Seriously. Trust me, even at $30,000 a year people are still going to want to make more money - I have lived on that (and much less) and it is NOT MUCH MONEY. It didn’t make me lazy - it made me cranky and very interested in finding other jobs.

These are also the people who argue that college shouldn’t be free because they had to pay for it. Because I totally want other people to have to go through the debt hell than I did.

I honestly find that one of the strongest arguments in favor of the increase - despite the belief that these people are lazy, the government DOES pay a ton in social support for people who DO WORK and still don’t make enough to live on. It could literally save tax dollars to make the companies pay for these things…

I am way more inclined to be super respectful for people doing a difficult job who don’t get the amount of support cops do. Maybe teachers - middle school teachers probably deserve someone occasionally buying them lunch. Really good baristas who put up with customers’ shit. Custodians.

Excellent point - lots of places offer discounts and the like. They do not need us buying them food.

I do not know actual numbers, but I knew several firefighters in a well-off town and they did not make great money. If they also worked part time as contract EMTs things were better, but it was way lower than this.

I just moved to Texas and the sir and ma’am thing is real. I have even started to do it without noticing it - it’s like it’s just what you call people. I don’t really LIKE it, and have actually told people to stop calling me ma’am, but it is pervasive.

If more people had to read the secession statements of the southern state - and then discussed them rationally - we would see way less of the idiocy about the Confederate flag and the causes of the Civil War than we currently do. Go you!

My high school history class was pretty mediocre but I do remember needing to either bring in a signed permission slip or at least notify my parents about some things. I don’t remember everything - I think we watched part of Saving Private Ryan - but I think we might also have needed them for Roots. Parents get very…

Is this the actual cover? Is it supposed to look like it was made in 1993 on a home computer?

I just read this entire article thinking that maybe I should reconsider Franzen, but by the end I just remembered how little I want to read about white dude problems.

I sometimes wonder if he is actually even more ok with things like this than he seems, but has to move slowly because it’s the Catholic church. I know people will complain that his progress isn’t enough, but on the other hand, it IS progress and this is a centuries-old religious institution with some seriously scary…

I am glad to have confirmation. It’s honestly frustrating - I wonder how it is happening, because it’s just reinforcing the weird body standards and issues Hollywood can cause. We look at people like Christina Hendricks and go “hey, she is a curvier woman!” but she is still smaller than most people. I am a very tall…

I have a serious theory that 90% of celebrities are pocket-sized. How the hell else are the women wearing such small clothing? Every once in a while you’ll see someone next to a normal-sized person and realize that they are ALL TINY.

This article just actually helped my mood today. I do not like my job at all, and am sort of underpaid, but I have a ton of freedom and do not ever work over 40 hours a week. A lot of that is because I am taking advantage of my situation, but what with my job sort of being a mess, I think of it as fringe benefits. I…

So I have done some cake decorating, and what I think is supposed to happen is there is a special doll torso thing you stick in the top of the cake. No legs - on purpose! - and there is no conflict inside. I think I’ve seen kits with the pan and a few torsos. Clearly a little disappointing to the kid who was expecting…

I am just going to assume that her family is very, very Scottish and hope that explains something.

Yeah isn’t that sort of the essence of wine tours? I once went on a Christmas one and kept running into a huge group of middle aged women wearing reindeer headbands and singing carols loudly and tunelessly. The tour makes a lot of money for the wineries, apparently at the expense of their employees’ sanity.

What is frustrating too is the idea that a woman with muscle is somehow “masculine” or “bulky.” We can build muscles too, it’s not masculine - it’s muscle on a woman. I’ve been working more on lifting and have gained a ton of leg muscle (not even from lifting, from cycling, but I build legs like a beast) and they are…

Maybe Australia is just ahead.