George_E_Hale
insufferable blowhard
The things you lean on / are things that don't last
User ID: 107
George_E_Hale
insufferable blowhard
17d ago
Sounds a lot like Japanese nabe, which we have at home about twice a week in winter Last night's was kimchi nabe. It's one big pot here though that you spoon (or long chopstick) off into individual bowls.
George_E_Hale
insufferable blowhard
17d ago
What's your take on Future Shock? It must seem a bit dated by now? (And the Bernay's book is even older)
George_E_Hale
insufferable blowhard
19d ago
I agree with the suggestion that you see a doctor, preferably a specialist (an otolaryngologist or Ear/Nose/Throat doctor) if you can be referred to one. Chronic sinusitis can result from ongoing inflammation from allergies, from environmental irritants, or anatomical abnormalities (think nasal polyps.) It sounds like this is affecting your quality of life and that's a good enough reason to talk to a competent doctor if you can.
George_E_Hale
insufferable blowhard
19d ago
Because he's written this before, unironically, and just a few days ago.. If his behavior catches up to his rhetoric, this would not be a good thing. Not every comment is meant to be taken as a thought experiment.
George_E_Hale
insufferable blowhard
20d ago
it's an argument for why we should grab our guns and start shooting.
Please stop saying this.
George_E_Hale
insufferable blowhard
23d ago
A lot of people have responded to you and covered more substantial ground than I will cover here, but I'd like to bring up the odd point of maturity, which I believe is relevant. Many of the Epstein girls readily went along with his cash-for-sex deals in the 90s or whenever. Courtney Wild, One of the most vocal women in the various documentaries, has admitted that, after initially pleasuring Epstein and I guess ageing out(?) she became a kind of tout for him, corralling other girls who might have wanted to make some extra money (for drugs or whatever). While she presumably did not do this for erotic pleasure, she did do it to cash out.
That she could do this then and now regret it is no impenetrable conundrum. She was something like 14 or 15 at the time. By current standards, just a dumb hustling kid. We get older, we realize how stupid we were.
In another infamous pop culture case, Mackenzie Phillips, former star of the 1970s sitcom One Day at a Time, claims to have had an ongoing consensual sexual relationship with her own biological father for ten years .
If this doesn't trip your WTF meter I don't want to know what does. Anyway she regrets it now, has admitted to being really messed up in the head, and over the ensuing years of regret and shame wrote a book about it (as one does.)
My point here is that we are all always growing, and the orgasm of yesteryear may today be something we look back on later with feelings of guilt and shame (Notably I have never had this experience). It doesn't really matter. To enjoy rape as the raped surely still does not excuse the rapist. The old Monty Python skit springs to mind:
MANDY: Well, Brian,... your father isn't Mr. Cohen.
BRIAN: I never thought he was.
MANDY: Now, none of your cheek! He was a Roman, Brian. He was a centurion in the Roman army.
BRIAN: You mean... you were raped?
MANDY: Well, at first, yes.
The crux of your question is whether some women (or men?) might actually sensually enjoy the experience of violent rape. I would suggest that looking at the macabre list of salacious and bizarre experiences that people report enjoying (a list I shall not enumerate) no doubt this is one of them. I also don't think this is necessarily anything we need to worry about collectively or individually.
George_E_Hale
insufferable blowhard
24d ago
Similar to various so-called health influencer claims, I suspect the panic over seed oils is bullshit.
The claim is that omega-6 fatty acids in seed oils cause inflammation. There's a 2017 study that suggests there's no relation between systemic inflammation and linoleic acid (the typical source of omega 6 in seed oils.)
Some pundits, like the endocrinologist Robert Lustig, claim things like olive oil, when heated up enough, become transfats. This is, alas, bullshit, at least for the home cook, as olive oils would have to be heated to >200 C (about 390 F) for extended periods to have any effect. The typical temperature for deep frying may reach around 180 C, but not when sauteéing. And you'd have to be reheating the oil numerous times.
I'm not the biggest fan of Consumer Reports but here is an article suggesting the claims against seed oils are overblown.
I'm also not really comfortable with claims against so-called "processed" or "ultra-processed" food, as there's no widely accepted definition outside certain bubbles. All food really is processed--once you wash it, peel it, cut it, you're processing it. All of these things have different effects, and sometimes take away vitamins (see: washing your rice--a common, even culturally prescribed method of rice preparation in Japan--this rinses away some of the few nutrients contained in white rice) but it is not going to kill anyone. This may sound like a weasel-wording way around the term "processed" but like the push for "organic" or against "GMO" (both bullshit alarmist claims) I think the terror of processed foods is largely a storm in a teacup.
The basic knowledge we have about not eating tons of saturated fat (some is fine, just don't make it your whole diet) and eating plenty of fiber I think really covers the bases as far as a healthy diet goes. Most foods called "processed" (think things like apple juice) are essentially stripped of fiber even when it's in the original fruit. So eating lots of food that is high fat and low fiber, and doing this exclusively and all the time, is bad for you.
Sauteéng using canola oil or something, contrary to being bad for you, can actually be heart healthy.
This post appears to contradict a lot of others replying to you, which is one of the reasons I've tried to add sources (though you may not buy them, of course.)
George_E_Hale
insufferable blowhard
26d ago
I'm neither a rationalist nor rationalist adjacent but I would personally never advocate suicide. If your life or existence isn't aligned with your values the answer is either rethink your values or rethink your life, not just pull the fucking trigger. Much less murdering people who aren't of your preferred political stripe. That's monstrous and I'd like to think is just the depression talking. Don't do that.
It's interesting to me however (and why I resist responding) when you reject, subvert, dismiss, or otherwise ignore literally every piece of advice or suggestion given to you, even when that advice (as in @Southkraut's rather harsh assessment) seems to be what you are saying you want.
George_E_Hale
insufferable blowhard
26d ago
Again, thanks. Just watched the first WS game, that was amazing. I bet LA nightspots will have a good night.
George_E_Hale
insufferable blowhard
26d ago
All very helpful, thanks.
George_E_Hale
insufferable blowhard
26d ago
Anyone know anything about LA? My family and I are passing through around NYE, going to a Laker's game Dec 28th, but I haven't been through there in probably 20 years. Looking for an area that is relatively calm, safeish within reason, and at least not terribly far from LAX and the cryptoarena as we'll need to get from one to the hotel to the other within a few hours. Will have a rental car.
George_E_Hale
insufferable blowhard
28d ago
Thanks for the new word. I guess.
George_E_Hale
insufferable blowhard
28d ago
"classist" is not a word
Of course it is. Though you may not like it. It's much more a word than those on the Website of unrequited affection or whatever the hell that site is that came up with reddit darling terms like sonder.
George_E_Hale
insufferable blowhard
1mo ago
Out of curiosity, what do you find interesting after having slogged through those two and a half centuries?
George_E_Hale
insufferable blowhard
1mo ago
No doubt--I'm in Japan, so there's that. I don't have a feel for what it's like on the ground in the US.
George_E_Hale
insufferable blowhard
1mo ago
I was thinking you and me specifically, but others are welcome to join.
George_E_Hale
insufferable blowhard
1mo ago
I may be wrong of course but the reason most don't discuss these issues is because they want (if only unconsciously) keep the fragile illusion that all of their surrounding peers hold the same views as they themselves hold, regardless of how tenuous. Broaching such topics in the current climate has the potential to create a bloodthirsty ideological combatant or lifelong enemy, where before there was just Rusty, the guy at the Hardee's on Tuesdays.
If not gone, certainly dormant are the days when healthy political discussion was a way to pass the time. I was at a group gathering recently where when someone brought up the election I said offhandedly that I would really prefer a Trump to Harris (though I was clear I did not in any way like Trump) and it was as if I had said I believed the moon was made of cheese. All eyes turned toward me with what seemed a sudden constriction of pupils and sphincters. It was a beer garden however and Bacchus hates a serious tone, so the boat eventually righted itself and we carried on (on far different topics.)
George_E_Hale
insufferable blowhard
1mo ago
We are doomed.
George_E_Hale
insufferable blowhard
1mo ago
Are we talking impulsive immediate anger or the slowburn, constant anger of the jaded?
For 1, counting to (insert number) before reacting is homespun, but works. Increase the number as needed.
For 2, you got me. Finding humor in situations seems to help, but real laughter is a balm for the soul, if you can manage it.
Something up?
George_E_Hale
insufferable blowhard
1mo ago
At your age, your "past" is, for someone like me, a year or two ago. Give it all time.
I live in Japan but green tea isn't my favorite. If I'm not just drinking a teabag of Earl Grey or something I have a stash of Lapsang Souchong which probably sounds fru-fru but it's really just this robust black tea. It was said to be Churchill's favorite. It's definitely mine.
I can't describe the taste well. Some call it bacon tea but that's not quite right. It's not that easy to find but you can find it. I keep mine in a Ziploc bag and that bag in a metal tin, just to contain the aroma, which always gets a snide comment from my wife if she smells it.
Loose leaves, get one of those one-cup tea steepers or just a small pot if you're thinking of a few cups at a sitting.
Edit: This tea is hated by many people.
George_E_Hale
insufferable blowhard
1mo ago
I'll ask the obvious question: Is this related at all to what is presented on social media? Some of the most broken, miserable, and neurotic people I know have quite striking social media presences. One very lovely young woman recently had all these Instagram stories of her done up in various chic outfits, including a kimono, having won some most beautiful somebody in XYZ prefecture. She's probably one of the most fragile women I've ever met and probably undiagnosed psychotic. But she has a slapping Instagram. It's a cliché to write, but social media isn't real. It's a chimera. Probably just uninstall all of it.
If the answer to question one is No, my other advice is equally maudlin: Ask yourself what you want to do or be, and then do that thing or become that person.
George_E_Hale
insufferable blowhard
1mo ago
And yet there are many (or at least some) who weep at her speaking in breathless praise. I feel the same about them as I feel when I see people in not only MAGA hats, but Trump (or, formerly FJB) t-shirts, holding Trump mugs and posters and talking about how great a man he is. It's really a potentially fantastic dark comedy film, if one could avoid camp and cynicism. Which probably one couldn't.
As I understand it, social desirability bias as a theory is meant to suggest why people may respond to, say, questionnaires in ways that may make them seem in harmony with favored social norms, eg if you ask someone directly (even anonymously) how many units of alcohol do you drink per day they may round down by one or more, if they're a heavier drinker. To do otherwise would give a feeling of hedonistic depravity (disfavored) even if true. This creates considerable noise in self-reported data, and is why parallel forms (similar but not exact) questions are sometimes used within in one questionnaire (and why Cronbach's alpha is used in analysis). Surveys of this sort are very difficult to do even passably well if one wants any data close to reflective of reality.
In this case--voting--it may apply but I would argue only within one's own imagined society. In other words so-called red tribe types will vote red because their people vote red. It's arguably not about some larger percentage of the population, it's about whom you value socially. I suppose you could tell some "blue triber" that the vote is 99% Trump and argue that they will be swayed to vote Trump to stay in sync, but I'm not so sure that wouldn't be very inconsistent across a large population.
edit: of to if
We have about three such places within a kilometer. My recent favorite is yakiniku king though it's a little pricey for every week. Dad (I) also gets the all-you-can-drink. That means 3 + beers to make it balance out. I quite like the garlic sauteéd in butter in the little foil pan that you let heat as you're cooking meat/vegetables.
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