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Cake day: March 6th, 2024

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  • Purchased a soft drink from a fast food restaurant. I have a few friends that, in their minds, it is never justified to buy a drink from a fast food place if you’re doing takeout because “you have drinks at home, they charge $3 for something that costs them $0.11 to make, etc.”

    It’s become somewhat of a debate amongst our group of friends: I argue they have flavors I may not have at home, it can be a treat, and it helps keep restaurants in business since drinks are where they make their money. I’m told it doesn’t matter, the upcharge is too much to justify.

    I’ve boiled my view on it to “There is a fine line between frugal and cheap.” But never thought the purchase of a soft drink would be so polarizing amongst people in my life, hahaha.

    There’s also an ongoing moratorium on the board game Life simply because we cannot agree if it’s legal for one player to take out all of the bank’s loans on their first turn. It’s not explicitly stated in the rules you can’t, but many of us feel it defeats the spirit of the game.


  • The older guy at the beginning gives him and the people around him a look of “Wtf is this guy doing?!” with the upward-facing palm gesture when the guy first starts. He’s also one of the ones leaving towards the end.

    But seriously… Fuck the guy with the gun, broke damn near every firearm safety rule for what, the sake of a dance?


  • Fun fact: The Navy uses the affirmative “aye” or “aye aye” as opposed to “roger” like the Army/Air Force/etc because of similar slang origins. Basically, sailors used to use the word “roger” to mean “fuck,” both as an insult and as a way to identify women they had been with while in port.

    “Yeah, I rogered her last night at the tavern,” kind of thing. But as sailors began to respond to officers using “Roger that (fuck that),” the Navy came down and made “aye aye” the official affirmative response for their personnel.

    And even then, “aye” is simply a “I understand” whereas “aye aye,” means “I understand and will carry out X.”

    The US Navy also launched an investigative unit during the 1800s (I wanna say the 1880s?) to find homosexual sailors and kick them out of the Navy. The unit only lasted a couple of years before being shut down, as the only people volunteering for the unit were homosexual sailors. 😆



  • From high middle-high school timeframe, probably The Yellow Wallpaper, I just think about that one at least a few times a year. And I only read it the one time in school.

    The less well known one I remember from elementary school was My Brother Sam is Dead. It’s about a family during the American revolution, where the father just wants to stay out of all of it and live their lives, but the eldest son wants to join the revolution. The whole story is just the hardships the family has to go through after the son runs off with the only gun to fight and ends up dying, and how that affects the family and the youngest brother, who the story is told from the perspective of.

    None of my friends remember My Brother Sam is Dead, but if I’m remembering right, the ending is kinda dark for a bunch of 3-5th graders.





  • Ok, so then what was the plan? If the killing was a mercy, and was expedited by Germany losing the war, what was the plan for the 17 million collective people? Because I provided such a dismally low number of under one million in response to your comment saying the only reason the Nazis started killing more quickly was because they were losing. And those one million (more, since I’m sure my source didn’t count all deaths, only those who were Jewish) mattered to people, so they mean no less than the other 16 million killed later during the war.

    I’m waiting, I’ve provided sources regardless of whether you respect them, you’ve provided nothing to back up any of your claims, so why don’t you refute my apparently unfounded claims of you being a holocaust denier?

    Is that civil enough for a discussion with a holocaust denier, moderators? I’m glad we have to respect the opinions of holocaust deniers, god bless tolerating the intolerant. 🙄



  • According to museumoftolerance.com and their Holocaust Timeline, Hitler said during a Reichstag speech in January 1939:

    if war erupts it will mean the Vernichtung (extermination) of European Jews

    So before the war even started, when these people were already surviving in the world, eating, etc, the Nazis and Hitler already knew feeding them would be a logistical problem best solved by death?

    The Chelmno (Kulmhof) extermination camp began operations on December 8, 1941, literally one day after Pearl Harbor, far before Germany was “losing” the war. And camps don’t just pop up overnight, especially ones that earn the denomination of being an extermination camp, so was this just more logistical foresight on behalf of those oh so kind Nazi officials?

    From the same source regarding the Kulmhof Extermination Camp opening:

    340,000 Jews, 20,000 Poles and Czechs murdered by April 1943

    Or the March 17, 1942 Entry:

    Extermination begins in Belzec; by end of 1942 600,000 Jews murdered

    Wow, the German 6th Armored didn’t surrender at Stalingrad until January 1943, and the Allies didn’t invade until June 1944, so that’s an awful lot of “mercy killing” happening before the Nazis knew they were going to lose the war.

    And FYI, just because the Nazis didn’t begin their extermination campaign until after the war began, doesn’t mean their actions don’t signal what their intentions were from the start: Dachau opened in March 1933, Jewish Germans were barred from military service in 1935, Jewish doctors barred from practicing medicine in 1936, immigrant Jews having their German citizenship status revoked, the Nuremberg Laws of 1935, Kristallnacht in 1938… Like, you see all this, right?

    Where do I need to start explaining stuff here?



  • I remember my first year in the Navy (2013ish) we had to have one of those financial planning briefings. I distinctly remember them mentioning that the average American needs $1 million to retire comfortably, assuming their other assets are paid off by the time they retire (house, car, etc). And I remember that number because a friend of mine said the same thing to me once when we were in high school.

    I think it was a couple years ago, someone (some talking head on a news site) was talking about how the average American needs about $2 million in their retirement account to retire comfortably now, and that’s the number you should aim for…

    So the amount of money you need to retire comfortably doubled in 10 years, but wages are still stagnant as they are? Yeah, I’ve told my dad, unless some miracle happens, I will never be able to retire. I don’t even have health insurance, and I make $18/hr… With rent/mortgage, food, clothing, vehicle, etc expenses climbing and wages continuing to be stagnant despite this “amazing” economy I keep hearing about, where am I supposed to find money to put away for down the road? I’m one accident away from bankruptcy.

    For me, personally, it’s why I think “no one wants to work anymore,” what is the point when we can’t get ahead? Why even bother when we’re going to be doing this into our 80s while being told we should be grateful by people who think a day of work is expensive lunches at the country club followed by a round of golf, and a blowie from their secretary?


  • True, no animal consents to being eaten, and I understand veganism is meant to eliminate or mitigate unnecessary animal products from one’s diet, but I don’t think “no animal consents to being eaten” works here. That’s nature (and yes, I’m ignoring that humans are part of nature, despite our best efforts to think we aren’t), you can’t change nature. You’re not going to get a lion or a shark to stop being a carnivorous predator because that’s just what they are.

    I also don’t necessarily agree with your knife argument: a serial killer does not need to kill to survive, whereas living things need to eat to survive. I don’t think the consent argument is as ridiculous as that, I would more equate it to an infirm cancer patient being given chemotherapy drugs versus homeopathy treatment. They can’t consent to either, but one is clearly meant to try to fix the issue, whereas the other is a personal choice.

    Veganism is a personal choice, cats needing meat in their diet is not. I have nothing against veganism, and I appreciate your arguments (I hadn’t considered the “not consenting to be eaten” aspect). Idk, to me, people who force their diets/lifestyles onto their pets that aren’t equipped for it, it’s just… Immoral? I’m blanking on the word, it’s been a long week.


  • What I don’t understand about all of this is the consent aspect: your cat/dog/pet did not consent to a vegan diet, so why are you forcing it on them? Obviously you can’t ask your pet what they want for dinner, but left to their own devices, I doubt any of them would choose a vegan diet, so… Why force it on them?

    Even ignoring all of the science and everything, morally/ethically, it just feels messed up to me. It’d be like forcing your child to eat food they’re allergic to because it’s healthier/more ethical, despite it causing health issues for them.

    Absolutely wild



  • When I was a carrier, I had a business road on my route, all the mailboxes were at the curb for every business. On two or three separate occasions, I’d get to the last box and it looked rougher than it did the previous day. Business owner came out and told me the box had been broken into again, along with several others on the road, and wanted to know what we could/would do about it.

    I called my postmaster and explained and asked if USPIS would be getting involved (as the business owner also asked). I was told no, they don’t get involved in those sorts of things, the owner would just have to file a report with the police, and we’d stop delivering on Saturdays since none of the businesses would be open.

    I never got a further explanation than that, so I couldn’t say why USPIS doesn’t get involved, but they don’t seem to anymore. 🤷‍♀️


  • So they can come out and, best case scenario, they tell you there’s nothing they can do? Or show up and wait on standby for the criminal to finish what they’re doing a la Uvalde?

    Or would you prefer the come out to a potential burglary call and end up shooting the woman who called the police in the head?

    Good thing we have so many of them to keep us safe during all these crimes. 🙄