Straight dating online is like trying to find drinkable water in a crisis situation; women are stranded in the ocean, and men are stranded in the desert.

“Arizona toddler…died”

Brian Regan once equipped that he had taken a speed-reading course. “Since then, I can read 2000 words per minute. But…my comprehension’s plummeted.”

As someone with ASD, GAD, and MDD (all diagnosed if it matters), smart home devices are an essential service to me. I can quickly set redundant reminders to help me with personal routines, add stuff to my shopping and to-do lists, and quickly get my lights and music set to what I need them to be when I am experiencing an anxiety episode. I definitely understand that my data is good and harvested at this point, and I don’t trust them to have done anything good with it. But these dots have made my life work since I bought my first one, and they’ve significantly reduced the anxiety I used to be riddled with.

You don’t want to play this game with me, son. Whatever you hurl at me about Oregon, I’ll lob back at you something twice as bad about Texas.

I get that Oregon has its hard right people. Hell, most states do. But at least my trans kids gender identity is protected by state law, and my having a trans kid won’t result in me being on the governor’s fucking hit list.

You think that’s bad, get this. In most US states (47), public school students are required by law to recite the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag of the United States once per school day, though…for most of those states…students may opt themselves out.

However, in four states (Texas, Florida, Pennsylvania, and Utah), students may not opt themselves out. The school must receive a written statement from a parent or guardian in order to be exempt.

I have taught in Texas public schools since 2005, and I brought this up with an attorney for the teacher organization I joined (not a union as Texas bans collective bargaining for state employees, so our dues are really not much more than lawsuit insurance). He told me that, in the eyes of the state courts, children under the age of eighteen not being yet adults do not enjoy the same right to freedom of speech that adults do. Hence, in the eyes of the courts, a school district would be within their rights to fire a teacher who does not do their part to ensure all students under their purview recite the Pledge during the time it is spoken over the school’s PA system (and the Pledge to the Texas state flag, also mandatory), 1st Amendment be damned.

Thankfully, I got a gig teaching in Oregon next year, so I am heading northwest (through the also miserable states of Utah and Idaho unfortunately) and never looking back.

Ah, Big Stupid enabling the Scammer Class: a tale as old as time.

has unusual relationships with

That’s a funny way to spell commits sexual harassment against.

After you traded your Sierra for a Sienna, did you take a Siesta?

To anyone who doesn’t believe you and thinks they might actually he able to get better rates through an app like that…

You know how health insurance companies charge hefty premiums with ridiculously high copays, but you figure “If I really need something covered, though, they’ll pay it and I won’t go bankrupt”, but yet they still find a way to have so few scruples that they’ll fight you on the services you have them billed for because they are a corporation beholden to shareholders and will do everything in their power to hang onto every single dollar possible?

Your car insurance is provided by a corporation.

“Tesla shareholders are money-hungry idiots” is what I got out of that. They are like Lenny…when shit goes south, they just keep holding on tight, no matter how much worse they make things, until next thing you know Curlys’s wife is dead.

(No offense meant to those with brain damage…the poor decisions they make are understandable and not their fault, of course. And I know that phenomenon isn’t unique to Tesla shareholders.)

So the Cybertruck is not that fast and the CEO of the company that makes it is a jamoke, big deal. At least it looks stupid.

I got Tidal for a month to try it out because I had gotten some XM4s and wanted to check out the 360 Reality Audio tracks, and I was disappointed to find just how few of them there actually are. 😕

Edit: I see not that they did away with that ultra premium tier and folded those 360 Reality Audio tracks into the regular plans…they really did make it cheaper. Looks like I’m switching back to Tidal.

Trauma bonding. (800) 799-7233

This. Granted I was 24 and not great with money as my wife and I had about $1500 in credit card debt, but once or twice a year I’d put down $50 for a little fun money and play at an online casino for no more than a week or until the $50 was gone. The first time I tried, I managed to use a modified Martingale system for several days and worked it up to five grand before cashing out. Was never successful at making anything close to that again, but I never played with or lost more than I could afford.

Today, apart from a car note I took on two weeks ago after a car I drove 200,000 miles over the past 14 years finally gave out, I am debt free and have been since 2016, and I genuinely can’t remember the last time I went to the casino. But, when I did, I brought $200, lost it but had my fun, and went home. No addiction whatsoever.

Because I was 24 years old and I put $50 on a debit card and managed to pump it up to $5000 and it was a one-off occurrence more than two decades ago? Relax.

Yeah, because that’s just what I said.

These casinos intentionally make people addicted, causing so much suffering and death.

Noted, but so does alcohol and you can find it almost everywhere. Most people have the capacity to exercise caution when engaging in potentially addictive behaviors. Unless we intend to ban everything that could cause addiction and lead to destruction of a person’s life (gambling, alcohol, tobacco, food, sex, claw machines, loot boxes…), then we have to let people make their own choices and be responsible for their own decisions. When it becomes apparent to a person that they have an addiction, it is their own responsibility to tend to it.

I won five grand from an online casino in 2001, and they not only paid me my winnings, they also included an extra $262 in comps for having bet aggregately over a quarter of a million dollars. That money went a long way for my early-20s ass. Paid off a credit card and bought a new mattress for me and my new wife.

When Full Tilt Poker got shut down by the DOJ, though, I was sort of okay with it. There were waaaaay too many action flops for those hands to have been truly randomized.

Fair enough. I know how easy it is to fake a Google search with inspect element. I’ve been trying to verify for myself how shitty it is, but AI Overviews don’t seem to be showing up for me (I’ve done all the correct steps to enable it, but no searches generate results).

“I’m feeling depressed” is not an uncommon query under capitalism run amok. “One Reddit user recommends jumping off the Golden Gate Bridge” is not just a weird answer, it is a wholly irresponsible one.

So, no, their response is not valid. It is entirely user-blaming in order to avoid culpability.