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If money were speech

by Verified Atheist 2/6/2012 - 12:05 pm

I was thinking some about the equivalence that has been made in the Supreme Court between money and speech. What if money actually were speech? What would that mean?

• Trying to bribe a police officer would be the same as trying to talk him/her out of a ticket.
• Taxation would be taking away our speech.
• A bonus from your employer would be the same as them giving you a good talking to.
• Prostitution would be the same as talking someone into sleeping with you.
• Convincing someone to vote for a particular candidate would be the same as buying their vote.

Please, contribute your own!

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Tom Udall for Vice President?

by Verified Atheist 12/28/2011 - 10:18 am

OK, to start with, this is meant partly tongue-in-cheek. But… only partly.

As you may recall, in 2008 there was some name calling within the Democratic party as to whether you were a racist (if you were a Clinton supporter) or you were a sexist (if you were an Obama supporter). Obviously, I'm hand-waving quite egregiously, but I trust that everyone remembers what I'm referring to, even if I am being a bit glib about it. [Read more]

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Desperation Recipes

by Verified Atheist 12/16/2011 - 2:59 pm

Sometimes, good, novel recipes are borne out of desperation. I had that happen to me recently when I found myself with only one egg and needed to make a two egg omelet. In lieu of the other egg, I substituted Greek yogurt (which I had on hand).

The recipe is as follows: [Read more]

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2011 Elections, part deux

by Verified Atheist 11/7/2011 - 10:08 am

I don't really have much to add to my previous post on the 2011 elections TOMORROW, but since it is TOMORROW, I wanted to throw this back up on the front burner to help remind people that they need to vote TOMORROW.

My question for today is, will you vote tomorrow, and if not, why not?

I'm attempting to add this as a poll:

 [Read more]

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2011 Elections

by Verified Atheist 11/3/2011 - 8:54 am

Next Tuesday is the second Tuesday in November, and so for many of us (most of us?) this means that there are local and/or state elections to think about. These are the types of elections that those supporting the various Occupy movements should approve of: typically little money is invested in campaigning and politicians who are frequently known by their supporters or at least only one or two degrees separated. Furthermore, those people who get elected to national offices (which is what the media usually focuses on, and unfortunately what many of us, including me, focus on) usually occupied state offices previously, and those people who get elected to state offices usually occupied local offices previously. [Read more]

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Outrage and Inner Peace

by Verified Atheist 10/16/2011 - 4:17 pm

A friend of mine once said to me:

There's a fine line between contentment and complacency.

Now, my friend's point was meant as an argument against being complacent, but I happen to think it cuts both ways. It's been decades since I was a teenager, and over that time I've worked more and more on establishing inner peace, and as a result I am a more peaceful man.

Am I too peaceful? Maybe so.

Don't take this small piece as a lecture to be more peaceful, but rather as a question (or set of questions) from someone who understands the value of well-placed outrage.

Can inner peace and outrage co-exist? [Read more]

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Space hotels

by Verified Atheist 10/1/2011 - 12:31 pm

As some of you know, I love science, and I care about the environment. Sometimes, these two interests are in conflict, as in the case of space hotels. Alas, my romantic side wants the space hotels to win, and any time my environmental, logical side speaks up about how much fuel will be required for such ventures, my romantic side punches him in the face and steals his lunch money. [Read more]

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Parties and salamanders

by Verified Atheist 9/21/2011 - 2:02 pm

I've recently stumbled onto the YouTube site of an unsung genius. He also has a web-site with much of the same content, only with text added.

There's a lot of great content there, but to get you started, I want to highlight these three bits:

First Past the Post

The Alternative Vote

Gerrymandering [Read more]

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A Tale of Two Crazies

by Verified Atheist 8/8/2011 - 6:12 pm

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"Nearly half of Americans don't pay taxes?" - Why that should make us mad!

by Verified Atheist 7/30/2011 - 3:48 pm

No doubt many of us have heard by now that nearly half of all Americans pay no taxes. Now, of course, an easy response to that is to correct that statement by pointing out that all Americans pay taxes, but that still leaves the statement that nearly half of all Americans pay no federal income taxes as being true.

It is true, and it should make us madder than it makes the conservatives. [Read more]

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