chiliedogg
@chiliedogg@lemmy.world
- Comment on Nostalgia 15 hours ago:
We Americans have many, many faults, but one thing we’ve actually been pretty good about is cutting back on smoking. When I was a kid everyone smoked, and now it’s pretty rare.
I think part of it is actually an unexpected benefit of capitalism. Restaurants and bars used to fight indoor smoking bans tooth and nail because all their cust6were smokers and they didn’t want to lose them. But then when the bans would happen, business actually increased - especially for bars. Turned out lots of people wanted to be able to grab a drink after work but didn’t want to go home smelling like cigarettes.
So now business groups other than big tobacco support the bans, which has resulted in a huge decline of social smoking.
- Comment on Seen. 1 day ago:
For Uutlook users:
“You don’t often get emails from XXXX. Learn why this is imp…”
- Comment on *Proceeds to append an exclamation mark* 3 days ago:
I have to do it every 3 months. I’m at [password]27! now.
- Comment on time to starr shootin some AI execs 3 days ago:
You can get a pretty nice one. You can also build yourself a custom one pretty cheap. Buy a cheap lower receiver (the part that is legally a firearm) like an Anderson through a licensed dealer doing the background check and everything. Don’t worry about the “quality” of the lower - it’s just a piece of milled aluminum that everything attaches to. Think of it as your PC case. It just holds the parts that matter.
Then you can buy the rest of the parts piecemeal and build it out. Though for a lot of people the better option is to buy a pre-assembled upper (includes the barrel, gas block, etc) since it requires a few more specialized tools to assemble and is the easiest part to fuck up, a lower parts kit (with it without trigger - milspec lower kits with triggers are cheap, but buying a nicer trigger is one of the best upgrades you can do easily), buffer tube assembly, stock, and mags.
An Anderson lower is gonna cost about 40-60 bucks online, plus whatever the locensed dealer you use charges for a transfer fee (it’s shipped to the dealer who does all the paperwork, has the background check run, etc. Usually between 20 and 50 bucks. Sometimes they’ll already have them in inventory for cheaper than the cost of online plus transfer fee).
Looking at parts packages on Palmetto State:
Basic assembled upper: about $200 Lower Parts kit: There’s a great deal on a lower parts kit with trigger, buffer tube assembly, stock, and red dot for $219 Bolt Carrier and charging handle: $90 Mags: 10-15 buck each
So you’re looking at $600-ish starting to build your own complete package. Higher priority upgrades for a beginner would be better triggers, barrels, and optics. But don’t spend a ton on fancy barrels and bolts and shit if you’re just gonna be shooting cheapo ammo. The most-precise AR in the world doesn’t mean much if your ammo isn’t consistent enough to shoot a tight group.
For $1000 and otherwise the same package, maybe get a magnifier for the red dot, a better drop-in trigger, and maybe step up to an upper package witha barrel with 1/7 twist (stabilizes heavier ammo than the 1:9 that’s more standard) and .223 wydle chamber (a little better than 5.56 for reasons that would take a long time to explain).
Or even better, just spend the money on ammo. It’s the actual expensive part of shooting. You’d be amazed how quickly you can turn $500 into noise at the range.
Also don’t cheap out on earpro. Wear plugs and earphones. ARs are stupid fucking loud and single shot can permanently damage your hearing, and even suppressed they can cause damage over time.
- Comment on *Proceeds to append an exclamation mark* 3 days ago:
We had a system at one of my old companies that with each password change, you couldn’t have any of the same characters that were in your last password (12 character max so it was never impossible to solve), you couldn’t have the same character in the same place as any of your last 10 passwords, or the same character type (letter or number) in the same space as the last password. Also no special characters.
The end result was everyone ended up using a1a1a1a1 for the first password, then 2b2b2b2b, c3c3c3c3, 4d4d4d4d, etc. The draconian password requirements resulted in everyone using the same passwords.
- Comment on Minimum Wage Must Cover Basics 6 days ago:
Condos, penthouses, duplexes, quadplexes, and more all increase density versus a building and yard for 1 residence.
- Comment on Minimum Wage Must Cover Basics 1 week ago:
So long as “home” doesn’t mean “house.”
Duplexes, townhomes, etc are necessary to limit sprawl. If everyone has a separate home, driveway, and lawn that’s a lot of land use.
- Comment on Armando needs to know which church to avoid 1 week ago:
I was trying to give the poster the benefit of the doubt, and saying they poorly explained why the real situation was worse than the joke. They described it as being about the gender swap, but left out the details regarding how the real event was sexual assault.
- Comment on Armando needs to know which church to avoid 1 week ago:
I think the posted described it poorly.
The way the “funny” version describes it is a woman pastor giving bjs to parishioners - who are assumed in the joke to be willing participants - and later claiming it was part of a religous rite when people found out.
The real 2019 New Jersey case was about a preacher actually telling impressionable men they had demons in them and tricking them into letting him give them blowjobs.
The joke is problematic, but the real case is clearly sexual assault.
- Comment on Is gud 1 week ago:
- Comment on Is gud 1 week ago:
Cosco sells a half-gallon tub of Kalmata olives for 17 dollars.
- Comment on Not saying this is Hell, but it's pretty fucking close 1 week ago:
That was also always the plan. When Social Security was initially established with a retirement age of 65, the life expectancy of an American was 63.
It was never meant to be a national retirement plan. It was a social safety net meant to keep people who couldn’t work due to injury or age from dying homeless on the streets where people could see them.
Then we started living longer and pensions started going away and it became the primary retirement plan for millions of people who started living 20 years longer than the system had planned for.
And the educated, healthy people who live forever and collect the most in payments due to their higher wages tend to be people who didn’t start contributing until their mid-20s after finishing college. So for the majority of their lives they don’t contribute, but they take the most out of the system.
It’s fundamentally broken as designed.
- Comment on Which is worse: not wanting kids, or wanting them too much? 1 week ago:
While I generally agree with criticism of the “white woman true crime tragedy porn” stuff, the legal case here actually is pretty interesting. There is a legitimate debate over culpability due to mental state and the jury situation is a little bonkers.
- Comment on Which is worse: not wanting kids, or wanting them too much? 1 week ago:
She killed her kids and has been in a very high-profile murder trial. 11 of the 12 jurors wanted to find her not guilty due to her mental state, but the last one held out and there was a mistrial. There’s some other stuff going around about the holdout juror and it’s a huge fucking mess, and we don’t yet know what’s happening next. There’s a hearing tomorrow that’s gonna be a shitshow.
- Comment on From the archive 1 week ago:
Police firearms are used far more often as a threat to force compliance thannthey are to defend life. By disarming most on-duty officers like a civilized country we’d have a more peaceful society because the police wouldn’t feel as empowered to escalate conflicts.
Being a police officer isn’t a particularly dangerous job. Police have, on average, about the same odds as any random citizen of being killed feloniously. Yet they’re armed to the teeth and are given less-strict rules of engagement than soldiers sent into actual combat zones against enemy soldiers who are explicitly trying to kill them. I’ve seen my share of police encounters, and police make the situation worse 90% of the time. That last 10% doesn’t justify what they do.
I understand that police are individuals. Being a cop doesn’t make you a bad person. There are lots of bad people in this world, and most of them aren’t cops. But anybody who looks at the state of policing in this country and decides they want to be a cop cannot be a good person. It’s like saying someone’s a good Nazi or Klansman. Being a bad person is a prerequisite to becoming a police officer in the US.
I have several cops in my family. I know them as individuals. And they’re all bad people for whom I have no respect. But they think I like them because I’m polite to them. I’ll even laugh and tell jokes around them, because part of living in a society is not starting fights. But they’re still scum.
I’m sure there are people in your life who joke and laugh around you, too. How many do you think quietly hate you? I guarantee it’s an uncomfortably high number.
- Comment on The right kind of vibe 1 week ago:
I was pretty happy with our senior song.
My sister graduated in 1998, when every high school in the country did “My heart will go on.” The next uear, everyone did “Party like it’s 1999.” I don’t even remember what the next 2 classes did other than they were some kind of flash in the pan pop song from the time.
In 2002, my class voted for “At Last” by Ella Fitzgerald. That’s some classy, timeless shit.
- Comment on Good luck, space cowboy 1 week ago:
There’s been great stuff since the 80s. Even some of the stuff that became popular outside of the typical anime fandoms, you have things like Cowboy Bebop, which oozes style, and the 2 FMA series that have solid storytelling and complex characters with great music and animation.
- Comment on From the archive 1 week ago:
99.9% of law enforcement doesn’t require the kind of police forces we have. Why are armed goons used to hand out traffic tickets? In decades of issuing building code citations, I’ve never needed to carry a gun. And my fees are WAY higher. If I can walk up to an unidentified guy with a running chainsaw and give him a $200,000 fee for clear-cutting a lot without being in danger, you should be fine writing a speeding ticket.
But the problem is you have an institutional attitude of cowardice. You’re like chihuahas who pretend not to be scared by being super aggressive, which makes people afraid of you, which makes them hate you, which makes everyone less safe.
Why should anybody respect institutions made of violent, scared little bitches?
- Comment on From the archive 1 week ago:
People atbthe office, people at the school I teach nights at, people at the church I attend. They all have different groups that they talk bad about, and people talk bad about all of them.
The difference is every single place I go that isn’t a police station people talk shit about cops.
You’re hated, and it’s not the unjustified hate of racism, intolerance, or ignorance. You’re hated because you actively choose to drain society’s resources while stimping on people’s rights. You should be hated.
Yeah - you may occasionally do something useful, but you’re a net drain on society and you should be ashamed of yourself and your entire profession for what you’ve become.
- Comment on From the archive 1 week ago:
I work in for a municipal government, and our City Hall and police station share a building. We’re polite to the police just like we are with anyone else, but ALL of us that work on the admin side of the building talk shit about the police behind their backs and think they’re a bunch of overpaid thugs who are a net negative to the community.
It’s no different for you. People who hate you will still smile and say hello.
- Comment on He escaped 1 week ago:
The thing is they’re still a high financial drain. The military doesn’t give them the ones that are in good enough condition to still be useful, and they’re a maintenance nightmare.
I worked for a city that accepted one, and it broke down while transporting it to the city the day we took possession and ended up costing the city 200 grand on its first day.
- Comment on We live in a society... 2 weeks ago:
Rural town near me has 3 gas stations, and they all have them.
They’re also all owned by the same guy and the prices are like 60-70 cents higher than any of the neighboring cities, but since it’s 20 miles to a station he doesn’t own he gets away with it.
- Comment on We live in a society... 2 weeks ago:
A lot of homes in the North still use it.
- Comment on We live in a society... 2 weeks ago:
All the pumps near me disabled the mute button years ago.
- Comment on Pain 2 weeks ago:
Base 12 is nice. It feels managably small (while remaining a super highly composite number. The next super highly composite number (which I also like) is 60.
2520 is the first number divisible by 1-10, but that’s a bit much.
- Comment on Getting a little bit of sweet revenge 2 weeks ago:
We’re having an influx of professioal right-wing operations on Lemmy. The biggest example is all the people claiming to be leftists trying to convince American leftists that the Dems are 100% as bad as the Republicans and that we shouldn’t vote for them.
The Trump admin may he popular on the far-right, but the historic swing voters are voting Dem this round, so in addition to voter suppression and all their other bullshit, the right is trying to convince leftists to either stay home or burn their vote on a third party that can’t win.
- Comment on Capitalism is all about using state power to protect capital by force 2 weeks ago:
I disagree.
- Comment on Y'all might not be ready for this 2 weeks ago:
Super Mario Brothers was released closer to WWII than to today.
- Comment on Simple. Elegant. Fashionable, even. Become the envy of the airport. 2 weeks ago:
I like how the picture has a completely different seat that wouldn’t be able to travel with the suitcase.
- Comment on The crazy bastards, they've finally done it 2 weeks ago:
Okay, but for real the spring suspension could be great for a rolling cart or something in my garage for jumping over extension cords or standing mats.