Haha we were all obnoxious young punks at one time. Probably why I love Authority Song so much.

I’m glad you like the rec!

He’s always had a big noggin.

Yeah they’re both in their early to mid 70s now. Both had music out in the '80s & '90s, and both embraced a blue collar vibe, albeit in different ways.

My favorite Mellencamp song is Authority Song

It’s Mellencamp

Vision. It gets hard to read in low light, driving at night is tough, you can’t quite figure out how close or far to hold a book or phone.

Alcohol. You just don’t shake it off like you did when you were younger. Now you really think about whether that next drink will be worth the shitty sleep.

Money. You talk about property taxes and 401k contributions more often than you ever thought you would.

Patience. You’re more patient with kids and your parents, and way less patient with everything else.

From the article:

Following her arrest, Manahel al-Otaibi was subjected to physical and psychological abuse in Riyadh’s Malaz Prison, and she was forcibly disappeared for five months from 5 November 2023 until April 2024. On 14 April 2024, when she was finally able to contact her family again, she told them she was being held in solitary confinement and had a broken leg as a result of physical abuse. She also said she was denied health care.

This is fucking despicable. For wearing unapproved clothing and speaking out against male guardianship?! How the fuck is this a moral way to treat anyone?

I’m glad her sister was able to get out of Saudi Arabia in time. And I hope this woman gets justice, but I’m not holding my breath.

Lems are great wide-toed shoes, and they’re about half the price of the Vivos I had. They’re comfy, plus also great for orthotics.

This movie sticks with me. Such a brutal, dark, nasty movie, and it made me realize Colin Ferrell had actual acting talent. I’d never seen him in anything before and had this impression that he was just a pretty boy, kinda like McConaughey used to be.

Like, I completely get why Colm wanted to cut Pádriac off, he was so dull. But he was also so open-hearted, and so I empathized with both characters.

When Pádraic follows the trail of fingers… you know the scene I mean. I lost it, just fucking bawled my eyes out. That movie pulled no punches. It was amazing but I never want to watch it again.

…I mean, welcome to the internet?

That’s the dude who shot the United Healthcare CEO

Robocop

Nope. I left after Snowden dropped his info.

Man this sounds fantastic!

Holy shit, that’s so cheap!

TMA-2 / Zagadka / Big Brother (the Jovian monolith).

if nobody wants to convert anyone, there’s very little friction

But your partner is a priest, so if you had children, would your partner want to raise them religious? And how would you feel about that?

Sam Harris blamed trans people for Trump’s win so…

I own one. It’s the Blue Meanie from Yellow Submarine. I saw it at Barnes and Noble and thought it was cute so I got it.

I don’t really get why people would collect tons of these things, but I didn’t understand baseball cards or beanie babies either. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

For a simple example: my mother is Catholic and until Trump came along, a lifelong single-issue Republican voter who always said she would be a Democrat if it weren’t for abortion. She attends church in an extremely progressive, famously LGBTQ-friendly town.

There’s a transwoman who attends her church (let’s call her Rita). This lady is probably in her mid-50s to mid-60s and has been a fixture at the church for at least 5 years. My mom has been in choir and bible study groups with her for years now. She still just can’t see Rita as a woman. Treats her politely but behind her back refuses to call her “she” and says she’s a “man in a dress”.

She’s really offended that Rita uses the ladies’ room. I’ve asked her why and she can’t articulate it, she just feels like it’s an invasion of her privacy, because men don’t belong in the ladies’ room. And when I point out that Rita isn’t a man, she just rolls her eyes. I’ve asked her if she’s worried that Rita is in there for predatory purposes and she admits that she doesn’t think Rita intends any harm. I’ve asked her how she’d feel if she were forced to use the men’s room and she says “but that’s different!”

My mom prides herself in being a moral person, and still can’t manage to get past her bigotry to see Rita as a woman. There are just too many mental blockades against it. But since she thinks she’s so highly moral, she thinks she must be correct in this situation. It excuses her from finding empathy and bettering her attitude toward trans folks.

My longwinded point is that when people who consider themselves highly moral are bigoted, there’s almost zero chance of getting through to them. And I think a lot of the people who are bigoted against trans folks feel that morality is on their side and being trans is morally deviant, so they think they’re justified in their prejudice.