Slightly off-topic, but Epstein actually was a high school teacher, back in 1974 when he was 21. He taught high school kids math at the Dalton School in Manhattan, hired by the guy that ran it, Donald Barr, despite Epstein’s lack of a college degree. (Donald Barr was the father of Bill Barr, the US Attorney General under Trump 1.0, and also the author of a science fiction novel about a planet ruled by oligarchs who engage in child sex slavery. You can’t make it up.)

But Epstein only lasted the first academic year. His behavior was so sketchy that they were about to fire him at Dalton, when one of his student’s parents got him a new gig at Bear Stearns. I have never run across anything substantive on the specifics of why he was in trouble at Dalton, just rumors of non-professional behavior and too much attention paid to specific female students.

There is no one so cartoonishly evil that it’s unsafe to even keep them in prison.

Most of us have not seen true evil up close. Most of us cannot even imagine it. We just believe we can, absolutely certain in the arrogance of our own ignorance that we already know everything we would ever need to know about it.

But in reality, we look away from even the brief glimpses of evil we do see, choosing instead some variation on the just world theory to make it sit better. An example of this might be finding a way to blame a victim of bullying or abuse for some level of unwise personal choice that makes it mostly their own fault – in our own sight – and thus keeps us from having to deal directly with the wrongdoer in any way.

That’s just a very mild example, but it’s all around us. We humans don’t want to see evil. It’s a direct threat to our innate sense of security and stability – and why stochastic terrorism is on the to-do list of every budding autocrat. We “missing stair” evildoers ALL the goddamn time, in every culture, in every country, law enforcement and laymen alike. Most of us are not even equipped to look at evil, much less determine its true nature or potential for harm to others.

And that’s kind of where I clock this opinion: well meaning, hits the right virtue buttons, but basically uninformed in terms of personal experience.

I won’t go into what I have seen personally. I’ll just say I genuinely wish there were no such thing as “so cartoonishly evil that it’s unsafe to even keep them in prison.” You’re very privileged in so many ways just to be able to think that, and I hope you never understand just how lucky you are in that regard.

Lol, no. It’s the epitome of brown-bag bring your own religion: if you tell a UU they’re wrong, you’re already wrong:

According to the Unitarian Universalist Association, Unitarian Universalism is a religion marked by freedom, reason, and acceptance. As such, Unitarian Universalists practice a non-creedal religion that does not require one to believe in any particular belief or doctrine. Rather than sharing common beliefs, Unitarian Universalists are united by a common history, the affirmation of each person’s individual spiritual quest, and a covenant to uphold the community’s shared spiritual values. As such, Unitarian Universalists vary greatly in their beliefs, and a plurality of beliefs often defines Unitarian Universalist congregations.

Contemporary Unitarian Universalists may draw upon diverse theological and philosophical thought, including agnosticism, atheism, Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, New Age, neopaganism, nontheism, religious humanism, Sikhism, Taoism, and teachings of the Baháʼí Faith, among others.

Atheism is a perfectly valid “individual spiritual quest” in all its forms, and UUs respect it as such. Educate yourself.

And that’s the exact problem with child marriage: a minor does NOT become legally emancipated by the mere act of marrying. They simply switch their parent or legal guardian with their older spouse, whose consent they must still have for the exact same procedures. They don’t just stop being a minor because they got married.

It’s not just medical procedures, but anything requiring the ability to sign a contract: applying for a restraining order, hiring an attorney, even going to a shelter requires you to either be an adult or a minor accompanied by an adult.

Who cares, it’s their choice.

Yet all those things you listed as being available to legal adults are still NOT a married minor’s choice. It’s still their parent’s or guardian’s or older spouse’s choice.

https://unchainedatlast.org/child-marriage-in-the-u-s/

For those who don’t understand why child marriage is usually a spectacularly bad idea for the underaged partner in one:

https://unchainedatlast.org/child-marriage-in-the-u-s/

Also includes map of which states allow underage marriage and under what conditions, as well as a map of youngest allowable marriage in that state (apparently both NM and MS have no lower limit).

He also accused the victim of changing her story when in fact that was not the case and she called it rape from day one:

For his part, the local district attorney in Cornell’s Tompkins county, Matthew Van Houten, declined to pursue charges – claiming, nonsensically, that the woman who came to the police to report a rape did not assert that the encounter was nonconsensual or that she was drugged against her will. Van Houten says that allegations from this month’s civil lawsuit are “dramatically different” from Jane Doe’s statement two years ago. In her interview with police at that time, Doe said: “I can say with 100% confidence I was raped.” When asked about this by CBS News, Van Houten replied: “I’m going to follow up on this because this is news to me.”

The article is opinion, but supplies source links

For myself, I have to say it seems unusual for a DA to publicly release as much investigative product – and opinion – as he seems to be so gleefully doing, unless the point of all this unusual openness is to poison any potential jury or even low-key scuttle any chances of ever going to trial. Glad this case got yanked and given to someone else.

And an emotional support canned ham, you discriminatory fuck. How very dare you.

/s, just in case anyone needs it – for support

WTF, OP? I had to find an archive to get the rest of the text, and there was a lot more to the story. As usual, United has fully lived down to its abysmally low standards.

For anyone else who has zero intentions of paying for a NBC subscription for one article, here’s an archive link. There are known problems with the site, but I could not find another archive that had the content. Use at your own discretion:

https://archive.ph/xUswb

I have an old 2012 Nook that has literally never been connected to a network: I bought it to sideload epubs and pdfs onto, and that’s all I ever did with it. I never got a Kindle because you can’t sideload pdfs (or couldn’t at the time) and I didn’t like that Amazon was already sneakily retracting/editing purchased digital content.

It could use a new battery but it still works fine, and I bet these Kindles will too as I recall seeing guides out there about how to jailbreak/root them. If you can disconnect your Kindle from all network access and make it sideload (or non-Amazon-connected load) only, you’ll still have a usable device, as well as all your local content. Fuck Amazon.

Four Boxes of Liberty.

I love me some liberty boxes, and I genuinely always enjoy reading a reminder of them. This was well taken, especially the last line. Thank you.

Yeah, obviously if I’m on lemmy.world then I have to wait for those improvements. I have looked into moving instances, and I will save your comment; I appreciate the information.

In the meantime, thanks for the well-wishes, and same to you!

It’s an eighteen-day-old account here just in time for the midterms, making shit up for the lulz. These accounts don’t care how ridiculous they look as long as their comments get engagement: if they can’t influence Americans with their obviously made up bullshit, they can influence non-Americans with their made up bullshit.

It’s just more misinformation in a shitty dollar-store wrapper. Blocked.

Yup. We used to have a fridge built in the early 80s (possibly late 70s) that lasted until 2015. Ugly ass harvest gold color and everything. Ran it continuously. Had to have it repaired maybe twice in all that time. We moved out and left it behind; for all I know it’s still going (though probably not because it was truly an eyesore).

The point is that a well built refrigerator can last decades, same as other major appliances like washing machines and dryers. No computerization necessary at all. Our fridge was not the most energy efficient by the end, obviously, but apart from that . . . why not build them to last?

Greed. Just overwhelming, all-consuming corporate greed.

As someone who engages in good-faith discussions, I like participating in those comms. Bad-faith participants do not limit themselves in the same way.

I can understand how you might think your proposal is a solution, but in the US the amount of political content is overwhelming and comes from every direction, especially online.

There is NO such thing as just blocking when it’s everywhere, and if you can downvote it you’ve already read it. I need to not see it at all when I am not in the fact-checking kind of mood for it.

So the most perfect way to avoid the firehose of propaganda is to remove oneself from it altogether. See y’all in November – or December, if shit gets real.

For myself, I am spending less and less time online as the US midterms approach and I would not be surprised if others are doing the same. My time is better spent offline at the moment, but I haven’t really left. Just taking more and more breaks for now.

Well worth watching the whole thing.

This is the same FBI that is now overlooking incidents of bestiality in applicants, as of this week.

“I’m trying to understand why you did this,” [Republican Senator John] Kennedy told Patel. “We’re having a tough time attracting agents, good quality agents we all can trust … Why would you even get into bestiality?”

Patel said the change was recommended to him after he saw various “cases” in which qualified FBI applicants were denied consideration because they had been forced into bestiality as a result of human trafficking.

Ngl, I had a very confused hold the fuck up, what the hell are you even saying second there. Apparently I am not alone:

“I say this with respect to the person who recommended it, why didn’t you just say: ‘What planet did you parachute in from?’” Kennedy replied.

And all this in the same week. Coincidence? 🤔

If you’re in the US try Greenies pill pockets for cats. They’re highly flavored little dough things, not super expensive. My cats love them and now they’re a very special treat (for when a very special treat is needed the most).

Pro tip, though: don’t try to put the capsule in the pill pocket like in the picture. It’s a fool’s game. They say you can but it’s a waste of time, even when it’s not cracked or banged up, which is rare.

Your best bet is to ignore the “pocket” altogether and flatten the whole thing into a thin, even, round pancake (maybe 1" to 1.25") with your thumb into the palm of one hand, dump the contents of the capsule in the middle, and then carefully bring up the sides like you’re making dim sum. Pinch the top around the med to close completely and then roll it gently around in your palm.

This method also lets you use all the broken ones in the bottom; just squish as many as you need all together. If they’re a little dry add a tiny bit of water and they’ll mash together as if new.

If there’s too much med and you can’t close it, use two, or however many. I had one pill from a vet that was far too big to just shove down his throat to start with, and I had to quarter it into four to use the pill pockets, but they worked.

They can be a pain in the ass, but as long as no material escapes from the pill cover I make with them I’ve never had a cat refuse one. I have, however, had every cat I ever owned tell me to fuck ALL the way off with anything sprinkled on their food. It’s worth a try if you already have the meds.

It’s just designed in a shitty way

No, it really isn’t. Aside from the whole first-past-the-post thing, the process of physically voting itself was close to perfect and worked well. What happened to it was unaccountable electronic voting machines in private hands, a lot of quiet power grabs, and open, blatant illegal acts by officials entrusted with making sure all who can vote can do so and keeping our votes safe.

Don’t blame a voting system – or a Constitution – when the REAL problem is corruption.