First Prize for Butter Sculpture at the Minnesota State Fair.

Thanks westy.

Although I don't agree that being gay is a disorder. It is just part of the range of biological experience and is found throughout nature.

http://videosift.com/video/Minnesota-State-Lawmaker-Asks-Perfect-Question-about-Gays

Thanks for the bump!

In reply to this comment by Boise_Lib:
*promote

@swedishfriend

1. "Compared to their native Swedish peers, immigrant students, on average, have weaker education outcomes at all levels of education. Nearing the end of compulsory education, at age 15, there are very significant performance disadvantages for immigrant students." Source.



2a. Generally, in the modern era, the achievement gap between the descendants of immigrants and the host population correlates with the achievement gap between the immigrants' nation of origin and the host nation. For example, expect US achievement gaps to be with us for the long-term:
NYT: "Triumph Fades on Racial Gap in City Schools"

2b. US school test scores are virtually the best in the world once you break down test scores by region of ancestry. Asian Americans do better than Asians in Asia; Latino Americans do better than Latinos in Latin America; African Americans do better than Africans in Africa; European Americans do better than Europeans in Europe. The illusion that US scores aren't the best in the world is caused by the demographic composition of the US, not by US school policy.

2c. Indeed, as expected from the US's dominance of international test scores (once broken down by country of origin), descendants of Swedes living in Minnesota significantly outperform Swedes living in Sweden. (Search that post for "achievement gap" to read more about the achievement gap in Sweden between natives and descendants of immigants.)



3. Exceptions: US Muslims, such as Iranian-Americans, significantly outperform other US groups, including the majority group, because they were drawn from high performers in their country of origin, such as scientists.

I often wonder about that and fast food. Maybe you've heard of the cheeseburger bill before, maybe not. And while Super Size Me seemed a bit exaggerated at times the results he was getting from his doctor were SCARY. And while things like cigarettes and alcohol come with warnings from the surgeon general, fast food, in spite of the evidence that it's horrible for you, is protected by the aforementioned bill AND the public is under-educated about how dangerous it really is.

It's just a matter of time before we move on to soylent green for the masses. Oh wait...

In reply to this comment by peggedbea:
the cost of food isn't high enough yet. historically, people are generally complacent with letting the ruling class do whatever as long as they can afford food and expect a reasonably brighter future. i wonder if part of the reason we subsidize agriculture is to keep food prices artificially low longer to avoid social unrest. and then there's fast food. which consistently remains cheap. my paranoid brain is starting to formulate fast food as social control conspiracies. also, google holodomor. and think about monsanto.

i think we've all given up on the "brighter future" part... and food prices keep fluctuating.. it's coming though, don't worry. the rest of us will join you soon. as soon as we can no longer afford a mcrib. >> ^rottenseed:

Why isn't USAmerica rioting? I am. It's just me though.

dannym3141:

Claiming that people should stop burning fossil fuels would HEAVILY dent the income of just about every country because of how much tax they can charge from it. Britain's economy is almost based on fossil fuel tax. How can you possibly argue that they are a politically influenced source over fossil fuel use when they criticise such a money earner?

Politics aside, fossil fuels remain the cheapest, most abundant source of energy, and new supplies of it are being discovered all the time. I never said people should stop burning them.

I hesitate to even mention that "science" as a global community is above reproach in ways that hardly anything else can be due to the method of a scientist. If you are not performing science for truth and discovery, you are not a scientist, so you're not part of the community anymore. That's why it's above reproach. I'm sure you'll argue with me about that, but i know that you'd argue about the time of day if you were proven to be wrong.

I'm not arguing, but I am astonished you would believe scientists are above politics (and reproach), not because the scientific method is flawed, but because scientists are fallible humans with their own beliefs and interests. As W. Pennypacker said in so many words, governments reward scientists which confirm a pre-determined outcome (like secondhand smoke killing 100 billion people a year). Junk science is real; it may not be everywhere, but it's out there. And not just "the oil companies" which have "scientitians" in their corner.

Another thing, gang. Over the last few years, global warming hysteria has been relentless. It's the alarmists who declared, "The debate is over." There was even one smug a-hole who compared "climate deniers" to Holocaust deniers. Classy! There was the faked data scandal. These are not the actions of scientists confident in their conclusions. Yet the lazy media continues to back the alarmists without question.

100 storylines blaming climate change as the problem:

1. The deaths of Aspen trees in the West
2. Incredible shrinking sheep
3. Caribbean coral deaths
4. Eskimos forced to leave their village
5. Disappearing lake in Chile
6. Early heat wave in Vietnam
7. Malaria and water-borne diseases in Africa
8. Invasion of jellyfish in the Mediterranean
9. Break in the Arctic Ice Shelf
10. Monsoons in India
11. Birds laying their eggs early
12. 160,000 deaths a year
13. 315,000 deaths a year
14. 300,000 deaths a year
15. Decline in snowpack in the West
16. Deaths of walruses in Alaska
17. Hunger in Nepal
18. The appearance of oxygen-starved dead zones in the oceans
19. Surge in fatal shark attacks
20. Increasing number of typhoid cases in the Philippines
21. Boy Scout tornado deaths
22. Rise in asthma and hayfever
23. Duller fall foliage in 2007
24. Floods in Jakarta
25. Radical ecological shift in the North Sea
26. Snowfall in Baghdad
27. Western tree deaths
28. Diminishing desert resources
29. Pine beetles
30. Swedish beetles
31. Severe acne
32. Global conflict
33. Crash of Air France 447
34. Black Hawk Down incident
35. Amphibians breeding earlier
36. Flesh-eating disease
37. Global cooling
38. Bird strikes on US Airways 1549
39. Beer tastes different
40. Cougar attacks in Alberta
41. Suicide of farmers in Australia
42. Squirrels reproduce earlier
43. Monkeys moving to Great Rift Valley in Kenya
44. Confusion of migrating birds
45. Bigger tuna fish
46. Water shortages in Las Vegas
47. Worldwide hunger
48. Longer days
49. Earth spinning faster
50. Gender balance of crocodiles
51. Skin cancer deaths in UK
52. Increase in kidney stones in India
53. Penguin chicks frozen by global warming
54. Deaths of Minnesota moose
55. Increased threat of HIV/AIDS in developing countries
56. Increase of wasps in Alaska
57. Killer stingrays off British coasts
58. All societal collapses since the beginning of time
59. Bigger spiders
60. Increase in size of giant squid
61. Increase of orchids in UK
62. Collapse of gingerbread houses in Sweden
63. Cow infertility
64. Conflict in Darfur
65. Bluetongue outbreak in UK cows
66. Worldwide wars
67. Insomnia of children worried about global warming
68. Anxiety problems for people worried about climate change
69. Migration of cockroaches
70. Taller mountains due to melting glaciers
71. Drowning of four polar bears
72. UFO sightings in the UK
73. Hurricane Katrina
74. Greener mountains in Sweden
75. Decreased maple in maple trees
76. Cold wave in India
77. Worse traffic in LA because immigrants moving north
78. Increase in heart attacks and strokes
79. Rise in insurance premiums
80. Invasion of European species of earthworm in UK
81. Cold spells in Australia
82. Increase in crime
83. Boiling oceans
84. Grizzly deaths
85. Dengue fever
86. Lack of monsoons
87. Caterpillars devouring 45 towns in Liberia
88. Acid rain recovery
89. Global wheat shortage; food price hikes
90. Extinction of 13 species in Bangladesh
91. Changes in swan migration patterns in Siberia
92. The early arrival of Turkey’s endangered caretta carettas
93. Radical North Sea shift
94. Heroin addiction
95. Plant species climbing up mountains
96. Deadly fires in Australia
97. Droughts in Australia
98. The demise of California’s agriculture by the end of the century
99. Tsunami in South East Asia
100. Fashion victim: the death of the winter wardrobe


Do you really expect free people to surrender to THIS?

It's a deer. There is a saying with hitting moose.

"If you see two legs, you stand a chance. If you see four, you're dead."

Er...something like that. Been a while since I lived in Minnesota.

imma already pen it in my will, i just wanna be lobbed out the back of a plane above the woods of northern minnesota, no burrial, no nothing, just let nature take me back.

"Police state"? Please.

There needs to be some training in that police department.

"Wahpeton [popu. 8,586] in southeast North Dakota is the county seat of Richland County and borders neighboring Minnesota city Breckenridge [popu. 3,559], the seat of Wilkin County. Together these two communities boast a daytime population of about 13,000."

This is not a sophisticated place.

Now show me something about unwarranted raids. Then I can get outraged.

Congratulations! Your comment has just received enough votes from the community to earn you 1 Power Point. Thank you for your quality contribution to VideoSift.

Are you looking for straight liberals to bash or something? It's uncontroversial that most gays suffer some exclusion and persecution due to being gay. "Tale of woe" came from your own head, not mine.>> ^FlowersInHisHair:

>> ^messenger:
I'm saying it's not a choice at all -- who the hell would choose so much exclusion and persecution? I'm disappointed this guy even suggested that it was anything but 100% natural.
Or maybe it's the case that in an environment where to question anything in the bible directly is political suicide, he's using indirect language to say what he's not saying in words.
Not every gay person's life is a tale of woe, exclusion and persecution. In my experience, this comes as a surprise to many straight liberals.

>> ^messenger:

I'm saying it's not a choice at all -- who the hell would choose so much exclusion and persecution? I'm disappointed this guy even suggested that it was anything but 100% natural.
Or maybe it's the case that in an environment where to question anything in the bible directly is political suicide, he's using indirect language to say what he's not saying in words.
Not every gay person's life is a tale of woe, exclusion and persecution. In my experience, this comes as a surprise to many straight liberals.

>> ^LarsaruS:

>> ^jwray:
>> ^LarsaruS:
Morals, morality and ethics does not exist. They are complete bullshit people make up and they change constantly. What is considered morally and ethically right by you might not be seen that way by the person sitting next to you. And 25 years from now how you feel about the morality and ethics of an action probably wont be the same as today. This is why Morals(tm) should have zero to do with lawmaking and government decisions. It just creates a lot of BS down the road. Like this non-issue.

As both an atheist and a liberal, I vehemently disagree with this. Only actions that harm others without their consent should be illegal. Only actions that harm others without their consent are capable of being immoral. Actions which are immoral are a subset of those that harm others without their consent. Actions which should be illegal are a subset of actions which are immoral.
"You can't legislate morality" is just a copout to prevent the masses from forcing their inane bronze-age-myth derived morality on everyone. Real morality and just law are perfectly compatible.

Maybe I misunderstood/misread you but to me it seems like you feel I believe gays should not be allowed to marry? Since I believe they should be able to I feel like you must have misunderstood me. My comment was only directed towards the flawed notion of morals, morality and ethics as an absolute set in stone ~2k years ago in a desert. This is also why the entire gay-marriage-controversy is utter BS. It is make belief morals enshrined in law fucking real peoples lives up for absolutely no reason at all.
I completely agree that actions that harm others without consent should be illegal. However, I do not like your circular reasoning for the reason why it should be illegal. I believe that it should be illegal because it hurts another human being not because it is "immoral" as morals are fluid and changes a lot. 500-1500 years ago rape and pillage during war wasn't seen as immoral, just effective. Today you get court martialed and possibly shot/hung for it.
If your actions cause pain or discomfort to another human being try to refrain from it, or they might do the same to you (or worse!). That is also the reason why you shouldn't mess with people. Because if you break the I-wont-try-to-kill-you-and-you-wont-try-to-kill-me pact that we base our coexistence and civilization on you might just cause your own demise.


It's not circular reasoning. It's redundant explanation of an axiom (one of many).

Not every action that harms others without their consent is immoral or should be illegal:

1. Train is about to hit 10 people, but you can pull a lever that will make it go on a different track and hit 1 person instead.
2. You run a business. You have underperforming employee. You fire underperforming employee.
3. Some instances of self defense.

Don't let the bronze-age-myth fools soil the name of morality so thoroughly that you stop bothering to use the word except mockingly.

>> ^GeeSussFreeK:

>> ^silvercord:
The argument completely flies in the face of evolution.

Which one? The one where evolution tries everything, even things that can't procreate? Or evolution made them, so it must be right? Or it doesn't matter if it is natural or not, I can't masturbate to it (or only half of it)?


The one where God dictates who is here on earth. I heard him say, that "'sexuality and sexual orientation are a gift from God,' and I think that's true." That was what Simon is talking about, wasn't it; that there is a God and he decides who he wants here?

I'm saying it's not a choice at all -- who the hell would choose so much exclusion and persecution? I'm disappointed this guy even suggested that it was anything but 100% natural.

Or maybe it's the case that in an environment where to question anything in the bible directly is political suicide, he's using indirect language to say what he's not saying in words.>> ^FlowersInHisHair:

>> ^messenger:
The only thing I didn't like about this guy was that he suggested it just might be possible that homosexuality isn't a lifestyle choice, that people don't just take up gayness like they take up skateboarding.

Wait, there are a lot of double negatives there. Are you saying you think it is a lifestyle choice, or that you think it isn't?