Still deeply down the TrekLit rabbit hole.

Finished the Star Trek: Destiny trilogy early last week (amazing, BTW) and am now through the first two books of the DS9: Millennium trilogy.

Yes, but I’d have to crop myself out of them and I just don’t feel like it.

Have to settle for this dog tax. She’s the one on the left.

I can’t speak for your situation, but I do know of too many examples of marriages “just because” that made both partners completely miserable for decades. And their disgust at each other definitely was not good for the kid to grow up around.

If she’s someone you could see spending your life with, just not right now, then it’s worth considering. But either way, I would advise against agreeing to a shotgun wedding and leave that decision between you and her.

Sounds like her parents are trying to force you into a shotgun wedding.

Ultimately, it’s up to you if you want to go into a marriage that is very much going to be unhappy (I know currently and grew up around lots of terible pregnancy / stay together for the kids marriages) Personally, I’d just setup child support arrangements and discuss with her what role, if any, I would have in the child’s life and politely, but firmly, tell her parents to fuck off (you’re both adults).

Edit: And if she doesn’t want to have a baby, I would also support and assist with that.

I never do Halloween costumes myself, but last year my dog went as “Dr. Pepper” (little white lab coat + children’s toy stethoscope + her name is Pepper).

If I was a cartoonist…

I’d draw European countries smugly eating popcorn and watching the US while authoritarianism, dressed as a house robber, sneaks in behind them and starts taking their stuff. Maybe with the caption that says “I’m so glad that never has and never will happen here!”.

The rise in authoritarianism isn’t exclusive to the US. So I recommend, instead of shitting all over the US at every opportunity, they apply some of that effort to keeping that from happening at home.

I have “hoarder” in my blood, and every day is a struggle to just throw things away and fight the urge of “that might be useful one day”.

How do you all feel about Reuters, Associated Press, National Public Radio and BBC

Recommend them all. They’re pretty unbiased and highly credible. I’m also a monthly donor to NPR :)

I tend to just stick to the wire services (Reuters, AP) and fill in with NPR/BBC and some local news stations that aren’t owned by Sinclair. I tend to avoid any and all that have clear bias or try to appeal to emotion. I just want the verified facts.

For topics related to technology and privacy, TechDirt is pretty solid. They don’t pull punches and are very well researched.

I’ll edit this comment if I think of any more specific ones.

We need people that will safeguard certain lines that may not be crossed.

Exactly.

“We finally won.”

What did it cost?

“Our humanity”

If people are so willing to cross those lines, what are we even doing or trying to uphold?

I do both, but mostly the tea is just to stretch out the coffee supply. e.g. Instead of making a second up of coffee, I’ll make tea instead.

Every time I grab it from the cabinet lol.

Goes good with cham-pag-ney.

I’m happy he’s not spewing hate anymore. However, I abhor (and denounce) how that came to pass and remain genuinely disgusted at the sick, bloodthirsty mob social media turns into when shit like this happens (or attempted happens).

I am very much not an “ends justify the means” kind of person and firmly believe that kind of logic is extremely dangerous.

How does this make me feel? Well, disgusted. Disgusted that there’s more gun violence in the world, disgusted that people are cheering it on, and disgusted with pretty much everyone’s knee-jerk takes on the matter. I can forgive celebrating his passing as dark humor / gallows humor. I can even understand laughing at the schadenfreude due to the guy’s stance on exactly this kind of thing. But for people to be praising the suspect or calling for more is firmly crossing the line into psychopath territory.

Again, the ends do not justify the means.

I can feel in my bones that the other shoe is about to drop, and all these people salivating over the bloodshed are not going to be happy when it does. Violence only begets more violence, and people need to understand that and not be cheering it on.

Angry motorcycle guys, a chair thrown.

Geordi, in the bottom-left pane.

These are the shitposts I live for. Not the shit that should be in the political memes community. Thank you!

Apparently Seth MacFarlane asked himself the same question because in The Orville, exactly that happens.

Or maybe the orgy resulted in a holodeck malfunction? I gotta re-watch.

Charlie Kirk. Kirk, 31, was the CEO…

He was only 31?

Geezus. Hate really does age you. I’m over 10 years his senior, and he looks 5 years older than me. And for once, this isn’t a humble-brag.

I mean, I wouldn’t say “don’t celebrate it” but just because someone else is a piece of shit isn’t a blank check for you* to be a piece of shit.

*Collective “you”