I answered those questions and many others you've accused me of not answering. Not answering to your satisfaction is not the same thing as not answering.
But it IS the same thing Junebug, if what you are responding with does NOT address the points I am making. Let's look at the most important questions you have yet to answer, and I will try to explain WHY they are so important for you to answer, rather than (again) to dodge or avoid.
And the second question.....how much research did you do on tornados et al before asking here "is America cursed"? I know you did some, because you quote the difference between tornados in Canada and the US. What I am interested in is whether you got that far, and thought "maybe America is cursed", or whether you read further first to discover what we know about how tornados form?
Do you feel there is a critical number of haters for a curse to take effect, or is there a sliding scale?
Is it purely a "quantity" thing, or does it vary depending on the scale of the hate - i.e. does one person seriously hating you cause the same level of curse to fall on you as ten people vaguely disliking you? (Not implying those are actual numbers, but you see what I mean).
if weather comes from pollution, then cease pollution and you cease the weather. But if we're talking some kind of karmic effect from people hating you, then would the curse effect cease immediately? What if the person still hates you even AFTER you've said sorry? Do you believe the curse would stop, or keep going?
And that's just in this thread, never mind "what is your criteria for evidence" from the debate - would you like me to search other threads as well?
Remember "why should I follow any of your links, when the one piece of yours I DID read was dishonest and manipulative"?
Remember "did you read the abstract it referenced? Did you read the actual study? Or did you just think 'this fits my opinion, I will just post it and never mind if it is honest or not'"?
And one further - remember the "greed" thread where you said "make minimum wage $2000 a month (or whatever it was) and I asked a whole lot of questions about the knock-on effects of doing that? You ditched THAT thread and didn't even attempt to answer.
So why do I feel that these questions are crucial - and why do I persist in asking them over and over as you persist in dodging them?
Because ALL of those questions deal with how much importance anyone should attach to the things you say. You've got extremely strong opinions, Junebug, and that can be a good thing. But it seems that an awful lot - possibly all - of those opinions come from reading or hearing a scrap of out-of-context or badly researched propaganda, and then building that up into a huge old opinion. The opinion may be strong, but if its based on sand then it is worthless.
So I've been trying, and failing, to get you to answer the vital questions about HOW you arrive at your strong conclusions.
What your standards are for evidence.
How far you delve into a subject before solidifying your opinion.
Whether you consider all the ramifications of a position before you adopt it.I think you are a good-hearted person, Junebug. But I also think that you latch onto snippets of misinformation and build a passionate case around them that you then find impossible to shake, or even to WANT to shake.
You make statements like "I thought the article was suspicious. So I checked the guy out. Sure enough he works for government." just make me sad. Because you have decided that "government is bad, m'kay?" you automatically dismiss the opinion of anyone who works for them
without any examination of the evidence. Maybe he is right, maybe he is wrong. But to say "he works for this person, therefore
must automatically be wrong"? That's a blinkered and highly dangerous way of thinking.
So that's what it comes down to Junebug. Sure - you answer the trivial questions. But all the CRUCIAL questions, the hard ones, the ones that would force you to examine your position, the ones where the answers will determine whether we think "hmm, good point from Junebug" or "here goes Junebug with her latest load of woo"......those you dodge and run away from as fast as you can. You don't "rock my world "Junebug, because so far everything you have said just slides right off - because you have given me no reason at all to even begin to consider anything you have said as worthy of consideration. Each time I try to engage, to delve into your position to see if there is any substance I should be interested in, it all turns to vapour and you dodge and evade or plain old abandon the thread and move on to the next insubstantial claims.
I think I threaten you Junebug, because I call you on things that you would much rather not think about, and that's why you try to reflect it back on me. Because that's MUCH easier than the critical self-examination I am asking you to do.
I fully suspect that you will - once again - ignore the whole thrust of this post. I expect that you will either ignore it, or that you will respond with some more "oh, you just don't get me". I would be surprised, but delighted, if you even went so far as to say "I understand what you want, but I won't ever answer those questions". And I would be over the moon - but absolutely gobsmacked - to see a response that acknowledges why those questions are so important when it comes to establishing your credibility, and then goes on to actually ANSWER them.