Supreme Court throws Texas elections into disarray over district maps dispute

[KwangTiger]

Some of America does.  For other parts of America, though, a logical system that maximizes population equality while retaining as much regular shape as possible is not sufficiently partisan.

What makes drawing pretty shapes on a map logical?

[Eddie Teach]

What makes drawing pretty shapes on a map logical?

Makes it easier on voters and poll workers to know they're in right place.

[DGuller]

Races, per se, do not (as biological facts).  You cannot logically construct legal boundaries around a group of people based on any objective classification of them as "minorities" or "not minorities" or "black" and "white."  What about a person with a "black" parent and a "white" parent? Do they count as half a minority?  If they are "black" (as in the case, apparently, with Obama), what if they marry a "white" person and have kids?  Are the kids then also "black" because one parent (but also only one of four grandparents) was "black?"  How about someone with one "black" great-grandparent and seven "white" ones?  It should be pretty obvious how silly this gets if one believes that "race" exists as an actual, inheritable biological condition.  And if it doesn't so exist, then how can we create logical legal boundaries taking it into account?

Is your point that such laws do not exist, should not exist, or exist but are not based on any objective classification?  There are definitely insurance laws and regulation that have to do with disparate impact on minorities (not to mention an outright ban on rating people based on them being a minority).  I'm pretty sure there are many more laws like that.

[DGuller]

Social construct does not mean "not real."  It means (in the case of race) that there is no biological basis for it, the reality is a part of the social/cultural fabric.

It is fictive in the sense that the processes over the past few centuries have created the distinctions between human races.  It is nonetheless still real as human race has real impact on members of the society, how they think, how that society makes laws, etc.

Now Grumbles said this all, but some people just ignore what he actually says at times because they like his Argument Clinic.

In that case, what is the relevance of that distinction?  Whether race is biological or not seems to be irrelevant to any issue that I'm aware of that involves race.

[The Brain]

I say, DG, where do you find your energy?

[PDH]

The relevance is that one changes over time (see views on race in 1800 vs 1880 in the USA), while one is much more fixed (I would assume that biology doesn't change that fast). 

This plays a role (and makes the difference important) because a social construct become "natural" to those who are within the culture - an unchanging aspect is assumed and these drive the discussions on such things as, say, election laws.  This is why race is real and at the same time not biologically real.

[DGuller]

I say, DG, where do you find your energy?

In the can of Red Bull.  Why do you ask?

[The Brain]

I say, DG, where do you find your energy?

In the can of Red Bull.  Why do you ask?

Red Bull = disgusting.

[DGuller]

I say, DG, where do you find your energy?

In the can of Red Bull.  Why do you ask?

Red Bull = disgusting.

It's all right.  When it comes to energy drinks, it's one of the most pleasant tasting, actually.

[garbon]

I say, DG, where do you find your energy?

In the can of Red Bull.  Why do you ask?

Red Bull = disgusting.

It's all right.  When it comes to energy drinks, it's one of the most pleasant tasting, actually.

5 hour tastes much better and you can take it down like a shot.

[DGuller]

5 hour tastes much better and you can take it down like a shot.

God no.    It tastes like cough medicine, and has such an acrid acidic aftertaste that you can almost feel your tooth enamel dissolving.

[The Brain]

All energy drinks taste like crap.

[garbon]

5 hour tastes much better and you can take it down like a shot.

God no.    It tastes like cough medicine, and has such an acrid acidic aftertaste that you can almost feel your tooth enamel dissolving.

False. Especially if you pour it right and most of it misses your taste buds.

That said I did just get a free sample of 50 cent's energy drink. I'm afraid to try that.

[garbon]

All energy drinks taste like crap.

The Jamba juice one's aren't so bad.

[KwangTiger]

Rockstar Lemonade and Monster Rehab. Neither of them have the energy drink taste.