dagblog - Comments for "What's the Matter With Mormons?"

I think this comment

kyle flynn — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 18:42:19 +0000

~~I think this comment illustrates religious bigotry perfectly.~~

I know exactly what you mean, Hal. I feel the same way about Jews. I'd flee the country long before I'd cast a vote for one of them, too.

By the way, I didn't invent

PeraclesPlease — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 17:13:45 +0000

In reply to If candidate A identifies

By the way, I didn't invent the "Moral Majority" or "Religious Right", and it's absurd that I would be expected to ignore the mix of religion and politics that these jerks have fomented.

50% of white evangelicals think the Tea Party shares their values. I would guess that considerably fewer American Jews or Muslims believe that. As they say, you're known by the company you keep.

Of course if 40% of white evangelicals reject the Tea Party, and it's likely you can figure out their bent within about 5 minutes, considering the way people rant. So I consider that useful.

If candidate A identifies

PeraclesPlease — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 16:49:07 +0000

In reply to Your PredictablePatterns are

If candidate A identifies with Focus on the Family or the Christian Heritage Foundation, we're in a heap of trouble - reject unless they have a real good reason for following these orgs and why they won't affect his or her policy.

If candidate B intersects with A, or is a dogmatic anti-abortion / anti-contraception Catholic, we're going to have trouble with Planned Parenthood.

Your PredictablePatterns are

Verified Atheist — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 16:18:12 +0000

In reply to Right, I've seen a lot of

Your PredictablePatterns are tiring. If someone has laid the flaws in your argument bare, you pretend they said something they didn't say, or that things are black and white — either only one group does it, or everyone does it, since I'm suggesting that it's not true that only one group does it, you're suggesting that I think that everyone does it. Nowhere did I ever suggest that "everyone does it", in fact, I suggested quite the opposite, that there's no denomination where "everyone does it", so to use someone's denomination as a low-information proxy is just that — using a low-information proxy.

Let me lay some logic on you, which I know you're capable of understanding (I know you're smart, but that you only pretend not to get things):

Question: If having property A does not imply having property B, and having property B does not imply property A (and I think you've conceded both of those where A is any particular religion and B is, for example, a stance on women's reproductive rights), but there's a positive correlation between having property A and having property B, then, if you know that property B exists or does not exist then what informational value is there in property A as it pertains to knowing whether property B exists or does not exist?

Answer: 0 - since you already know that property B exists or does not exist.

So, then for property A to have any informational value, we must not know if property B exists. Thus, we're using property A as an imperfect (i.e., low-information) proxy for property B. Is that what you're advocating, or are you going to make some brand new bullshit up now?

To be fair, GE's famed

PeraclesPlease — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 09:26:54 +0000

In reply to Government bailout of

To be fair, GE's famed super-CEO Jack Welch created much of his success on underfunding GE's pension, not improving their performance. But few aside from MBA students recall this.

Government bailout of

PeraclesPlease — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 09:24:05 +0000

In reply to Peracles, I can cop to being

Government bailout of Bain:

"Romney's Skeletons: His Bain Capital Received Millions in Bailouts"

Search for Reuters about looting a Kansas City steel mill's pension fund and dumping it on the government:

"Romney, Bain and the $44 million bailout" (pdf)

With Kevin Drum's thoughts at:

Mitt Romney, Vulture Capitalism, and GS Technologies

(sorry, can't link URLs without moderation at this point)

Everyone has a "particular

PeraclesPlease — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 09:12:55 +0000

In reply to Unlike someone who wears a

Everyone has a "particular view of gender relations". Some like open marriages, some like threesomes, some like faithfulness, some like no sex except for procreation. Some see it as a team with different tasks, some see it as 2 bread winners sharing all other tasks, some just wing it. As long as they end up in a compatible relationship, who cares? For a candidate, as long as they're not pushing their preferred method on everyone else, who cares? Some women think wearing a burqa is fine - if a man wants that kind of woman for his mate, God speed. Same with a traditional marriage role guy - doesn't threaten me unless he tries to codify it in law.

Some see home schooling as a way to get a better education, some see it as a way to instill religious values at the same time - but some see it as a wedge to destroy public schooling. I don't care about any of the reasons until it affects the last - how we educate our general populace. If a religious home schooling candidate comes up, I want to make that point clear.

Hesitant? Try "unwilling

kyle flynn — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 07:17:02 +0000

In reply to Thanks, Hal. Personally, I

Hesitant? Try "unwilling to," and work your way up from there.

Thanks, Hal. Personally, I

Michael Wolraich — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 06:48:51 +0000

In reply to I really liked this piece

Thanks, Hal. Personally, I would prefer an atheist, but I'm hesitant to use anyone's religion against them without a strong rationale.

I really liked this piece

HSG — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 05:08:00 +0000

In reply to What's the Matter With Mormons?

I really liked this piece Genghis. Ultimately, I disagree with the conclusion. I do think Romney's strange religion is relevant when deciding whether to support him. I just think it's less relevant than just about everything else. So, if I had to vote for either Romney or a non-Mormon Romney clone, i.e., one whose preferred policies were identical to Romney's but who was neither a Mormon nor a member of an equally ridiculous religion quasi-cult, I'd vote for the clone. Of course, that's assuming the alternative to voting was a slow painful death. Otherwise, I'd flee the country.