You didn’t explicitly say it, but you are incredulous that they would go after something small. Same argument, different angle imo….and a common misconception.

In the wild, or in captivity with others, yes. They would absolutely compete for a mouse. In my monitor’s later years I got a second monitor, I had to feed them separately because they would both go for the same mouse and end up accidentally biting each other’s heads in the process.

Fight?….that depends on your definition. Not like movie dinosaurs, but watch any clip of Komodo dragons feeding, or gators going after a single chicken carcass. Reptile mass feeding is rough, but rarely deadly. It’s not uncommon for gators to lose limbs in a feeding frenzy, for instance.

I noticed a few years after he left The Daily Show he seems to smile less, almost like he's burnt out. When he goes on other talk shows now it's like he's over the comedy routine or just not really engaged. Lost his spark or something. I noticed the same thing with Carlin in his later years.

encino man: the later years.

Is there someone better educated on the physiological and psychological science of this that can explain why gender transition at that age is not child abuse?

Because from everything I understand about how complicated and frequently fraught with remorse and confusion that issue is for adults....how in the name of fuck can someone that young be mature enough to make that kind of life changing decision? (or indeed have it made for them)

Gender dysphoria is usually only diagnosed in adulthood and usually requires years of psychotherapy and adoption of the desired gender role before any respectable doctor in the UK would allow the transformative process of hormone therapy to begin. (let alone reassignment surgery)

The suicide rate for transitioned people is about 40% I'm told. This appears to mostly be a combination of depression brought on by using the idea of transition to avoid other underlying emotional problems and/or remorse in later years.

None of this is to say people should not transition. There is plenty of evidence to support many a diagnosis of dysphoria and many a success story. But the thing those happy transitions seem to have in common is a very through and mature understanding of themselves.

i.e. things a child is incapable of doing when their mind and personality are still developing.

IDK, the very idea deeply concerns me. Is she actually happy transitioned? Or has she had that idea re-enforced by her parents and such?

I have this hypothetical vision of them panicking at their little boy playing with dolls and tea sets and finding solace in the idea that they are just the wrong gender, instead of being "odd".

I know how silly that sounds, but especially in the south of the USA, gender transition is sometimes considered more socially acceptable than homosexuality and/or being an effeminate male (or so some people in the trans community tell me).

Am I just behind the times on this one? Seems like there would have to be some pretty fucking spectacular medical science to back it up where children that young are concerned...

@CrushBug

Related story: during the later years of the war, when Allied air and sea supremacy made the Bay of Biscay a deathtrap, Allied torpedo boats took up ambush positions at the entrances to U-Boot bases, particularly La Rochelle. They'd get into position at night and stay just outside of range of the coastal defence batteries. Before outgoing submarines could reach deep water, they'd be plastered with hand grenades by these speed boats.

It wouldn't be able to sink a sub, but a lucky hit might damage the periscope and it did reduce the sub's sonar abilities by massive amounts, covering the entire exit area in a blanket of noise. Not to mention the psychological effect...

Anyway, just small bits of history.

Now, about this video: that small chance to be hit by a grenade chunk is surpassed by the rather noticable chance to be hit by one of roughly 6500 steel balls within a run-of-the-mill frag grenade used over here. Doesn't make the underwater experience any better though...

Alec Guiness hated what the role boxed him into in later years in some audiences' minds---but I'll never stop being a fan boy of Episode IV. And Han shot first.

*promote

A lot of these (the Iron Maiden in particular) were actually just made up in later years by people who wanted to do exactly what we're doing now.

There definitely was torture in the middle ages, but they generally weren't quite as gleefully inventive about it.

For Sheppard-Did say that there are exceptions to the rule of the 'bad cops' encountered, found many in California to be gentlemen and professionals, courteous, civil, and humane, and still find a few in Texas as well but….Texas is another beast and I let my guard down in the situation described-THESE facts however, do not annihilate the argument that all police are felons because if you stay in the game long enough in the employ of any jurisdiction in the country, you will as a police officer commit an act that is patently felonious, will witness a felony and say or do nothing to righteously call-it-out to either a superior or internal affairs, OR, as is the case with extant procedure I might add to my argument (which you took so personally through affiliation and family, and with as much rage and emotion as myself, -my own failing) be sanctioned to commit acts deemed felonious were they committed by the general public, BY THE BROKEN SYSTEM.

You took it personally to defend your delusion and your family's ties to law enforcement, or simply can't follow the simple argument in which I clarified the facts simply, which is relatively bulletproof.

Your cited examples, and I apologize, I am NOT responsible for your emotional state or that of anyone else by my own, of your own family's humanitarian efforts in the local community, could possibly represent their own guilt or embarrassment of having taken part in such generalized enforcement of the will of the state, "just doing their JOBS" in their later years.

They see shit every day, and it takes a special person not to become the shit they see and I'll give you that-Corrupt systems corrupt other systems. I equate these humanitarian efforts on the part of cops to MAKE UP FOR the bad rap of the felonious activities they witnessed and remained silent on.

Law enforcement is become now simply big-business designed to control humans like cattle, and keep them in-line so that they will feed the machine and perpetuate itself....To create a criminal class and to insure in perpetuity the systems that feed upon the incubators of criminals-in-formation, in the ever-growing prison industry and the shit-heal companies that cater to the systems that make-up the vile web of law enforcement run-amok in the USA.

Sorry if I wrinkled yer sack and brought you to that place of rage and control that ALL police and the children of police hold so dear, it's called faulty imprinting and it's systemic in not only the sick fraternal order of police but in ALL of the dysfunctional society of America.

I do know what police are and they are simply doing what they were programmed to do. My fuck-up was letting my guard down to catch my toe in the meat-grinder of that sick system.Believe me,it will not happen again, as I intend to stroke the dicks of every sheit cop I see in the future, and make their egos feel all warm and fucking fuzzy, with a view to self-preservation.

ALL COPS ARE FELONS

Archer, the later years

Two points come to mind, strictly from the perspective of an armchair general.

First, you need first class logistics as well as industrial capacity to run a doctrine of fire superiority continously over lengthy periods of time. If you can't supply your troops adequatly, suppressive fire becomes a luxury. Basically, industrial prowess allows you to sacrifice resources instead of soldiers. The Sowjets, on the other hand, had ample manpower reserves, yet limited logistical capacities, leaving human waves as a doctrine.

Second, I suppose it's much easier on your nerves to be "pro-active" about incoming fire than to just wait for an opportune moment. The vast majority of soldiers in major wars were civilians with comparatively little training. During the later years of World War 2, for instance, the difference between seasoned Wehrmacht divisions and reserve/Volkssturm units was enormous, despite acute ammunition shortage in the entire European theatre. Interestingly enough, even the replacement of bolt action rifles with semi-auto rifles such as the G43 didn't increase ammo consumption as much as one might expect.

>> ^Hive13:

>> ^alien_concept:
What about all those people who work every day of their lives and can't build a decent future and don't have enough to pay the bills or have anything extra? I don't really understand how anyone can still believe in the American Dream...

I honestly still believe that the American Dream is still alive and well. There is a difference between working everyday to sustain versus working everyday to be better the next. You can't be comfortable in your life, no matter how successful or financially stable you are. You need to work hard to better yourself every day. The American Dream, to me, means a lot of hard work, dogged determination and a little luck. I honestly believe that ANYONE can be better today than they were yesterday.
I was kicked out of my house at age 17. I worked three jobs to have a shitty apartment and a car that barely ran, but I did it and life was pretty good. Then life reared its ugly head and it all came crashing down. I picked up the pieces and headed off to the Army. I had a great 6 years serving this country with lots of unique opportunities. It ended on a high note with me getting married and having my first child.
I started a new career, yet again, at the bottom eventually working my way up to project lead in charge of over 80 people through hard work, sacrifice and determination. It came crashing down again when my wife and I divorced and that company was closed and relocated.
I moved back home to Texas and literally started over from nothing at age 30. I took whatever jobs I could, eventually landing a six month contract deploying a software package and providing training to a worldwide engineering firm. At the end of the six months, I was given a three month extension to help overhaul the existing IT department and provide support to the existing IT staff and IT director. Again, through hard work and dedication, within 2 years I had saved the company hundreds of thousands of dollars in IT expenditures and was hired on as the new IT director. I am now remarried to my amazing wife, I have 4 amazing children, a house in the suburbs, a shiny new car and we have enough money to enjoy life and still put some away for our later years. Life is good.
I am not any better than anyone else. Anyone could have done the things I have done if they put their minds and hearts into it. That's the American Dream as I have lived it personally.


What about people with moderate learning difficulties, or disabilities? They're able to work, but not a chance in hell they could go into the army and take advantage of what they have to offer, or work in an IT department. I think the only people who believe in this dream are the ones who are lucky enough to have had it happen for them. Not everyone is in the same position as you were or are now. Some people will never be able to have a good job, because they just aren't able.

>> ^alien_concept:

What about all those people who work every day of their lives and can't build a decent future and don't have enough to pay the bills or have anything extra? I don't really understand how anyone can still believe in the American Dream...


I honestly still believe that the American Dream is still alive and well. There is a difference between working everyday to sustain versus working everyday to be better the next. You can't be comfortable in your life, no matter how successful or financially stable you are. You need to work hard to better yourself every day. The American Dream, to me, means a lot of hard work, dogged determination and a little luck. I honestly believe that ANYONE can be better today than they were yesterday.

I was kicked out of my house at age 17. I worked three jobs to have a shitty apartment and a car that barely ran, but I did it and life was pretty good. Then life reared its ugly head and it all came crashing down. I picked up the pieces and headed off to the Army. I had a great 6 years serving this country with lots of unique opportunities. It ended on a high note with me getting married and having my first child.

I started a new career, yet again, at the bottom eventually working my way up to project lead in charge of over 80 people through hard work, sacrifice and determination. It came crashing down again when my wife and I divorced and that company was closed and relocated.

I moved back home to Texas and literally started over from nothing at age 30. I took whatever jobs I could, eventually landing a six month contract deploying a software package and providing training to a worldwide engineering firm. At the end of the six months, I was given a three month extension to help overhaul the existing IT department and provide support to the existing IT staff and IT director. Again, through hard work and dedication, within 2 years I had saved the company hundreds of thousands of dollars in IT expenditures and was hired on as the new IT director. I am now remarried to my amazing wife, I have 4 amazing children, a house in the suburbs, a shiny new car and we have enough money to enjoy life and still put some away for our later years. Life is good.

I am not any better than anyone else. Anyone could have done the things I have done if they put their minds and hearts into it. That's the American Dream as I have lived it personally.

This is just sickening, I wish that consumerism was how it used to be, you know based on what you functionally needed rather than what a particular item said about you personally. And this only continues in people's lives and gets worse & worse as there is ALWAYS something new to buy & you can never fulfil yourself. with some people it is just a part of their character, constantly purchasing Cars, TV's, Play-station's Etc. by virtue of how cool it makes them appear to others or out-doing the jones's and as a result will likely never be released from the shackles of debt.

Maybe this is the reason why some retirees blow their kids inheritance in their later years, and with kids like these who can really blame them?.

Thank you for the kind words Lib.

In reply to this comment by Boise_Lib:
Well said, indeed.
Thank You, critical_d.

Although Edgar Mitchell has had some problems in his later years--both legal and cognitive--he remains an American Hero.

This statement is one of the most compelling calls to human unity--and for political integrity--I've ever heard.

Well said, indeed.
Thank You, critical_d.

Although Edgar Mitchell has had some problems in his later years--both legal and cognitive--he remains an American Hero.

This statement is one of the most compelling calls to human unity--and for political integrity--I've ever heard.