During a visit to Ohio to promote his infrastructure plan on March 29, US president Donald Trump dropped one of the bombshells that Americans have become accustomed to over the last year and a half: “We’ll be coming out of Syria, like, very soon …. Let the other people take care of it now.” If he’s serious, if the more hawkish members of his administration don’t dissuade him, and if he follows through, Trump will be taking a giant step in the right direction on foreign policy.
Tag: change
Privatize Veterans Affairs
Shulkin states that we can only expect our sons and daughters to risk lives when we promise to care for them when they return. Tell this to those who were conscripted into fighting in Vietnam. They were forced to fight regardless of the care situation back home.
Implied Consent is a Myth
What separates BDSM (erotic) and abuse? Consent. By definition, consent cannot be implied. It’s explicit. The myth of implied consent exists solely to protect predatory individuals at the expense of abused victims.
A Call for Counterfactuals
Great actions are motivated by imagination. Grounded in logic, yes. But beyond the provable alone. If we can’t explore what might have been, and what might be, we have no reason to change.
Anti-Gun Laws Good for Criminals
Anti-gun laws make criminals safer. “Gun free zones” are gun free only until some evil loser decides to go on a killing spree and chooses a target where he knows he’ll be free to kill. When that happens there are suddenly too few guns; the only guns present being in the wrong hands. This is mandated by law. It makes the killer’s cruel task easier and deadlier, and doesn’t boost the safety of the kids or teachers.
Against the Whole Concept and Construction of the Balance of International Payments
The location of the trading partners has no economic significance whatsoever. Trading entities enter into exchanges voluntarily, each one in each transaction anticipating a gain from the trade. Hence, in expectational terms, every such trade entails a gain from trade, or in other words an addition to the trader’s wealth.
Many Crappy Studies = One Good Study
“One study, which didn’t directly examine this topic, but was following a sort of similar thing 20 years ago, although controversial and some say non-reproducible, might not have had the proper data collecting methods and didn’t control for X,Y, and Z, but seemed to show a relationship like this, and that kind of seems to imply this other relationship I’m talking about. Of course it’s not definitive so take it with a grain of salt, but even if just roughly, directionally true, it at least doesn’t disprove my theory.”
Research the Past, Predict the Future
Past data can be a useful item in the toolkit. But the theories that explain it can’t automatically be applied to the future. The data is the effect, and what changes in the future are causes. Will yesterday’s causes hold tomorrow?
The Lies of Anti-Gun Bigots
Lies are all they have. Recently I saw an old “article” by some bigot who said there were some truths that gun rights supporters would never talk about. Then he started lying.
Market Info
I heard a radio report, as I recollect its gist, of a study which found that customers prefer NOT to be asked, “can I help you?” in a marketplace. That squares with my feelings as well. I prefer to see everything that is available, at my own pace, and then make my own reasoned choice.