The Glade 4.0

Emotions gave the ability to procreate, further the human race and thus the ability to create the things you mentioned.

Emotions is an awesome tool no mad scientist could do without... because without passion, life would just be bland.

No. Biology and instinct did that.

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Ezekiel 23:19-20 

Without emotion, what difference does that make?

What will people build if they don't care?
What's the point of anything if you don't care?

What the **** difference does having a rudder make if you don't care?

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In time, this too shall pass.

Apparently, though, it was luck that gave us beer.

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If you're gonna go down the biology and instinct road... technically both logic and emotions come from the same brain... so there's no difference really. It's just our brain messing with us

oh and psst... instinct is an emotion

Just a side note, but I have to say, claims that opposition to Obama is entirely unrelated to his race would be much more believable if people who oppose him didn't so frequently claim his goals and success are entirely related to his race.

"entirely" might be a bit of a stretch.

I'd rather use the phrase "exploited his race" to get elected.

Yes, because it's the height of racism to be opposed to a candidate seeking office purely to be the first person of their flavor of minority to hold it. That simply can't be valid grounds to object to a candidate in and of itself.

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Buckle your pants or they might fall down.

At least we didn't elect the woman candidate. Women's suffrage has really hurt this country.

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"...the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?" -Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

I'm sorry, but if his cronies did not keep throwing the race card, his race would not be an issue. Obama makes a problem then attempts to be above it and resolve it. All the while trying to cover that it was his freggin fault there was an issue to begin with. The Cambridge police incident is a great example. His race is his shield against being held fully accountable for his actions. He get far more room on every issue because there is always a Sheila Jackson Lee or al sharpton or Jesse Jackson ready to scream racism at the first sign of opposition.

So yep white guilt will gain him votes. Too many of my Caucasian coworkers go to great lengths to make sure they don't get called the r word. It disgusts me that this president uses race as a sucker punch to silence opponents.

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A man who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself. ~ John Stuart Mill

Does Obama actually go out of his way to accuse others of being racist or even implying it? It seems to me he just keeps his mouth shut and lets Al Sharpton do that job for him, which is just good politics.

The "white guilt will get him votes" thing is definitely true though, that's advanced almost to a doublethink level where people question factual statements they make even to themselves, let alone to other people. Remember, black people and white people are equal. So when black people perform worse on some kind of assessment than white people, it must be because of racism. Any other explanation would require you to admit that black people and white people are not equal, and thus be a racist yourself. Since you don't want to be a racist, you must insist that any disparity is racism regardless of what the evidence is.

Black People and White People are of roughly equal native capacity.
Personal ancestral and geographic lineage provides for a variance of ability, within prescribed boundaries, for both races.
Direct individual upbringing, experience and practice further changes which capacities get developed and how they express.

That does not mean a black person == a white person, or a group of black people == a group of white people.

It also doesnt mean black > white or white > black, just !=.

It does, however, mean a black/white person, or group of people *will* be > than another person/group, at a particular thing, based on previous variances.

I guess predicates 1 and 2 are going to be contentious, right?

Yes, but if black people and white people have equal native capacity, why are black people so much poorer and more likely to commit crimes on average? It can't be desire, everyone likes money.

You see, you can't blame it on black culture, because that's "racist." A lot of people can't even admit to themselves that the problem is the culture and upbringing, because they don't want to see themselves as a racist. That means expressing this view in public is right out. So when Jesse Jackson points out how poor and deprived black people are because of racist white people, nobody can actually rebut him. They just have to play along and agree that the problem is because of racism, so black people need more advantages to cancel it out.

It kinda falls apart when you have prominent black people saying that the problem is, in fact, black culture. Who are then accused of being race traitors. It all stems from the liberal way of thinking that nothing is ever your fault. It's someone else's fault.

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Los Angeles Kings 2014 Stanley Cup Champions

"I love this **** team right here."
-Jonathan Quick

I guess my point is I dont think its a black white thing so much as a birth & circumstances thing. I.e. the same kid who grew up in the slums, with gangster role models, and a lack of believable ways out might have been an excellent corporate takeover jock in another upbringing.

Same general instincts - aggressive self preservation, expansionism, self centredness - but different education and tooling in the way they're expressed.

Or put another way; stick a load of angry white kids in the same slum families, and a bunch of introspective intellectual black kids in the burbs, and see how they net out statistically.

I dont know the stats, but my a priori assumption is they'd be roughly similar outcomes.

So sure, it might be black culture, in that its a culture expressed primarily by black enclaves, but I dont think of it as black culture, as in a culture that is somehow inherent to blacks as a variety of homo sapiens.

Make sense?

The stereotypical conservative "all your problems are your fault, period" way of thinking is not much better.

Yes, but I think that explanation would be characterized as racist, to be honest. Not that I would, but still.

Boiled down with a racial bent, it says that if you raise blacks to be white, they'll be better.

Again, it's not what I think, but you know that people will see what they want to see.

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In time, this too shall pass.

No, what's racist (or more precisely, evidence of racism) is thinking that description applies to Obama. What is your basis for concluding that it does? Has his legislative agenda been significantly less robust than that of other recent Presidents? Has he focused an inordinate amount of time on race-related issues and policies? Does he talk about the impact race has on his own motivations with notably greater frequency than he talks about other factors? And so on.

You honestly think the opposition to Obama has been less strident - i.e. that he gets "far more room on every issue" - than other recent Presidents? As for Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton, those guys haven't really been relevant for at least a decade. They get far more play among conservatives than liberals these days.


Out of curiosity, how do you define "white guilt"?

I think the opposition to Obama hasn't necessarily been less strident, but the fourth estate has surely been derelict in its duties. It's easy to dismiss the opposition's complaints because, well, they're the opposition; when the traditional media is complicit it makes it that much easier to dismiss any opposition as merely "out to get him".



I guess Rev. Al hosting a show on MSNBC proves his irrelevance?



I go with George F. Will: a form of self-congratulation, where whites initiate "compassionate policies" toward people of color, to showcase their innocence to racism.

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"Dress cops up as soldiers, give them military equipment, train them in military tactics, tell them they’re fighting a ‘war,’ and the consequences are predictable." —Radley Balko

Because I come over as a big fan of corporate asset strippers? ;-p

While others have taken up the answer, I think I owe you a bit more explanation.

The threshold for calling out Obama is a lot higher than it was for Clinton, or Bush. Because the detractors run a very high risk of being called out as a racist, or having some drive by media story run on them (ala the recent Huffington post apology to Breitbart) they have to wait until Obama goes further then others. Thats how Obama has more running room then past presidents.

Jesse Jackson and Sharpton still have pull with the older members of the community. I have yet to see a real leader rise up for the younger generation. It's all fluff and no substance so far. In addition, the younger generations have had so many things handed to them, and have not had to "struggle" for what they enjoy now. It has no value to them. So they parrot the only leadership figure they see- tired *** Al and Jesse. Programmed reactions. They act a certain way, they get the goodies handed to them. Pavlovian response on a community scale.

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A man who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself. ~ John Stuart Mill

And the US, and world markets resound with a crashing boom. I guess going further into debt was not the correct answer.

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"Life isn't divided into genres. It's a horrifying, romantic, tragic, comical, science-fiction cowboy detective novel. You know, with a bit of pornography if you're lucky."
— Alan Moore

I think you meant to say "A booming crash."

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"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

I figure my dyslexia / sloth has given those with excellent grammer and spelling enough headaches/ entertainment

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"Life isn't divided into genres. It's a horrifying, romantic, tragic, comical, science-fiction cowboy detective novel. You know, with a bit of pornography if you're lucky."
— Alan Moore