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AmericanSaxeCoburgGothic

Happy to be here! Goal is to post the most exclamation points.

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joined 2022 November 23 20:41:30 UTC

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AmericanSaxeCoburgGothic


								

								

								
								
								

								
							
					
 
				


				
Happy to be here! Goal is to post the most exclamation points.

				
				
				

				

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					follows 0 users  

					joined 2022 November 23 20:41:30 UTC
				


				
					

					
Never on reddit. Never on Twitter.



				

				

				

				

				

					

					

					
					
					

					
User ID: 1919


					
					
					
				

			


					

						
							
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	 Hot Bump Bottom New Old Controversial Comments
	



		

	






	

		
		

		
		
	

	

  







		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of May 5, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Francis also believed all those things.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of January 27, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Sorry, but as a grad school STEM student you're already eminently employable, it sucks to possibly be the cohort when the music stops (I do not think that will happen here) but the government isn't obligated to dump money in it. As someone who went through grad school unfunded, the whole system is quite unequal, but I saw funded people fail to complete their degrees and still do very well with ABD. I know the argument is that the funding gets people (including smart foreigners who will continue to work in the US after graduation) lucrative employment in the US and they will contribute to the 'scientific powerhouse' as you call it, but given how little people's coursework is often used in their later careers, and how an advanced degree just felt more of slog of mortgaging my youth for money later, I think we should look into this credentialism fueled education cost-inflation run amok and ask if there is a better way.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of March 3, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I sometimes wonder if the media had been a lot nicer to Jeb Bush, if Donald Trump would never have gained the attention and momentum to win the primary. But Trump caught on with so many voters unhappy with the system and the media. But I don't think other Republican primary candidate wins the 2016 election, tough to forsee some other candidate with populist tendencies appearing 2020, 2024, but seeing Trump's success I wonder what would have filled the vacuum.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of March 3, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I think an alternative candidate still gets hammered by negative press, the media paints Obama as a huge positive, and the GOP candidate still plays by pre-Trump rules and cannot overcome those effects.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of February 10, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
One distinction: homosexual men and men who have sex with men (MSM) are different terms. As far as I know, the blood donation screening questions have always been activity based, maybe very early understanding and terminology was fuzzy (GIRDS). So claims of discrimination against homosexual men are conflating terms and missing the epidemiological reason of the bans. On current blood donations, the organization I donate with asks about 'new sexual partners in the last # month', STI questions, if you have ever tested positive for HIV or taken HIV prevention medication. Questions which maybe more finely target the MSM population they want to exclude.


One time when I was donating blood an old-time volunteer about how at one point blood donation was a free HIV test, so some men would donate and then call later and ask the red cross not to use their blood.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of February 24, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
My guess is that DOGE went after the just because its easy to cancel.


Given what you describe it sounds like you have options still. If the Federal gov won't fund you, then I would contact other places that might generate grants and are affected by wildfires, like the state of California or Canada, if your research is as helpful they would be interested.


Alternatively you'll need to bet on yourself. You can take out gov subsidized loans up to $20.5k a year, and live like your poor (roommates, donate plasma, meal prep every meal).


Even with a fellowship that probably excludes other employment, your graduate director knows this only makes sense under the old paradigm, and I think you could get a secondary employment as long as it doesn't interfere with your grad TA work and you don't advertise the fact.


Some people never have tuition reimbursement, and make it work. Life is often profoundly unfair, and one of the great lessons thats can be learned in grad school is transiting to an adult member of society.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of June 16, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
One thought I've had is for alcoholics or drug addicts or really anyone, is there a convincing rationalist answer for why people should quit or not use destructive drugs? Without a higher power, why not abuse substances? If you live your life in isolation and are so inclined, I don't think there is a rationalist reason not to be selfish and NEET? Some times I wonder if belief and faith has a way of finding those who need it most.


"Technological society has succeeded in multiplying the opportunities for pleasure, but it has great difficulty in generating joy." Paul VI in GAUDETE IN DOMINO.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Friday Fun Thread for May 23, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I honestly think self esteem is a choice. Who cares what other people think? Only you can decide to feel inferior. As a man, who you are, what you do, and thirdly what you believe matters more. If you already have high educational attainment and social status, why do you care about how others perceive you? Seems like a hedonistic treadmill effect. Maybe this is the key to your everlasting happiness, but I doubt it.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of December 9, 2024
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I think merely by paying this at any sort of attention at all you are creating the market for this material.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Wellness Wednesday for November 6, 2024
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Breaking up with someone who hates who you are seems net-positive for both parties to me. I had a friend who dated a girl who cried over a beer-pong game very early in the relationship. She was overly emotional was anxious all the time. To me all disqualifiers to long-term relationship material. But I think my friend thought she would improve, she was best he could get at the time, could fix her (who knows!). But they wasted each others' time dating for several fraught years, where I think they each wanted the other to be someone they weren't, or couldn't be. Now years after the break-up now are both doing much better by all appearances by being with other people much better suited to both of them.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of January 20, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I've often thought while Mark Zuckerberg founded and owns facebook, someone with actual business experience should have been the one running it the whole time. Zuck would have had his martial arts phase a decade earlier, and maybe Cambridge Analytica might not have happened. Having the emotional intelligence of a lizard, might have helped at the start but lately its seems he lacks the ambitious and focus necessary to have really made the company soar; to me he's obviously a weather-vane shifting with political winds. The company to me, is essentially an advertising agency selling market research which wasted its immense money and enthusiasm in its early days on trying to become something like Google, but In my opinion with aimless inexperience and really nothing to show for their wastefulness. If most your profits are from advertising to boomers, what innovation is really necessary or possible? They'll probably stay relevant, QVC is till kicking, but I count them out of tech in my book. Of course I might be wrong, Microsoft has pulled ahead with this AI when previously Google seemed the true tech innovator so who knows.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of September 30, 2024
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I do not see concrete proposals from Harris that realistically will be enacted for any of these issues you mention except for abortion access (same for the other candidate). I think you might be buying what the candidate is selling a little too much. If she solves all these issues, then great (except abortion access I differ from her viewpoints on that) but don't tout her as a greater reformer rather than standard democratic candidate 2.0 especially before she's done anything of substance. Its possible I just don't have the information, can you elaborate on Harris solutions for college debt, housing, the opiod crisis or fixing Medicare? Economic stagnation has J. Powell on the job. To me it sounds like every Presidential state of the union type of address where grand vague future plans are proclaimed, but the issues linger year after year.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				A Call To Be More American
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
From my understanding its more they dictate prices to the pharma companies as stewards of national public health systems.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Transnational Thursday for July 25, 2024
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Last week Wall Street Journal writer Evan Gershkovich was sentenced to 16 years for espionage charges. The trial was closed so evidence was not available to the public; the WSJ and the US government have denied the charges (All the WSJ articles on Gershkovich are free from paywalls and other restrictions).


A list of other notable Americans imprisoned or formerly imprisoned in Russia includes:


Paul Whelan (former Marine charged with espionage for 16 years, arrested in 2018, his family denies he is a spy).


Trevor Reed (former Marine charged with assaulting a police officer while drunk arrested 2019, sentenced for 9 years, released in exchange for Konstantin Yaroshenko, who was convicted for drug smuggling [for cocaine was arrested in Liberia in 2010 and sentenced in the US to 20 years]).


Marc Fogel (schoolteacher at the Anglo-American School of Moscow, arrested 2021 for entering Russia with 0.6 grams of medical marijuana sentenced to 14 years).


Britney Griner (WNBA player arrested entering Russia with a hash oil vaporizer arrested Aug 2022 sentenced to 9 years, released Dec 2022 in exchange for Viktor Bout [arrested 2008 in Thailand extradited 2010 to US, sentenced 2011 to 25 years by the US for conspiring to provide arms to Columbian rebel group FARC]).


Alsu Kurmasheva (journalist for Radio-Free Europe, holds Russian and American citizenship, arrested 2023 for failing to register as a foreign agent, sentenced to 6.5 years for spreading false information, relating to a book she edited 'Saying No To War').


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Friday Fun Thread for December 13, 2024
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
One thing I realized in reflection is when Caesar Catalina can stop time, he's a stand in for the director. So the  love story between Catalina and Julia, released in the same year Francis Ford Coppola's wife passed away, and she also has the film dedicated to her, I think can help explain some of the disjointed story.


Another thought, the tone of Megapolis feels like an old-school studio made epic picture. Big name cast (Lawrence Fishburne, Jason Schwartzman, Dustin Hoffman are in total background roles) big name director, very lofty original storyline. But it is a self-produced feature, studios refused to make it (and how much money it lost seems they were right). My thought is there is less of an appetite for studios for original epics, so movie like Megapolis will never be made in the future. Hence we are stuck with reboots rehashes rather than wholly new.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Transnational Thursday for November 14, 2024
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I had a professor (native Russian teaching Political Science at a US university) who said that Jefferey Sachs deserved to be crucified in Russia for what he did with advising shock therapy. He also said the Russian leadership shared some blame for believing his policies.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of October 28, 2024
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Korolev's also had the benefits of state resources, sharashkas and priority in a state planned economy go a a long way.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of June 30, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
A law removing long-standing rights isn't likely to stand. I'm unsure how it works with JWs, but the practice of Catholic confessions (behind a screen in a dark room, anonymous option) nullifies testimony. Are sexual offenders going to testify that they confessed their sins and then the priest didn't provide testimony to the state? Will the state be bugging confessionals?


Should Washington state consider revoking other privileged positions? Why should spouse, lawyer and doctor be exempt?


Edit: Reading the text of the law there is more leagalise to parse through in regards to the responsibilities of medical personnel if understand it correctly https://lawfilesext.leg.wa.gov/biennium/2025-26/Pdf/Bills/Senate%20Passed%20Legislature/5375.PL.pdf#page=1


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of June 16, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Is the term you are leading toward learned helplessness?


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Small-Scale Question Sunday for June 1, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
One failure mode of a good employee is where all your effort and good will for management is captured by your immediate supervisor but then they don't advance you further up the ladder because you're so productive in your current role. Usually this is remedied by switching jobs. Maybe I'm mediocre but mostly everyone I know of get Meets Expectations, usually because supervisors see it as a perfunctory task, instead of something that could be instructive. Not sure how it works in Australia, but in the US the pattern is usually a bad performance evaluation and an action plan for improvement once they decide to let you go. But sounds like you might get a better position if you get a new one.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Small-Scale Question Sunday for May 11, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I'm reading A Farewell to Arms (Hemingway) so far so good, trying to read more and limit screen time. Recently finished the Beautiful and the Damned (Fitzgerald) was a slower start but once the bride enters the scene what a trip.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Small-Scale Question Sunday for May 11, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Elif Batuman, Possessed (beware has a lot of Russian novel references but even without that is pretty fasted paced with stories and asides). Another really gripping memoir read is the Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls. For fiction the Secret History by Donna Tartt, its longer and maybe not as fast paced but I found I read it quickly. Reading some parts were like eating dessert.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of December 2, 2024
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
A correction to point out, Nicholas II certainly has no legitimate living descendants, the communists killed all his family and the remains for all children were identified in and around the mine shaft (Anastasia's spurious survival is disproven). Current pretenders I think are descendants of Alexander III (father of Nicholas II) or Nicholas I (grandfather of Nicholas II).


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Small-Scale Question Sunday for November 3, 2024
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
My goal is to live long enough to see three centuries. Beyond that all my money and assets is split between my parents, in the likely event I outlive my parents will change it to my siblings or their children. Funeral-wise my only requirement is a Catholic funeral, if I anticipate having a lot of extra cash, will give money to the presiding priest, servers, pallbarers, and pay for the meal afterwards.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Friday Fun Thread for November 1, 2024
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Paul Dano as the character I thought was good casting, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_%26_Peace_(2016_TV_series).


Also love the novel.