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How we cling to the fantasy that growth can go on forever, despite loud and clear warnings from Mother Earth that it cannot. Not only must populations drop in order to reach a sustainable level, but their lifestyles must change to consume less and conserve more, which is a one-two punch to the capitalist way of life. Fortunately, because capitalism produces so much excess (called "profits"), we know what can be cut without sacrificing quality of life. Time to face that yes, growth will slow and then stop, and we will need to adapt to a zero-growth economy, in which redistribution becomes the only way to maintain, much less improve, living standards. There will be no excess for the gilded few to vacuum up.The good news is that in that scenario, full employment could mean working much less than 40 hours a week and having more time to spend on hobbies, exercise, and relationships. As AI development progresses, more essential tasks will be able to be done by machines, so a shrinking workforce will be less of an issue. We will be forced to have the nasty conversations we've been dreading about end-of-life care, how long and what services can be provided, and when nature should be allowed to take its course. And with fewer children being born, we will need to invest more in the ones that are, even if they are a different color or creed than our own. All we have to do is give up the magical thinking of endless growth.
| no | 2,520 |
I wonder what his insurance company…the one who purportedly paid him 10-20 millions-$ has to say about this.🤔
| no | 3,227 |
I used to share almost everything with my friends, but over the past three months that has changed significantly. Junior year has given me a huge shift in friend groups, and made me realized who my true friends are and are not. As far as the people I am no longer close with I have definitely regretted opening up, as I believe my feelings are personal and very few people should be trusted, so I don’t think they deserved my vulnerability. Over these few months I have started to close off a little more, as I don’t want to mistrust someone again. If there is one thing I have learned this year it is this: Be careful always. Be careful with who you’re friends with, who you share secrets with, your emotions and struggles, and always trust your gut.
| yes | 5,668 |
If you think this is just an issue in the U.K. and not happening here in the U.S., you're not paying attention. The reason there are so many open positions at restaurants, in retail, hospitality, etc... anywhere where the pay is hourly and benefits aren't included, is because no one can cover their basic expenses in that scenario. Without universal healthcare here in the U.S., it will only continue to get worse.
| yes | 6,014 |
Bryan What total nonsense - from 40 years ago when Haig was around. Israel has NEVER hosted American military personnel. But do you know where we have full-blown military bases? In virtually every other MidEast country, including Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, the UAE, Oman and Jordan. not to mention our NATO ally, Turkey.We once had a pit stop in Haifa for the US Navy fleet, based in Italy, but 2 years ago Israel leased the port to China for the next 25 years, rendering it useless to us for security reasons. Yeah, some ally.And btw, 25% of the $4 billion in US taxpayers' dollars are spent in Israel on Israeli weapons manufacture. This "tiny" country is the world's 6th largest arms dealer, mostly by virtue of selling knockoffs of US military tech to countries it won't name. And those civilian tech innovations? They come from US companies built with US capital operating under US patents in Israel. Uh...tell us where the Israeli-branded electronics are on the shelves net to Apple, Microsoft, Samsung, Sony, etc.
| no | 2,334 |
I think the government had a $1.3T deficit last year. We have 720 billionaires in the US. If we "taxed" each $2B, we would close the deficit. What do we do next year? How long would that last?We have a spending problem.
| no | 3,665 |
What did everyone think the billion bucks (with 10 bil more promised) to OpenAI was for? It's so they can let the machines write their own software now.Human employees are so last year.
| no | 3,032 |
I sympathize with the author and have no idea how a decent restaurant stays in business. To profit responsibly while paying help decently and offering fresh and original meals seems almost impossible. Even the authors quoted price of $60 per person is a $120 night out for a couple (plus tip?), and let's hope that the meal and experience are good as that's not guaranteed. Alas, dining out with any frequency has become the realm of the wealthy, chain restaurants aside. My wife and I eat out only a few times a year, but we eat well at home. We've learned to cook, spare no expense on ingredients and its rare that a meal costs more than $15 for 2. Best of luck to Ms. Howard, its clear that she is hardworking and plenty capable.
| no | 3,809 |
Interesting that Republicans refer to Social Security as an "entitlement" completely ignoring the fact that recipients and their employers paid into it for decades. It is an entitlement only in so far as workers paid for it and deserve to be paid back. If Republicans plan to reduce or do away with the system, then everyone who ever contributed, including employers, deserves to be paid back. There is approximately $2.85 trillion dollars in the social security trust fund. If the government ends the system, where will those trillions go? The Republicans just steal the contributions we've all made with no obligation to the people who financed the system?
| no | 3,386 |
Uly, don’t let your biases influence your opinions. Quality of products made in Mexico are far superior than those built in many parts of the world including China. It is a known fact. VW Golf is just an example of how Mexico produces award winning products - in this case car and car parts. Yes, patterns and ingenuity are born usually on first world countries but Mexico can implement those products with high quality at a lower price. Isn’t that a potential great partnersip?
| yes | 5,932 |
Developers are incentivized to build 5/1 boxes by cities, government, investors and banks. If people want better architecture, demand it from the city councils and planning boards. No one can raise 40MM on their own to build an unprofitable building - the math has to work. Cities greenlight horrible, cookie cutter buildings if the developer will slap on fake plastic decoration because it "keeps with the character of the neighborhood' - from 100 years ago that can't be recreated. And communities activists want free or highly subsidized housing - also not feasible. To boot, everyone wants tons of space for cars - preferably within 10 feet of their house and of course, free. And every house has a minimum of 3 cars (more likely 5 plus recreational vehicles). Lazy articles like this demonize developers who in fact, have to build what they are told to build by people who have never built anything in their life but somehow know everything about development, city planning, traffic patterns, commuters, retail stores, raising capital and of course, are experts in all forms of architecture.
| yes | 6,702 |
Many fear Artificial Intelligence (AI) but another perspective gives a different and fascinating look into its connection with the world. This look makes one wonder more deeply about it. The book "Ways of Being" by James Bridle "deals with the ways in which the digital, networked world reaches into the physical, offline one" and offers a whole new approach of mental examination attached to AI.As it atricultes non-human intelligence, ecology, biological computing, more-than-human relations, it certainly opened my eyes to a multitude of previously unconsidered possibilities. Anyone in the field of AI or fearful of it would find the information absolutely compelling as it offers new observations that fascinate.
| yes | 5,227 |
OlyMom Truffles cost a fortune.
| no | 1,151 |
It would be interesting to hear a debate on a bill that would limit distribution of federal dollars to 10% above the amount collected in taxes in that state.
| no | 1,860 |
The yellow cab/medallion group were in large part responsible for this mess. By keeping the medallions in short supply to inflate the value of those who owned them it opened the door for other services to compete and overtake. Then everyone got hurt with medallion holders getting the worst of it as their investments tanked. So now, as usual, the people at the top are making a fortune and those at the bottom are struggling. But the rhetoric remains the same.Income inequality. It’s the American Way. Until we bring back unions.
| yes | 9,289 |
Scientist2 it is eye-opening, then, for many to see how it is for more people than meets the eye. I’ve seen it with the patients I have worked with at the VA, in private practice, and the communities I have lived in across the country. I fear my own retirement years. While I have contributed to my 401K, I don’t think it will be enough to cover me when that golden age of 65 comes in 16 years. I am a frugal spender but I certainly don’t think I will be pulling in the $49K I make now yearly from that 401K. I plan to work until I die. Better to be prepared for that, than think retirement is something coming my way.
| yes | 8,465 |
As Biden gladly dole out endless money and weaponry escalating of a dangerous war to likely nuclear annhilation, child poverty grows and rent-gouging leaves more of us hungry, homeless, criminalized and disenfranchised. As Senator Ocasio-Cortez recently pointed out regarding the latest weapons spending, $20 Billion could end homelessness, and child poverty could be reduced by half for $90 Billion -- far less than the money spent on weapons and war -- and far more controversial in a corporate oligarchy where business agendas and global hegemony are prioritized and citizen needs come last. Our lives remain endangered in a country saturated with guns. Mass shootings are a near daily occurrence. Our ruling class is more dedicated to our right to kill each other than to our rights to have healthcare, education, homes, or even sick leave in a continuing pandemic.
| yes | 5,718 |
CMY At some point, those individuals involved will be asked to testify under oath about all the questions you raise. All of them will have a lifetime invested in pushing their career to the place where are part of POTUS’s team. All of them hope to continue this caliber of career moving forward, or not tarnish their legacy if they are retiring soon. None of them will want to risk undoing their future or legacy by lying about something like this. It’s too risky, and all it takes is 1 person to undo any potential cover up like what you allude to.Anything is possible, but I suspect that trying to get a presidential legal team to unanimously agree to: making up a story, remembering all the details, and then sticking it to it for months (years?) while the process unfolds is a big ask even for people in this echelon of power, access, and savvy.IMO The simple fact that the Trump team wouldn’t cooperate with authorities from the outset is about as big a differentiation as anyone should need but, we’ll see wat happens.
| yes | 9,523 |
This is mind boggling - after 50 years, and in 2023, this is still an issue. Freedom for all, the GOP says, oh and by the way - except for women. Guns? Sure thing. Open carry of such guns? Of course. What a country. I hope doctors like this one keep fighting .
| no | 3,337 |
Carvana is toast.Six months ago, Carvana offered me $13k for a car that I paid $9k for three years previously. I was so tempted, but it works well, and why sell? I suspect they will crater so sharply, in the near future, as a lack of easy money, low rates, and then a moderate recession put the kibosh on spending ,hard.
| yes | 7,119 |
Perhaps a quick run through an AI assistant would avoid this problem. Here's ChatGPT's version of an article from today's business section:"On a fateful day of great portent, the esteemed home goods retailer Bed Bath & Beyond delivered a grave warning to its loyal investors. Despite its former grandeur, with stores scattered throughout the realm, the company's future seemed to grow dimmer with each passing moment. In a report of preliminary earnings, it was revealed that sales had dwindled and foot traffic had slowed, a dire state of affairs indeed. For the quarter ending on the 26th of November, the company's sales had dwindled to a mere $1.3 billion, a tragic fall from the heights of the previous year. The possibility of bankruptcy loomed on the horizon, a fate that would strike fear into the hearts of even the bravest merchants. As the great Black Friday approached, all eyes were upon Bed Bath & Beyond, praying that it might weather this storm and emerge victorious."
| no | 1,961 |
Don't be misled by the fact that they are doing the work pro bono. Dunne and Pomerantz retired from Davis Polk and Paul Weiss, where the profits per equity partner exceed $4.5 million per year. They are outstanding lawyers and I am happy that they have found good causes to spend their time on. They resigned from the Manhattan D.A.'s office after they told Bragg they had uncovered enough evidence to indict and convict Trump, but Bragg got cold feet. That is very sad.
| no | 2,638 |
I think Biden's handling of classified documents is worse.First, IMO it is an open question as to whether Trump even took "classified" documents, as it may be (the supreme court may decide this) that the president has the power to declassify documents at will, whereas the VP certainly doesn't. Also, politically, the first documents were apparently discovered shortly before the midterm elections, and yet for some reason this was not disclosed until after those elections, when they very well could have impacted, negatively for democrats, some of the close races.
| yes | 5,532 |
Rich Mr. Stephens just loves the rich. Congress could easily raise the cap on SS taxes (FICA), up to 250K and solve the problem for the next 75 years of more. Raise it 500K, even better. The wealthy can afford it. After all, we have inflation, Mr. Stephens, the rich are making more, and they can contribute more. Not doing, this, another GOP scheme to defund Social Security?
| yes | 7,144 |
Conservatives in every domain are undoubtedly the most unabashed, enthusiastic practitioners of the zero sum game. How is integration, whether across political or theological divides (that often overlap) possible, when one side embraces their position with an absolutism that admits no discussion or exploration?We have to acknowledge that no side or position has a monopoly on truth, but beyond that, that our epistemological position is inherently precarious. Outside of mathematics and logic we never really know anything, but conservatives - by a large margin in 🥬my admittedly unscientific judgement - tend to think they do.As other replies suggest, the "will to power" always fills this conversational void, and it never ends well - for either or any side.Just as marriage therapists speak of "fighting fairly" - real engagement begins with respecting each other - with reasonableness and independently verifiable facts.But this requires a willingness to set ideological commitments and belief aside. While acknowledging that we on the left have challenges to making dialog possible, few conservatives seem open to even recognizing this as a problem.
| yes | 4,962 |
You hit it Maureen when you compared the death of Princess Diana to a Greek tragedy. It was as if the Paris tunnel was the opening in the earth where Hades swept Persephone to the underworld. How could this not traumatize her children who were left without a mother, especially young Harry, motherless with a father who had abandoned her to continue his affair with Camilla Parker-Bowles? It was an archetypal tragedy where Harry could not help feel being the family outcast as his grandaunt Princess Margaret had been to her sister Queen Elizabeth with his older brother William now next in line in the reality of their "Game of Thrones." But unlike Princess Margaret, Prince Harry had the audacity to pursue and marry the woman he loved in Meghan Markle, a divorced, black American actress. This was more than the Palace could or would tolerate, and where Diana had been deified in death, Meghan was vilified in life. The young couple were essentially banished into exile where they hope to heal from their many wounds with Harry's book as much an attempt to to start that process as it is to provide an income. And in this season of hope and renewal, that's all we and they can hope for.
| yes | 6,784 |
Michael You're so wrong about so much, i'll have to provide a listing: considering that the primary benefit of the ACA was to provide much improved access to health care for 100million citizens, it seems that the really "common sense" was to support the legislation, and considering that the upshot elections allowed at least a brief Democratic control of the House and the Presidency w/ Obama, not too hard to judge that the country appreciated it, rather than the real conspiracy driven movement of MAGA, here in Michigan, in my district, the more left incumbent just got beaten by the less left redistricted Dem, and in NY at least two districts got new Repubs- so much for your primary theory, Sinema and Manchin may not be completely nuts, but check their donors; the Pharm guys and the coal industry, and you'll understand them better, question: does a "fairer tax system" include extended benefits for real estate developers and lower tax rates for those few who have capital gains? "good of the country" is a "beauty argument", based on the "eye-of-the-beholder."
| no | 2,753 |
magicisnotreal One possibility is that older homes and apartments were naturally more ventilated -- no air conditioning, so windows open for much of the year -- often little insulation and poorly fitting windows.
| no | 4,363 |
Great to see displayed the athleticism of elite receivers . So tired of watching players like Gronkowski, who is probably 50 pounds heavier than the poor guy covering him, literally manhandle him to get open. Once read an interview with Jerry Rice who was asked how he managed to get open so often, and he responded, hours and hours spent alone during the off season running pass patterns. Beautiful embeds.
| no | 4,080 |
It's the pyramid and two sports only Men's Football & basketball players will reap the benefits...and what positions and how often they get into a game. The real issue is the pro level ...they should take these middle pyramid players and create their own farm system for their pro system, but that would be less of an audience and pay/salary/ endorsement monies to the athletes competing for a pro slot. We all can't be Tom Brady, or Michael Jordan Lebron ect...there is not enough of us or space...could you see Nick Saban coaching in a farm system for these athletes looking to join a pro sport, in college it's not costing the NFL owners or NBA owners poop. Thinking the time has come to separate colleges/universities from professional sports feeding farm.If you do, the costs for these programs will go down dramatically because most who donate to the program are only capitalist's, and the folks watching really don't want to watch and pay for the 2nd tier of the pyramid. Also hope these athletes hire some business students with tax experience, an education that will last much longer than a potential stint at the upper level where only the very very talented get to go and play, it's why they keep expanding , not because the talent is there or better... the monies they earn by letting more play....and why are our tax dollars still funding all these 'privately' owned stadiums and arenas at these two levels of the pyramid.
| no | 3,565 |
" . .. biggest winners in the $24.6 billion deal may be the private-equity giant Cerberus and a group of investors. They have already made big profits in their long-term investment in Albertsons and hope to make billions of dollars more through the merger."In the meantime, the price gouging continues at an alarming rate, well beyond reasonable justifications like avian flu, labor shortages and supply-chain issues.
| no | 3,425 |
FunkyIrishman But what is a fair tax?Is it a number that accurately charges each individual as his legitimate payment for living in the U.S.? I don't see how you could compute that number: If we both make $100k/annually, but you're an accountant working from home online and I'm a truck driver destroying public roads and polluting the environment, should we both pay the same tax amount?Recognizing the impossibility of arriving at a fair amount, we ballpark it, which hurts some and helps others. It's absurd, unjust, and probably necessary. To try to solve this problem is an exercise in futility, but taxes are essential for forming any government, and we need government for many reasons. No government, no society, just chaos.Some problems cannot be solved. We need to recognize them and move on to others that can be, like climate change, homelessness, pandemics, and what's for dinner.
| yes | 6,988 |
" Standardized tests ... have long been criticized for handicapping poor students and students of color, partly because they may not have access to expensive test preparation classes." You can buy a good test prep study guide for $20 that is just as good as expensive classes.
| no | 1,665 |
I guess Brazilians have enough experience in the subject to state that the stelar international reputation of a leader is not a guarantee that mundane domestic challenges - i.e. inequality, cost of living, violence and child poverty - will be resolved. It's important to keep in mind that NZ is a net exporter of commodities and an importer of manufacturing goods albeit its high standard of living and that its political system is not composed of only two parties, but several, so coalition is required. As in most countries, there is a feeling among part of the electorate that democracy is under threat in NZ. The reason is that Ms. Jacinda's government wants to hand over management of parts of NZ, called co-governance system, where large chunks of the country would be governed, not by elected majority, but by a body made up of 50% unelected indigenous people. That's huge! For much less Jair Bolsonaro was crucified in Brazil, for trying to legalize mineral exploration in indigenous land.
| yes | 6,626 |
Sorry, you lost me after Grilled Reindeer Hearts served on a bed of pine for people who fly first class(or private jet) for the privileged of paying $500 per person.
| no | 605 |
Why doesn’t the DOJ look into Jared Kushner’s little deal as a money manager for the Saudis, at a fee of $25,000,000 a year? Think about it: Trump’s Middle East peace negotiator leaves his position at the end of Trump’s term and gets a sweetheart deal from those who had a stake in what he did. But no, let’s look at Hunter Biden. Put Durham on it for three years, he is real good at finding . . . nothing.
| yes | 8,894 |
MeThe third option is to reevaluate how the budget is spent. If mom and dad make $1000 a month but they give their already-wealthy grandfather CEO $700 a month — while their own children can’t afford school lunch, new shoes or dental treatment — then it’s time to cut off Grandfather CEO.
| yes | 5,679 |
The IRS discussion was devoid of facts. Tax cheats cost us over $265 Billion with a B per year - most of those are high income people, regardless of where they live. The GOP rant that 87,000 agents will be auditing the little people is just another lie.Biden’s classified material is old and outdated, whatever it is. For Stephens to have to toe the GOP line is the usual “doom” approach. I’d much rather see Trump indicted for the insurrection anyway, because that’s where the most harm to our democracy was done.
| yes | 6,087 |
Just think: if the CCP and Putin hadn’t gotten together last Olympics to go ahead with their “no limits” pact— for their utterly insane genocide in Ukraine/betrayal of the Budapest Memorandum! — none of this would be necessary.None of it.So everyone let’s not forget the causality here; neither Germany nor Japan would be seeing the necessity of their increased self-defense investments… were it not for the world-historical duplicity and baseless aggression of the deceitful dictator duo: Putin and Xi.
| yes | 6,481 |
Kathleen, and whence came his $600,000 campaign funds.
| no | 1,766 |
Agree that MicroSoft could have and should have handled this differently. However, all these companies operate under the system we call capitalism, with ruthless focus on bottomline every quarter, consistently to generate maximum shareholder value. Shareholders first, customers second, employees third, and society/planet last. We chose this system, and do not like the 'socialism' in some European countries. We oppose government regulations for many baseline worker benefits. We get the system we want and deserve, with its pluses (make a lot of money for some when good), and minuses (fall with no social net for many).
| no | 1,177 |
Janice Cooper -- Superb commentary. I,too, worked in the House in the 1970s and then in the Senate from 2004-2012. Why can't we get back to regular order?? Bills going to mark-up in Committees, subcommittees, and on the floor under an open rule. This was designed to encourage compromise all along the way. Now leadership in both houses want all the power to "make deals." And what ever happened to conference Committees??
| yes | 9,712 |
Newton Guy When you are always an 'employee at will,' what is the incentive to be anything but transactional?In the very olden days, I worked as an engineering contractor for a while. I made extremely good money because everyone involved, myself included, understood that I could be terminated at will. I received no paid vacation, no benefits, and had zero job security. So, I was paid twice as much as a regular employee. Some of that excess went to payroll taxes my employer would have had to pay. The rest was mine.The day I realized that modern day 'contractors' make less per hour than permanent employees was the day I knew that there would be a reckoning. Still, for many years workers seemed infatuated with our gig economy, being on call 24/7, and being required to go 'full hard bore,' or else.Covid seems to be the thing that shook them out of their stressed-induced stupor all at once.
| yes | 9,331 |
I share the commenters emphasis on the importance of education and the snowball effect of intergenerational wealth.It's great for boomers (and others) to tutor others, here or abroad. But tutoring is just the beginning in this country. There will always be the remarkable individuals who against all odds are able with a little help to get an education and achieve. But what about all the unexceptional (aren't most of us in this category?) but capable people who struggle to pull themselves out of poverty? They can be defeated for lack of a car to commute to community college; or a health set back; or a false arrest and detention leading to missed days of work, subsequent inability to pay rent on time and then eviction. To sponsor a person trying to break out of fast food work to a level where she can set her children up for success as well is a serious project. My husband and I are four years in with a young divorced mother, a former student of mine, who had baby twins and a toddler when we started; we are 4 years in and getting close. Not only is she succeeding (just about to start her clinicals in nursing), but her children are high performers in school now.I wish I knew how to help others replicate this experience. We have ended up with an extra adult daughter and our only "grandchildren." If you see a door like this open, go through!
| no | 1,612 |
Turning Purple I'm 60, and I don't recall "having it easier" when I was starting out. I was a college graduate and had a full-time teaching job, but I still had to live with roommates I didn't particularly care for in an apartment in a dicey neighborhood, and going out to dinner was a fantasy. Plenty of months I was down to $15 when my paycheck deposited. I was so afraid of debt that I would write checks when I charged anything on my credit card (and thus sent 5-10 checks to the credit card company when my bill was due!) I agree with others who wrote that these young people are making a lot of smart decisions. Yes, they have to sacrifice now. But that's not new. I was doing the same 40 years ago. In 4 decades, they'll be glad they did.
| no | 1,788 |
DeSantis, of course, could opt instead to establish another completely separate small highly selective institution of higher learning for the kind of students DeSantis purports to wish to cater to. He could then see how the two schools fare in the open marketplace of ideas. Perhaps there is a burning demand for his new school. ... Perhaps not. Realistically, logic suggests that here DeSantis is mainly intent on tossing a new batch of political muck into the fan.
| no | 548 |
Al you can pour it into a suitable glass, the convenience is size, portability, and ease of opening.
| yes | 8,871 |
It's all over now, Coxsackie. There's the word "charming" in the article describing you.Next comes "quaint" and the rest of the real-estate-industry crutch words used to describe everything in the Hudson Valley that isn't a Walmart or a scrapyard.After that come comparisons to Hudson, Rhinebeck and Kingston, and then the inevitable appearance of paycheck-hoovering foodie pretense palaces.The scooplet of tater-tot-foam plantain gravy ice cream ($53) will reportedly be divine.
| no | 1,068 |
"Deregulate, deregulate, deregulate."Bret, let's go ahead and put our full faith and trust in industries that do everything they can to demonstrate they have our best interests at heart. We could allow banks to make high risk investments and bail them out again after the next financial crisis. Power plants will reduce their emissions because it is the right thing to do to combat climate change, and oil companies may have a little spill, but they will clean it up on their own initiative. Do you trust Boeing not to cover up a little defect that could lead to a tragic air accident? Confident that big agriculture's top priority is monitoring its products for food safety?Government regulation of industries saves lives.
| no | 2,154 |
I spent many years testing complex software systems designed to be used by customers (CAD, no user safety involved). Conflict is always bruising between engineers trying to produce solid software, management forcing unrealistic schedules, and marketeers inflating claims. Simulation is used effectively to reduce risk in many situations - if management is willing to invest in the (costly) infrastructure needed. Yes, you need huge amounts of real world data - but surely that could have been collected without endangering people!Scaring customers (let alone hurting or killing them and innocent bystanders) is a horrible business model. As engineers do, I tend to blame the marketing mindset most (see: Theranos). But Musk’s utilitarianism is a toxic add to the brew - it lets him justify current harm that could be reduced by changing strategies.
| no | 886 |
If it doesn't feel right, for God's sake discuss it with your primary care doctor. If your primary tells you "You're just getting older', get to a urologist.20 years ago I kept complaining to my primary that I was going to the bathroom way too much. He did a digital prostate exam and just blew me off. I got the "You're just getting older" routine. I was stupid. I trusted him.After a few years of this, one day I jumped off the treadmill because I had to go to the bathroom, again, as usual. There was blood. The primary sends to a specialist. They bring me in for an ultrasound. What an absolute mess."What took you so long to come in?" the urologist asked. When I told him my primary care story he just sighed. That's when I was told the hard truth. If it feels wrong and a doctor just tells you to suck it up, fire him and go somewhere else.Turns out your prostate can enlarge and grow into your bladder. A simply digital exam will feel normal but you have a big problem.I had bladder stones, kidney stones and of course the prostate issue. This was fixable but it took one major and two more minor surgeries over the course of about two years.This was almost completely unnecessary according to the man who fixed me up. All because of a primary care doctor who wouldn't listen and a patient (me) who was too trusting to speak up.Don't do what I did. No matter the problem, be your own advocate. Don't accept the "You're just getting old excuse".
| yes | 4,981 |
Aaron 100%. We enjoyed season tickets till the pandemic. Houston also boasts many "off-Broadway" theaters (a big omission). Being an immigrant from Argentina, and because of Houston's openness, and cultural diversity, it was the first place I could really call HOME (even after living in NYC for 10 years). Lastly, one should point to another important big-ticket item: affordability. Granted, most of these things are not readily appreciable to short-term visitors, but yet, are worth mentioning.
| no | 2,728 |
No Open-House Party. Influencers Just Want an Open Door. Developers are teaming up with niche influencers who trade targeted posts for entry into luxury residential buildings. It was still dark on a recent Tuesday morning when the photographers began gathering in the lobby of Sutton Tower, an Upper East Side skyscraper that was still under construction. By the time the sun had broken over the Manhattan skyline, 30 of them were snapping away in the penthouse, creating social media content for a combined following of nearly two million. Developers are teaming up with niche influencers who trade targeted posts for entry into luxury residential buildings.
| no | 3,782 |
Dot Maybe not $200,000 but we spent 2+years in Madison and you could get a small but decent house for $300,000 no problem. Of course there is the big issue there that I don't miss: dreary winters.
| no | 1,129 |
David Henry My wife and I purchased a Santa Fe PHEV last year for $43,500 out the door. We got a $500 factory rebate and will get about 5k back on taxes with the applicable tax credit. We got 9k selling our old car. The battery and it's components have a 100,000 mile warranty. Toyota has a 150,000 mile warranty on their battery/electric parts. The lowest milage we got was a road trip in the mountains in straight hybrid mode we got 31mpg. On a flat road trip we get about 34-35mpg. On our most resent around town trip, we are at 116mpg with about 1/4 tank of gas used so far. $29k for a nice ride and great gas milage, ain't bad.
| no | 3,119 |
Brilliant and true. I’d define awe as: The wonder of unknowing. Or maybe simply, wonder. In any case, it’s about being open and curious. Whether that’s trying something new, traveling or listening to some place/thing new (ie. www.future-of.XYZ), or just getting into nature- awe can be cultivated.Thanks for this great start of year article.
| yes | 6,226 |
No doubt these women and their efforts will help. My concern is about the appraisal industry in general. The fact that the mortgage industry trains them says a lot.Once I considered refinancing a mortgage for my house. I called for an appraisal for the REFI. The appraisal came in at $326K. But I did not proceed with the REFI because we decided to sell instead. Our house sold a couple of months after the first appraisal, on the first day it was listed. We listed it for $299K and sold for $292K. When the buyers' appraiser came I fully expected the appraisal to come in at or around the previous appraisal. It was the same house and nothing significant had changed. But the appraisal came it at exactly $292K. I now know why. If the appraisal comes in higher than the agreed-on sale price, the owners can demand the difference in cash and the mortgage company sometimes cannot increase the mortgage amount, so the buyers must come up with that extra $20K-30K in cash and the sale falls through. Appraisers know who their customers are--the mortgage companies and the realtors.So the market value is really very squishy and dependent on who is doing the appraisal and for whom. Until people can find an organization they can trust to be independent of all the parties who stand to gain from home sales, this will continue to be a problem. The exact same thing is true for the Home Inspection industry. Buy at your own risk!
| no | 3,305 |
The people of the United States and other Western and Eastern nations should be grateful for Ukraine's résistance. It is a proxy war for sure. The US is spending a trillion dollars a year on military hardware and personnel as well as a vast intelligence operation. No US lives are currently at risk. Thank you Ukraine.
| no | 2,609 |
I'm certainly not an economist, but I am expert in elementary school arithmetic. So, when my bank account gets low, I realize I have two options: 1) reduce my spending, or 2) increase my income. Accordingly, I have to ask: why not increase taxes, especially on the wealthy ? Actually, we already do that if the wealthy are Democrats; when Donald Trump was president he put a cap on the federal income tax deduction ($10K) for state income taxes, which affects many New Jersey tax payers, but not many Kentucky taxpayers. Isn't it time that wealthy Republicans pay their fair share ?
| yes | 5,283 |
Ed Cotterell it's $5 where I live. Down from $7 though.
| no | 1,385 |
This is a deep and difficult area from a legal standpoint, so i appreciate the Court taking on this issue. States like California have built support for illegal immigrants into our budget and statutes--they can get free driver's licenses, free healthcare, CalFresh (food stamps), and even priority for admission and scholarships to our finest universities. That's not hidden--it's on our State agencies' webpages. Unraveling "support" for illegal immigrants starts with defining the issue and the law. Enforcing policies like E-Verify, which is basically illegal here because of equity concerns, cannot be done without Federal threat against a state that very much supports our open southern border.
| no | 1,987 |
Thank you, Maureen, for expressing my fears of such a dangerous, loathsome AI system. This is about Silicon Valley geeks running amok. It is the worst turn of techno-evolution since the early days of social media. Mark Zuckerberg created Facebook in his Harvard dormroom as a tool to judge coeds for their looks, their appetite for large quantities of alcohol, and of course, their "social skills." Welcome to "friending." My God! How did "friend" become a verb?!?Now we have those first reports of students turning in mysteriously clever essays setting off warnings throughout academia, and rightfully so. Microsoft, have you no shame?!?!With an appeal to the lazy and corrupt, I can only imagine how those kids will fail in the real world. But the bigger fear is how this will be used.As you adroitly noted, Maureen, this will be embraced by despots and depraved media to end civility and democracies everywhere. It will be used in all manner of crimes requiring clever communications to fool crime fighters at all levels. And, no fingerprints! At 78, I am neither a tech geek nor tech-illiterate. I use a computer all the time. I also spent most of my 45 year career in marketing communications — also known as the world's second-oldest profession. AI and, in particular, ChatGPT, is taking communications into a primoridal swamp replicating a world of Mad Max.
| yes | 9,838 |
Yes, we need guidelines and parameters for childhood obesity, but it's far more than a disease with a treatment. Parents, patients, siblings, extended family and friends ALL may have a distorted view of a child's weight ... as can the child. On inquiry, sometimes a chubby girl will be built like a family member ... and if that is the overachieving father's fat sister, the doc has a one kind of problem on her hands. (Dad sees the girl as a disappointment.)If the chubby 9 year old boy is built exactly like his dad and grandfather (both of whom died in their thirties of heart disease), the doctor has a very different problem on her hands. (The boy's cholesterol was 530.)I've even seen a 70-pound three year old in a household where grandma, aunts, uncles and parents not only all weighed over 350 pounds, but lived together. They family literally thought I was WRONG; a 70 pound three year old was NORMAL to them. Children can be very angry when their diets are artificially changed in a way the child sees as negative (e.g. take away sugars). They HATE having to eat not only differently ... even more so if the family eats normally As one wise mum once said, "I have a fat kid and a skinny kid. I give one carrot sticks and one ice cream. Then they trade." Treating childhood obesity is a minefield; I welcome the addition of more tools, but the situation must be seen holistically. And it absolutely cannot be addressed in a ten or fifteen minute appointment.
| no | 2,803 |
Reminds me of sitting for my doctoral exams, back before the flood when a doctoral exam was actually serious. They could ask you any detail from any one of thousands of books (literature doctorate), and you had to be able to answer. I remember so clearly one examiner (there were 5, and there was an audience, for full humiliation possibilities) asking me what type of tree grew beside the front door of the house described in the opening chapter of Père Goriot. Of course I remember because I got that one wrong! Anyhow I spent a couple years sleeping with a bright light in my face so I'd only sleep as long as my body was exhausted and then wake up and go on reading. There was no "life," just books. It did prepare me to teach the entire range of undergraduate classes as well as graduate classes in my area of specialization, which I've done now for 40 years, but it sure wasn't for the faint of heart or young people wanting a life with "fun" as part of the deal.
| yes | 6,378 |
Wally Grigo - We could end up with problems if there’s no agreement on this issue soon. The statutory debt ceiling is artificial only insofar as all laws are, and for the Treasury to simply disregard it and continue borrowing effectively eliminates the separation of powers in our system; we’d have a precedent for federal agencies to act at will, making law on their own without input from Congress. States choosing to ignore the Supreme Court might not be far behind after such a move. Then private firms. Is that law against dumping your industrial waste in the nearest river inconvenient? Fine. You don’t have to obey it anymore.I’m not sure if McCarthy can hold his own party to the “Hastert rule,” refusing to allow a House vote on a budget bill that has support from only a minority of Republicans, a thing I suspect he’d need to do in order to force a debt default. The Democrats, together with a few breakaway Republicans, could easily replace the speaker in that event. And McCarthy’s already shown himself a wimp just getting the floor open for business this year. But seems our politicians keep ratcheting the brinksmanship to ever more dizzying heights in efforts to please their fringe voters, and no telling when that’ll cause hit damage they didn’t expect. Joe Biden’s about the only adult in the room now.
| yes | 8,801 |
Stephen Boyington Well, Steve Cohen has a lot of money. Round numbers here, but he could give away a million dollars a day every day for 27 years and still not run out of it. And that's only if he didn't invest it and just kept it in boxes in his garage until it was all gone. I he invested it at, say, 4% interest ... aw, heck. He'd make more than a million a day of interest and would keep getting richer even as he handed boxes of cash out the door.
| yes | 6,977 |
There is possibly one very bad outcome if this political fight persists past the summer. If the US ultimately defaults on its debt, it will scare the pants off many countries around the world who invest in our Treasuries, that allows us to pay our current bills. China would love the Yuan to be the world's currency. Maybe the far right Republicans want a financial crisis to blame on the Biden administration. For the rest of us just trying to keep afloat financially, it would be a disaster to lose the dollar as the world's currency.
| yes | 6,372 |
Oh dear, honey, what will we do? The Oeufs Florentine at Le Gratin are up to $22!
| no | 4,154 |
For the naysayers: As Andy Roddick pointed out way back when, tennis is unique in that only the top 20 players are ever noticed, with only the top ten reaching any sort of broad fame. In fact, the top 500 players are better athletes than those in most other professional team sports. Counting Nadal out is only valid if you feel he has to play every single tournament and remain at the tippy top. This is a player who feeds off being the underdog. I watched the match last night and knew that after he lost the first set, he'd just get better. (That was happening before the limp appeared.) The guy won the AO and French Open last year despite his history of injuries (and reached the final at Indian Wells.) What the heck do you want? I'm rooting for him to recover and continue as long as he wants/can.
| yes | 7,019 |
Having grown up in a very rural area in a very (politically radical) progressive family, I have to say that there is a lot of truth to the stereotypes about rural America. I've seen a fair amount of the racism and bigotry and sexism that popular culture casually associates with rural life. At the same time, I also think we have to remember that capital has largely abandoned rural America, and that leaves it incredibly vulnerable to a lot of unscrupulous forces. I find myself torn and often even defending rural people in arguments with fellow progressives simply because I know it could hardly have been otherwise, given the way that things are set up here. I think we need a little more cultural empathy for rural people. The majority of them are not going to pass the kinds of tests we've set up recently to prove one's progressivism, but they're still human beings with rich, interesting complicated lives. Opening the dominant popular culture to them a bit more isn't going to do harm. And if we on the Democratic side get really serious about economic populism--really push economic justice for rural Americans--we can probably win some hearts and minds.
| yes | 8,609 |
When I was undergoing chemotherapy, and bald, I bought several wigs to wear when I left the house. The wigs were brunette, blonde, and gray. (I also had a pink one but only wore that in the house, haha.) At that time gray was my natural color, but the place that I bought the wigs had VERY inexpensive prices( $25 each) so I decided to try some different colors for fun. I also was not interested in talking with people I know about my cancer treatment, so it was a disguise,too. I had just read the memoir Garlic and Sapphires( in which Ruth Riechl wore wigs as a disguise) and was inspired by that book to be adventurous. I was very surprised by the different treatment I was given depending on the color of wig I wore. This happened to Ruth, too, actually affecting her personality.I was almost invisible wearing the gray wig, and the long brunette wig ( which I called Veronica)was not noticeably different, but oh, the blonde wig (which I called Blondie) inspired a different reaction from both men and women. I was immediately noticed, treated like royalty, with doors opened and friendly greetings, and people eager to talk to me. I realized that blondes definitely DO "have more fun".. however, here I am, 16 years a cancer survivor and I'm still happy with my gray hair. I wanted to share these observations as they relate very well to the author's thesis.
| no | 263 |
Surprised the author didn't mention the long-standing and well-funded (by Dark Money on the Right) Red Map strategy targeting state legislatures as vehicles to gerrymander congressional districts heavily in favor of Republicans.A sad consequence of this maneuver has been to elevate Republican primaries as the sole determinant of general election victors.The much lower turnout in these initial contests has opened the door for cranks, extremists and--most importantly--those aligned with domestic oligarchs to prevail and take their places in the House.Pundits claiming the current Republican Clown Car reflects the organic dysfunction at the heart of the party don't know--or won't acknowledge--the enterprise has actually succeeded beyond the expectations of its architects.
| no | 4,155 |
I've long lost count the number of times since the 1980s since I've read articles written by credulous journalists interviewing either misguided or (to be generous) over-enthusiastic AI researchers. The minunderstanding and/or abuse of terms like "learning", "knowledge", "intelligence", "consciousness", etc. is rife in the field of AI, and billions of dollars have been spent on what amounts to very complex, expensive, and often interesting... toys. The recent chat bots and image generators are a case in point. Another might be the forty year project that is the Cyc ontology. Or the weaponised graph technologies used by Facebook and the NSA.Seeing a machine whose complexity is many orders of magnitude simpler than a brain (any brain) being described by someone as conscious or having consciousness goes beyond simply ignorance, it's in the category of hype. My thermostat is aware of the temperature, a door opening mechanism aware of the person standing at the door. This is only slightly more interesting than that as a technology. That we keep publishing these articles plays to the hype, which provides ongoing funding for more research. But the entire AI industry is nowhere closer to manifesting consciousness in a machine than they were forty years ago. Few in the field even have the necessary background in biophysics, neuroscience or epistemology to even understand what their target really is. Just more boys with expensive toys...
| yes | 9,551 |
Not much mention of the fact that pro-business conservatism that opened trade, decimated unions and increased CEO pay to astronomical heights just might have something to do with working class grievance that Trump exploited. While conservatives at the think tanks were lamenting the size of the social safety net, the corporations paying the bills were searching the globe in a mad rush for cheaper labor. Now House Republican "nihilists" are aiming to nationalize curbs on reproductive rights, raise the retirement age for Social Security and gut the government's ability to pursue wealthy tax cheats. It could be the problem with the Republican Party has long been the Republican Party.
| yes | 8,928 |
Bobby windows 7 still has a year left of updates. You cannot expect a company to continue updating 300 dollar software, for free, forever. They supported windows 7 for over 10 years. Windows 7 isn't going to stop working, they just won't update it anymore. That's not a software issue, it's your own entitlement.
| no | 619 |
History repeating. Trade with China funds the greatest military expansion and spy network in world history. Europeans bought oil from Russia for years then were surprised at the obvious — Russia, a totalitarian militaristic dictatorship, would use the money to attack Europeans. Americans — dumb as ever — sold oil to the Japanese War Machine right up to the eve of Pearl Harbor attack. Japanese aircraft carriers made of US steel - fueled by U.S. oil - steamed to Pearl Harbor.
| no | 2,470 |
"A public ledger does have inherent value..."What value?Blockchain is simply a crowdsourced ledger. Participants are paid in that system's crypto currency whenever their computer issues/records a receipt/transaction for the ledger. Bitcoin, Ether, Dogecoin, and 14,000+ other systems exist.There are costs to those who participate in a crowdsourced ledger (the blockchain). What happens when the costs outweigh the benefit? This has already happened.Today, the blockchain crowdsourcing is largely in the hands of investors and corporatists who have the capital to invest in warehouses full of specialized computing units designed to run the complex algorithmic processes. A single unit costs around $12,000 that last time I checked.When this is predominately the case, is the ledger really crowdsourced? And what is the value you insist exists in crowdsourced ledger keeping? Is it supposed to provide more security? The countless hacks that have happened and continue to happen show this to be false. What else could there be? Multiple people watching? First of all, see previous paragraph. Second, the people participating in this process do not understand it and do not care. They are in it as long as the system pays them in crypto in ways that are beneficial. Once that ends, so will their participation. The same goes for the corporate interests, too.And finally, the good professor was not explaining how the blockchain software works. He was explaining its economic decline.
| yes | 7,635 |
If every member of congress were paid a $1 million salary, that would be $535 million in a 4,000,000 million dollar budget. We pay them less than 1/5 of that. It’s barely a rounding error.
| yes | 5,977 |
Mike Yes I've noted the open hostility in the comment sections of the NYT in these type articles when its suggested you lose weight when you take in less calories than you burn. I described my weight loss journey in another comment here and at the end of the day you couldn't be more right. I don't eat terribly but boy do I enjoy a Burger King cheeseburger. The key is at approximately 450 calories it may be the only thing I eat until dinner and with my height weight and exercise regimen I need close to 3000 calories to stay the same weight. It's doable because after 30 years of struggle I've pulled it off.
| no | 4,741 |
Obese children are quite possibly the offspring of obese parents, they learn their poor eating and exercise habits from their families. Children generally do not do their own food shopping nor do they prepare their own meals. Think about it, most breakfast cereals are full of sugar. I recall, as a child, my mother allowed only Shredded wheat, Wheaties, Puffed Wheat cereals in our home, no Lucky Charms or Coco puffs. No soda, no fruit juice, or chips or snack cakes. For snacks, we had fresh fruit bowl and cheddar cheese with Triscuits. My dad had a large vegetable garden and we ate everything he grew. We rode bicycles to the beach, played tennis on the municipal courts, played basketball and softball at the local grammar school fields. We walked to school. I recall when the first McDonald's opened by us, we tried it and thought it was awful-their burgers were either 19 or 29 cents, can't remember which. Supper was at 5:30 sharp and we didn't often eat out, maybe once a month after church. Contrast this with the habits ingrained in many families today, big difference.
| yes | 9,874 |
Rob H You are kidding, right?"Azure broke out from the growth of the other cloud providers with a 45% increase in 2022. Only Tencent Cloud performed better in terms of percentage growth, but not with the same volume as Azure." Source: <a href="https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/microsoft-azure-shows-strong-q4-growth-as-shown-by-liftr-insights-data-301724194.html" target="_blank">https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/microsoft-azure-shows-strong-q4-growth-as-shown-by-liftr-insights-data-301724194.html</a>
| yes | 5,086 |
OK, I don't think anyone but the most ardent vegetarian could deny that that steak au poivre looks absolutely to die for.As a native of this city, the thing that shocked me more than anything else was the realization that "the smallest room in a boutique hotel on the corner of CANAL STREET" - yes, Canal and Allen! - starts - yes, STARTS! - at $525. Canal and Allen, an area where even I, the lover of all things Chinatown, only warily venture in the heat of summer when Chinatown becomes Smellytown. This could be the most stark example of gentrification that I've ever come across - $525 for a small room on the corner of Canal and Allen. Nothing could scream louder that any semblance of Manhattan being affordable is really stone-cold dead.
| no | 276 |
Gamecocks Aren't all student loan payments and interest on them paused now pending litigation over outright cancellation and havent they been paused since the beginning of the pandemic? Try "Googling" it. Alphabet could use the money, apparently. Click on an ad or two. Maybe you will help save a job of a highly-paid tech worker who perhaps soon will be told she need not pay back any or all of that $80K or so she borrowed in order to get the degree in order to get the job that pays $80-100K or more right out of college.
| no | 2,093 |
A suggested end to the conflict: Russia removes its military presence from Ukraine, ends its attacks on Ukraine, and pays Ukraine $10 trillion for the damage it caused.
| no | 1,922 |
Thank you, David Stewart for the beautiful photo of a fine, fat, flower fly nectaring in white blossoms!Thank you, worldsgreatest, for identifying the flower as sour cherry, Prunus cerasus<a href="https://nyti.ms/3J8k1l2#permid=122732244" target="_blank">https://nyti.ms/3J8k1l2#permid=122732244</a> 🌷🐝 🌸🐛🌻🦋🌼Many keen-eyed commenters have noted that this pollinator is not a bee, but a hover fly. I think I agree with Denise's suggestion of Eupeodes.<a href="https://nyti.ms/3Hmz1L1#permid=122729538" target="_blank">https://nyti.ms/3Hmz1L1#permid=122729538</a>Eupeodes are also known as aphid eaters, for the prodigious appetites of their larvae in devouring hundreds of aphids. Both American and European species are cultivated by biocontrol companies. If you want to attract them to your garden, the adults need nectar. Small, open-faced, white flowers are their favorites. If aphids appear, be patient. It takes a lot of aphids to feed one larva. When a larva hatches, it will hover up aphids like no one else's business.A bit more here:<a href="https://minnesotaflowerflies.com/syrphinae/eupeodes" target="_blank">https://minnesotaflowerflies.com/syrphinae/eupeodes</a>/
| no | 2,012 |
$1.6 million is an insult to decent, law abiding citizens.
| no | 468 |
I spent some formative years at Jeffress’ church while he was a teenager, so I know firsthand how that system works and how he was formed. Those who put him in power are fervently committed to the status quo, creating a bunker shielded from critical thinking and the actual instructions given by their version of Jesus.From that upbringing, Jeffress traveled through an insulated pipeline of church “education” that kept him safe from the sort of hard questions actual theologians must grapple with. And it kept him from learning the basic skills of how to think and reason. So now he can wave his black book in the air and say whatever comes into his head while prefacing it with “God says…”Is he culpable? I believe there was a time when I was not culpable, since that swirl of ideas and practices was all I knew. I became culpable when I began to ask those hard questions and found Jeffress’ answers sadly inadequate. The brainwashed become culpable for spreading lies when they refuse any help from outside the bunker.There are countless brilliant, open, curious people from various faith traditions who are seeking to understand and live into the truth. Jeffress was trained to hold in contempt anyone who does not share his distortions of his own tradition. When he calls other traditions “false religions,” the congregation applauds. He and Pence should get along quite well.
| yes | 9,136 |
I'm sorry but I take issue with two things in this article1) Can we stop with the doom and gloom in the tech industry? Yes many top tech companies are announcing layoffs in 2022-2023, but that's largely because they appeared to have hired too aggressively in 2020-2021. I wish the NYT would post the total job numbers in tech by year; you'll find that even after these layoffs, jobs in the tech industry are still up vs before the pandemic.2) Aside from the alleged decline of perks, why no mention of compensation? Compensation remains robust in tech. Go check out what some of these Netflix, Salesforce, and Google employees for instance....they're making like $150-250k in the mid 30's on avg, if not higher in many instances as well, and it's not all in SF/NY. Even more experienced employees can be raking in $300-600k (not senior management but regular employees).
| yes | 9,071 |
Not Sure "attempting to define the term AI in technical terms is nearly impossible; it's a catch-all term which is only useful to laypersons."The initial function of Artificial Intelligence was to enable a computing machine to interface with humans such that the human can't distinguish whether they're messaging with a computer program or a human being; that's known as the Turing Test. One doesn't need to know how that's done to give it the "Artificial Intelligence" label. And the fact that you tried to relate AI software with Crypto makes me questions your use of the phrase "'us' us engineers."Microsoft's way of dealing with their OS software sales was to push for more bells and whistles and not care too much about removing buggy or bloated software. But, even China used to be fine stealing it and using it to their advantage, bugs and all. There should have been a law about that, but at least the function of M$'s buggy Operating Systems wasn't to pretend they're human. What if someone takes AI 'advice' and it turns out very badly. I've a suspicion that their lawyers have already produced boiler-plate user agreements to cover their AI's present and future 'bugs'.
| no | 2,639 |
Space Needle Suggest alternatives, and they should not include solutions that ignore inflation. If you want culprits, cast mean-eyes at politicians who shrugged off inflation months before it got out of hand, and greedy corporations. Think Bezos and his zillion-dollar boat and Musk and his $44 blittle company - a vanity purchase.
| no | 3,681 |
Elizabeth A $10,000 reduction in your cousin's debt still leaves him with $190 to pay off--but that $10,000 reduction in debt will help most American families.
| no | 479 |
Bill The math adds up if you're a good negotiator. The logic adds up if you're a car aficionado who views them as more than a basic appliance.I bought my last car for $8K under MSRP (US$39K vs. $47K). Considering I was offered $34K for it last year, despite it being a 2016 model (to be fair, it's low-mileage), I'm quite happy with my purchase – but won't be buying again until new-car prices return to the realm of sanity.While I'm not as extreme of a car enthusiast as David Mallet – I'd love an X5M, but it's far beyond my budget – every car I've owned in my adult life has been a sports sedan or coupe. Unusually for a woman, I've been into cars since I was a kid; I'm sure it helped that my grandfather worked at Ford his whole life. I also did some stock-car racing in my youth, and am probably one of the few people in America who knows how to double-clutch.Until BMW ruined the steering on it & installed a completely bizarre piped-in fake exhaust sound through the speakers, their 3-series was my go-to vehicle. Until recently I lived in the Texas Hill Country, the most beautiful part of the state, which has hundreds of miles of nearly empty roads – many two-laners with clear sightlines, and Texas roads are surprisingly well-maintained – that were perfect for spirited, twisty driving.
| no | 1,020 |
The USA prints its own money, there is no real debt issue, besides it is only social programs that are ever considered wasteful or spending that can be cut - our imperial military only gets increases in spending more than they can ever need - the military spends billions on destroying other countries, cultures, killing millions, destroying the planet, often sending arms to every country's war allowable then they claim they need a whole new round of spending for a new generation of weapons because everyone already has the latest weapon they contract for making war profiteers very wealthy. Money for health care, education, housing are all suspect but not military spending. When proposals are made for an increase in social spending universal health care, educational loan forgiveness someone always asks "how you going to pay for that?" - I seldom hear that about military spending.
| yes | 7,154 |
This would have a hugely beneficial long term effect on health care. Large hospital groups in the US, all of which pretend to be “non profits” so they don’t pay taxes, are currently using covid rescue money to buy surrounding struggling local hospitals to extend their oligopoly and raise prices and revenue even further. Their business model depends on preventing competition via utter control of their workers, including drs, using stringent non competes, and then using market leverage for example to hire debt collection agencies that smaller hospitals/practitioners can’t/won’t.Non competes are meant for partnership and shared ownership arrangements, not for employees who have no say in how they are managed, how the business is run, or in this case how patients are treated. So I fully expect the Supreme Court to follow the money and shoot this down lol.
| no | 3,543 |
Last place PW reviewed by this guy got 2 stars and 3 dollars signs. That was nine years ago. This place, ** and $$$$. That sums up the devolution of NYC perfectly.
| yes | 4,974 |
I thank Mr. Kristof for being a voice of reason in an emotionally charged and polarizing debate. One thing he doesn't mention is that those pre-1986 machine guns cost anywhere from about $10K for an UZI to a $100K for a belt fed machine gun. Finding any of those weapons for sale at any price is nearly impossible.He is spot on with the semi-auto pistol topic 9mm is the flavor of the month but hi-cap semi autos are the weapons of choice in most homicides in the US. The are in the neighborhood of 150 times more likely to be used than any form of long gun and AR variants are a subset of that.Reasonable proposals promote and foster dialogue. I applaud you Mr. Kristof.
| yes | 6,241 |
dave A paddle. Set of balls for under $10. My running shoes. Free community rec center. Good exercise, friendships, socialization. Not expensive at all.
| yes | 7,986 |
Flicker80210 depending on the municipality, you would be surprised on how overpaid the police are, especially with overtime. The cops in my town easily clear over $100K
| yes | 8,800 |
As a psychotherapist with 40 years of practice, I would add the developmental perspective that we all see through more windows than we knew were in our house - as we grow older. As the doctor generously shares with her readers that she is bringing new life into her world of previously no children, I am smiling at her good fortune and imagining the work, yes, but the joy ahead of her. She may in fact have "outgrown" her current practice of critical care patients and is ready to embrace a new chapter. What some call a mid-life crisis may indeed be a fortunate waking up to new views and pressing urges. Not everyone gets blessed like this or takes on a new open path when it appears. Only the lucky. I wish her the best possible joys of parenthood. By the way, the comments this honest piece brought forth are just wonderfully honest in return - on a topic that very much needs to be talked about! Made my day.
| yes | 6,991 |
Re the letter from “Daughter-in-Law”:This MIL is a type – – one I’m very familiar with.She “loves cooking,” “thinks she’s a fantastic cook,” showcases her cooking at every meal during these long visits, is not open to takeout or restaurants, and her son is “terrified of hurting her.”If DIL takes Philip’s advice — to bring in fancy food and insert herself into the cooking — meltdown will ensue. MIL is an insecure, controlling person who derives much of her sense of identity from her cooking. Being the only person who provides the meals feeds her need to be the star of the show —at least in that arena. Her son walks on eggshells. (If it sounds like I’m suggesting a possible Cluster B disorder, well, I am.)DIL is stuck with MIL — this is not an optional relationship. She should not move into MIL’s central domain — providing food for the family. There are, I am sure, deep historic reasons why her son is “terrified” of hurting her. Don’t mess with somebody this dysfunctional. Better advice:Going forward, visit for less than one week. Construct a reason why you have to leave before your husband, and limit your exposure. Feed yourself outside the house, making sure your large tote is provisioned daily with simple foods that last at least a day without refrigeration. Make sure you always have car access — e.g., your own rental. Plead a chronic digestive diagnosis to restrict what you are expected to consume at table. Signed,I’ve Been in Your Shoes for Decades
| no | 131 |
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