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Ojo Rojo

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Everything posted by Ojo Rojo

  1. Yeah, that video seemed quite purposeful for horseplay.
  2. Agree 100%. And it's not just courts. It's every politician in the country.
  3. If you think about it, getting an appointment to the Supreme Court is really just a contest to see who can most deftly avoid answering the only questions that matter.
  4. Because they wouldn't get the appointment to the bench.
  5. Correct. And that's bullshit. It's the ONE thing we really need to know.
  6. I'm jealous that you can read people's minds so you know their intent. Their appointments were political; their judicial opinions are not. They are simply the worst examples of tools of the conservative presidents who appointed them and the conservative senators who approved their nominations.
  7. Y'all are having a pointless argument. We all know that the conservative appointees would overturn Roe if given they chance. We also know they can't say that during the confirmation hearings. It's all part of the bullshit fabric of our fucked up government. Nothing can just be fucking real.
  8. I don't have a problem with the leak, regardless who did it. I think it reflects poorly on the court, whose reputation is already tarnished, but there are far bigger reasons to disrespect the court than the leak. Namely, that Gorsuch's appointment is illegitimate because it was stolen from Obama and because the entire nominating process is entirely political and fucked. I also don't have a problem with what is said during the confirmation hearings. They should just do away with the confirmation hearings altogether. It's all just political theater and grandstanding. Utterly pointless. Nothing said during the hearings changes one senator's vote. The biggest problem with the Supreme Court is not that the justices are political hacks, because I really don't think they are. They each have their own judicial philosophies and they hold to those without an eye to politics. I really believe that to be true. The biggest problem is that the nominating process is 100% political. So what happens is that the nominating person and approving entity are acting with 100% political intent trying to install someone on the court who they think will do what they want most of the time. No one, and I mean no one, is asking things like, "Are they a good jurist? Are they intelligent? Are they fit for the position?" And most especially, "Will their nomination be good for the country?" The point in Washington is to win at the game of politics to get more money and power for yourself, not win at the game of governing effectively and for the good of the people. Until masses of voters stop paying attention to the wrong shit, believing shit that is not true and acting against their own self interest this will not change.
  9. Sometimes I am able to take a macro view and think big change is glacial and made up of thousands of tiny movements and that we just happen to be in a relatively short period of tiny movements that are in the wrong direction. Other times, I think that we are on an inevitable trajectory toward fascism, repression, injustice, suffering and death. Those times at least I can say, "Well, hey, I'm a white male. As long as I keep my mouth shut and my thoughts hidden they won't kill me." It's comforting.
  10. Is Goodrum in at 2B? Why? Did Altuve reaggravate? Or is precautionary with a large lead?
  11. Practice. Lots of practice.
  12. You know, contrary to popular belief, whipping a chimpanzee's ass with your bare hands is actually quite hard. You'd get wrecked, I'm told.
  13. Are you really a Sooner? I need to know before I start repping your posts.
  14. Have tickets to the game on Saturday. It's a bobblehead giveaway day. How early would I have to get there to get them?
  15. I accept the bitchassedness label. What I have learned is the proper response is to sit stoically while cold rain hits your face and body, roll the window up yourself while saying nothing or insist on driving in the first place.
  16. Did I mention it was raining?
  17. I need a ruling here guys... Yesterday evening was the culmination of kind of a stressful few days, so I asked my wife if she wanted to go to a restaurant for dinner (with our kids). We picked a Mexican place close to our house and, as luck would have it, her sister was going to be there at the same time with her family and a couple of friends. Everyone was happy that we were going to get together. Great. Well, it was raining yesterday and the temps dropped about 20 degrees as the front passed. I was wearing shorts and flip flops because it had been 86 degrees earlier in the day. It was 63, windy and raining when we left the restaurant. My wife was driving; I'm in the passenger seat (I know, I know, but long story short it was easier to leave the kids her her car instead of transferring them to my truck. Plus, she knows I hate her driving and I normally drive everywhere, even in her car, but I didn't want to be antagonistic and insist that I drive.) After we leave the restaurant we pull up to a light and my SIL's car is right next to us. My wife rolls down my window to "say hi" to them. As far as I know, they never saw us (their windows were all up). When she started rolling my window down I said, "WTF? What are you doing? Why are you rolling the window down?!" She got all pissed off at me. Huh??? It was 63 degrees. And windy. And raining. And I was wearing shorts and flip flops. I guess next time it's pouring rain or cold or snowing or lightning I'll put her outside to exposure her to it because that's cool. Then she claimed I was gaslighting her because I got mad at her about that. Then I told her she didn't know the definition of gaslighting, which is a much overused word, case in point. Yadda, yadda, yadda now I'm sleeping on the couch.
  18. I would do this too right now if I wasn't a lazy pussy.
  19. Another slight update. We had a video call with our child's pediatrician on Saturday to discuss meds for the ADHD and occupational therapy for the fine motor skills issue. She prescribed Focalin for the ADHD and gave us some recommendations for occupational therapists for the fine motor skills. We haven't started giving him the medication yet. I think we're a little scared about the side effects. We have some time between now and the new school year to see how he does with it. Hopefully, the combination of meds and OT will allow him to have a much better experience next year. We're also going to retain him in Kinder, so he'll be older than most of the kids, which could be good for him. This was a hard one for me because it's going to stick with him for many years. But he's just missed so much instruction and we still don't know how it's going to go even with all that we're doing. We have decided it has to be a different school. My wife just really doesn't trust the school where he was anymore. She's worried that he's going to carry a stigma or a label there. Plus, since he's being retained he would be in close quarters with all the kids from his Kinder class who moved on to the next grade. We don't want him to carry any shame or anything related to that. So we still don't know where he'll be for school. The fact is it is going to be an experiment no matter what. Sucks that such an important thing has to be such an unknown, but that's the way it is. One thing I can already say in terms of advice to anyone else dealing with this is to act quickly as soon as you get an inkling that something is wrong. Get your kid tested immediately. There is an established full battery of tests for cognitive and behavioral issues. Every ISD in Texas is required to provide the testing if you request it if your kid is in the district, even if they are going to private school. It's free. We opted to go the private route and have the testing done by the child psychologists group where he was already going. The cost was around $2,000. The wait time for private testing was originally like 3 months, but we got lucky that someone cancelled and we were able to do it sooner. I don't know the timeline for the ISD testing since we went a different direction. The reason I say to act quickly at the first sign is that it will take several months to even find out what you are dealing with, let alone getting treatment started. My child suffered, we suffered and the school suffered while we tried to weather everything and deal with it ourselves. That went on much longer than it needed to. If we had acted sooner and done the things we've done recently it is likely our child would already be having a better experience and would have been able to stay in his school. What I really don't understand is why the school didn't recommend everything we did (that we had to discover on our own). They are professional educators who have been in the game a long time. They have a licensed counselor on staff. Yet, it was as if this was the first time they had ever dealt with this. Or, their attitude and approach is just "We don't deal with this." I'm still confused about it.
  20. Similar things happening in Houston. I was talking to someone yesterday who just got $90K over their asking price in West Houston/Energy Corridor. They had 22 offers. My SIL works for a homebuilder and she said they were doing the no guarantees contracts as someone mentioned upthread. She also said there is talk about a 40-year mortgage product coming online. All of this craziness feels like a bubble. There is an unusual mix of market factors right now. Inflation is driving interest rates up and I have to think many buyers are rushing to get into something before rates go higher, though demand was super high before rates ticked up. Supposedly there are supply and labor shortages that are attributed to a variety of factors - trucking strikes in Canada, weather, fires. I say this because I'm not so sure those factors really exist or that they are truly having the effects we are seeing on prices. I think people in business see an excuse to raise prices and they do because they can. Just my theory. It all makes for an interesting policy discussion. My question is, what is defined as affordable housing? Is it only limited to home ownership? And what is the downside of having no affordable housing, however it is defined? People are forced to rent? Forced to move further out? Commute longer? Are those things really that bad? I don't believe it is a choice between affordable housing and homelessness.
  21. Pressly wtf.
  22. I've read about that several times over the years. I get the heebie jeebies every time.
  23. So we had the video call with the diagnostic psychologist today to get the results. Developmental Coordination Disorder (fine motor skills) and ADHD. She could have diagnosed generalized anxiety disorder, but declined at this time for several reasons. We are not shocked or distraught to receive this diagnosis. I think we've already come to terms with it. The good news is that he has a high IQ. His delayed development of fine motor skills is contributing to poor performance. That's fixable and he would probably develop to a normal state given time even without any kind of intervention. Next step is to talk to pediatrician about ADHD treatments. Overall, we feel better about things. We're relieved that he doesn't appear to have any kind of learning disability, cognitive issues or anything like dyslexia or auditory problems. So we've eliminated a lot of shit. The worst part is just knowing how much he's been suffering since he started school. He's smart enough to sense that something is wrong. He knows he should be doing better and wants to do better, but he just can't. It's got to be a very frustrating experience. And to have been subjected to isolation in his school (they made him sit by himself at lunch to keep him out of striking distance from other kids) and to be treated as different by his teachers and peers - that had to suck. Makes me and my wife really sad for him and guilty that we didn't act sooner. That said, I feel like we've turned a corner and things are going to get better for him from here. We still have big questions about school, but we took a big step today.
  24. Far right is a freaking Amazon.
  25. Slight update, mostly because I just need to keep talking about it. We have an appointment with the testing psychologists on Monday. That's when we will get the diagnosis, and I'm sure there will be a diagnosis. That's probably going to be a hard day, even though I'm preparing myself for it. Once we have a diagnosis then I feel like we will have a more well-defined path instead of being in this forest hell of unknowns. Today was his first day back in the pre-K school. Drop off did not go well. My wife took him and I got the report. She was crying when she called. I think my son realized what has happened, that he's not allowed back at the other school, and now his world has changed. He was very upset and begging her to go back, saying how he wanted another chance and how he knew he "could do it this time." Heartbreaking. The people at this school are very kind and they seemed to be up for dealing with him and getting him acclimated. My wife gave it 50/50 that this was going to work. We'll know after a few days. Meanwhile, my wife was not able to be at the meeting with the school administrators where they told me that he was out. She has been asking me exactly what they said and for some reason she thinks it matters a great deal whether he was expelled or if we withdrew him. To me, that distinction doesn't matter at all. It was very clear to me in that meeting that it was over. It's possible that I could have fought and asked to try this or that, but it would have been pointless. We've already had those conversations, several times, where we fought and agreed to take on even more. Maybe I capitulated. Maybe she thinks I shouldn't have. I accepted that they were telling me that he could no longer go to school there instead of fighting any more. They didn't say the words "he's expelled" or "he can't come back." But it was very clear to me that is what they meant. They were just trying to be kind and gentle about it. The principal did say, "What I can do is reserve the option for him to come back next year." She did say that, which to me makes it pretty fucking clear that he's out for the rest of this year. Anyway, like I said, I don't know why it matters. My wife is angry and upset. She's super pissed at the school and especially our son's teacher. I'm not. I'm able to see this objectively. They had to do what they had to do. I don't blame them. They tried. I also think my wife may just want to be able to tell people that we withdrew him and not that he was kicked out. I DGAF what we tell people. The end result is the same. He's out of that school and we have to move forward and continue gathering information and start making decisions for the future.
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