JUburton wrote:So Kim Jong Un really gives no #$!&@, huh

Luzinski's Gut wrote:I think he just guaranteed North Korea will never be attacked.

JUburton wrote:So Kim Jong Un really gives no #$!&@, huh

Monkeyboy wrote:

Werthless wrote:

jerseyhoya wrote:

Monkeyboy wrote:he sounds like a republican

just kidding... there are scumbags in both parties, though most things like this seem to be republican.

Selective memory

I would say it's more confirmation bias. Even contradictory information makes him feel more secure in his evaluation.

It's kinda weird to talk about me like I can't read your post, don't you think?

I will bet you a month's salary that there have been more major scandals from republicans in the last 10-15 years than democrats, especially if you put aside sexual scandals.

td11 wrote:

Luzinski's Gut wrote:I think he just guaranteed North Korea will never be attacked.

JUburton wrote:So Kim Jong Un really gives no #$!&@, huh

was it not guaranteed before this? they sunk a South Korean naval ship last year and nothing happened.

Luzinski's Gut wrote:Not really the same situation. Cooler heads prevailed. Any response by the ROKs would have escalated the situation and perhaps spun it out of control. I think this won't happen again, however.

This gives the NoRKS a great deal of strategic flexibility. The threat of nuclear weapons generally paralyzes the threat of state on state warfare...

td11 wrote:

Luzinski's Gut wrote:I think he just guaranteed North Korea will never be attacked.

JUburton wrote:So Kim Jong Un really gives no #$!&@, huh

was it not guaranteed before this? they sunk a South Korean naval ship last year and nothing happened.

WASHINGTON — Chief Warrant Officer Charlie Morgan died Sunday of breast cancer, after having fought both the disease and the impact the Defense of Marriage Act would have on her wife, Karen, in the public light in recent years.

New Hampshire Gov. Maggie Hassan, at whose inauguration Morgan led the Pledge of Allegiance this past month, said she and her husband were "deeply saddened" by the news.

"A dedicated soldier, wife and mother, her service and sacrifice exemplify what makes America and New Hampshire strong. Her fight for equality will outlive her fight against cancer," Hassan said in a statement. "We can and should honor Charlie's legacy by continuing her fight to ensure that all families are treated equally by the State of New Hampshire and by the federal government. Our thoughts and prayers are with her wife Karen, her daughter Casey Elena, and all of her family and loved ones."

OutServe-SLDN, the advocacy and legal group with whom she had been involved since coming out on MSNBC on the day "don't ask, don't tell" ended, announced the news Sunday morning.

Charlie, who served in the New Hampshire National Guard, and Karen Morgan had been steadfast, public opponents of DOMA, telling those in power across the federal government of the fact that DOMA would prevent Karen from receiving military benefits and Social Security survivor benefits if Charlie were to die.

Sen. John Kerry said goodbye to the Senate Wednesday, taking time to note the progress made on LGBT issues during his time in Congress.

"We've gone from a Senate that passed DOMA over my objections to one that just welcomed its first openly gay senator," Kerry said of the 1996 vote for the Defense of Marriage Act.

Kerry's departure itself is a milestone of sorts. When the U.S. Supreme Court agreed Dec. 7 to hear Edith Windsor's challenge to DOMA's provision banning federal recognition of same-sex couples' marriages, six sitting senators had voted against DOMA when the Senate voted on the bill in 1996.

Kerry's departure Friday will leave only three people remaining in the Senate who voted against the bill in the Senate.

California Sens. Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein and Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden are the remaining three senators to have opposed the bill since its original passage.

Several senators who voted for DOMA in 1996 have since reversed their position on the issue, but only 14 senators — all Democrats — opposed the bill in the heat of the 1996 election when the possibility of Hawaii same-sex couples being able to marry prompted the bill's quick movement through Congress.

When the Supreme Court announced it was taking the case, six of those longtime LGBT supporters remained. That number is now cut in half. In addition to Kerry's departure, Sen. Daniel Inouye, who died Dec. 17, and Sen. Daniel Akaka, who retired at the end of the last Congress, had also voted against the bill, no longer remain in the Senate.

ALSO: One current senator, Sen. Sherrod Brown of Ohio, voted against DOMA as a House member in 1996.

drsmooth wrote:

dajafi wrote:First of all, this whole subject of "which party tends more toward corruption" is really fucking dumb and represents politics on BSG at its partisan scat-throwing worst.

aw, gee, dad, you never let us have any fun

TenuredVulture wrote:I don't think patronizing prostitutes with your own money is corruption. I don't even think a bj in an airport's men's room is corruption. It's illegal, obviously, but it's really no different from an elected official smoking marijuana or something like that. If you give a sexual partner not your wife a state job for which he's not qualified, that's corruption.

There are also acts that are perfectly legal that in my view are far worse than patronizing a prostitute, such as profiting in the stock market from insider information garnered in the course of your duties as a member of Congress.

TenuredVulture wrote:I don't think patronizing prostitutes with your own money is corruption. I don't even think a bj in an airport's men's room is corruption. It's illegal, obviously, but it's really no different from an elected official smoking marijuana or something like that. If you give a sexual partner not your wife a state job for which he's not qualified, that's corruption.

There are also acts that are perfectly legal that in my view are far worse than patronizing a prostitute, such as profiting in the stock market from insider information garnered in the course of your duties as a member of Congress.

Werthless wrote:

Monkeyboy wrote:

Werthless wrote:

jerseyhoya wrote:

Monkeyboy wrote:he sounds like a republican

just kidding... there are scumbags in both parties, though most things like this seem to be republican.

Selective memory

I would say it's more confirmation bias. Even contradictory information makes him feel more secure in his evaluation.

It's kinda weird to talk about me like I can't read your post, don't you think?

I will bet you a month's salary that there have been more major scandals from republicans in the last 10-15 years than democrats, especially if you put aside sexual scandals.

I was just correcting jerseyhoya there. Confirmation bias is pervasive everywhere, but especially in politics. We remember the events that confirm our opinions, but soon forget the events that contradict our biases. This is often combined with attribution bias, which surrounds the explanation we use to rationalize the event. "Oh, a democrat goes to prison for corruption. Well, he's an awful person. Oh, a Republican goes to prison for corruption. Typical Republican."

I have no idea whether certain kind of scandals occur more in one party over another, although it looks like subsequent posts have addressed this. Quantifying these things, and testing whether our perceptions were misguided or not, is how we get past our misperceptions. Although as dajafi pointed out, the exercise is kind of pointless for this particular instance. Most corrupt politicians are corrupt because they are awful people, not because they belong to X political party.

mozartpc27 wrote:

drsmooth wrote:

dajafi wrote:First of all, this whole subject of "which party tends more toward corruption" is really fucking dumb and represents politics on BSG at its partisan scat-throwing worst.

aw, gee, dad, you never let us have any fun

This whole conversation has been terrible. I blame Monkeyboy.

Monkeyboy wrote:

mozartpc27 wrote:

drsmooth wrote:

dajafi wrote:First of all, this whole subject of "which party tends more toward corruption" is really fucking dumb and represents politics on BSG at its partisan scat-throwing worst.

aw, gee, dad, you never let us have any fun

This whole conversation has been terrible. I blame Monkeyboy.