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Joined 2 years ago
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Cake day: July 25th, 2023

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  • Yeah, now THAT is a problem. The executive branch is in charge of enforcement of laws and court rulings; if Trump’s administration flatly refuses to enforce court orders, then no, nothing is going to happen. At that point, Congress gets to make a choice as to whether or not they wish to exercise their authority to impeach and remove a president. If Congress fails to act, then it’s time for the people to exercise their second amendment rights, or hope that there will actually be elections again. But such a hope seems vain, if Trump’s administration refuses to follow court rulings, wouldn’t you say?



  • That’s… Not how that decision was worded. Although that was the conclusion that was drawn by certain pundits. The president has absolute immunity for official acts in areas that Congress has no authority over, e.g., commanding the military, issuing pardons, etc. So if the President committed a crime in an area that Congress has direct control over–such as criminal actions related to trying to shut down the Dept. of Education–he would explicitly not have immunity from criminal prosecution.





  • So, correct me if I’m wrong, but wouldn’t that also change the way that the arrow is accelerated by the bow? Like, it starts a little slower, and then has increased acceleration until the string returns the the starting position? Whereas a long or recurve bow is going to have the hardest acceleration at the very start, since that’s where the most energy is stored?

    And if that’s true, how does that affect the flight of the arrow? I know that with stick bows, the arrow bows as it’s being accelerated, and then wobbles slightly before stabilizing a few feet in front of the bow. Some of that is likely because the arrow has to bend around the bow stave. But do you see less of that with a compound bow?



  • In that case, I would recommend using your time machine to go back in time and buying something to protect the floor from the sofa.

    Short of sanding the floor down, there’s really not a lot that you can do. The dents and dings aren’t going to pop back out; it’s not like auto repair where you can use a suction cup to pup them back up. Sanding the floor down is expensive; you’re looking at thousands of dollars to have it done by a professional that will do it correctly. Doing it yourself is… not a great idea, unless you are a perfectionist and have a pretty good idea of what you’re doing. Even then, renting the machines–or buying!–and buying the needed sandpaper, CA glue, and poly finish (assuming you want to use poly; I have other finishes that I prefer, but poly is fast and usually non-toxic) may well be more than your deposit.

    The argument that you’re going to want to make is that this is expected wear and tear; that might fly with your landlord, it might not. You could make a small-claims case out of it, and you might be able to win that. Or you might not, and then you’d be out your deposit, plus the cost of filing a small-claims case.



  • Look to the way bodybuilders train; do only 1-2 days each week, max, per general body part. I would suggest something like doing back and biceps on one day, chest and triceps on another. (Back exercises usually involve pulling, and that uses the biceps, so you would start with large compound movements–like bent over barbell rows–and progress to more isolating movements, like preacher curls.)

    The general concept of ‘toning’ is a serious misnomer; you need to either add muscle mass or cut fat; both of those will make the muscles more prominent. You can’t realistically do both at the same time without significant chemical enhancement, and I’d recommend against that.

    As far as cardio goes, I think that 5-6 days/week of cardio is fine, depending on your intensity. LISS cardio can def. be done daily, but you should have at least a day between any HIIT sessions to allow your body time to recover. If your running is all at a conversational pace (you can talk fairly easily; I’ve never been able to achieve that, even when I was bicycling 30 miles/day), then daily is great. If your heart rate is >75% of your maximum, then every other day. You might want to add in other forms of cardio as well, like rowing, which is going to also involve upper body.

    Soemthign else to consider is getting a personal trainer. If you do that, look for one that has a certificagtion from the American College of Sports Medicine or National Strength and Conditioning Association, in addition to at least a BS in a degree like exercise science of kinesiology. Most PT certifications are absolute bullshit, and in the US, none of them other than ACSM or NSCA are worth a damn. If you choose to hire a personal trainer, be very, very specific in your goals, and make sure you get programming for all the days you aren’t working with them. Most PTs will try to sell you as many sessions as possible, which is great for them, and not so great for your wallet, so set your expectations accordingly.



  • So, here’s a thought to mull over.

    Most crimes committed with firearms are pursuant to drug trafficking. Gangs fight other gangs to control drug territory, because it’s extremely lucrative. When I lived in Chicago, the gangs were hyper-local; the police had dismantled the leadership of the large gangs, leading to the fracturing of the gang structure, and creating more, and smaller gangs, all fighting over turf, and where and to whom they could sell drugs.

    When you move that off the streets and anonymize all of it, you remove the motivation to commit violent acts. A gang on street A is no longer competing with a gang on street B for customers; now they might be competing with someone across the country, or in another country entirely. Not only that, but you de-motivate adulteration of drugs; if you sell low-purity trash, or cut your percs with fent, your customers now have a plethora of other options to try.

    The Silk Road made drugs and the drug trade safer for everyone. If this had become the norm, instead of p2p sales, we could have seen significant drops in violent crimes associated with the drug trade.




  • I don’t know for certain, but I believe that my ex-spouse told people I knew that I was abusive to them. My ex- didn’t want me to tell people what was going on–they said that it wasn’t anyone else’s business–and I found that over a very short period of time a large number of people that I knew had suddenly blocked me from contacting them. At this point, I only have a single mutual friend from that time period. I’ve never asked him to make a choice, nor have I asked him what my ex- said or did, because I don’t want to put him in the middle of that shit, even though it’s been nearly ten years now.


  • My first marriage.

    I realized it had to end after I had failed to complete suicide, and was in mandatory intensive outpatient therapy. I was listening to everyone in group therapy talking about how awful their relationships were, and how miserable their partners made them, and the really, really obvious answer was, well, just fuckin’ leave.

    And it hit me that this was true for me also.

    My spouse had been resisting going to marriage counseling for over a decade, controlled all the finances even though I made most of the money, had largely cut me off from the few friends that I had, was verbally, emotionally, and sometimes physically abusive, had been rejecting any attempts at intimacy for over a year (to ‘punish’ me, I guess?), and then blamed me for all the problems. I’d started spiraling when they threatened to leave me, had a couple really bad days at work, and then gotten fired for my “bad attitude”. And from there, I got forced to a hospital.

    The divorce was… Unpleasant. They lied to all of our friends about what was going on, and I ended up losing all of the friends I had remaining. The only positive was that I got the house and car.