The stark reality is that most conservatives are severely deficient in empathy—they support the status quo, simply because they currently benefit from it, and thus anyone unlike them must clearly be some sort of a lazy welfare leech. The very minute they or their loved ones get laid off and lose their health…

Not at all. He, of all people and in his position, knows the power of words. He was clearly aiming to pick a fight, and he lost.

I see young people smoking all over Toronto, where the taxes on cigarettes are very high compared to the U.S. and about to go up even further over the next couple of years.

Basically, those “qualities” are narcissism. These are people who are great at superficial charm, which makes for entertaining television, but are absolute nightmares to those who have to be around them when the cameras are off.

I had seasonal allergies from childhood to early adulthood that I haven’t had for seven years since I cleaned up my diet and started exercising regularly.

The first four films are fascinating if only because they are all so very different from each other. “Alien 3" is a mess, especially if you know the history behind it, but it is a glorious mess, going for sad, somber and dramatic over survival horror (Alien) and action (Aliens). “Alien: Resurrection” was always…

I feel for him, as deportation is a risk that all permanent residents face if they get a criminal conviction, not just in the U.S. You really can only breathe easier once you get citizenship, since governments can very easily change rules and make life hell for immigrants without warning.

Really, though, Eisenhower was an anomaly. Truman had tried to recruit him to run as a Democrat for the 1952 election, if you really want to understand how his politics shaped up in those days.

I probably phrased that awkwardly, but since I’m not Iranian, I don’t think it’s my place to speak for them. I know, however, that Iran is a diverse and complex country, far beyond average Western stereotypes.

She is pretty much in the same category as Fred Armisen and Rob Schneider—white or “white-passing,” depending on one’s perspective. The U.S. census would say that she’s white, while a lot of Iranians would argue that they’re white as well.

From a strictly ideological perspective, I don’t think there’s anything fundamentally “wrong” with centrism—at a global level, genuinely far-left and far-right politics are unappealing to most. The problem, ultimately, is that establishment centrist political parties have largely become corrupt, ineffectual and…

The value of the monarchy ultimately comes down to how one values the history and tradition behind the role. It’s entirely fine and justifiable to argue that they have no further use as you’ve done here, and it’s definitely true that Parliament can simultaneously abolish the monarchy while expropriating and…

Honestly, I’m at a point where the only Tylenol I ever have is when I take “Tylenol Cold Nighttime” when I have a cold (about maybe once or twice a year). That stuff completely knocks out my cold symptoms like some sort of miracle...heh. I’ve become pretty good at addressing my occasional headache through other…

My response to that is that it depends on the individual. I can’t take aspirin/NSAIDs, due to an allergy/intolerance to a common ingredient in both, but Tylenol works quite well for me when I have the occasional headache or mild illness. Obviously, someone with chronic pain issues will want something stronger and…

Oh, I think the party needs to do much more than that. I think there are far too many Democrats who have been in leadership positions for far too long, especially when you consider that they have not exactly brought consistent election victories. The party has failed to nurture and grow the next generation of…

For Michigan, in particular, manufacturing wasn’t hurt initially by free trade. It was hurt by the pull of union busting/cheap labor “Sun Belt” states beforehand. Of course, nobody really gave a shit about Michigan or other losing “Rust Belt” states at the time, thinking that all these folks “deserved it” for being…

Much easier said than done. Unless you’re a “world class attraction” like NYC or LA, it’s hard to get that diverse employer base. Much of the world, frankly, has only a couple of such cities in each nation, where the population ends up concentrating with the rest being largely rural. American states, as such, are…

He has so much money, he could do fuck all the rest of his life if he wanted to. The fact that he feels the need to do this is all about feeding his ego, one thing money can’t buy.

Well, I’d put it this way. There is discontent with the status quo, and economically, there is little difference in policy between mainstream Western liberal and conservative parties, at least in regards to going beyond election rhetoric and looking at the results of actual governance. I think the appeal of figures…

That’s not even the entire picture of American influence, unfortunately. Nazi Germany used the U.S. as an inspiration when it came to concentration camps and eugenics, while Henry Ford had a strong impact on their anti-Semitism.