Yeah, a work colleague (I’m in Minnesota, FWIW) told everyone this morning that the protesters “deserved it [because] they’re acting like apes.” And she’s not even the worst redneck there! I feel like I’m expecting to wake up. This doesn’t even make sense.

I’m totally the same. I’m a 220 lb man and if I have a third beer at the bar, I’m pretty much falling off my stool and my homegirls who are half my size walk me to the bus stop “to make sure I’m ok”. Which is a bit bizarre in that our culture expects it to be me walking them. But I’ve got a medical issue that…

I’d like some info on the methodology. Is this raw volume/mass or is it corrected for the drinker’s mass in some manner?

Besides that, is there a culture angle here? As a Midwesterner (MN)it’s pretty normal for women here to be as into beer as anybody else; it’s culturally a food as much as it is a party drug. I find…

This being Minnesota, Asian almost certainly indicates Southeast Asian, particularly Hmong or Lao. Those guys are dark.

Minnesotans tend to be under a lot of illusions that things are better here. We see ourselves as something from a Garrison Keiller monologue, not this Mississippi Burning shit. I think enough people here will be surprised. That said, most folks have already chosen a side, it feels like. That same head in the sand,…

We have a huge Somali community in Minneapolis, among others. St. Paul is much more Asian than anything in terms of minorities, but the Mini Apple’s got quite a few black folks.

I can totally see how Elsa’s story can be read as a queer allegory.

underrated post!

I washed out of the immigration system. Don’t count on getting to stay there; you won’t have significantly more guarantee than the people trying to make it here. I think this is a fight we have to win or lose here, on our own. If the US becomes genuinely unsafe for liberals, I don’t think Canada will be far enough to…

Give up and fuck off. You can think our fears aren’t warranted, but you don’t get to put words into our fucking mouths.

You’re full of shit. When we are talking about a phenomenon actually associated with fascist regimes (in this case, prison camps for people of a demographic the Man takes a dislike to), Godwin’s Law doesn’t apply. It’s completely legitimate for us to fear where this goes; we don’t have to wait to see the smoke from…

Wasn’t there a plea bargain involved? The sentence you’re thinking of is probably why he went quietly with something like this.

The Australians have been doing this on an island, and it’s been ugly.

I’m functionally anosmic, so I wouldn’t know. I can’t smell it if I leave the gas on. I can’t smell it if the cat pisses somewhere she shouldn’t. I make curry so strong I can’t digest it. And so on. I think it’s a major factor in why it doesn’t bother me.

Feline AIDS is a thing

The wealthy Gulf states absolutely deserve criticism, especially when if it weren’t for functionally enslaved migrant labor they’d desperately need people like these Syrians for a labor force.

8 out of tens of thousands isn’t even close to 1%. We’re talking a tenth of that at the most.

I don’t think you’re assessing the risk sensibly, with regards to the numbers involved. Your loved ones are at far more risk from drunk drivers, influenza, risks we daily treat as trivial. Why is this so special, so different, that it merits throwing a large number of desperate people under the bus?

This. Consider their interventions in just the last couple years in Mali, Ivory Coast and the Central African Republic. Not to mention the Napoleonic conquest of Europe, if you want to go further back.

Really, we just need to reinstate Reconstruction. The South ran great when Southern whites couldn’t vote and the Northern army was running the show.