domain:mattlakeman.org
Even if your neighbor's dog is barking a lot, barking utterly pales in comparison to fireworks in terms of how disruptive it is due to the massive difference in volume
I don't know where you live, but I hear barking on a daily basis much louder than any of the firecrackers that went off this weekend (at least accounting for distance; how loud a mortar is from equivalent distance is frankly irrelevant to me unless my neighbor is literally setting them off from his porch). At least with fireworks, it's one or two nights per year and confined to a predictable 6 hour span. The barking occurs on a daily basis, at random, and extends indefinitely. Here, people's dogs bark at any hour. I've been woken up by howling at 3-4 am on a work day multiple times. You could ask me to choose fireworks every Friday if it meant dogs were banned from residential areas and I'd take that in a heartbeat. Over the span of a full year, there really is no comparison when it comes to which is more disruptive to my life.
At least a dog is an independent creature you can't control ... fireworks people are deliberately choosing to be assholes disrupting their neighbors
People choose to own dogs. They choose to ignore properly training them. They choose to continue to keep them even when they are a persistent nuisance to their neighbors. This attitude that you can't just get rid of your personal vanity project is common among dog owners. If your neighbor has a car horn that goes off at random times for random durations, I think you would be right to say it should either be fixed or trashed.
Are you really trying to argue that fireworks are just desserts when they punish not only the irresponsible, but also the responsible owners and those who don't even have dogs?
Nowhere in my post did I support the use of fireworks past a certain hour. I explicitly said I find them annoying as well. I've found many dog owners and their allies have a tendency to get extremely defensive and treat the slightest pushback on even a subset of behaviors as an attack. I never said that I want fireworks in order to punish dog owners, but somehow by simply saying that my personal frustration with dog barking is greater than my frustration with fireworks you jumped to that conclusion.
SubstantialFrivolity
I'm not even supposed to be here today
3hr ago
I'm neither a veteran nor a dog owner, but I think we need to do something about fireworks because of the usual reason - jerks are ruining it for everyone. I would be perfectly okay with fireworks on July 4, stopping at a reasonable hour (say 10-11 pm) so as not to disturb those trying to sleep. Instead what we get is about 2 months of fireworks on either side of the holiday, frequently going past midnight.
I honestly don't know what to do - normally you might say "make it illegal", but the mortar fireworks are illegal in this state already. But since people can drive 4 hours to Wyoming to get fireworks there, the law doesn't accomplish anything. It's a shame, because I actually love fireworks and it would be really cool to have them in the neighborhood if people were responsible. And to be fair most people are. But as usual, the irresponsible minority is causing problems for everyone.
aceventura
4hr ago
This tweet was popular on my feed, but frankly I can't distinguish between the physiognomy he's criticizing and how he himself looks. If I didn't know who Dave Greene was already, I might guess he was one of the internet atheists he's mocking. I'll grant that the Antifa people look very odd, but a lot of the terminally online right-wing personalities don't look very different that the terminally online left-wing to me.
Are there differences in physical appearance between the online left and online right?
vorpa-glavo
4hr ago
After my reading on Renaissance humanism, I don't really think of the thing that makes our society work (to the extent that it does) as a "democracy", but as an attempt at an Aristotlean "politeia" or constitutional republic.
Many parts of this are tangled up in a system that also sells itself on everyone having a voice (the modern meaning of "democracy"), but I think the lynchpins that make things work are the fact that we brainwash most of the populace for 13 years via public schools and the media, and that we received the individualist-trending practices of Christian Europe (nuclear family, incest taboo, etc.)
It also doesn't hurt that we're the wealthiest, most technologically advanced and highest state capacity nation in history. Even if parts of your system rely on sanding off the rough edges of human nature, where you fail to do that, it is a nice consolation prize to have a system where almost no one is starving, dying of thirst, etc. People don't want to rebel against rulers that keep them materially comfortable, even if they can feel the friction of the society rubbing against their human instincts.
aceventura
4hr ago
Is this true though?
Oh, I'm aware that what I want is essentially imperialism.
I've struggled with how to think about this.
I think that America's individualism and liberalism are highly unnatural and bad fits for human nature. That's why we had to have the wealthiest and most technologically advanced nation in human history, brainwash most of the nation for 13 years via school and media, cultivate a culture of ripping families apart through an expectation of moving out of your parents' house, and impose a taboo on cousin marriage to make it all work.
This is my difficulty. Once we've done all that. Once we've inculcated individualism and little L "liberalism" in the population, then it seems like you can have a form of federalism (AKA imperialism) that is compatible with a form of libertarianism (AKA doing what you want outside of what you're being forced to do via imperialism.)
But I do understand that the basic counter argument is that maybe we shouldn't strip people of the non-liberal parts of their cultures. Maybe we shouldn't impose an incest taboo, encourage the degraded form of the extended family we call "the nuclear family", and do all the other things that make the form of life we have in America possible.
I genuinely don't have a good answer for this. Individualism and little-L liberalism are the only way of life I know. I'm the child of two parents who both moved to different states than my grandparents, and I now live in a different city than my parents.
I've never known a collectivist society. I've never known a tightly knit small town community. I'm mostly happy, and a foolish part of me honestly believes we're a few reforms away from making this bizarre system of ours work with the 2 million year old hardware humankind is running on. But maybe the neo-reactionary and post-liberal right are correct, and it was all a doomed experiment from the start.
SubstantialFrivolity
I'm not even supposed to be here today
4hr ago
I can agree that the continued fireworks past midnight does get mildly annoying, but it is absolutely nothing compared to the year-round barking these dog owners inflict.
This is a crazy take. Fireworks (the mortar kind, which is what people around here do despite them being illegal) are an order of magnitude louder than dogs. Even if your neighbor's dog is barking a lot, barking utterly pales in comparison to fireworks in terms of how disruptive it is due to the massive difference in volume. It's made even worse by the fact that people choose to set off fireworks. At least a dog is an independent creature you can't control, but the fireworks people are deliberately choosing to be assholes disrupting their neighbors. Here people were setting off fireworks until 2 am! Fucking 2 am! Not only that, but people here start setting off fireworks 3-4 weeks before July 4, and continue for 3-4 weeks after, so it's not like it is just one night of this nonsense.
I would've had some sympathy for your argument if you just claimed that the two were equivalently disruptive. But claiming that fireworks are "absolutely nothing" in comparison to dogs barking is not the remotest bit reasonable. And it's not like most people have dogs that bark all the time anyways - I have had one neighbor, in my 40 years on this earth, that had such a dog. And yeah it's annoying. Perhaps one might even say those people are irresponsible and shouldn't own a dog. But they are the minority. Are you really trying to argue that fireworks are just desserts when they punish not only the irresponsible, but also the responsible owners and those who don't even have dogs? Because that would be completely disproportionate.
2rafa
4hr ago
Interestingly this is at least partly because Australian Aboriginal genes are even more recessive than white genetics.
Looked this up but couldn’t find anything on it. If it is true might be a quirk of their archaic human ancestry.
BreakerofHorsesandMen
Sweet Sejenus
5hr ago
I raise you Michael Mansell.
Confident that they could, and so never having asked if they should, Australian eugenics scientists continue to pursue their goal of creating the whitest oppressed black person to ever live.
Magusoflight
5hr ago
Interestingly this is at least partly because Australian Aboriginal genes are even more recessive than white genetics. I often found that strange, since it’s not typically the case with cross breeds of any other sort - any geneticists amateur or otherwise on themotte care to enlighten me why this is?
fmaa
5hr ago
See the first part of https://slatestarcodex.com/2018/02/21/current-affairs-some-puzzles-for-libertarians-treated-as-writing-prompts-for-short-stories/
I don't even necessarily disagree that this might be a good use of government, but this is essentially not an argument for democracy, but an argument for imperialism. Backwards communities need better morals enforced on them by guys with guns from more enlightened ones.
4bpp
Now I am become a Helpful, Honest and Harmless Assistant, the destroyer of jobs
5hr ago
Given the ongoing genocide of nearly 80 years, it seems pretty reasonable that the Palestinians would not want (...), too...?
You are trying to frame the two situations as fundamentally different, but it seems that your view of the difference boils down to whether you think the respective death-wishers are the "good guys". It's convenient for you that your current opinion of good and evil aligns with that of the US government, but the whole point of my hypothetical was, what if the US government's position changes?
functor
5hr ago
Not unlikely. People are going to be more focused on looks if they are choosing a partner for themselves rather than trying to find a partner for someone else.
bonsaii
5hr ago
It's just yet another step in the direction of forcing American society to restructure for the benefit of dog owners. I've posted before about my utter disdain for modern dog culture and the strong correlation between selfishness/narcissism with dog ownership. They have already turned my city into their personal open-air toilet and have made nearly every space "dog-friendly" despite signs politely requesting otherwise. The difference here is that this isn't just some rule or norm they can repeatedly violate without asking until society throws its hands up at the futility of enforcement. For once, they are on the side opposed to the social norm defectors and need top-down enforcement, but have their heads too far up their dogs' asses to see the irony.
I can agree that the continued fireworks past midnight does get mildly annoying, but it is absolutely nothing compared to the year-round barking these dog owners inflict.
Amadan
Enjoying my short-lived victory
6hr ago
Contrary to what @George_E_Hale said, this isn't an odd moment of bluntness for you, it's something you've been warned about before.
Drop this "this is just the way I talk" gimmick. You can say "Blacks aren't smart, but Jews and Chinese are," but phrasing it the way you did just reeks of "I'm an edgy ironic racist, hee hee hee." We've told you this already: being racist isn't prohibited, but you have to figure out how to spray your spittle in a polite manner, and if you find that difficult, that's intentional.
hydroacetylene
6hr ago
Is there anything to thé theory that the relatively early shift to love matches over arranged marriages has selected Western Europeans for greater phenotypic attractiveness?
ABigGuy4U
6hr ago
aqouta
6hr ago
'm a little unclear on how a libertarian watchman state where all of the government enforcers are racist/sectarian/whatever, ever stops being bigoted.
How is this problem solved through democracy?
Turniper
6hr ago
So, they could do virtually zero damage, mortally offend most of the entire western world by deliberately targetting a religious site, and get properly nuked in return? The offense to deterrence ratio on that plan does not pencil.
I originally bought a pressure washer to blast crud off the side of my house but now I primarily use it to wash my vehicles. It's oddly satisfying and the kids like it too. I added a foam cannon attachment so I can cover them in a sheet of soap suds, let that sit for 5-10 minutes, and then do a rinse.
Works reasonably well but some spots still need a scrubbing. I probably do this every other month, though it's required more in spring because of the sheer mass of pollen that collects.
I talked about detailing last week so won't rehash that part.
ABigGuy4U
6hr ago
Why has there been a coordinated push over the last few years to get people to stop using fireworks because it’s supposedly bad for veterans and dogs? I smell a psy-op.
Tanista
6hr ago
don’t have or bring over children
I don't see how this is possible when you can't even stop birth tourism from people flying in. Are they only going to work for four months or so?
functor
7hr ago
Pope Leo XIV has been pope for two months now. How has his first two months been and has your view of him shifted since he became pope?
Blueberry
7hr ago
I copied your post into o4-mini ChatGPT, without the last two paragraphs and the PSC idea, and this was spit out after a minute:
—————————
Here’s a proven, zero-Downtime–capable way to copy your Cloud SQL for MySQL database from Project A into Project B without dumping to GCS or exposing it publicly: use Database Migration Service (DMS) in the destination project, treating the source instance as a “self-managed” MySQL endpoint. This leverages private connectivity (VPC peering) so data never traverses the public Internet.
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Prepare your source Cloud SQL instance • Enable binary logging & GTID, and use row-based replication on your source: set log_bin, binlog_format=ROW, gtid_mode=ON, and retain logs (expire_logs_days or binlog_expire_logs_seconds) for at least a week. • Create a replication user with REPLICATION SLAVE, REPLICATION CLIENT, SELECT, SHOW VIEW, EXECUTE, TRIGGER, etc., per your migration type .
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Enable DMS in the destination project • In Project B, enable the Database Migration Service API and grant yourself the Database Migration Admin role.  • Ensure the DMS service account has compute.networkAdmin so it can set up peering. 
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Set up private connectivity (VPC peering) • In Project B, create a Private Connectivity Configuration under DMS → Private connectivity. Select the VPC from Project A that holds your source instance’s private IP; DMS will automatically peer its service-network VPC into that network. 
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Create your Source Connection Profile • Still in Project B’s DMS UI, go to Connection Profiles → Create Profile → Source. • Engine: MySQL • Classification: “Self-managed MySQL” (even though it’s Cloud SQL)—this bypasses the same-project restriction . • Host: the private IP (or public IP + authorized network) of your Cloud SQL source. • Credentials: use the replication user you created. 
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Create & run the Migration Job • Go to Migration Jobs → Create Migration Job in Project B.
- Name your job.
- Source: select the connection profile from step 4.
- Destination: choose an existing or let DMS create a new Cloud SQL instance in Project B.
- Connectivity: pick Private IP and select the private connectivity config you made in step 3.
- Type: choose One-time (initial load only) or Continuous (CDC + initial load).
- Test, then Start the job. 
DMS will do an initial data copy over the peered VPC, then (if you chose Continuous) apply changes in near real-time.
- Cut over to the new instance • Once the initial load is complete and lag is minimal, stop writes on the source, then in the DMS job click Promote. This switches your application to the target instance in Project B. 
Why this works
• No GCS buckets or manual dumps needed.
• Data never leaves Google’s private network—no public IP exposure.
• Cross-project works seamlessly by treating the source as self-managed and running DMS in the target project.
• Scales to multi-TB databases with minimal downtime (CDC mode)
———————————-
Is it wrong?
I don't think the the concept of more or less recessive phenotypes is particularly valid in the first place. Sure, hair and eye color are pretty much Mendelian, and I've noticed a few other discrete traits that seem to be pretty dominant/recessive (Hapas always seem to have the epicanthic fold and Blasians usually have darker skin than the median of their parents), but most traits seem to average out. The American understanding of White features being "recessive", particularly to Black features, probably derives from the existing admixture in the Black population (thus creating a broader range of "Black" phenotypes) and general cultural norms of hypodescent (the "one drop rule").
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