my first birthday

MAR 14 2007

Anyone else's back hurt while reading this?

Not to be a dick or anything, but I found it funny that you chose to mention him mentioning the political career and his opinion of him. Nice touch, but very much irrelevant. Keep up the good work!

What is this shit meme format doing in 196

Boomer humor.

There's a lot to unpack out of this reddit moment.

If we want people to take us seriously about advocating for reform in this housing crisis, this ain't it. Stripping nuance out of the conversation isn't helping the cause, it just makes us look uninformed.

Yes, the vast majority of landlords charge too much and do to little. But claiming that no work is required to be landlord does two things:

1. It absolves the landlord of the responsibility to maintain the property

2. It diminishes the scope of the work required to provide people with affordable housing and doesn't set clear goals to accomplish

There is a rule of thumb called the unrecoverable costs to owning which is typically 5% of the property's value. This goes towards plumbing, electrical work, landscaping, HVAC repairs, roof work, pest control, interior upkeep, and much more. The reality is that a property doesn't take care of it self and someone has to.

Yes, the system is broken, rent is unaffordable, and home owner is neigh impossible these days. What we need is regulation on the housing market, getting rid of speculators, reform zoning laws for high density housing, public transit and good urban planning, more subsidized and public housing, etc.

Even when you have all of that you will still need landlords, just not the kind that we have today. Because for housing to exist there is an inherent risk that somebody has to carry to guarantee the mortgage is paid for and that it will not go up in flames.

Before you take everyone's word about the nasal cycle, check if you have dust mite allergies. Turns out I did and my nose was far stuffier and itchier than what should be normal.

I switched out my pillowcase to an allergy pillowcase and started taking some allergy meds. It cleared up my nose a lot and now I can actually feel one nostril only being slightly more closed due to the nasal cycle instead of having it almost all blocked.

And billionaire bootlickers.

Why go to mass when you can go to ass?

Uniforms are not exactly a conservative idea. You could argue that it is a return to tradition, but uniforms are functionally more progressive if anything.

I have been to, no joke, over a dozen schools in several countries, some with uniforms and some without, and I find uniforms to be a far better option. Yes, uniforms aren't cheap and you don't get to pick what to wear, but I here are some reasons why it is still very worth it:

1. There is no pressure to dress well compared to peers, especially if they can't afford to
2. Kids are less likely to be bullied for what they wear
3. Kids don't have expend mental energy in the morning figuring out what to wear
4. Uniforms are generally less restrive and more comfortable than what is currently in style
5. It's optionally a form of gender expression for young trans folks (in open minded schools)
6. Wardrobe malfunctions can be resolved at school sometimes
7. Kids can reuse hand-me-downs from siblings going to the same schools
8. A sense of community among peers, especially when they recognize each other outside of school
9. Helps with body image because uniforms generally obscures people's silhouettes to the same degree, so there is less pressure to look a certain way

No offense, but your comments come off as kind of edgy and from someone who sounds like the most exotic thing they've eaten is pineapple on pizza.

No, just like how in the usual 'girl boring guy quirky' memes, girls aren't allowed to be quirky.

It really depends on where you live. $200 doesn't get you that far in places like Manhattan or San Francisco. Especially if you're cooking for every meal for more than one person for a week.

That's antithetical to OP's post though. The whole point is to keep an open mind and question everything.

It's not a bad thing to question your own identity. Question it, answer it, and then embrace it. That's where personal growth comes from. Everyone has been doubtful of an identity before, because at the minimum we've all been teenagers at some point.

Surpassing your own doubts about your identity is how you solidify your identity. When you've answered your own doubts, you will be ready to face anyone's doubts about you.

For instance, it isn't voting against your interest to support tax cuts if you believe that everyone should be paying less taxes

You are operating the assumption that everyone is paying their fair share of taxes. Billionaires in the US pay 8.2% in federal taxes, which doesn't include all their untaxable assets and tax evasion schemes. The average tax payer pays 13.3%, up to 37% depending on their tax bracket.

You might think that 5% isn't a big difference, but keep in mind that 5% of a billion is $50,000,000. Billionaires don't become billionaires through 'hard work and ethics'. They become billionaires through exploitation of the ghastly federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour, a wage that would be about $21.5 per hour if it kept up with inflation. Keep in mind that this is the bare minimum, not a livable wage, which would be closer to $30 per hour.

Billionaires are typically born with hoards of intergenerational wealth, in wealthy neighborhoods with well funded schools. Your zip code will largely tell you whether or not you succeed. The American Dream has long been dead and it's time to wake up.

I had a dream where my partner died. When I woke up I have never been more relieved that it was just a dream. It's made me the happiest and most appreciative I've been in a long time.

So many people here who don't know about PCOS or PCOS belly and actually think the woman in the picture is stupid.

I genuinely have no idea what you are trying to ask. I don't think an economic glass floor means what you think it means because it's certainly not something that's 'provided by the public sector'.

The economic glass floor is a phenomenal that prevents privileged groups from doing poorly and descending the socioeconomic ladder, which is another driving factor for inequality.

I mean no offense, but your writing and phrasing is very long winded and feels like a freshman trying to impress their professor. Can you rephrase more concisely please?

I didn't say ownership is labor. I said maintenance is labor.

Seriously. Have you tried: re-painting a house, replacing drywall, installing new floor boards, replacing light fixtures, redoing baseboards, hooking up new washer/dryers, replacing doors knobs, fixing broken ceiling fans, installing security cameras, vetting and hiring handymen, plumbers, electricians, HVAC technicians, getting permits with the city, installing a new faucet, cleaning up sewer leaks, cleaning up mold, fixing stucco, dealing with bedbugs and termite extermination, get HERS testing, spec out a new electrical panel, debug for nuisance tripping, and so much more shit that I don't have time to list them all.

This stuff doesn't do it self. I live in my own home now and I had to learn how to do most of these things, at least the ones that don't require certification. Handymen are expensive, and right fully so because doing maintenance well is not an easy job. If I can't learn to do it right, I'll need to pay someone else to do it.

My point is that owning a home is kind of like owning a pet. You need to be fully prepared for shit over the house and know how to deal with it when it happens. Unless you're some property conglomerate, owning a house isn't just a deed transfer, it's practically a living thing that you need to take care of.

Classic colonialist behavior

PSA: It is possible to get stomach ulcers if you consistently take ibuprofen for too long. This is dangerous because these ulcers have a risk of becoming cancerous.

I was ulcerated because of undiagnosed chronic pain that was not taken seriously until I fucked up my stomach by taking max dose of ibuprofen for months to deal with the unending pain and suffering. Don't do that. Instead, find a doctor who gives a shit if you can afford it, or take CBD or marijuana if you can't.

I hate to break it you but all holidays, like the rest of human customs and traditions, are made up by humans.

Hate on me, but I don't love that being trans and having a mental illness are in the same sentence and the implication that a sex change is a light decision like drinking coffee :(

Yeah but women can't, by definition, grill or fish as a man. They can at best, grill and fish.

Can we just start calling him what he is, a hate speech absolutionist?

SkYlAr Is A bItCh!!

• 14 year olds who can't see women as people and glorifies drug lords and crime

Unspoken curses of each item:

Magic blanket - you will never get to taste a cold drink or feel a cool breeze again

Good dream pillow - you will be asleep every hour of sundown to sunrise

Cuddly bear - you will always feel empty when you are not hugging it

Endless candle - you will never feel stressed enough to feel the need to be productive again

Favorite mug - you will never get your hot drinks back

Treasure stone - you will progressively devolve into a narcissist the more you touch it

The idea that some women are responsible for other people's behaviors is a tale as old as time. Feminists are not responsible for the actions of misandrists and TERFs. We are people, with our own thoughts and feelings. Stop holding us accountable for the actions of people that we don't even associate with.

By taking on patriarchy, feminists are advocating for men's issues too because the patriarchy hurts everyone. Issues such as men's mental health, male sexual assault victims, homelessness, lack of paternity leave, are all under the umbrella of feminism. Men who say they are not feminists are acting against their own self interests.

I'm from Hong Kong. This is reality.

Condescension and smugness doesn't make you sound correct. It just makes sound misinformed and willfully ignorant.

I don't think it's as simple as coming down to choice. Planning, shopping, cooking, and cleaning takes a non-trivial amount of time and effort that not every person can afford even if they can afford ingredients. It's not uncommon for people in the city to come home exhausted after 70 hours work week and hour long commutes.

Sometimes it's not physically or mentally possible to sustain the kind of min-maxing lifestyle of cooking under a tight budget. Cooking is hard, cooking affordably is even harder. Sometimes, having a steak for dinner is one of the few things that keeps people happy enough to not kill themselves in an exploitative work culture while being crushed by unaffordable housing.

I don't think OP is necessary overspending because it really depends on where they live, how many hours they work, what their living situation is like, how much of their own mental load they carry.

I've lived on a tight budget before. For a time I made do with $30 a week in an expensive town, albeit almost a decade ago. I skimmed on everything I could and bought as many $1 bags of spoiled vegetables as I could, trimmed off all the moldy parts, and just made whatever vegetable soup I could every week. This is one of like 50 other things I had to do to get by. And it wasn't great for my mental health. It sucked to have to spend so much time and energy when I had so few hours left in a day to do all this.

Living cheap has a cost too. I don't think it's fair to assume that OP is necessary choosing to waste money when we don't know where they live or what else is going on in their life.

PSA: this is a reminder that no birth control method is fully bullet proof and that it's perfectly valid to want to use condoms and track ovulation cycles at the same time.

I think you are making a blanket statement about uniform systems and attributing all the bad things from a few to all of them. Uniform systems come in many varieties including gendered/ungendered, seasonal, school supplied/outsourced/local distributors, half uniforms (assigned shirt with unassigned but color coded pants), optional outerwear, regulations on haircut/makeup/accessories, and more.

Bullying absolutely happens to people who are not as well dressed, particularly people who have to wear the same days several days in a row in the absence of a uniform code. It may not have happened to you, but that doesn't mean it hasn't for others. I would know because I spent a good 5 years living on just two suitcases drifting from home to home, and my limited and undersized wardrobe was often a point of ridicule.

Saying "there will always be something to bully" as a counterpoint to how bullies will always find something to bully is pretty dismissive to how much it hurts to be bullied for one's appearances. If you think that what you wear makes no difference to bullies, try wearing a clownsuit to school everyday. It's like you're saying "bullies will bully you anyway, so why not give them one more thing to bully you about?"

I get that being bullied for your clothes may not look a big deal to you because you're a grown adult. But that's not how many teenage minds work. Small things like that can be detrimental to their self esteem.

For anyone claiming that this isn't enough, remember that Norway's population is 5.4 million. If the fine were raised any higher, Facebook can simply not do business there. The goal is to get Facebook to comply with the law, not to remove them.

"This decision “does not ban Facebook or Instagram in Norway,” Tobias Judin, the Norwegian Data Protection Authority’s international department head, stated in a release. “The purpose is rather to ensure that people in Norway can use these services in a secure way and that their rights are safeguarded.” - > AP News

At face value many people would say that Facebook pulling out is a good thing, but it's not that simple. Lots of small businesses rely on social media. People would be losing a forum for political discourse, no matter how fake news infested it may be. People who rely on it to initiate social interaction will have to find a different channel now. They are so conditioned to the convenience of staying connected with friends and family through social media that it has eroded forms of communication. This isn't a judgment on social media users, this is just stating how social interactions have changed and how detrimental removing these tools can be.

Facebook has around 3 billion users. It's economic impact is estimated at 227 billion USD. It's part of the fabric of society, especially for people with poor media literacy. Good luck pulling the plug on that.

I'm moved to tears

Spoken like a true pro-CCP mainlander who's mom came over to give birth and reap all the social benefits while actively voting to tear down all the democratic institutions.

The replies in this post is precisely why we need better sex ed.

There's an astounding number of people who aren't aware about PCOS or IBS and think that the woman in the ad is actually stupid for taking a pregnancy test.

I have both, and my doctor had to give me an hGC test to rule out pregnancy because my abdomen was as bloated as the woman in the picture.

Neither of these conditions are rare, and either one can cause bloating and swelling, often chronically, to this degree.

Not only did he get the experience of being a woman, but also being a girl!

(This happened to me when I was 9)

Me when I see software engineers wearing hoodies (soft and pet-able)

As a chronic pain sufferer this is too real.

Harfam is what a migraine feels like

God I want a socialist tampon inside me so bad. Socialism is so hot.