I still largely hate the Knicks and probably will for the foreseeable future, but I have fallen in love all over again with Z-Man on this epic, three day thread.

Right back at you, but alas, we’re a package deal. Tell you what, these boys are gonna win some fans back this year. Mitch will be the most lovable Knick since the 1990’s and he’s got some company. Tell you what, give it till Thanksgiving.

Spoiler alert: fucking horribly

We went the first 200 years of this country without the Dept of Ed

Yes, and we went 200 years without the Department of Energy, too, but it would be catastrophically irresponsible to get rid of it. I mean, I’m pretty damn sure that you don’t know what the fuck it does, but I bet you want it abolished.

Again: you know nothing of history, so you speak only from ahistorical principles. Easy to create a fiction, isn’t it?

that smoker argument is totally unconvincing as it’s wrought with logical fallacies. It’s the type of argument that has to be eliminated from discourse but it’s the type of argument being used by politicians. It’s how we got to where we are.

Smoking kills more people every year than guns, drugs, alcohol, cars combined. Lung cancer, almost always caused by smoking, kills more people than all other forms of cancer combined. My group health insurance costs treats a smoker the same as a non-smoker. However, life insurance costs actually DO charge a significant premium to smokers, keeping my cost down. Car insurance costs are higher for drunk drivers and people prone to accidents, keeping the cost to safer drivers down. I don’t see the fallacy.

So we agree that for the cost of 60 billion they don’t do much. You could buy every homeless person in the country a house for that much. Boom we just solved the homeless problem.

that smoker argument is totally unconvincing as it’s wrought with logical fallacies. It’s the type of argument that has to be eliminated from discourse but it’s the type of argument being used by politicians. It’s how we got to where we are.

Smoking kills more people every year than guns, drugs, alcohol, cars combined. Lung cancer, almost always caused by smoking, kills more people than all other forms of cancer combined. My group health insurance costs treats a smoker the same as a non-smoker. However, life insurance costs actually DO charge a significant premium to smokers, keeping my cost down. Car insurance costs are higher for drunk drivers and people prone to accidents, keeping the cost to safer drivers down. I don’t see the fallacy.