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j4d3's comments
activity:
j4d3  ·  3331 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Ask Hubski: Show me some art that you dig
j4d3  ·  3333 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: 5 'Easy' Steps to a Gun Free America

Oh. I did think you were sincerely interested in less gun violence. My mistake.

j4d3  ·  3336 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: No Comments Allowed on Reddit's New News Site 'Upvoted'

Feels like reading Reddit default subs, curated by a 23-year-old dude. It's fine. But I suspect I'll forget it exists by Friday.

j4d3  ·  3336 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: How would you stop mass shootings?

Did you say that about 9/11? Gun deaths are 100 9/11's a year.

j4d3  ·  3336 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: How would you stop mass shootings?

With loopholes you could fly a 777 through, background-check-wise. The dude who sold my dad his gun wasn't legally required to check any of that.

j4d3  ·  3337 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: How would you stop mass shootings?

I appreciate that it sounds like your mind is open, but it’s silly and a pet peeve that people who have no interest in being anywhere near a gun ever should have to know what distinction you and the NRA are drawing between an AR-15 and an assault rifle. Wikipedia doesn’t know the difference, either. People who have zero interest in violence shouldn’t have to go to the shooting range to feel the zen of shooting.

Though my depression, combined with a reasonable IQ, combined with a beautiful family have made the decision for me to never have a gun in my home, I do know about guns. I “grew up around guns”. So did my dad, and when his life took a bad turn, rather than turn things around, he used his .22 shotgun, bought cheap in the classified ads, to end his life. The night before he shot himself, my mom awoke to find him standing at the foot of the bed, watching her sleep. My sisters and I had been sent to stay with family, probably because my parents knew shit was hitting the proverbial fan, but every time I think about how easy it is for sick people to have guns, I wonder how many synapses my mom, sisters, and I were from being one of the many many families that gets shot to death by their dad.

There should be universal, effective background checks and waiting periods. Any sign of mental illness or domestic violence should be disqualifying (though I worry that this will prevent people from seeking help). Guns should be taxed like the death and disability machines they are. Guns shouldn’t be able to kill tons of people without reloading. We should do buybacks and whatever else Australia and Canada do. Gun owners should face prison time if their guns are stored so a child or criminal can get to them. When there’s a murder, we should all hear whose gun that was that killed that child and who sold/gave it to the loser who did it.

I was thinking the other morning, “What if the NRA started using some of the money they make after these shootings to help people see the signs that they shouldn’t be around a gun? Feeling blue? Don’t buy a gun. Got a kid who’s a little weird? Don’t buy a gun. Have kids and you’re not so great at putting things away when you’re done with them? Don’t buy a gun.” And then I remembered that the NRA exists to sell guns.

So. That’s what I think.

j4d3  ·  3339 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Hubski Challenge: Videos, music, artwork, fashion, or whatever. Drop a nostalgia bomb

j4d3  ·  3340 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: College Shooting in Oregon Now, 10 killed

Those moral injustices being beautiful, happy, well-adjusted young women not having sex with them. Rest in peace, young women targeted by this loser and his 4chan friends.

j4d3  ·  3341 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: College Shooting in Oregon Now, 10 killed

That sheriff also refuses to enforce existing gun laws. "Don't say the shooter's name" is the new "mental illness" -- that is, a way to not do a damn thing about assholes with guns.

j4d3  ·  3343 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Many Conservative Republicans Believe Climate Change Is a Real Threat

Except we weren't all the same when Bush was president. Republicans were driving SUVs like it was their duty, cutting taxes for Trumps and Hiltons, and starting racist wars.

The delay by Republicans in acknowledging the reality of climate change will probably go unremarked by history. But I haven't flushed it down the memory hole yet.

j4d3  ·  3345 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Welcome to the Third Industrial Revolution

We may all one day pay for 3D printing patterns with our bot repair wages. I wonder if we'll all be grease-stained Gilliam characters in overalls.

Everyone should read The Diamond Age. I liked that poor people could print what they needed and apparently had constant high speed connectivity. It was sad to think that a great education might still be so far out of reach for children with imperfect parents. I appreciate that Rifkin is trying to get ahead on these policies from a seemingly humanist place.

j4d3  ·  3345 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Welcome to the Third Industrial Revolution

I'm not convinced, either, but IoT is happening. There will be Norton and McAfee for IoT, and good on whomever it is that makes their money that way.

j4d3  ·  3346 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: How to deal with a victim mentality in the workplace

If you think people can work harder, tell them you think they are great and can handle it. Don't tell them you think they're lazy and not doing enough. For me, the former makes me play "Eye of the Tiger" in a my head and Get Shit Done. Any hint of the latter leads to insecurity, resume submissions, and I'm gone in a month.

j4d3  ·  3351 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Consumers Prepare For An Internet Of Very Pointless Things

I don't want a tweeting toaster, but as with all the tech we rely on, people who aren't too cool for it will hang in there and make Things that do improve our lives. I do want my doors to unlock when I drive up. I want the lights downstairs to turn off when I go upstairs, or to be able to turn them off with my phone when I lie down and don't want to get back up. I want a robot to vacuum my floor, when that works better. I don't want the Amazon button, but I do want a fridge that knows I'm low on milk and orders some more of whatever is cheapest.

Guarded hope.

Ahmed's sister was treated badly in middle school because someone said she was going blow up the school. We're just hearing about that now. A black girl in Florida I think was arrested for making a bomb when she was doing a science experiment, and that got so little attention that I wasn't sure if she made a bomb or a science experiment.

The fact that this was quickly and widely condemned seems like progress.

j4d3  ·  3353 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Looking for good reads

I'll put that on my to-read list!

j4d3  ·  3354 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: What it's like to be a black employee at a predominantly white tech company

Well, but people with families work hard without the hangovers. Yeah, there's health stuff, but hiring grown-ups has its own rewards.

j4d3  ·  3354 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: What it's like to be a black employee at a predominantly white tech company

    The most impactful detriment to diversity in Silicon Valley is the idea of “culture fit.”

Yup. Glad people are saying this. Hope companies are hearing it.

(Also, I dunno if you can edit the title, but it's "predominantly".)

j4d3  ·  3356 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Let's create a list of essential scifi books

1. Oryx and Crake, Margaret Atwood

2. The Diamond Age, Neal Stephenson

3. The Martian Chronicles, Ray Bradbury

4. The Handmaid's Tale, Margaret Atwood

5. Cryptonomicon, Neal Stephenson

6. Brave New World, Aldous Huxley

7. Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury

8. Dune, Frank Herbert

9. The Time Machine, HG Wells

10. Neuromancer, William Gibson

I haven't read some very important books in this genre (Snow Crash, We, and potentially The Three Body Problem, for example), so the only ones I'd insist on are 1-5.

j4d3  ·  3361 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Microaggressions and the Rise of Victimhood Culture - The Atlantic

Are more white people going to think twice before sprinkling in some Spanish next time they talk to a brown person? If yes, then this guy’s response was effective. The frame I would use is not (lame-ass whiny) victim versus dignified person as this article’s author would like to do. It is effective versus ineffective.

If complaining that my boss gave me my first negative feedback the very day I announced my pregnancy gets me fired, that is ineffective toward my goal of me (and other women) continuing a career in tech. If it results in him not doing it to the next gal, it’s a win. It’s impossible to predict what will happen, so I’ve kept my mouth shut. I don’t think keeping my mouth shut is “dignified.” I think it can be read as craven.

j4d3  ·  3362 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: TSA Master Keys
j4d3  ·  3362 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Half of Everything

Money schmoney. I just hope that if things fall apart, my husband tells a judge that he's willing to split the kids in half.

j4d3  ·  3366 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: The War Photo No One Would Run

    As an angry 28-year-old Jarecke wrote in American Photo in 1991: “If we’re big enough to fight a war, we should be big enough to look at it.”

I'd love to do neither some day.

j4d3  ·  3368 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: U.S. Pressed to Take More Syrian Refugees

These people seem to be helping: http://www.rescue.org/crisis-syria

Also, an organization that rescues people in the Mediterranean: http://www.moas.eu/

j4d3  ·  3369 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Was Banning Tyler, the Creator, the Victory International Feminism Needed?

    Almost immediately, Tyler’s fans sent a barrage of tweets to Alison, ranging from juvenile name-calling to actual rape and murder threats.

"International feminism" (ugh) could sure use a victory.

j4d3  ·  3373 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: My hubski feed has been static for the last week.

Yep.