tadmjones

Rand could be described as a 'radical for integration' right along with the other famous similar self-styled moniker of 'radical for capitalism'. And I think the critiques of O'ism that tend to paint it as a 'politically' or 'morally' focused system come from a lack of understanding of what are the strongest points ie epistemological.

Stephen You understand that the importance placed on the existence of the tunnels and the threat they project is what I am calling propaganda. The breach of the world’s most secure perimeter monitoring system wasn’t achieved by dint of surprise of time and place , the 50 th anniversary of the Yom Kippur war along a section of the Gaza border, alone. I am sure you aware of the calls for investigating and justifying the draw down of forces in that immediate area? The documented barbarity and brutality gives license to Israel’s response , which in turn gives license and talk in the West of relocating the Gazans entoto , weird how that falls in place. Those damn tunnels.

Like I said , the tunnel network is a defensive utility for the terrorists. The breach of the world's most fortified security perimeter that enabled the Oct 7 massacre had more to do with a failure on the part of Israel than any advantage the tunnel system gave to Hamas. That flame is harder to temper than Bibi thought apparently.

As has been cautioned in other threads, information sourced from a belligerent in/during a conflict regarding the situation on the ground is probably the least objective or reliable description of the facts. There is a lot of talk about 'the terror tunnel system' within Gaza along with the implication that their presence represents a direct threat to the safety of the Israelis. The connotation always being that they are offensive structures, but if they are located within Gaza and assuming they all/most terminate within Gaza, their utility is probably more significant tactically, strategically, and logistically in an incursion into Gaza, no?

My hyperbolic rhetoric has probably got the better of me , I didn't mean to single out 'bankers' , I meant more the 'financial class' and by that I mean those who have disposal over large amounts of capital in the form of financial instruments to a degree that those actions can affect or be recognized as consequential in 'world markets'/ I think the Federal Reserve sees war as an opportunity for them to increase their 'business' and demand for their product. i could see that if you are using the word to describe a private individual that lends out capital in the form of credit or money in a manner that would not allow themselves to be bankrupted by lending to parties with a rational expectation of having the loans repaid, yeah those types would probably rather not ply their trade in an active war zone.

Why can’t it be both?

I’m currently going through a series of articles by Whitney Webb published on Mintpressnews.com from 2019 that talk about the history of Zionism both Christian and Jewish. She pretty much ‘brings the receipts’ to the subjects she speaks on. I was familiar with the idea that current evangelical x-tians are for the most part Zionists , but I was not aware of the history and extent of the activism. Apparently the end times are serious motivating factors and bankers like war and chaos , a match made in heaven.

Did SA apartheid end, or just flip ?

Through the years I’ve cut up my fair share of graph paper for modeling to get a bird’s eye view of furniture arrangements. I am intimately familiar with our most used room floors , being addicted to the idea that bucket and rag is the only true and acceptable cleaning process. I know where every chip scratch and blemish is, but if go into the garage , I know I know the particulars , but the idea of ‘seeing’ any concrete element ‘from memory’ in a anyway approaching a literal visual experience is somewhat alien. It could be that I am exaggerating the sense of a literal apprehension of a visual image that is generally experienced by you (and all youse else). The phenomenon I’m discussing isn’t as much surprising to me , as is the scenario of stumbling on it, lol. An odd comment lead to the topic in conversation , an idea I never really considered discussing and then hearing it mentioned as an offhand comment in a podcast, is more shocking lol.

SL With the furniture example and going from actual past experience and thinking how that process worked , I'd say I do it more by 'dead reckoning'? on the spot?, I'll estimate the length of a sofa , usually with a cue like how many floor boards equate to its length and spot out the equivalent length in a different position in the room for fit. Thinking about geometric question seems more like an 'inner' visualization, but I'd rather describe coming to understanding the particular arrangement of shape in not necessarily 'tactile' but more an intuitive feeling of what that shape 'would be', but definitely not with words associated with visual imaging. I suspect some of the distinctions or differences in relating the phenomenon may be semantic, and perhaps there is a limiting aspect in the recall of the process.

Yesterday I heard mention of a phenomenon called aphantasia , the self reported lack of 'innner' imagery. Oddly it seems "I have it", odder still a few weeks ago I was discussing this with my wife! But I thought the fact that what I was trying to explain to my wife and her reporting back of her phenomenal experience of imagination visually, in comparison to what I was describing didn't 'line up' was due to semantic misalignment. I did not realize that when most people report 'seeing' 'things' in their mind's eye or imagination that they were not speaking metaphorically. I always assumed 'visual imagery' was a collectively agreed upon ambiguous concept to describe an 'inner' understanding or cognition(?) of an imagined 'thing', and not a 'quasi-actual' visual image. If I were prompted to close my eyes and imagine say a pink elephant, I only 'see' the dark behind the lids, there is nothing 'there' that appears anything akin to visually apprehending a pink elephant, but the 'idea' of a pink elephant is present or experienced, perhaps better described as almost a state of awareness of being predisposed to 'accepting' a nonheretofore 'appearance' of a 'visual experience' of a pink elephant .. actually it is rather hard to describe, especially because I never thought I would have to describe this aspect of experience , going off the assumption that all youse all was just speaking metaphorically! I do dream 'visually' and I sometimes mistake the experience of having read a novel as having watched a film of the story, but i don't seem to be able to bring up visual imagery 'on demand' , so maybe on the spectrum as it were, lol. So , yeah AI imagery ain't never gonna live up to my expectation, but only because the bar is too low !

Is the notion that that CIA coined the term 'conspiracy theory(ist)' as a propaganda tool to dissuade people from engaging in the idea that JFK's assassination may not be the result of a lone wolf actor, a theory about a conspiracy ? or an actual action of the CIA? Trump is a Russian agent!! Proof pending.. Covid infection is lethal!! Covid mRNA injections are safe and effective !! Snickers really satisfy!! Yeah , what is Tony on about. I'm sure you just mean , that you have to challenge his assertion that the 'entire' , every single vestige of the 'media' is centrally directed verbatim yada , yada. All lives matter is racist!! Ukraine is basically Kansas!! Who wouldn't display the colors?! a Traitor that's who !!

So a client state without its own means of defense.

What kind of country is it that its ‘own’ army is not for the purpose of its own sovereign defense?

I’m not sure where to look for a source ,but I think Rand related the idea that the pursuit of knowledge “for knowledge sake” without a conscious plan to integrate that knowledge into efforts to be productive or more productive was immoral. Perhaps that is what lead to the misquote.

I don't mean this as 'snarky' but, you sense the irony in your situation, no ? You seem somewhat frustrated in successfully applying a skill that implicitly carries with it the idea that such a skill should be 'get-able' , perhaps that can be a catalyst for a productive form of empathy. I would ask the company if they have any type of resource for employees of materials of or contact with adults who 'overcame' similar learning disabilities/experiences and see if there are common practices used by them for themselves. ?

I’d love hear a nuanced view of our first female admiral, and the relative speed of cultural change.

I think we can speculate on some of what may be sufficient and immediate causes if there is in fact as rise in crime level. Procedural changes that result in the nondetention of criminals, eg lowering bail requirements/conditions , the "Ferguson effect" playing out where the citizenry themselves promote criminal acts in a defiant manner agaisnt the 'system' , unbalanced responsibilities placed on officers through indemnification and the like. It does not seem that Chicago is an isolated city in regards to a seeming crime level rise, it seems as if internal changes to the "justice systems" of several states is having a noticeable effect.

Police are just one component of a ‘justice system’, ideally police are the reaction to initiations of force. But practically police are used to target and control the ‘breakers’ of law , regardless of whether or not the ‘laws’ are objective principles to substantiate the noninitiation of force, or positively to punish or retard instances of ‘unlawful’ acts. In as much as jurisdiction is an objectively important principle and that a court or legal ‘system’ is the progenitor and bound setter, the prevalence of crime or violence in a specific locality indicates that the system of justice is either structurally weak or if sufficiently sound in principle is failing to operate. The need for ‘more’ police means as a component the amount is insufficient, either the population becomes more violent or the number of officers decreases relative to a static level.

Illinois is the first state in the nation to adopt no cash bail legislation in July of this year I believe. Not being familiar with the extent of the bail system and how this legislation affects it's operation, on the face of it , it seems a mechanism that allows those accused of crimes (even violent crimes?) to be remanded on their own recognizance pending a future court date. Perhaps the nondescript attackers are due in court soon and will be stopped.

by autopsy ?

Nope, 'all cause' , I think deaths attributed to covid or covid adjacent deaths are in the lower single digit range , maybe 2 percent range. Who is dying 'of covid'?

So the author thinks the political institutions in the country are functioning on principle and 75 million fellow countrymen(at last 'count') are drooling morons. Much intellectual firepower on display!

All cause excess death still above the five year average in most western countries , virtually no media stories as to any possible theories on cause/s. Blank out, mass evasion of reality.

Man always strives for an answer to causation , and that a conscious agency is always posited. “We” never seem to have ever “started” with materialism. Whether animistic or polytheistic and monotheistic consciousness and disembodied agency is/was that which is most potent and primary. Perhaps an artifact of projection of our self conscious nature.