Zelensky was a comedian.

It’s been in quite a few articles since last March.

These are the civilian hostages taken by Hamas on the October 7th attack, not Israeli POWs.

Imagine the US House kicking MTG or Boebert out on their ass. Or better yet, we need to get back to fist fights and dueling. Sick of the decorum. Especially, ahem, from one side.

He say you brade runner!

That was fucking hilarious. Stop hitting yourself! They missed the boat on that short, perfect slot for the Mortal Combat theme.

None of these articles address how microplastics could be harmful. Everyone just assumes they’re bad. For example, what cellular machinery is being damaged?

Largely agreed. We’ve been cranking out plastics for a long time now. Shouldn’t we have noted effects by now? Everyone assumes microplastics are bad for us, but I haven’t read any possible mechanisms for damage.

Whenever I read something even slightly questionable I think, “How would that work?” Not seeing the mechanism(s). Anyone simply assumes this is bad. But tell me how these particles affect us, or how they could affect us. I’ll hear about any educated guesses.

Who? Epstein? He had the billions and nothing attracts a crowd like a crowd. Sell some girls here and there to the wealthy, lock in a little blackmail, you could be rich and powerful too!

Rich powerful man once met another rich powerful man. Give me some more, no meat on this bone.

I’m shocked our wealthy owners are putting up with this crap, really thought they’d put an end to it by now. Not joking.

Had a sane, believe it or not, conservative boss explaining to me before Trump 1.0 that they like Republicans because business demands predictability and stability. Where are those people now?!

Same play as Russia. “OK! We’re ceasing fire!” Until we can rearm.

Don’t think they broke it, just bombed until the last minute, which is pretty standard wartime shit. Not that this genocide is much of a war.

The American empire is over. This century belongs to China. And no, I’m not a tankie, just realistic as to how history is playing out.

I’d be a bit nervous. Even in countries where Americans don’t think people have guns, they certainly have long guns.

This is day-to-day shit politicians have to vote on. Went to my state capitol to protest as a senior. Blew me away how fast they were cranking through the votes.

“On proposal $X, <very short descriptive blurb>, all those in favor?”

We see headlines like this because it’s so ridiculous. But it’s just the daily grind to legislators.

Who knows what concession(s) they got for bringing this dumb issue to the table? Maybe a concession on one of the issues you noted?

Had 3 teachers that I can call the best, but Mrs. King changed my life in deep ways. She taught me how to setup an experiment, how to be exacting, how to asses my results, all that. She taught us the difference in an educated guess (an hypothesis), and a wild-ass guess. So much of that teaching applies to every day life. Look at people and politics. They can’t understand how science can make mistakes and still be valid. They view science as just another religion. They can’t discern fact from opinion. They think an hypothesis they don’t like is merely a wild-ass guess.

Thought she was old at the time, but she was really a young hippie chick that took teaching science seriously. I also learned that teachers can, gasp, get married!

We’re not going extinct. FFS, we survived at least one ice age. At another point, scientists studying our DNA think we were down to as a few as a thousand individuals.

Humans are the AR-15s of the animal kingdom. Not the greatest* for strength, speed, vision, etc., but excellent at multipurpose roles. Like insects, we survive in any climate outside Antarctica. We can walk endlessly. I’m 54, not in great shape, pretty sure I could spend my entire waking day walking, stopping only to eat.

We’re social animals who stick together when the going gets tough. We love fucking and we can make babies every month of the year, no waiting to go in heat.

No animal comes close to our dexterity and advanced tool use. Stone Age man was more adept at tool use than every other animal combined. We’re stupid reliable, smart and tough as well.

* OK, we can throw and catch like nothing else on Earth.

Wonder what they would do if a wore a Flying Spaghetti Monster T-shirt. As an ordained minister in the Church of the FSM, with the paperwork to prove it, how could they possibly complain?

On two occasions I’ve seen people flinch when they asked my religion and I replied atheist. Flinch, like I raised my hand to them.

As to your point on empiricism, religious people are skeptical of science because they think it’s another religion, one in competition with theirs. Like you, I can hardly get my head around that thinking.

I had a solid science teacher in elementary school who began each year teaching the scientific method and the difference between fact and opinion. Every year I’d think, “Yeah. We fucking know.” Judging by what I saw childhood classmates say on FB, the lesson didn’t stick for some.