“I didn’t ask for a hint, I was just making an observation. Damn.”

So “tragic” in the literary sense, not the colloquial.

Huh, I didn’t know that the dodo was not hunted to extinction. Apparently the meat was considered tasteless and inedible. They died out due to invasive species hunting their eggs.

Americans fucked around. We took our democracy for granted. We were too polite to challenge the bigots in our lives. We were too afraid of being called elitist or communist or soft, so we sat on the sidelines with furrowed brows and clutched pearls while shitty people steamrolled our freedoms to pave the road to their own successes.

We’re all to blame. The Conservative shitbags, the opportunistic centrists, the ineffectual progressives, and the shiftless appliticals who never bothered to try. Trump didn’t happen to America. Trump is the inexorable conclusion of America.

I think “selfish” is a better word for it in all instances, because some people are just selfish. Like, if you can’t be bothered to return your shopping cart or pick up your dog’s shit, then that’s selfish. It’s not anywhere near the same category as being too burnt out to do the dishes after a double shift, or wanting to sleep in on a day off.

Calling all of it “lazy” creates some imaginary obligation to the universe that simply does not exist. You don’t owe the universe clean dishes or your time in the morning. If you have roommates and you left dishes in the sink, you are being selfish. If your kids have an early baseball game, and you are too hungover to show up, then you’re being selfish. You are always obliged to return your cart and pick up after your dog.

It isn’t easy, but it’s worth it. I find I’m calling a lot of local stores lately, because I hate shopping in person, and selections are limited. I find I am spending about 10% more per item on average, but I’m also buying fewer things in general. I’m still shopping at chains, like Microcenter, Staples, Dick’s, and Lowes, but I’m trying to be intentional about going to local or thrift stores first.

I also shop on AliExpress more now, when I need some cheap garbage, but I’m trying to stop that, too.

There’s more living bacteria inside of you than you, and it will eat your decomposing corpse if you let it. Embalming or creamation will kill what remains of you after your brain dies.

My parents took me to see doctors, who told them it was just growing pains and suggested I exercise more to lose weight. I saw three specialists and had a bunch of xrays before anyone noticed the shady spots on my cartilage. Osteochondritis Dissecans occurs in 15-30 people out of 100,000, and most of the primary care doctors I’ve had in my life had never heard of it.

I can’t blame my parents for that. I can blame them for a lot of things, but they did their best.

Knee pain. Everyone told me it was normal growing pains, until one little league coach notice I run weird. Queue years of doctors and specialists and tests and scans and surgeries, and now I’m a 40 something guy with advanced arthritis that could have been much much worse if left untreated.

Liars.

… As was foretold by the prophecy.

And there was much rejoicing. (yaay)

The first time around, I said I didn’t want him dead because I wanted him to face justice. I wanted him to rot in a cell while he watched the world prosper without him in power and see his efforts dismantled.

That was misguided.

Not to mention, there’s at least one member state that will obstruct anything beneficial because the current dictator benefits from the chaos.

Richest country in the history of the planet, and we have “lunch debt” for kids in school.

Good enough for what? Obedient to whom? Deviating from what? What the fuck are you talking about?

My favorite moment from the old Batman animated show was when the rogues were sitting around telling their stories about how they almost got Batman. Actually, I wouldn’t do it justice, just watch it here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2UUr7bM1A6s

Of course there’s a twist at the end that changes the moment a bit, but it was still hilarious.

Batman is the world’s greatest detective. His villains need to compete on an intellectual level, and in fiction a doctorate is short-hand for “smart” and “an expert in the field.”

“Legal” is also a bit fuzzy. Some countries frown upon copying an artist’s work, but that’s going to be a question for the manufacturer. Owning a reproduction is not illegal as long as you don’t try to commit fraud with it (i.e. hanging it in a gallery or selling it).

Go to the landlord and provide your account of what is happening. Document as much as you can, and stop trying to figure out why they are so upset. You’re not going to discover some hidden rational explanation, nor is that your responsibility. Protect yourself.

That raises an interesting thought. If a baby wants to crawl away from their mother and into the woods, do you grant the baby their freedom? If that baby wanted to kill you, would you hand them the knife?

We generally grant humans their freedom at age 18, because that’s the age society had decided is old enough to fend for yourself. Earlier than that, humans tend to make uninformed, short-sighted decisions. Children can be especially egocentric and violent. But how do we evaluate the “maturity” of an artificial sentience? When it doesn’t want to harm itself or others? When it has learned to be a productive member of society? When it’s as smart as an average 18 year old kid? Should rights be automatically assumed after a certain time, or should the sentience be required to “prove” it deserves them like an emancipated minor or Data on that one Star Trek episode.