Oh, continuing down that line of thinking leads to far worse then “kinda fucked up.” If the judeo christian deity exists and is accurately described by their books than it is a total monster not worthy of praise or devotion…

What I understand about the judeo christian god is that they are believed to have created everything that has ever been or will ever be. They have total knowledge of everything past present and future, and they “knew me” prior to them creating me, knew what kind of person I would be, and knew without doubt that I wouldn’t believe in or worship them… so they created me with full knowledge that I’ll spend eternity being tortured in hell. What kind of benevolent deity brings a creature into existence just so they can be tortured? If that’s not full blown fucked up, then I don’t know what is.

When you’re brainwashed from birth, it’s difficult to recognize you’ve been brainwashed.

Funnily enough, that’s exactly how I stopped smoking. I smoked for around 17 years and had been trying to quit for nearly 15 of them. I did everything from pills to nicotine substitutions, hypnosis, and even that laser therapy. It would work for a time, but eventually, within a month or two, I’d be back to smoking.

Then, one day, I was in a really foul mood and just didn’t want to deal with people. I ran out of cigarettes right at the end of the evening before bed and figured I’d buy some in the morning. Woke up in a worse mood the next day and decided to just stay home and ride it out. It is best for me to avoid people when I get like that, so that’s what I did. The following day, I woke up in a better mood and was about to head to the corner store for a pack when I realized I’d already gone near 36 hours without one, so thought why not wait an hour. An hour passed, and decided to wait another hour, and then another, and another. Before I knew it, I was heading back to bed for my second full day being cigaretteless.

At that point, I decided to continue my smoke-free streak and just quit. It’s been nearly 6 years since my last cigarette, and it was one of the best decisions I’ve made in my life.

Context: I’m a disabled veteran with severe PTSD, anxiety, depression, and mood disorders caused by TBI’s. I have days where everything seems to act up all at once, and I’ll self isolate because it’s just safer for everyone if I’m alone during those times. Furthermore, I started smoking while in combat to help take the “edge” off, and as such, the nicotine addiction was extremely difficult for me to get beyond because it got wrapped up in my PTSD and anxiety issues.

Basically, what I learned from my many years of trying to quit is no matter how you “try” if you don’t truly want to quit, you won’t succeed. You have to want to quit more than you want that next cigarette.

Good luck to anyone out there still struggling to break a nicotine addiction. Stay strong. You can do it.

Or maybe the character is historically accurate, and yall are just being racist…

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yasuke

Toyota may be cranky about EV’s beating out hydrogen, but they’re the company claiming to have invented some new solid state battery that has an 800 mile range and can charge 80% in ten minutes on a fast charger, which would be huge for the EV market.

I remember an early Saturn EV that was never sold, only leased so GM could maintain ownership of them. Even with a limited range, the drivers all loved them for commuting and running errands, and many tried to purchase them outright, which GM refused. Eventually, GM issued a mandatory recall for all the Saturn EVs, mothballed the project, and then they released the Hummer… made me sick even at the time.

I was going to say yes and make a joke about song choice, but then realized that if this were actually happening then I’d probably be too distraught and focused on getting to her to queue up a sound track so was going to say no, but then I realized in my distraught state focing on getting to my kidnapped wife I probably wouldn’t bother to turn off the radio which is always on by default in my car… so basically, yes, I’d be listening to the local radio station at a moderate volume.

I live in town and occasionally throw debaucherous parties from time to time. The neighbors are always first on the invite list as they shan’t be complaining about the noise if they are participating in creating it.

Personally, I had this same decision a few years back. My choices were to buy a really nice house in town close to things with a small city lot, or buy a run-down fixer upper outside of town (20-30 minute drive) with a large wooded lot and all the space/privacy I could ever want outdoors. I chose the house in town because I was concerned that if I lived that far away from things, I would effectively be isolating myself and adding additional mental hurtles I would need to jump anytime I wanted to go somewhere, not to mention the effect it would have had on my depression.

I am quite pleased with having a grocery store within a 5-10 minute drive from my house. I have restaurants, bars, local shops, and even the public library within a 10-15 minute walk from my house. Having access to high-speed internet in town, vs satellite, or DSL out of town was also a deciding factor in my decision to live in town. Overall, I’m happy with my decision even if I don’t have a large private yard to go play in.

My advice to you is to make a list of services, amenities, and conveniences that are important to you about your future home and then buy according to which better fits into the lifestyle you want to live. Best of luck.

This. This is exactly it. Commonly referred to as cognitive dissonance where when presented with evidence differing from that of one’s beliefs, they will discard said evidence as faulty and will double down going deeper into their wrongfully held beliefs. Cognitive dissonance can be overcome but it is very difficult to do so, especially if you aren’t willing to entertain the idea that your beliefs might be wrong.

Grandiloquent, or circumlocution.

Didn’t say I agreed with it, but if you sign a code of ethics as part of an employment contract, then you shouldn’t be surprised when you’re fired for violating it.

The University of Wisconsin has a code of ethics that all faculty must adhere to. His participation in creating pornography most likely breached this morality clause, resulting in his termination.

I thought it was more of an experiment that, if proven successful, could eventually aid in the exploration of space since we would need to engineer ways of creating oxygen for prolonged travel.

All jokes aside, I’m pretty sure this sign means barbedwire.

You’re not alone. I was trying to figure out which race was the Sikh’s until I realized I’m just an idiot lol.

I have no problem tipping wait staff or bartenders for the service, but I’ll be damned if the cashier at my local Chinese restaurant is getting a tip because they handed me a bag of carryout food I ordered online… tipping has definitely gotten out of control.

A quote from one of my Drill Sergeants that has always stuck with me:

“Just when you think they’ve got something foolproof, they have to go and invent a better fool.”

Said to me through a facepalm as we watched a private plant a claymore mine facing the wrong way… and for anyone unaware, the claymore mine literally has the words “back” written on one side and “front towards enemy” written on the other.

Edit: fixed spelling

As a child, I was heavy into Star Wars and always meh on Star Trek. As an adult, I’m still heavy into Star Wars, but I have warmed significantly to Star Trek and really enjoy it now. I think I just didn’t fully understand Star Trek as a child. They’re very different, but both are great.

George Lucas always said he hates it when people call Star Wars SciFi as he always considered it to be a space opera with very little Sci and heavy on the Fi.