Scirocco
@Scirocco@lemmy.world
- Comment on If the 2028 United States presidential election was held today, who would you vote for? 1 day ago:
Obviously I am US-centric. This is a thread about voting in US elections (??)
I do happen to fly to UK, and generally to LBA or MAN, which are easily two of the worst / most annoying airports in Europe.
Both of them have made great improvements over the past ~18 months though.
CDG is also particularly annoying imo.
- Comment on If the 2028 United States presidential election was held today, who would you vote for? 3 days ago:
I’d do more than that
Disband DHS. This agency was never required and was created merely as a knee-jerk to the information sharing problems that contributed to how 9/11 turned out.
Ironically, the majority of those problems were actually between the FBI and CIA and DHS has no authority over either — that role was handled to the also-newly-created Director of National Intelligence (DNI)
Sooooo we never needed the orwellian DHS in the first place
Abolish ICE, HSI and CBP*. The the other constituent agencies carry on as they did before 9/11 and leave the LE/intelligence coordination to the DNI
*Some folks would love to see ATF go, others want the end of TSA
- Comment on If the 2028 United States presidential election was held today, who would you vote for? 3 days ago:
To be fair, it is. I also kept a Clear membership for a few years, but it wasn’t worth it.
But, non-pre lines are just as short as pre-check these days, and my (non-science) impression is that the only reason it’s slower is that more of the folks in it are unfamiliar with the process.
But messaging/signage for what’s required is quite good in most places, and it’s still much less confusing than 80s and 90s airports.
- Comment on If the 2028 United States presidential election was held today, who would you vote for? 3 days ago:
How so?
I fly enough to hit “gold” status on major airlines, and have seen the transition from the shit-show that was TSA initially into a universally smooth and fast process.
I think a lot of people don’t truly know the chaos that was pre-TSA screening. Do you recall being stuck in an aircraft at the gate, because the airline had to unload luggage for a passenger that hadn’t boarded?
For a long time after 9/11 the only airport operating smoothly was DCA (Congress uses DCA)
But for the last dozen or more years, things have only gotten smoother, everywhere.
I passed through JFK screening in less than 22 minutes a few weeks ago.
- Comment on What common American habits do people find quietly annoying? 3 weeks ago:
“the likes of which”
- Comment on Is it completely impossible to do age verification without compromising privacy? 2 months ago:
Hey benign and honorable govt!
Please tell the website “kill-your-govt .net” that I am old enough to join the revolution!!!
Kthxbai
- Comment on She is making a GREAT point 2 months ago:
Many men would LOVE a reliable, non-condom, male-controlled birth control method
Currently for men there are two options — condoms, which are problematic and difficult in several ways, or vasectomy, which is essentially permanent or at least difficult and uncertain to be reversed.
The third method is to take WAY too many TOO HOT baths, but that also has uncertainty and is a real hassle.
As it stands, really for men they either need to use a condom, or trust that your female partner is reliable.
- Comment on She is making a GREAT point 2 months ago:
Yea it’s pretty clear.
Capitalism and religion, with maybe a little bit of ‘public health’ thrown in
There’s strong bias against contraception in general from some religious groups, and it is strongest against the “easier” forms. For example, among Catholics technically ALL contraception is forbidden, but condoms are more acceptable than an IUD, both of which are considered by some sects to be ‘abortifacient’ — on the theory that it merely prevents a fertilized egg from implanting on the uterine wall.
So condoms are ‘better’ because it is a barrier method.
The only Catholic-approved BC is abstinence of course.
Public Health also has a strong bias towards condoms, because of their protection against STIs. Of course, actual proper condom use is… inconsistent at best for most people.
Anyhow, the easiest and least intrusive methods of BC are usually viewed with the most suspicion and disapproval from all sides, and Vasagel/RISUG is like… the most extreme example of that.
It is:
- relatively inexpensive
- extremely effective
- one-time clinic visit
- fully reversible, with no recovery period
- impossible to forget or accidentally nullify
Unfortunately none of these factors endear it to the capitalists, the puritans, or the public-health hand-wringers*
*To be clear, i support public health goals, but the AIDS crisis has put a strong and lasting tint on the overall emphasis/insurance condoms are the only way
- Comment on She is making a GREAT point 2 months ago:
Well, I’ve not had it since it isn’t available yet.
But I get what you mean about the needles in the dong.
But most likely, the needle is through the side of the scrote, which might not be much better. Probably best to just not watch. It is less invasive than a vasectomy, since it’s a needle and not a scalpel, but ofc it’s not as simple as a pill
On the other hand, it’s one-and-done and nevermore worried about unwanted paternity claims.
- Comment on She is making a GREAT point 2 months ago:
The best option all around that I’ve seen is Vasagel, which is the western development based on RISUG which was a successful Indian trial
The major complication for it has been that no pharma wants to invest in it, likely because if doesn’t have good profit potential.
It is a one-time ‘shot’ of a physical gel that blocks the vas deferens (sperm channel) and is fully reversible simply by being flushed out again.
However, since it is not an ongoing monthly profit ahem, prescription, there is not a lot of money to be made.
No hormones, no pills, fully reversible, simply blocks the sperm exactly like a vasectomy, just very easily reversed. It can all be done in clinic with a syringe (perhaps tho the syringe will be a blocker for some men)