wmw999

I'm totally in favor of something like that, and even making it effectively mandatory for everyone for the year after high school or after you turn 18. Exceptions if you're too aggressively violent or crazy to function in the real world, or not out of high school yet but still attending, in the military, or doing essential work in the scientific community (i.e. if you are, in fact, the next Albert Einstein, far be it from me to suggest that you take a year off your career). That would include the children of rich parents. Wendy P.

This, a thousand times this. There's a reason why there are "career skills" classes at junior colleges. To me, junior colleges are a gem, and deserve our support, because they're really there to help people change the direction of their lives in an achievable way. They're more interested in keeping you in that kicking you out. Wendy P.

Paying while in training and child care are huge. They certainly were in the 1970's, when I worked for the Food Stamp office. Believe it or not, virtually every parent I dealt with was responsible, and trying to think of how best to provide for their children. Nowadays housing and medical care are much more expensive; section 8 can only go so far, especially when it's probably next on the chopping block. Along with all the subsidized insurance plans. No matter what, we really don't want to get back into the business of building poorhouses and workhouses. I'd rather have an individual abuse the system, than systematic abuse of individuals. Wendy P.

How do you define that? Because it's only the majority of voters who actually turned out to vote. And it sure wasn't that the last two elections, so it's pretty slim. I'd say the country is reasonably split down the middle, with plenty of forces working hard to make sure that we either self-identify as to which side is our enemy (because that's more important than who our fellow human beings in given areas are), or at the very least who we can feel superior to. And if you can't find yourself working with a liberal on any cause, because whatever side they're on, they're wrong -- then congratulations, you're letting yourself be defined by somone else. Wendy P.

He’s referring to the fact that we mentioned brown people as a target. Innocent until proven guilty only applies to conservatives, because we know that deep down they mean well. But not liberals, obviously! Wendy P.

Thinking of someone else Wendy P.

Um, maybe no one has told him we're back. Works for me. Wendy P.

Works for me. He's young enough. That's huge for me right now -- I'm sick of old farts. It's not their future. Wendy P.

Take

I'm sort of assuming you're graduating this spring... Good time for reflection. You've made a life for yourself. It doesn't have room for skydiving -- that's not a problem. And your malfunction really wasn't a beginner malfunction. The correct answer is the one that has to surviving, and that you did. I wish you well, really. Maybe your involvement in skydiving helped you to decide to really buckle down in school -- if so, that's not an entirely negative consequence. But yeah, things can have life-changing consequences. And don't generate a long bucket list -- as you can, do the things that interest you, don't save them up, because they'll keep your life interesting, and the best way to meet interesting people is to have your own interesting life. Enough lecture from the senior auntie Wendy P.

What made Hillary so evil? Obviously you're not concerned about her emails, since, well, Signal and all that... Or is it just a matter of assuming the best for your guys, and assuming the worst for everyone else? Wendy P.

I was going to say you should be proud of what you started with this thread. Now I guess I should be quiet, huh Wendy P.

Editor of The Atlantic added to supposedly secure chat on Signal Yeah. They were discussing war plans, and he realized it wasn’t a dummy chat when the US actually attacked Yemen. But at least they can still talk about Hillary’s servers. Wendy P.

Palm

It really just means fewer tourists bringing their money, and more of them using tour groups that will handle the paperwork. Which means richer, older, tourists most likely. The young vibrant ones will go elsewhere. Kind of like Russia, even 20 years ago (ie before it got really weird). I have a cousin who was with the US embassy there; she recommended NOT visiting Russia, even though she loved it. I guess being like Russia is a stretch goal now Wendy P.

Smith

Parents make life-changing decisions for their children. Sometimes they’re wrong. But it seems to me a little hypocritical to say that working with gender issues is worse than not taking vaccines or blood transfusions. Or vice versa Wendy P.

Actually, it is different; birthright citizenship is pretty rare. But it’s the law. If we’re going to be ruled by laws rather than whims, then we should change the laws according to the law, not by decree. Otherwise the next president can just change them right back. That’s been happening too much as it is, escalating things doesn’t help much Wendy P.

Please post this in the ads. Wendy P.

Come to Massachusetts . Of course, skydiving is seasonal in Mass Wendy P.

I believe there’s a process for changing the law. It doesn’t consist of the president saying “that sucks.” As far as the other post, yeah, but the post Vietnam war era is a little more recent, and the envoy’s original statement never made it onto a t shirt Wendy P.

AKA the peacetime equivalent of that post Vietnam-era t-shirt: shoot them all and let God sort them out Wendy P.

Rich, the reason you don’t get moderated is because you don’t do personal attacks or make jokes about pedophilia. But do understand, no one watches the videos suggested by someone who can’t seem to have two sentences in a row make sense. By and large, I don’t watch videos anyway; they’re almost always narratives designed to convince, they’re not information Wendy P.

I think those ideas sound reasonable. Of course, you’d be excoriated for failing to militarize the border. Wendy P.

It’s really one of the penalties of living in possibly the most successful country in the world, with huge borders north and south (prohibitively expensive to interdict the entire border). We’re attractive. We value money, so if you have it, you can get in. We’re not good at following up on visa dates. pretty much everyone coming in through an airport has a cell phone; it’d make sense to me to call people approaching the end of their visa with no exit yet to warn them. It’d also be cheaper, but less fun in a gladiator way than caging them up and making them miserable. That doesn’t help with the southern border, but if we were to stop exporting so many guns and buying so many drugs, there might just be fewer scared people. Of course, it’s kind of like the US, in that there are so many guns, period, that it’s become virtually impossible to stop the traffic. Prevention is generally cheaper than curing, but sometimes less fun, i guess. Everyone is an above-average canopy pilot, after all, and they’d NEVER make (whatever) that mistake Wendy P.