What do you think is the craziest micronation, in a good or bad way?
This is the craziest micronation ever: STATE KINGDOM OF MARDUKThe second craziest are the many micronation fictions of Cesidio Tallini (a self-declared god who lives in his mother's basement in Long Island), of which this is the stupidest:United Micronations Multi-Oceanic ArchipelagoBoth of the above people are almost certainly certifiably insane.
For the US Congress, what would you say is the biggest unfixable problem we face due to dysfunctional Congress' self-interests?
My nominee would be partisanship for party's sake.If a legislator behaves in a partisan way because that is their ideology, that can cause problems, but at least it represents actions based on sincerely held beliefs. What I see as more dangerous is the pressure to behave in partisan ways to appease the party leadership.A Republican who cooperates too much with the Democrats risks having the party leadership funnel millions of dollars into the campaign coffers of their next opponent. The same is true for Democrats who buck party orthodoxy. The disastrous result of this is we see legislators voting against proposals that they actually support, just to toe the party line. This injects partisanship into non-partisan issues and tends to kill any cooperative impulses.
Do people with high IQs have tattoos?
Yes - but theirs are different from those who have lower IQ.I have noted that high IQ people generally frown upon tattoos - they are seen as “tramp stamps” or sign one is a prostitute, criminal, weirdo, sailor or addict. But some do. I don’t have, but some of my friends and colleagues do.Those of high IQ people usually are on places where they are not openly visible: ankle, chest, shoulder etc - places which we usually cover with clothes. They usually take the tattoos for themselves, not to make a statement outwards.One of my colleagues has the One Ring inscription tattooed on her back on tengwar. The closing pin is a popular symbol amongst skydivers (who are incredibly intelligent people). Some others sport ornaments or symbols on their ankles. None has tattooed their face, neck or hands.There are reasons why high IQ people generally frown tattoos. First, many consider pristine skin is a sign of health, good genes and high social status and interpersonal market value. Second, taking a tattoo is expensive and many high IQ people know the value of money. Third, taking a tattoo takes time which can be spent on something else as well. Fourth, tattoos are permanent and removing it is both expensive and tedious. Fifth, a tattoo is always a statement, and tells more about the person himself than the subject of the tattoo. Okay, if you tattoo the closing pin on your skin, it is a sign you are a hardcore skydiver. But what if you tattoo the straps and three-ring release system? In my eyes it is a sign of severe problems - a hobby run away of control.This is a cliché - but has a kernel of truth on it. What are the best places to get tattoos in Morelia?Most high IQ people realize a visible tattoo can be a real showstopper - in the bad way, and be a barrier for a job. Many employers do not hire people who have visible tattoos because of PR reasons.There is one group whom tattoos are an absolute no-no, and they are Jews. It is prohibited on religion. Jews are grossly over-represented amongst the highly intelligent, and none of them have any tattoos. I think they could act as a model for all high IQ people regardless on ethnicity and religion.
90% of the population wants background checks for firearms. Why doesn’t congress support them?
I’m not sure the premise is correct, but one reason is that the people in polls are answering a question about background checks, and Congress is thinking “background checks” in a different language. Maybe Klingon?It would be nice if you’re selling a firearm to be reassured you aren’t selling it to a felon. But how to go about doing so?The idea Congressional Democrats have is that Jim Smith, living in Lower Nowhere, North Dakota, wants to sell his firearm to Hank Brown next door. And of course they don’t mind driving 200 miles in a blizzard to the nearest FFL dealer to make the trade (only to find out he’s kept his shop closed because this is an especially bad blizzard). And of course Jim is selling his firearm because he’s broke, and Hank is buying it because he can’t afford a new gun. So naturally, they don’t mind at all that $50 goes to the FFL to pay for the check, nor do they mind spending a couple of days and a tank of gas doing it.Jim and Hank wouldn’t mind going on line, or booting up an app on the phone, to make sure everything is OK, even though they’ve known each other all their lives and think it’s silly in their case. They’d be happy to download the free app and keep a copy of the results, though they’re a bit concerned about the electronic version of a “paper” trail.There isn’t a single Congressional aide in all of Washington that wants to take on the task of coming up with a system that’s acceptable to Jim and Hank. It’s far too complicated, it cedes no power to DC, Republicans don’t think it’s needed and Democrats think it’s not annoying and intrusive enough, because they’re much, much more interested in annoying normal people than screening out ineligible people, the idea being to “change the gun culture.”
Were there any U.S. Presidential nominees who were more erratic than Donald Trump?
I think the election of 1860 had a candidate who was, at the time, probably considered more erratic, so erratic that three other parties ran candidates against him, each winning electoral college votes. Lincoln won a narrow electoral college majority with only 39.6% of the votes. Over 60% of the American people, in the highest turnout in American history at 80.2%, voted for someone other than Lincoln.In the election of 1912, Incumbent Republican William Howard Taft was challenge by former Republican President Teddy Roosevelt and his Progressive “Bull Moose” Party, which split the Republican vote and allowed Democrat Woodrow Wilson to win with only 41.8% of the vote. One might consider Teddy Roosevelts’s cult-of-personality campaign “erratic.”In 1992, Ross Perot was the erratic candidate. “The public's concern about the federal budget deficit and fears of professional politicians allowed the independent candidacy of billionaire Texan Ross Perot to explode on the scene in dramatic fashion—at one point Perot was leading the major party candidates in the polls.Perot crusaded against the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), internal and external national debt, tapping into voters' potential fear of the deficit. His volunteers succeeded in collecting enough signatures to get his name on the ballot in all 50 states. In June, Perot led the national public opinion polls with support from 39% of the voters (versus 31% for Bush and 25% for Clinton).Perot severely damaged his credibility by dropping out of the presidential contest in July and remaining out of the race for several weeks before re-entering. He compounded this damage by eventually claiming, without evidence, that his withdrawal was due to Republican operatives attempting to disrupt his daughter's wedding.Perot and Stockdale drew 19,743,821 votes (18.91% of the popular vote)Bill Clinton won in 1992 with only 43% of the popular vote. That was the year I voted for the LP Candidate, Andre Marrou, making a statement that nobody heard.
Poll: Is Ann Coulter clinically insane?...?
Bloody @ss bonkers and an ignorant hate-monger to put it nicely. I guarantee once she gets a little too grey, a little too wrinkly, she'll drop off the public radar faster than BB pellets off a tin roof. Delicious Pixie: Thanks for confirming what I've long suspected. Now I don't have to conjecture only about her prominent Adam's Apple. ;)
Is Ann Coulter totally insane?
insane as hell!