TheSanSabaSongbird
@TheSanSabaSongbird@lemdro.id
- Comment on Recycling a reused 737 Max meme 9 months ago:
In Ore-gon no less! By the way, Oregonians love it when you say it that way.
- Comment on Amazon pricing makes no sense. 9 months ago:
According to my British friends Yorkshire Gold is legit. I don’t know if it’s as strong though. Not much of a tea drinker myself, just reporting what I’ve been told.
- Comment on Stop pussyfooting that gaspedal! 9 months ago:
That’s my understanding. I always understood “Great Britain” to refer to the entire island composed of England, Scotland and Wales. Maybe I’m wrong or there are certain use exceptions?
- Comment on The way this is spelled out really irks me. 9 months ago:
I named my truck, but “Old Clunky” doesn’t exactly jump out as the kind of name you’d want to advertise.
- Comment on The lamest countries 9 months ago:
Well, that and the fact that the DPRK is being held hostage by one of the world’s most successful organized crime families. Had North Korea won, the only difference would be that the Kim family would control all of Korea. I don’t think it’s accurate to say that the US made the Kims what they are.
One thing that I think is not widely appreciated enough, especially by younger people, is how much the fear of a third world war dominated the 2nd half of the 20th century. I don’t point this out as any kind of moral justification on anyone’s part, but rather as an explanation that is far more convincing than the simple US bad, communism good and vice versa that is so common on social media.
We have to remember that the men behind all of these events had survived the largest war in human history and absolutely believed in the possibility of even worse to come. It informed everything about how they thought about the world. How could it not? The things they had seen and experienced first hand were, as they say, the stuff of nightmares.
- Comment on My children will refer to me as father. 10 months ago:
“Yer squashin’ my smokes, Pa.”
- Comment on 1.1 History 10 months ago:
I too can spout religious gibberish.
- Comment on 1.1 History 10 months ago:
That’s a paraphrase of a famous Bertrand Russell quote. The original is as follows; “The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the intelligent are full of doubt.”
There’s also the William Butler Yeats corollary; “The best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity.”
- Comment on You guys need to stop 11 months ago:
Nice! Mine is a 3.2 liter V6 6 speed manual but w/o the turbo. It has a shitload of torque in 1st and 2nd, but isn’t very fast or powerful once it’s in third, 4th or 5th gear, which is fine with me.
It also has an extended bed and a canopy with flip-up windows on the sides. I’ve installed a roof-rack and have lifted the truck 2 inches together with aftermarket shocks and a new set of leaf springs. I’ve also installed “bullhorns” on the front together with “brush racks” to protect my old headlights.
All in all she’s a pretty mean truck. I’ve taken her out with friends who are hardcore Jeep aficionados, and she’s more than acquitted herself.
- Comment on I've been wondering for some time 11 months ago:
I think you need to read 1984 a little more carefully. There’re a few critical details you appear to have missed, but don’t feel bad; a lot of readers make similar mistakes.
- Comment on I've been wondering for some time 11 months ago:
By “the most well-armed portion of the populace” I assume you mean law enforcement? It’s an odd way of putting it, but it’s the only interpretation that makes sense because Bubba and his fellow militia members sure as fuck aren’t coming to the defense of the one percent.
- Comment on You guys need to stop 11 months ago:
04 Nissan Frontier over here. I specifically bought it because it has a manual transmission which is hard to find in the US. I drove all the way up to Seattle from Portland to get it. There are maintenance issues given its age, but I still love it. Apart from the bullshit bells and whistles, it’s still every bit as capable as any new pickup in its class. I’ve doctored it up a bit over the years, so it’s not fully stock anymore.
- Comment on I'm not asking to be rich. 11 months ago:
That’s totally believable. I don’t claim any expertise in this matter and would never claim to be anything even remotely like an economist.
- Comment on I'm not asking to be rich. 11 months ago:
This has been studied pretty extensively and it turns out that money definitely does buy happiness, but only to a certain point after which you get diminishing returns and eventually no increase in happiness.
It’s been awhile since I’ve looked at the literature, but if memory serves, most people max out on happiness with an upper middle-class income, so probably 3-4 hundred thousand/year for a couple in the US. After that you don’t get any increase in happiness and are actually better off giving any extra money to charities and/or sharing with friends and family.
- Comment on I'll never not want to 11 months ago:
Too right. Bean never met anyone he wasn’t prepared to like. He always had more friends than me, was always up in various neighbor’s business and in general maintained a neighborhood inspection regime.
- Comment on I'll never not want to 11 months ago:
- Comment on The Peasant Life 11 months ago:
But that’s not really a rebuttal either. How about we have both? Why not all the benefits of progress together with less work?
- Comment on How in the hell 11 months ago:
You obviously know nothing about Bukowski. Whatever Lemmy may think of it, the above quote wasn’t intended as a political statement.
- Comment on Really? 1 year ago:
How it’s always worked in the past?
I dunno, do you have a better idea?
- Comment on Really? 1 year ago:
So in 250+ years this has never happened, but you’re totally cool with it because it jives with some misconception you have about what’s really going on? The real reason this is happening is that the Republicans, through gerrymandering and collective cowardice, have allowed themselves to be taken over by a crazed nihilistic extremist minority. It’s not about different opinions.
- Comment on Really? 1 year ago:
Uh, no, this is not in fact how it’s supposed to work. Not even close. This is why it’s never happened before.
- Comment on When a stranger ties their dog to your bike. 1 year ago:
Well that’s awkward.
- Comment on We're already understaffed... 1 year ago:
May I recommend “In The Penal Colony” as well. It’s good clean fun. I used to read it to the kids before bed.
- Comment on We're already understaffed... 1 year ago:
Nope. Total coincidence.
- Comment on How do you call someone born in the US besides "American"? 1 year ago:
No, it’s the entire English-speaking world, which actually makes sense since the practice originated with the British Empire long before American independence.
- Comment on How do you call someone born in the US besides "American"? 1 year ago:
It goes back to the colonies. In the British Empire the continental colonies were “the American colonies,” so British subjects from said colonies were called “Americans” for upwards of 200 years prior to the revolution. After the revolution, since Halifax was the only major continental port that remained in British hands, it made sense to call its colonists something else, while those to the south retained the name “Americans.”
Conversely, the Caribbean possessions were called “The West Indies” or “The West Indies Station.”
- Comment on Apparently, it's not a gaggle. 1 year ago:
True in theory, and while I realize that this is purely anecdotal, in my experience as a contractor, HOAs are invariably a giant pain in the ass to deal with.
What you want as a contractor is a professional property management company that’s used to dealing with construction contractors and is familiar with industry standards and basic reality.
Fortunately I don’t work in residential construction anymore.
- Comment on why doesn't Egypt open its borders to Gaza? 1 year ago:
Wyoming is absolutely beautiful, it’s main downside is that for much of the year its weather wants you dead.
- Comment on When the pizza party is too expensive, you go with the EncourageMint 1 year ago:
That’s totally fair. My union threatened to strike and ran pickets in 2019 and basically got what we asked for, little though it was.
We authorized a strike in 2022 and the signatory contractors basically gave us most of what we wanted because they didn’t want to lose out on the “CHIPS” act money.
Now here we are with billions on the table, and I think it’s time to strike again.
There are also regional dynamics at play, but fortunately my union is on top of all that and we are planning accordingly.
- Comment on When the pizza party is too expensive, you go with the EncourageMint 1 year ago:
I got a star-shaped paperweight with my name on it together with 100 dollars worth of gift cards.
This for two years in a row, because everyone really needs two star-shaped paperweights with their name on them.
The truth of the above statement is borne out by its sheer pedestrian banality in the sense that it’s not something anyone would ever bother to lie about.
The sad part about it is that I am a dues-paying union member. One can only imagine how much worse it is for the non-union blokes.
At least the union gives me a way to fight back and to have a little dignity and self-respect.
