RoyGBivensAction
Zensunni Scientologist
Married to a tomboy, so I have that going for me, which is nice.
User ID: 3756
RoyGBivensAction
Zensunni Scientologist
1d ago
I'm not making a moral objection here -- aesthetically, I think the whole "category" of protein is gross.
Agreed, although for an aesthetically gross slop bowl from Chipotle, "protein" is probably the correct term.
RoyGBivensAction
Zensunni Scientologist
1d ago
Got any favorite mixed drinks?
Hot temperatures outside: sidecar
Cold temperatures outside: white Russian (or black Russian if the dairy makes you nervous about hangovers)
RoyGBivensAction
Zensunni Scientologist
1d ago
Yeah, but most people will just scroll TikTok and eat slop. When they get bored they will do crime.
I see you've met my clients. The copybook heading that seems more and more true as I get older is "idle hands are the devil's workshop."
RoyGBivensAction
Zensunni Scientologist
1d ago
Like most things, it will depend on location. In my flyover Red area, a cop is going to do way better on the dating market than I would as a defense attorney (if I were still single).
RoyGBivensAction
Zensunni Scientologist
1d ago
its_the_same_picture.jpg
RoyGBivensAction
Zensunni Scientologist
1d ago
These wool slippers came up in a prior thread a few months ago, and I splurged on a pair. I got the shoe style with leather sole.
Verdict? So cozy it's probably illegal. I'm used to leather moccasins with no insulation and thin soles, so it's a departure, but they are beyond comfortable around the house. They are perfectly warm but don't make my feet sweat (in winter, summer might be different). Now I need a ridiculous smoking jacket and I'll complete the effete layabout look.
RoyGBivensAction
Zensunni Scientologist
1d ago
My immediate thought was "wow, either she has a very specific type, or I imprinted on her real good".
A friend of mine dated a girl for a while and the breakup was... acrimonious (in hindsight, he's lucky he didn't get stabbed some point). Her next bf (who became her husband) could've been my friend's stunt double. It will always be a mystery which of those two options is the answer.
RoyGBivensAction
Zensunni Scientologist
2d ago
Is the binary really criminal or national hero?
When someone is given the chance to be a hero and doesn't take it, they should feel deep shame.
The missing middle option is "don't become a police officer." For the civilian in the Greenwood Park mall shooting I linked to, I would totally understand him having feelings of shame had he been carrying and chosen to retreat instead (not saying that action would be shameful, but that I would understand the feelings). But retreating wouldn't be criminal.
For someone who has signed up for a job where they get treated as a hero for just having the job (plus an incredibly cushy pension in many states), then perhaps it really is binary: engage in the risks that you have been trained for and paid for (both financially and with social status), or risk the criminal prosecution.
RoyGBivensAction
Zensunni Scientologist
2d ago
The book thing is so weird. A female friend has commented that she would kill for a man who doesn't play vidya and reads real books (where real is defined as non-YA and non-self-help). To then try to filter based on whether a man is reading the "correct" non-problematic books is hilariously picky.
RoyGBivensAction
Zensunni Scientologist
2d ago
Ex-Uvalde Officer Found Not Guilty of Endangering Children in Mass Shooting (NYT link, worked for me without an account)
Adrian Gonzales, the first officer to arrive at the school, was facing 29 counts of abandoning or endangering children, 19 for the dead and 10 more for survivors, after seven hours of deliberations Wednesday.
During the three-week trial, prosecutors argued that Mr. Gonzales, 52, failed to stop the gunman despite a witness alerting him to his whereabouts moments before the assailant stormed two connected classrooms.
Defense lawyers persuaded the jury that Mr. Gonzales had done the best he could with the information he had and that at least three other officers had arrived seconds later and also failed to stop the gunman. They also presented evidence that Mr. Gonzales had rushed into the building minutes after arriving, but retreated with the other officers after shooting began.
My immediate thought, having read about prosecutions of police officers before, was that they found the special prosecutor version of Ralph Wiggums to ensure an acquittal. However, Bill Turner appears to have been the elected DA for Brazos County from 1983-2013, so it's hard to say. Many elected DAs have little trial experience and can be ineffective compared to a regular assistant DA who grinds 4-10+ trials per year, but maybe he's been getting some trial experience since 2013.
It's an interesting disparity that many people have commented on before: officers receive all kinds of "training and experience" (as they will brag about ad nauseum when testifying or in a pre-trial interview), but when it really counts and they fail to make effective use of that training and experience, it won't be held against them. They will instead be given infinite benefit of the doubt, as can be seen when officers are sued under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 lawsuits (heavily slanted law review article, but it correctly describes the reality of trying to sue for excessive force violations).
It takes a few minutes, but it's not hard to find examples of people with no training or experience engaging a mass shooter. Or officers who did so when they were off-duty: example 1, example 2.[1]
It seems to be one more piece of the overall modern American problem of failing to hold people accountable for high-profile failures because they had the correct credentials and merit badges. It's the brain on bureaucracy that 100ProofTollBooth notes below. "So-and-so had the correct credentials and followed the correct procedures, therefore no one is to blame for this terrible outcome." And then they might not even be held accountable when they don't follow those procedures, like here.
If the rule you followed all the training and experience brought you to this, of what use was all that training?
[1]Incidentally, this one is a fine example of wikipedia's slant on defensive use of arms. If you track down the shooter's post-arrest interview, he says he dropped his gun because he saw armed people approaching him, but wiki presents some witness statements to try to make it sound like he dropped his guns and the guys approaching with guns played no role in stopping the shooting.
RoyGBivensAction
Zensunni Scientologist
2d ago
The standard is whether a reasonable person observing what the officer did and within the time the officer had to evaluate would have perceived it as a threat.
The standard involves a reasonable officer, not a reasonable person, and the interpretation of that standard is very, very officer friendly.
RoyGBivensAction
Zensunni Scientologist
3d ago
Or is this the 2nd production with Maduro's capture being the first?
RoyGBivensAction
Zensunni Scientologist
3d ago
No sense of propriety and harmony.
Are there any well-functioning places left that have those?
RoyGBivensAction
Zensunni Scientologist
3d ago
Yes, a Russian in Argentina, an Indian in the U.S., or a Chinese in Canada all render such a system unworkable.
RoyGBivensAction
Zensunni Scientologist
3d ago
Redwall, Chronicles of Prydain, and Dark is Rising have all been mentioned, so I'll say that The Great Brain series is also another good one for kids.
RoyGBivensAction
Zensunni Scientologist
3d ago
Yet another time where location flags would be helpful here.
RoyGBivensAction
Zensunni Scientologist
7d ago
You might be reading too much into this. One of the hosts is a divorce attorney. Female divorce attorneys have been the most rabid Karens since before the term ever existed. They are the epitome of angry radicalization. Trying to use one as the bellwether for a movement is probably not accurate.
RoyGBivensAction
Zensunni Scientologist
7d ago
If you were turned off by The Force Awakens (which, contrary to what Kennedy says, was disliked for being too much like the OT), it's been a decade.
The prequels killed any interest I had in the IP (in hindsight, viewing it as an adult rather than a kid, Return of the Jedi was also bad). Specifically the second one since I had hopes the first awful one was a fluke. Nope, just garbage. So I guess I'm coming up on 24 years of not seeing why people still get invested in it.
RoyGBivensAction
Zensunni Scientologist
7d ago
Today is the first time I might feel something akin to national pride. Mild pride, mind you
"What's the opposite of shame?"
"Pride?"
"No, not that far from shame."
"Less shame?"
RoyGBivensAction
Zensunni Scientologist
7d ago
High-Rise is excellent. If you haven't explored much Ballard, you owe it to yourself to do so.
RoyGBivensAction
Zensunni Scientologist
7d ago
golden handcuffs along the lines of the wiping_tears_with_money.gif meme.
More like "plastic coated with aluminum foil" handcuffs, and I'm only wiping up tears with money if I'm using (and reusing) a bunch of singles.
RoyGBivensAction
Zensunni Scientologist
7d ago
How functional are we talking? Jerry Garcia was a user for 20 years. William Burroughs was a long-time user.
RoyGBivensAction
Zensunni Scientologist
7d ago
We haven't had a presidential hopeful that embodies those in 14 years, and the predicted hopefuls for the next round don't either. For the failed candidate that had a grain of any of those- well, hard to forget what one of the later shitbags said about him.
Romney sure put paid to the claim heard among some liberals that they'd be happy to vote for a moderate Republican, not a crazy one like [insert whichever one they're putting down at the moment].
RoyGBivensAction
Zensunni Scientologist
7d ago
How do you think it would end up?
Either Cabrini-Green or High-Rise.
No clue on the US vs Australian quality difference, but for slippers inside the house, I prefer a leather sole.
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