Posts by Neil Morrison

Last ←Newer Page 1 2 3 4 5 Older→ First

  • Hard News: Random,

    Obama's a smoker too?

    yes, but don't say his trying to quit could be an advantage with young voters who might find something they can identify with. If you do then that's a Clinton smear campaign. Honestly, i'm not making it up , that's what some people are trying to argue.

    And don't say that his background could be an advantage in foreign affairs. He can say that, and does, but no one esle can since it's really a Clinton smear.

    and that's just some of the nonesense from the left part of the political spectrum.

    Since Nov 2006 • 932 posts Report

  • Hard News: Random,

    WTF were these people thinking forwarding a nasty smear against an opponent, period?

    poor judgement call. Just goes to show the right has no monopoly on that.

    ...and then have your own campaign workers caught taking a leaf out of the Rove play book.

    pfff, they weren't. Mind you that allegation's been getting a bit of oxygen over at The Nation.

    Now that's a dishonest and profoundly stupid article.

    Since Nov 2006 • 932 posts Report

  • Hard News: Random,

    should have read to the end of the Clinton staffers article -

    Rose has said she did not agree with the e-mail but was sending it to other area Democrats to show them how dirty politics was getting. Olson did not respond to an e-mail requesting comment.

    maybe not a great decision but that's quite different from the actions the WaPo article describes.

    Since Nov 2006 • 932 posts Report

  • Hard News: Random,

    and that doesn't change because this story was indefensibly bad

    i'm missing something here, how was this article so bad?

    from the article about the Clinton staffers it's hard to know what exactly happened. It seems they forwarded on haox emails. Why they did that is not addressed. People forward on jokes. or did they believe the emails or were they involved in a smear cmapiagn. Or did they forward them just to show what sort of crap is bing said about Obama.

    who knows, the article certainly doesn't provide much to go on.

    Since Nov 2006 • 932 posts Report

  • Hard News: Random,

    i don't get what was so awful about the WaPo article. There is a right wing fringe saying this crap about Obama. the writer clearly thinks it's all crap that's why he wrote the story.

    from the WaPo article -

    Despite his denials, rumors and e-mails circulating on the Internet continue to allege that Obama (D-Ill.) is a Muslim, a "Muslim plant" in a conspiracy against America, and that, if elected president, he would take the oath of office using a Koran, rather than a Bible, as did Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.), the only Muslim in Congress, when he was sworn in earlier this year.

    In campaign appearances, Obama regularly mentions his time living and attending school in Indonesia, and the fact that his paternal grandfather, a Kenyan farmer, was a Muslim. Obama invokes these facts as part of his case that he is prepared to handle foreign policy, despite having been in the Senate for only three years, and that he would literally bring a new face to parts of the world where the United States is not popular.

    i can't see the problem. this all looks pretty positive for Obama to me.

    Since Nov 2006 • 932 posts Report

  • Hard News: Nurturing Capitalism,

    Get pissed while the chook cooks

    I usually don't let her near the bbq. I can manage to both at the same time.

    Since Nov 2006 • 932 posts Report

  • OnPoint: Terra Firma,

    There's been a War on Terra Firma by the United Mental States of Hysteria. We in Auckland can blame being sprayed aerially. I don't know what Wellingtonians have as an excuse. Maybe it's all the fault of polio vaccinations in the 60's.

    Since Nov 2006 • 932 posts Report

  • Hard News: Quite the Two-Step,

    There are a lot of social functions which seem to give low empaths an advantage. I'm thinking warrior types work better that way. But again, whilst having no empathy might be an advantage it also may not be decisive.

    are you familiar with game theory? it's the classic cheaters vs co-operators situation.

    Since Nov 2006 • 932 posts Report

  • Hard News: Quite the Two-Step,

    Empathy means seeing or feeling it from the other person's side. Which I think is important, but not enough. The other person's point of view may be totally wrong. You may be unable to see it that way. Or you may be deluded into thinking you have. Or, having seen it correctly, you still disagree, and think their point of view is lacks empathy.

    what I find interesting is how empathy is not an abstraction but a product of brain function, mirror neurons etc - the ability to imagine the mental state of another person, a pre-requisite for empathy, is an ability that can be located as a process in the brain that was selected for. So looking at how the expression of empathy varies within a population would give an understanding of the general phenomena.

    Since Nov 2006 • 932 posts Report

  • Hard News: Quite the Two-Step,

    I hadn't come across Experimental Philosophy before so some time I’ll try and read what's on that site.

    I read more on cognitive psychology but have read some philosophy and have been thinking that philosophy must surely be able to do a lot with recent developments in cognitive psychology and neuroscience - especially now that there is almost real-time imagining of many thought processes.

    Since Nov 2006 • 932 posts Report

Last ←Newer Page 1 49 50 51 52 53 94 Older→ First