I agree with everything you said brycewi. And it would apply here too IF Adam was providing information that wasn't well known by nearly everyone today. Most people believe lie detectors are pseudo science. It is not even comparable to global warming, and even less than anti-vaccines (Or if this is somehow untrue, then Adam doesn't provide how truly well believed this phenomenon is as he prattles on.) So that is where we would vary significantly on, not that the service of providing debunking of something taken as true is important/unimportant.

Yes, some people believe it works. Others watch it on talk shows and such for entertainment and even some law enforcement use it for confessional purposes. We get that. But then again some Africans believe raping a virgin will cure AIDs...does that mean their country is a bunch of degenerates? No, because only a few do.

Adam goes off on this rant based on information in what, the 90s? When everyone had this unshakable faith in the lie detector? My family's entire life rested on one of these machines at one time, so I know. (It didn't turn out good, lets leave it at that.)

Further, we differentiate three "uses" of the lie detector.
1-Entertainment:
A-Nobody believes it works, just like nobody believes Jerry Springer or Wrestling isn't fake.
B-Lumping those people in with those who do believe is disingenuous at best, manipulative at worst.
2-Law Enforcement:
A-They really don't care as long as they obtain guilty confessions. In other words, they already know (think) they have the bad guy and use it as an interrogation techniques.
B-You can argue with this practice as shady and deceptive (ironic isn't it?) but we shouldn't confuse belief with reliance.
3-Excluding the examples above, since they DON'T believe, those in the ultra fringe don't constitute "widely accepted."

Your video, The Linguistics of African American Vernacular English, has made it into the Top 15 New Videos listing. Congratulations on your achievement. For your contribution you have been awarded 1 Power Point.

"I didn't think I would ever be in position that I would ever have to take somebody else's life"

That's the opening quote, from somebody in the military flying armed drone strikes. I am gonna call that unrealistic expectations, the army and military are not about negotiating with the enemy, their purpose is the threat of violence and death should negotiations fail. If you don't expect taking a life to be part of military operations, you didn't understand the entire concept of a military.

Then it's compounded, with this gem of a quote:
"I thought we were trying to rebuild their democracy"
Where did there exist a democracy in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Yemen or anywhere else he might have been flying a drone? Violent, repressive military dictatorships and stateless anarchy were the precursors.

Somewhere in between the cries to kill all Muslims and the Chomsky like claims that everything is the fault of the West is a middle ground I wish people would pay attention to and discuss.

There are parts of the world that are completely lawless, and for all intents and purposes have NO government despite the land itself falling within declared national borders. Tribal Pakistan and Afghanistan, as well as many African states like Yemen and Somalia are relevant examples. There are powerful non-state organizations waging war from this regions. Al Qaeda and the TTP being only the most popular examples, Al-Shabab and Boko-Haram are others. These non-state entities are pushing ideologies that are not simply counter to western values, but that violate all UN agreed notions for basic human rights.

The question isn't drones good or drones bad. It isn't America good or America bad. It's not even killing good or killing bad. That's all just propaganda.

The real question is when powerful non state actors wage war with the declared goal of revoking many globally upheld human rights, how do we respond? The idea that drones should never be part of that answer seems equally facile to the idea that they always should be.

Yes, I was wondering when you would trot out Hooker's paper and the 'CDC whistleblower" bit. You see, in the lack of clear scientific fact, conspiracy theorists tend to grab whatever they can to prove that they are right. I'll dissect your attempt right now.

First, Hooker's paper was covering the data involving African-American children with supposed predilection towards autism. The sample size was small, the math was ludicrous, and he incorrectly analyzed a cohort study. Because of the NUMEROUS failures to appropriately conduct a true scientific study, his paper was retracted. So, when exposed to the light, his theory was decidedly lacking in content and was canned.

http://retractionwatch.com/2014/08/27/journal-takes-down-autism-vaccine-paper-pending-investigation/

This incompetent study was the result, allegedly, of discussions between Hooker and a senior psychologist at the CDC named William Thompson. Hooker then teamed up with Andrew Wakefield to cherry pick bits to make it sound as though Thompson were confessing to some horrible crime of data manipulation to hide this “bombshell” result reported by Wakefield. Thus was born the “CDC whistleblower".

In February 2010, the General Medical Council in the U.K. recommended that Wakefield be stripped of his license to practice medicine in the U.K. because of scientific misconduct related to his infamous 1998 case series published in The Lancet, even going so far as to refer to him as irresponsible and dishonest, and in May 2010 he was. He is a now doing everything he can to prove his theories, like possibly illegal recording of conversations, so that he can regain some credibility. The guy is a hack.

Thompson has admitted to being prone to anxiety disorders, being delusional, and has shown that he is more scared of being 'the bad guy' then doing his job. His career is pretty much finished at the CDC, because he has shown that he will waffle if confronted by angry people who can't understand science. I feel sorry for him, but he has issues.

So, now we can address your link. A congressman, not a scientist, has received information from people who have been laughed out of the scientific community for multiple reasons. He sees buzzwords and decides to get ahead of the bandwagon, calling for further investigation and research. I can, of course, show you knee-jerk reactions by multiple members of congress similar to this, like Ted Cruz calling for immediate investigation into Planned Parenthood over the recent videos. You know, the ones that were chopped and spliced together to make it sound like PP was selling aborted babies? Do you see a pattern with the chop and splice for sensationalism? I hope you do.

In other words, you don't have any scientific facts. Like all anti-vaxxer conspiracy theorists, you rely on a few items that seem to tie together to form a true fact, but they don't. When confronted with this, you will say that it's all big pharma and money trails, etc. Do you not see the fallacy in that logic? It's like saying that the the earth was created 9000 years ago...because RELIGION!

Btw, if you want to place your trust in politicians trying to be scientists, I leave you with this gem from former congressman Paul Broun.

"You see, there are a lot of scientific data that I've found out as a scientist that actually show that this is really a young Earth. I don't believe that the earth's but about 9,000 years old. I believe it was created in six days as we know them. That's what the Bible says."

Update: the system "works!" After only two years this man has been cleared of the crime of drinking iced tea in a parking lot.

Your not worthless just not needed.

No real jobs have been created in 6 years, just part time temp with out benefits.

The government does not create jobs but sure could create policies ( or cut) to stimulate job growth.

With all the jobs lost to overseas over the last 40 years you better get used to lower standard of living. Better get a real degree, not Woman Studies and other useless degrees such as Hotel management, Art History , African studies, Psychology or Animal Science.

Now do you get why the "Angry Black Person" Stereotype exists?

Now do you get why a bunch of teens would riot & destroy their own community?

Stop trying to nullify, neutralize, invalidate the institutional oppression of People of Color!!

Non-whites will NEVER be treated with such kid gloves.

We see it OVER and OVER and OVER again. Daily. Weekly. Monthly.

People of Color are treated less than human, constantly.

Since the founding of the country!

The American Empire was build upon the suffering & oppression of Indigenous Peoples, Kidnapped Africans, Kidnapped Chinese.

White Privilege is the resultant REAL Institution of all that oppression and suffering.

Denying White Privilege is denying People of Color their humanity.

Denying ANY human their humanity makes you inhumane.

So FUCKING STOP IT!!

Let me quote the Vice President of the Confederate States, March 21st, 1861:

"The new constitution has put at rest, forever, all the agitating questions relating to our peculiar institution African slavery as it exists amongst us the proper status of the negro in our form of civilization. This was the immediate cause of the late rupture and present revolution."

(...)

"Our new government is founded upon exactly the opposite idea; its foundations are laid, its corner- stone rests, upon the great truth that the negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery subordination to the superior race is his natural and normal condition. This, our new government, is the first, in the history of the world, based upon this great physical, philosophical, and moral truth."

That's white supremacy. That's white supremacy and then some.

Personally traits have nothing to due with it, the video has two messages the first, funny message, is that yes there is a difference between the traits of westerners and Chinese people. The second, racist message, is that western couples don't actually love each other.

The video shows all the Chinese personality quarks as good natured ways the couple loves each other, such as sharing food, and the man sacrificing his money. The "western" people are shown in a relationship where they don't trust each other such as the man calling his SO a "b*tch" and spending all their money behind her back.

Think for a second, what of the video had been made about African Americans? would that be okay? (No it would not)

It's Gao...not Goa. They may have been living there at the time but they are definitely singing in a Timbuktu dialect which I'm guessing is where they, or at least the singer, is from.

Al Hassidi Terrei is loosely translated 'Extremist People'

The songs lyrics are a bit difficult to take apart beause the music garbles them a bit and they are a mixture of basic West African French and the Songhai Timbuktu Dialect which I'm less familiar with then Gao dialect.

In short though "Al Hassidi Terrei mind your own business, ...then something about the meeting of life, love and wives (or generally women)....and then we're not tired (or poor/beaten down).

and repeat...

LOL, you're so cute.
So, if you get cancer, can I walk up to you and belittle you because 'look at all them africans with the ebola! You think you have it bad? They're shitting their guts out!'? That's your argument here. 'Stop complaining, others have it worse!'
Seriously, are you really that naive? Do you really believe in the 'american dream'?
You're cute, man. From now on I'll imagine everything you say is said by a five year old, wide-eyed girl with freckles and pigtails. Makes your point so much more understandable.
You and your great country...

I don't think you like me very much.

How do you know that I am not a black person? Hint -Al Sharpton I'm not.

Racist? Disagreement of policies does not infer this .
Bigot? Look in the mirror.

So you are saying only white people are racist?
Chinese, Asian, Spanish peoples and Africans can't be racist?

I get it only White American can be racist.



as you say (I) "... have no idea "what's good for" black people."

Sure I do. It's the same thing we all want. A fair shake in life, to have a decent living and to have you children to do better than you.


Debasing yourself to name calling. Sad, very sad.

I didn't have too much trouble understanding her, but then I'm an American, living in Australia, with a South African boss

Related quote by writer Russell Banks:

"After living in Jamaica and writing The Book of Jamaica, I accepted that I was obliged, for example, to have African American friends. I was obliged to address deliberately the overlapping social and racial contexts of my life. I'm a white man in a white-dominated, racialized society; therefore, if I want to I can live my whole life in a racial fantasy. Most white Americans do just that. Because we can. In a color-defined society we are invited to think that white is not a color. We are invited to fantasize and we act accordingly."

"The sparrow is not an African sparrow and it is unladen in the tests"

lol