a strong point of the novel. So don't teach it in sixth grade. Wait until high school. On the other hand, my fiance is student teaching middle school English right now. Two series that are really popular with 7th graders involve a post-apocolyptic world where children are forced to fight to the death, and a story whose backdrop is a war over abortion that was finally settled by allowing parents to "abort" their children at 13 for organs. These aren't novels they're covering in class, but they're not light reads either.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jan 7, 2011 -> 01:59 PM) So, if a person who wound up with something of an advanced degree and who was in advanced-level classes throughout his time in the public education system didn't get that part...what fraction of American students do you think understand it? Poor teaching isn't a reason to censor a book so as to remove its meaning. If teachers can't properly put the book into context and ensure that the students understand Twain, then they shouldn't be teaching the book at all. Neutering it so that you can have kids read a "classic" just makes the situation worse. FWIW, Twain's probably my favorite writer and I think he should be taught more than he is.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jan 7, 2011 -> 01:50 PM) Here's the question though... How many of the kids getting the correct version wind up understanding Twain's logic here? I flat out didn't. I thought it was just the style of the time. Unfortunately, you should have had a better teacher who gave you a background on Twain before you read the novel. You can't fault Twain for that. or watched the three hour Ken Burns documentary!

QUOTE (IamtheHBOMB @ Jan 7, 2011 -> 01:47 PM) That is the worst part about all this. I guarantee you that the vast majority of the people calling for the edit don't know jack s*** about Mark Twain, the time period in which the book was published/written or the concept of satire. Context (verbal and social) is incredibly important when reading or discussing a piece of historical literature. I think a lot of people, even those who are opposed to the censorship, just assume Twain was a racist but that he was just a "product of his times." If he had written a book making some other point, and just used n***** to use the word, I'd maybe see the point in softening it. But that word is part of the foundation for the novel.