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Posts
4
Comments
408
Joined
1 yr. ago

  • I mean, I think there’s a time and a place for crying and it’s not usually in public, but if you are among a support network, then by all means.

    That said, after a devastating breakup for me, I have cried in public, at a party, among strangers, and it sucked.

    What I would like to see is just more camaraderie in general. Not bro culture per se, just more, social events. Kinda like the beer halls of yesteryear in Germany or the Shriners clubs. I feel like a lot of these rotaries, lions, etc, just have kind of fallen away in most towns, particularly for young people, and I really think we are losing a piece of our community because of it.

    Meetups used to fill some of that gap for me, but it’s been way too long (and two moves) since I’ve been to one. And I’m not the type to go to church (believe me, I tried - the whole women lesser than men thing around here really turned me off).

    I’m one of those weirdos, 50/50 introvert extrovert. And now with a family, it’s tougher than ever.

  • Assassinating someone in cold blood in Berlin’s main public square, then not cooperating with authorities, garnering a whole lot of brownie points from authoritarian leader Putin….

    These are not the values we should encourage nor emulate.

  • I’d suspect there’s a high correlation with better birth control options.

    In the 90s, women had to be diligent to take a pill every day. Hell, I can’t even be trusted to take a pain pill when I have a headache.

    I can’t tell you how many times an SO and I had a scare because she forgot to take a pill for a few days. I think this is doubly so when you’re in your late teens/early 20s and still don’t have a good understanding of risk.

    Now, women can get an injection that lasts 3-6 months, or an implant that works for years.

    So we’ve lowered our risk significantly and now it’s more skewed towards family planning. I think that’s a great thing - let the people who want to have kids have them, let the rest live out their lives how they envision it.

    But family planning is tough and there are important factors that others have mentioned in their comments here. Money, opportunity, timing, support. I didn’t start having kids until my 40s, but if things had lined up better, I certainly would have preferred to be a Dad a little sooner.

  • Usual one first: back in 2010 a friend and I rented a car from NC to NJ last minute to catch another buddy’s wedding. Rental agency gave me an odd look when I declined the insurance and I got one of those chilling epiphanies where something seemed wrong. Anyway, we’re coming back from NJ going 80 on the freeway in middle of nowhere Virginia and my friend was driving, me in the passenger seat. Guardrails on both sides of the road in a forest. 5 pointer comes casually walking into our lane from the one on the right. My friend saw it too late. Honestly a good thing, he only had enough reaction time to jostle the steering wheel slightly to the left, not even brake. We dodged that bucker by inches. Car insurance be damned, it would have probably ended me.

    More bizarre ones:

    • The handlebar on my motorcycle broke off, and I went down quick on a freshly plowed road, 18 wheeler behind me was barely able to stop in time. He helped me up and then chucked my bike into a snowbank like it was nothing.
    • Saw a semi get blown over by a gust of wind on 81 in western VA
    • about 2 months ago I saw an entire desk fly off of the back of a junkers trailer on I-40 just west of Asheville. I thought for sure it was gonna hit the car in front of me but the desk did this brilliant upright spin off into the shoulder. The lady driving the junker was none the wiser. Secure your loads y’all.
    • not a freeway, but I was turning left from this mountain backroad as a semi turned right onto the road I was on. The shoulder on that side had a drop off and the guy misjudged the turn. I got to see the whole cab lift into the air right beside me in my peripheral, freaked me the fuck out and I barreled to the right shoulder quick. When all was done and it seemed safe enough, I got out and checked on the guys then called highway patrol. The driver and his buddy were a bit in shock from the whole situation but otherwise OK.
  • Russia was a colonial power, then it found oil.

    There are also some justifiable fears that Australia is becoming a vassal state to China. I suppose one could argue that Australia was a colony (but I’d argue that the US was one too).

    Just saying, it can happen to any country.

  • Resource curse is a MF. When your government is no longer reliant on its people to fund its political class, all sorts of short/medium term chaos ensues.

    This isn’t to say that the US doesn’t have some responsibility in cases, just that the situations are incredibly complex annd it’s easy to scapegoat the bogeyman for all of your woes.