Sadly, I have no way to import a KMR L–02 Orca OR, since the ATF makes it such a pain in the ass to import onsey-twosey, and the tariffs mean that if they ever get a US distributor, it’s going to be out of my price range.

But I did get a CZ Shadow 2 Compact a week ago, and that’s going to be my carry and competition gun for however long these tariffs last.

I’m going to have to get a few pounds of powder, primers, and a few thousand bullets (the projectile part), because all of that is going in increase in costs, too. I was quoted a price of $315 or so for 8# of Vihtavouri N-135 powder; I’ll probably try to get 16-24#, 15,000 small rifle primers, and at least 8-12# of Ramshot Silhouette powder. About half of the raw materials to make bullets–lead, copper, brass, nitrocellulose, etc.–end up being imported, because we simply can’t keep up or don’t have the mines.

I spent $7/dozen on cage-free, free-range blue eggs a few days ago. They were delicious on my gyudon.

Stoning for being gay is mentioned all over the bible…? There’s a mistranslated part in the old testament that says that it’s an ‘abomination’, but textual analysis indicates that it was a condemnation of pederasty–which was common among the Greeks at the time–rather than a condemnation of being gay. Paul def. had a problem with gay people, but that appears to be a revulsion with Roman practices and customs, rather than anything strictly religious. Jesus said nothing about it directly. On the other hand, Jesus DID say that you should gouge your eyes out rather than look at a woman in lust, and yet, evangelicals elected an unrepentant, thrice married, multiple-adulterer as president.

For starters, you actually join the League of Nations you proposed at the end of WW1.

…Which doesn’t address the issue. How, EXACTLY, do you enforce anything without the willingness to use force? Have you seen NATO Peacekeepers? They rarely–if ever–use force, and as a result they are almost entirely ineffective at preventing shit.

Open borders, international business ties, and populations with international relations deaden the enthusiasm for interstate military conflicts in between neighboring states.

Tends to, but the accords that ended WWI required Germany to pay absolutely ruinous reparations; even with open borders, international business ties, etc., the economic depression caused by that treaty would have laid the foundation for WWII. Moreover, I note that both the US and the EU had fairly solid trade ties with Russia prior to their invasion of Crimea, and that has done pretty much fuck-all to temper Putin’s imperial ambitions.

So, again: how do you enforce ANYTHING without being willing to use force?

Arguably, the biggest deterrent to a Chinese naval invasion of Taiwan

Do you really believe that? Or is it maybe that the US always has a naval detachment close by, and has pledged to use military force to ensure that Taiwan remains free? Because China has certainly been ratcheting up their insistence that Taiwan is theirs, and that they intend to take it.

Christians have already de facto decided that parts of the bible aren’t a good basis for laws; otherwise, we wouldn’t have laws allowing someone to declare bankruptcy. As far as I can tell, most countries that are majority Muslim allow for bankruptcy procedures when a person or business is insolvent and will be unable to pay their debts. Israel also has bankruptcy laws that dissolve debts.

The number of countries where a debtor must pay back every single farthing they owe, regardless of solvency or ability to pay, and the debt passes on to heirs, is vanishingly small.

And how, exactly, do you enforce the accords–the accords and reparations that directly led to WWII–without the use of military force?

People want to be safe

I think that, in order to make it work, you also need to have a national single-payer healthcare system so that when someone does get infected with an STI, they can get treatment without breaking their bank account. But you also need to ensure that they aren’t unable to pay their expenses during a course of treatment, and you certainly don’t want prostitutes infected with HIV working until their viral load is so low that they’re effectively unable to infect other people. (And yes, free PREP would help, but given that a number of sex workers are prostituting themselves in exchange for drugs, I don’t think that worrying about exposure to HIV or getting PREP is very high on their priority list.)

I do think that a bare minimum would be for cops to have to take reports of sexual assault against prostitutes seriously. …Which would require major criminal justice reform…

Relationships come with boundaries and limits though, right? You’re treating monogamy as ownership, but that’s backwards. My partner free to have sexual relationships with whomsoever they want; however, they aren’t free to have any relationship at all with me if that’s a choice they make.

I affirmatively chose my partner; when I made the choice for them, it meant that I made a choice to give up my sexual and romantic autonomy to pursue the relationship with them. I can take my autonomy back at any time, but if I do, I also permanently give up the relationship that I have; that is a boundary that they set, and I knew that when I chose the relationship.

I have been in polyerotic/multiamorous relationships. What is lacking in them is depth. Building relationships takes time, and time is always more limited in poly relationships. The more partners you have, the shallower each relationship gets. Oh, yes, I know that poly people will say that love is infinite. And perhaps they’re even correct. But the time you can spend with each person is very definitely finite.

Have you considered life in sunny Qatar? You’d probably like it. Oh, and debt doesn’t die with the debtor there; it’s passed on to the heirs. It’s an absolutely fantastic system for ensuring that the wealthy always get to stay that way.

Okay, yes, let’s make sure that help is available if they want it. But what if they don’t? Should a suicidal person be forced to accept help that they don’t want?

Moreover, if you forbid people from ending their own life at their own discretion, who really has ownership over their body?

I’ll go farther than that: the highest paid worker should be paid no more than X compared to the lowest paid worker or contractor/subcontractor, including 1099 contractors.

I think that it’s more complicated than that.

Okay, so there’s regulation. Who bears the cost of compliance? What happens when a sex worker is out of compliance with safety regulations, e.g., they are infected with HIV and aren’t informing clients or using barriers? How do you handle that?

Keep in mind that a lot of people turn to sex work on an irregular basis, to pay for rent, drugs, or similar; very few of them are going to willingly go through any kind of licensing process, and most will lack the ability to pay for a license.

So, I’m genuinely curious - what do you think the US should have done during WW2?

I had a friend that made it through O-Hare and LaGuardia security with a 4" switchblade in her carry on; not a spring assist, an actual automatic knife, back when they were illegal almost everywhere, but after Sept. 11. Somehow security missed it both times.

Meanwhile, I nearly missed a flight because someone running the x-ray machine didn’t know what brass collar points were.

Yeah, DO NOT have spent casings in any of your luggage, the people running the x-ray machines really really really don’t like that.

Yes, but we’re willing to share them.

Seriously.

Go to a range, talk to someone about their guns, and most of the time they’re more than happy to let you try them.

Possibly. They’re not supposed to by their own claims, but possibly. I suppose that if I lived in the EU, I could sue them over it.

They seemed to be upset that I was advocating for an effective and permanent solution. :)

I regret nothing.

I suggested that the most appropriate way to deal with Nazis moving into your neighborhood was the traditional Scandinavian practice of hús-brenna. Apparently the admins dislike effective solutions.

It took me a few days to overwrite all of my comments from the prior 15 years or so, but I did it. Because fuck 'em, they don’t get to train their AI on my data.

1 point. I’ve never personally owned a physical encyclopedia. I’ve def. used them though.