Mitt Romney, Robotics, and the Uncanny Valley 501
Hugh Pickens writes "Brian Fung writes in the Atlantic that one of Romney's electoral problems is that he occupies a kind of uncanny valley for politicians, inexplicably turning voters off despite looking like the textbook image of an American president. Just as people who interact with lifelike robots often develop a strange feeling due to something they can't quite name, something about Romney leaves voters unsettled. As with the robotic version of the uncanny valley, the closer Romney gets to becoming real to a voter, the more his likeability declines. 'The effect is almost involuntary, considering the substantial advantages Romney enjoys from appearance alone,' writes Fung. 'But in person, his polished persona gives way to what appears a surprisingly forced and inauthentic character.' Political commentator Dana Milbanks adds that although Romney is confident and competent, in casual moments his weirdness comes through — equal parts 'Leave It to Beaver' corniness and social awkwardness. 'Romney's task now is to work his way out of the uncanny valley toward a more compelling style of humanity,' concludes Fung. 'But every day he lingers in it, the hill grows steeper.'"
Comment removed (Score:4, Informative)
Sociopath (Score:2, Informative)
Who's the moron? (Score:5, Informative)
BZZZT!!! Bullshit.
We don't call lying under oath "perjury." We call lying under oath about something material to the case at hand "perjury." Clinton did lie under oath in a deposition about Whitewater to questions that had not a damn thing to do with the case, therefore not perjury. If you go back and check, he was completely acquitted of that charge--even by several Republicans.
Also, even if he were eventually found guilty, felonies are not named as a basis upon which a President can be impeached. "High crimes and misdemeanors" is the basis. Clinton had an affair. Stop trying to conflate that with giving away our nuclear codes to China.
By the way, you might want to know that as a matter of law, we do not prosecute people because of consensual sex.
And by the way, he WAS impeached because of sex. You can try to dress it up any way you want, but that's it, period. They tried to get him on Whitewater, and they couldn't. He was completely acquitted of all of those charges, too. Maybe you don't remember so well what happened during those days, but I sure as hell do. The Republicans made some shit up and hauled him in to give a sworn deposition under oath about Whitewater. Once he got in the room, they started asking him all sorts of sordid, slimy questions that didn't have a damn thing to do with the case at hand. Everyone in that room--especially Bill Clinton--knew that the testimony would be leaked and that it had zero to do with any actual crime. It was character assassination, pure and simple. Hell, they knew they didn't have the votes to actually find him guilty, so the end goal wasn't really to remove him from office, either. The point was to get Ken Starr's report out to the public and put all of the salacious details on people's televisions; to distract the public from REAL issues.
Clinton was by far one of the best presidents we've ever had. Eight straight years of relative peace, no messy expensive international entanglements, budget surpluses, record low unemployment, booming economy with little inflation, etc. Had the Republicans not conducted their little smear campaign, there's no way come hell or high water Al Gore could lose in 2000, it would have been a Reaganesque landslide. They were desperate, and as a result, Clinton for a couple of years had a very hard time carrying out his duties as President. I kinda wish he had been able to focus on things like, I dunno, say, Osama bin Laden, instead of having to testify about where someone consented for him to put a cigar.
So stop being such a tool and persisting with this bogus "but he lied under oath, waaaah!" bullshit. He was impeached due to sex, and it was nothing but a Republican ploy to take the White House in 2000, end of story.
It was the Paula Jones Law suit (Score:5, Informative)
The deposition that Clinton lied about having sex with Monica Lewinski was for the Paula Jones sexual harassment lawsuit. I would think having sex with an intern would be material to this case.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paula_Jones
As with Nixon it was not the crime but the cover up. Only Nixon is synonymous with being a crook and Clinton is not.
Re:Religion (Score:4, Informative)
Only Catholic and Orthodox Christians (and according to polls, only half of the Catholics) believe that the host (think about what that word means) becomes Jesus. The Fundamentalists, Evangelicals, Mainline Protestants and every other variety of Christian reject that particular teaching. They believe it's only a symbolic presence, so they what they consider the the most outrageous of orthodox teachings as well.
Re:Religion (Score:5, Informative)
The companies that Romney was said to "strip and sell" were companies that were on the verge of collapse. So they buy the companies, make them profitable and then sell them. A big reason why a lot of companies get in the verge of collapse status is because they got too ambitious in their growth, or have reached their peak and they kept trying to grow, while other forces are making such companies business model not as successful. The current owners do not know what to do, or are afraid of making the tough decision to unfortunately lay off people in areas where growth isn't feasible. Also part of the process is to hire people in the right areas. Then when they get the company back on their feet they will sell it. That is their job. If there weren't companies doing this a lot more companies will just close down and all the employees will loose their job.
Dodging taxes and exploiting loopholes... He is not dodging taxes or exploiting anything, his primary source of income has a 15% limit on it. The tax form with the paper will have that number and if you had most of your money coming from you will probably be paying similar tax rates. Blame the Tax law for this not the man.
Racism as a key platform? The republican party is not racists however they are #1 with racists (to paraphrase The Simpsons). The Republicans are not racist as part of their platform. However their goal of smaller government does clash with with equal rights groups who feels that government needs to be more involved.
During the republican primaries I am not hearing much War Hawking going on. They do want to keep the military of the US strong.
Romney was a Governor of Massachusetts a strong pro-life stance would get him nowhere, besides the Abortion issues is political smoke anyways...
You have a problem with facts, you want to vilify the republicans you are just as bad as the republicans are to the democrats. You come up with lies and you back them up with more lies from other sources so your lies seem like the truth.
Re:Religion (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Religion (Score:5, Informative)
No, standard Christianity is every bit as weird as Mormonism. People have just grown up around it, so it gets a pass.
Which one is standard Christianity exactly?
The six Oriental Orthodox churches* have the best claim to being standard Christianity, in terms of not introducing new innovations not found in the early Christian church. The "ISO standard" of Christianity was formulated with the first three ecumenical councils in AD 325 (or 325 CE), 381, and 431. These three councils essentially define the universal core of Christianity. The Oriental Orthodox churches reject nearly all innovations since that time (including ones accepted by other Eastern Orthodox churches).
*The Coptic, Ethiopian, Eritrean, Syriac, Malankara Orthodox Syrian (India) and the Armenian Orthodox churches.