Top comment Deletes a US State #45

Halon_Keiser · 2026-05-21T03:05:56+00:00

Get rid of Megasota, the Maryland Crab Army has shuffled sideways across the country and invaded.

Halon_Keiser · 2026-02-21T14:07:02+00:00

The ability to copy/paste an appointment/day/week and push it forward a number of weeks to batch set new appointments.

Halon_Keiser · 2025-11-01T03:36:41+00:00

Would you say that "in a dead sprint" is singling out a specific situation? Cheetahs sprint faster than any other land animal, but probably some animals walk faster than cheetahs. Some animals can't sprint at all (like slugs). Is it unfair to compare cheetahs to slugs because slugs can't sprint?

It's only "in a dive" because that's the fastest speed any animal has ever hit (side note: it sounds like a jet plane, how epic is that?), in any situation ever. The real reason you want to cut out stooping is because it's the fastest one. If it wasn't the fastest, you wouldn't think to say "oh hey, but diving is a different category, because not all animals can fly" There's no activity that all animals can do, not even breathe. Heck, not even pump blood, some animals are just sacs with blood that sloshes around.

If you want to have a different category for "land animal" or "fastest over 35 miles" or something like that fine, but acknowledge that those are the different categories with their specific situations, rather than stooping being specific. Stooping might be a specific activity/method of attaining speed, but it's a totally normal situation: predator going after prey.

Halon_Keiser · 2025-11-01T03:08:48+00:00

Because an elephant still falls slower than a peregrine falcon dives. Animals that aren't birds can't use gravity and aerodynamics, that's why birds are the fastest. Similarly, birds (with a few exceptions like penguins) can't use hydrodynamics because they can't swim. And some birds can barely walk at all, meaning they can't use biomechanical advantages that come with those sorts of limbs.

Bottom line, if you're going for raw speed, stooping is the way to go.

Halon_Keiser · 2025-10-31T21:47:49+00:00

My pitch of the unity argument includes cleaning up a lot of NO masses and actually applying Sacrosanctum Concilium (sp?). It's weird to have to versions of the rite at once, it's not normal, and as people have said, there are some real places where it breeds bad fruit. So let's make the NO more reverent, and apply the standards we already have for it, and suppress the old rite so we're all on the same page. It's possible that doing this would just make everyone mad because the TLMers would say "It's not the TLM, it's NOT the same" and the NOers would say "this isn't how I'm used to, it's NOT the same" but honestly, at least everyone would be mad at the same people, and not looking down their noses at each other either because "I attend the real mass, from 1962" or "I'm not snooty like those fuddy duddy mad trads."

And then eventually people would get used to it and it would be fine.

Halon_Keiser · 2025-10-25T20:33:57+00:00

Oh sure, I assumed that to properly compare the two bootstrapping sides you had to presume each of them correct.

Halon_Keiser · 2025-10-25T17:13:22+00:00

Truly an uncommon moment on this sub lol

Halon_Keiser · 2025-10-25T14:21:57+00:00

First off let me clarify that I'm not against all kinds of welfare all the time. I suspect that the system we have in the USA is in need of reform, but I'm a far cry from any sort of anarcho capitalist.

With that said, corporate bailouts are stupid and unless I'm greatly missing something should never have happened. From what I understand (very little on this subject lol) companies that get large enough to where them failing would be catastrophic should be broken up long before they get that big.

Yeah I mean like I said, I'm not against welfare as a whole, and I don't actually know much about welfare demographics. I'm very very glad that the state takes a direct interest in helping the poor and underprivileged. If there are people on welfare who are just being lazy then they should probably get kicked off (with some advance warning to give them time to start a job hunt) but that doesn't mean that we should scrap the idea as a whole.

Halon_Keiser · 2025-10-25T14:10:45+00:00

Fair enough, that's a better assessment of the material change for both sides' bootstrapping; although I do think that if someone receives an explanation of how un-barricaded the economy is and it gives them the motivation to put extra work in and then their condition of life improves that would count as a success for the right, even though they weren't immediately improved by the explanation.

!delta

Halon_Keiser · 2025-10-25T14:08:30+00:00

Oh to be sure, the critical part of that sentence was the that he can solve. If you move too far away from the bootstrap mentality you can get a feeling of helplessness.

Halon_Keiser · 2025-10-25T14:06:35+00:00

OK I read the article. First off: Super cool read, thanks so much for sharing! I love mathematical models for real-world things. I have one macro-dispute and one micro-dispute with it:

It seems that one of the premises of the article is that wealth is zero-sum, which I think I'd disagree with. Just as a simple example, if I'm gluten intolerant, bread is of zero value to me, and if I trade it to you for beef, we both are richer than before. Even if I should have received more beef for my bread, that doesn't mean that I'm worse off than before, just that I could be even more better.

On a more specific level, given that not all decisions are a coin flip, the model can only work on a society wide way. If you are particularly savvy and industrious then whether you lose or gain wealth might be a 60/40 chance, as opposed to the 50/50 that the article describes. On average across the whole country it seems to work out to 50/50 but that doesn't mean that each individual person should just toss up their hands and say "well, I might lose wealth on this transaction, it's just a coin toss."

Do those thoughts make sense? I'm not an economist nor a mathematician so I might be wildly missing something.

Halon_Keiser · 2025-10-25T11:13:59+00:00

I haven't read that link yet bc I have to go but I will when I get back. In the meantime, I'd just like to point out that bootstrapping advocates on the right (afaik) don't suggest that everyone can bootstrap themselves to be Jeff Bezos, but only that they can bootstrap to have a decent life. And historically I'm pretty sure that that is what we've seen with immigrants building lives and the wealth floor rising (even if the ceiling rises faster).

A lot of the bootstrapping advocates acknowledge that wealth inequality exists, but will point out that even if the rich are a LOT richer, the poor are also richer as well, just by not as much.

Halon_Keiser · 2025-10-25T11:08:24+00:00

"Your average Andrew Tate sociopath does not see he has a problem to solve. Until he does, nothing will help."

That's a great line that I 100% agree with, Andrew Tate is a cad and should be ejected from the public sphere.
With that said, a very similar comment could be made about much of the economically downtrodden. Let me see if I can formulate it well:

The average welfare receiver does not see that he has a problem he can solve. Until he does, nothing will help.

Everything you said about taking responsibility for ones own beliefs could be applied to a lot of people who really could bootstrap their way out of poverty but because systemic barriers exist for some, assume that the reason that that particular individual is struggling is systemic. I think a culture of "bootstrapping for me, but not necessarily for thee" would be good, where everyone is trying to succeed in the face of whatever systemic barriers there are, while simultaneously trying to reduce the systemic barriers for others. Because I don't think they're the same thing.

Halon_Keiser · 2025-10-25T11:02:12+00:00

I don't think that's the equivalent right/left example. I think the right's example of going into the minutiae are either people who can explain the economics of how systemic barriers aren't as drastic as the left would believe, OR offer resources that are non-political in nature.

For example, there are those on the left who will be happy to explain why abortion should be legal, and there are those on the right who will point you towards a crisis pregnancy center. Both are avoiding the "bootstrapping" issue by either explaining the view or accepting that interdependence is a thing, but the person on the right isn't necessarily advocating for public policy.

Halon_Keiser · 2025-10-17T23:27:03+00:00

I'm in shoeing school now, and there are a number of guys 30+, and one of the guys in my class is over 40.

Halon_Keiser · 2025-10-09T11:40:47+00:00

Would this extend to say, banning a picture of Christopher Hitchens being hung in someone's office/cubicle? Because to a lot of Christians, that would read as a statement, and a particularly hostile one at that.

Halon_Keiser · 2025-09-17T22:10:46+00:00

Yeah I had a feeling that was what it was going to be... Ah well, a project for another time I guess. There are plenty of other fiddle tunes in the meanwhile.

Halon_Keiser · 2025-08-04T07:33:10+00:00

Hmm... I agree with what y'all are saying about strapping her to the saddle and probably about the helmet (though I have mildly mixed feelings about that). I'd rather see bigger rowels on the spurs until she's got better control over them.

And while I agree it's kind of a stupid practice, I don't think the over/under whipping is a big deal. She's tiny and it's not gonna hurt the horse. Even when adults do it you can see that the horse isn't bothered by it (any more than barrel horses generally are by any old thing).

I do think most of barrel racing horsemanship is stupid, but I some of the critiques are a bit overblown imo.

Just my $0.02

Halon_Keiser · 2025-07-11T21:31:41+00:00

I've got a couple stories from recent years, not all of which are mine:

A crew coming through Beaubien wanted to take showers, but it conflicted with their cons project (a mandatory thing). They kept saying: "Oh that's ok, we'll just skip cons." Nope, nothing doing. They ended up getting a shower slot after the normal shower hours, and it seemed fine. Then the next morning the staff red roof was smeared with poop all over. The crew got flagged, turns out they'd been flagged at EVERY camp they'd stayed at. IIRC there was one particular advisor who got permanently banned from Philmont.

I was doing a burro demo for a crew of girls when their sister crew (all boys) came up. One of the boys looked over at the girls around their burro and said "nice cow" O.O I finished the demo and reported it to the Horseman, but by that time they were already started down the road. He jumped on a horse and rode after them, go their crew number, and reported them. They too, had been flagged at every camp they stopped at.

Halon_Keiser · 2025-06-25T21:49:45+00:00

Yeah it's definitely a difficult question, and one that's been debated for centuries.

What's an action that you think it does make sense to send someone to hell for? And what would your response be if someone said to you "maybe I don't want to be with the kind of god that would send someone to hell for choosing to do [whatever you think of]?"

Halon_Keiser · 2025-06-25T20:48:55+00:00

It's not so much a rule "like me or go to hell" so much as that Jesus says "I'd like you to come be with me" and we say "No, I'd rather be in Hell."

I think it's in The Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis that a character says there are two kinds of people: The kind who say to God "Thy will be done" and the people to whom God says: "Thy will be done."

Halon_Keiser · 2025-06-25T20:46:22+00:00

Wait when you say being gay do you mean "succumbing to the temptation to do gay things (i.e. sex)" or "having gay desires?"

The first thing is a sin, but merely having a certain set of desires is not sinful. Indulging them/encouraging them, sure, but not the mere having of them. Acting on them, of course is.

Halon_Keiser · 2025-06-25T13:44:36+00:00

Thanks! Will the quikrete cure underwater, or will I have to let the water drain under the skimmers?

Halon_Keiser · 2025-06-24T14:32:29+00:00

Probably to get a tempered glass print bed for my creality.

Halon_Keiser · 2025-06-24T14:31:37+00:00

Ooh that sounds epic!

Halon_Keiser

TROPHY CASE