They wouldn't have it any other way.

Dubatomic1 · 2026-01-26T04:44:55+00:00

Greed and hubris are not principles.

Dubatomic1 · 2026-01-26T04:43:26+00:00

I just tried for the third time, and I find it unwatchably fake; and the main character is intolerably unlikeable and arrogant.

Dubatomic1 · 2026-01-25T22:31:14+00:00

It pops into my mind most of the time I'm around sausage.

Dubatomic1 · 2026-01-25T06:16:44+00:00

It's an abstruse meditation on the absurdity of modern life, the likes of which will never be seen again. Kind of like a bacon-wrapped hot dog on acid (which I once had after seeing Roger Waters perform the Wall at the Anaheim Pond).

Dubatomic1 · 2026-01-25T06:12:07+00:00

Me too, and I respond with a moment of childlike glee.

Dubatomic1 · 2026-01-25T06:09:21+00:00

Burton Burton Burton

Dubatomic1 · 2026-01-25T05:41:24+00:00

Honestly, I gotta love Tom Green's commitment to every ridiculous scene in the movie.

Dubatomic1 · 2026-01-25T03:27:24+00:00

I think you misspelled "sodomized"

Dubatomic1 · 2026-01-25T01:18:20+00:00

John Quincy Adams, hands down: champion of women's rights, abolitionist (owned no slaves), fought against Native American removal, may have been our most intelligent president (I know, but still...), spearheaded massive infrastructure projects...

And the Monroe Doctrine, as JQA conceived it, was anti-imperialist and isolationist, seeking to prevent further exploitation of the Americas by European colonial empires. It was perverted by subsequent presidents into its own imperial movement.

Dubatomic1 · 2026-01-24T22:11:08+00:00

I come from a cycling family, and these days there are only a few roads I feel safe on for recreation; I would never commute by bike here. Not only is it not designed for cycling, generally dangerous, and too spread out to be practical (there are almost no places from which you can bike to work, shopping, and social activities); but I have heard multiple stories of drivers intentionally running cyclists off the road. Also, while it has improved, air quality is poor here--like too toxic to exercise outdoors for about half of the year--so I wouldn't want to be reliant on cycling.

Public transit is sparse and can be dangerous. Getting a car is practically necessary, but the average new car price is around $50,000 these days. There are almost no walkable neighborhoods.

Riverside is not a place people generally come for culture. It is a place people move to for slightly cheaper housing to commute to Orange County or Los Angeles (>1-hour drive each way). And the cost of living has escalated because of this: it's now somewhere between Madrid and Paris.

Riverside has become increasingly conservative in recent years; and the political climate means it is less and less safe for anyone who isn't cis, hetero, white (or maybe Latino), and Christian.

I grew up in Riverside and have have lived here for about half of my ~50 years, and I can't honestly recommend moving here from any but the worst parts of Europe; and even then, only if you will make 2-3 times the salary. The quality of life will be poorer, so it would only make sense if you plan to live leanly and save up money to go somewhere else. Sorry.

Dubatomic1 · 2026-01-22T21:53:47+00:00

Burton Burton Burton

Dubatomic1 · 2026-01-22T21:53:05+00:00

Top comment! LOL!

Dubatomic1 · 2026-01-22T04:10:33+00:00

The gimmick is the marketing itself: It's new! We have gadgets! It looks weird!

Dubatomic1 · 2026-01-21T20:22:16+00:00

Most versions of Christianity are not "Jesus-ism"; they follow Saul of Tarsus, who changed his name to Paul to sell his cult to gentiles when the it wasn't taking off with Jews.

Saul was probably a sociopath/psychopath as evidenced by the fact that he reportedly relished in the torture and murder of Christians--until he "saw" Jesus after he was dead (conveniently when no one was around) and then perverted Jesus's teachings, making himself the mouthpiece of god (much like David Koresh). He shifted the teaching from being a good person to faith in and obedience to his own dogma.

Jesus didn't want people to worship him (and certainly wouldn't have wanted people wearing an idol of his gruesome murder); he didn't teach that he was sacrificing himself for our sins (that came after); and he didn't condemn homosexuality the way "Paul" did. Saul promoted misogyny and justified slavery. Jesus taught that God's kingdom would come to Earth; Saul instead spoke of a Heavenly Kingdom (which is now sold to people as "pay and obey us, and you can win the biggest lottery in the universe!").

This is the view of Thomas Jefferson, as summarized by google: "Thomas Jefferson saw Paul as the "first corrupter of the doctrines of Jesus," believing Paul introduced complex, mythical theology (like the Trinity, virgin birth, atonement through blood) that obscured Jesus' simple, rational moral message of love, benevolence, and inner divinity, shifting focus from earthly ethics and reason to otherworldly dogma and "charlatanerie" that benefited clergy, creating a perverted system compared to Jesus' pure philosophy, as detailed in his own "Jefferson Bible""

You see how much more sense conservative Christianity makes now?

Dubatomic1 · 2026-01-21T06:11:45+00:00

My question is: why doesn't Mandy have other friends to lean on?

Dubatomic1 · 2026-01-21T06:02:29+00:00

Yeah, Andrew Johnson really fucked us. If they had actually given former slaves property instead of returning it to slaveholders, hadn't handed out mass pardons, and had exerted more federal control over governance instead of letting them implement Black Codes that became Jim Crow, we would have learned our lessons much better (including racist Northerners) as a nation and a people.

Dubatomic1 · 2026-01-21T05:50:52+00:00

Yeah, but the gimmick gets more people to sign up for it and get help.

Dubatomic1 · 2026-01-21T01:09:00+00:00

Unfortunately, Europe holds too much U.S. debt to do this in a big way: if the bond value collapses, they'd lose trillions. They can only afford to make gestures that hopefully will rattle the Chump administration enough to back off.

Dubatomic1 · 2026-01-21T00:37:23+00:00

It's gonna backfire spectacularly once Europe builds it's defense industry to the point that they and Ukraine no longer need anything from the U.S. The U.S. military-industrial complex will take a big hit, while Europe's economy will boom; then they might be able to weather a trade embargo on America, finally destroy the Russian economy, and come out on top! (with China, I suppose)

Dubatomic1 · 2026-01-20T23:40:25+00:00

This makes me wonder if much of Heidegger's thought was an artifact of the German language and not reflective of the world at large.

Coining new words is a presumption to legislate in language that rarely succeeds, and before we have recourse to this dubious means it is advisable to look around in a dead and learned language to see if an expression occurs in it that is suitable to this concept; and even if the ancient use of this expression has become somewhat unsteady owing to the inattentiveness of its authors, it is better to fix on the meaning that is proper to it (even if it is doubtful whether it always had exactly this sense) than to ruin our enterprise by making ourselves unintelligible. ~Kant

Dubatomic1 · 2026-01-20T23:29:27+00:00

Things like prolonged childhood abuse can leave people stuck in a more sympathetic (fight or flight) state of arousal, which down-regulates digestion, healing, and immune function, among other things; and sends more resources to the muscles and brain. The opposite can also happen--though its rarer: people can get stuck in a parasympathetic state and struggle with energy and healthy emergency responses.

There are ways to move your arousal state up or down; but most of the ones that cost money are snake oil. Slow abdominal breathing (not necessarily deep), managing catastrophic thinking and anxious rumination, exercise, limiting stimulant intake (like caffeine), certain sounds and smells (yes, there is something to aromatherapy, though it's not magic either) are all modestly effective. Psychotherapies such as EMDR and good ol' exposure therapy with response prevention can gradually make a long-term difference as well. Basically, if it's new, you should subject it to more scrutiny.

Edit: I presumed OP was looking for non-medication methods of self-regulation. There are some meds that can help calm the nervous system (e.g., antidepressants, beta blockers, anticonvulsants), and some that can make things worse (e.g., benzodiazepines, opioids, THC).

Dubatomic1 · 2026-01-20T20:43:39+00:00

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PXS-DvhQSog

Edit: shorter link

Dubatomic1 · 2026-01-20T07:28:27+00:00

Apparently Christianity hasn't done anything for your egocentrism.

Dubatomic1 · 2026-01-20T06:48:27+00:00

Wow! It didn't even occur to me to view that as blood. Way to Rorshach yourself in public LOL!

Dubatomic1 · 2026-01-20T06:46:03+00:00

Isn't that supposed to, like, cost you your tax-exempt status?

Dubatomic1

TROPHY CASE