The majority of fairy tales (as told throughout human history) do not have happy endings. They were typically told to teach or reinforce hard social truths to prepare young people for the world. The "fairy-tale ending" is really an anachronism of modern, capitalistic story telling. Happy fantasy sells, and reinforces myths that benefit the elite, such as upward social and financial mobility (see Jane Austin, or every Disney movie), and the opportunity to become part of the landed gentry. The belief that everything always works out is itself a major piece of the capitalists propaganda machine, and because we fall for this, we keep making decisions against out best interests - We are all just one fateful encounter away from becoming rich or famous after all.

This is the superior combat mechanic.

Ron Paul is essentially the father of the Tea Party wing of the Republicans, which with all of their "Stop Obama" campaigns and fear-mongering paved the way for Trump and the far-right turn of the GOP. His brand of Libertarianism revels in a house divided and non-working. He is a walking billboard for 'starve the beast' political ideology, where government programs are neutered to the point of being useless, and therefore justifying their cancelation. Ron Paul has helped to serve you the America you currently live in. Fuck Boy Ramaswamy is a pale comparison of Paul, in that he spouts some of the rhetoric, but I get the impression he has even less ideological fortitude, and is very much in it for himself. For all Ron Paul's faults, he has been principaled in his politics (even if they are to the detriment of the country).

The article claims "despite taking precautions", but practically everyone I know in the trades who works with this stuff doesn't wear a mask when cutting it. When I was a tradey in NZ (painting) we would often see guys refinishing concrete floors mask-free, just inhaling all of the concrete particulate all day. When you are 19, you would rather look cool even when nobody is around than wear a mask, because you are going to live forever! Rather than ban the product (placing more pressure on natural stone quarries and decemate an entire industry of producers) they should be introducing mandatory safety procedures (as has been done in many places of the world with roofing I.e. wearing harnesses). Make it an OSHA violation to cut stone indoors, without dust collection or mitigation and without a mask. Violators get fines (like they do for other OSHA violations), and while not perfect, the culture slowly changes.

Thank you for your honest response, and it is good to hear you have found your feet. I too have struggled to find employment that pays me what I am worth (I have a M.A. is social sciences, but also am a trained teacher). We moved overseas to support my wife's family during a difficult time and decided to try and settle there. It turns out its hard to buy a $850k 2-bedroom bungalow when you are making 70k a year. Returning to Canada, we assumed our previous experience teaching would mean we would find jobs easily. In reality, it had priced us out of the market, and in our province a school division can keep you on terms for two years and then has to give you a permanent position or let you go. I have spent the last 5+ years bouncing from term to term, often very difficult positions where other term teachers have cut and run. I've saved the ass of the few school divisions in my area so many times, but all I have got in repayment is to be bounced around and when a permanent comes up they give it to a recent grad, who frankly does not have the experience or diverse range of talents I do. This year, I decided to pivot into the heritage industry. I am currently working a job I like quite a lot that requires virtually no communte and can help build my local community. Problem is, I make less than 40k a year. We can make it work because our mortgage is incredibly cheap (we lucked out and got a fixer upper for way below market value), but employers in this area also vastly undervalue labor. I've realized I will either have to create a secondary income stream, or use my growing contacts in private industry to leverage myself into a position that pays even close to what my work output is worth. All that being said, I still find that Canada provides good support for its citizens and generally has decent opportunity. Ultimately, we stay for the people. Returning to my wife's home country we struggled to make any real connections and while people are friendly, it was so hard to make friends. In Canada, we have a large and varied friend group. We have potlucks almost weekly with several families, and I have opportunities to be deeply involved in community arts programs that provide opportunity for self expression and better my community. We have never been able to find that anywhere else, and I think that is why we stay.

As a Canadian, I'm curious to know which issues burdened you so heavily that you felt leaving Canada was the only option? It is a vast country with plenty of differences regionally, so the option to internally migrate was always there. What area of the world did you move to that you seem to have found what you were looking for?

I'm asking because I am genuinely curious, as someone who grew up in Canada, lived overseas (in a country on most people's bucket lists, but has its own set of issues) and has returned to Canada. I can personally attest to the fact that the addage "the grass is always greener over the fence" rings true initially, but every place has its similar issues.

Sundog: Frozen Legacy (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/SunDog:_Frozen_Legacy) originally for Apple II but brought to PC. My friend and I spent countless hours roleplaying as Han Solo, trading contraband and pulling bounties. If you want an incredible space trading/combat sim experience, forget Star Citizen, this game is for you!

I'm waiting for them to send out exactly $1000 to all public employees (1000/1000s of employees). "We didn't say $1000 each!"

Is this the height of US Intelligence collection? "I'm just going this wildly speculate about the intentions of a foreign group because it benefits the social capital of my allies." Why even report this nonsense? Have women and children suffered while in captivity with Hamas, yes. Have women and children also suffered in captivity in Israel, yes. Do women and children daily suffer injustice due to economic and social inequities on the US, a resounding yes! Does the US treat foreign refugees as poorly as Hamas or Israel, possibly even worse. That's my hot take, I don't think it took that much "intelligence" to figure out.

I'm upset Axios would even publish this propaganda piece while also openly stating that there is no evidence to back it up. Shame on them.

Old phone? I'm still running a Mi A1 as my daily. I'm on LineageOS 19.1. There have been rumblings of Lineage 20 coming to it, but the Dev community has largely dropped off.

I'd check if there are any local high-schools or support services that are looking to get phones intot he hands of underprivileged teens/adults. A Mi A3 is likely still better than the low end Samsung garbage, or even an old iPhone (below X).

Better to have it be reused than become a paperweight in a cupboard.

If you are on Android, you really should download ReVanced. You can add adblock and sponsorblock, and you will barely ever see ads again.

I actually refused to watch YT on mobile because it was too annoying an experience, but 'vanced makes it much more like the good old days of no ads everywhere.

I'm always hesitant about these reports about teacher shortages. I was a teacher in Manitoba and spent years bouncing from term to term as school divisions are under severe budget constraints and have no permanent roles to give out. They say we have a teaching shortage as well, but what they mean is no one will become a substitute teacher to make $30,000 a year. Or that no one will take the plethora of "part-time" positions where they are offering a 0.2 or 0.3 position which pays $25,000 a year (but of course expects a host of admin and extracurricular work so you don't really have the luxury of finding another job). I left teaching for a 50% pay cut in the heritage sector. The reduction in income hurts, but not being jerkd around by the system is a nice change. I'm not really in a place in life where I can relocate, but I would happily move to Quebec if the supposed guarantee to permanent teaching roles was really as good a the media makes it out to be.

Sorry for the off topic rant. Affirming a student's chosen pronouns makes a world of difference, and being able to make sure you school's data system can accurately report those chosen pronouns and whether or not parents should be informed of those pronouns can be a literal lifesaver! I've taught students who committed suicide because their parents emotionally and physically abused them for being gender fluid, and having teachers who (for their own bullshit reasons) refused to change a single word in how they referred to that student. If all it takes is changing a field in our data system, and admin reminding teachers just how important that identity can be to a teen, that is a simple change that can literally save lives. Stop using teens lives as a pawn in you pearl-clutching vote grab Conservatives!