“rape machine”

Just don’t go down in the park.

This is fine.

The main thing is that they want you to keep talking about it. Even if it’s negative press, it’s still press. Just whatever you do…don’t quit talking about it! That’s why I have trouble even making a comment like this. I feel like I’m still feeding into it somehow.

I have two questions for you.

Do you believe that everybody is a blank slate without variation?

Mozart learned to play at 4, began composing at 5, and wrote his first symphony at 8. Do you think that every child is capable of this?

I’m not talking about the legal construct, though. I’m talking about the philosophical principle.

Free speech doesn’t let you say whatever you want to anyone, it’s intention is to protect you while speaking out against government officials and offices.

It sounds like you’re getting freedom of speech mixed up with the First Amendment. They aren’t the same thing. The First Amendment’s intention is to protect your freedom of speech from the government. If you want your freedom of speech protected from other things (such as your employer), the First Amendment won’t protect you.

No, the First Amendment only protects you from the government. “Free speech” is a philosophical principle which has nothing to do with governments directly.

However, an “advertising standards board” that decides what can and cannot be posted publicly sounds pretty governmental to me.

But even when free speech wasn’t forced it wouldn’t force channels to carry your advertisement.

Of course, but that still isn’t any kind of universal standards board, that’s individual channels deciding independently.

That sounds like it would go against the First Amendment.

The farm is only part of it. Whether they were raised on a factory farm or your neighbor’s farm, they all go to the same slaughterhouse. Unless you know farmers who do their own slaughtering, which I highly doubt.

do americans even realise how garbage their meat is?

No, they don’t. Part of it is the media doesn’t report on it, but part of it is it’s illegal to take photos or get video from inside of slaughterhouses. Also, a lot of people don’t want to know, because it would be inconvenient. They like the taste of meat, and they don’t want to quit eating it.

It was also posted on MSN, so you can avoid the WSJ paywall.

It’s clickbaity. The conclusion is pretty unexciting: for most people, all you need to do is drink water with food and when you get thirsty. Maybe this will help somebody who’s over-obsessed with getting enough water, and it’s impacting their quality of life? It really feels like they couldn’t find anything good to write about, so they had to dredge this up.

NB: the conclusion includes this:

One caveat: Some researchers warn thirst can be delayed or reduced with age or certain medications.

Age or certain medications or certain medical conditions. I have ADHD, so I legit won’t get thirsty 95% of the time. I have to have something to remind me to drink.

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Thanks for catching this! I fixed it. What’s remarkable is that apparently a lot of people don’t want to believe that this isn’t Vonnegut, which is why it slipped past me when I did a web search on it earlier.

I’ve tried contacting multiple places that have published this quote to have them retract it with no results. I’ve also contacted Snopes twice with no reply.

I was once contacted by someone who wanted to know my source for the quote because they were tracking Vonnegut’s archeology experience in his biography and wouldn’t believe me when I said it was about my own life.

I’m not sure I understand you. Are you saying that Kurt Vonnegut became a famous writer because he didn’t follow his own advice?

I think that almost anybody can become proficient, but talent is something innate. We aren’t just blank slates. We are naturally better at some things than others. There have been numerous examples of prodigies who showed amazing skill at a very young age, despite having relatively little practice. For example, Mozart was taught how to play piano from the age of four and was able to compose pieces at the age of five. Many parents have tried to get their small children to play musical instruments from a very young age, but most of them have not been able to produce new Mozarts. Of course, Mozart and other prodigies practiced a lot, too, but others who practiced just as much, if not more, got nowhere close to their skill level.

Now, the reason I said almost anybody is because it makes sense to me that if there are people who are talented, then there must be the opposite, people who have anti-talent. There are people who are so tone-deaf that they’ll never make good music, not even if they practice every chance they get. However, talent and anti-talent are at the ends of the bell curve: most people are somewhere in the middle, and if they practice enough, they can make something which is adequate, if not good…and, occasionally, even something great.

That moment when your brain goes “This…but unironically”.

Do you want kidney stones? Because this is how you get kidney stones.

You don’t have to pay money to join, though. The certificate is just something that looks cool and it’s an inexpensive way to support the Temple.

High on that Jesus juice.

“Okay, article’s almost done, but we need a counterpoint to make it balanced.”

“How about this guy who says he found Jesus after living in Hell for 25 years?”

“Sure, why not.”