patdennis

1) If you put all of your money in exactly 17 years ago, then, yes. You would be at the same place.

2) It still would've been paying you dividends that entire time

3) If you, rather than investing an imaginary lump sum at the top of the market 17 years ago, invested slowly as your savings accumulated over time, you would be ahead.

The FTSE hasn't exactly been sitting still all those 17 years.

>most politicians have private meetings where they talk about what they actually think is going on, and then translate it into brain-deadening messaging for the public

Yes, sort of, but the reality of these things are so well understood all politicians that there's not often that much of a reason to discuss these things outright.

When a politician (and by "politician," I do not mean a single person. I mean an amalgam of the politician, their staffers, and their advisers) are weighing an issue, the actual merits of the arguments are just a part of the equation. They're weighing the interests of various groups and constituencies, they're considering coalitions and alliances and favors, and making a pragmatic decision. Usually a mix of their conscience, their constituents, their fundraisers, and their party.

Rand is a bit of an outlier on this front because he is a legitimate True Believer, but he's still a pragmatic true believer.

Then they hire someone like me to turn it into the soul deadening messaging.

But, yes, these people understand both sides of the issue. They are usually very smart. And if they don't understand the other side of the issue, their close advisers do.

This has been national news all day. It's been the top news story in Ohio all day. National news has moved on.

It's an interesting philosophical question, but intent is something that judges are much better at deciding than computer programs. And laws are generally written to be executed by judges (or, by extension, the threat of litigation).

Fun to think about, though. Especially if you start thinking about writing alternate endings, etc.

That's where the Kiss Trust's attorney is located, according to the posted letter.

I always base my opinions on complicated policies and legal proceedings based on one second hand anecdote about "this guy I know"

I use duck duck go as my default in my search bar, but I rarely actually use it to search the web directly. Instead, I use the !bang features to get where I need to go faster without taking my hands off the keyboard. Some examples:

ctrl-t !w cyclocross

ctrl-t !g site:ohio.gov filetype:pdf economic development

ctrl-t !image sad reaction gif

You're suggesting there are groups where I don't support targeting such a culture?

Edit: Yes, I support targeting a culture of violence, period. Areas of disproportionate violence, like vulnerable minorities, need disproportionate targeting.

Edit2: You admit that there's been a cultural change away from gay bashing. Doesn't that indicate that cultural change can and does work in preventing sanctioned violence against vulnerable minorities?

Edit3, in response to below: I'm on Hacker News for fun. Do you really think it never occurred to me that nerds get beat up?

Of course violence has to be targeted and stopped, regardless of the reason.

But cultural change is important. Lynchings were bad because of the violence, but just as bad was the culture that lead to such violence being sanctioned. Gay bashing is horrible, but the culture that sanctions it is also horrible. Same with trans bashing, but there has been less progress at targeting that culture. Include nerds in the targeted groups, there.

Sure, maybe you don't agree that targeting the culture that sanctions violence is important, but a lot of people disagree with you there, including me.

> Stop treating everything like its holy ground, and learn to laugh at a joke, whether or not it targets your minority or majority class.

The main reason people get upset about transphobic jokes isn't that they don't have a sense of humor. It's because trans people are disproportionately targeted by violence because of their orientation. People get beat up, people get killed.

This is pretty serious, and a lot of people think part of the problem is a cultural sense that demeaning trans people is ok. You can call them "it", or a "thing".

These people aren't going to be mad if you make a joke around your trans friends. But they see it as a problem when a whole generation of 12-13 year olds are being culturally conditioned to treat trans people as lesser, as an other, etc.

Not to mention the effect this culture has on young trans kids. They already have a much much higher risk of suicide than the average person. Change has to start somewhere.