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  1. Politesse

    Got the Memo Yet? You Can Indeed Prove a Negative!

    It does not need to be, for the axiom in question to be untrue.
  2. Politesse

    Got the Memo Yet? You Can Indeed Prove a Negative!

    If so, there should be some tangible evidence for that as well.
  3. Politesse

    Got the Memo Yet? You Can Indeed Prove a Negative!

    If I prove that the butler killed my dinner guest, I have also proved that the gardener did not. Is this confusing to people?
  4. Politesse

    White people cannot be poor by definition?!

    If statistical trends do not hold true for individuals who belong to the set they describe, what meaning do they have?
  5. Politesse

    White people cannot be poor by definition?!

    Well that explains all the bagpipe buskers.
  6. Politesse

    White people cannot be poor by definition?!

    No, my statement was about probability, and is safe to assume in the absence of specific knowledge. If it is true that I am more likely to be mauled by a bear than killed by a terrorist, that remains true even if I happen to get offed by a terrorist later. It was an unlikely event, not an...
  7. Politesse

    Ce*sored! China bans letter N (briefly) from internet as Xi Jinping extends grip on power

    The thing I've found most interesting about this particular news story is the fact that I've been seeing it everywhere, whereas the connected and to me more pressing story about the most powerful man on the planet seizing a perpetual throne seems to be barely covered in the American media. Most...
  8. Politesse

    White people cannot be poor by definition?!

    On odds, if you're in the US, the above is going to be true. Do you know of any places where this is not so?
  9. Politesse

    White people cannot be poor by definition?!

    Of course not, and this person of yours is off his rocker. The whole point of the black/white dichotomy as invented in Virginia and enshrined in US law was to use skin color to distract from the real divisions of class and prevent the underclass from finding unity in rejection of their shared...
  10. Politesse

    How many fields do you dig?

    That sounds like a deeply questionable strategy, for an oil rig. I do see how, at a certain point, machinery rusts away and becomes part of the field, but that is true no matter where it happens to get left last, and it isn't pulling up much oil at that point. I would be rather skeptical if a...
  11. Politesse

    Darwinism or Theism (is there a political slant too)?

    The use of Lincoln here is interesting as he was not by any means untouched by the racist discourse of the day. He was anti-slavery because he thought it an immoral and unbiblical act, not because he thought the races were truly equal - in policy, he was repulsed by the thought of inter-racial...
  12. Politesse

    Islam

    If this thread demonstrates anything, it's that Islam represents a bit of a weak point in American commitment to religious liberalism. Every generation has one. Before Muslims it was Jews, and before them it was Catholics, and there was Mormonism in and out for a while... There's always someone...
  13. Politesse

    Government Sails Along More Smoothly Than Some Think

    As a government employee myself, I can only testify that insofar as my own segment of it is concerned (education) we have indeed been humming along about as well as we ever do. But that this is in large part because we are all stalwartly ignoring the mostly non-existent direction of the...
  14. Politesse

    How to get better sleep at night?

    Hmm, well, there are a lot of common solutions, but I assume you have already done some googling and know the basic library of ideas on this? The things that seem to help me the most are: An absolute ban on electronics/internet/etc the last hour or two before bedtime Chamomile and/or lavender...
  15. Politesse

    American Culture

    Well, yeah. But we did something different with it. That's how music works. Masters teach students. You learn how to do what others have done, and then you do something new. Sometimes you invent a new instrument, that adds something even more novel to the pattern (the autoharp or jug or electric...
  16. Politesse

    American Culture

    Did you even read my post? I acknowledged that American culture is influenced by that of others. The same is true of the music of Ireland, Scotland, "African Cultures", Italy, and Germany. Or are you imagining somehow that all four of those European nations independently invented the Western...
  17. Politesse

    American Culture

    Oh yeah? Who was doing jazz, rock, disco, funk, r & b, hip-hop, gospel, ragtime, pow-wow, tejano, or bluegrass music before Americans were? We have been influenced by all the people who have come here from other places, but it is characteristic of us to use those raw ingredients to do something...
  18. Politesse

    American Culture

    I think America came closest to having a unitary, well-defined culture shortly after the Civil War, when we were at our most expansionist and imperialistic and a rich mythic structure had developed around our founding and future destiny. Margaret Mead's "And Keep Your Powder Dry" is a nice...
  19. Politesse

    Is Christianity monotheistic, polytheistic or both?

    Interpreted by whom? Not someone who understands what an angel is in Christian cosmology.
  20. Politesse

    Is Christianity monotheistic, polytheistic or both?

    That is not the position of the Anglican church. You can read a useful summary of Anglican positions on the nature of salvation here.
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