Simon Paynton

From this vantage point (the UK), it seems that it’s normal in the US for people to malign each other’s motives, instead of charitably taking them at face value.  In the UK, we would call this “Trumpian”, a grossly obvious way of wriggling out of accountability and responsibility.  I don’t know who started it, but I’ve noticed it in the past f…[Read more]

The Secret Service are saying it wasn’t safe to put an agent on that roof.  So that’s why they didn’t.  However, it was safe enough for the shooter.

Unseen wrote:
If you use a VPN to go into the Dark Web, the suspicion will always be you’re seeking illicit drugs or accessing kiddie porn.

Or a gun, … or poison … a hitman …

If you have a VPN, apparently that is how you can access BBC iplayer from the US.  There you should find lots of everything you are looking for.

Rebus is meant to be a good crime drama.

Unseen wrote:
Well, in the States there are only a few distinct city accents.

How about the movie Fargo?  It’s set in Minnesota and it claims that a lot of people in that area speak like Scandinavians.

Unseen wrote:
One thing I’ve discovered in watching British mysteries is the existence of numerous distinct local accents. A witness will say detect a Yorkshire or Manchester or London or whatever accent.

Apparently it’s because of all the European countries that have invaded Britain in centuries or millennia past.  The Scottish accent is like Sc…[Read more]

I’m glad you like our detective shows.  I don’t watch anything apart from Judge Judy and real-life cops nicking people.  But I know a lot of people are into these DCI dramas, I’ll try and get some recommendations.

Unseen wrote:
Yeah, but didn’t anyone tell him that the number of voters who didn’t want him to touch Roe v. Wade was twice as big as those who did?

That’s why, in his calculated, transactional, Machiavellian way, he’s been dialling back his support for anti-abortion issues.

I think Trump’s appeal is that he tells potential supporting demographics exactly what they want to hear, and promises them power.  This way he corrupts everyone who gives him the time of day.  The evangelicals, the entire Republican party.  He didn’t care about abortion, until he realised the anti-abortionists would vote for him if they be…[Read more]

Unseen wrote:
You’re a relativist. Moral values are relative and not permanent over time.

I guess.  But I don’t think “anything goes”, based on my own values, and I can see that’s not the case for other people too.

Unseen wrote:
And here I thought you were an absolutist who believe right and wrong are real. Turns out you’re a total relativist and have been all along.

There is a multiplicity of values that have some kind of factual status.  The Spartans had their values; we have ours and I have mine.  They don’t always agree with each other.

Unseen wrote:
And what “mutual benefit” derives from abandoning one’s baby…that benefits the baby? If one (or a social entity) gets to choose who benefits from actions and who doesn’t, that sure looks relativistic to me.

It doesn’t benefit the baby.  In the case of the African women, it is a form of abortion.  In the Spartans, they didn’t valu…[Read more]

I think morality has the same factual status as do the correct ways to fix a bicycle.  The problems are recurrent, the bike is real, the actions are real.  What factual status do the correct fixing methods have?