I'm not necessarily buying into anything. His persona was just that. I don't accord truth to it. That persona was probably necessary for a Republican at that point in history, though; a full-on warmonger or isolationist wouldn't have swung many votes in 2000. The times have shifted and political figures are…

It might be a weird idea, but I think that US conservativism has been trending away somewhat from the Bushes of the world. It's harder than ever to find someone who could reasonably campaign over George W.'s "compassionate conservative" banner. I think that an administration like this - a populist figurehead…

I've been wondering about that. The people in his circle didn't just spring out of nowhere. Bannon and Pence were known entities in the conservative community. They got their core team together pretty quickly. It seems more like an escalation of an existing social process than something new from out of nowhere.

Is it really that unusual for the Republican party, though? It seems like the logical consequence of the last 50 years or so of party policy to me. In retrospect, something like this pretty much had to happen unless something changed.

That sounds like remarkably poor therapy to me, to be honest. That's not the tack I'd take at all (though I'm not a therapist [yet?], so everyone can ignore what I think about the subject). It seems to me that it's not about who is or isn't attracted to you, it's about significantly deeper beliefs and possibly a…

That's likely the case much of the time. Social media seems to be more about maintaining distance than fostering connection to me. A person can put up a false front and keep people from checking in on them quite easily. It may or may not even be intentional. I've had a similar experience with suicide and I know…

I am skeptical over the idea that the algorithm is influenced by comments on the post. That sounds like something that people over on whatever-it-is-nowChan will already be figuring out how to game in order to trigger false alarms on people.

My condolences, if that's indeed the implication here.

I get what you're saying. I've sometimes thought that left- and liberal-leaning sites in the US have a certain idiosyncratic classism coming from some of their writers. I'm generally an NDP voter up here and the NDP base, especially provincially in Ontario, is very much working class and lower middle-class. I get…

What happens when two people use The Secret for opposing goals? Do the magic thought waves cancel each other through destructive interference? Do their spirits do battle in the ether? Is this how spontaneous combustion happens?

"Thank you, thank you! We are Hex Criminals!"

Are they wearing bowlers or tracksuits?

Is it really a syllogism if you don't stick "therefore" or an appropriate symbol in there somewhere?

A parrot could stay on your shoulder wherever you went!

I know that doubt well. From my own experience, I can tell you that it isn't necessarily the case. Romance is new with every new person. I think it makes more sense to say that you can get better at romance with a given partner, but that your skill in that relationship wouldn't necessarily transfer over to another…

If he'd just said "chaps", it could have implied that the secret is to bring some friendly fellows from Newcastle to the asking.

I figure that plastic surgery happens on a spectrum. Some plastic surgery is extremely helpful to people. I knew someone who had lost a lot of weight because she had beaten a medical condition that caused her to gain a lot of weight. She had tons of extra skin left over around her abdomen and it made movement…

I used to think that choking was an absolute no just on safety grounds. Then my girlfriend asked to try it on me. Either it's safer than it's been made out to be or we're basically playing Russian Roulette on a regular basis. If I stop posting here someday, I suppose you'll all know what to put in my obituary.

I'd agree with this general premise, even though I kind of loved The Muppets. I really wish that show had gone on, but it's clear that it really was working against itself (though the tensions involved in that gave it a unique sort of magic at its best). Some sort of deal that lets the creative team just put out…

FOR SALE: baby shoes, never worn.
- Ligotti describing the happiest ending he's ever read