It’s because we have chins. They think we’re weird.

In my hyper religious, Southern Baptist upbringing, I often heard Christians say that Christianity is not a religion. The mental gymnastics employed to explain this position were varied. Most often it was “Christianity isn’t a religion, it’s a relationship [with God]”, or something along the lines of “Christianity isn’t a religion because it’s true”.

“Religion” in general was thus deemed a bad thing, because it was a term used to encapsulate all the other (and thus false) faith-belief-philosophy systems that were used by Satan to lead the world away from God. It bears noting that Catholicism and other major denominations always all fell under that umbrella of “other”.

I don’t know the justification, but I imagine the why is that some wealthy construction company owner asked for it because providing shade/water/whatever would reduce profits, and the bribe costed marginally less than the protecting their employees.

Oh man, we’re trying! Fortunately the governor’s “school choice” voucher plans have stalled in the legislature for now.

May or may not be relevant. Statistically, people with illnesses like schizophrenia are no more likely to commit violent crimes than the general population (but are more likely to be victims of violent crimes). There are documented cases of people with schizophrenia killing or commiting other violent acts in response to delusions, but it’s usually in an act that they perceive as self-defense rather than being driven by malice or desire to harm. I.e., it’s generally more like “I killed my dad because he was going to kill me” rather than “I went out and murdered some random women because no women like me.”

It’s a toss up between

1. R telling me she was on birth control, I guess thinking it’d keep me around if we had a kid, then when our kid was age 4 she said she had cancer and disappeared for several months. Turns out she never had cancer and just said that so I wouldn’t think poorly of her for abandoning her child to run off with a guy in another state. …Her child that she was barely present for anyway.
2. D getting me to empty my 401k to buy a house as an investment property for “our” retirement, only for her to keep it in the divorce. I could have pushed for it to be sold and gotten at least some of my money back, but she would have put up such a fight that I’d have spent in attorney’s fees as much as I would have won from the sale, so it wasn’t worth the fight to me, and she knew that.

What’d I learn from these? Not a whole lot, it turned out: my next relationship wasn’t much better. But at least I figured out to end that one before it got TOO too deep.

Sounds like it could be interesting to try snow biking. Doesn’t often snow here, and when it does it rarely sticks. Maybe 1-3 actual accumulations per year, so my gravel bike is suitable practically all the time. It’s just the cold that makes it unpleasant to me - layering when it’s 50F is fine, in the 40s F is doable if it’s sunny. Anything below that is just miserably uncomfortable to me because of cold wind to the face and the need to adjust layers as I warm up and cool down.

Got hired at the same time as another guy. Don’t recall why, but I was in my boss’s office when he decided it was time to assign us offices despite us being in training and not needing them for another few weeks, so he grabs his admin assistant and off we go to verify which offices were open / available. I got the one with a window.

I definitely feel better overall when I ride my bike regularly. My mood is better, I have more energy, and I sleep better. I got into it around the time I separated from my ex-wife, and I think it’s a significant part of what kept me from falling into a serious depression when I got divorced.

I hate running. I hate swimming. I hate lifting weights, or anything in a gym. Hiking is nice, with the right company. But I enjoy biking around my neighborhood and along the city greenways. I was wanting to be more active, healthier, etc. but couldn’t find anything I actually would stick with until I found an activity I actually enjoyed. Lately I’ve been feeling pretty down, getting uncomfortably close to a major depressive episode, but riding my bike for a while always makes me feel a bit better, at least while I’m doing it. I think not biking, due to it being winter, is indirectly part of why I’ve been down - I just haven’t been doing much that is enjoyable while dealing with a lot of stress including some major life changes.

Fwiw, I’m a psychiatric nurse. I’ve read the science news articles that say exercise is better than anything and the ones that say it doesn’t do much. I’ve also read some of the actual research/journal articles. The reality is that we’re not really certain how much difference it actually makes, but it probably depends on a variety of factors that vary from person to person and based on the type of exercise. We do know that people who are physically healthier also tend to feel better mentally. What I have seen personally, and experienced myself, is that exercise helps with mood, but it’s not a cure-all, and it’s not instant, and it makes a difference if it’s something you enjoy doing independently of it’s health benefits. Exercising outdoors, particularly in green spaces, probably also helps.

Private browser mode in many browsers disables plugins by default, and also doesn’t do anything to stop trackers or data collection. All private mode does is keep your activity private from others who also have access to your device (e.g. family members, roommates), by not saving browser history/cookies/etc.

Also, VPN’s can be helpful, but there are ways to “fingerprint” individual users behind VPN’s by how they move their mouse and click speed and what websites they visit etc… I imagine plugins like AdNauseum could help with that. It’s a clever idea, I’ll have to check it out - thanks!

I contend that it’s chaotic good.

I hear what you’re saying, and were it a college or professional team I probably would agree, but for high schoolers that’s harder. At that age, their very identity and self-worth are dependent on peer acceptance. Not to mention any shy kids who might have felt powerless to speak up. We also don’t know that they didn’t try; one or some may have tried and been shut down by peer pressure. My guess is one idiot thought it’d be funny, convinced a few more, and pressured the rest. “It’s just a prank bro” or somesuch.

That the coach didn’t put an immediate stop to it is definitely an issue.

Per the article, the workers didn’t know. The employers didn’t tell them of the dangers or provide the necessary safety training/equipment. From the article:

“Dust was everywhere, he said, and he was given only a dust mask — one he said was inadequate for the job — to protect himself. Sometimes he brought a hose and tried to attach it to the machine to reduce dust, but there were no machines dispensing water as they were cutting, he said.”

“Segura Meza had never heard of silicosis before he was diagnosed.”

Women and minorities both often aren’t taken seriously by patriarchal medical providers. Fortunately, this is being addressed more and more in their education, but it’ll take time.

In the US, training for nurse practitioners has incorporated bias awareness and patient-centered care concepts for much longer, so you might bear that in mind when seeking care. Also, for women specifically: you can go to a nurse midwife for general women’s health services, not just pregnancy care!

Eh… I see where you’re coming from, and I’m generally against homeschooling as well. For various reasons, I wish I hadn’t been and wouldn’t do so for my child.

That said, I’m inclined to disagree. It only promotes what the parents put into it - which, yes, often is a lot of religion, but it isn’t intrinsic to the practice. The religious component I suspect is where you get the stunting of open-mindedness and critical thinking ideas, but fwiw I and several of my siblings have since left the faith for atheism, and even those who still participate in religion are mostly rather progressive. I do fully recognize that I and my siblings are probably the exception in this regard, so in those aspects I think your opinion generally represents the actual outcomes of homeschooling as it exists in the US, and probably is not that unpopular outside of homeschooling circles - but I would reiterate that I don’t think it’s intrinsic to homeschooling; rather, I think it’s a result of who in the US tends to choose to homeschool.

As for the idea that it stunts communal empathy, I’m a little bit baffled. I work in a mental hospital, one of my sisters has spent a year volunteering at orphanages in Ghana, one of my cousins (who was also homeschooled) runs a rural mission hospital in Bangladesh, etc… My observation is that most homeschooling families are rather pro-social and fully embrace the concepts of community and communal support of one another (even if they have eaten the socialism-is-bad propaganda; their rationale then is just that charity should come from the community itself rather than being subject to government mandate and bureaucratic inefficiency), so I’m curious what gives you that idea.

As someone who was homeschooled and now holds a master’s degree, I will proudly own the ‘weirdo’ title and make no claims to normalcy. And I suspect most of my 7 siblings would do the same.

But saying we’re all ‘likely retarded’ is a bit peculiar to me. Most homeschoolers I’ve met (which I suspect is more than most folks, being from inside the community) come from high-functioning or highly-religious families, with very few notably ‘retarded’. How many homeschool kids have you actually known?

Most of the followers can’t see past “we’re going to save America from the evil Democrats”. It’s not as if Fox News or OAN put the fascist behaviors on display. They genuinely believe Trump when he says the Democrats are persecuting him, rather than that the justice system is prosecuting him for crimes - his only “crime” was trying to save America from those evil commie Democrats, after all. They take all the BS at face value because … tribalism and fear or something?

The only people in the Republican party who actually understand what’s happening are the rich and the powerful. Everyone else, the voters especially, are just useful idiots.

Most of them are never going to be able to afford a house.