I can’t compete with my Grandmother’s deep fried Minions memes

Unironically, yeah. Daughter from a very anti-gun country comes to visit, it’s practically required to drag her down to a shooting range and prove that the 2A is fun.

My father-in-law insisted I go shooting with him the moment he found out I was one of those filthy gun-grabber liberals. I managed to survive the experience because he knew how to handle the weapons from years of experience. We had a great time putting a bunch of holes in paper targets, ended the night with a beer, and the whole time I got an earful of “See? See? Guns are great! You should be pro-guns!”

It’s a shame our registered Democrats don’t actually vote.

A truly crazy thing to say, given the systematic voter disenfranchisement the state suffers from.

There was a seven hour long line to vote in one of Houston’s bluest districts. This story was further complicated, when the last person to vote in this line was targeted by the state’s AG for prosecution.

When Hervis Rogers went viral on social media for being the last person in line at Texas Southern University to cast a vote at 1 a.m. on Super Tuesday, he was applauded as a tenacious, civic-minded man who worked hard to exercise his right to vote.

Now, Rogers is being prosecuted by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s office for allegedly voting illegally while on parole.

The arrest came just one day before the Texas Legislature convened on Thursday to begin a special session, where a controversial voting bill is on the agenda. Republicans in favor of new voting restrictions point to cases like Rogers’ as proof of an insecure system. However, there was no evidence of widespread voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election.

Another notable case was a woman who cast a provisional ballot while out on parole. She was hit with a five-year prison sentence, which took years to overturn.

Democrats want people in Texas to vote? Maybe Biden’s DOJ should have decriminalized Voting While Black within the state, while he had that power.

They went into the bedroom so he could show her a Glock 9mm semi-automatic handgun which he kept in the bedside cabinet.

Harrison said he had bought the gun a couple of years before because he wanted a “sense of security” for his family.

He denied ever discussing it with his daughter before.

He said: “As I lifted the gun to show her I suddenly heard a loud bang. I did not understand what had happened. Lucy immediately fell.”

So, Glocks don’t have a manual safety. And dipshit amateur gun owners who don’t like a heavy trigger pull will periodically modify (or simply buy a modified) version of the weapon with a light trigger. This makes the gun easy to misfire. Add to that, the habit of paranoid owners keeping the gun loaded and chambered, because they think cocking a gun is the difference between life or death.

Very real possibility this was an accident or - at most - involuntary manslaughter on behalf of the father.

Littler said on the morning of 10 January his partner had asked her father during the Trump row: “How would you feel if I was the girl in that situation and I’d been sexually assaulted?”

Kris Harrison had replied that he had two other daughters who lived with him so it would not upset him that much.

Littler said Lucy became “quite upset” and ran upstairs.

As someone who lives in Texas and knows this exact kind of person, the elements laid out in the article make it sound like this guy was a clueless, tactless asshole who thought he could just laugh and hand-wave his way through a political conversation. His daughter is dead because he was treating his gun like a toy, not because he was in some kind of heated argument over Trump.

What is teenager lock?

Discord locks your account to the security level considered appropriate for a teenager.

The point is the average person doesn’t give a shit.

Average people give an average shit. They tend to see what comes close to goring their own ox and ignore what’s out of view.

It’s why going 50 in a 50 is considered ridiculous.

When you’re on an empty road, it feels ridiculous to go 50 in a 50 because nobody is in your way.

When it’s bumper to bumper traffic, it feels ridiculous to go 50 in a 50 because you’d immediately collide with the car in front of you.

When everyone else is going 50, it feels sensible to keep up with the herd, even when a sign indicates a different speed is more appropriate.

Ignoring the circumstances in favor of the written rule isn’t virtuous on its face. Sometimes the rules are wrong and you need to use your own judgement. Sometimes the rules are there for reasons that go deeper than their most literal interpretation.

Probably better to describe it as “fairness”. Maybe even “stubbornness” The problem with justice/fairness is that it is ultimately subjective. And a 10-year-old’s view of fairness is often divorced from principles of personal safety or propriety.

You’ll see this problem with adult libertarians all the time. Everything from seat belts to sales taxes to dress codes intrude on their sense of fairness, largely because they’ve ingested enormous volumes of propaganda. The real joke of it is when the term “social justice” impugnes your sense of personal justice. Same with the social conservatives who get up in arms over “illegal” immigration and desegregation, environmental regulations and speed limits, prohibitions on state sanctioned religious education, and age limits on who you can marry.

A sense of justice is a very plastic (especially at a young age) and perspective oriented. Wars have been fought and rivers of blood spilled over a population’s conviction of their own righteousness.

Or just get bought out. Discord was supposed to be the answer to Twitch getting gobbled up. Then Microsoft gobbled Discord.

Does anyone seriously believe there’s an indie third party social media site immune to a multi-million (possibly even billion) dollar buyout offer? One that won’t go the way of TikTok and be legislatively forced into sale?

I mean, let me know when it does. I’ll hang out with the Teenager Lock enabled and keep my biometrics to myself.

But there’s no point changing social media ecosystems if nobody I know is in the new site.

China stands as the largest importer of crude oil in the world, with nearly a fifth coming from Russia in 2024.

Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, these imports have increased from around 15.5% between 2018 and 2021. Beyond Russia, countries in the Middle East largely fuel the country’s oil demand.

China imports more crude oil from the United States than from Venezuela.

Pro-Trump Town

On October 19, dozens of federal agents wielding automatic rifles and flash-bang grenades descended on La Catedral Arena, a horse-racing track outside of Wilder. The track had long been a hub for the town’s Latino community

This isn’t LeopardsAteMyFace. This is 100% what those Pro-Trump voters wanted.

Meanwhile, Wilder’s Mayor Steve Rhodes has dismissed the effect the raid had on his community. “These were not our people,” he told the Times. “What happened out at that track had nothing to do with Wilder.”

The fucking Mayor. Guess who voted for him.

Okay, but if we post this shit it gets upvotes. And I crave online attention and validation.

When I was living in apartments, the nicer spots would have big community fire pits in between blocks. They were great for mixing and mingling with other apartment residents, especially during the holidays or weekends with good weather.

One of the more annoying parts of being a home owner right now is getting people over to your place and finding places for all their cars. So much easier when everyone just kinda lives in the same two or three blocks and can walk over to catch a show or BBQ or play board games.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_listening

Really helps both the person talking and the person listening stay engaged. You’re encouraging the speaker to focus on the parts of the conversation you find interesting. They’re receiving feedback, so they know what they’re saying is being valued and encouraged.

They look like a good idea until you have to vacuum.

Why do you think Bill was always sending down all that lotion?

The fact that nobody watched the damned thing but everyone seems to want to talk about it should say something about the state of American politics.

Who is holding the camera?