Lewis2
9d ago
What was the seed corn that you sold? I’m having a hard time figuring out what you’re thinking of.
Lewis2
11d ago
Opposition to illegal immigration has been a pretty consistent Republican talking point since Reagan’s amnesty, if not sooner. But Republicans’ opinions on legal immigration have been much more mixed. This chart only goes up to 2018, unfortunately, but it shows that around 30–40% of Republicans have supported current legal immigration levels for the past 20 years, and an additional 15–20% have thought it should have been increased. Even today, 71% of Trump supporters would like to see more highly-skilled immigrants allowed to come to this county legally.
Lewis2
15d ago
Resisting the puerile urge to immediately do all five…
Beginning any comment with "I mean,..." We know you mean it. Otherwise why are you writing it. Tedious.
I think people generally fall into two camps when it comes to online discussions. Some strive to write as tersely as possible, while others prefer to take a more conversational approach. Who’s to say either approach is inherently superior? The former can sound autistic robotic, but the latter is slightly less efficient, at least in theory. It seems to me that it’s just a matter of taste.
Lewis2
19d ago
You say this like it’s the anti-euthanasia and anti-trans people who decided to start pushing for ridiculous outcomes in order to bolster their side. But in every case, it’s the proponents who have no sense of moderation.
Edit: On reflection, your second paragraph is basically just “Republicans pounce,” except with other groups subbed in for Republicans.
Lewis2
24d ago
I’m puzzled by this response. Why would a kid who wants to grow up to be a dad be presumed by anyone to be gay, when gay men are less likely to have kids than straight men?
Lewis2
26d ago
Yes, yes, a birth certificate, an identify document that can be altered to reflect transgender individuals’ gender identity in all but five states. So as long as a person has a birth certificate with his or her gender of choice, he should be able to use the restroom of his choosing as well?
Lewis2
26d ago
I have no idea as to overall style, but in at least one respect—dynamic range (how quiet and loud a song gets)—there is far less variance than there used to be. A quick search pulled up this article from 2017, which in turn cited this video from 2006, showing that the trend has been going on for awhile.
Lewis2
26d ago
I was never particularly enamored with the song to begin with, but I’m just as indifferent to it now as I was the first time I heard it.
Lewis2
28d ago
When I was younger, my normal body temperature was around 99.7. I ate a terrifying amount of food, yet even without any regular exercise other than walking, I had a BMI that was barely above underweight. I thrived in cold weather, my blood pressure was on the verge of being too low, and my resting heart rate was in the 50s. I’m also fairly tall, and, interestingly, also used to generate a lot more static electricity than most other people I knew (@Gaashk, are you aware of any connection between body temperature/metabolism and static electricity?).
Unfortunately for me, it seems there may be something to your theory. Not only do mice studies present me with a bleak picture of my future, but when I compare myself to my former classmates, I seem to be wrinkling much more rapidly than any of them, even though I generally have a vampiric aversion to the sun, while they spend much more time in it.
Perhaps I should just take this as a hint from the universe to stop procrastinating and do something more with my life before my time is up.
Lewis2
29d ago
The weird creepy ads about “people can look up your voting record and won’t date you if you don’t” also don’t help with this, especially when several of these ads didn’t clarify that while whether you voted is public, who you voted for is not. The social stigma of voting Trump is still high, as people get uninvited from Thanksgiving with their own families for leaning conservative.
The Republicans were unfortunately no better on this front, though their social pressure went straight to registered Republican voters and so was less visible than the Democrats’ efforts. Here’s one of several texts I received in the days leading up to the election (emojis and text formatting are original):
🗳️Voting records are public—your friends, neighbors, and family will know if you stood with Trump when it mattered most. 🇺🇸🔥
Hi Lewis, this is [X] with the [state] GOP. Tomorrow is Election Day—your 𝐥𝐚𝐬𝐭 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞 to make a difference. Whether or not you vote is public, and your community will see if you stood with Trump or stayed home. Don’t let your country down when our 𝐟𝐮𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞 𝐢𝐬 𝐨𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐞.
I received a few more that included variants on the same veiled threat. I wasn’t and still am not very happy with that approach, but I imagine it probably is effective, given that both sides were trying it.
Lewis2
29d ago
Hamas is (still?) the governing power in Gaza, having been voted into power by the population in as fair and free an election as it is probably possible to get in Gaza. Despite all their corruption, authoritarianism, and just plain bad decision making, that still gives them an edge over the other competing gangs. Plus, being bigger and stronger than the rest counts for something on its own.
Lewis2
1mo ago
Interesting. Thanks! I had no idea there was significant intermarriage between those two groups.
Lewis2
1mo ago
Not that it really matters (as you point out, the Jews on this board have opinions all over the political spectrum), but I thought @The_Nybbler was of Italian descent, not Jewish.
Lewis2
1mo ago
Libertarians tend to be contrarians who are comfortable with preaching their message from the sidelines while the mainstream ignores them. It is my impression that a smaller but still significant percentage of the other eclectic groups that flocked to Trump this time around are made up of those with a similar mindset. If I’m right about that, they’re probably more likely to jump ship when they don’t get their way than Trump’s other supporters are.
Lewis2
1mo ago
The Amish don’t believe that they are the only ones who will be saved, though. Also, perhaps unexpectedly, many of the Amish are very much into genetic testing and diversifying their gene pool. Even though they have historically been careful not to allow marriages between remotely close relatives, enough generations of marrying their fourth and fifth cousins have resulted in a noticeably higher birth defect rate.
Lewis2
1mo ago
Can you clarify what group you mean when you talk about American subsistence farmers? Where most of my ancestors came from in Europe, the average peasant farm was IIRC around 3 acres, and they paid high taxes to the local lord and the various higher levels of government. When they came to America, the smallest farm any of them had was either 40 or 80 acres, plus they had a vastly lower tax bill. Even though they were initially hard up, I don’t think it would be accurate to call any of them subsistence farmers after the first few years.
Were there actually long-term subsistence farmers out further south and west, where the land is less fertile?
Lewis2
1mo ago
The pro-life right is also split on the question of a federal ban. Some want to push for one, some would push for one if they thought it were politically feasible (but they recognize it’s not), and some think the issue should belong to the states, period. When even the pro-lifers are split like this, the odds that a federal ban even makes it through one house of Congress is basically nil.
Lewis2
1mo ago
I remember my parents had hoped Condoleezza Rice would run in 2008, though by the time the primary season came around, they both agreed that she was too tainted by her association with the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq to be a viable candidate.
Lewis2
1mo ago
Do you really think that’ll happen, or are you just throwing out a wild theory? To me, that seems about as likely as Joe Biden coming back as 48 in 2028. It would be entirely out of character for Trump (or any president) to resign in order to help his successor.
Lewis2
1mo ago
Oh, I’m sure it was completely crushing for Hillary. I have no disagreements there. But I would still think that today is probably the worst day in Harris’ life, even if it isn’t as bad for her as it was for Clinton. Coming so close to the presidency and then losing it (and losing it to Trump, in an explicit rejection of Harris’ and Biden’s last four years) has to be the bitterest pill she’s ever had to swallow.
Lewis2
1mo ago
Hillary Clinton didn’t speak to her supporters election night either. She called Trump and conceded at 2:40 a.m.
Lewis2
1mo ago
I’ve been watching NBC, and they just talked about that too. (Paraphrased) “If Harris loses, it might just be proof that Americans won’t vote for a black female president.”
You seem, probably unconsciously, to be using arguments as soldiers here.
As things stand, your kids are already getting home in the dark, so that’s not a good argument to oppose any changes to the DST status quo.
In many parts of the country, it’s just not possible to have sunlight both before and after the work/school day. DST and choice of time zone have nothing to do with it.
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