Jackie's Fridge

The issue I have with Dems NOT stacking the court given the chance is that the GOP absolutely would - and might still if they wanted to future-proof their stranglehold. Stack the court. Get a shim in place (SCOTUS term limits, oversight, anything). Don’t worry about what the GOP might do, worry about what they ARE doing and maybe try getting ahead of the problem for a change.

Yup, that Open Args deep dive into chevron deference was an eye opener and called this one years ago. Sucks AT turned out to be That Guy.

Atheism is the rejection of an assertion that there is a god or gods. If any theists were able to prove the existence of a god, an atheist would (hopefully) change their mind. Rejecting all gods until their existence can be proven is hardly inconsistent.

I reject as true books that say the X-Men exist. Those are first hand sources, but that does not mean the stories they contain are true, even though they are more morally consistent than most popular religious texts. I have not read the X-Men but that is no reason to assume they are true.

Extraordinary assertions such as a devine being existing require extraordinary proof. No religions have managed to provide more than heresay, anecdotal evidence, and assumption to support their claoms. Religious reasoning is as best motivated, and hardly consistent itself.

My opinion is based on how world religions are used by their followers and those in power. All I see is religion used as a tools to control, intimidate, otherise, and war with any group considered “not us” - no matter the religion. I have read summaries of the Bible, Quaran, and Book of Mormon. There is nothing of note in any of them. Any possible good advice or dictate has long since been rephrased, refined, and adopted by society. The beauty of a thing is in its utility, and the use I see religion put to buy those in power is ugly. I want nothing to do with poisonous dogma, and instead choose to try making life better for those around me by direct action. Not by wishing for a god to do so, or wasting this precious life gambling that their might be something better after it ends.

I don’t have to read a religious text to know it’s not true, and though you may have been lucky enough to grow up untainted by society, these books have not. The issue with going to sources so entrenched in studying religious text is that they are already tainted by the need to keep the text alive. Should they cast any doubt at all their livelihood will vanish.

No religion has ever offered verifiable proof of any supernatural claim. Once they do I will pay attention.

Apologies for my assumption of your holy book of choice. You realise the Qur’an is the “sequel” to the Bible, which was itself derivative of the Torah, which was based on more ancient myths, etc etc. All of them passed down verbally for generations before written, all of them changed to suit the storytellers’ needs, and all of them FAR from flawless. Historical and scientific inaccuracies aside, none of them are even internally consistent. I have difficulty believing you have applied objective, critical thought to any religious text.

It sounds like you are firmly entrenched in your religion. I’m glad you enjoy reading Aramaic, Hebrew, and Greek, but it turns out people tend to skew in one of two directions: those without a propensity for analytical thought tend to skew religious - for example, the children in the study you cite - and those who think critically reject religion. There’s even a paper on this.

If your religion brings you happiness and peace, more power to you. However, I would encourage you to rethink your ideas on logic and science illiteracy. Consider that it might actually be very difficult in a world & countless communities built around religion for someone to break away from that social norm, analyse religion objectively, and reject an idea that cannot be proven.

Thank you for introducing me to a new (to me) band! Yeah, life can be kind of a roller coaster, and everyone’s interests ebb and flow (as you’ve discovered with yourself and your bandmates). Sadly we only have so much energy to roll with it, and I’m sorry you’re at a low energy area right now. Those suck, and it is VERY difficult to battle inertia and muscle back into the fray.

Art is kinda cruel in the way that it makes you choose - familiar and possibly uninspiring, or new and possibly a frustrating dead end. The reason I mentioned the M8 was largely due to its pocketability. It’s not much bigger than a large smartphone but it’s a whole production device with instant-on and a sensible design. Work on stuff during lunch, at the park, on the bus, etc. But there is a learning curve, so spending a lot of energy you might not have may get frustrating if it doesn’t click right away.

One thing you might try is suggesting gentle deadlines or challenges for yourself and your bandmates - like write a catchy 10-second jingle by the end of the week. Or parody the chorus of an existing song by the end of your next phone call. A deadline for something silly is easier to meet, and you all would have created something and had a little fun.

There are a lot of amazing people here suggesting different things you can do, and I notice a lot of their ideas are creative activities. I think you can land on any of those and find satisfaction. There’s no high like creation. No matter what, remember that things always change. If you’re at a low point, it can’t last forever, especially if you keep powering through it. You’ll come out ahead.

Holy cats - just bought Night City Redux on Bandcamp. Great stuff!

If you’re burnt out on music making, have you tried other ways of creating? Like if you’re used to a DAW, invest in hardware like a groovebox or a handheld tracker (my current love is the Dirtywave M8) or something. Try modular (but don’t, it’s expensive) or some weird boutique noise machine. Or dive into orchestral instruments and perfecting a classical music performance.

It could be a way to defamiliarise yourself and make music creation new again.

Rockbox is a bad benchmark due to its insane versatility. Just because modern players “should” support something doesn’t mean the manufacturer put the work in to do so, or even do it well.

That said, when I buy a portable music player the decision is always based on whether or not there’s a Rockbox port for it.

Hey that’s about when I started! And I also have a LOOOOT of awful stuff, but only now am I starting to occasionally make stuff that I don’t immediately hate.

Currently participating in Weekly Beats, which is something I’d never have considered even a year ago.

Of course, I’ll be learning the entire rest of my life, so…

Your world sounds interesting.

Oh well then I feel so bad for them /s

When I started my current job they told me the position was 45 hours/week. For my salary and task load that sounded reasonable. After that 45 I am gone and they respect my boundaries, which was honestly unexpected.

That’s…definitionally not quitting, quiet or otherwise. That’s literally doing the work you agreed to do when hired.

People demanding better is not a side, and thus cannot win. The let’s not bomb kids side has zero power. Your choice is between bombing kids and bombing more kids. Enabling the bombing more kids side means your fake morals outweigh the sloppy real-world political situation that actually exists.

Your house is on fire. You are standing equidistant from a full petrol can and a bucket of water, and you’re deciding not to act because neither is the perfect solution.

You’re not wrong, but it beats the GOP’s playbook, and it’ll buy us some time to do the actual work of building a viable third party that might have a chance after 20 years of constant support from local elections on up.

Not voting sends no message other than you’re fine with how things are so you can’t be bothered. Threatening a comfy 2-party system with a solid alternative will make them sweat.

With all his meddling it’s not even the Twitter of the US anymore

Time to adopt a jaunty wink, finger guns, and a hearty “You got it, sport!” as the default response. What could possibly go wrong?

“SLAMMED” SLAMMED!

Rockbox is the GOAT

This is true. Sadly, our system of representation is limited to two viable parties, one that’s Not Great, and one that’s Demonstrably Evil. If you send the message that you dont support the Not Great party by not re-electing them, the only thing that benefits is the Demonstrably Evil party.

Both parties have proven historically that they dont care about people who won’t vote for them by simply not engaging with groups they consider a lost cause. This frees up their time and money so they can gin up the groups that do (or might) support them.

The ONLY way to make sure you have the representatives you need is to start now and hope future generations will benefit. Establish a viable independent party starting in local elections - school boards, city councils. These people make decisions about local education and infrastructure that will directly benefit people in your community and prove that this new party truly has their backs. From there, this party and their reps will move higher up into state and federal governments with recognition and an established voting record.

True representation takes a lot of time and effort, and if we start now, maybe our grandchildren will have a better life. It’s a long game, like it or not.