2014 Senate Projections

[shocka khan]

Dear Fizzy Yellow Beer Guy:

I just happen to think that this board ought to be a place to express their opinions, not just the ones of their employer.

Of course someone who drank fizzy yellow beer wouldn't get that, either.

[MoValley John]

My take of a ShockaKahn political post:

Intolerant republicans blah, blah, blah, Ted Cruz. Insert daily Democrat talking point here, blah, blah, blah, free healthcare, blah, blah, blah. Racist republicans, blah, blah, blah, Ted Cruz.

Affordable Care Act, darn Koch Brothers, blah, blah, blah, insert talking point #2 here. I'm really for the man, not the party, the Republicans screwed up again, blah, blah, blah.

Ted Cruz.

LMFAO at Shocka!

[shocka khan]

Wufan, just for the record, I was referring to CBB_Fan. I'm sorry if I was ambiguous. I think your posts are very balanced. At least the ones on education you've put out here were, and you seem to know a lot about WSU basketball.

[shocka khan]

So tell me where I've kvetched about the Kochs, fizzy yellow beer guy. Don't think you can. I did make some comments about them funding climate change deniers (they do, that's a fact and it is so regardless of whether you support their position or not). It is also a fact that J. Howard Marshall was on the board at one time. When he and Anna Nicole Smith were a thing. As well as the fact that they advocate for cheaper taxes and provided Brownback with cover when he was implementing his program in the same way they did with Scott Walker. Some people are very happy about that and some are not. It isn't my state. I don't mind electing republican politicians. I would not vote for an old fossil such as Pat Roberts. Kansas republicans really should challenge some of these guys in the primary. I don't think the optics of their policies (i.e. the benefits) are somethiing that I would want the public lookint at, if I could avoid it.

I also think the Kochs do a lot for Wichita in general and WSU in particular.

[MoValley John]

What is fizzy yellow beer? Never had it. Never had fizzy beer and never had yellow beer. Please elaborate, I want to know. This reference is lost on me, both in why you are using it and what it means. It might be funny if I understood. Is this some sort of slam they use in Texas? Never heard it here.

Thanks.

[MoValley John]

Mountain Dew spiked with vodka would be fizzy and yellow, but not beer. Beer , by nature, is not fizzy.

[MoValley John]

Beer generally isn't even yellow.

[MoValley John]

Never mind, I Googled fizzy yellow beer. Craft beer made in San Diego. I've never had it.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&sour...QmNLTtuCeBRl_Q

[MoValley John]

I still don't get what is so funny about accusing a guy of drinking a craft beer... But whatever.

[MoValley John]

http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/2743/52227/

Anybody ever try this stuff?

[MoValley John]

http://www.brewmasterswarehouse.com/...zy-yellow-beer

For you home brew guys, here is a link for you to make fizzy yellow beer.

[ShockTalk]

http://www.brewmasterswarehouse.com/...zy-yellow-beer

For you home brew guys, here is a link for you to make fizzy yellow beer.

Thanks, but I'll pass, MVJ. But if you're down this way soon, I've got my Black IPA on tap.

[MoValley John]

Thanks, but I'll pass, MVJ. But if you're down this way soon, I've got my Black IPA on tap.

Thanks, that's a bit more my speed.

[Kung Wu]

There's some funny stuff happening in this thread.

[CBB_Fan]

CBB_Fan, could you post some better and more neutral links? This isn't my fight, I couldn't care less what Kansas does with school funding, but when one resource is a very liberal Washington think tank and the other is, well, the NEA, the resource is more dismissive than a pie chart from Fox or CNBC. The school board report Wufan presented seemed a whole lot more balanced.

This is one reason I rarely contribute to political threads, this argument exactly. If I'd don't provide links, I'm not trustworthy. If I do provide links, they are always not good enough. ALWAYS. Liberals dismiss conservative sources, conservatives dismiss liberal sources regardless of the validity of the information presented. You think Wufan's report is balanced because it tells you what you want to hear, and think my sources are invalid solely because of their source, not their content. The only way to win an argument with someone is to convince them that they had the idea themselves.

I linked to those sources because of the data they contained, because they were completely free of any editorializing. Still dismissed out of hand because of the source. Instead I could have linked to a kansas.com post where our state courts declared our funding unconstitutionally low (note, the effort is worthless because our state Senate can just amend that section of our Constitution out). I could have appealed to emotions and told personal anecdotes about how the local high school has forced every middle-aged teacher into retirement to save money, gone to four days a week to save on busing, and cut many quality programs; however I feel that doing so is dishonest. Not because it isn't true, but because I prefer backing up statements with facts instead of second hand opinions. If I wanted to appeal to authority, I'd have used this blog by former Kansas Budget Director Duane Goossen, who is one of those that belief the state's budget situation is dire.

Anyway, the point of my gripe is that logic and reason tend to get thrown by the wayside when people talk politics. Taking arguments independent from their source is one of the main principles of the scientific method, and is just as important in any debate. But usually (as was the case in Kansas's elections) arguments turn into appeals to emotion, ad hominen attacks and a lot of confirmation bias. I chose my sources not because they agreed with what I said, but because they were primarily free of political language. I could go on all day posting links that people disagree with, and it would just be shouting to the air. Which is actually why I didn't post links in my original post. In my past experiences (mostly not on this board) the only thing that happens is that a lot of time gets wasted.