Political Discussion Thread (READ FIRST POST)

[Darth Fluffy 302]

9 hours ago, mlooney said:

Let me be clear SCS is a group for making fun of Creationists.

That's kind of sad, in a shooting fish in a barrel kind of way. I generally find it demeaning to make fun of the slow kids. Although, if I ever start a band, I want to call it Slow Children at Play. (I think the name is already taken.)

While Creationism does not make sense, period, certainly not scientifically, it doesn't even make sense in their own milieu. My understanding, as someone who is clueless about the actual languages, so take this with a grain of salt (no, better bring a whole shaker) is that the word 'day' in Genesis is not even the same word used for a day elsewhere. Translating it in to English as the same word creates much of the confusion. And there are many other issues, just within their own realm. No human eye witness, obviously. It is framed as poetry, intended to be a sketch, not a detailed history; so at best they have a loose outline, not a not a case to bludgeon others with. It is not astrophysics, it is an oral tradition of a sheep herding nomadic culture.

You are posting on the right thread, because I believe this ties in with voting MAGA. Maybe it's just a high correlation.

Again, reference remark about gnats and camels.

[Don Edwards 548]

12 hours ago, Darth Fluffy said:

While Creationism does not make sense, period, certainly not scientifically, it doesn't even make sense in their own milieu. My understanding, as someone who is clueless about the actual languages, so take this with a grain of salt (no, better bring a whole shaker) is that the word 'day' in Genesis is not even the same word used for a day elsewhere.

Also, read all of the first two chapters of Genesis to answer one question: were women created before cattle, or after?

 

[Darth Fluffy 302]

14 minutes ago, Don Edwards said:

Also, read all of the first two chapters of Genesis to answer one question: were women created before cattle, or after?

I would say that we can be fairly certain that both women and cattle were created before anyone had the notion for drawing anthropomorphic cattle women.

But as they say, "To err is human, to moo is bovine."

[mlooney 3,423]

1 minute ago, Darth Fluffy said:

But as they say, "To err is human, to moo is bovine."

/me.  While that's a mixed metaphor, it's not technically a pun.  No stars for you! 

[Darth Fluffy 302]

5 minutes ago, mlooney said:

/me.  While that's a mixed metaphor, it's not technically a pun.  No stars for you! 

Bovinity Base here, the Heifer has landed.

[mlooney 3,423]

5 hours ago, Darth Fluffy said:

Bovinity Base here, the Heifer has landed.

/me  OK, you get a star and a curvy arrow. 

[ProfessorTomoe 1,308]

7 hours ago, Darth Fluffy said:

Bovinity Base here, the Heifer has landed.

And they say the moon is made of green cheese. They had to get the cows up there somehow.

[Darth Fluffy 302]

1 hour ago, mlooney said:

/me  OK, you get a star and a curvy arrow. 

Boomerang arrows is not the greatest idea ever.

It's down there with the granite footballs the ancients used. Took a strong man to toss one. Took a really dumb one to catch it.

[mlooney 3,423]

4 hours ago, Darth Fluffy said:

Boomerang arrows is not the greatest idea ever.

Not a boomerang arrow, one of those that sweep around.

[Darth Fluffy 302]

9 hours ago, mlooney said:

Not a boomerang arrow, one of those that sweep around.

Oh, yeah, hands on a clock. Makes sense.

[Darth Fluffy 302]

This hit a nerve . . . Utter nonsense, but also too on the nose.

There is little unintentional in this comic. Rat's mug is red, Goat's mug is blue. Pig's mug is green, not taking sides. 

Goat is drinking tea. Rat and Pig drink coffee, and that is consistent with their mugs. Very nuanced.

3rd panel, goat gave up, because what can you say? We face this in 2024.

[mlooney 3,423]

3 hours ago, Darth Fluffy said:

This hit a nerve . . . Utter nonsense, but also too on the nose.

There is little unintentional in this comic. Rat's mug is red, Goat's mug is blue. Pig's mug is green, not taking sides. 

Goat is drinking tea. Rat and Pig drink coffee, and that is consistent with their mugs. Very nuanced.

3rd panel, goat gave up, because what can you say? We face this in 2024.

You may be overthinking this.

[Darth Fluffy 302]

2 minutes ago, mlooney said:

You may be overthinking this.

It is entirely possible, but I'd bet Stephan Pastis did all that intentionally. Why bother to color the mugs differently? Mugs in a set are usually the same.

Politically, I'd guess he's a centrist. Goat is generally high minded, and much of the humor revolved around Rat showing him up or at least deflating him by being obstinate. Rat is clearly sociopathic. Pig is just generally dysfunctional. Doesn't leave much room except a little island in the middle.

The only character that seems to do well when he appears it the junior crocodile kid.

[mlooney 3,423]

18 hours ago, Darth Fluffy said:

The only character that seems to do well when he appears it the junior crocodile kid.

All things considered Zebra seem to do well.  I mean other than the lions and later the crocodiles wanting to eat him.

[Darth Fluffy 302]

36 minutes ago, mlooney said:

All things considered Zebra seem to do well.  I mean other than the lions and later the crocodiles wanting to eat him.

Fair point. He comes across as more of a foil for their desires though, Jr. Croc actually scores points.

[mlooney 3,423]

Pastis comes across as doing things deliberately, even if it's telling really long drawn out puns.  Not sure where that falls. 

[Darth Fluffy 302]

6 hours ago, mlooney said:

Pastis comes across as doing things deliberately, even if it's telling really long drawn out puns.  Not sure where that falls. 

I agree, his lead-ins are strained to the breaking point, so that you can see the pun coming. I tried to figure it out before I read it. Batting in the mid range.

[Darth Fluffy 302]

https://www.gocomics.com/mannequin-on-the-moon/2023/09/04

 

[Darth Fluffy 302]

I don't think Mitch McConnell will be Obstruction in Chief much longer.

[Darth Fluffy 302]

Good analogy

[ChronosCat 155]

Eh, make the the jungle island a similarly sized (but not erupting) volcano with a ring of forest near the base and it would be more accurate. Still clearly different if you're paying attention, but similar enough that someone far enough away who only got a quick glance might think they're the same (well, other than the big smoke cloud over one of them, but that's been growing thicker over the years; a decade or two ago it wasn't so obvious).

 

[Darth Fluffy 302]

2 hours ago, ChronosCat said:

Eh, make the the jungle island a similarly sized (but not erupting) volcano with a ring of forest near the base and it would be more accurate. Still clearly different if you're paying attention, but similar enough that someone far enough away who only got a quick glance might think they're the same (well, other than the big smoke cloud over one of them, but that's been growing thicker over the years; a decade or two ago it wasn't so obvious).

You are aware of Dumpster Fire & cronies indictments, no? The volcano, she be active.

You might consider, too, that the Dem presidents within our lifetimes have mostly been on the positive side of the balance sheet. They are not flaming liberals, (which might be better, ymmv), pretty much centrist. Biden in particular is focused on rebuilding infrastructure; you know, making America great again.

Most of what you see against them is crackpot conspiracy bullshit with no supporting evidence, or irrelevancies that apply to anyone. Biden is old? . . . Mango Mayhem isn't? He might get dementia . . . ooh, then he'd be eligible to join the G.O.P. You are aware that they've divorced themselves from reality, right? Those members that try to engage the real world get tossed aside. And in terms of dementia, Agent Orange is truly the leader of the G.O.P. He's still clinging to 'I won that election' that his own advisors have backed down on and that his daughter has walked away from.

I do have a gripe with the Dems. It seems to me they are too slow to reverse the damage done by their predecessors. Biden should have been more zealous cleaning house. Obama should have taken greater strides to remove us from Dubya's fiascos. They seem like Charlie Brown with Lucy and the football when they want to 'work across the aisle' with the nest of vipers.

[Darth Fluffy 302]

Crossposting Kiwiwriter47's comments on today's Peanuts on GoComics:

Quote

My situation was different…my teachers told me that since I had no desire to be a biochemist, engineer, or mathematician, my future would be restricted to repairing cars, cleaning toilets, or tending boilers, shoveling coal into them and digging the burnt ashes out of them.

No other alternatives.

An engineering professor from City University of New York came to our school one day to lecture us in the third floor lecture room on “Why we should all become engineers.” He talked about how you could become a civil engineer, and build a mighty work that could last for the ages, like Rockefeller Center, the Golden Gate Bridge, or the Holland Tunnel. Or incredible aircraft like the Boeing 747. Or massive cruise ships and tankers.

I thought about the civil engineers who sat down at their drawing boards in Berlin in 1941 and designed Kremas 1 through 4 at Auschwitz on fat government contracts, and never asked, “Hey, why am I being asked to design a machine that will kill many people?”

I sat quietly through the Q&A, dutifully applauded, and as we walked out, the professor, standing next to a history teacher I had crossed swords with before, greeted all the kids. “What did you think of my lecture?” he asked me.

“It was very interesting, I said, “But I think I’ll pass…I’m more interested in history.”

“History?” He roared with laughter. “There’s no future in history!” The history teacher laughed, too. Kids next to me snickered.

I felt humiliated. I demanded the professor’s mailing address. Perplexed, he gave it to me.

Next day, I photocopies a page from one of my Imperial War Museum magazines on WW2, which showed the blueprints — on a blue page — for Kremas 1 through 4 at Auschwitz. I put them in an envelope, and typed the prof a letter, asking the following four questions:

1. What do you think of these blueprints?2. Are they effective at slaughtering 1.2 million people, from little old ladies to little children?3. Could you improve on them to make the buildings more efficient in the task of mass murder?4. What would you do if a representative of the United States government came to you and offered you an extremely lucrative — but secret — contract to make those improvements?

I warned him in the letter that I did NOT want to hear ethical, moral, or historical judgments on the plans and my questions. Those were a matter of history, and there was no future in history. The offered lucrative contract was the present and the plans’ use was the future…that was mattered.

I mailed the packet.

I never heard from him.

Today, when I hear someone tell me that “learning history is stupid,” I give these four answers:

1. “Who controls the present, controls the past. Who controls the past, controls the future.” — George Orwell.2. “History is not the study of the past. It is the explanation of the present.” — saw that recently in a movie trailer. Don’t remember the movie.3. “The only thing you don’t know is the history you haven’t studied.” — Harry S. Truman.4. “It takes a mathematician, a biochemist, or an engineer to tell you how to built an atomic bomb. It takes a historian to tell you why you DON’T.” — me.

Back to me . . .

Revolutionaries sentence a priest, a lawyer, and an engineer to death. They are using an electric chair.

The priest goes first, but the chair fails to operate. The executioner explains, "You are sentenced to death, but the chair did not kill you. You are free to go."

The priest thanks God and departs.

The lawyer goes next. The chair fails again, and the lawyer is also released. He shouts, "Justice is served!"

The engineer goes next. He says, "I think I see the problem. I can fix it for you. Do you have some tools I can use?"

 

 

[Don Edwards 548]

Darth, I would add two things to Kiwiwriter47's rant.

1) Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. - George Santayana

2) Those who try to make us forget the past intend to repeat it. - me

[ChronosCat 155]

4 hours ago, Darth Fluffy said:

You are aware of Dumpster Fire & cronies indictments, no? The volcano, she be active.

You might consider, too, that the Dem presidents within our lifetimes have mostly been on the positive side of the balance sheet. They are not flaming liberals, (which might be better, ymmv), pretty much centrist. Biden in particular is focused on rebuilding infrastructure; you know, making America great again.

Well yes - and the volcano was active in the comic, too. My point is that if it weren't for all the drama about Trump, you'd need to pay attention to notice how off the deep end the leaders of the Republican Party have gone, or that the Democrats are significantly better. And also, the Democrats are far from perfect, while the jungle island in the comic looked like a stereotypical paradise island (though of course in real life the resources on an island like that would be poor, and there might be dangerous animals hiding in the jungle, so maybe it's not quite as bad an analogy as I initially thought).

4 hours ago, Darth Fluffy said:

Most of what you see against them is crackpot conspiracy bullshit with no supporting evidence, or irrelevancies that apply to anyone.

Also true, but with so many lies floating around these days it can be hard to figure out what's true these days. I'm there are a lot of people that hear all the bad things both sides say about one another (and fail to find any impartial source of information they trust) and conclude that all of today's politicians are scum.

At any rate, I have a bit of sympathy for those who don't think there's enough difference between the parties to matter, as I fell for that line back in 2000 (in my defense, it was my first presidential election, and I naively thought you should vote for the person you actually think would be the best President without worrying about whether they have a chance to win; luckily my state went to Gore so I don't feel too guilty about my mistake). Of course the political situation has changed a lot in the last 23 years, so it's possible my sympathy is misplaced these days.