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[RedKing]

https://arstechnica.com/science/2017/12/after-firestorm-cdc-director-says-terms-like-science-based-are-not-banned/

Oh, look. Once again the left overreacts to something. Boy Who Cried Wolf much?

So basically they're saying either don't use these words or we'll cut your budget, which is essentially the same thing as a ban. Not sure there's much overreaction going on here.

No, it's more like "Here's the proper etiquette to use around politicians." You're asking them for money, you'll probably get it either way as long as you're not a complete asshole, but things will go much smoother if you just say "please and thank you".

It's less etiquette and more "Senator Snowflake gets triggered by words like 'vulnerable' and 'fetus'".

And sorry, but using ACA is absolutely the proper route in a government document. Alphabet soup is a problem, but you don't use popular slang for something when that document is a very specific request for budget authorization.

[smjjames]

I guess RedKing has a point there, since popular slang can be imprecise and might vary some from person to person. The whole thing does smack of the 'snowflakeness' that conservatives like to stereotype liberals as being.

Anyways, the finalized tax 'reform' passed the House (with 12 Republicans joining the Dems in the 'no' vote), the Senate is supposed to do it either later today or tomorrow.

[RedKing]

I keep hoping those UFO rumors are true, and they're just waiting to renact the scene in Independence Day where they blast the White House and Capitol to ashes. At least the Harvesters were egalitarian in they killed everybody equally.

[smjjames]

Eh, if aliens wanted to invade, they'd have done it already.

[sluissa]

Eh, if aliens wanted to invade, they'd have done it already.

Space is big, could easily have taken 60+ years for a message for reinforcements to travel there and for them to get here. Might not be a bad idea to expect them any day now.

[Frumple]

Aliens are much like the apocalypse, really. Always next year, and I don't what you're saying I wasn't wrong I just got the date wrong.

[smjjames]

Maybe those fighter pilots who were seeing those really oughta try shooting them down, just to see if it works.

Anyways, what was the period of time between Kansas trying a similar thing and their economy tanking? I also wonder how prevalent or debunked the whole trickle-down theory thing is in Europe and elsewhere. Don't know of a case where the trickle-down stuff worked.

[andrea]

hey, trickle down works. Just, it does exactly what the name says, whoever is down gets only a trickle.
It is not called river down or flood down or anything like that.

[RedKing]

Maybe those fighter pilots who were seeing those really oughta try shooting them down, just to see if it works.

Humanity at its most basic: Hey, look at that weird thing! Let's try to kill it! 

Anyways, what was the period of time between Kansas trying a similar thing and their economy tanking? I also wonder how prevalent or debunked the whole trickle-down theory thing is in Europe and elsewhere. Don't know of a case where the trickle-down stuff worked.

Roughly four years in the case of Kansas. The big tax overhaul passed in 2012, and by 2016 there's all sorts of articles about how Kansas was hemorrhaging money. But hey, Koch Industries got a nice windfall.

Mind you, the Republican Party has been infatuated with trickle-down economics since at least the late 1800s. Despite numerous analyses and case studies over the last 100+ years indicating that it doesn't drive economic growth and certainly doesn't drive growth for the working class.

[Frumple]

Maybe those fighter pilots who were seeing those really oughta try shooting them down, just to see if it works.

Humanity at its most basic: Hey, look at that weird thing! Let's try to kill it! 

Look man, sometimes the only stick you have on hand is air to air missiles and/or more traditional heaps of flying metal. I'm pretty sure accelerating a stick fast enough to hit one of the things wouldn't make a substantial difference in regards to provocation.

... that said, the thought of military jets getting installed with lumber launchers for purposes of poking UFOs with a mostly literal stick is fairly amusing. Bonus points it'd probably be decently effective for ground support operations. If furry midgets can manage to take out AT-STs with logs on ropes surely launching them from a mach whatever jet at a building would do just fine, right? There's nothing wrong with that logic whatsoever.

[sluissa]

Maybe those fighter pilots who were seeing those really oughta try shooting them down, just to see if it works.

Humanity at its most basic: Hey, look at that weird thing! Let's try to kill it! 

Look man, sometimes the only stick you have on hand is air to air missiles and/or more traditional heaps of flying metal. I'm pretty sure accelerating a stick fast enough to hit one of the things wouldn't make a substantial difference in regards to provocation.

... that said, the thought of military jets getting installed with lumber launchers for purposes of poking UFOs with a mostly literal stick is fairly amusing. Bonus points it'd probably be decently effective for ground support operations. If furry midgets can manage to take out AT-STs with logs on ropes surely launching them from a mach whatever jet at a building would do just fine, right? There's nothing wrong with that logic whatsoever.

Slightly off topic... but something just clicked in my mind. Those Ewok's traps must have taken days... weeks to set up even. And they were set up in the area RIGHT around the entrance to the base under the Scout Trooper's noses, tailored specifically to defeat the forces that were there and brutal in their efficiency.

Combine that with the fact that when the Rebel party were originally caught and before C3P-O did his god impression, they were about to cook and eat Han, Luke and Chewie...

Those Ewoks were god damned monsters, stealthy, violent, effective, and strategic geniuses to work with what they had. It can only be assumed that had the Rebels not shown up, the Empire's forces on the moon there would have been attacked anyway in the coming days and been killed, cooked and eaten.

...I never even considered it in that light... and makes me feel completely different about the minimal casualties they took in the battle.

In other news:

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2017/12/there-will-be-a-senate-vote-to-reinstate-net-neutrality-schumer-says/

This honestly scares me more. Republicans are apparently preparing their own bill to replace NN with something weaker, while Schumer just wants to go back to status quo. As much as I hated the FCC vote, enshrining it into law is so much more permanent. Even just rolling back to pre-Pai doesn't necessarily protect much.

[bloop_bleep]

Eh, if aliens wanted to invade, they'd have done it already.

Perhaps they came to invade, looked around, felt sorry for us, and left.

[EnigmaticHat]

Good on the democrats.  In one action they establish their own stance and apply pressure to Republican congressmen to break with their party.  Or at the very least if the democrats force a vote the Republicans will be forced to tie down their opinions on an unpopular issue.

Not that I would expect them to *win* but you know.  What you can accomplish as the opposition party in the US is limited.

Re: Alien invasion, not living on planet Earth breaks MAD, so they could just nuke us.  Or in greater likeliness, H-bomb us.  Although I suppose you could look at it the other way, which is not living on Earth would making nuking us vastly more expensive than nuking themselves. Presumably even alien intelligences are still beholden to economics.  And if we assume no FTL travel, it would take years for our light to reach them, and then years * their travel speed / light speed for their weapons to reach us.  So for all they know we would already be extinct or capable of retaliation by the time their WMDs arrived.

[redwallzyl]

Good on the democrats.  In one action they establish their own stance and apply pressure to Republican congressmen to break with their party.  Or at the very least if the democrats force a vote the Republicans will be forced to tie down their opinions on an unpopular issue.

Not that I would expect them to *win* but you know.  What you can accomplish as the opposition party in the US is limited.

Re: Alien invasion, not living on planet Earth breaks MAD, so they could just nuke us.  Or in greater likeliness, H-bomb us.  Although I suppose you could look at it the other way, which is not living on Earth would making nuking us vastly more expensive than nuking themselves. Presumably even alien intelligences are still beholden to economics.  And if we assume no FTL travel, it would take years for our light to reach them, and then years * their travel speed / light speed for their weapons to reach us.  So for all they know we would already be extinct or capable of retaliation by the time their WMDs arrived.

Why build stuff when you should just throw a large asteroid.

[smjjames]

@sluissa: Since pre-pai was as good as it could get, it makes some sense to lock it in place and try to improve from there.