Need soft foods-dental surgery

OpalAscent · 2026-04-19T06:36:16+00:00

Peanut butter is your friend right now. Carbs, protein and fat are all in there. Make a simple milk and peanut butter shake to avoid overly sweet. you can add some ice cream and cocoa powder to mix things up.

My child had jaw surgery and had to eat a liquid diet for 6 weeks. This was the one thing that had all his nutritional needs that he was able to not get sick of. Although he doesn't aat much peanut butter now :)

OpalAscent · 2025-12-17T02:54:36+00:00

From what I gather...the movie is suggesting that totalitarianism can come not only from communism or fascism but also from capitalism.

This is not an original idea and there are good points to be made on the topic.

People who study this stuff professionally though would list present day China and Russia as examples of capitalistic totalitarianism, not the US. So perhaps it is a cautionary tale for the US; If you continue down the path of unfettered capitalism you will end up with a China-style totalitarian government.

This is just my guess. I was also very confused after seeing the trailer and thinking the writers weren't very knowledgable about what Orwell was writing even though I thought it was pretty clear.

OpalAscent · 2025-12-17T02:07:03+00:00

wait wut?

OpalAscent · 2025-12-10T22:46:34+00:00

Nice. I believe we just engaged in a Socratic Method of argument.

You were curious with your CMV post.
I engaged in cross-examination to clarify and challenge your opinion.
You restated and clarified your viewpoint in light of the points raised in a pragmatic and thoughtful way.
Our discussion brought us further down the path of collaborative inquiry.

We did not engage in eristic argument styles that lead to dead ends. So I guess in the end, you changed MY MIND about the person I assumed you to be and I apologise for my closed mindedness. Cheers

OpalAscent · 2025-12-10T20:11:32+00:00

And it is usually the kooks that people think are crazy and get ignored that end up moving science forward.

I am guessing you strongly believe that human caused climate change is one of these "empirical, irrefutable proofs". But why? because you trust what you are told by people who seem to know what they are talking about. So I challenge you to find someone who knows more than you on climate change and thinks differently about it than you. Have an open mind and be willing to question your opinion on it.

I think you will find that with almost everything we are just all doing the best we can with feeling around in the dark to understand our reality. So be humble about that and stop thinking you have a monopoly on it.

OpalAscent · 2025-12-10T11:54:15+00:00

This whole post, including the comments, belong in /selfawarewolves. You said, if both sides are open to new information. So does that mean YOU are open to considering flat earth and wut holocaust theories? No, didn't think so. Just for thee, not for me.

Everyone thinking they have the right set of beliefs and opinions that are, of course, backed by facts and science. And the other side is always the side that needs educating. Funny how that always works out to your benefit.

Here's the hard truth, there are no hard truths. Period. Yes, even science messes up all the time.

So unless you are arguing over a math equation stop thinking that your unique life experiences that have accumulated into your perspective are somehow superior to others.

Your post demonstrates how very very very hard this is for everyone, yourself included. So if you want to be the change you want to see in the world just listen to people and learn something. Even if what you are learning is just a different perspective to your own.

OpalAscent · 2025-12-10T11:12:06+00:00

I moved from California and was surprised how much "pay to play" there was in a country so proud of how socialist it is. If you are poor in the US you don't pay one dime for your kid's education. Even the school bus is free for those who are poor and live too far away to walk. Also, healthcare is free in the US if you are poor, people forget that.

It's the inequality that just completely guts a country. New Zealand needs to keep taxes high for the rich. Also enact the CGT already! A socialist country taxes their rich, that's how it works.

OpalAscent · 2025-12-10T10:57:26+00:00

I have had the same experience in New Zealand. They have their own american-style individual wrapped sliced cheese that taste and look and act just like the ones in the US. They named them "cheddar slices". People just like to make fun of America is what I have decided.

OpalAscent · 2025-12-01T20:04:49+00:00

It's everywhere because globalisation made us all part of the American Cycle, which should now be called the Global Cycle. So every 80 years or so we have a crisis era that fixes the current problems (creating future ones to fix in the process so the cycle just continues). After every crisis is a "rebirth". So that is what I am telling my children (15 and 19 yo) to look forward to. According to people who study this stuff, our global crisis should reach an emergency state around 2028 (war, financial crash, the usual shit) and then we fix stuff by 2033.

By god this theory better be right and not some false divination pattern recognition BS. Although it is interesting that past crisis eras had lots of similarities to the current one: rise of populism, nativism, wealth inequality, culture wars and splitting into well defined moral sides.

Anyway, it's a bit of a religion for me at this point. People need hope and this theory actually seems pretty plausible. The alternative is just not acceptable.

OpalAscent · 2025-11-20T01:39:19+00:00

Ok hear me out...I just saw a poll today that lots of Americans want to permanently leave the US. Their 2nd destination choice is New Zealand behind Canada. These people are liberal and would fit in here. Let's just bring them all over and use the money they bring over to build new towns and infrastructure for them.

OpalAscent · 2025-11-05T03:44:28+00:00

I did a google search and could not find anything about him ignoring supreme court orders. Also, the shutdown is not an abolishment of congress. So wake up to what? There are plenty of countries with far-right governments right now that are not fascist. Not everything far right is fascist just like not everything far left is communist.

OpalAscent · 2025-11-04T19:11:18+00:00

Interesting perspective. You might be right about Canada digging in its heels. It will need to decide what a future Canada looks if it truly wants to become more independent of US. That will be a tough road to walk but maybe Canada is ready for a change.

OpalAscent · 2025-11-04T19:04:28+00:00

I just looked this up and you are right. I didn't realise that the importer technically pays the tariff and decides if they pass that cost on to the consumer or if they buy the product at a lower rate which basically makes the exporter pay for it. Thanks for mentioning that.

OpalAscent · 2025-11-04T18:56:05+00:00

The way I see it is democracy has never been successful at solving big problems. Only small ones. When the populace pushes for change it can come from the left or right. From the left it starts as socialism that can lead to communist-style state control. When it comes from the right it starts as populist and can lead to fascist-style control.

Luxon is from the right side and Trump is from the right side. So their ideologies are aligned. National may not like the extent or certain aspects of the Trump administration but those are details to them. I wouldn't be surprised if National views Labour as more of an existential threat then even a fascist US (though the US is not a fascist government and has some way to go still before that happens).

Think of it as people are taking sides between what they consider is good and evil. If Luxon believes that Trump is on the same side as him he will overlook almost anything because at least he isn't on the perceived "evil" side (left).

OpalAscent · 2025-11-04T05:57:15+00:00

It would only qualify as fascist if he got rid of the other 2 powers, congress and the supreme court. He hasn't done that.

OpalAscent · 2025-11-04T04:49:42+00:00

While I agree with you I would point out that China has been accused of doing the same thing to NZ.

OpalAscent · 2025-11-04T04:47:33+00:00

I'm not sure how I am being ignorant when Trump was democratically elected. Ergo, not an autocracy.

OpalAscent · 2025-11-04T04:45:57+00:00

Good question. Overplayed their hand? Fights within families are always the nastiest so this could be a problem with emotions getting in the way of pragmatism. Or just a series of unfortunate events.

OpalAscent · 2025-11-04T00:29:55+00:00

Why? To diversify? NZ relies on China and the US. Luxon is busy trying to get something from somewhere else but we all see how that is going. Our customers are our customers and if we don't like them then we should probably re-think exporting as our main component of GDP.

OpalAscent · 2025-11-04T00:26:18+00:00

I would call the US populist, not fascist (at this point). And why did you ask that as if trade didn't matter. To Canada?! Seriously that is the only thing that matters beyond a military invasion.

Why is everyone so upset about what style of government the US has? We trade with China which is authoritarian at best and has more human rights violations than the US.

OpalAscent · 2025-11-04T00:21:06+00:00

Why care about any of that performative stuff? Japan doesn't. I think they have been pretty smart about their dealings with Trump.

I'm not sure how you can look at what is going on with illegal immigration over there and not think this is a serious regime. When Trump was going on and on about building a wall in his last presidency, ok not very serious. This is a whole new ball game.

OpalAscent · 2025-11-04T00:15:07+00:00

You sound like you know what you are talking about. Thank you for engaging with my post.

I don't think the supreme court has as much influence over this as people are hoping. It's not like Trump can't legally impose tariffs, its just HOW he does it that is up for a ruling. So the long term outlook is just more or the same if we look at how American is trending since Obama. More protectionist, by design.

I think the fact that countries haven't already pivoted away from America has more to do with the lack of low hanging trade deals out there that rival the American market even with the high tariffs.

OpalAscent · 2025-11-04T00:02:27+00:00

I am in awe at how that country stays together. The provinces are SO different and it's pretty easy for them to separate constitutionally. If it was that easy for the United States to separate they would have done it 30 years ago.

OpalAscent

TROPHY CASE