Not to be the “have you tried” guy, but have you guys considered that you might have hay fever? It’s been ragweed season for a while now…
No, that’s fair. And it’s been weirdly warm ( don’t think about it, don’tthinkaboutit, DONOTTHINKABOUTIT ), but I’ve been too phlegmy for that.
What kind of bug is this? Found it in my drink in a pub this weekend. It’s tail was flared like a fish. The rest of it looked like a tiny slug. When the barman touched it (saying it was a cell from a lemon slice) it recoiled sideways nearly to a circle.
It might actually be a slug, they are attracted to the yeast in beer
Depending on whether there actually is a yellow dot on its back or that’s a trick of the light, that could be a semi-slug. If so, it is a very small one.
I think the yellow dot is indeed a trick of the light, it was the slightly fishlike tail that made me question if it was a slug at all.
Asking here, because I have no idea where else to, though I’m not asking a specific question. Basically, just a thought, and any comments, reactions, or problems with it would be appreciated.
I was just talking about civil asset forfeiture in the US with a friend, and we were talking about how it creates an incentive, and even if you move who would get the money away from the police departments themselves it’s still an incentive for someone.
So what we stumbled into was “why not just give back to the community as a whole?” Like, if it was city police, give it back as a reduction in property taxes/income taxes/sales taxes in the city. If the FCC fines some big telecom company a billion dollars, instead of taking that as FCC money or whatever is happening with it now, it just becomes part of a rebate check to everyone at the end of the year. Kinda bordering up into “universal basic income” potentially depending on how much it is.
Obviously, independent of that, we need to stop civil asset forfeiture itself where it’s being used on people not charged with crimes. And property needs to be returned when it’s due. That just needs to be fixed in general. But this would be a tangent to that topic about how we “collect” and “distribute” certain kinds of fines.
SEC fines for example usually go towards those affected by insider trading or market manipulation if you want a real world example of this: the fines that both Tesla and Musk paid to SEC over the 420 tweet basically went to recoup short sellers who took losses from the event.
Depending on who is seizing it, I think have their sector use those funds to empower communities in need would be a great way to use it, till the practice itself is abolished or at least changed to target only the wealthy.
With your FCC example, my preference would be if they could use that money to expand or even advance communication technologies in areas without incentives already to do so, like rural areas that still don’t have high speed internet.
For police departments, any of their seizures should either go to things like NAACP or The Innocence Project. I’d almost want to say that I would like it to go to better funding public defenders but that needs to be addressed long-term and not by adding further incentives for civil asset forfeiture in order to avoid increasing taxes.
Racist joke?
Did you hear about the Imam that got Corona Virus?
He got Quran-tined.
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What gun should I get with my tax return?
Get a Soumi Nagant.
Salad shooter. Make lunch, not war.
(Failing that, depends what you want, really. Looking for a pistol? A rifle? Shotgun? Single shot or semi? Hunting or targets?)
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Home defense, maybe hunting. Rifle or shotgun. I have a Walther PPX already and it’s nice. Small apartment so it’d need to be short for home defense.
Home defense weapons are more likely to kill members of the home than any intruder. You should not buy any gun.
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Also bow hunting and archery are way cooler, so buy a bow and arrow for that.
Can’t advise for home defense, honestly, you’d be better off with foot-long lump of rebar with some electrical tape wrapped round it. Don’t shoot someone over a flat-screen or a PC/console or what-have-you. Your TV ain’t worth someone’s life.
For hunting? Fuck .223, go to .30/06 or .308, something around that size. The Weatherby Vanguard Series 2 is a big gold star, and won’t break the bank. A Tikka T3x in .308 is plenty of bang for your buck, too. And of course, Ruger Americans are a classic for a reason, even if they’ve got the aesthetics of a mid-80s post office. If you’re going for smaller game, it’s hard to walk past the remmy 572 fieldmaster, it’s a top-notch pump-action 22, and shotguns, Tristar makes a good break action for the money, and the Stevens 555 is also pretty competitive.
It is, but honestly, most people don’t have the stomach for it. Quick and clean kills are not especially common for most people, and there’s plenty of times that even an experienced and skilled bow-hunter will either be tracking wounded prey, or having to finish the job by hand(or knife, rather) once they’re on the scene. Sure, it’s definitely challenging, and a hell of a lot cooler, but you gotta ask yourself if you’re really ready for what you have to do if you don’t make a good, clean killing shot.
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If you’re not ready for that, should you be hunting period?
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Fair point, but that clean killing shot is far, far easier with a rifle. Killing something with your hands(slash a knife, I know) is a very different ball game. I agree with you, but I have to face the reality that I both can’t push that belief on others, nor can I equip them to do these things quickly, cleanly, and properly, nor can I stop them hunting altogether without a serious change in what’s acceptable to hunt(Though, it would be a fairer one). Learning to shoot well enough that you don’t need to? Much easier, and much more available.
Personally? I prefer targets. Targets can’t die bad and slow because you miss a shot, but don’t miss it enough. But I also shoot well enough that I’ve not needed a follow up more than once or twice any time I’ve been out hunting.