Recent Comments

1. 14 minutes ago on Calvin and Hobbes

   “You pay taxes without getting healthcare, I pay taxes and get healthcare, you pay for inadequate health insurance and I don’t pay extra.”

   It’s ludicrous to claim that Americans don’t get healthcare. We get healthcare AND pay lower taxes. Your claim that you “don’t pay extra” is misleading. As I pointed out, he Organization for Economic Development and Cooperation (OECD) estimates that Canadians pay 2.2 percent of final household consumption in out-of-pocket medical costs, while Americans pay 2.5 percent—a difference of roughly $15 per month for the median American household.

   Statistics Canada warned in early 2020 that the percentage of Canadians experiencing large out-of-pocket burdens is growing, writing that “[b]etween 1998 and 2009…the percentage of households spending more than 10% of their total after-tax income on health care rose by 56%.

   Your GDP per capita is lower. That makes you POORER.

2. about 2 hours ago on Geech

   Nothing.

3. about 2 hours ago on Calvin and Hobbes

   Yet Calvin will spend hours and hours building several creatively rendered snowmen (including "snow goons), engaging in “archeological digs”, building a snow fort, etc.

4. about 2 hours ago on Calvin and Hobbes

   “As I said before, the readers were in disagreement over whether or not the duplicate of Calvin was part of Calvin’s imagination.”

   The truth of a contention has nothing to do with “readers disagreeing” about its truth. You’re using an ad populum fallacy, which refers to a claim that something is true (or “could be true”) simply because that’s what a large number of people believe. That’s nonsense. People “disagreeing” about a claim is not an adequate substitute for actual evidence (for example, for centuries people believed that the earth was the center of the solar system, but this was ultimately proved to be false).

   “You argued that Calvin can imagine a quicker thinking and more mature character than himself because he “imagined a more responsible duplicate of himself”.

   You just LOVE to lie and distort what people say. In this case, you lie by omission. I ALSO said that Calvin imagines a more academically capable and knowledgeable version of himself, which is HARDLY less difficult than imagining someone who is quicker thinking. That someone that Calvin imagines is Hobbes.

   As I pointed out, if Calvin could REALLY duplicate solid matter with a cardboard box (even HIMSELF), he’d be IMMENSELY rich (it would be EASY for him to be so), yet he isn’t, a fact even you (as deluded as you are) can’t dispute.

   Your claim that the duplicate “could be” real is clearly false. Therefore, your entire “Calvin couldn’t imagine a quicker thinking Hobbes” claim falls apart. You also said “I have often stated that I was aware that Calvin can IMAGINE and PRETEND Hobbes doing things when he is not around”.

5. about 2 hours ago on Calvin and Hobbes

   On a national level, according to the OECD, Canadian taxation sums to 33 percent of GDP, compared to 24 percent in the U.S. In a 2007 paper, economists Christina and David Romer estimated that an increase in taxes leads to a fall in GDP roughly two to three times larger than the amount raised.

   This implies that Canada’s excess tax burden could reduce GDP by between 16 percent and 24 percent. In fact, the World Bank estimates Canadian GDP per capita as 26 percent lower than in the U.S.

   Hardly a glowing recommendation for the Canadian model.

6. about 2 hours ago on Calvin and Hobbes

   “Oh my… You’re right, I should cancel my Canadian universal healthcare system”

   Some facts about the Canadian health care system you omitted:

   Like all “universal” systems, the Canadian health system is only universal in the sense that everybody is forced to join. It is emphatically not universal in terms of what is covered.

   The Organization for Economic Development and Cooperation (OECD) estimates that Canadians pay 2.2 percent of final household consumption in out-of-pocket medical costs, while Americans pay 2.5 percent—a difference of roughly $15 per month for the median American household.

   Statistics Canada warned in early 2020 that the percentage of Canadians experiencing large out-of-pocket burdens is growing, writing that “[b]etween 1998 and 2009…the percentage of households spending more than 10% of their total after-tax income on health care rose by 56%.

   Taxes in Canada are much higher than in the U.S., and this is largely because of government health care spending. In addition to combined sales taxes ranging from 11 percent to 15 percent for all but one province, personal income tax rates are also much higher. The OECD calculates that a married Canadian couple with two children and one earner making the median wage pays 27 percent of its income to the government, of which 10 percent is paid in income taxes and 17 percent in social security taxes. The comparable American couple pays just 4 percent of its earnings in income taxes and 15 percent in Social Security taxes. Moreover, Canadian taxes rise faster with income; if that same family earns 168 percent of the median wage—about $90,000 in each country’s currency—it will pay 18 percent of earnings in income taxes in Canada, and only 9 percent in the U.S.

7. about 3 hours ago on Calvin and Hobbes

   “I do NOT consider Watterson infallible.”

   “Bill Watterson… has stated that he did not intend Hobbes to be part of Calvin’s imagination”

   You’re lying again. The quote YOU always use is “I do not see Hobbes as a doll who miraculously comes to life when alone with Calvin neither do I see Hobbes as a product of Calvin’s imagination”. The word “intend” does not appear in that quote.

   You do treat him as infallible, engaging in an argument from authority fallacy. You always omit the fact that Watterson BASED what he said he “didn’t see” on his FALSE ASSUMPTION that no kid would dream up a friend who would (YOU LIED AND CLAIMED HE SAID COULD EVEN AFTER I GAVE YOU THE CORRECT QUOTE AND ITS SOURCE) argue with him. But Calvin ENJOYED the fight with Hobbes, and Calvin obviously WOULD do something he enjoys. Watterson’s assumption was FALSE, INVALIDATING what he said he didn’t “see”, and thereby refuting his status as an authority on the reality of Hobbes.

   Watterson ALSO admitted that Hobbes has NO objective reality when he was forced to admit that he had blurred what Hobbes is when he was confronted with the washing machine strips. Objectively real things do NOT have blurred reality.

   YOU SAID “you have convinced me that Hobbes having no objective reality means that he is imaginary”. So by your OWN WORDS, the logical FACT that Hobbes has no objective reality (he is not perceptible by anyone but Calvin, which fits the MEANING of not objectively real), and Watterson’s own words, you admit that Hobbes is imaginary.

8. about 17 hours ago on Calvin and Hobbes

   “YOU claim that government running an “essential service” is magically superior to a private, free market system.”

   “Yes, taking the middle man and his profit margin out of the equation makes it a better, cheaper system. Doctors aren’t beholden to some insurance company.”

   Tell it to the millions who starved to death in the Soviet Union, because Stalin believed that cutting out “profit making private farmers” was a good thing. Tell it to the people starving in Venezuela. Tell it to Tony Wilson, who DIED under your “better, cheaper” system. Tell it to the nearly 800,000 people on the waiting list in England’s state-run system. Tell it to those denied medical attention under that system: 7,000 for hip replacements; between 4,000 and 20,000 for coronary bypass surgery; 10,000 to 15,000 for cancer chemotherapy.

   In fact, according to your logic, ALL goods and services would be “better and cheaper” if they were provided by the State instead of “profit seeking businessmen”. It’s called socialism.

   Again, the U.S. DOES NOT HAVE A PRIVATE FREE MARKET HEALTH SYSTEM, so your anecdotes mean NOTHING.

9. about 19 hours ago on Calvin and Hobbes

   “the Soviet Union in favor of government collectivization (ie NATIONALIZATION, which you obviously are in favor of), the result was mass starvation and death.”

   “Irrelevant to our discussion”

   Actually, it’s perfectly relevant, because YOU claim that government running an “essential service” is magically superior to a private, free market system. The experience in the Soviet Union (eating is MORE fundamental than medical care) proves you wrong.

10. about 19 hours ago on Calvin and Hobbes

    “I’m implying that private health insurance is a scam.”

    Your only evidence for this is the U.S. system, which is NOT truly private, nor is it free market. Its insurance system is subject to HEAVY government controls, regulations, and restrictions on supply and competition.