I’m a progressive, but also a pragmatist and a realist, and I find these kind of complaints unhelpful and naive. Politics is a blood sport and it always has been. No one is going to hand AOC the reins of power. She has to win them, and her opponents aren’t going to play fair. This is, sadly, how the game is played. Don’t mourn. Organize!

I was backpacking Europe. I had just left Amsterdam and gotten to Berlin. I ordered a Heineken on impulse and the bartender looked appalled and said no.

I do about 3k miles a year and safety is my top priority. I have (knock wood) never had a serious accident, but I’ve had a couple close calls (always from an inattentive driver). Every time I read about a road cycling injury, I shudder. The Gaudreau brothers incident was particularly harrowing.

I have flashing lights on my bike, wear high vis, ride with traffic, and signal when turning. But the absolute best piece of bike safety gear imho (and one which I see fairly infrequently even though it’s cheap), is an eyeglass or helmet mounted rear-view mirror. I see handlebar mirrors sometimes and I’ve tried them myself but they aren’t nearly as good (they are useless when turning). The eyeglass mirror is a little distracting at first, but eventually you stop noticing it unless you want to, and it’s like having eyes in the back of your head.

I’m the road a lot as a cyclist. Like OP, I’d estimate that at least a quarter of vehicles rarely or never signal.

deleted by creator

Hate is often just a reflection of insecurities and a product of attempting to alleviate cognitive dissonance. Someone feels scared, doesn’t like feeling that way, and so converts their fear into anger – misdirected at someone else.

I think of it like juggling. If you lose focus, all the balls drop.

John Huffman, the chemist who originally developed the synthetic cannabinoids later found in K2/Spice, has repeatedly warned that these compounds were never meant for recreational use.

Non paywall archive

Safe and reliable self driving cars, affordable and accessible high speed public transit, a smart grid that can handle a nationwide shift to renewables… I want so many things. But my expectations have never been lower for what we’ll actually get.

It’s an old story: be careful what you wish for—and to whom:

• King Midas (8th century BCE)
• One Thousand and One Nights (13th century)
• Doctor Faustus (1592)
• The Monkey’s Paw (1902)
• Robert Johnson (1938)

deleted by creator

It doesn’t matter how rich you are. Always check the price.

“I’m not a marble so I can’t enjoy Marble Madness.”

They aren’t asking for permission. They are asking for attention.

The fact that capitalism taints everything it touches is not a criticism of the things it touches.

I switched to an internet pharmacy that mails my prescriptions, and there is no going back.

Reminds me of a funny story I heard Tom Petty once tell. Apparently, he had a buddy with a POS car with a crappy stereo, and Tom insisted that all his records had to be mixed and mastered not so that they sound great on the studio’s million dollar equipment but in his friend’s car.

Sergeant Hulka: Soldier, I’ve noticed that you’re always last.

John Winger: I’m pacing myself, Sergeant.

No one has ever wanted to work. One of humanity’s oldest stories is about two freeloaders getting unhappily kicked out of paradise and forced to start getting their food “by the sweat of [their] brow.”

And since no one has ever wanted to work… you have to pay them to do it!