themeatbridge

I think there will be some protests, some violence, but it will be much smaller than the protesters want it to be, and any violence will be swiftly met with law and order.

Jan 6 happened in part because Trump was in power. Election deniers in every state tried to gum up the works, and will try again. But Trump is not in power. He cannot exchange favors or offer pardons. People obstructing the democratic process will be arrested and prosecuted.

There was a movie about this last year. It was based on a true story, but strays a bit from what actually happened. It’s pretty good. It’s called Hitman.

Does the term describe yourself? If not, you haven’t reclaimed it.

Some wealthy people don’t give a shit whether you believe they have wealth. You don’t need to prove anything to anyone until and unless you make an offer. Ask questions, and don’t answer questions. Give vague, short responses and neglect to elaborate.

Why do you think you can’t prove Gengis Khan existed?

Claims need proof when there is a call to action. It doesn’t matter to me if you’re from an island or a small town or a big city, unless you’re giving me directions. If you make an extraordinary claim, and you want me to believe you, then I’ll need proof. If you make a mundane claim, then what the fuck do I care if you’re lying? If you claim to have a disease, I’m going to believe you because I’m not a doctor and it costs me nothing to take you at your word.

If you shout “Run, something bad is coming!” I might feel foolish and angry if I later learn you were lying, but I’d rather be foolish and angry than injured or dead. Proof is a luxury when time is of the essence, doubly so when safety is at risk.

There might be some specific nuances to quibnle over, but generally I think we could reach consensus on the guidelines I described.

It’s a reference to spam callers. For a few years, right around when everyone was realizing they shouldn’t answer the phone for unknown callers, it was really common to get calls that, if you picked up, would play a pre-recorded message along the lines of “Hello! We’ve been trying to get in touch with you regarding your car’s extended warranty. You may be entitled to money and blowjobs, and if your warranty expires, your hair will fall out and your car will be repossessed. To speak to a representative, press 1. Por habla Esperanto, marqué νούμερο 二.”

If you pressed 1, you would ostensibly be connected to a high-pressure sales rep trying to sell you a worthless maintenance contract. Nobody is really certain, though, because despite hundreds of millions of people receiving twelve of these calls each day, not one person every stayed on the line longer than “regarding…” In fact, my memory on the end of that message might be a fabrication, because I don’t think I ever heard it.

How about “as a percentage of your waking hours”?

How much time do you spend grabbing your own butt?

Oh, you’re not an American. Gas in 4€ per liter and you have transcontinental railways. Enjoy the beach. At our current rate, the beach will be getting closer sooner than you’d like.

Because having parking isn’t what makes it car centric. Having bike lanes doesn’t stop it from being car centric. Cities and neighborhoods are designed for cars, and cars will always be the preferred mode of transportation as long as cities and neighborhoods are developed that way. Cities need parking because they are car centric. Cycling, and living in a city with cycling, is a luxury. It’s not a bad thing, but it’s not going to help, either.

To answer your question, public transit is how you get around without a car. Spend the money on infrastructure, and reserve lanes for busses and light rail. Reclaim roads entirely as pedestrian paths. Force developers and city planners to create walkable communities.

Revisiting the vegan metaphor, everyone agrees that beef production is bad for the environment. If you’re running a steakhouse, you’ve built your entire restaurant around beef. Adding a page of salads to the menu is nice, but it’s no less of a steakhouse. They won’t sell significantly fewer steaks just because there’s a salad on the menu. People will still choose the steak, because it’s a steakhouse and that’s where people go for that specific thing. To reduce the amount of consumed beef, you have to change the restaurant.

By all means, build the bike lanes. But my point is that it’s like going vegan by ordering a salad with your steak. Adding bike lanes won’t make cities less car-centric.

Ok but bike lanes are just perpetuating the problem, which is that people need to travel too far to get to things. What we need is zoning reform, encouraging commercial construction in residential neighborhoods.

Jokes on them, I don’t have any.

Oh. I made myself sad.

Do not put a hole in your skull. No. The headache is not caused by cranial pressure.

Your sinuses may be inflamed, and relieving that pressure might provide temporary relief (like pressing on your forehead) but a hole in your skull wouldn’t fix the underlying sinus problem, and would likely result in worse infections and irritation.

Conservatives are exactly the same as they have always been. It’s just that conservatives define their priorities and their values and priorities around their identity, and that means their values and priorities shift with whatever is best for the conservative at the time. There are no universally conservative values, just the generic resistance to change things conservatives like. When a conservative benefits from a strong federal government, they support it. When a conservative benefits from abortion, they support it. When a conservative is a minority, or gay, or a woman, they support equalish rights for themselves. It’s narcissism wearing the cloak of stoic preservation of their “heritage,” and it’s always paper-thin.

This also means anyone opposing the conservative is not a member of the self, but a member of the other. The other is evil, because they are outside of the self. Anything the other does in opposition to the self is evil. An other could save a busload of nuns and kittens, and the conservative would complain about the traffic caused by the other. Anything the self does in support of the self is good. Lying, cheating, stealing, killing, raping, everything is on the table if it can be justified in support or defense of the self. From the outside of the self, it looks like hypocrisy, but it’s really not, because the conservative never truly holds an opinion. They just say what they need to say to win.

Look, I’m not saying that you’re lazy for not spending your nights and weekends at the library taking online learning courses, but you can answer your own question by answering another, “What’s stopping you now?” There are fewer barriers to education now than there ever have been. People who are curious learn. People who are driven accomplish. People who are both discover.

Ok, but your “question” was basically “What’s something that makes you mad? Here’s mine:”

… no?

I see a lot of hype for a preferred candidate, but I don’t see anyone saying it’s over or their candidate has already won. I also see a lot of demonizing of opponents, but one party has literally nominated a rapist and convicted felon, and he’s most upset that people are calling him “weird.”

That’s March 14th, Albert Einstein’s birthday. But I don’t celebrate that, because I’m a Tauist.

Excuse you, sir, but you should be keeping the LEM in you hearts every day. And you call yourself an America. For shame.