VoxelVexillologist
Multidimensional Radical Centrist
No bio...
User ID: 64
VoxelVexillologist
Multidimensional Radical Centrist
1mo ago
US airports sometimes mix international and domestic gates. The difference is that on arrival international flights kick all the passengers over to customs and usually make them go back through security before flying onward. But that can just be rearranging a couple doors.
VoxelVexillologist
Multidimensional Radical Centrist
1mo ago
"sporting purposes"
"Why yes officer, there is a bullseye downrange somewhere. It's very rare one of our new shooters actually hits it, though."
VoxelVexillologist
Multidimensional Radical Centrist
1mo ago
Thanks!
I wonder what that means for the legality of the "I am visiting the US and want to shoot a gun" folks. I've seen billboard ads for "shoot a machine gun" in at least Vegas and some red-state cities.
I guess that might not be legal "possession", though.
VoxelVexillologist
Multidimensional Radical Centrist
1mo ago
I assume some of the people discussing this are already maxing out their Roth IRA options, or exceed the salary caps.
VoxelVexillologist
Multidimensional Radical Centrist
1mo ago
Tbh last time I left the USA I did find it odd I didn't seem to pass through any specific exit point
The US doesn't make people leaving the country by air get a stamp, but flight (and ship) manifests are tracked for that sort of thing, I understand.
Needing permission to leave sounds a lot like the Berlin Wall, but I think makes sense for the EU combined area.
VoxelVexillologist
Multidimensional Radical Centrist
1mo ago
having a loaded deer rifle on the seat of his parked car.
Not aware of the law here: what's the legal status of illegal immigrants possessing firearms? IIRC In theory it was at least an ITAR issue for dumb reasons ("export") until the first Trump term when regular ol' guns left that list.
VoxelVexillologist
Multidimensional Radical Centrist
1mo ago
communist pamphlets
IIRC they were anti-draft pamphlets.
VoxelVexillologist
Multidimensional Radical Centrist
1mo ago
I'd bet a decent chunk are idiots with cheap DJI or equivalent drones not following the rules. But probably not all of them.
VoxelVexillologist
Multidimensional Radical Centrist
1mo ago
I have occasionally wondered if CO2, or something like it, is actually obesogenic somehow. It'd be really hard to test (nutrition experiments in controlled atmospheres sound expensive, even with rats), but it is a potential factor that is drastically different.
But "cheap, maximally-addictive, nutrient-lacking calories" sounds pretty reasonable too.
VoxelVexillologist
Multidimensional Radical Centrist
1mo ago
I have heard anecdotal accounts of illegal immigrants effectively forced to pay back those that got them across the border (cartels, I assume) from their under-the-table earnings in the States, presumably under threats to themselves or their families back home. I'd bet at least some have been forced to work in prostitution this way. Is it okay that I'm uncomfortable with Biden's effectively open-borders policies because an entire class of outside-of-the law persons tacitly legalizes indentured servitude?
I'm sure some are effectively indentured to their employers, too.
VoxelVexillologist
Multidimensional Radical Centrist
1mo ago
I'd prefer that beat cops in peaceful neighborhoods not be stomping around with plate carriers and full-auto rifles, but I don't see anything like that on the near horizon.
You know, for all the common talk about how American cops are so militarized, I've been surprised on a few occasions in Europe, where just having the gendarmes or sometimes even actual troops standing around in public spaces (airports, tourist hotspots) in full kit with long guns is a weird vibe. Although we recently had national guardsmen on the NYC subways, didn't we?
VoxelVexillologist
Multidimensional Radical Centrist
1mo ago
The current standard for where speech stops being lawful is when it is directed to inciting imminent lawless action and is likely to produce such action. I think that's a good standard.
I generally agree with this, but the zeitgeist on the ground has an awful lot of lawless action (political assassinations and attempts thereof) these days. It's obviously hard to tie specific actions there to specific speech, but the big picture is normalizing the idea of lawless action, not a single clear call for it. How much can I complain about "turbulent priests" before I'm responsible to the state when Thomas Becket gets murdered?
And I've never gotten a good answer on how "imminent" applies: can I promote a planned riot as long as it's more than, say, 12 months from now?
Clearly the shooter is a radical centrist when they're shooting people left and right.
ETA: although given my flair, I should probably explicitly condemn violence.
VoxelVexillologist
Multidimensional Radical Centrist
1mo ago
and while those kinds of women do exist, they aren't omnipresent. And more women than you probably think would be ok waiting until things become serious to have sex.
It may be more rare than it used to be, but I'm pretty sure "waiting until marriage" still exists from various anecdotes, and is even to some (women) a preference that they might not feel comfortable to state out front for the same reasons OP feels weird about this.
VoxelVexillologist
Multidimensional Radical Centrist
1mo ago
We've had the technology to raise temperature since around, oh, literally forever. But lowering temperature is a billion times harder.
This feels apropos applied to the Culture War, too.
VoxelVexillologist
Multidimensional Radical Centrist
1mo ago
I think Biden is the only vice president who was elected president since the Bush senior in 1988.
Interestingly, both served only a single term.
All of the victims were detainees.
As is tradition, I suppose.
The federal charges are not the strongest: "possession of a firearm within a school zone and discharge of a firearm within a school zone, in addition to interference with a radio communication station"
Doesn't this make it a "school shooting" by some metrics?
VoxelVexillologist
Multidimensional Radical Centrist
1mo ago
The point is to accuse the American people as such of racism and sexism and homophobia,
This accusation is always leveled at the right in particular. It's inconvenient when it would point at blue voting blocs, so I'm not surprised it gets swept under the rug. See also what happened to "Stop Asian Hate", and much of the mockery of that Gillette commercial.
VoxelVexillologist
Multidimensional Radical Centrist
1mo ago
If TPTB had the chutzpah to just kill Biden, Kamala would have had a chance: she would have been the first female president, she would have had the advantage of being in power.
If only there were a role given the power, nay the responsibility, to, under the 25th amendment to assemble a majority of the cabinet and compel a Congressional vote of confidence in the President. Not saying that wouldn't have been a long and potentially-destructive option, but the lack of motion there wasn't IMO a compelling story once Biden stepped aside.
VoxelVexillologist
Multidimensional Radical Centrist
1mo ago
I am somewhat critical of the entire gender movement, but also generally okay with consenting adults doing consenting adult things without bothering the rest of us, but I don't think it really matters too much to the example here: the remaining generally-agreed-upon systemic sexism that does exist goes mostly in one direction, which is why there isn't much drama about accepting trans men (not perceived as dangerous), but lots about trans women.
VoxelVexillologist
Multidimensional Radical Centrist
1mo ago
Most likely he had a conversation with some Russia hawk who flattered him while telling him Putin was making him look like a fool,
IIRC he and the First Lady just talked to Zelensky and his wife.
VoxelVexillologist
Multidimensional Radical Centrist
1mo ago
Aren't there a few cases where "am I being detained?" is actually a reasonable/correct response? Pretty sure it's followed by "if no, leave, if yes, ask for a lawyer".
It's definitely overused, though.
VoxelVexillologist
Multidimensional Radical Centrist
1mo ago
"rape culture,"
You know, I feel like I haven't heard this one in a while now. Odd how fixations on these things fade, sometimes surprisingly quickly.
VoxelVexillologist
Multidimensional Radical Centrist
1mo ago
And of course, the crime rate difference between men and women is gigantic.
There are plenty of ways in which The System™ very much accounts for this. I've never seen anyone in-ernest complaining that disparate conviction rates on the basis of gender being a sign of "Systemic Sexism". We got rid of all the exclusively-male spaces, but still allow women's-specific institutions: see the fervor on both sides of the trans issue, but the takes aren't typically "eliminate the women's restroom completely" or "repeal Title IX to have a single sports league again".
And honestly I think I'm okay with it that way.
It doesn't really help the "switch to metric" argument that unit conversions are typically done by computer these days anyway. The marginal cost of doing calculations in "harder" units isn't worth it because the calculations aren't really the hard part any more. Consumer products are pretty universally labelled with both, but the imperial units are round numbers: the box in front of me here is "16 oz (1 lb) 454 g".
Raw material stock sizes are probably a more difficult transition at this point: changing to size of the "2x4" (1.5 x 3.5 inches, naturally) would impact pretty much all construction heavily with seemingly little upside.
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