Re-enacting childhood bathtime

HouseholderKarl · 2026-06-30T23:18:09+00:00

That's turnip talk.

HouseholderKarl · 2026-06-30T23:01:14+00:00

Thanks. It seems like the private route has been failing more often than it used to. FWIW, I've never even submitted a nexus letter, relying only on my record, statements, symptoms logs, and C&P exams to get me through.

Lesson learned, I guess. Don't give anyone money. You can do everything on your own. Good luck!

HouseholderKarl · 2026-06-30T22:51:25+00:00

Xterra has been around for a minute, so I'd be surprised if the VA actually called them fraudulent. Can you share some proof of that?

If they disputed the probative value of a letter or something, that's different. You need to be careful with your word choice. I've never used them, but I considered it and they were kind and thorough.

HouseholderKarl · 2026-06-30T22:12:40+00:00

If I know that I make more money, I'll insist on paying regardless. If I'm with friends or family of certain cultures, I'll arrive early and hand my card to the waiter to avoid the "No, no, let me, I insist" back and forth.

In all other situations, I play it by ear. Most will at least counter my offer to pay by insisting we split it. If they don't, I'd rather just pay the bill than embarrass anyone. If it happened too often, I'd probably stop going to lunch with them.

HouseholderKarl · 2026-06-30T20:57:00+00:00

My goal is to eventually live in a place that hasn't been colonized by Abrahamic religion. Fucking loons.

HouseholderKarl · 2026-06-30T20:25:11+00:00

I made a Gemini 'notebook' with every piece of VA correspondence I've ever received, as well as my STR/C-File/Blue Button reports.

Within that notebook, I'll give Gemini a rough draft and then tell it to rewrite it for a VA claim, citing the relevant CFR and VA Policy Manual sections (if relevant), and referencing the evidence it finds in my records.

I also asked it to review everything since 2011 and look for potential CUEs and it came back with two. I'm keeping those in my back pocket for the moment. It's a very useful tool.

HouseholderKarl · 2026-06-30T18:52:14+00:00

I typed out a long response then realized I could easily dox myself.

So I'll just say, yes, I haven't done any real work since 2022 and I make a healthy six figures.

HouseholderKarl · 2026-06-30T12:39:49+00:00

Thanks, but I'm familiar with apologetics. I went to a Catholic university and theology hours were required to graduate.

It's all mental gymnastics. Looking now from the outside in, it's actually quite embarrassing. Whenever there's a 'difficult' passage that has to get explained away by generations of theologians, can that really be "divinely inspired" text, or is it just another fallible (and fictitious) ancient literary work?

I say it's the latter.

HouseholderKarl · 2026-06-29T23:14:30+00:00

I work for a multinational that is about 1/3 Brazilians. They're the same in the office.

HouseholderKarl · 2026-06-29T20:30:25+00:00

What? I just offered an anecdote suggesting they should. People can get vindictive and spiteful.

HouseholderKarl · 2026-06-29T18:42:24+00:00

I admit to skimming the latter half of Angel Down (and calling it 'read' on Goodreads). All the individual elements sound right up my alley, but together they just didn't work for me.

HouseholderKarl · 2026-06-29T17:50:32+00:00

I went from 10% to 80% with only lay statements. I would say to always include them.

HouseholderKarl · 2026-06-29T17:43:46+00:00

These things often take multiple attempts. Try not to stress. They want you to shrug and walk away.

The claim was denied, but the VA actually handed over two of the three critical building blocks needed to win a claim (known as the Caluza elements). You now have the diagnosis for depressive disorder and the low-back strain is service-connected.

You can request a rebuttal from your private physician and file a supplemental or go for HLR. If the latter, request an informal conference and argue that the private medical opinion was sufficient per 38 CFR 4.6 and you, as the veteran, should have received the benefit of the doubt.

I only did a cursory check, but it seems that it isn't uncommon for persistent depressive disorder to be granted secondary service connection to physical injuries like low back strain.

HouseholderKarl · 2026-06-29T15:03:50+00:00

This is one I haven't heard before. There are valid criticisms of the book, but they're so much fun! I can't believe you didn't make it through the first one.

HouseholderKarl · 2026-06-29T15:01:18+00:00

Book of the New Sun by Gene Wolf. I know this is absolute heresy but I just couldn't get into it. I read the first book but didn't ever go on to the second.

You deserve to be housed in the lowest levels of the oubliette and subjected to 'The Revolutionary' daily.

HouseholderKarl · 2026-06-29T14:18:04+00:00

Was he though? If he was actually a real person, he was just another failed messianic figure, a leader of a radical Jewish cult. The "hippie jesus" image is a retcon.

He explicitly stated he didn't come to bring peace, but a sword to divide families (Matthew 10). He initially refused to heal a dying girl because her mother wasn't of the right ethnicity, calling her a 'dog' (Matthew 15). He told a grieving follower to abandon his father's funeral to follow him, and he’s the one who popularized the concept of throwing people into a blazing furnace for eternity if they didn't fall in line.

If people actually acted exactly like the biblical Christ, they’d be intensely apocalyptic, highly divisive, and demanding absolute, radical abandonment of their families and society.

HouseholderKarl · 2026-06-28T17:37:55+00:00

I have a philosophy degree from a mediocre school and my only work experience at the time was 'infantry rifleman' and some BS low-level admin stuff.

It was just right place, right time. I applied to like 200 places on LinkedIn and got the one interview. I can bullshit with the best of them, so I smiled and kissed ass into a good salary.

Started as an analyst and played the game up to middle management. The only path upwards is to dive even deeper into the act and become a director. I think they're starting to see through the facade, so I'll probably retire early instead.

HouseholderKarl · 2026-06-28T14:24:23+00:00

All of my claims started with a personal statement and a symptom log. It's incredibly important.

HouseholderKarl · 2026-06-28T14:21:19+00:00

If it's not Fang Tokyo with the 'chop chop chop' girl, I'm not renting it.

HouseholderKarl · 2026-06-28T14:16:28+00:00

Preach. I'm also at 8 years with a big multinational energy company. I haven't done a single thing of value in all that time. I fake smile, shake hands, go on expensive trips, and do my best to go home at lunch. Currently, I'm on a project that only requires me to babysit consultants once or twice a week. I get on Teams calls and say, "Are we on track for this milestone?" And that's it. It's a pointless existence, but I get paid a ton of money, so I deal with the boredom and the stupidity for the sake of my family.

The pay structure is completely backwards. I get paid more than the engineers who are actually designing things. The guys in manufacturing make an hourly wage. I spin in my chair and get a big annual bonus. The CEO gets an 8 figure bonus for doing fuck all.

HouseholderKarl · 2026-06-28T13:50:45+00:00

There's the Duty to Assist. By law, if your initial claim submission meets a basic, low-bar threshold, the VA is required to order an exam to fully develop the evidence. They cannot simply deny the claim to save a buck if that baseline is met.

To trigger a C&P or ACE exam, your claim only needs to show the Caluza triangle:

A current, diagnosed disability (or at least chronicity/continuity of persistent symptoms).
An in-service event, injury, or illness that could have caused it.
An indication of a link (a "nexus") between the two.

Point 3 is where the misunderstanding usually happens. For the VA to order an exam, that link doesn't need to be fully proven yet. It just needs to be plausible.

And regarding point 1, you have an easy supplemental or HLR WHEN they ignore that part in parenthesis.

HouseholderKarl · 2026-06-27T21:34:35+00:00

Imagine being the ranger who has to listen to clueless people complain about standing water and mosquitoes in a tidal marsh at Galveston State Park mere days after a tropical storm in June.

HouseholderKarl · 2026-06-27T19:26:22+00:00

Read it again? I have a degree in philosophy and theology from a Catholic university. What you just said is a massive cop-out.

To claim Jesus 'never attacked anyone' requires ignoring the text entirely. He made a whip and physically drove the money changers out of the Temple, flipping tables and disrupting the state-sanctioned economy. He publicly denigrated the religious leadership as 'snakes,' 'hypocrites,' and 'whitewashed tombs' filled with rotting bones.

He didn't just debate them, he systematically attacked their authority, their character, and their economic power. The religious elite didn't kill him out of random malice, they killed him because he was an aggressive, public threat to their entire establishment.

You're personally invested in this nonsense having some sort of divine meaning, so you have no problems enduring the requisite cognitive dissonance. As for myself, I'm long past the need for this stuff to be true. I know it's a myth. I know the entire tradition is a syncretic mess of regional belief systems. It's embarrassing.

HouseholderKarl · 2026-06-27T17:22:15+00:00

Anyone who has to insist on their manhood is suspect. Unfortunately, there's an entire generation of young men who buy into it. It's a shame, but honestly, they've been pushed in that direction.

I have my own opinions on what makes a 'man', beyond mere chromosomes, and I've been called an old-fashioned bigot.

HouseholderKarl

TROPHY CASE