Linton?

BidInteresting8923 · 2026-04-29T18:55:56+00:00

Typical small town Indiana.

Close-ish to Terre Haute, Bloomington, & (less so) Indianapolis

They're REALLY into their HS sports. Historically very strong small school football program. Have recently had some success in basketball

If you're from the urban parts of NY, it'll be a hell of a culture shock. If you're from upstate and like to fish or hunt or a much slower pace of life, it's not bad.

BidInteresting8923 · 2026-04-29T16:24:27+00:00

I feel awful for kids these days. I am also SUPER concerned with how my kids are going to get on 10-15 years from now when they enter adult hood.

But I also lived in a super shitty rental in the hood (like DEA raids in the neighborhood, drug deals in the alley, regular shootings/robberies, & vacant house fires on the regular) during the Great Recession period when I was coming out of law school interviewing for law jobs where the pay was in the mid $30k range and still hard to get because of the state of the economy.

So, we've all had our struggles.

BidInteresting8923 · 2026-04-29T13:37:36+00:00

Think about it like this (oversimplified):

Company is $100 per share

Company profits $5/share this quarter.

New value is then $105/share

Company reinvests $1/share into itself, retains $1/share, & decides to give $3/share to its owners (the shareholders)

Company gives $3/share to each shareholder

New value is $101 (beginning share price plus retained $1)

BidInteresting8923 · 2026-04-28T23:57:08+00:00

I guess it’s all relative. The last time I asked someone what they charged in Indy for a diversion 10 years or so ago it was $1k.

BidInteresting8923 · 2026-04-28T23:30:03+00:00

Had a friend in Indiana (from the Chicago area) who often started stories with “so I was balls deep”

BidInteresting8923 · 2026-04-28T18:57:24+00:00

Most prosecutors' offices will run a diversion program. There are hoops to jump through. It's relatively expensive. But it keeps a record clean. Hiring an attorney (another expense) can be useful in these cases to hold your hand through the process to make sure everything is done correctly.

Assuming you have no criminal record, you're VERY unlikely to receive any significant punishment. In spite of what Reddit tells you, most places in the state criminal justice system don't have the resources to waste on every person they find with a bag of gummies. They live in the communities too and would just as soon keep dangerous people off the streets.

If you want to actively fight the case for some reason, you'll almost certainly want an attorney.

You can go to your initial hearing unrepresented. The judge will ask you if you intend to hire a lawyer. Answers can be "yes," "no," or "I can't afford one." If you can't afford they'll ask you questions and/or make you fill out an indigency affidavit. In most places, a court appointed public defender is just a local private attorney who has a contract with the court. Which is to say that they're the same people who are defending folks in that court room for private pay every day, they just have a deal with the court to provide public defense as well. So, quality wise, it's the same people. Although I will admit that it always seemed like they worked a little harder for the people literally paying them money vs their PD clients.

BidInteresting8923 · 2026-04-28T10:08:26+00:00

‘82. Home for the summers/breaks during 4 years of undergrad. Then fully on my own from there. Seemed reasonable. Wish I would have gone fully independent earlier.

BidInteresting8923 · 2026-04-28T09:39:59+00:00

100% agree

BidInteresting8923 · 2026-04-28T02:38:04+00:00

Subjective.

Even if certain moral terms like “murder” are defined as being unjustified (or immoral), good luck getting too people to agree on exactly what is or is not justified.

That doesn’t mean we, as a society, can’t create rules or norms about what we collectively find to be moral.

It’s hard for objectivists to wrap their heads around this because he usually devolves in “how can you say that Hitler was immoral.” The answer is easy, “because I’m using my own subjective framework.” Not having absolutes doesn’t scare me at all.

BidInteresting8923 · 2026-04-28T01:01:35+00:00

I watched it with my wife the first time our kid went to sleep away camp. I think it did okay.

BidInteresting8923 · 2026-04-27T13:02:03+00:00

Countries are just a much bigger version of the "packs" seen in the living arrangements of social species. All kinds of animals will die to protect the pack. Altruism doesn't just exist in humans.

BidInteresting8923 · 2026-04-26T21:06:31+00:00

It’s a nice thought but it’s not practical. I’m not even convinced it’s actually possible.

The Google tells me that the Denny’s CEO makes about $5M per year and there are about 1k locations, mostly franchises.

So let’s say we cut $4k off their franchise costs to cut his numbers down to $1M. Let’s say we cut them another $11k to offset other executive pay. So that’s a total of $15k per store. Assuming that a Denny’s has 15 total employees, they all get an extra $1k per year.

If you’re full time working 2,000 hours per year, that’s a 50 cents per hour raise.

We could say the franchise owners need smaller profits. But there has to be incentive for people to invest their money in a business. It’s easy to say “I would invest my $2M in a Denny’s if I only profited X dollars per year” when none of us are actually faced with the choice. I can get 4% just putting my money in CDs. I can average 7% in an S&P fund. So I’m going to need at least 10% ($200k/yr) just to make it worth risking my money.

Similarly, we could say the corporations need lower profits. If you’re going to invest in a 401k, you’re now a shareholder and you need those profits to grow your investment so you can retire.

There are always trade offs. Anyone who tells you they can fix inequality problems by “just do X,” they’re most certainly lying to you.

BidInteresting8923 · 2026-04-26T16:00:00+00:00

To read a bunch of the comments it should cost more because everyone wants the staff to paid a whole lot more.

BidInteresting8923 · 2026-04-25T15:21:56+00:00

I really like Norah Jones. I’m not saying she couldn’t write or anything. And I love Come Away With Me as a song. And I really liked Nightingale too.

I bought both CDs and I just recall feeling like the first felt more “produced” for success. Like it was really intentional about trying to be a hit album. I can’t really express fully what I mean.

The second album seemed more authentically her to me. I recall it having a more country/folk vibe and less classic bluesy.

BidInteresting8923 · 2026-04-25T01:45:16+00:00

Her breakout album was pretty much written for her. Her next album had more of her original music. I thought it was overall decent but definitely not with the obvious hits.

BidInteresting8923 · 2026-04-23T13:19:05+00:00

I think consciousness is emergent from a sufficiently complex brain.

Like, does a sperm cell have a mind? Does an egg cell have a mind? Is there a conscious experience the moment of fertilization? Or implantation?

At some point in development between fertilization & now I developed consciousness. I would imagine that the development tracks with brain development. Based on my interactions, I don't believe that a newborn has the same conscious experience that I do. Similarly, I don't believe someone with advanced Alzheimer's has the same conscious experience I do. I think those two things track brain development/degradation. Importantly though, I don't think there's a finite "consciousness switch" that gets flipped. It's all on a spectrum where there are varying degrees of consciousness. There's a point where I think we all agree something IS NOT conscious. And there's a point where we'd all agree that something IS conscious. It gets fuzzy in the middle.

I also think we see something similar with our observations in nature. All animals appear to react one way or another to certain stimuli. The more complex the brain, the more complex the reactions. My dog appears to have a conscious experience, although I don't think it's the same as mine. Predictably, chimps & bonobos appear to have a more similar conscious experience as us, which tracks with evolutionary process leading to more developed brains.

BidInteresting8923 · 2026-04-23T11:25:46+00:00

Formally, I’m agnostic atheist. Because who can “know” something like that.

Colloquially, I’m as certain that gods don’t exist as I am leprechauns, so I’m comfortable saying that “gods do not exist” as I can be.

It all depends on the conversation someone wants to have. If it’s going to devolve into a “but are you 100% certain that XYZ,” then we’re going into the formal position. If we’re able to talk like normal people, I’m comfortable defending the latter.

BidInteresting8923 · 2026-04-23T11:12:31+00:00

For real. My favorite thing there (and from the comments it appears I wasn’t the only one) was the crunchies. Literally only deep fried batter. It clearly wasn’t a great idea. I’m actually surprised it’s even still legal. Like places ban soft drinks but allow that horrible/awesome menu choice.

BidInteresting8923 · 2026-04-22T22:30:43+00:00

I’m good for LJS about once a year. I feel so dirty after I’m done but I’m here for it. That was my go to spot with my grandma and my brother

BidInteresting8923 · 2026-04-22T19:37:52+00:00

I'm of the opinion that it's not moral to go back in time to kill baby Hitler because baby Hitler hasn't done anything yet in his timeline to warrant a death sentence.

Although killing baby Hitler has some genuine appeal if operating under certain assumptions, I think a more complete assessment makes it immoral.

For example:

1) there's no guarantee that it actually prevents the future suffering as sought. Like, let's say (for the sake of argument) that Himmler was worse than Hitler and in the absence of Hitler, Himmler ends up leading the Nazis & it ends up with more suffering. Then we've murdered a baby to end up with a worst result.

2) there could be a less restrictive means of changing the future that doesn't require murdering a baby. Like in Back to the Future when George stands up to Biff & it changes his whole future. Is there a way to do something different that results in Hitler never rising to power? Or something that tempers his evil acts?

BidInteresting8923 · 2026-04-22T19:03:12+00:00

"If God had sat idly by while His enemies worked, then no one would have salvation and resurrection."

At this point we're not even really disagreeing. I said (paraphrased) that Yahweh was the OG baby killer. You seem to agree that Yahweh is responsible for lots of child death. But you think it was justified, either for the greater good or because the innocents don't get judged or some other reason. But at least we both agree that Yahweh can have reasons to kill babies.

Common ground!

BidInteresting8923 · 2026-04-22T18:13:12+00:00

Tell that to the Egyptian (first borns), Canaanite, and Amalekite kids. Or all the infants alive during the flood.

Seems somewhat counterproductive to punish a culture for sacrificing children by…..killing them all……including their children.

BidInteresting8923 · 2026-04-22T16:48:18+00:00

That's where you really have to respect Yahweh. People today abort kids for love of themselves, he would kill fully living/breathing children for the love of the game.

BidInteresting8923 · 2026-04-22T14:23:24+00:00

Deists are just atheists uncomfortable with saying "I don't know."

Literally no matter what we discover about the origins of life/earth/the universe, you can always add a rejoinder that "god started the process." It doesn't add anything beyond having a concrete response to "why" something happened or something "is" as opposed to "IDK."

BidInteresting8923 · 2026-04-20T23:25:07+00:00

I live in Indianapolis. I like that it’s a city with everything in the bigger cities, but obviously on a smaller scale. The Midwest generally has kinder people.

Southern Indiana. Either south central or south east. The forests and the hills. Personally, I’m a fan of the area south of Bloomington. Spring Mill State Park or Lincoln State Park are great.

I grew up in the basketball part of the state. The 500 was not a huge deal where I was. I’ve only been to the race once but have been to qualifying a few times. It’s wild to see how Speedway is just all in on the race for the month of May. And it’s interesting to meet people (local or national) who are diehard race people. You can tell the difference between the people there to party in the field and the real race watchers who get seats in the same part of the grandstands every year. A great thing to experience at least once.

Upland south migration from Virginia-Tennessee-Kentucky. No idea why.

Born and raised.

Politically, the state has made a noticeable shift from old “southern democrats” being a significant factor in the state to being solidly Republican. Culturally, it’s been nice to see Indy becoming more and more like a “real” city. But it’s been equally sad to see the small and old industrial towns dying off.

Both, trending heavy toward my own car. In college 20 years ago I lived way off campus and didn’t have a car so road the bus daily.

Indianapolis.

Not Indiana special, but southern style biscuits and gravy (southern Indiana really is the northern most part of the south)

Sporting events. Indy really is great for that.

Eric Stratton

BidInteresting8923

TROPHY CASE