The irony here is rich. They’re supposedly supposed to be ensuring our right to bear arms for precisely this sort of situation.

Now, against the military, a 9mm is somewhat useless. But they swore an oath to the Constitution, and so far as I’m aware, the armed forces as a whole commit fealty to that, not a pathetic guy who can somehow bankrupt casinos.

Even if he did, so what? He was licensed to carry, did not brandish and was attempting to enjoy his rights under the First and Second amendments.

I dislike guns. But I’m in Texas, so I simply presume that I’m in a space with people packing while in public. Still, here’s a nurse who felt a need to go through the legal system to have a gun on him in case of, well …

On the other side, we have poor training for ICE and a shockingly high rejection rate for the quality they manage to attract.

I’m going to side with the nurse every time. And whether he had a holstered gun is irrelevant to the fact that he was murdered.

… protesters have already dragged dumpsters and restaurant patio furniture into the street to block roads, and some set a dumpster ablaze, creating thick smoke near the scene. Chemical irritants linger in the air. Minnesota State Patrol officers have arrested at least two people who crossed police tape. They have been screaming at federal agents and chanting “ICE go home.”

So this now literally includes a dumpster fire.

A ruling that will be ignored and likely overturned at some level of appeal.

As a country, we are in a hole, and all the government can offer is shovels.

What allies?

Context may be useful here. When we first got together, that was one of our first habits in bed, saying “mine.” She has more than a dozen tattoos representing me, of which this is only one. And, indeed, it was done atop a chile ristra that was already there because of me.

Do you seriously think tattoos are a sign of emotional and moral failure?

What about a farcical aquatic ceremony?

The world of finance is now primarily just pump-and-dump schemes.

It does have a bit of a Mission Accomplished vibe.

Hell, in Phoenix, shit gets torn down for being 20 years old.

Don’t leave us hanging … what’s the first most infuriating thing?

LLMs are pretty OK at a couple of things. But the way they’re being sold as the next big thing? I’m not buying that.

It’s pretty clear that consumers are intentionally priced out of the market so they have to rent compute as a service.

I’m currently running my diesel heater. I’ve just learned over two prior winters how low temps can get and still have it livable in here. Last night was 39, and thanks to my down comforter, I didn’t even have to run it until I woke up. 22 is another story entirely.

No shit. I’m not trying to be a dick, but, like, we all see this.

Thank goodness we don’t have downvotes, because this is going to be unpopular.

I’m attracted to highly independent women. Without fail, they’ve wanted me to pay the bills and run the finances generally.

That is not equals. That’s not what I signed up for, and not a position I have any interest in. Like, even if we have a joint checking account and she has the login for a utility it’s like “can’t you just do that?”

It literally would have taken less time to pay it than to ask me about paying it.

Job loss, mechanical failures … usual delights.

People seem to be missing out on the ROI accelerating. Grid energy gets keeping getting more expensive per unit, and base fees, at least here, are absurd – it was about $42 to get my first kWh. Between that and them cutting power for a week when temps were in the single digits, I did the late-night infomercial thing of saying “There’s got to be another way.”

Also, agreed: Never get your loan from an installer.

“Slightly above average” is not a useful metric, I’m afraid. So, an EV means there’s not avoiding a grid tie unless you’ve got acreage for solar and are interested in buying a shitton of batteries.

This is not the end of the world. What you can do is get a modest amount of solar and battery to lower your bills … it doesn’t sound like you’d be in a net-metering situation, so whatever shit rate your utility provides is off the table.

What I will say is that ROI is only going up currently due to endless rate increases (and our power is city-owned; YMMV).

How many watts do you think you could fit on that part of the roof? I’m assuming you’re looking into 450-500W panels.