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PLEASE GO STAND BY THE STAIRS

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joined 2022 September 04 23:45:12 UTC 

				
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pusher_robot


								

								

								
								
								

								
							
					
 
				


				
PLEASE GO STAND BY THE STAIRS

				
				
				

				

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					joined 2022 September 04 23:45:12 UTC
				


				
					

					
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User ID: 278


					
					
					
				

			


					

						
					



		

	

 











			
			

			
			

			




	


		

			
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				Friday Fun Thread for June 13, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
First car was a 1994 Integra which I purchased in 2003 for $4300.  Prior to that, I had ridden mopeds, motorcycles, and occasionally busses to get around, and borrowed my parent's car in the summer.  I still remember this car fondly, as it had a wonderful ride and a crisp, genuinely enjoyable manual gearbox.  Sadly, in 2006 it developed a head gasket leak and I deemed it not worth fixing.  The Honda dealer I had working on it gave me a reasonable trade-in offer on it and I bought a black 2006 Civic with manual gearbox off the showroom floor.  After trade in, the price was something like $22K.


I lived downtown at the time and this car was largely ideal for getting around the city, though I grew to sometimes resent the manual when stuck in creeping traffic. Eventually, I ruined the decent handling it had with some atrocious cheap all-season tires, and shortly afterwards, I was T-boned by a hit-and-run driver in a bad part of the city which totaled the car.  I got the plate and gave it to the police, and subrogated my claim to the insurance company, but I never did get my deductible back.


After test driving a couple cars I replaced it with a 2012 Fusion automatic for about $27K, which is still my daily driver. There's nothing wonderful about it, but it runs fine and doesn't cost much to maintain.  It doesn't have an LCD screen or any driver aids beyond cruise control and automatic headlights, but it does have Bluetooth and a decent sound system, and I try to keep it clean.  I know I will probably want to replace it before it gets unreliable, but have a hard time getting excited about most cars out there.  If I had to replace it today, I'd probably go with a hybrid Accord or hybrid Maverick.  I'd like to test drive a Model Y.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of June 9, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
75-80.  I want to be a bit slower than the faster traffic, so that they will draw the attention of speed enforcement.  Also, much beyond that and the engine is noisier, and I'm consciously aware of the fact that thanks to the square power law I'm wasting a lot of fuel on creating wind without saving much time.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of June 2, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Not if they rise to the level of seditious conspiracy.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Small-Scale Question Sunday for June 8, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Beer garden


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of June 2, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


I don’t get the hate over boomer consumption because it is, generally, much lower than the consumption of working people who criticize them on the basis that their resources should be reallocated. Cruises are, on the scale of vacations, pretty cheap. Retirees aren’t DoorDashing much. And boomer housing wealth isn’t actually something they can do much about.




Their health care counts as consumption as much as those other items do.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of June 2, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


Except that no such thing happened, the German-Americans are today mostly integrated into mainstream English-speaking society.




I think it's noteworthy that the proximal cause for this was a war waged by America against the mother country, with no small amount of pressure applied to assimilate. We do not really do that at all any more. More likely the opposite, I think: by the undisputed teachings of anti-imperialism, anti-colonialism, and anti-American intellectual output, assimilating to hegemonic values generally and white capitalistic American values specifically is morally wrong.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of June 2, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Then they can't reasonably complain about deploying the national guard.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of June 2, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Agreed. Forcing cities into receivership that puts state legislatures into an oversight role can only help Republicans. Even in Illinois, the Democrats don't control the state as strongly as they control Cook county.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of June 2, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


And because American liberals secretly want stern dad John Wayne to reassert reality and normality after their radicals go too far and temper those radicals a bit while leaving the hands of liberals clean and letting them chafe against the repressions of normality




I just can't unsee in my mind Col. Nathan R. Jessup: "You want me on that wall.  You need me on that wall."  Of course, that's fiction, and as the ur-conservative in an Aaron Sorkin film, he of course went to prison.  But I agree it does point to something real, and unfortunately for liberals their institutional hegemony put them in a position to purge enough of these types from positions of power and influence such that they are gone, probably permanently.  And now they need to either surrender, or pick up a rifle and stand a post.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of June 2, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


Firstly the choice to want an EV in the first place is purely virtue signalling - nobody I know ever justified it with anything other than highfalutin saving-the-planet rhetoric




This really is way out of date.  For a lot of people in cities and suburbs, 99% of driving tasks are within a hundred miles or so of home and an EV provides lower TCO, the more so the more miles you drive.  It especially makes sense for a family that already has an ICE car to use for road trips.  I am even aware of militia-adjacent preppers that are high on EVs due to being able to fully sustain them off the grid.


I personally will probably want to replace my 2012 Fusion at some point in the next few years and am waffling between EV or ICE.  I don't tend to drive a lot of miles so TCO is probably a wash unless gas prices go way up, but the raw performance of electric and idea of being able to "refuel" in my own garage is really appealing.  Having to charge on road trips is the biggest downside.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of May 26, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Housing is a natural investment vehicle for two reasons:


    

  1. It's an asset that is likely to hold its value over a long time, and
    2. 

  2. As an investment asset, it provides you housing for "free".
    3. 



In other words, while property is not a completely safe investment, it's a relatively safe one (if you're smart about it), and unlike other relatively safe investments like index funds and treasury bonds, you can live in it. Notably, it doesn't need to greatly increase in value for this dynamic to be controlling. That's just a quirk of certain spots becoming much more highly desirable.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Small-Scale Question Sunday for June 1, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Are you talking about social Darwinism?


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of May 26, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
The year is 2050.  Mass unemployment has been forestalled by government revenue per employee maximums.  Practically speaking, this means the vast majority of jobs are sinecures, but the social prestige of being sinecured to a particular firm or brand has skyrocketed in value, and likewise the PR cost of sinecured associates can potentially be Bud-Light-level apocalyptic.  As a result, sinecures at highly-desirable firms often take on substantial relations efforts on behalf of the firm for free, both to maintain their sinecure, acquire additional sinecures, and potentially rake in social media influencer consulting fees), but also to increase the social prestige of the firm overall, and by proxy, themselves.  Having multiple sinecures is possible for people who are motivated to do things that increase brand value or mindshare, and people with exceptional social desirability may acquire many more.  Income supplementation via gig work will still be possible for things that can't be done as well by computers and robots or require the human touch, though naturally the returns will be low since the supply is huge.  Of course, anyone with valuable sinecures must be on good behavior in public, for bringing disrepute or negative reaction to the firm will mean instant termination, and potential blackballing.


Those who have been blackballed or otherwise unable to merit a sinecure on the basis of their social worthiness must provide by going and doing actual labor, probably many hours of grinding gig work, or finding a valuable contracting niche.  Most actual work below executive level done at the firms is performed by independent contractors, who supplement their sinecures (if they have one) with hourly contracting fees.  And of course, there's always welfare, but which only provides at sustenance levels.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of May 26, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


women gaining ever more status and wealth




And weight


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of May 26, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
A noteworthy exception, but a Crown possession in living memory, and possibly not scalable past city-state.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of May 26, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
"Helps" not really in any formal sense.  Republican Congressmen are not actually in thrall to Trump to the degree you seem to think.  He got very little from the Republican Congress his first term (not even border wall funding!) and seems likely to get little from them his second term either.  Key members have interests more or less orthogonal to Trump's.  He could possibly pound the table and demand legislation, but I'm skeptical how much it would move the needle - after all, Congressmen are not elected nationally.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of May 26, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
If it is indeed hopeless, than we can at long last dispense with the concept of building anything for the future.  Loot what you can, while you can.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of May 26, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Under Article I, legislation must be passed by Congress.  The President only has the power to veto or not.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of May 26, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


I mean, plenty of Asians preferred living in the US (where they were a minority) to living in Asia, because by and large, being an ethnic minority is not that bad a deal in the US.




I think there's a reasonable fear that the "being an ethnic minority is not that bad a deal in the US" is only the case because of the unusual and ahistoric forbearance of the existing ethnic majority.  There's a disquieting dearth of places friendly to ethnic minorities that are not run by white people.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Friday Fun Thread for May 23, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I have been using Pop! OS on laptops that don't support Windows 11. It seems nice.


Just a caution to the OP though: I've been down this road a few times, and family members did not really appreciate the benefits of Linux compared to the hassle of not being able to use the Windows apps they are used to. Even the ones I thought for sure only used web and email. In every case, I ended up having to abandon the effort.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of May 19, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Maybe you're thinking of Biden? https://youtube.com/watch?v=ciwyYnwYFaQ?si=nEANKgR7xGw6h2Vk


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of May 12, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I agree with this. It would be far less troubling to just slide the hotel clerk a few bucks and ask if they have any scarves that haven't been claimed for a long time.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Tinker Tuesday for May 13, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I've used https://www.taydaelectronics.com for a few projects and found them to have a limited but pretty useful inventory at very reasonable prices, aimed at hobbyists rather than manufacturers.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Friday Fun Thread for May 9, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
It prominently features the iconic Windows 95 startup sound famously created by Brian Eno on commission from Microsoft.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Friday Fun Thread for May 9, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
If you're a Millennial, this Windows 95 theme ambient track is probably pretty nostalgic.