Thanks for the discussion. Sorry if it seemed impolite! I've valued your comments for years

@gwiz665

When I say Muslim-Americans average better than the White-American average, I mean they have higher academic scores, higher income, and lower crime.

We can see how specious many of the arguments about the US are when we apply them to Denmark: "The reason Danish Muslims underperform is because Danes oppress them."


I think this is an issue that depends on the numbers. Concealed carry weapons are rarely used in crimes, and likely save more lives in self-defense than the small number of lives they cost.

Good catch. The video makes more sense now.

The kid didn't randomly lose control. His mistake was that in a split-second decision, he still "went for it" as the window of opportunity was being closed by the bus driver.

@SDGundamX
This video is intended to sway people's opinions through faulty empirical results. Thankfully, intellectuals in this thread are noting those flaws.

We know concealed carry weapons sometimes save lives, as discussed above. "The rampage was ended because one person could defend himself from the cowardly nutjob. You will not see the real story in the mainstream media."


Legislation limiting firepower? Probably a fair idea. Trying to ban self-defense by responsible people, but not ban weapons used by violent criminals? Harder to make that case.

@gwiz665

Yes, sometimes knuckle-dragging animals get shot. That's particularly valuable when they're in your home beating your family.

No, nothing will fix academic achievement gaps within our lifetime, and the same applies to Denmark's achievement gaps. If the Danish system worked better than the US system, then Denmark's mistreated Muslims would average as high as US Muslims, who average even above the White average.

@gwiz665

I'm guessing you've never had your friends murdered by the knuckle-dragging animals that make up an increasing portion of US society.

My friends routinely get violently mugged in the far-left city I live in because the politicians and voters are incompetent.

Concealed carry weapons are rarely used in crimes, and likely save far more lives in self-defense than the small number of lives they cost.

If you live in a dystopia like NY, you have to leave a large cushion between yourself and anybody who looks sketchy.

That means being prepared to sprint the other direction at a moment's notice.

Europe is following the US in the process of ghetto-ization for all their cities, so the only non-dystopic cities left tend to be in Asia, like Singapore.

@rebuilder

There's very good data showing test scores correlate with all socially valued outcomes.

That includes professional development, health outcomes (managing our personal health in the 21st century is complicated), lower divorce rates, lower rates of out-of-wedlock births, lower crime rates, etc.

I agree, however, that school is mostly useless. I encourage young people to get their highschool equivalency at age 12-16. Get a 4 year degree if you absolutely must, but do it as fast as possible. Aim to move to a tech hub like Silicon Valley or Austin, Texas to become a programmer, designer, marketer, bizdev guy etc.

"You left your groceries on your roof! I SAID. YOU LEFT. YOUR GROCERIES. ON YOUR ROOF."

Dear Sir/Madam,

During this holiday season, we at the CIA would like to extend our deepest regrets at your recent accidental torture and sodomization.

Please accept the enclosed $20 Starbucks gift certificate as a token of our appreciation.

That's what people always say whenever you start making data-driven decisions, but then data-driven organizations outperform intuitive organizations.

Observe, for example, Google using a data-driven analysis of their large-scale hiring funnel in order to identify and correct biases that were resulting in false negatives for valuable female applicants.

The reality is always much more complex than one-sided narratives. (Since we're on the topic of critical thinking.)

In science and in business administration, decision-makers have an obligation to implement data-driven policies that can be shown in the data sets to be more effective than alternatives.

Wastes of money to impress knuckle-draggers should be denigrated, not applauded.

Those porn scenes were disgusting. It's hard to imagine what it's like to be a guy who gets excited by rape.

Yes, if Clinton's presidency had ended after the dot com bubble burst, instead of during its height, history would have recorded his presidency as having a negative impact on the economy.