Yet more keen links one might want to share

[xoxoxoBruce]

He addresses that.

[Happy Monkey]

Sort of; I guess they would be "independent"; but the relevant paragraph was about super-rational voting, by people who pick without regard to party. I read that as caring only about issues, and how the issues happened to lay out at the time (as in, right now I consider issue X is most important, I agree most with candidate Y on issue X, so I vote for Y). It doesn't quite line up with people who are apathetic about issues, but they probably would fall into the "independent" bucket anyway.

[Lamplighter]

Quite a few GOP voters have drunk the purple Koolade

http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-s...rn-us-cruz-was

[Undertoad]

The notion that every concept has to be on a left-right line, with everyone falling exactly one place on the line and all reasoning being a debate between one side or the other... is some serious bullshit once you stop and think about it

Our educational system, our media, our entire society wants to push every single goddamn thing under the sun into this continuum. Except that almost no actual issue works that way; and people's ideas don't even work this way. The only thing this represents now is a rough divide of some forms of schools of thought. Not even philosophies, just groups of people who use mob behavior and group-think to decide how they should describe the world and its problems, that's our continuum.

Should we use that to decide on anything in the world?

I fail to buy into the author's worship of this continuum, and as a result I just want to kick him squarely in the nuts. Yawn, another Vox article that "explains" how if you are very smart you will agree with the author.

[xoxoxoBruce]

The notion that every concept has to be on a left-right line, with everyone falling exactly one place on the line and all reasoning being a debate between one side or the other... is some serious bullshit once you stop and think about it.

That's what he said, but recently in Congress, it seems if one side say they support something, the other side automatically are against it, even stupid little shit. That makes it look like fer us or agin us. Any Congress critter who agrees with the "enemy" gets jumped on by their party leaders and challenged at the next primary.

Our educational system, our media, our entire society wants to push every single goddamn thing under the sun into this continuum.

That's true, they want to point out the differences aren't that great so there's no reason not to get along. Kumbaya.
However, isn't that what Congress is supposed to do? Hammer those differences into a workable plan... even if it takes fisticuffs on the floor?
In the past there has been a lot of horse trading in Washington, if you vote for my bill, I'll vote for yours. Even that seems to have disappeared in the current polarization. I get the feeling the populous isn't as polarized as the politicians, and are generally sick of it, except for maybe a pet peeve issue.

What I got out of it is all the polls and discussing voting blocs is bullshit, if it depends on taking their word for the size of any group and anyone's ability to predict the voting behavior of that group. Mostly because people who are assigned a group, really shouldn't be, and the ones who are don't agree on many issues. The only groups that are anywhere near reliable at the poles are the hard liners in each party, and they're pretty small. There's a whole lot of people who vote on single, or maybe two issues, with no thought to compromise. The Tea party and Trump have been very good at zeroing in on those hot buttons of the disgruntled. People who don't like this or that about the government but don't understand what's really going on, so they'll support anyone who claims to be able to fix it.

UT you have always shown a way above interest in the political system, and were in fact involved for awhile. Monkey has been close to the workings in DC by blood. You guys ain't normal.

[xoxoxoBruce]

"Business Booms and Depressions Since 1775: An Accurate Charting of the Past and Present Trend of Prices, National Income, Federal Debt, Business, Stock Averages and Commodities with a Special Study of Wages and Postwar Industry," Tension Envelope Corporation, 1943.

In 1943, as American businesses tried to guess whether wartime relief from the Depression would translate into postwar prosperity, the Tension Envelope Corporation printed this chart for customers. The infographic folded into a pamphlet and could be displayed on the wall when opened. (The online archive of the Federal Reserve, FRASER, has digitized a PDF of the pamphlet, which you can view here.)

I didn't bother with a link to the Fed PDF because it's too small to see shit. but further down the Slate article you can click on the chart to go to a zoomable version. Lot of history and a better picture of exactly what the "good old days" actually was like. So much information you can cherry pick support for any argument imaginable.

[Gravdigr]

Congrats PA & KY, we made the headline!

From Intercourse, Pa., to Monkey’s Eyebrow, Ky., how U.S. places got their names

At least we (KY) got mentioned in the article. Barely.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Intercourse is fuckin' simple, but Monkey's eyebrow is kinky.

[Happy Monkey]

I'd cut someone slack for responding to a shout out from this site.

[limey]

Thanks Bruce!


Sent by thought transference

[xoxoxoBruce]

I have been unsuccessful in finding a way to bring this video here.
www.facebook.com/prageru/videos/923232114386312/

Col. Ty Seidule, history professor at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, dispels any doubt the Civil War was about any thing but slavery. He shoots down States Rights, social differences, economic differences, and more.

[glatt]

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

I have been unsuccessful in finding a way to bring this video here.

Here's the video on Youtube. Their Youtube channel has many videos examining various issues.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Excellent. I saw it embedded in a messy website which wouldn't give me the location. later I found the facebook location which was much cleaner to link. How did you locate it on youtube?

[Gravdigr]

I bet he went to YouTube and searched "Was the Civil War about slavery?".

Worked for me.

[Undertoad]

That was a good piece