MetaFilter

The GM has responded that he is unwilling to discuss this with me or hear any incidents supporting that point without a lawyer present,

For what it's worth, this is not necessarily him saying "You're gonna have to sue me, you crazy person!" It could well be him saying "Oh, shit! That's serious! No way I'm going to say something that could get me in trouble here."

If it's the latter, this is an understandable... [more]
posted to Ask MetaFilter by valkyryn at 11:12 AM on August 28, 2012

Seriously, the most offensive thing about this is that someone in this fucking day and age is stupid enough to think that the internets won't find out. THE INTERNETS ALWAYS FINDS OUT.

late at night, the gifs come

then the screaming
posted to MetaFilter by elizardbits at 9:15 PM on August 27, 2012

As much as pure, simple logic is on the side of us adults and against the Glibs, here's why we've already lost -- in the American psyche, when the government gives you shit, you've earned it fairly. When other people get free shit, particularly if they aren't white, it's socialism.

I've mentioned my beloved father here on the blue before. Got a PhD from state schools via the GI Bill, over three decades of work for a Federal agency, now lives very comfortably on a... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by bardic at 8:37 PM on August 27, 2012

The saddest part about this is that I couldn't help but imagine in my head my tea-partier fundamentalist cousin saying "she chose to have unprotected sex, she has to face the consequences. Just like liberals to blame the government and not take responsibility".

This is a common argument, and it's probably the single canonical example of how preventing access to abortions isn't about protecting babies. Rather, it's about punishing sluts.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Malor at 1:17 AM on August 26, 2012

In short, honor is in short supply across humanity. It's been lamented since the days of the ancient Greeks if not earlier.

Have you tried turning it off and on again?
posted to MetaFilter by Artw at 7:31 PM on August 24, 2012

"18. Tie him to the bed, then roll this copy of Cosmo up and smack him sharply on the nose with it repeatedly. Point to his penis and sternly say 'Bad boyfriend! No!' This will neatly encapsulate all of our previous sex tips, in case he hasn't yet got the message."
posted to MetaFilter by wolfdreams01 at 10:46 AM on August 22, 2012

I remember reading The Pearl in my teens and being absolutely fascinated by the terminology. This list is missing one of my favorites: "spend". Men spend, women spend (sometimes copiously), they are spent, and their spendings can mingle.

Anyway, you can find the full run of The Pearl at the link I provided. As far as I can remember, not a single story starts with a pizza delivery. Here's the opening of the first story from the first issue.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by rosebuddy at 5:04 PM on August 20, 2012

This is both more entertaining and more informative than a typical presidential debate.
posted to MetaFilter by eriko at 4:49 PM on August 17, 2012

You cannot afford not to consult a lawyer. You are talking about MASSIVE amounts of money here: his salary, your debt, your salary, whatever property you may have in common. You desperately need advice because:

1) He may be legally responsible for your med school and other debt.
2) You may be eligible for spousal support.
3) You are likely entitled to a percentage of his pension as a marital asset.
4) You may be entitled to a... [more]
posted to Ask MetaFilter by DarlingBri at 7:35 PM on August 14, 2012

This guy does not know what the f*ck he's talking about. I do civil defense work for a living. Progressive isn't one of our clients, because they're big enough to do their own work in-house--same for State Farm--but I do UM/UIM defense all the damn time.

First of all, it was not Progressive's lawyers that defended the other driver. The guy has zero evidence that this happened. It was that driver's own attorney, hired by his insurer, in this case... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by valkyryn at 11:49 AM on August 14, 2012

I guess I don't have any problem highlighting the hypocrisy of what appears to be a quite common feature of prominent anti-gay people.
posted to MetaFilter by Forktine at 10:05 AM on August 13, 2012

The vodka martini is a perfectly acceptable drink. It is not blasphemous or wrong or evil. It is, however, not "A martini." A martini is based on gin. It's like a catfish. There's nothing wrong with catfish; they're a legitimate animal that's allowed to exist. But they're not cats and it would be stupid to call them "cats."
posted to MetaFilter by Tomorrowful at 6:26 AM on August 13, 2012

YANML, but what can we do to protect ourselves as occupants?

Hire a lawyer. You're in pretty deep here. Hell, I am a lawyer, and this isn't something I'd even attempt to figure out myself. Not my area of practice. If you aren't willing to just walk away, your only real option is to lawyer up.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by valkyryn at 7:09 PM on August 11, 2012

Taking over half of each additional dollar you earn is still unjust.

That's why they do it in Euro.
posted to MetaFilter by snofoam at 11:57 AM on August 8, 2012

If you ever have trouble making sense of the world, just remember: we live in a universe where Nike paid William S. Burroughs money to narrate a commercial about athletic shoes.
posted to MetaFilter by fifteen schnitzengruben is my limit at 9:02 PM on August 7, 2012

left 49% to rot where they died

As opposed to giving them Christian burial?
posted to MetaFilter by Egg Shen at 1:11 PM on August 7, 2012

Great, now I want to play a cheap bootleg romhack called TEMEPST.
posted to MetaFilter by griphus at 12:17 PM on August 7, 2012

Something I have had painful occasion to think about in the recent past: if you owe $1,000,000 and you make $200,000, you can pay it off. Even if you have kids and take vacations. Not comfortably, but it's at least in the world of what's possible. If you owe $100,000 and you make $20,000, you will never pay it off ever.
posted to MetaFilter by gauche at 9:11 AM on August 7, 2012

If The Cheesecake Factory was modeled on hospitals: There is no menu, you have no idea what anything costs, you have to share your table with a random person who might have severe dementia, after your meal someone from the restaurant calls you in the middle of the night to check the status of your cheesecake digestion, and you get a bill five months later with charges for carrying the cheesecake to the table ($2000) and the plate on which the cheesecake came on ($500)...also the cheesecake... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by melissam at 8:13 PM on August 6, 2012

Orly Taitz has a doctor of dentistry degree and a law degree. From my heart, I beseech you not to confuse credentials with appropriate perceptions of reality and understanding of social norms.

$100/month is nowhere near enough money to get involved with an aggrieved person's crusade against some perceived injustice.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Sidhedevil at 4:55 PM on August 6, 2012

If somebody calls me at 4 a.m., they are my trouble.
posted to MetaFilter by Bunny Ultramod at 6:59 PM on August 5, 2012

A little bit of this kind of thing is OK, but a big dose of it always gives me the creeps. There is more to living life than this endless, restless maximizing. In fact, here is a list of 7 things that you may be missing out on if you read too many self-help bullet list articles!
posted to MetaFilter by thelonius at 5:48 PM on August 5, 2012

This comes down, once again, to monetary policy, as so many malfunctions in the current economy do.

One of the biggest reasons these cities are going bankrupt is because their pensions are woefully underfunded. And the reason they're underfunded is because interest rates are being held artificially low by the Federal Reserve. The Fed is injecting however much liquidity is required to hold interest rates where at the 'correct' level, declared by a banking Politburo.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Malor at 11:22 AM on August 5, 2012

Start up the snapshot. Do not patch it. Configure it to send logs to another machine. Then change the MOTD to display a petulant response to the hackers and a warning that you know where they are so they'd better cut it out.

You'll have a log of the exploit in a few days.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by zippy at 2:25 AM on August 3, 2012

During my brief career in adult video and ass't novelties

I was sure the 't was a typo.
posted to MetaFilter by Mrs. Pterodactyl at 9:32 PM on August 2, 2012

"intolerance and bigotry toward Christians".

Amen, Christians can't even marry in certain states!
posted to MetaFilter by Ad hominem at 11:18 AM on August 2, 2012

There are several previous questions on here about similar situations - look at the questions tagged with inheritance+money. You might also want to look at articles for 'what to do if you win the lottery'.

General advice I have seen
1. get experts to help you. Here's a guide to hiring a fee-only financial advisor (and why), plus 8 questions to ask before hiring one.
2. Don't do anything sudden. Stash the money somewhere safe (under your new... [more]
posted to Ask MetaFilter by jacalata at 6:01 PM on July 30, 2012

You should put it all in the three Gs: gold, Google and growth funds.

Ok, don't, actually. I just made that up. And you should treat any free advice you get off the internet with an equal amount of skepticism. No one here knows your financial situation, and no one can tell you what is best for you.

If you live in NYC, then you probably have friends who are some degree of wealthy. Ask them for a connection to a financial adviser. Obviously do your... [more]
posted to Ask MetaFilter by griphus at 5:43 PM on July 30, 2012

That place is bigger than my apartment!
posted to MetaFilter by LordSludge at 7:38 PM on July 28, 2012

The Joker performance is so much more interesting than anything Nolan has ever done. I even read the script to see how much was Ledger's interpretation and how much was preconceived.

You may or may not want to watch Tom Waits on Australian TV in 1979
posted to MetaFilter by fightorflight at 3:09 PM on July 28, 2012

I am just looking for some guidance as to where to start thinking about this.

By hiring a lawyer.

Once I have a starting point I can usually find the laws and figure it out from there on my own.

Probably not this time. You need to figure out what happened before you can figure out how to make something else happen. Then you need to figure out the desired outcome in terms of function.... [more]
posted to Ask MetaFilter by valkyryn at 6:13 AM on July 23, 2012

I grabbed him and said, ‘John, I think I can build a jellyfish.’

"At the university, they called me mad!"
posted to MetaFilter by ceribus peribus at 7:51 PM on July 22, 2012

I went to a continuing legal education seminar that was by a guy whose entire practice is in valuing and disputing the value of high-end art in rich-people divorces. Apparently it's pretty common to claim one value (or rather two values!) in the divorce, and another value to the IRS, and a third value when donating, and this is high on the list of Things That Do Not Amuse The IRS. It was pretty freaking fascinating. High on the list of "things that will never, ever be relevant to my... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Eyebrows McGee at 10:52 AM on July 22, 2012

As far as I'm concerned, if insurance companies are paying for homeopathy (mine actually would, if I had extras), they should dip a $100 bill in some water and pay with the water.
posted to MetaFilter by Jimbob at 8:38 PM on July 19, 2012

No magazine would ever run such a cover about the Catholic or Anglican churches

Time Magazine

Titanic, a satirical German magazine.
posted to MetaFilter by the man of twists and turns at 9:43 AM on July 18, 2012

Offensive, my ass. And there have been plenty of satirical takes on other religions.
posted to MetaFilter by Curious Artificer at 9:40 AM on July 18, 2012

"Is this [money stays in the local community] true? Does it even matter? A local shop owner can just as easily recycle his profits all over the globe. "

Yes, and your local government has probably done studies on it. Every $1 spent at a locally-owned store stimulates something like $1.54 of economic activity in my city as that money circulates through the community. A big-box is something like $1.17. Wal-Mart specifically is $0.79 (they... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Eyebrows McGee at 7:55 PM on July 13, 2012

"I'd rather the people in my town have jobs (wage-slave or not) than some guy in a warehouse in the next state."

You write that as if this were a self-evidently good thing, but in my worldview, the privileging of those near oneself (in relation or geography) is one of the primary causes of systemic injustice.
posted to MetaFilter by Ivan Fyodorovich at 7:39 PM on July 13, 2012

"Maybe, but taken too far, we're going to all efficiently labour ourselves right out of a job."

Yeah, but that's never happened in the long term before.

There's a reason why people can't live, much less support a family, on entry-level, low-skill jobs. And it's not because there's not any. There are, they're mostly in service industries. The reason why those don't function for that socioeconomic class the way that... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Ivan Fyodorovich at 7:11 PM on July 13, 2012

Every time I walk into Best Buy, I like Amazon more.
posted to MetaFilter by underflow at 6:47 PM on July 13, 2012

Because while efficiency is good for stockholders, it is generally bad for employees. Local businesses tend to employ more people than a big box. A hardware store with 10 people and a grocery store with 10 people is better than a combo store with 15.

Call me crazy, but I think you can come up with better ways to promote social welfare than encouraging inefficient use of labour.
posted to MetaFilter by ripley_ at 6:45 PM on July 13, 2012

Some links are not active yet, so I regret that I am unable to speak to all of OPs sources.

I must live in some kind of cultural vaccuum. I rarely see examples of the hand-wringingly terrible things that happen to minority groups I happen to be a part of. For instance, I don't think I've ever really experienced any negative reaction from people by virtue of my singleness (nearing a decade, cited for street cred). I am quick and kind when it is time to disabuse someone of... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Poppa Bear at 8:51 PM on July 13, 2012

If a local retail store is good, it will survive.

If, however, a local retail store is not considered useful to the community, then why should I care if it's eliminated? The only reasons people have EVER given me for supporting local community all the time is "because it's mom and pop!" Well if that's your sole reason, just go to the retail store, buy what you wanted, and then on your way home stop by mom and pop and just donate the cost difference. My... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Lt. Bunny Wigglesworth at 6:01 PM on July 13, 2012

You're not getting fired; it's just a term contract. This is not feel-good, positive-thinking spin, by the way, it's just the way it is. I've worked for non-profits in the past, and getting hired as core staff is really, really hard to do.

Keep in mind that it takes about 1 month of job search for every $10k in salary, and then add a multiplier because of the ongoing recession + the nature of your industry.

So, why not spend six months... [more]
posted to Ask MetaFilter by KokuRyu at 6:01 PM on July 12, 2012

Particularly painful since the people who put $45 million dollars were hoping to get back 5 to 20 fold what they put in.

People who "hope" for this sort of thing are suckers.
posted to MetaFilter by Jimbob at 8:31 PM on July 12, 2012

devnull: "But how does what my body does change as I eat more of something?"

I am not a dietician, I am not your dietician, and this does not constitute dietetic advice. I suppose I could call myself a nutritionist, but then so can everyone from your dog to the craziest quack imaginable to Dick Cheney. I am however a biochem heavy microbiologist who spent way to long in college studying nutrition.

This is actually a... [more]
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Blasdelb at 6:09 AM on July 9, 2012

What can be done to prevent another financial meltdown?

One source I've heard from tells me that cutting taxes on the wealthiest, removing all regulations from all industry, and slashing programs for the poor will do the trick.
posted to MetaFilter by hippybear at 8:00 AM on July 7, 2012

So this is why us adults don't and never will take you seriously.

Well, since your version adulthood is apparently defined as, "I can steal your stuff, because I know how to use it better than you do", well, let's just say that's not a club that anyone should be joining.
posted to MetaFilter by Malor at 8:26 PM on July 2, 2012

I've always found it amusing, the mental hoops libertarians have to jump through to maintain their disdain for unions. An honest, fair application of the principals they claim to hold dear should result in support for unions.

I'm fairly libertarian, and I think unions are important. I'm not too happy with the idea of forced membership in a union, but I see no problem whatsoever with workers cooperating to negotiate from a stronger position. It seems... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Malor at 7:45 PM on July 2, 2012

No one cares, it's not a big deal so stop making a big deal out of it.

Dammit, I can't get Bingo unless you say "flaunting".
posted to MetaFilter by Horace Rumpole at 8:56 AM on July 2, 2012