• 444: It Turns Out Hillary Clinton, Not Russian Bots, Lost the 2016 Election, submitted on 2023-01-16 05:41:28+08:00.
• 445: My boyfriend and I are planning on traveling Europe sometime this year. Any tips?, submitted on 2023-01-17 01:34:44+08:00.
• 446: What’s your super shallow turn-off/dealbreaker?, submitted on 2023-01-17 04:21:17+08:00.
• 447: Hometown Grindr (Chicago), submitted on 2023-01-17 06:15:10+08:00.
• 448: What’s your issue with the word “queer”?, submitted on 2023-01-18 01:33:30+08:00.
• 449: Welcome to 2030. I own nothing, have no privacy, and life has never been better, submitted on 2023-01-18 09:46:29+08:00.
• 450: My younger brother got kicked out of Sunday School for saying Spider-Man is morally better than God. (How would you argue against this?), submitted on 2023-01-21 07:37:12+08:00.
• 451: We need an open source intelligence center, submitted on 2023-01-22 15:28:35+08:00.

444: It Turns Out Hillary Clinton, Not Russian Bots, Lost the 2016 Election, submitted on 2023-01-16 05:41:28+08:00.

—– 444.1 —–2023-01-16 06:33:38+08:00:

Hurr durr but muh Russian disinformation like hunter biden’s laptop…

445: My boyfriend and I are planning on traveling Europe sometime this year. Any tips?, submitted on 2023-01-17 01:34:44+08:00.

—– 445.1 —–2023-01-17 13:16:02+08:00:

Go to Spain. Then, go to Portugal. Money goes further there than anywhere else you’d want to go, except maybe Croatia.

—– 445.2 —–2023-01-17 13:23:48+08:00:

Stockholm, Amsterdam, anywhere in Germany/Switzerland

Both Stockholm and Amsterdam are very expensive. Frankly, not worth the money in my opinion. Don’t get me wrong, they are nice cities. But not great places for vacationing.

Germany is very nice in the summer. Especially Munich. Consider going to Vienna and/or Salzburg in Austria. Very nice, great food, great alcohol and very friendly people with an endearingly colloquial form of German.

Switzerland is my favorite country in Europe, but it is probably the second most expensive area you could have chosen (behind only Monaco). Switzerland, in my opinion, is best in winter for sports.

Italy is dirty and overpriced in most tourist-focused areas. Get off the beaten path. Consider going to Croatia instead. Or better yet, just go to Spain. And/or Portugal.

—– 445.3 —–2023-01-17 13:26:05+08:00:

I agree with all of this. Although there is no city in Europe with better nightlife than Barcelona.

Spain is the most fun country I have been to outside of South America.

446: What’s your super shallow turn-off/dealbreaker?, submitted on 2023-01-17 04:21:17+08:00.

—– 446.1 —–2023-01-17 13:04:22+08:00:

Bad dental hygiene.

447: Hometown Grindr (Chicago), submitted on 2023-01-17 06:15:10+08:00.

—– 447.1 —–2023-01-17 13:11:00+08:00:

To use a food analogy . . . Gibson’s may be objectively better than In-N-Out. But In-N-Out . . . in Chicago? It’s going to get attention.

Another analogy. Grindr is like going to the fridge. You know what’s in there but sometimes just look to confirm nothing new has found its way in. Novelty is itself attractive.

448: What’s your issue with the word “queer”?, submitted on 2023-01-18 01:33:30+08:00.

—– 448.1 —–2023-01-18 14:42:48+08:00:

Women (usually millennial, white and heterrosexual) describe themselves as “queer” to psychologically rationalize why they’re in their mid-30s, single and have never held a stable relationship. Having failed to improve their lives by changing their outfits, might as well try their professed “gender identity.” Doing this also has the additional benefit of putting the world on notice of why it revolves around such a person.

—– 448.2 —–2023-01-18 14:45:35+08:00:

I like specificity,

The word “queer” used in the context described by the OP means everything and nothing, at once. Which is very much the point. It’s a way of adopting some kind of ostensibly disenfranchised identity, often as a pretext to find new and creative ways to be a Karen (read: insufferable bitch).

449: Welcome to 2030. I own nothing, have no privacy, and life has never been better, submitted on 2023-01-18 09:46:29+08:00.

—– 449.1 —–2023-01-18 13:51:52+08:00:

Славься, Отечество наше свободное, Дружбы народов надёжный оплот! Партия Ленина - сила народная. Нас к торжеству коммунизма ведёт!

Except not ironically.

If only stupid ideas like this hadn’t been tried before.

450: My younger brother got kicked out of Sunday School for saying Spider-Man is morally better than God. (How would you argue against this?), submitted on 2023-01-21 07:37:12+08:00.

—– 450.1 —–2023-01-21 14:55:51+08:00:

I’d tell the atheist kiddo two sets of things.

First, kiddo’s parents and youth pastor are probably stupid. Both of them responded incorrectly even if kiddo was being brat — and I assume he was. So, how those adults handled this situation is a reflection of that stupidity. Not a reflection of the merits of Christianity as such. The youth pastor didn’t know how to deal with this situation. The parents didn’t know how to deal with the fact that their kid challenged an authority. And they probably focused on that, because they weren’t even remotely equipped to handle kiddo’s actual question.

This is the sort of thing that makes kids turn their back on Christianity. Was very stupid on the part of adults involved, even if kiddo was way out of line. Which he probably was They disregarded it, because what else was there for them to do? Bite off more than they will ever be able to chew? Open a door that might even shake the foundation of their faith? Not likely. But when you’re a thirteen year old boy, you challenge that sort of stuff because that’s the only point in your life when the stakes don’t make you immediately back away.

Second, though phrased from the perspective of a thirteen year old boy, kiddo’s question was a lot heavier than it seems at face value. And it has to be recognized as a serious question, because it gets to the essential point of the problem of evil. Which is no simple problem. It’s a big problem. Arguably the most compelling indictment of Christianity, so complicated that it’s nearly impossible to even conceptualize it outside the context of fiction (e.g., Dostoevsky’s character Ivan Karamazov and the Grand Inquisitor). This is way out of the parents or the youth pastors’ depth. Clearly.

Back to the point. How is Peter Parker not morally superior to God? God is omniscient. Spider man is not. That difference matters for several reasons:

Spiderman’s displeasure with God’s non-intervention ignores the greater problem of God’s intervention in the alternative world. If God acted consistently with Spiderman’s maxim, then human beings lack agency, will and any capability for salvation. Consider the world where God acts to prevent all harm. In so doing, evil is no more. In this world, we’re back to the pre-Fall scenario that was the garden of Eden, with one critical difference: Eve no longer has the capability to will herself to take a bite of the apple.

The limit of Spiderman’s ability to live his maxim is his own (imaginary) being, because he is not omniscient (nor could he ever prevent all evil). Spiderman can only, on his best day, act to present specific cases of harm in singular contexts that are defined in relation to his (imaginary) presence. Basically, Spiderman can’t save the city he isn’t in. But God can. As well as the country, nation and entirety of all beings as such. If God acted as Spiderman, there would be no Spiderman. Nor would there be any such need. In this way, human beings will not have been created in God’s image because they would be no more than one of many beasts of the land.

451: We need an open source intelligence center, submitted on 2023-01-22 15:28:35+08:00.

—– 451.1 —–2023-01-23 02:25:34+08:00:

We have an open-source intelligence center.