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Mole

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Everything posted by Mole

  1. In the present era where conservative culture is synonymous with troll culture, debates are worthless. Biden/Trump #1 cemented that. A live donkey show would have been more enlightening than that garbage. Until conservatives decide to be conservative again rather than reflexive trolls, there’s not really a point in having debates. I have more cogent debates with my 4 year old when he’s having a meltdown. That’s not an endorsement of Democratic Party policies or values, but an observation that Republicans have given up acting like adults. Note, if “leftist” is a regular part of your vocabulary used to describe those politically different than you, you’ve abandoned the realm of adults and joined conservative troll culture. Same goes for cries of socialism, communism, etc. Having said that, if this actually means we won’t be having debates in the run up to 2024, that’s a bad sign. Reasoned and passionate debate and discussion is a bedrock principle of what defined American greatness. The moment we all agree that there’s no point to such a debate, we’ve all (once again) agreed to abandon American greatness.
  2. 1. Those pictures definitely hit at a visceral level and suggest a lot of broken things in our culture. You could blame it on many things political and not political and be correct, but only partially so. 2. I wonder how much of this is a new problem vs. a new manifestation of an ongoing problem. What’s the base level per capita theft in our culture? Is this reflective of a change or have the rails just become the big box store for thieves? Essentially, I wonder if this has always been a similar problem but now it’s scaled up and concentrated due to the changes in how we buy or if there’s been an actual increase in this type of crime. Neither scenario is good, but it reflects a different problem. 3. Partisan hacks will make broad proclamations about what this means. They won’t necessarily be entirely wrong, since it’s a complex problem, but they won’t be right either; and they won’t be interested in solving the problem, just benefiting from it.
  3. Early 40s/late millennial, cashless doofus. My “wallet” is a small magnetic pocket that attaches to my phone and holds my work ID, a credit card, and my DL. I stick my wallet on the fridge when I’m home or in my office. Cash is only carried when I need it and I usually just keep it in my pocket. I never worry about how I order the bills, since its usually for one specific purpose.
  4. I vote for irrational fear. I raced to get my shots because my rational side told me that it could save my life, prevent needless suffering, or maybe protect my family and community. The entire drive to get the shot, my irrational brain told me that the shot would make my tongue would turn into a lizard, crawl out of my mouth, and eat my eyes out. I still got the shots, but I kept my mouth shut for a bit each time just in case — an ounce of prevention and all. So much of vaccine resistance is built on crazy, irrational fears, but it’s really pretty normal and human. I teach my child that it’s ok to be scared, but being brave is still doing the right thing anyway. This whole experience has been weird and scary, including the shots. You can present all of the evidence that the shots are safe, but they still might not feel safe to that yapping part of my brain. The pandemic deniers like to say “faith over fear” but they’re just peddling their own fears. The public health side seems to play up the reality that COVID is scarier than the shots. It is, but when faced with two scary things — even if one fear is irrational — doing nothing might feel the safest. I wonder if making a greater effort to acknowledge and validate that fear (your fear may be irrational, but it’s normal and human) would have helped. It probably wouldn’t have, because nothing seems to help these days, but it sure helps my son be brave when I acknowledge that something is scary but we can still face it down.
  5. In case anyone is wondering, it’s in Ohio.
  6. With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse human beings, who have been made in God’s likeness. Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this should not be. Can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring? My brothers and sisters, can a fig tree bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Neither can a salt spring produce fresh water.
  7. SEC! SEC! SEC!
  8. Time to break out the translation program:
  9. Mole

    TEXAS QB TALK

    Yeah, but Cleveland.
  10. Since this is my field, I’ll deal with this one. If Yo-Yo Ma started teaching at App State and your kid got into that studio, you’d absolutely support that, even over the big conservatories. The music performance school field is mostly driven by the teachers. The “best school” varies wildly on the instrument and career goals. For some instruments, it might be Juilliard, others Colburn, others Curtis, others Rice, others etc. It’s all driven by the teachers who put kids into the jobs they want. When the individual teachers move, the “best schools” change. The other stuff — peers, ensembles, opportunity for freelance work, rigor of other classes, etc — matters, but not as much as that one teacher.
  11. It’s really that hard to schedule a booster in Austin? My local Walmart has open slots all day every day. The only catch is that we were the first shots of the day (at 4pm), so we had to wait 30 minutes for the vaccine to thaw out.
  12. I assume the author bunkers down quite a bit as a usual way of life. Living in small-town Trumpy/anti-vax country, I see masks all the time. If you aren’t seeing masks, you’re either lying or aren’t really going anywhere.
  13. Those two age range charts are breaking my brain. I get it now, but I stared at them for a while to make sense of them.
  14. 2010 QB Rating: VY 98.6 Brees 90.9 I get that it’s cherry picked, but still.
  15. The boots theory seems relevant to some of the discussion of poor people making poor choices. Sometimes — not always — those seemingly “poor choices” reveal the blindness of our relative privilege rather than the poor choices of a poor person. What looks frivolous and unnecessary to me may be the tools of the trade for someone less fortunate. And sometimes the recklessness is a bit of “let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.” If there’s no hope, why not search for instant material gratification?
  16. Here is a symbol in which Many high tragic thoughts Watch their own eyes. This gray rock, standing tall On the headland, where the seawind Lets no tree grow, Earthquake-proved, and signatured By ages of storms: on its peak A falcon has perched. I think, here is your emblem, To hang in the future sky; Not the cross, not the hive, But this; bright power, dark peace; Fierce consciousness joined with final Disinterestedness;
  17. Mole

    NBA 2021-2022

    Luka is 22; young enough that he can’t lead a team to a championship yet and now just old enough that we can start talking about how he doesn’t have what it takes. It’s a tale told of every young star since at least the late 80s.
  18. I’m glad to see more support for my plan of setting an objective measure of playoff/championship-worthiness and taking only (and all of) those teams that achieve that standard. A variable-sized playoff is the path to a better tomorrow.
  19. 97% of the abortion debate is question begging; 2% is using “begs the question” colloquially/incorrectly; 1% is pedantry in explaining the difference.
  20. Username checks out.
  21. One of my favorite ISIS blogs has a pretty good take on all of this. Can I link that here?
  22. This is high art. Also, the answer to the news source question remains, Reuters, AP, BBC, PBS New Hour, that one Facebook group that really tells it like it is.
  23. I’ve found that an acid reducer helps with allergies. Sometimes my allergies get bad enough to where I swell up a little — lips, eyes, feet, or hands. Nothing dangerous, just uncomfortable. Benadryl plus an acid reducer makes it go away quicker than just the Benadryl alone. So I take the acid pill plus an allergy pill everyday and rarely have problems anymore.
  24. A year ago, cultural luminaries like Salman Rushdie, Noem Chomsky, Wynton Marsalis, etc. released a letter decrying the damaging effects of our current manner of public discourse. It’s a complex and nuanced issue that gets drowned out by the bleating anti-cancel-culture and politics as team sports crowds, but the problem is real. Perhaps this movement for better and more open public discourse just needed a succinct and cogent rallying cry. If so, I nominate the above.
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