Recent content by Jon Osterman

Since morality is subjective, why does it matter that 17% of Americans think interracial marriage is immoral? We should be free to approve or disapprove of others' actions however we want. The only thing that should be prohibited is unfair discrimination on the grounds of that opinion.

I find the judge's ruling offensive, as it is an attack on free speech. Does that mean we can send him to prison too?

I think all dogs should be banned.

This is a disingenuous post because it trivialises male circumcision by comparing it to jaywalking. You would have been better to ask "Isn't talking about male and female circumcision in the same thread kind of like saying we should be equally against murder and rape because crime is bad?" Then...

Assuming for a moment that traditional Christianity were true, why would it be a problem that Hawking was in hell?

I don't per se. But the issue is that you (and the asset strippers) do not either. This is not taken into account. There is no measure of the disruption caused to people's lives entering the calculation. This means that, if you want to go down the "greatest benefit to society" route that the...

Let me take these: 1. This is fairly easy since it already exists. A gay couple is married in some jurisdictions while unmarried in others. So this already exists. 2. I am not sure how you are defining square and circle to be honest. Let's go with square having four straight sides and circle...

As much as I wanted to like the video, it is just really really naive. If a being did have the ability to alter reality (which I would say was actual omnipotence) then none of these objections hold water. For example, can you move an unmovable rock? Well, in our current universe, there is no...

I suppose it depends on what you value. Which is more important - the profits of shareholders and investors or the jobs and lives of thousands of employees? I think Axulus is correct on the analysis of this situation but it really does emphasise why raw unregulated capitalism is really fucking...

The ability to bullshit is definitely one of the most valuable traits in the modern workplace. If you are honest about your talents and your achievements you will almost certainly do less well than your contemporaries. I often see people who are really rubbish at what they do get promotions or...

I have met him a few times, though it was of course fairly impossible to have a conversation with him. I know some of his PhD students fairly well though. He was a great scientist and will be missed. We lost Richard Taylor (another great scientist) recently too. :(

I think people are missing the issue here. Firstly, we need to acknowledge that men and women tend to display different personality types. This is inevitable because they are biologically different with different hormones coursing through them. Testosterone, for example, tends to make one more...

A search for "deadpool bob ross" should do it.

Don't forget the US assistant chief of protocol in Obama's day, who was called Randy Bumgardner.

I agree, though undoubtedly for different reasons. I had sex just last week, and it was as awful an experience as I have come to expect.