And which ones are reproducing more?

Except a 401k gets taxed on withdrawals, potentially at a higher tax rate than you were paying when you invested some or even most of it. Also, we can’t invest our whole salary into a 401k, as there’s a hard limit on contributions. Whereas a business never gets taxed on the assets they invested in to offset their profits (except maybe state/local property tax, but then they get to deduct that from federal tax…), plus they get to deduct the depreciation of said asset for years going forward.

If she says she’s on birth control but you haven’t seen it, dont believe her. If she pressures you not to use a condom, don’t consent.

Don’t marry someone before you’ve known them well for a few years. Don’t ignore red flags, such as them telling you that they see other people as pawns or them pressuring you to empty your 401k to put it into their financial/realestate schemes.

If your partner doesn’t treat you with kindness and respect right now, then they are never going to, no matter how many times they say they will if you would only just do this or be that - nothing will ever be good enough for that kind of person, period, full stop. And, no, they won’t change, no matter how much you do, and no matter how much you love them.

Do learn what “love bombing” is. Then find out if someone is grossly irresponsible with money or hiding a severe alcohol problem before you move in with them.

There are a lot of people in this world who will take advantage of your kindness and naivety, if you let them, so be mindful of how people treat you and those around them before you make commitments to them.

Not everyone is awful.

Edit to add: don’t ignore your friends or family telling you that they think your relationship is unhealthy, or that the person is mistreating you or others, or may be taking advantage of you. Even if you don’t have much respect for the person telling you this, stop and listen and reflect, because red flags don’t stand out to you when you’re wearing rosy tinted glasses.

It’s slightly more complicated than that. You have to ask “are they a Republican or a Democrat?”. If the answer is Republican, it’s probably an official act. If the answer is Democrat, it is not an official act. If the answer is “It’s Donald Trump”, then they follow up with the question “how high?”.

Wow, the law is so complicated, I tell you what. Thank goodness we have highly qualified, politically neutral judges to interpret it for us.

This is the thing that boggles my mind about the “wait times” argument. Like, it’s better that people should die without healthcare than… for me to be inconvenienced with a potentially longer wait time for non-emergency care? Really? The selfishness of it is astonishing.

I once had to wait 15 months to see a neurologist. 15 months. We already have long wait times here in the US, but we like to spice it up with a little bankruptcy.

I’m a nurse. We usually recommend at least 350 calories, but ideally with a meal, but it also depends on the medication. For some, it’s to slow how quickly the medication is absorbed and/or reduce side effects, and isn’t necessary for the medication to work (e.g., stimulants, some antidepressants). For others, taking with food is necessary for the medication to be absorbed effectively so that it works (e.g., Latuda, used to treat mood and psychotic disorders).

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

“I literally think of you all as me”? Gads, of all the egotistical absurdities I have heard in my life. He probably thought he was saying something nice.

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.

Most public schools have a gym or other big room. Election day should be a federal holiday, on which public schools would be closed and so not in use.

You know what has to be accessible? Public schools. You know what is right across the street from the two churches that have been my designated voting location? Public schools.

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.

Awesome! Next, do gynecology so you can help regulate women’s bodies!

As an Arch-using vegan, …I have no retort.

(I use arch, btw (also I’m vegan btw))

https://www.reuters.com/technology/amazon-joins-companies-arguing-us-labor-board-is-unconstitutional-2024-02-16/

https://news.bloomberglaw.com/daily-labor-report/trader-joes-follows-spacex-in-arguing-nlrb-is-unconstitutional

https://fortune.com/2024/01/27/elon-musk-spacex-right-nlrb-unconstitutional-says-trader-joes/

Trader Joe’s is one of those other companies that is party to this. Trader Joe’s doesn’t believe in the rights of its workers either. I have stopped shopping at Trader Joe’s and I encourage others to do the same.

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.