VoxelVexillologist
Multidimensional Radical Centrist
No bio...
User ID: 64
VoxelVexillologist
Multidimensional Radical Centrist
13d ago
Who is stealing detergent?
A while (a decade or more, now) back, there were a series of articles about Tide being used as street currency for drug sales. I'm uncertain if that is still true, or even was ever particularly common, but it probably is at least known to store managers.
https://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2013/01/14/why-would-drug-dealers-use-tide-as-a-currency
VoxelVexillologist
Multidimensional Radical Centrist
13d ago
Nobody has argued about embryonic stem cell research in a while. Although we have had left-coded arguments about HeLa cell line research.
Younger commenters seem to consistently under overestimate how long the South has been "Deep Red" territory: the legacy of the Southern Democrats held on at the state level well into the '90s. I am frequently amused at local Blue commenters in my Red state complaining about (perceived Red) state laws and policies that were actually enacted by the Blue team 40 years ago.
Was Manchin the last of that breed? He just left office this year.
VoxelVexillologist
Multidimensional Radical Centrist
13d ago
I bet 'perceived crime rates' includes observations of crime-adjacent activities that wouldn't ever be measured in 'actual' rates: the appearance of ubiquitous graffiti (see pictures of 80s subway cars), or of loitering ne'er-do-wells in the park isn't necessarily a wrong perception about crime rates.
You don't have to fully endorse the broken windows theory of (causing) crime to accept that frequent observations of broken windows can cause a true perception of rising crime rates.
VoxelVexillologist
Multidimensional Radical Centrist
14d ago
This would be an interesting case if some state decided it wasn't going to recognize marriage at all.
VoxelVexillologist
Multidimensional Radical Centrist
14d ago
I will at least observe that Red states have been, even in this era, pushing back on the prevalence of online porn. Pornhub, notably, has blocked a number of states that have passed relevant legislation to require age verification. It's Very Possible Nowadays to circumvent such things or find sites that don't care about (American) jurisdiction quite so much, but it is happening.
Notably, though, the argument is less "this content is sinful", and more "this content is demonstrably poisoning the relations and sexual health of our children".
VoxelVexillologist
Multidimensional Radical Centrist
14d ago
It missed its chance to be the one and only 10th Amendment precedent.
VoxelVexillologist
Multidimensional Radical Centrist
14d ago
I think Putin's stated goals of destroying the idea (the meme as it were) of a distinct Ukrainian identity is, under the more expensive definitions, considered "genocide", but I will concede that it's a much less central example than "industrially kill them all" or just "evict them from their lands and ignore the obvious implications" that people would typically point to in WWII.
VoxelVexillologist
Multidimensional Radical Centrist
14d ago
I wonder if that's how presidents had to be in the past, and the rest of us reading the newspaper listening to radio watching on TV following social media real-time feeds just weren't as knowledgeable about those realities until recently.
VoxelVexillologist
Multidimensional Radical Centrist
15d ago
And yet no one is seriously accusing them of being genocidal.
I think "no one" is excluding a lot here: the governments of several NATO member states have made such claims, and the ICC (which admittedly isn't held in the highest esteem everywhere) has issued arrest warrants for Russian leaders on genocide or genocide-adjacent charges.
I'm not suggesting you have to agree with those descriptions, but I think it falls well short of "no one."
VoxelVexillologist
Multidimensional Radical Centrist
15d ago
Under a very loose definition of "ethnic cleansing", the IDF forcing Jews out of Gaza in the 2005 withdrawal (in some cases unwillingly) fits the definition, but is hardly the central example you're looking for.
VoxelVexillologist
Multidimensional Radical Centrist
15d ago
The zipper and button closures on men's and women's jackets and shirts are traditionally reversed from each other, too.
VoxelVexillologist
Multidimensional Radical Centrist
15d ago
The external bed of a pickup truck is also easier to clean than the inside of a van, so you can haul dirty things that you might not want inside your van (cans of gas for your lawn implements, deer carcasses, brush) and hose it out when you're done.
VoxelVexillologist
Multidimensional Radical Centrist
15d ago
Gaza also bans abortion and IIRC limits birth control pretty heavily, in addition to promulgating pro-natal memes, even if they are "eventually outnumber the [redacted]."
VoxelVexillologist
Multidimensional Radical Centrist
16d ago
I'd be cautious there that a middle option is technically possible: Obama ordered airstrikes on Syria against ISIL, and there have been American boots on the ground there since (unclear on exact deployment dates and current status), but they've remained in a limited capacity as such without being a full-blown invasion a la 2003. It's possible the exact wording of your prediction may matter quite a bit.
VoxelVexillologist
Multidimensional Radical Centrist
16d ago
I find it somewhat amusing that the US has state-run education, and we regularly talk about how the $17k spent annually on the median K-12 student is too low (but is still higher than peer nations). But healthcare is (mostly) privately run, and we spend more than peer countries and in this case it's obvious that we should save by switching to a more centrally-run model. I'm not sure those positions really square with each other.
VoxelVexillologist
Multidimensional Radical Centrist
17d ago
The modern theory of deterrence may look more like identifying the humps that disrupt the slippery slope, and trying to beat your opponent back to one of those humps but no further, versus... trying to push your humps as far up the slope as possible?
I think the term in the literature you're looking for is "escalation dominance."
VoxelVexillologist
Multidimensional Radical Centrist
17d ago
My advice for rulers, especially ones on the outs with major geopolitical powers...
It seems like "on the outs with major geopolitical powers" is doing a lot here. It's not even "be a democracy": nobody is threatening to invade Eritrea (not far from Yemen, also a dictatorship). It's not exclusively Muslim nations either (Venezuela, Cuba, and North Korea are in the club).
As best as I can tell, the only consistent rule seems to be "don't be jerks to your neighbors beyond your borders," but I'll accept there's some level of Realpolitik at play.
VoxelVexillologist
Multidimensional Radical Centrist
17d ago
It's weird that "National" refers to the US and Canada together here (the NBA has one, previously two Canadian teams). The last guy to call them one country got a lot of grief for it.
VoxelVexillologist
Multidimensional Radical Centrist
20d ago
I've heard lots of accounts of regular medical (and dental) patients crossing the border to Mexico (and maybe Canada) for procedures because it's much cheaper there and the quality is equal or at least close enough. A few horror stories too, though. Usually not too distant travel, though.
I think cancer patients travel pretty regularly for specialist treatment too.
VoxelVexillologist
Multidimensional Radical Centrist
20d ago
"what is a woman?"
I will (weakly) defend her non-response on the basis that SCOTUS are the constitutional Platonic philosopher kings, to whom this sort of seems-trivial-but-actually-has-subtlety question like "is the ACA fine for not having insurance a tax?" (whether or not you agree on the depth of this particular question I think the category still stands), and that generally justices are discouraged from discussing potential cases during confirmation hearings.
That said, I quite likely disagree with her answer to the question regardless.
VoxelVexillologist
Multidimensional Radical Centrist
20d ago
The pro-life side will probably happily point you to the apparently slippery slope of MAID in Canada (and elsewhere): have you considered euthanasia as a treatment for PTSD?
VoxelVexillologist
Multidimensional Radical Centrist
20d ago
A brief search suggests that the average Democrat in the House is two years older than the average Republican. And the last 8 members of Congress to die in office have been Democrats.
Although it's quite possible those numbers are pretty dynamic and shift with major elections though: I couldn't trivially find a time series.
VoxelVexillologist
Multidimensional Radical Centrist
20d ago
IIRC the NYC mayors race OP is complaining about uses ranked choice voting.
True, but the theory isn't that the beams melted, it's that they weakened due to the temperature. Structural steel loses half its room-temperature strength at 500 °C, and the chart I can find doesn't go much past that. Structural factors of safety are high, but not that high, and it's unsurprising IMO that they'd fail at "extended structural fire" temperatures, which is why we mandate automatic sprinklers in such buildings these days.
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