I feel like George R.R. Martin was doing that with incest. Starts out with shocking incest between twins, and then spend a bunch of books getting you used to the idea until you find yourself reluctantly cheering for a dude hooking up with his aunt.

It made it so I couldn’t play the game, because my computer didn’t meet the spec requirements.

Not saying it was a bad call. My computer was old and shitty, but now I’m out another $900.

A put a hole in the side of a helicopter that left it grounded for a week.

I accidentally tapped it with another piece of the helicopter. I’m happily working on helicopters that are made of metal now, so no more of that nonsense.

Edit: also, honorable mention because it wasn’t my fault, but I made a helicopter drop an external fuel tank when it took off… by replacing a light bulb. It was on the button that makes the helicopter drop the external tanks, but there are failsafes so it will only do it in the air. Apparently the internal switch got stuck, so the second the weight was off of the wheels CLONK… and a tank was laying on the active runway. Excellent.

You also have to vocally state that you are invoking your right to remain silent. Just remaining silent is apparently not enough.

Additionally, the request for a lawyer must be unequivocal. Not “I think I need a lawyer,” as much as any reasonable person would consider that as a request for a lawyer. McDaniel, the guy in the linked case got railroaded after saying that he thinks he would rather have a lawyer there to speak for him, and the claim that the questioning should have stopped was dismissed because he hadn’t requested a lawyer, only that he thought he needed a lawyer.

Judges bend over backwards to let police mess with our rights, so clarity and assertiveness are a must.

If it’s something you want and your partner doesn’t care one way or the other about, it shouldn’t factor in.

If you want to make the candles you use around the house, maybe they smell nice, maybe they get used, maybe they’re cheaper than store-bought, but that’s a hobby.

If you do a bunch of baking, especially for people outside the home but even inside it, and your partner isn’t all about you cooking, that’s a hobby, and you clean up your own mess. That’s not chores (unless you’re getting paid).

Chores are necessities to keep the communal house going, not anything that takes effort.

boss music starts playing on high-pitched poorly tuned xylophone

So what’s the solution here? I’ve heard a lot of stuff about how stuff should be, but the options are not particularly promising. As I see it:

1. vote local, wait for change to filter up (counterpoint: that’s over a long time range, and for every incremental change it seems like there’s a Citizen’s United, Roe vs. Wade, and PATRIOT Act working in BIG ways in the opposite direction)

2. vote Biden and try to push him left (counterpoint: hahahaha… oh, sorry, I mean yeah, it has worked to a certain degree when it doesn’t cost him anything or when literally the rest of the Democratic world is against him like with Israel, and only to a small degree, but major changes? Good luck)

3. Full on revolution (counterpoint: most of the armed and violent people are on the fascist side and have been giddy over the prospect of Civil War 2.0 since Obama took office)

4. just hold your nose and vote Biden, press and support the Democratic Party to block ways for The Fascists to get more power… register Republican in super red areas to push them away from Fascism, and generally focus on stopping the Fascists first and if we can get back to where we were in the 90s/early 00s, focus on making those big changes. But focus on stopping the Fascists before you lose everything (counterpoint: that is exactly what the people in power want, to give a unending battle to keep what you have so you can’t push for more, and instead lose it all by inches).

5. Don’t vote, let the Fascists burn it all down, and pick up the pieces to make our Utopia from the ashes like the Federation after the Eugenic Wars. (Counterpoint: …do I need to point out how silly this is? If the Fascists even manage to burn it down instead of doing what Fascists do and expand the crazy and make the world a battleground, the type of people who “rise from the ashes” are rarely the good, Democratic, peace-loving kind. Sorry Star Trek)

I’m not seeing good options, so if anyone can say another option, or how my conclusions are incorrect, I’d love to get new information. But it seems like choosing the best of bad options, and anything but voting Biden (and Democrats) is the path to suffering. As bad as it is, it can always get worse.

I feel like every time I hear “neat” it’s meant semi-sarcastically. Like, okay, I guess that’s kind of interesting, but it’s not really relevant or I don’t know how to continue the conversation.

“So, not that it relates to anything we’re talking about, but I’m a world champion in this one very niche thing that you’ve never heard of.”

“…neat.”

It looks like there’s no walkway along that street anyway, so why go to the corner just to walk on grass anyway?

Edit: just noticed the whole thing is a walking path. Disregard.

For some perspective, the entire United States Coast Guard, which employs 43k active duty and 8k reservists, operates 210 aircraft, 245 cutters (ships), 1500+ small boats, spread out over the whole world, completing missions from environmental mishap response, captain of the port in warzones, aids to navigation, drug interdiction, border patrol, law enforcement, disaster response, and, of course, search and rescue, has a budget only around 2 billion more than that.

Makes you wonder where all that funding for one police department is going.

You’re missing the point. It’s not a one time thing. Evidence existed, that evidence was found, and that’s what made it change to being accepted.

That evidence still exists, so if you claim dinosaurs don’t exist, we can just point to the evidence that still exists. That evidence didn’t get spirited away like golden plates to heaven. We’re still finding dinosaur bones.

If you claim dinosaurs don’t exist, I would point to the wealth of evidence that they do. If you were raised in some religious cult that never taught anything about dinosaurs and taught that the Earth was 6000 years old, and therefore didn’t think giant creatures existed hundreds of millions of years ago, it would absolutely be on the person claiming they exist to show you dinosaur bones. Which is evidence.

Your premise is incorrect. The burden of proof for quantum mechanics is on the people claiming they exist. They provided those proofs, which is why people believe in them. I haven’t studied quantum mechanics, but if you asked somebody who does, they could offer proof or evidence. And if they couldn’t, then your claim it doesn’t exist (until proof was proffered) would be correct.

They’re saying that those kids are taking responsibility, even while their money hasn’t supported genocide. Those of us that do pay taxes should have at least that feeling of responsibility for what our money is funding.

At my old unit, we somehow managed to justify (and purchased) a really nice 3D printer for my shop. One of the pilots came in at one point and printed a 9 inch long purple spiraled Unicorn horn with NVG mount locking points built into the base, and attached it to the flight helmet of another pilot who everyone thought was a bronie. It was a masterpiece and fit perfectly.

The half-dog one is from Full Metal Alchemist.

It’s only half dog. Alchemically speaking.

And that would be white privilege. I’m not sure what you’re trying to convey here.

I mean, that’s true. It’s not “white privilege,” but it’s still privilege.

Seriously. If they don’t get hooked on Vimes, I don’t see them enjoying anything in the Discworld series.

It is never quiet enough in my house to hear myself think without difficulty, so it definitely never gets quiet enough for that.