This is what I tell my friends who freak out about the situation. The world is and always has been moving toward progressive values. A couple of short-term wobbles notwithstanding, the history of the world’s societies and politics have always, always, moved toward progressives. It was only my own childhood through…

If I can get pedantic for a second:

It’s not that editors can’t determine implicit bias without looking at authors’ social media posts, it’s that they want to avoid the bias in the first place by hiring the ones that don’t already exhibit it. It’s not really that much different than making a hiring decision by reading past work by the author. It might…

I think New York is actually pretty favorable to renters. It’s why you see places that require 30-45x the monthly rent in annual income before even letting you sign a lease, because it’s so tough to evict bad tenants.

But only because of the Raysism reference you were replying to.

I hope he’s secretly here under another pseudonym. I miss the old crowd...

People who are called “illegal immigrants” haven’t actually broken any laws by overstaying visas or crossing the border, or at least that was the case basically forever. If there were a law against it, then being picked up for it would result in charges, a court trial, and a jail/prison sentence, which is kind of the…

Oh, right! I feel like that’s really a long shot, but I concede that it’s possible.

I don’t think there’s any way that Nancy Pelosi could be president of the United States in 2019. The line of succession does not include her.

Eh, Hoosh-mahn-zah-duh isn’t nearly as hard as Ahn-teh-to-ko-un-po in my book.

Good for you, but this is not your time to shine. Take a step back on this one...

The best way to do that, by far, is to construct immigration policy in a way that people are inclined to follow the “legal” process. The best path to that situation is to begin by diminishing restrictions on immigration substantially and speeding up the admissions process, which would, by itself, drive much of the…

Looks kind of like it’s a question of whether to use the subjunctive mood or not. “I wish Bernie were too”, could very well be considered preferable because the sentence indicates a desire for a situation and doesn’t describe the situation as it actually exists. See this discussion for more technical arguments than I…

Yup, I know exactly what you mean. I have 17, 16, and 11 year old kitties, and I know it’s coming. Any time I even think about it, I well up a little bit. But I have so many great memories with them that I know I’ll be able to reminisce on them and keep on goin’.

Douglas Adams’ Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy is awesome and amazing. The books are great, the movie is great, the TV series (as short as it was) is great. But!!!

Damn, hang in there, slugger. You’re gonna be ok in the long run, but I know it’s gonna hurt for a while, and that’s normal and real.

When I was in college, my parents gave me my car that they had owned previously, i.e., they transferred the title into my name. I basically forgot about it entirely because I had never had my own car (owned properly, that is), until about 7 months after I ought to have done the annual tax/registration thing, I got…

Why do people attempt to enter the country illegally?

Removing the prohibition on them being able to enter the country legally would accomplish the same thing. They’re only highly vulnerable to being taken advantage of because they can’t go to the police or government agencies for help with anything for fear of detention and deportation.

Then I think you don’t know what a straw man is.