You're referring to Duverger's law.

I haven't yet found a "proportional" system that I feel actually represents the voters. Which would you recommend, and why?

And I agree, we really need to ditch first-past-the-post. ALMOST ANYTHING else would be better.

Wiki? That's your source?

The California Attorney General? You mean the California that I live in, and is run by the left? Yeah, that sounds like a trustworthy source in this context. Totally believable.

Now I'm not accusing the AG of covering for a political activist group against a politically motivated investigation. But I cannot believe that he didn't receive pressure from political allies to bury this. Thus, he cannot be a credible source, on his own.

Yes, I just said that a politician can't be credible on a political matter. Big shock. And I'm not bashing Democrats. I'd say the same if it were the Republicans and one of their backers.

This doesn't protect you from being rear-ended yourself because you had to stop short for a red light and somebody is tailgating you.

You bring up an interesting point. I recently had a similar concern, but came to a different conclusion. If someone is tailgating me, it means I need to leave plenty of space in front of me, not only so I can slow down and stop, but so that the tailgater can slow down and stop. I also try to gauge the warning time for potential hazards. Thus, I actually drive slower when I'm being tailgated. In some situations, much slower.

Does that make me a jerk? I don't think so, but I can see why someone might think that. I'm not doing it to teach them a lesson. That's just a potential side benefit. I'm just doing the rational thing to adjust to someone else's dangerous behavior so they don't wind up injuring me.

(If anyone prints a bumper sticker "I drive slower for tailgaters", I'd actually consider buying one.)

If I recall correctly, rush hour traffic in LA gives a 2 second following distance of less than an inch. I'd be surprised if San Diego is significantly better.

(tongue only slightly in cheek)

???

Are you talking about the summary that quotes the relevant bits of the article?

You're two days behind what node_3 responded with. At least he had a valid point. How did you miss his post?

My post was a side comment on a related topic, specifically tied to depression. I don't know enough about schizophrenia (for example) to refute the general case. It is not true for depression. You shouldn't reach straight for the meds before you know what you're dealing with, or have at least ruled everything known as reasonably unlikely.

There is a reason for it, even if we don't know what it is. The cause can vary wildly from case to case, but there is one. And I'm not arguing against SSRIs, SNRIs, TCAs, and MAOIs in each and every case. There are many, many patients that we (society) cannot otherwise help. They should simply NOT be the first thing the doctor thinks of.

There are so many "depression" patients with undiagnosed, treatable illness that it is simply not funny. They're living with less depression than they would if they weren't pilled up, but it won't go away until they're actually treated for what is actually wrong with them.

Makes sense.

Either that, or on a psychedelic trip (etc).

Drug addiction and alcoholism can not happen unless the person is mentally ill.

You've said a lot of interesting things... But I have no idea where you got this. Drug addiction can be viewed as a mental illness (if you squint just right), and the mentally ill may be more susceptible than most (unsubstantiated conjecture), but addiction can and does exist independent of any other condition. Most of the time, it is independent of any other mental condition.

As has been put much more eloquently by others, the space race wasn't about climbing a mountain because it's there. It was about trying to prevent world war 3 (or at least postpone it significantly). As expensive as it was, it was better than all out nuclear war.

It was akin to challenging one's rival to a foot race instead of a boxing match. It was one of the most mature things national governments have ever done. (room remains for improvement)

I disagree.

America may have forgotten about the drive to build, explore, settle, create, but humanity hasn't. Space isn't sour grapes. It's hard, and settling it is going to be a lot harder. But it will happen.

I've met people like that.

I've also met people who have gone out of their way to hide their disorder, out of a rational fear of being judged for it.

Today's treatments, as frequently used, are as worthless and misguided as those exorcisms.

I'd rather have no loaf, than have no loaf and pay for it. These drugs have side effects, some of them very bad, and some of them permanent. (and doctors generally won't tell you about them in advance)

True, honest diagnosis first.THEN treatment.

What would be better is to avoid diagnosis labels (or use only more specific labels) until we can understand and test for the neurological conditions that lead to the symptoms of mental illness. We could differentiate "depression due to low $HORMONE" from "depression due to physically-damaged $STRUCTURE", and "low levels of $CHEMICAL" from "high levels of $OPPOSITE_CHEMICAL". From there, drug treatment can be centered on solving specific problems, rather than just brutally shoving the mind in a particular direction. Once the underlying neurology is a bit closer to "fixed", therapy can be more effective at helping the patient cope with their chronic condition.

This isn't academic, when-the-sun-burns-out stuff here. Hormonal, structural, neuro-transmitter (chemical), and opposing neurotransmitter problems can often be diagnosed today. They just frequently aren't because doctors are either too busy, lazy, or ignorant. It is very reasonable to believe we'll have even more of these things that we'll be able to test for in the near future.

That was actually a very good computer analogy. Top notch researchers are almost at the oscilloscope level. They don't really know what's going on in there, but they've found ways to get glimpses. The average doctor treating (for example) depression? Just randomly connecting wires. That doesn't work? Let's put some voltage behind them.