Exactly. The mantra of Blame Bush is so old and tired. Yeah, I blame Bush for what he did, and I blame Obama for making the crap Bush did the new normal, which is actually worse. GWB was seen as on the radical side of exercising presidential powers -- Obama's making that the new baseline makes reform much less likely and so Obama's presidency is ultimately even a worse disservice than GWB's was. Unless of course you want to live in a US where most all power, eventually all, lies in the Executive branch.

I wouldn't be so sure that IP will evaporate -- the US Fed. government is still economically powerful, but having decided to allow offshoring of most work, there isn't much left for America aside from focusing on a patent-troll/RIAA-ish economy. I'm guessing it will use its economic and military power (both the local military called police, and the foreign military branches) to push IP rights along for decades to come, because that is what the people who finance elections want.

Anytime I have to build a presentation in PowerPoint, I generally have comprehensive notes (with additional case studies and metrics) in the notes section. I generally take a printed copy with the additional notes to the presentation so I have a reference copy and I use the slides as topic agendas, maybe a chart or two for reference.

Making the tools illegal doesn't mean people who plan on doing illegal things won't have them.

I think there is a better than even chance that the lawmakers understand this perfectly well, but that the real purpose of the law is to harass people who hold and publish views the government doesn't like by putting together a persecution [intended typo] with a 100 year sentence based on extreme applications of criminal laws. Their hope is that the target either plea bargains to something less that will still remove that person from the general population, or better yet from the Fed's perspective, prompts that person to just kill him/herself out of hopelessness.

We always hear about how the US does a ton of good around the world -- what do you have for valid citations for the good the US does that others don't?

So for example, shifting rubble in Nepal wouldn't count because lots of other nations have such helpers. Aid in the form of arms to $randomWarlord doesn't count because that's just a symptom of the military-industrial complex. I want to hear about what the US government does around the world that nobody else does, that is objectively a "good", and an estimation of the value of that service, because let's be honest, spending a billion (or whatever -- number totally made up) on droning random people per year is not balanced by spending a million on digging wells in the Sahara.

Awesome post.

Maybe, but there is also a bias in favor of women during sentencing.

If you're a criminal defendant, it may helpâ"a lotâ"to be a woman. At least, that's what Prof. Sonja Starr's research on federal criminal cases suggests. Prof. Starr's recent paper, "Estimating Gender Disparities in Federal Criminal Cases," looks closely at a large dataset of federal cases, and reveals some significant findings. After controlling for the arrest offense, criminal history, and other prior characteristics, "men receive 63% longer sentences on average than women do," and "[w]omen areâ¦twice as likely to avoid incarceration if convicted." This gender gap is about six times as large as the racial disparity that Prof. Starr found in another recent paper.

https://www.law.umich.edu/news...

Rape prevention is a really difficult topic - most advice revolves around telling women what they can't do; don't dress provocatively in case you inflame someone's desire, don't engage in eye contact or conversation with strangers, don't walk alone after dark, basically don't live as an independent human being in case someone who doesn't respect the rule of society decides that against your wishes they are going to assault you.

The closest analog is telling a guy not to carry his wallet around with him, having money on his person was just asking for it when it comes to being mugged.

There are certainly actions you can take to minimise the risk of being targeted by a sociopath - plan on traveling in well lit areas, travel with friends, etc.. Of course this ignores the fact that for women most assaults are by people they know in familiar environments; stranger rape is the exception not the rule. But either way - victim blaming an assault victim, whether it be rape or a mugging, is blaming someone for the anti-social behaviours of someone else.

The 'victim-blaming' of the guys up thread is telling these guys to change their own anti-social behaviour. Sitting behind a computer screen screaming vitriol at people over XBOX live or posting hate on /r/redpill is not going to get you a date let alone laid (if that's your total end goal). Getting out into the world and treating other people with some level of respect might.

It will be long fucking time till the US runs out of workers and demand for labor boosts wages -- there's what, 7 or 8 billion people in the world to import at the behest of big business.

My mistake - I was taught that all mules were female. Obviously I was taught wrong.

FTFY

From the studies I've seen, most men are financially as well off within 2 years of divorce as they were before, whereas most women at significantly behind where they were for a decade or more after divorce - and that's after getting the house and the kids.

Most 'stay-at-home-moms' have no retirement savings, they aren't qualified for well paying jobs, they still have the upkeep on the house and kids to cover, the support payments men complain about so often generally don't cover 100% of those costs (I'm not saying it should).

People don't get divorced for the fun of it and it is extremely rarely for financial gain. Sure, we see the odd story of some super wealthy guy who marries a gold digger who takes him for millions - but that's not the norm.

That's like people who think teenagers get pregnant for the increase in benefit payments - the costs generally exceed any increase in welfare payment - it's not a profit making option.

Marriage should be like a tattoo - don't get one unless you plan to keep it forever. But if you really need to, there should be an option for getting rid of it. It's better than going through the rest of your days miserable.

Somewhat ironic given mules are all female.

Sure, men were conscripted to fight in the army, they died, it sucked.

It's a bit of a myth that women stayed at home and lived a life of luxury while this was going on.

Women worked in the fields next to their men folk, they looked after the house and the children. During times of war they were taken as trophies.

History hasn't been kind to either gender - but traditionally women were seen as little other than breeding stock to be traded. It's only recently that being self-sufficient and having a choice in the matter has been an option for any percentage of the female population at large.

There are women everywhere - have you tried looking down the back of the sofa? Maybe if 'finding a woman' is important to them they should work on developing traits/behaviours that are attractive to women. If it's not as important as perfecting the headshot in COD - well, we know what they are more likely to achieve.

As opposed to all the abuse heaped on women who acknowledge that they might have sexual desires of their own. Slut-shaming sexually active women is probably not the fastest way into their pants.

Stop treating women (or men) as the enemy. Relationships are largely about common ground, that goes for friends or lovers. If the only people you have anything in common with is a bunch of misogynistic haters who treat 50% of the population with disdain it's going to be difficult to form a meaningful bond with people that don't share your worldview.

"Blaming the victim" is telling a rape victim they shouldn't have been wearing a mini-skirt - they were asking for it. Telling guys to get out from behind the computer screen and talk to women as if they were people isn't victim blaming. It's telling them to take responsibility for their choices in how they interact with the world at large.

PUAs aren't helping - they aren't trying to teach guys how to form a relationship, they are teaching guys to treat women as disposable conquests. You're not going to find a life partner that way. To spend 40+ years with someone, you'd want to actually like them.

WTF? What do you even mean by this - do you think they need someone to get them dressed in the morning or tell them to eat?

Most women I know (that is, members of the female gender over 18) are generally more capable of looking after themselves than most guys of a similar age.

If you're saying girls because you're looking for children - then of course they're less capable of looking after themselves.

Unless by 'look after themselves' you mean you don't find them physically attractive and think you deserve a 8/10 or better. At which point you probably need to go take a good hard look at yourself.

Like most hobbies, there is a continuum of people of a variety of levels of attractiveness, social ability or intelligence. Most people will be average - because that's pretty much what it means. It's probable that you also fall into the category of average too - so stop expecting the world to throw exceptional at your feet - it ain't going to happen.