I had a class in college about Jesus. It was taught by a Catholic priest.

One thing he said that stuck with me is that people don’t see the real miracles.

When they talk about the miracle of the loaves and fish, people talk about how enough food for the multitude was created out of just what a couple people brought for their own lunch. People think the miracle is the creation of food. However this priest pointed out that the real miracle is that people who didn’t know anyone else there gave all they had so that others could eat. Everyone shared so that no one went hungry.

Edit: one other thing that he said that stuck with me was, “Jesus Christ, son of Mary and Joe Christ”

Trump didn’t hire Dr. Fauci.

He was Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases from November 2, 1984 to December 31, 2022.

When I was going through public school, our school district was shrinking, so they were consolidating schools.

What had been the junior high school was being turned into the middle school.

To move the middle school library, all the kids just walked in a line from one library to the other. You’d pick up one book and carry it to the new location, then head back.

In my case, that’s not from having ADHD, it’s from having coworkers.

After a brief period of work in the morning, it’s nothing but meetings and calls until mid afternoon.

Words matter. Fascism is a very specific thing. Calling every authoritarian government fascism just dilutes the meaning of the word.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ur-Fascism

Learner.

You mention that you have a BA without providing further details as if a BA automatically means your degree is unemployable.

What was your major?

Well, it was yes.

What we’re all seeing now is that the Constitution ultimately depends on our willingness to agree to collectively abide by it.

It was always just a story, but while we all agreed to believe in it, it was a true story.

I managed to logic my parents out of one thing.

My parents actually asked me if it was possible that the vaccines contained 5G micro robots.

After taking a moment to maintain my composure and put on my “pretend I wasn’t asked a stupid question and answer seriously” face, I asked them to take out their phone.

When the phone was in their hand, I asked them to consider the fact that it must be charged every day to keep working, and that the vast majority of the size of the phone was taken up by the battery. Then I pointed out that a device small enough to be injected wouldn’t have enough power to still be on when it left the needle.

Luckily I didn’t have to go further than that.

I think that’s the only time I’ve had any success pounding logic into them. I think the problem is they can’t think of me as anything but a child, except where computers are concerned.

They paid for my computer science degree, and they know I’ve been working in IT for 32 years, and I answer all their computer questions. So, if the subject is computer-related, I’m their expert. Anything else and I’m just a deluded child.

I haven’t tried talking to my mom about the SSA COBOL AI rewrite yet. I’m not sure if she heard about it or if she did whether she understood enough to even be concerned enough to ask me.

I found this to be an interesting question.

I don’t think of myself in terms like that. I’m American (as in United States of). If people ask where I’m from, I’d say Pennsylvania.

If asked what I am, in terms of what countries my ancestors came from, I would typically just list my four grandparents. Since that encompasses four different European countries, it’s too complicated to think of myself as a hyphenated American. Maybe you’re in that situation.

Ultimately, the label is yours, so you get to decide. No one else’s opinion matters. It’s your identity. Just say what feels right to you.

Ah, but is a chicken egg a chicken egg because it came out of a chicken or because a chicken comes out of it?

That is the real question.

You’ve got the right plan, but I just want to share some stories.

My recommendation is always to avoid adding a new cat to a cat household unless it happens during a move when no cat has a claim on territory.

1. My oldest had a cat. After a few months in their apartment they decided to add another cat. They followed a plan very similar to yours. New cat wanted to be friends. Old cat wanted to paint the walls in the blood of the new cat. They tried for months to get them to coexist, but they would separate them as soon as they started fighting.

After many, many months of the two cats essentially living separately in the apartment, they finally accepted that they would have to let the cats fight it out. It was distressing, and there were some minor injuries, but they’ve settled down.

2. Middle child and his fiancee had a cat (disabled: deformed back legs, walks on his ankles with the feet flopping around). They decided to add two more cats. One was missing an eye. The other was missing an eye and an ear. They wanted to give the best life possible to rescue cats that were otherwise screwed.

They again followed a similar plan. The old cat smelled the new cats in the room where they were segregated, and absolutely lost his shit. They ended up fighting under the closed door, and tearing up a 3 foot by 10 inch section of (brand new) carpeting at the doorway trying to kill each other. Bye bye security deposit. Any time they tried to carefully let the cats interact, the was nothing but attempted murder.

They moved to a new apartment, and nearly all violence ceased immediately. There’s still the occasional cat behavior where one decides to slap a brother, but it’s more like normal sibling behavior than attempted murder.

3. Many years ago a co-worker had a cat and she was asked to take on a new cat. I have no idea what process she followed to introduce them, but there was absolutely no violence. The cats didn’t fight at all.

However, her old cat was not happy with the situation and blamed her. He started peeing everywhere: on the floors, on her bed, on her clothes. If you think cats aren’t vindictive and capable of hitting you where it hurts, consider this: he climbed up onto the counter, straddled her toaster, and peed into it.

She ended up getting a prescription for kitty Prozac for the cat, which helped, but did not eliminate the behavior.

When the old cat eventually died, she had to tear out and replace the floors in her house too get rid of the cat piss smell.

4. My wife and I had a cat, and when we moved we decided to add a second. There really wasn’t time for the old cat to establish the new house as his before r added the second.

There were no problems except our old cat was old and lazy and the new cat was young and wanted to play. It was distressing for the old cat until one day when he was able to realize that I wasn’t going to do anything if he decided to beat the shit out of her. From then on if she decided to mess with him, he’d just give her a good beat down and then they’d be ok until the next time she decided to try her luck.

There was a hint for her behavior, as she was surrendered to the shelter because “she didn’t get along with and older cat”. At her first vet visit, the doctor noticed a healed fracture in one of her legs. So, in her previous home she pissed off an older cat who didn’t practice as much restraint as ours.

…ignoring that going from disabled to average would feel like gaining superpowers.

“You don’t come here for the hunting, do you?”

Nuke it from orbit.

It’s the only way to be sure.

I guess I’d recommend watching Banshee.

In the years before the US existed, when the land was colonized by European powers, Europe had a lot of really annoying, prudish types who were a major downer.

Someone had the bright idea to encourage them to move to the colonies where they could live their prudish existence free from the naked bodies of Europe.

We ended up with all of Europe’s biggest prudes. Europe’s prudes have been trying to reestablish themselves, but they are at a serious disadvantage. Meanwhile, we in America have to deal with an overwhelming population of prudes that we’ve struggled for centuries to extinguish​.

While we’re on the subject, Europe also found it convenient to dump their criminals here. So we end up with a culture in which full frontal nudity is unacceptable, but gun violence is just fun entertainment.

I say that as someone who loves some good violence. Nothing quite so enjoyable as living vicariously through some bad ass beating the snot out of the bad guys in a movie.

I never would have thought of myself as a prude, but recently stopped watching the series Banshee because the amount of gratuitous sex in the show was exceeding the amount of gratuitous violence to such a degree that I began to feel uncomfortable.

Also you need to love licorice and sauna, that’s a rule

TIL I’m Finnish.

Your concern seems strange to me.

Looking at “British” for example, you’re taking about four culturally diverse groups (English, Welsh, Scottish, and Irish). “Ethnically British” doesn’t really make sense.

That doesn’t even consider the multitude of people from everywhere around the world who are British and perfectly comfortable identifying as such.

Why would anyone bother with sanctions? Nothing a foreign government could do would be worse than what our own is doing.

Just wait it out and hope you manage to find a way to secure our nukes after everything disintegrates.