Lewis2
6d ago
You may be interested in this 1957 Panorama story on the Sunday laws which were then still in force in the UK. I’d wager you’d find it a glimpse into a completely different world.
Even in the 1990s in the US, I remember Sunday shopping or eating out was still looked upon by some as at least borderline immoral, and holding Sunday sporting events would have been inconceivable (but somehow attending a game or watching one on TV was considered okay). I still know some Christians who refuse to shop or work on Sundays, but that attitude is definitely a lot rarer than it was 30 years ago, let alone 50, 60, or 70+ years ago. The decline of Sunday Blue laws probably largely tracks the decline of that specific form of Christian piety, at least in North America. Europe seems to have its own thing going on.
Lewis2
9d ago
My guess would be that the higher the stakes, the more likely cross-tribe cooperation becomes.
I think that used to be almost universally true, but it’s becoming less so. Take for example the FEMA worker who ordered responders not to help hurricane victims who supported Donald Trump. And on the other side of the aisle, Trump has been accused of refusing to release federal aid to assist victims of natural disasters in Democratic-run states.
Lewis2
11d ago
The Church of Sweden was a state church until 2000, so at least in Sweden, the separation of church and state is a recent innovation.
Interestingly enough, this separation coincided with a low point in Swedish fertility rates. @DoktorGlas, do you have any idea why the birth rate plummeted and then somewhat recovered? Was the recovery just due to immigrants having more kids? (My apologies if you’ve already covered this in a previous post.)
Lewis2
12d ago
Evening shift security guard at a place that’s unlikely to experience trouble—say, for example, a library.
Lewis2
16d ago
Thanks! You were actually the one I had in mind as I wrote that, as I have always found your flair quite memorable.
Lewis2
16d ago
You can always add a flair under settings. Of course, people will only see it if they click on your profile, and you’re limited to 100 characters, but you could at least remind some people that “It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies.”
Lewis2
26d ago
Nah, if you really want to generate seethe, put a gun-wielding Harriet Tubman on the bill. The black woman part will upset some part of the right, but the gun-loving Republican will piss off far more on the left. Trump’s already said that he’d like to see her likeness on a new bill, and putting her there would complicate the push to have her replace the slave-owning Jackson on the $20.
Lewis2
27d ago
Location also matters. Rural schools usually have a much higher fatality rate than urban schools (some data here), typically due to a combination of dangerous farm work, dangerous driving habits, more miles driven, and more dangerous hobbies.
My own experience may be illustrative. I went to a rural high school of about 400 students. My freshman year was the first in 25 years not to see a single student death, though there were four more deaths my sophomore through senior years. In contrast, the large city schools near me (student population ~3,000–4,000) usually only have one or two deaths per decade.
I have always heard that it is extremely rude to refer to any boy who has reached his teens as “Master.” Wikipedia backs me up on this.
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