Comments by RandomMember (page 2)

I posted before that @Dougster was a troll with a 160 IQ. When he wasn't trolling, he could be really funny. He's probably some kind of quantitative analyst. Enjoyed his posts on finance, Ayn Rand, the economy, etc. One of the best posters over the years.

"... too hard on Trump..." _______________ *yawn* Translation: Wallace used to dick-slap Trump in the face with actual facts.

@Mark: "The University of Austin is organizing as a private school with no affiliation with the Texas State university system." _____________ Yes, nutcase, but naming their new university "The University of Austin" obviously piggybacks on the reputation of "The University of Texas at Austin." The average person wouldn't know the difference.

@Bk: "..throw around your ultra partisan pro fascism rants against Mr Biden for the hardships those poor Afghani's that you couldn't actually give a fuck about are facing." ___________ +1 And if we did send aid to innocent women and children, nuts like @Mark would accuse Biden of supporting the Taliban. This is a job for the United Nations; we have our own starving and homeless to take care of, here.

For healthy fast food, there's a delicious chain in Denver called "Garbanzo Mediterranean Fresh." It went into bankruptcy during Covid, but it was bought out by a salad place.

Hope everyone notices that "The University of Austin" is not the same as "The University of Texas at Austin." I predict that "The University of Austin" will attract right-wing kooks like @Mark. An entire wing of the university will be devoted to whining about critical race theory. The sociology department will be devoted exclusively to studying why BLM is a Marxist plot to overthrow the US. The college will sponsor medical research studies to prove the effectiveness of hydroxychloroquine, livestock parasite drugs, Borax baths, and anally-administered ultraviolet light.

CLM == Canine Lives Matter.

There are many elite schools in older, urban areas and Columbia, U. Chicago have always had problems with crime in the surrounding neighborhoods. Nothing new, and predates the Fox News hysteria about BLM and liberal academia.

Borax works,too -- and it'll whiten your shirts.

I'm type I -- and not talking about diabetes

Yep, the ultra-wealthy borrow to reduce their effective salary and to avoid capital gains. The effective tax rate for billionaires is on the order of 4% -- which is a lot less than the 37% top federal tax rate and 20% on capital gains. It should make the rest of you angry. That's why some sort of wealth tax is needed. Or at least bring back the inheritance tax so that we don't turn into a plutocracy.

Yeah, prices are insane. I recently sold a 15-yr-old Honda S2000 (that I bought new) for more than the original purchase price. Over the years, the car developed a cult following: https://www.motortrend.com/vehicle-genres/honda-s2000-roadster-history-retrospective/ It was a third car that sat in the garage and had only 12K miles and mint condition. Listed it online and got offers from all over the country. It sold to someone in N Calif. Sort of miss the car now; it was very light-weight, smooth engine, and had tight, precise handling. My wife wants an electric car, but I'm hesitant for many of the reasons mentioned above. Worried about it becoming a headache after the warranty expires. Apropos, today's paper had a fun opinion piece about the direction of the auto industry (clear browser cookies to read for free): "The Look of Cars Is Driving Me Out of My Mind" https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/01/opinion/smart-car-technology.html

@Orange- Suppose, instead, that we're discussing Sandy Hook, where 20 kids were murdered. I might bring up the liberal agenda that mass murders of that type would be less common with background checks and tighter control of assault weapons and semi-automatic rifles. I might cite academic studies to support that opinion. But in no case would I state that conservatives "fuckin LOVE it" when children are slaughtered. Because that would idiotic, inflammatory, and accomplish nothing. So when you state that liberals cheer at the rape of a woman on a train or that liberals "fuckin LOVE it" when innocent children are mowed down by a vehicle, it doesn't register as a rational argument. It just marks you as an idiot who can't think straight. Do you understand English?

Slightly off-topic: Not my field but seems to me genes from the father and mother play a role in breast size. So a woman with small breasts could take after her father's side of the family. In which case it could represent "daddy issues."

@Mark92 wrote: "Now the big question is… who paid his bond two days ago, the same day Kyle Rittenhouse was found not guilty in Wisconsin?" ________________ Answer: I think it's safe to assume that George Soros posted his bail. @Orange wrote: "But for now, the left fuckin LOVES it." _______________ Similar to your earlier post about the left cheering the rape of a woman on a train, this doesn't make a particle of sense. You're a psychotic moron with a bad temper, @Orange; it's no wonder your second wife threw you out of the house. That left-wing rag, the WSJ, has an article about the human-scum suspect. It says the police are pursuing a theory that he was fleeing an earlier crime scene. So far, absolutely no connection with Rittenhouse. https://www.wsj.com/articles/waukesha-parade-christmas-wisconsin-darrell-brooks-11637607146

"Does that warrant any reaction by the public or media scrutiny ?" ________ As I write this it's the lead story on the NYT, WaPo, and WSJ. Is that enough media attention? Out of respect for the dead, why don't you give this another 24hrs to understand the motives. Go beat off, or something.

I was referring to billionaires in my post, above. A kind of insecurity takes over: after you can buy as many gold-plated toilets as you want, the only thing left is "keeping score" with the other billionaires. Can't prove it, but this worship of the ultra-rich seems to be an American phenomenon. How else can you explain the rise of a truly stupid, corrupt, and worthless human being like Donald Trump? He's rich because of inherited wealth, but it doesn't seem to matter to his adoring base.

^^ I think you meant Caltech and not Cal Poly -- which is not in the Bay area.

I'll add that in this country, the word "successful" is interchangeable with the word "wealthy." But in my mind, success means rising to the top of your chosen profession, whether it happens to be a lucrative profession, or not. For example, a Nobel Prize winner in literature is far more "successful" than a wealthy bond salesman, IMO. Talentless people keep score with their wealth. One of the famous economists I follow describes the ultra-wealthy as some of the most insecure people on the planet. OTOH, I do get tired of the mindless, annoying, cliche that if you're center-left you must also be a poverty-stricken leech.

I do wonder what kind of environment produces uber-bigots like @Skibum and @GammaNu? Children are not born racist.

All the TUSCL 8-yr-olds thought your pun was funny, @Warrior.

*yawn* What kind of mother drives her dorky high-school dropout across state lines with an assault rifle? Answer: a mother who's dumb as a brick and should never have conceived.

Anyway, the new antiviral drugs (pills, not infusions) by Merck and Pfizer look like they could be game-changers.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/jemimamcevoy/2021/09/10/nation-short-on-supply-of-key-covid-treatment-desperate-states-told-to-reduce-requests/

Just off the top of my head, (1) Monoclonal antibodies are in short supply and the infusions must be rationed. (2) The infusions should be given to those at greatest risk (i.e., fat people, those with chronic kidney disease, diabetes, immunocompromised, etc...) (3) Since it's been well documented that some ethnic groups are more likely to die of COVID, it makes sense to include ethnicity in the criteria for those getting the infusions. Blacks and Hispanics, for example, are something like twice as likely to die of COVID, once infected. Here's the CDC data: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/covid-data/investigations-discovery/hospitalization-death-by-race-ethnicity.html (4) So including ethnicity is a rational criterion to use in this case. (5) It's impossible to tease out the per-capita difference in death rates, by ethnicity, out of the "Statisitca" bar graph, linked by the @OP. For example, 76% of the population is white, but 62% of the COVID deaths are white. Blacks account for 13% of the population but 15% of the COVID deaths. (6) The usual TUSCL members in this thread see racism and white victimization everywhere. It's a kind of sickness. The only goal here is to ration a drug in short supply to those most in need.