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Cake day: July 17th, 2023

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  • I watch a lot of high speed police chase videos, kind of a guilty pleasure of mine. It’s fascinating stuff. One thing I’ve noticed is that while the State Troopers seem to have a higher level of training, when approaching a vehicle local PD will often just run up on all sides with guns out. So, you hear a lot of “watch the crossfire!” from the troopers. On the side of the road bystanders are rarely a hazard, but the same lack of positioning would surely be a hazard to bystanders in different circumstances. So yes i definitely I agree that police officers need more situational awareness training before they can use lethal force- especially in somewhere as packed as a subway station.






  • In NBA history, only 1 female player has ever been drafted- Luisa Harris. She did not actually make the team though, or anyways she never played in a game. I don’t quite remember. The door is open for women to play-the NBA does not prohibit it, nor do any of the “men’s leagues”-it just never happens because women are not good enough.



  • Yes and so was Harris. I mean, prior to selecting Harris, Biden literally said he wanted a woman of color as his VP. If harris picks a white man as a running mate, that will likely be a diversity hire as well (although hopefully she doesn’t say she wants a white man as a running mate out loud so she at least has plausible deniability).

    I’m not saying she’s unqualified, her credentials are plenty good enough for the job and much better than Trump or Vance. Its also not necessarily a bad thing to intentionally pick a running mate with a different upbringing than you, so you get exposed to different world views. But it’s not racist to say she’s a diversity hire when Biden literally said as much.





  • I feel like most of those things are not accurate, or are not good faith criticism. It’s worth remembering that until the whole trans thing, the Harry Potter series was seen as very liberal to the point where some conservatives boycotted it.

    -Harry isn’t a “cop”, like hes not walking the beat arresting people, hes a dark wizard catcher. Which is perfectly rational given dark wizards killed his parents and they’re pretty explicitly fascists.

    -a pretty huge part of the books is devoted to how good people can do bad things and bad people can do good things. Barty Crouch Sr is a whole character who is there to show how the good guys can end up being nearly as bad and brutal as the bad guys because they think the ends justify the means and in times of crisis people are willing to compromise their morals.

    -Hermione is ridiculed for sticking up for house elves but she’s also right, as Harry starts to realize by the end of the books. It’s worth noting that the two most steadfast supporters of house elves are Hermione and dumbledore, aka Rowlings “always right about everything” characters

    -Seamus is pretty yikesy in the movies but 90% of the stuff isn’t in the books. Idk I thought he was a little racist, although still ultimately a good guy. Cho Chang has a stereotypical name but so what? I don’t think it’s racist in itself. I literally work with a guy named Ying Yang.

    -I don’t think obesity is used as a failing, gluttony is used as a failing, as in a favorite expression among leftists, the “fat cat”. There are plenty of other overweight characters that are good and righteous like Ms Weasly, Slughorn (kinda), and Hagrid.

    -I’m not sure who you’re referring to with regards to describing teenage females as unattractive but that seems kinda cherry picked. Harry ends up with Ginny who in the books is described as a tomboy. The biggest female villain is arguably Umbridge who is very stereotypically feminine

    I’m not defending Rowling as a person at all, or her statements about trans people, but the criticism of Harry potter feels very much like going back and reexamining them with an agenda. You can do the same uncharitable thing with any fantasy series. Hell, off the top of my head I can think of much worse criticisms of lord of the rings or game of thrones but people don’t seem to want to nitpick those the same way.