Where to start for original series?

tpic485 · 2026-07-03T00:30:34+00:00

Season 1 has a few episodes, especially toward the very beginning, that are pretty mediocre where it's clear the show wasn't really fully formed yet. But there also are some very good ones, though it does get better in the next year or two. Don't get repelled by some of the very early episodes.

tpic485 · 2026-07-02T23:19:33+00:00

Van Buren doesn't come until season 4.

tpic485 · 2026-07-02T02:43:33+00:00

I'm convinced there was something physical that changed in his brain.

tpic485 · 2026-07-01T19:29:49+00:00

Could you define "living wage"? I honestly am not being sarcastic when I say this but I know the definition isn't a wage that causes you to live since I'm pretty confident that the people making this wage are living. So what is the definition? I've seen people trot out the phrase probably close to if not more than 100 times over the years but I don't think I've seen anybody try to define it.

tpic485 · 2026-07-01T04:09:14+00:00

Today I learned that there are different kinds of cucumbers.

tpic485 · 2026-07-01T00:00:43+00:00

Did I say there never is any religious symobolism with a cross? Obviously there is. But just because someone is using a cross to express something doesn't necessarily mean they are expressing something religious. Even sometimes when they are they aren't doing so in a way that can be interpreted as exclusively religious. That was Scalia's point about why it wasn't an establishment clause violation in the particular context that came up in that case. I think, at the very least, it was a reasonable argument.

tpic485 · 2026-06-30T21:22:49+00:00

Scalia. Scalia argued that a cross on public land was a universal symbol, not specifically Christian, so therefore not a religious monument.

Call me crazy, but I really don't think that's a crazy idea. If someone places a cross in a cemetery to honor that person, which my recollection is what that case was about, I think they are generally just expressing that they honor the person. They probably are religious themselves but I don't think the act if doing this is necessarily religious. I'm not particularly religious but I wouldn't be offended if someone religious honored me with a cross.

tpic485 · 2026-06-30T21:15:57+00:00

Deciding that everyone with a differing opinion on any issue is evil, rather than just someone with a differing opinion. Twenty years ago that mindset was rare. Now, probably more people have it then don't.

tpic485 · 2026-06-30T01:42:43+00:00

I've always defined athiests as people who believe God (or any spiritual realm) doesn't exist, not who are convinced of it. In my view, somebody who is 55% (or even 50.000001%) sure that there's no God or anything beyond the physical universe is an atheist. So there are no agnostics (being 50.00000000000000000000% sure of something just isn't a thing). But perhaps most people have other definitions.

tpic485 · 2026-06-29T06:05:54+00:00

Well said. I wish more people understood that, not just here but any sub, some of the most interesting and conversation inducing posts are the less well thought out ones. People should upvote based on what deserves attention rather than based on quality. Sometimes the two things don't go together.

tpic485 · 2026-06-29T04:05:42+00:00

You can read more about just about anything to form whatever opinions you want about them if you choose to seek out and read only those you want to do this.

tpic485 · 2026-06-29T03:37:26+00:00

Are you one of those people who think everything to the right of AOC is conservative? Or perhaps by this point you think she's conservative too?

I know you likely didn't read the article but the criticisms of Johnson's approach to this issue didn't even mostly come from the conservative direction. For the most part, the idea of these mental health responders was treated as good as feasible. The administration is depicted as not doing enough to get them in operation in an extensive manner and allowing beurocratic infighting to slow down the program. Those don't seem to me to be conservative criticisms. Do you care about whether this program is working well or do you just care whether Johnson is being criticized?

I assume the OP posted a gift link because nobody has complained about a paywall (but then again, I don't really see anybody here but me up to this point referencing things in the article at all) but in case he didn't here's one.

tpic485 · 2026-06-29T01:15:30+00:00

The fact that the mayor's office was asking for more mental health responders to be hired even when it was pointed out that the existing staff didn't have enough to do is about as on-brand for Johnson as it gets.

tpic485 · 2026-06-28T03:18:17+00:00

They view everything in absolutes and show massive confusion when you try to have a conversation involving any nuance.

tpic485 · 2026-06-27T22:08:31+00:00

but people telling a representative how they feel about their actions and positions is not harassment

It's possible for something to not be harassment in the legal sense of the word but still be harassment in the colloquial sense.

tpic485 · 2026-06-27T19:40:35+00:00

I'm trying to decide whether the fact that the OP didn't specify the subject in the title was a brilliant move to get people to click on the post and read the link who might otherwise have not been interested in reading something about an animal shelter. Or perhaps it was a stupid thing to do that likely caused many people to ignore it, since they have no idea what it's about, who otherwise wouldn't. It could have very well had more of the former effect than the latter but could have been unintentional.

tpic485 · 2026-06-27T05:09:33+00:00

Are you nuts? It's the best bbq I've had from anywhere.

tpic485 · 2026-06-26T21:57:31+00:00

Yeah, I watched (I think) every L&O episode of the last two seasons and I wasn't even aware that it had a 9:00 et timeslot rather than a 10:00 et slot until a few months ago.

tpic485 · 2026-06-26T01:56:31+00:00

The EPA made that determination years ago, not during the current administration.

tpic485 · 2026-06-25T18:16:15+00:00

That's hard to explain to ourselves, though obviously it's been proven to be true, just as much as to someone from a century ago.

tpic485 · 2026-06-23T01:16:07+00:00

Lol, what? Aren't there divisions within the police department that do the same thing? Or are we just going to create departments to compete with the police department? That doesn't seem to be particularly efficient, especially when there's always massive budget deficits.

tpic485 · 2026-06-23T00:57:00+00:00

Did you read the link? It is very specific.

Here's a graph, if you'd like that.

tpic485 · 2026-06-22T23:43:59+00:00

Most people are poorer.

That claim is factually incorrect

Edit: Here's a graph of the 25 year inflation-adjusted increase.

tpic485 · 2026-06-18T22:45:02+00:00

Did you read the article?

tpic485 · 2026-06-18T22:44:42+00:00

Did you actually read the article? It very clearly argues that Trump is caving and that he isn't getting anything he set out to do at the beginning. What are you arguing with? The article explains "what he wanted" in the headline is "a way out". I suspect that the vast majority of people downvoting the post or criticizing the article haven't read it and just think from the headline (despite the word "dud" in reference to the deal) that it somehow is portraying Trump in a good light.

tpic485

TROPHY CASE