Top Tweets for #BetterAnalysis

The guy with a Twitter following is calling your grandma who got scammed stupid. He's calling your cousin in credit card debt an idiot. He's calling you, with student loans, stupid. Never an eye on the future, only looking to get more updoots for his account, because that's all he is.

I wrote about this on my blog a few years back. The stumbling point is that people play games in groups, and they tend to want each character in the group to have its own niche. Many genres don't have enough interesting niches. I think this is the underlying reason why action, espionage, mafia, and western games have never managed more than niche popularity. Same is true for virtually any historical genre. Magic massively expands the available niches, so games with magic prove more popular than those without. Deadlands is the most popular western game ever made. Shadowrun is the most popular cyberpunk game ever made. Feng Shui is the most popular action movie game ever made. It goes on. If I'm right, the key to commercial success for your project would be be making sure that each medieval knight has his own distinct niche, as distinct as a wizard and a fighter in D&D, which means much more than just equipment and stats. A tough challenge. (And of course I could just be wrong in my thesis.) I'll look forward to seeing what you put together. The layout looks great.

The economic and criminal factors of immigration matter a lot, but the core question is neither economic nor legal. The crucial question is “what is a nation?” The Liberal answer is: “America is unique in being constituted by an IDEA.” If you believe that, then open borders is at least theoretically acceptable. The Classical or properly conservative answer is: “America is not an idea, it is a PEOPLE.” If you believe America is an idea, porous borders are a consequence. If you believe America is a people, closed borders are a consequence — the default for Aristotle or Aquinas. This is why when we debate the legal or economic consequences, we must continually return to what a nation is. It’s about being a people who share a common faith, heritage, history, language, and yes certainly work, and the (economic) means for pursuing the ends of “the good life.” This is why the issue of immigration sits at the core of America’s 250th. It’s about who we have been, and who we will become.

Reasonable people can differ over Leo’s application of the just war doctrine - which is simply an analytical framework - to the current kerfuffle in the Persian Gulf without disagreeing with Leo over theology. What Hale and the operation he’s a part of want you believe is that you’re rejecting Church doctrine if you disagree with Leo’s public policy prescriptions and personal politics. That level of deceit involving spiritual matters is a sin. The tell is that when it comes to actual, clear cut violations of Church teachings - such as with respect to abortion, which is always immoral - Hale and his fellow obfuscators smirkily look the other way.

Gay surrogacy and gay adoption are predicated on the idea that gay men (or women) have a “right” to become parents. This idea is not only morally insane but also logically incoherent. It’s exactly like jumping off a building and claiming that you have the right to fly. Nobody has the right to defy the laws of nature. Where would such a right even originate? Two men cannot be parents. It’s impossible. Doesn’t matter how they feel or what they want. It cannot be. The only “right” at issue here is the right of the child. And the child has a right to be raised by a mother and a father, not two men masquerading as mother and father.

At some point in time prior to the first shot being fired all of the following facts were true: 1. Pretti engaged in obstructive behavior. 2. Pretti committed a felony assault against a federal officer while armed. 3. Pretti resisted arrest while armed. 4. The fact that Pretti had a gun was revealed to all Officers there. So a person for whom there was PC he had committed a violent felony, was resisting arrest, and was armed with a firearm were among the totality of circumstances known to the Officer at the time he used deadly force. Use of deadly force policy does not require the Officers to wait until they are attacked.