Difficult times

"It's snowing still," said Eeyore gloomily. "So it is." "And freezing." "Is it?" "Yes," said Eeyore. "However," he said, brightening up a little, "we haven't had an earthquake lately."

George H.

On a sunny day (Fri, 6 Jul 2012 11:00:50 -0700 (PDT)) it happened George Herold wrote in :

Right have not had my time warper on in ages.

(...)

It's just a step to the left...

--Winston

he can't go any more to the left...

On a sunny day (Fri, 06 Jul 2012 23:50:17 -0400) it happened "Michael A. Terrell" wrote in :

In a curved universe if you keep moving left you become ultra right

He's an American. Your "left wing" starts roughly where the European right wing stops. In Europe, to qualify as left wing you have to be believe in free abortion on demand and universal disarmament so even I don't make it.

In the real world, you just become an extreme left kook.

On a sunny day (Sat, 07 Jul 2012 10:05:29 -0400) it happened "Michael A. Terrell" wrote in :

So you are one of them flat earthers?

Hell no. I built KU band audio/video/40Mb/S data communications hardware for the space station. I would have joined the Air Force in a heartbeat, but they didn't accept the egally blind for pilot training.

On a sunny day (Sat, 07 Jul 2012 10:48:38 -0400) it happened "Michael A. Terrell" wrote in :

There is nothing wrong with not 2/20 vision, it is all computers these days, There is however EVERYTHING wrong with have no clue how to even fly a glider, or get out of a stall:

Bonnet? should have been shot at birth, and the guy who gave him a license the same. Try following the last conversations...

When I was 10 I already knew how to get out of a stall.

That would be a lower case S for "seconds". AND a lower case U in "Ku".

I think they may have since upgraded too. Either by way of multiple

Then you could have joined for other than pilot pathways.

Is it time to mention this again?

On that I'm dead center L/R and about -.5 Authoritarian/Libertarian, closer to Nelson Mandela than any other political leader included here:

Mark L. Fergerson

It's actually a bit silly. It rejects the over-simplified right-left distin= ction, but then wants to introduce something that is almost as over-simplif= ied and even less useful.

Practical politics involves specific decisions about specific situations. E= very situation is different and trying to straight-jacket the choices with = some half-baked political philosophy doesn't help anybody to come to sensib= le conclusions.

--=20 Bill Sloman, Nijmegen

inction, but

It's a lot silly, but IMO it's a start at considering the "hidden dimensions" of governance. I don't mean "hidden" by conspiracy, but rather those aspects that are usually distorted beyond recognition (or falsely associated with L/R positions) by rhetoric or simply left out of consideration by most people.

Every

conclusions.

Nonetheless we all try to make decisions based on certain principles we hold dear for one reason or another. AFAICT the Political Compass is actually more about getting respondents to examine their principle bases for internal consistency.

On its FAQ page the Political Compass makes claims about a "timeless universal center" that determines where it places the origins of it axes but never defines that center. It's fairly obvious (to me) that that center should have something to do with the "do the right (proper) thing" meme, but "proper" is usually defined in the context of a particular culture. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights is a good start at defining an internally consistent principle base applicable in all situations, but many (most?) member nations (not to mention subdivisions, political, religious, and otherwise of those nations) of the U. N. have, shall we say, problems with some of its provisions.

The Political Compass does raise one important point; the usual L/R distinction is the projection on one axis of a very complicated set of vectors that are completely ignored or distorted in politics as usual. This needs fixing, and that can't be accomplished by allowing ourselves to be recruited by politicians with an agenda; it requires at least a minimum of analytical thought by every adult, and that can't happen until some analytical tools are developed. The Compass is a start.

Mark L. Fergerson

I don't think very highly of the questions or results. In particular Obummer belongs a bit left of Robert Mughabe. Can you say Obummercare?

?-)