Scott Adams Thread (Garfield Cartoonist)

[redpoint5]

Originally Posted by freebeard

Maybe what's needed at the border is fire trucks?

What's needed is for those seeking "asylum" to abide by US law which states that escaping to and remaining in the next nearest non-hostile country is required, and for the US to enforce that requirement. There's no universe in which Chinese asylum-seekers found the US to be the nearest refuge.

My other wild idea is that unlawful entrants be detained in work camps for 1 year unpaid, or return to their origin. If they truly are at risk of political crucifixion in their country of origin, a year of vetting in the land of opportunity isn't a sacrifice, but salvation.

[freebeard]

Candace Owens said Barack Obama said "To be like Donald Trump is the American dream" and I said [to myself] "Oh, really.."'

DDG pointed to Snopes (ontopic: where did all the fact checkers go?). www.snopes.com/fact-check/obama-trump-american-dream/

While some of these articles clarified Obama and Fischer’s meaning in their text, the headline claims presented were a mischaracterization of Obama and Fisher’s argument, which was a call for pragmatism in discussions of racial equality and progress. As one example of this pragmatic approach, Obama and Fischer suggested reframing the quest for racial equality as part of the American concept of equality of opportunity. The invocation of Donald Trump's name was not, as implied by headlines, used to provide an example of the “American Dream,” but rather an example of the “unfounded optimism of the average American” (i.e., the expectation that they or their children would become economically well-off someday) -- a concept Obama and Fischer suggested could be tapped into as a way to bring about more fruitful discussions of racial equality.

I'm neither optimistic nor pessimistic, but I am grateful.

[redpoint5]

Originally Posted by freebeard

I'm neither optimistic nor pessimistic, but I am grateful.

I'm short-term pessimistic, long-term optimistic, and grateful. Being long-term optimistic means that being short-term pessimistic is mostly a charade.

Gratefulness is the gateway of hope.

[freebeard]

My pessimism just spiked.

Generative A.I - We Aren’t Ready.

The Lounge may be our little refuge from The Dark Forest, but for the last few days the Front Page has been showing 1-3 members and ~500 lurkers. What's the simian/silicon ratio amongst the lurkers? I presume they consume bandwidth for ad revenue.

The link to Maggie Appleton is golden. maggieappleton.com/basb

So the advise is meet people/touch grass. I think there's two members that I've met in person [I never see one of them in The Lounge]. Whelp anyways, [<algorithmic incoherence] for reference here's how my nieces saw me in the mid-90s.



That's before I built custom brackets for the Bug Bearer bike rack. And just look at that door gap.

[freebeard]

Of course, when I hear we're all brainwashed, I wonder what form the brainwashing I'm susceptible to has. Sort of a fish in water scenario.

This Is NOT A Recycling Symbol?t=875

"...OR TIE THEM IN A KNOT LIKE THIS..."

I've stopped doing this with plastic bags but I used to be fanatic about it.

[redpoint5]

Originally Posted by freebeard

Of course, when I hear we're all brainwashed, I wonder what form the brainwashing I'm susceptible to has. Sort of a fish in water scenario.

"...OR TIE THEM IN A KNOT LIKE THIS..."

I've stopped doing this with plastic bags but I used to be fanatic about it.

Brainwashing implies malevolence; mostly we're in a bubble of a certain size and shape.

I took all "green" activities on faith as inherently good when I was a kid. As the video concludes, "reduce" is the most effective practice, which fortunately aligns with my interest in efficiency.

I run semi-durable plastic containers through the dishwasher and use them for sending food home with people, or as lunch containers. I also "recycle" gallon milk containers simply to free space in the much smaller garbage container. Everything else goes into the trash, which I assume gets incinerated in Brooks.

[freebeard]

You're asserting there's no malevolence anywhere?

Everybody's 'bubble is a different size and shape. It's akchually a stream, what Robert Anton Wilson called a 'reality tunnel'. Wrangling those various tunnels was described by Noam Chomsky in Manufactuirng Consent.

If you need an antidote to the pessimism at Permalink #394, there is this: Why 3D Printing With Drones Will Transform Construction

I predict jellyfish-shaped airships (with Helium from Minnesota) with dangling tentacles that can 3D print houses, boats and houseboats.

edit: As I walked downtown to pay the bills, I remembered that I still walk with my index fingers and thumb-tips touching, ever since I read A Yaqui Way of Knowledge

I reuse the 20 cent paper bags, refolded after use, up to 5+ times, then they hold refuse.

[redpoint5]

Originally Posted by freebeard

You're asserting there's no malevolence anywhere?

No, implied by my qualifier "mostly".

I reuse the 20 cent paper bags, refolded after use, up to 5+ times, then they hold refuse.

The geniuses in Oregon wanted to eliminate plastic grocery bags, so now we only have plastic grocery bags that contain 10x more plastic. The poor enjoy paying for what was once included in the cost of buying groceries, on top of 35% higher prices due to inflation.

Locally, I order from Safeway from an app and let them fetch the items, which is a free service on orders >$35. They charge a single bag fee (and use those 10x thicker ones), but end up using like 10 bags, with many items being the only thing in the bag. Very nice spending 3 minutes in a parking lot instead of 30 minutes shopping.

Since the bags thick and don't conform to trash bins like the disgraced thin ones, I just toss them in the trash. I'm sure 98% of others do the same.

[freebeard]

Permalink #395 was about the Joe Scott video on recycling. No. 1 and 2 are recyclable, no2 is HDPE. In my case that's coffee creamer bottles. Those are home recyclable but I haven't yet.

They must be geniuses [here] in Oregon, They are re-criminalizing hard drugs. They should reopen the Oregon State Hospital [closed in 1983?]


https://static01.nyt.com/images/2013/04/01/us/20130401-ASYLUM-slide-2DAY-copy/20130401-ASYLUM-slide-2DAY-articleLarge.jpg

I remember being there in the 1970s, working for White Bird Clinic. The people laying out on the lawn were the happiest people I saw that day.

[redpoint5]

Originally Posted by freebeard

They must be geniuses [here] in Oregon, They are re-criminalizing hard drugs. They should reopen the Oregon State Hospital [closed in 1983?]

I remember being there in the 1970s, working for White Bird Clinic. The people laying out on the lawn were the happiest people I saw that day.

I don't have a strong opinion either way on drugs, but generally there's an infinite number of ways to destroy the body and mind at hand, and people intent on doing so will explore those methods unless institutionalized.

My year in prison was spent at Santiam Correctional Institute, which was once a mental facility converted into a minimum security prison. Society does need to bring back the loony bin, as sending severely inept or unstable people out to the streets is inhumane.

I had moments of bliss whilst institutionalized. Having highly structured living allows one to appreciate simple things like an evening walk in the yard, lit by a spectacular sunset. So long as you don't employ bullies as guards/caretakers, things run pretty smoothly.

In my childhood, I recall many mentally ill folks in Salem. My assumption is they were expelled from mental institutions near the turn of the decade, around when I was born.