I dunno about that time scale, but once driverless cars are effective and ubiquitous, it’s going to be hard to keep humans in the picture. Thirty thousand people a year die in car crashes. If you could shrink that number to 1000, I think legislators will be all over it.

Competitive cheerleading is kind of cuckoo bananas. They always have the high, teased ponytails with GIGANTIC bows. I’m not saying it’s ok to kick a girl off the team for her hair...but there definitely is a uniform “look” that’s expected with hair and makeup. It’s not a surprise.

Not directly related, but I always found interesting how Colonel Sanders (or “Uncle Kentucky” as he’s known in Japan) is viewed in Japan.

My favorite anecdote is how celebrating Hanshin Tigers Baseball fans threw a local Colonel Sanders prop into a river after winning the Japan Series title in 1985... prompting a…

In all sincerity you just don’t get it! Just stop!

No, that’s communism.

I write about social justice issues and cars here in the Gawkerverse, and that’s one job. But the other is as a public school teacher in Japan where I teach English and social studies. My undergrad, of course, was secondary education, English, but my post-grad work was in comparative government. So even though I know…

I grew up very close to the Snake River, and we had water babies too. All the Shoshone/Bannock kids I went to school with were afraid of them. Legend was they were the leftover souls of babies drowned in the Snake by the calvary during one of their many raids on the tribes. Or my their mothers trying to get away,…

Kat, just wanted to say that you’re awesome. All of your comments regarding this rocked and I’m sorry you had to waste your time explaining to all the derptastic idiots that the National socialist party of the Nazis wasn’t actually socialist. Keep up the good fight

Well put Kat! very damn informative

In what warped imaginary political science class did you learn that?! The notion that classic institutions of socialism are just “good civics” is laughable. And your definition of socialism is confused with “communism” — completely different ideas. Modern socialism is Northern Europe, not ancient Soviet Union.

If you don’t know the difference between Socialist Democracy and Socialism I think you’d better step back from criticizing anyone else’s education. Wikipedia alone would give you a better knowledge set than what you currently possess.

It’s a figure of speech. And I’m not a “liberal.” I’m an out and out socialist, and while that would make me center-left or moderate-left in Europe and much elsewhere in the world, only in America would I be considered “extreme.”

You’re confusing the American definition of “liberal” with the political philosophy definition of “liberal,” which I already explained. Progressivism, which is really the term we ought to use, doesn’t just draw from socialism, it basically attempts to reform the system towards socialism. I think your word choices…

I don’t necessarily disagree with your definitions regarding personal assets, (and I feel similarly to the comment OP on the military) but what’s the inverse of socialism on the right that supports ‘civics’? Because I can’t think of an example on the far right where taxes are considered good for anything (outside…

Yup! I’m a statist. I believe the state should be controlled by popularly elected officials in a representative democracy, but I will definitely cop to being a statist.

Source please, the “ruling class” is “pretty interesting”

What compels you remain in permanent contention for the title of Grumpiest-Sounding / Most Condescending Regular Poster on Kinja? Lack of hugs?

USN vet here and the older I get the more liberal/libertarian I become. It was the GOP who gutted the military while I was in and continue to block funding for veteran’s benefit increases. Conservative Republicans have pulled off an incredible acting performance by convincing so many people that they are the…

Bah. I’m a socialist, and I also support an extremely robust naval service and air force. I see providing for robust defense as one of the ultimate examples of socialism: we all pitch in, either in money or service, for the good of the defense of all.

I’m not sure that’s true. The last Liberal and Conservative governments in Canada (neglecting Paul Martin, as he wasn’t in office long enough to make a judgement) do conform to that stereotype: under Harper, budgets grew and Canada adopted a more unilateral foreign policy, and it leveraged force; under Chretien,…