The “Other Side” Is Not Dumb. – Sean Blanda – Medium

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The “Other Side” Is Not Dumb. – Sean Blanda – Medium

"There’s a fun game I like to play in a group of trusted friends called “Controversial Opinion.” The rules are simple: Don’t talk about what was shared during Controversial Opinion afterward and you aren’t allowed to “argue” — only to ask questions about why that person feels that way. Opinions can range from “I think James Bond movies are overrated” to “I think Donald Trump would make a excellent president.”

"Usually, someone responds to an opinion with, “Oh my god! I had no idea you were one of those people!” Which is really another way of saying “I thought you were on my team!” In psychology, the idea that everyone is like us is called the “false-consensus bias.” This bias often manifests itself when we see TV ratings (“Who the hell are all these people that watch NCIS?”) or in politics (“Everyone I know is for stricter gun control! Who are these backwards rubes that disagree?!”) or polls (“Who are these people voting for Ben Carson?”)."

May 15, 2018 Morning

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Good morning! Happy Tuesday. Three weeks to 8:30 PM Sunset ⛱. Partly cloudy mostly with high clouds and 65 degrees in Delmar, NY. ⛅ There is a south breeze at 6 mph. 🍃. The dew point is 59 degrees. The stormy weather is coming later. This morning wasn’t bad for walking down and visiting my local polling place to vote in the school budget vote.

Today will have showers and thunderstorms.💦⚡ Some storms could be severe, with large hail and damaging winds. High of 77 degrees at 2pm. Eight degrees above normal. Maximum dew point of 62 at 12pm. 🏖 South wind 6 to 11 mph becoming west in the afternoon. Chance of precipitation is 80%. New rainfall amounts between a quarter and half of an inch possible. A year ago, we had mostly cloudy skies. The high last year was 67 degrees. The record high of 93 was set in 1900.

The sun will set at 8:11 pm with dusk around 8:43 pm, which is one minute and 3 seconds later than yesterday. 🌇 At sunset, look for rain showers ☁💦 and 63 degrees. The dew point will be 56 degrees. There will be a northwest breeze at 7 mph. Today will have 14 hours and 39 minutes of daytime, an increase of 2 minutes and 4 seconds over yesterday.

Tonight will be scattered showers, mainly before 8pm. Mostly cloudy ☁, with a low of 53 degrees at 5am. Six degrees above normal. Maximum dew point of 58 at 6pm. North wind 3 to 7 mph. Chance of precipitation is 30%. New precipitation amounts between a tenth and quarter of an inch possible. In 2017, we had mostly cloudy skies, clearing in the early hours of the next day. It got down to 44 degrees. The record low of 33 occurred back in 1980.

Definitely a nice morning. Enjoyed walking down to school to cast my vote. Bit of a sweat by the time I got home — it was a bit of a rush to catch the bus — but I made it. Beats having to get into those narrow little parking spots at the school. 🅿 It’s a one a year thing, usually I’m out of the town for the rest of elections so I just vote absentee.

I always like voting as it gives you a chance to formally protest the actions of the American government. I doubt my vote will change anything but it’s good to check something on a paper. 🏫For the first time I decided to fill out the exit survey on why I voted. I explained my vote by typing into the exit survey computer “Honor the Second Amendment. Protect the Freedom of Speech of Conservative Students and the Right to Pray in School.” I’m sure that will horrify the school administration.😮

I’m a liberal life long Democrat but I think it’s important to protect the rights of students including those of a religious conviction. Education works best if schools teach kids a wide variety of ideas both liberal and conservative.🤔 For too long there hasn’t been enough competition in ideas or student freedom in our schools. If I though schools were doing more to educate our youth, I’d be more likely to support their budget proposals.

It should be interesting to watch the storms roll through today from my new office.⚡ The weekend still doesn’t look very nice but that will let me stay in town for the Pine Bush Hike.🌲🌳🌼 I also want to finish wiring up the solar panel and having that all ready to go come Memorial Day Weekend.🏕 Still undecided where I will be going for the long weekend but I might stay in New York this year rather than Vermont so I go fishing. 🐟But I want to make sure to camp out of eye and ear shot of other people. Thinking about Pumpkin Hollow Road, or may be Old Route 8 in the Adirondacks. A lot depends on the weather⛈ and how much is going on next week at work.

Tomorrow the is the Save the Pine Bush Dinner. 🍲 The speaker will be the all famous Dan Van Riper who will speak about the Proposed Sewage Treatment Plant in Lincoln Park. The County wants to build a disinfection plant for the Beaver Kill on the parking lot of the TOAST academy, to try to reduce the amount of bacteria and “floatables”💩 entering the Hudson River. This will help make the Hudson River safe for swimming.🏊 It already is has decent oxygen levels, but bacteria makes the river somewhat hazardous to contacts especially during the spring months after heavy rain. The plant should do it a lot to clean up the river, but there are legitimate concerns about alienation and how it will impact the nearby school.🎒

As previously noted, there are 3 weeks until 8:30 PM Sunset ⛱ when the sun will be setting at 8:29 pm with dusk at 9:04 pm. On that day in 2017, we had thunderstorm, thunderstorm rain, rain, mist, cloudy skies and temperatures between 66 and 55 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 75 degrees. We hit a record high of 97 back in 1925.