zapatos

And thus your solution is imprison them whether they commit a crime or not?!?! It is your proposal that deserves the moniker "insane". As am I. This is quite unbelievable outside of certain far-right rallies.

The reason I mentioned my brother was to rebut your misunderstanding of what addicts are like. They are not all like the characters in Trainspotting. I don't believe your original proposal made 'committing a crime' part of the rules for who got rounded up. Did that change?

My brother is an alcoholic. He is also a health physicist and we often trade tips on gardening.

What about the addicts who sleep in shelters? Are they homeless? What if they stay with a friend. It's not their home after all. There are a lot of very functional addicts, including alcoholics. If they are out doing good all day but then get drunk before they fall asleep in the shelter they built out in the woods, are they to be rounded up? Some people choose to be homeless, traveling around the country, getting odd jobs to pay their way. Now we are rounding up people due to lifestyle choices. And what about those old people who sell their homes and sleep in campers all the time? If they are an alcoholic, are we going to round them up?

Life experience and just common sense.

Yes, I was there when you did.

So the bottom line is that you want to make homelessness and drug addiction a crime (no trial necessary), punishable by imprisonment for an unspecified duration of time. I'm going to have to vote "NO" on your proposal.

Wrong again. If you can expand the definition of things to suggest they lead to pain or pleasure, then I can expand the definition of things to suggest they lead to breathing.

I didn't say you did.

If we are going to use terms that broadly, then I guess everything I do is for breathing. I sit in class so that I can get a job so I can drive to work so that I can shop for food so that I can cook so that I can eat so that I can continue to breathe. etc.

Driving to work. Paying bills. Sleeping. Cooking. Shopping. Vacuuming. Sitting in class. Reading the news. Going to church. Changing diapers. Cutting the grass. How many would you like me to list?

What are you basing this belief on?

So what is the actual number?

https://www.csis.org/analysis/it-risk-america-china-holds-over-1-trillion-us-debt I'm hoping next time I ask you for a citation you'll be so good as to provide one.

I don't think America will go bust if China quits buying 6% of America's debt. It will be sold elsewhere. Agreed. It is an area that I think Biden has excelled at. Some things really do require years of experience in politics, rather than being an outsider with no political experience.

I think your bias against America is clouding your judgement. The US is looking at the total picture; weapons, economics, politics, the past, the future, influencing, cajoling, threatening, enemies, allies, quid pro quo, etc. Russia on the other hand is looking at the total picture; weapons, economics, politics, the past, the future, influencing, cajoling, threatening, enemies, allies, quid pro quo, etc.. The US is trying to minimize risk and maximize success. Russia is doing the same. The US (or Russia or China) would not be a very sophisticated country if they didn't take every action they could to try and tilt things in their favor. It is not arrogance. It is a smart move. Russia would like nothing more than for the US to sit idly by as weapons from China or anywhere else flowed into Russia.

Hmm. How do I respond to that without getting suspended...

Disagree. There were dozens of proxy wars during the Cold War and this feels similar. We did not get into WWIII after Vietnam (the Americans' turn), Afghanistan (the Soviets' turn), nor any of the other dozens of proxy wars.

I'll have what she's having.

I believe that much of what we have a distaste for is simply a vestige of our past. Some people won't eat peas because they remember them being gross when they were a kid. I about gag when I think about Wild Turkey because it gave me a two day hangover after my 21st birthday. Some people don't like thinking about gay sex because of how it was talked about when they were young. Unless you are outwardly displaying these distastes and causing issues for others I see no reason to be obliged to make an effort to reverse those distastes. They are like a singe mark on a piece of furniture from a long ago fire. I could certainly make the effort to erase it completely, but it doesn't mean much to me and I have other things occupying my time. I'm more concerned about people's actions than their thoughts. I don't deny that everyone making an effort to eliminate such thoughts would have an overall positive impact on society due to the fact that some will otherwise let their feelings show through. Similarly we should probably all limit salt intake due to the fact that some of us will otherwise develop high blood pressure because of it. But it seems to me to be a relatively small issue and a small risk. After all, those who are truly bigots wouldn't try anyway.

What does it mean when my feeling of distaste applies to fashion? Maybe. But does it really matter if I keep it to myself? And if it doesn't apply to my feelings or actions regarding equal rights, etc.? We seem to be straying into 'thought police' discussions.

Well, they might continue to find it distasteful only because they were conditioned to react negatively. Just because I find something distasteful does not mean I am making a judgement call. Perhaps I never bothered to "reason it out".

Maybe I'm misreading this, but I don't think anyone here is "denigrating" or "criticizing".

Yeah, we've never seen anything like that before... 🙄

I just looked at Walmart and another store, and found the prices for 90%, 99% and 100% are approximately the same.