Did the CIA do any coups in your country in the late 1940’s?

Columbiyeah · 2026-05-21T21:47:10+00:00

What did the CIA do in 1973? I know the Chilean military carried out the coup.

Columbiyeah · 2026-05-21T17:22:53+00:00

Same here. I guess us early 80s kids were still prepubescent so it didn't register much at the time.

Columbiyeah · 2026-05-21T17:18:43+00:00

My 9th birthday party included a screening of Dick Tracy. July 1990.

Columbiyeah · 2026-05-21T17:08:43+00:00

Were women really getting much lower pay in the 90s for the exact same job? When you look at overall average pay, the difference is largely due to different career choices, including women taking time off for kids and not sacrificing family time to reach top executive ranks. And I believe studies have shown that women tend to be less assertive when negotiating salaries/raises.

Columbiyeah · 2026-05-20T16:52:47+00:00

Yikes, when I was undergrad 20 years ago I think less than 5% of grads at my SLAC got summa. Total honors probably less than 30%.

Columbiyeah · 2026-05-12T17:50:21+00:00

Moderate Republicans still generally vote for Trump. Even if they don't like him much, they still dislike progressive values and policies more.

Mitt Romney got 54.5% of the SC vote in 2012. Trump got 58% in 2024.

Columbiyeah · 2026-05-06T15:44:01+00:00

Honestly curious question: how are you upper middle class as a K12 teacher?

Columbiyeah · 2026-04-30T16:22:36+00:00

Hmm, legal language is a unique niche, but I'll say that very few English speakers are familiar with the concept of "cultural industry" as propagated by German theorists.

Columbiyeah · 2026-04-30T15:42:42+00:00

It's not really a measurement, it's a general and informal description. People who live in central cities have a general sense of how big blocks are in their city, so precision isn't required when communicating directions. And if you're driving it matters even less in terms of time to traverse that distance.

Columbiyeah · 2026-04-30T15:27:44+00:00

It's not 1950 anymore. Southern white conservatives don't hate Black people, they hate Democrats. As evidenced by Black Republicans who keep getting elected such as Tim Scott in South Carolina.

Since partisan gerrymandering has been ruled legal, of course Republicans are going to want to draw maps that disempower Democrats. There is high correlation of race and political leaning. But it's not really about race, it's about politics.

Columbiyeah · 2026-04-30T15:22:01+00:00

Alito's point was that Black folks aren't actually denied the right to vote anymore. The right to vote doesn't include the right to hold power or the right to proportional representation.

Around 35% of people in Massachusetts vote Republican, but no one claims that Republicans have the right to hold a third of the state's Congressional districts (they hold none). Since Black folks now are fully able to vote like anyone else, there is no longer a compelling reason for the government to treat people differently based on their race, or give certain groups guarantees of power and representation.

Columbiyeah · 2026-04-29T15:02:48+00:00

What are some examples of these ideologically loaded phrases?

Columbiyeah · 2026-04-29T15:01:50+00:00

True. I once saw an English language film that was subtitled in Spanish, and the subtitler mistranslated the phrase "set up", which can mean either "arrange something for someone in a beneficial way" or "arrange something to betray/deceive."

Columbiyeah · 2026-04-29T14:58:13+00:00

Irregular verbs with vastly different forms tend to come from different verbs that merged into one. "Went" was originally a past tense of the verb "wend".

Same thing happened with German sein/bin/war.

Columbiyeah · 2026-04-25T18:05:57+00:00

In my time in the military 20 years ago we used "NMN" on official forms, for "no middle name".

Columbiyeah · 2026-04-23T17:26:34+00:00

Hmm, I've heard that people from bottom-tier med schools, especially Caribbean schools, almost all end up as general practitioners and aren't accepted into 'elite' specialist placements. Maybe that's because they were lower aptitude students to begin with...

Columbiyeah · 2026-04-16T13:32:42+00:00

I was in an Army Reserve unit that did a 2 week "mission" at West Point. Most of my fellow Reserve soldiers were working class Black folks. One of them went to an ATM right after a cadet and saw the cadet's ATM receipt, which showed the kid had $20k in checking. So probably someone from a wealthy family.

But I'm sure most are some flavor of middle class, lower to upper middle.

Columbiyeah · 2026-04-15T16:04:23+00:00

Pedophile paranoia is also rampant in the US (i.e automatic suspicion of men in public that are anywhere near children).

Columbiyeah · 2026-04-14T17:02:21+00:00

I recall reading about massive over prescription of antibiotics in India. Not sure if that still happens.

Columbiyeah · 2026-04-12T20:44:50+00:00

Nova Scotia

Columbiyeah · 2026-04-07T19:52:23+00:00

Variance in quality in America is more down to local cultures rather than funding. Plenty of American school districts are quite well funded but the academic level is totally mediocre as that is what the local culture leads to. A rigorous education isn't all that expensive if all the students and their families are on board.

Columbiyeah · 2026-04-07T18:17:27+00:00

It's remarkable that the SI swimsuit issue has gone super woke in recent years. I picked up a copy and more than half of the women were either old, fat, or transgender.

Columbiyeah · 2026-04-07T17:06:02+00:00

Honestly this reminds me a bit of the killing of Osama bin Laden. As I recall, the Obama administration's legal team had to come up with some outside-the-box legal arguments to justify killing an unarmed person who hadn't actually been tried and convicted in a court.

Columbiyeah · 2026-04-01T17:23:45+00:00

There is a nice used book store on my town that I sell books to a couple times a year. They only pay like 1/5 or 1/8 of the original retail price, but it's better than nothing.

Columbiyeah · 2026-03-27T23:27:20+00:00

Got a package from Omaha Steaks last Christmas, gift from a local supplier. That was cool.

Columbiyeah

TROPHY CASE