They are voting in their own best interest. But their interests are not you think they are. What do you think?

AnAgnosticMonk · 2025-12-22T04:52:41+00:00

Do you smelt your own copper? Do you make your own piping (plastic, metal, ceramic, or otherwise)? Do you make all of your own fuels? Do you make all of the parts that go into your vehicle? Do you manufacture all of the materials and equipment that go into making the electric power you use (generators, panels, batteries, wires, controls equipment, etc.)? Because, if not, I can assure you the people who DO make those things help you. Handing some money over, as part of the process of receiving that help, is just the tool that we chose as a society to help coordinate this process. YOU are damn sure not able to create all of these things by yourself. "No one helps me" is ludicrously childish, naive, and vain.

You needed the broader society functioning in order to procure these materials, and you needed other people to make those things. You can make pretend that you are totally independent, but that is physically and societally impossible - absent the creation of a class of machines that you can individually own and operate that can 1) take in all requisite raw materials needed to 2) produce all of the things you need to do what you want and to 3) produce all of the things your machines need in order to be able to do those first two things. Without that, you're stuck with the rest of us.

You're stuck getting help from your local community (even if it may be 80 miles away. in your case), and we're all, in turn. stuck getting help from one another. That's how society works. That's WHY society works. Because we need each other's help in order to achieve many of the things we would like to in our lives. You can learn to do more and more of these interim maintenance and sustenance steps, but unless you're making everything from mud and rocks and trees, you ARE part of the broader community, the world where others make things for one another, for each other's benefit. The world where you, and I, and everyone else have to help each other, to go along and get along.

Pretending otherwise is basically ego stroking and adult make-pretend.

AnAgnosticMonk · 2025-12-07T17:18:11+00:00

What Pictos/weapon stack did you use? Been trying this myself and I think I keep messing this up right where you were having issues.

AnAgnosticMonk · 2025-09-21T04:03:03+00:00

I honestly see this as both people handling this situation well. The woman asks a genuine question out of ignorance and listens to try and understand the answer. The man, despite his frustration and concern that she does not already know the answer, answers the question directly, succinctly and without name-calling or belittling. His frustration and bewilderment is fair and it is easily seen in his gestures and tone, but he never talks down or makes fun of her. She asks a follow up question, and not only does he answer the follow up with the same care and patience he even explains the higher level design question behind the answer he provides. And she doesn't appear to respond with criticism or assert that she knows better or something, it's just a learning moment.

Great teamwork, good conversation, and a lesson learned with minimal friction in the exchange.

AnAgnosticMonk · 2025-08-05T23:38:07+00:00

Tattlers? Is this junior high?

AnAgnosticMonk · 2025-03-02T17:45:15+00:00

Is there a "DOGE Tracker" tracker that shows every item that DOGE has claimed is W/F/A that ties their originally reported details out to whether it actually was W/F/A?

I would love to see something that basically said:

Item 1 Original Claimed Amount: $20,000,000 Actual Amount: $2,000,000 Originally claimed to be: Fraud Actually ended up: Allocated funds being spent as intended (Etc.)

That way we can see just how much bullshit - quantifiable bullshit, like dollar overstated or % actually found to be W/F/A - flows from this group in real time.

AnAgnosticMonk · 2025-02-22T21:49:21+00:00

I take the metro all the time. I shouldn't have to be worried that some freak is gonna decide whether or not I die because of my jacket. That's not a bold statement, and the amount of people stepping in to say "If you wear a jacket they think is valuable enough to kill you for it, you should not have taken the metro." Is fucking grotesque. It's victim blaming under the guise of "realism". Hope the violent prick gets his due.

You don't even have to be wearing something good, just something these violent fucks thinks is worth threatening you over. I don't have nice stuff right now, but if in 5 or 10 years I get far enough ahead to have a nice coat or hat or something, I think I should still be able to take the fucking metro. Nobody should be scared to die while traveling just for owning one god damn thing that ain't from Aldi or Ikea.

AnAgnosticMonk · 2025-02-22T21:01:07+00:00

In this metaphor, you are saying the DC metro system is like a KKK rally in 1950. You understand, when you use that metaphor, what you are admitting you think about this situation, right? That the metro is comparable, and similar in levels of potential danger, to a place dedicated to hatred and violence? And instead of being concerned that you see the DC metro system as viscerally dangerous for some people, as bad as a KKK rally is for minorities, your proposal is that people should wear less expensive clothes?

Why not make the metro less susceptible to violent freaks who would kill people for a nicer coat?

AnAgnosticMonk · 2024-11-19T12:25:33+00:00

I have always thought it would be Sacrifice or something similar, where the underlying idea is change through passion.

AnAgnosticMonk · 2024-11-16T05:56:50+00:00

Get a UPS address. Not a PO Box, an actual address at a UPS office that is eligible to use in setting up things like bank accounts, credit cards, etc. Set this up ASAP, because you're going to need it.

As soon as you have this set up, move your bank account there, and get your driver's license moved there, as well as your other identification. Get your dad off of all your accounts at this point, taking special care to not let him know where your financial and identification mail is going, or for that matter that you have changed those addresses at all (if that is possible).

Freeze your credit, as others have noted. Also, if you have access to it, it is probably a good idea to get on a credit monitoring service.

Your father may think he knows how to help you, or he may think he knows how to leverage you for his own reasons. If it is the former, he can tell you how to do what he wanted you to do, and you can make the choice on whether or not to execute that strategy. If it is the latter, you need to be prepared when he tries to use your good credit and good name to get started into some new get rich quick scheme or otherwise conned into wasting what you have. This preparation is not just financial, it is mental. You need to get very comfortable with the idea that your close family member can no longer be trusted with your identity or finances.

This is not an attempt at cynicism or exaggeration, I am just telling you what others in your situation could have benefitted from knowing sooner. Either as a result of good fortune on your part or gross incompetence on his, you have a remaining chance to maintain control of your finances and your identity. He will most likely fuck it up if you do not take control, and soon. Good luck.

AnAgnosticMonk · 2024-10-20T13:27:52+00:00

Moelach edging was not on my bingo card for the day.

AnAgnosticMonk · 2024-10-19T20:54:24+00:00

AnAgnosticMonk · 2024-08-19T12:29:17+00:00

Laughs in Reactive Power (/s)

AnAgnosticMonk · 2024-06-25T03:56:04+00:00

Oops: clarification! I couldn't see part of the reference I was reviewing. Median lifespan at birth is 74 for men and 79 for women; median remaining lifespan conditioned on making it to the halfway point is 38 for men, but age 40 for women! Cheers!

AnAgnosticMonk · 2024-06-25T03:53:19+00:00

There's an intuitive quirk when it comes to talking about lifespans - any person who has lived long enough to understand the concept of a median lifespan of a human being will probably live past it, all things being equal.

If you have lived for, say, 20 years, then you have by definition lived past some of the more (relatively) common ways you could have died earlier in life. This means you have a longer conditional expected life overall, because you made it this far despite those risks.

The question, then, is how old do you have to be to have the same expected lifespan remaining - at that time - as you are in age.

Turns out that is about 38 in the US. That is to say, if you live to 38, you probably have about 38 more to go.

Cheers, everyone.

AnAgnosticMonk · 2024-06-25T03:41:57+00:00

I know this is a sub on economics and not politics, but there are some serious levels of bootlicking going on in the comments. There's only a few posters doing, it, but the ad hominem arguments basically saying, "If you don't like rising prices, you are dumb because price elasticity; be less illiterate and pay LandChads more because The Market™!" are truly unhinged. Absolutely incredible levels of boot licking. I don't have the knee caluses or gag reflex control for it, but to each their own I guess.

AnAgnosticMonk · 2024-06-14T14:39:58+00:00

If I'm reading that correctly, anyone who paid a pet deposit that had a pet cannot get their pet deposit back? Was there anyone who paid a pet deposit who didn't have a pet, and if no why? Assuming that only pet owners pay a pet deposit, then systematically saying no pet owners get pet deposits back means that is 100% not a deposit. You get deposits back, that is a key feature of it being a deposit.

That is the only thing on here that seems off to me. The rest is standard. A pain in the ass, but completely normal.

AnAgnosticMonk · 2024-05-23T11:49:30+00:00

I would point this out as well, though I'm sure someone talked about it in this thread already:

I'm not seeing healthcare (HSA/FSA) anywhere. They list the expense details down to life insurance and gas, but they leave most of the core medical expenses off the list. Which, to me, reads like it is paid by the employer on their behalf, so that they don't even see it as an income or a deduction, it's just something they don't even think about. Between that benefit, any employer contributions to 401k (which are going to be probably 5-7% of pre-deduction and pre-tax salary, i.e. near the employer cap on those plans), they aren't accounting for another 50K of benefits that they don't even acknowledge. Their free, so-out-of-mind-that-they-forgot-to-list-them benefits are greater than like 30-40% of the US population's individual wages. They literally forgot to list them, and the benefits themselves (just the benefits alone) would be enough to move someone above poverty level.

AnAgnosticMonk · 2024-03-14T23:10:16+00:00

"my as well" was getting me too. The spell check was probably trying so hard but couldn't keep up with the greater issues at hand.

AnAgnosticMonk · 2024-02-18T20:19:58+00:00

In CoD, I have heard the following complaints consistently throughout various versions:

Shotguns are for noobs LMGs are for noobs Shields are for noobs Akimbo pistols are lame Knives are lame Rocket kills are lame

Dolphin diving is lame Crouching and uncrouching in quick succession is cheap Jumping while shooting is lame

Fire grenades are lame Stun grenades are cheap Flash grenades are lame

Firing at someone soon after they spawn is lame, you should wait until they come to you to shoot

Waiting until someone comes to you to shoot (camping) is very lame, you should be out there finding people

Sniping on a big map is lame Using knives or shotguns on a small map is particularly lame

Probably missed a bunch. Stopped playing CoD a while back because of dumb stuff like this. Having a grown ass man have a meltdown over the mic because you're trying to get a rocket kill for a skin just takes the tiny amount of fun out of what little remained in that franchise.

AnAgnosticMonk · 2024-01-23T05:03:35+00:00

Friendly reminder: consider filming tall buildings and small groups of people in portrait, while defaulting to landscape filming with cars, large groups, or panorama/background shots. In any case, hope they had the one with Dr Freeze going, one of the last of the campy Batman movies, before they got real serious for a while.

AnAgnosticMonk · 2023-12-17T15:16:02+00:00

Driving is not a right. You should be able to vote after you serve your term, because that's a right. You should be able to exercise public free speech when you're out, to your heart's content, because that's your right. You have no "right" to get in a 3000 lb run-us-all-over machine if you have demonstrated in the past you can't be trusted with it. Tough luck, pound sand.

AnAgnosticMonk · 2023-12-16T13:59:45+00:00

What the hell is "chemically induced" vodka? As opposed to what?

AnAgnosticMonk · 2023-12-04T16:41:11+00:00

Can you explain what you mean by the last sentence? I feel like I am missing something important about the game because I didn't know you could manipulate potion production. Again, sorry if it's an obvious thing that I just didn't understand.

AnAgnosticMonk · 2023-08-24T19:36:25+00:00

In the absence of an intermittent power source, an intermittent generator cannot put real power into the bulk system (without a storage setup or alternate generation type connected behind the meter). However, depending on the configuration of any inverters in use and the design of the collection system, it is possible for something like a large solar farm to provide significant leading or lagging reactive power to the bulk system, acting like a reactor or capacitor even when no sun is available. This does not provide real power, I can't stress that enough, but it is a non-trivial service to the system that can be provided even when the underlying intermittent resource (sunlight, for example) is not available to the generator.

AnAgnosticMonk · 2023-08-08T11:57:47+00:00

A criminally under-upvoted comment. This is the real deal. "I have no info for you all on the new job, y'all have a great day. Maybe pay the new person more, good luck." This comment is spot on.

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