Another non sequitur, and in any case not what I said (nor implied, unless you read my reply in bad faith).

dissent

So I went to read it and found there's no dissenting opinion, but a concurring one: but oddly, if you CTRL+F "dissent", their concurrence lights up for me. Tried it on two PDF readers, but maybe I'm losing grip on reality.

Jesus you and everyone who commented on this comment is dumb fuck

You said, in your comment to my comment...

Look: you're putting so many words in my mouth, it's probably not worth replying, so...

One of the roads near my house was removed completely.

All roads near my house were removed completely.

Two different implications, no?

Yes, the title implies something more extreme than is actually proposed, but that's why I read articles (usually) before commenting.

It's what it costs you now, and you don't have alternatives now.

Maybe this will help you think about the future differently: be it planning to move or getting a different job so that you can use alternative transport, making smaller changes that would allow you to not use a car as much, or even long-term decisions like championing for change at the legislative level that might aid development of better transportation access.

There was a recent speech/plan/diatribe about this kind of thing by Cory Doctorow a couple months back: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rimtaSgGz_4

What I most appreciated about it is that in addition to describing the problems we're facing, he also proposed some actual fixes that are possible - though not without organization and concerted effort from those of us who care about this kind of thing!

I don't know what days I don't need that.

A quote I think about a lot is one by Susan Sontag, and I think it maps pretty well to what you've laid out (just obviously not in that same order!). "10 percent of any population is cruel, no matter what, and 10 percent is merciful, no matter what, and the remaining 80 percent can be moved in either direction.”

It’s like when King Solomon had 2 women fighting over a baby. So he offers to cut the baby in half. And one woman says “no, she can have the baby!” and he knows she’s the real mother. The Democrats are usually like her.

I think the Democrats have finally learned that there is no wise Solomon that will reward wisdom and responsibility, so the "fake mom" always gets the baby.*

The thing is....in a lot of ways, I agree with you. I do generally want people to take the high road whenever possible. I think short-term losses can be long-term wins, because I think moral behavior is a good thing to model in the world. Forgiveness is a wonderful thing for everyone. The GOP though...as long as I've been alive, haven't been good faith participants in our democracy. There's a danger in letting bullies get away with their behavior, if there's no evidence they're willing to reform.

So I respect this as a surprisingly tough play from the Democrats. The Republicans could have initially put forth a better Speaker candidate that got bipartisan support, but instead they kowtowed to the extreme right, and the Speaker they put in reneged on a budget deal, so he got shitcanned. The moderate Republicans could still, now, reach out to the Democrats for help. But like McCarthy on Sunday, most of them are terrified of their base, and see bipartisanship as a poison pill to their reelection changes (which is true).

*I think in this metaphor Solomon is "the voters", and the "fake momma" is the GOP?

Don't you think Chileans would disagree with you?

Personal favorite from the era: X-Wing! There were plenty of better Star Wars flights sims in the years after it, but the original on floppy disks holds a special place in my heart.

I've come up with a set of rules that describe our reactions to technologies:

  1. Anything that is in the world when you’re born is normal and ordinary and is just a natural part of the way the world works.
  2. Anything that's invented between when you’re fifteen and thirty-five is new and exciting and revolutionary and you can probably get a career in it.
  3. Anything invented after you're thirty-five is against the natural order of things.

― Douglas Adams, The Salmon of Doubt

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GoodbyeBlueMonday

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