rkbabang

I DO pay attention. I pay more attention to conservative press/social media than I do liberal press and social media since I agree with conservatives far more often on issues that I do think are important (taxes, regulations, guns, size of government, etc...) I've heard everything said here and more before. I just don't get why anyone cares or what the threat is. I never said that I don't believe gender is fluid. I have no idea. And, I don't care. I know I feel the same way about my gender every day, but I have no idea what goes on in someone else's head. If someone feels like a man today and a woman tomorrow, who am I to tell them different. AND... why would I care?

I read all of this passionate writing about what this group or that group says or thinks and I just can’t bring myself to care. Not what they do, not what they think, not why they do what they do, or what they might think of me. I didn’t say that I think they are mentally ill, just that it wouldn’t matter to my opinions if they were. I don’t see any threat here to me or kids or anyone. If transgender people were threatening me with violence I’d care, but that isn’t what is getting people all worked up. People are getting all worked up because these people are showing up in public where kids are and want to be called certain pronouns. With all the problems in the world and a federal government that is stealing tens of thousands (hundreds of thousands some years) from me I really don’t care about what some person wears or what they want to be called. The whole issue is so unimportant I can’t even believe anyone cares.

+1, I’ve never understood the argument that transgendered people are just mentally ill. So what? Mentally ill people have just as many rights as anyone else and should be treated with respect, especially if they aren’t hurting anyone. I also don’t get why people thinks this all somehow affects them or their kids. If my kids were still young I’d probably bring them to trans reading hour at the library, they would have gotten a kick out of that. We brought them to Providence Town a few times with a few gay friends of ours when they were little and they had a great time trying to spot the cross dressers. If it’s a mental illness, so be it, they aren’t harming anyone by dressing in unusual clothing for their gender. The conservative view on this harms society far more. It teaches that you only deserve respect if you behave like everyone else and don’t do anything weird or gross. It is the same reason homosexuals were not treated well in the past.

Yeah, and I don't think I convinced anyone to change their minds. Also that thread at least had a subject which said morality from Disney thread or something like that. I agreed that It shouldn't have been in the Disney discussion, just like this shouldn't be in a "leaving NY" discussion.

+1 It's a hot button issue that will not be resolved here. The right gets as worked up over transgenderism as the left does about guns. Right now both sides are reading that statement and thinking "You can't even compare the two! The issue that bothers me is much more important to society than the other one is!" LOL

I always use https://archive.today It archives it then gives you a link to read it. Here's the link for that article: https://archive.ph/VNoYt

Yep. He could have donated that $300M to the US Treasury, but thought that Harvard would make better use of it than the United States Federal Government. I agree. I always ask leftist how much they donate to the Federal Government every year above and beyond what they have to pay. I've never found a single person who thought the government could use their money better than they could or a charity could.

So convenient Amazon Creates Online Looting App To Allow The Timid To Loot From Home https://babylonbee.com/news/amazon-creates-online-looting-app-to-allow-the-timid-to-loot-from-home

^^Immigration is always a hot button for many. The fact is that our demographics suck in the US (although not as bad as some other countries), we aren't even having enough kids to replace ourselves. Immigration is the ONLY thing standing in between us and a shrinking population. Yes, it should be far easier to bring in professionals like Doctors and Engineers, and yes it should be far easier to come in if your poor as well. People look down on the immigrants who break the law to come here. I don't. We grew up here and literally didn't lift a finger to get here, while these people risked their lives and freedom to get here. That's the kind of can-do grit I respect. If the laws are stupid, ignore them. As for assimilation, that has always been a problem. People in the 1800s complained that the Irish wouldn't work, they were violent criminals, and even questioned if they should be considered human. They were considered to be nothing but drunkards and criminals. Every wave of immigration from the Irish, to the German, to the Jewish immigrants in the early 20th century created hatred of the main group immigrating in at the time. But immigrants have lots of kids and those kids grow up as Americans. I'm the son of an immigrant myself and I don't speak a word of Portuguese (my father's 1st language) . While he never learned how to read or write in any language, my brother and I are both college graduates and have professional careers. I only have one brother, but some of my father's sisters have as many as 8 kids. Immigrants have lots of kids and while they themselves may not assimilate completely their children do.

Immigration is a tricky issue. Yes, there are many problems with taking in the poor from other countries, crime being a big one, but the problem of a shrinking and aging population without enough working age people to have a healthy growing economy is an even bigger issue in my opinion. There are costs and benefits to immigration, but the benefits are what made the US what it is. We should think long and hard before deciding to kill the goose that's been laying the golden eggs for well over a century.

The US is a big country with many different internal cultures. I live in New Hampshire with the least restrictive gun laws in the US and a murder rate of about 1.55/100,000. Which is less than Canada (~2.0/100,000) and just a little worse than France (1.3/100,000). Overall it's one of the safest places in the world to live and everyone owns guns (even the leftists and liberals), it isn't unusual to see people open carrying firearms in public places and no license at all is needed to buy, own, carry openly, or carry concealed. I read somewhere that New Hampshire has the highest rate of machine guns per population. Of course if you use a gun irresponsibly in New Hampshire you will go to jail, we aren't New York or California.

Best tweet I've seen on the SF Whole Foods closing: "BREAKING: San Francisco leaders are expressing concern that Whole Foods' exit from the city as a result of 'high theft' and 'hostile transgender customers' will make it extremely difficult for residents to steal healthy food." https://twitter.com/amuse/status/1645555480704475138?s=20

The power of compounded interest!

Exactly. And "Assault Riffles" is a red herring. In many years the murders from hammers exceed the number of murders from riffles of all types.

You are lumping in suicides in that number. I'm not afraid of suicide when I'm walking the streets.

You have to be careful with gun statistics, because they love to lump in suicides with "gun deaths". Which makes places where guns are more readily available look worse in the "gun deaths" statistics, because in heavy gun controlled cities and states people tend to find other ways to off themselves. The focus on crime in SF right now is probably due to the stabbing of the Cash App founder Bob Lee a few days ago. https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2023-04-06/i-just-lost-my-best-friend-friends-family-mourn-cash-app-founder-after-fatal-stabbing-in-san-francisco I agree with @Blugolds11 above where he says "they will want to take the next step, and the next step, and the next step", which is why this is my position on the matter:

My wife just bought a set of Tupperware at Target. It looks and feels just like the stuff we had when I was a kid in the 70s/80s. Apparently you don't have to go to a party to buy it anymore. https://www.target.com/p/tupperware-heritage-get-it-all-set-30pc-set/-/A-86507159?preselect=85452290#lnk=sametab

Exactly. And as far as I know god never said a word in support of either side.

Also a good thing to note is that if you buy/sell options in a IRA or 401K you don't have to worry about the taxes on the gains.

Ok, my statement was a little too broad. Obviously it isn't even possible to read "everything". But you should search out different views, make an effort to break out of your bubble, and read things that have some value even if biased. Try to see the bias and see if you can extract the value and ignore the non-sense. Also try to see things from the point of view of people you disagree with. If there is no value in something at all (i.e. CNBC) then I agree you should ignore it completely. I do think ZH has some value as long as you keep the source in mind as you are reading it. It's one of those sites that I skim the headlines and read an article here and there.

Well the system IS corrupt. Collapse may or may not happen in your lifetime though. You need to realize that the system has always been corrupt, so ask yourself what is different now? You should read everything, but believe nothing 100%. You should hedge your bets a little both ways. If you don't think it will collapse, prepare a little for the collapse, and if you think it will collapse, prepare for the case where it doesn't. No one knows what will happen, the system can get carried along by momentum for a very long time, or it could collapse this decade, or we could all be killed by AI in the next 5 years. Read everything, believe nothing, prepare for everything you can think of, and enjoy the ride. I've always enjoyed ZH, but have never taken it as any type of gospel. “I don't believe anything, but I have many suspicions.” ― Robert Anton Wilson

The largest slices are categories containing multiple positions. Real Estate is two homes with 100% equity (no mortgages) Crypto is around 90% BTC & ETH and some small positions in others. Energy is CVE.WS, EPSN, GENGF, PBRA, SRUUF, VTS, WMB ALT Asset managers is almost all Brookfield, with some BX & PAX RIETs are AIV, AIV calls, CLPR, HIW Healthcare is ALNY, ISRG, SDGR, SWAV And of course CASH is cash. The second chart is the same data with only stocks (crypto, cash, and real estate removed).

Of course. Although I have always been far more anti-authority than my surrounding culture, there is a chance I would have bucked the system and gotten myself killed. I will never know.

It's just my opinion vs. his. The universe doesn't care. A college professor can tell me what the benefit of eugenics would be, and even if he convinces me that he is correct I'll still value human freedom over utilitarianism. But again, the universe doesn't care.

Sometimes you need the tide to go out to find this stuff out. But with crypto it's hard to sympathize with the victims. I know they are completely ignorant, but shouldn't their lack of knowledge make them hesitent to invest large sums of money? "The money was intended for her grandchildren's education, but she lost all but CA $10,000 ($7,300). 'The whole thing was based on trust,' she told CBC News last year. 'What Aiden has done, I think, is awful — and I don't know how he can live with himself.'" Crypto is supposed to be trustless. If you are investing a ton of money based on trust into crypto, you are doing wrong.