Hmm, I'm always enthusiastic for civil political discourse (as hard as it is to find), and I see the Biden administration as a fascinating mixed bag to consider, but you're talking Covid.

I think the Olympics without people in the stands is almost as fine as any of those hockey, baseball etc games that were unattended. There's obviously some risk with that many athletes, trainers, media staff etc, but it's hard to get bent out of shape about those people gathering while we have Americans gathering in malls.

Mandatory vaccines is a tough one. It could really turn the corner on the pandemic, but it's hard to feel relaxed handing over that much power to the government. Maybe a middle path is finding more venues for civic life where a vaccine is required for entry. Like, you can skip the vaccine, but if you want to go to a concert, a ball game etc you have to show proof. This requires some uncommon cooperation from private businesses.

Man, when I went to college I had to run to the doctor to get my immunizations updated because something was missing - don’t remember what it was. So I did. It was mandatory. When my 8 YO was born, I had to get an updated DPT because the anti vaxxers had allowed whopping cough to make a comeback, and I wasn’t going to be allowed in the delivery room without it.

I don’t think we should have leper colonies for the unvaxxed, but I don’t think it’s unreasonable or unprecedented to require vaccinations for normal shit like public school and travel and immigration.

Anyone in the military has to get loaded up with different shit in order to go to certain countries - same with diplomats, etc. I don’t see why this should be any different. I think that businesses should be OK requiring vaccines also.

I still think there are plenty of vast useless spaces in Texas (namely, all of Texas) that would make fine libertarian reservations.

The basic idea is this: you can have all the dysfunction and freedumb you want, and we'll even pay for you to move there, but you're not getting any of the tech or infrastructure and we're going to revoke your citizenship. You're certainly not getting any nukes and if you piss us off enough, or if the damage you do to your environment starts to impact us in a significant way (say with lax/nonexistent gulf drilling regulations), we'll just nuke you. You're just gonna have to bootstrap it like you said you always wanted to. Welcome to having your own country to yourself and all of the consequences of having to keep your neighbours from killing you. Be careful what you wish for and don't be surprised if we build a 100-foot-high wall.

And if you want back in, well, you're going to have to go through the same immigration process as the people you used to look down upon, because we stripped your citizenship. All the jokers who respond to the fact that taxes are a part of living in a society with "what if you don't want to live in society?" can be relocated there. When the move-in starts, we will pay for people who don't want to stay to move to better places, which would be practically anywhere in the union. Then the true believers can be as miserable as they want under their wealthy overlords without dragging the rest of us down with them.

HI FROM TEXAS!

I understand the sentiment though, and I make a similar commentary offering up the Dakotas as the land of secession. Most of the shit that happens down here is weird though, because the populous areas are like any other big city - mostly sane and democratic. There’s a lot of dumb shit that happens in Texas that’s completely bonkers that I won’t defend.

Trouble is the Dakotas are too useful; the union needs their grain. Experience has taught me, of course, that even the Dakotas are too far south for quality wheat in these climatically-problematic days. Pretty much anything that isn't junk comes from Canada.

I'm being facetious, of course, I know there are plenty of areas in Texas that are fine, and obviously it's absurd and ethically horrendous to kick all of the right wingers onto libertarian reservations, but it's a nice thought to see what would actually happen if we gave them exactly what they say they wanted in a way that insulated the rest of the world from harm. You'd have a little socialist enclave within a couple of decades after things got really bad and they ended up eating each other.

If you did that nowadays there'd be a handful of multi-billionaires in their midst, at the very least. It might well sustain but it would be a cultural void, at the very least.

There are certainly areas in America that are politically “frustrating,” shall we say. I don’t believe the answer is to be “fuck these places” because it’s really dismissive to people in these places who are fighting for change, or maybe are suffering as a result of the political climate they’re in.

jason from volo wrote: Sat Jul 24, 2021 10:28 am ^ Ohh, fuck, you're back.

Delete this thread.

Yeah, there had to be an idiot incapable of having a rational conversation. Lame. Sorry dude.

jason from volo wrote: Sat Jul 24, 2021 10:28 am ^ Ohh, fuck, you're back.

Delete this thread.

Why delete the thread? Just ban him from it.


OK I have a question.

In the US the Dems are associated with blue and the Repugs with red. How did this occur?

I'm only curious because that seems to be the reverse of the rest of the world, left=red etc.

Curry Pervert wrote: Sat Jul 24, 2021 10:54 amOK I have a question.

In the US the Dems are associated with blue and the Repugs with red. How did this occur?

I'm only curious because that seems to be the reverse of the rest of the world, left=red etc.

Giving yourself up as a youngster there.

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/ ... 104176297/