I've given up arguing with the "You're not allowed to include anything in your fiction that I dislike and if you do it anyway you're endorsing it!" crowd. And as long as publishers cower to their threats of Tweetstorms, we're stuck with them. I stick to buying from authors who don't play that game.

That level of nuance was a casualty of the plague years. While I can understand why there were folk who wanted any 'hope spot' they could find, including in fiction, I think a few went too far and get upset that an author will include (thus endorse!) "bad things" in their "feel better" escapism.

Some people get to fuck the love of their life on the afterparty couch.

Some people have to settle for the couch.

FWIW, neither Durbin nor Shaheen is running for re-election.

She's not wrong. It's time for Schumer and Pelosi and the rest of the gerontocracy to get out of the way.

2/2 someone I once knew (friend of a friend of a friend thing) blocked me a while back, and added me to their "Spouted Antisemitic BS" list.

o_O

I'm mildly flabbergasted. I've got enough sins of my own that I'll admit to, but that's a new accusation for me.

... C) This isn't a sporting event or competitive arena. No one's winning a trophy or medal here. I'm sorry you've misunderstood something, but it would be nice if you could let it go.

A) They were my stamps. B) When a dude in Alaska tells you he'll sell you a fistful of food stamps for cash so he can buy a carton of cheap smokes or a bottle off cheap booze, or asks you to buy it and trade, you believe him, and ..

Like she said: We have to be a better society than that. We have to take care of those who need our help better than that. No one should be forced to consider making that choice.

Of course I did. There's a difference between swapping stamps for cash for essentials versus for feeding an addiction. Parents should *never* have to think "That guy will give me 50 bucks of food stamps for 20 bucks of beer, I don't want to do that, but my kid's hungry".

I remember getting hassled by people outside the grocery store who noticed I paid with the paper stamps. Wanted me to buy their stamps off them with cash (usually better than 1-1 exchange) so they could get smokes or booze. Never would, but I knew moms who did. Made me hurt to see.

They have those at my local Costco, too. Divine.

If it made the cat slump over, you're using the wrong thermometer.

He's just upset that the last thing that grown adult did in his life? Was lean left.

Thank you!

11 people murdered to distract from the Epstein Files.

Maybe it was the brain worm?