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      Welcome!   03/05/2016

      Welcome, everyone, to the new 910CMX Community Forums. I'm still working on getting them running, so things may change.  If you're a 910 Comic creator and need your forum recreated, let me know and I'll get on it right away.  I'll do my best to make this new place as fun as the last one!
The Old Hack

Political Discussion Thread (READ FIRST POST)

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The Moderator: By popular request, I am relaunching the political discussion thread.

Once again, however, I must stress that it will be very strictly monitored. Adherence to the forum courtesy rules will be enforced with especial care here. This is a particularly contentious topic and no flames, personal attacks, scandalmongering nor slurs of any kind will be permitted. People have a great range of opinions and while it is hard to remain calm and civil at times we should nevertheless strive for that to the best of our ability. Use of particularly offensive terms about other posters (including but not limited to 'RWNJ', 'SJW', 'Nazi' and others) will result in immediate warning points.

We had some good and beneficial discussions on the old thread and largely managed to remain civil and respectful. I hope we can accomplish the same here. Remember: do not post here in the heat of anger and always keep in mind that your fellow posters are people, too.

Last point: as in the old thread, when I do post here it will be in my capacity as moderator only. It will be easier for me to moderate here if I do not allow myself to become personally involved. While I do have a political bias, I will do my best to not let it affect me. And remember that as always, you have a right of appeal to the admins if I make a decision you disagree so much with that you find it unacceptable.

The Old Hack

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I'd suggest merging it with this one, with a post afterwards to note where the old thread ended in case anything already there is iffy rules-wise, to explain why it's grandfathered in.

Edit: Actually, just took a look, and there's really nothing there that needs to be merged.  Probsbly could just post to it redirecting to this thread, and then lock it.

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*cracks every bone in body* All right. Let us get this over with.

"Siding with Kasich for a while."

18 hours ago, The Old Hack said:

The Moderator: I locked it, there was really nothing important in it. Please proceed as usual from here.

*blushes* Oh, you.

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The Republican Convention will conclude July 21.

The Democratic Convention will conclude July 28.

The General Election in the US will be Tuesday, November 08.

That is just over 100 days between convention and election.

And the only break in there will be the Games of the XXXI Olympiad in Rio August 05 - 21 (some competition starts August 03).

And what depresses me most is that there is still more time from now until the conventions START than there is between the end of the conventions and the Election.

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4 hours ago, ProfessorTomoe said:

Give me warning points if you want, but I have to say this.

The attacks in Brussels were carried out by a bunch of cowardly b*st*rds who deserve to rot in whatever afterlife they've gone to.

That is all.

I agree with all the names you might call them - thoroughly horrible people - except cowardly. They were suicide attackers, right?

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16 hours ago, Drachefly said:

I agree with all the names you might call them - thoroughly horrible people - except cowardly. They were suicide attackers, right?

Suicide doesn't require courage.  Suicide means leaving everyone else to deal with the aftermath of your actions.  It's chosen by people who just can't deal with their lives any more, whether due to pain, depression, fear, or grinding abuse.  It's a way out, not a way to face and overcome.  It's living that takes courage.

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1 hour ago, Stature said:

How about kamikaze?

[Wow, London Has Fallen-esque]

If you're referring to the kamikaze pilots of Japan in WW2, I think a documentary commented that the pilots were pressured into doing it. So not really courage.

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I thought the Japanese made it a matter of honour that if the bombs weren't effective, they'd have to use themselves to finish the job or else live the rest of their lives in shame.

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On March 23, 2016 at 4:25 AM, CritterKeeper said:

Suicide doesn't require courage.  Suicide means leaving everyone else to deal with the aftermath of your actions.  It's chosen by people who just can't deal with their lives any more, whether due to pain, depression, fear, or grinding abuse.  It's a way out, not a way to face and overcome.  It's living that takes courage.

This is not that kind of suicide. They weren't metaphorically welded into their cockpits, either. They had a (terrible) goal they wanted to achieve, and they did it at the cost of their own lives. If they had ditched their bombs and headed some other way, they would have had a very good chance of making it out. Heck, the third of them had a malfunctioning vest and/or failure of nerve and made it away from within the airport.

Neither of these objections seems particularly obscure, so I'm puzzled.

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Ah, I think we are talking about two different groups of Japanese suicide pilots. Scotty is speaking of the pilots who crash their airplanes into enemy positions as a last resort when their normal attack fails. I, on the other hand, was speaking of the Special Kamikaze Force, who were tasked with flying the manned flying bomb, the Ohka. Those pilots were sent on a mission where they were not only expected to die, but where death was essentially mandatory--if a pilot failed in his attack run and survived, he would sometimes be executed as a coward and a traitor. I was not speaking metaphorically about them being welded into their cockpits, either--those who showed reluctance to carry out their missions were often physically restrained from being able to bail out of their aircraft so that they would not desert in the face of the enemy.

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The Turnbull Government appear to have stolen their latest slogan from an American political satire.

 

At least when Labor ministers plagiarise movies and television they steal from the likes of Aaron Sorkin.

 

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On 24 March 2016 at 3:56 AM, Scotty said:

Apparently North Carolina just passed a law that forces transgendered people to use public restrooms of the gender they were born as, everyone that follows Dan probably saw him retweet this earlier.

Sounds like the lawmakers were only thinking about the person's genitals and not their actual appearance when making this law.

 

2 hours ago, Don Edwards said:

If the law is as described here, what about trans people who've had bottom surgery?

As described by Scotty, bottom surgery is irrelevant to the law, it has to be what the person was born as.

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While on the subject, there's been a "controversy" over a high-school student who identifies as gender-fluid here in the D/FW area. Link to the story:

http://www.fox4news.com/news/113398214-story

After looking at the picture of the person, I have to wonder if they're an EGS reader (and a Tedd fan).

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Based on the way the transwoman (who figured out her trans-ness five years after graduating) has been treated by class and faculty at my high school as an alumna... there would have been ample support (edited to add: had this realization occurred while attending). And probably some pushback from people who haven't dared openly push back against her as an adult, or just never showed up to reunions. Also, if it had come up back when we were in high school, it would have involved a penis-having-person being in the girls' bathroom, which is a different case than the reverse.

This is indeed a bit of a mess. Having ample either-sex bathrooms available (as there were in the older buildings) would have helped a lot. I wonder how (in our case) the dormitory situation would have worked out, though. Maybe have her live with a house-parent.

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Here in Australia, there is talk of lowering the Help repayment threshold significantly.

For those that don't know, the Help system is a system where the government provides loans to students so they can get higher education and worry about costs later. The loan is repaid based on your income. The more you earn, the more you have to pay back until the debt is cleared. If your income is below a certain point, you pay nothing back.

Lowering the threshold concerns me. I get they need to make sure the system is sustainable, but I hope they are thinking this through since it would affect low-income earners badly.

As for how it personally affects me, not that badly. I am already making voluntary repayments (mainly to take advantage of the voluntary repayment bonus, but partly because I don't like owing money) and I still live with my parents, so my technically low income isn't that bad when my living costs are kept low.

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