Nothing sinister at all. It has a long and proven track record. Which you can check out if you don’t want to be low-info anymore. Doctors and dentists support it.

But there’s a subset of people who want us to go back to disease-ridden serfs, because when your teeth are falling out and 3 out of your 5 kids died young from disease and you can barely make rent, you’re too distracted to care what other people are doing.

There’s only pros. It’s proven to prevent cavities in children and adults, much better than brushing alone.

There’s also the sad fact that not every kid is taught to—or sometimes allowed to—brush their teeth.

I always have coffee when I’m watching RADAR! Everybody knows that!

Because it’s not only about how much I have, it’s about how much you people don’t have!

Aha! So it was Pluto causing autism and the push to reclass it as a dwarf planet was an attempt to reduce its power!

Or, and hear me out, she might just be pointing out how the behavior in the first two panels eventually unquestionably leads to the second and third.

Also, while unemployment maybe ‘low’ (and given how those numbers are often drawn from who’s pulling unemployment benefits, and at least in America they kick you off those after a little bit, I also wonder about those statistics, but I digress…) many people who are employed are severely underemployed, which is just as bad in the long run.

Lucky 10,000

An excellent diatribe on a very interesting god

Movie Denethor, I’m guessing. Denethor in the books was actually a lot better person than he was in the movie.

Bill Watterson put it another way.

I agree. I think that’s why I like Kate Griffin’s Matthew Swift series (and the other novels she sets in the same ‘verse). The general rules of the magic system are explained, but the magic still feels wild and mysterious and… well, magical.

I wouldn’t call it meaningless. I don’t have to get out of my car into nasty weather. Disabled people get helped without having to make a big fuss about it. And some people actually do like the job, as strange as that might sound.

Back in the day they’d wash your windows, check your tire pressure, and maybe ask you how your day was going too. Nothing wrong with service.

What pisses me off is all these jobs gone, and yet the gas didn’t get any cheaper. Seems like self-checkout; the companies convincing people that doing their jobs for them for no pay so they can pocket all the profit is great actually.

If we’re talking ‘young adult’ (which I think is a silly book classification group), the Enchanted Forest Chronicles by Patricia C. Wrede always gets my top pick—shorter, sassy, fun, with well-written female protagonists. (All her books are pretty good, really.)

Another of my top choices in the Fantasy YA category are the Tiffany Aching books by Sir Terry Pratchett. Great fun and Sir Terry’s wonderful brand of biting wisdom.

If you like the ‘kids go to boarding school, have magical adventures, save the world’ formula, Mercedes Lackey did a pretty good series called the Shadow Grail. Although the kids are older (and more sensible) than the Harry Potter protagonists.

The Castle Books by John DeChancie are another fun romp of a series. Younger me loved the idea of a castle filled with 144,000 portals to adventure. Although the technology in it is a bit dated—at this point in time, rather humorously so.

Gail Carriger’s book series are all a good read; my favorite she’s done so far is the Finishing Series. Not as much magic as other books on this list, but still a well-thought-out system. Her books are really more steampunk-fantasy with a sprinkling of magic on top.

China Mievelle doesn’t really write series, per se, but all his books are fun and well-written, with interesting twists and ideas. I’d say they are the very definition of whimsical.

If your requirements are ‘good books by authors as awful as JK Rowling’, well, that’s tougher, but fortunately David and Leigh Eddings decided to throw their hats in the ring! Horrible child abusers, but their writings are genuinely good, way better than what Rowling writes.

When the ‘Father of Modern Gynecology’ is a douche like this, it’s really not that surprising that women continue to be ignored.

Curious, since I’ve never filleted a fish before; what would you do for bigger fish like salmon?

FR though the one in the upper right corner is a real thing. When I inherited my grandfather’s truck I swear suddenly everyone in the family needed something moved. I get asked at least once a month to help move something or lend it out lol.

Speaking as a woman, who works in a dock industrial district, while I could take the bus to work, I often work the late shift, and I really don’t want to be waiting at a bus stop at night in that area.

There’s the added fun that the bus stops running close to my work after a certain hour, so to catch the late bus I’d have to walk almost the full length of the industrial area. Alone.

So I’m going to share something agent_nycto said once, because it works very well on people like this:

I don’t think you should be quiet, it makes them feel like everyone is agreeing with them and makes everyone miserable. Time to introduce you to my favorite game to play with conservatives, Politics Judo!

So you hear them rant about a thing. Some dumbass talking point. Let’s use gun control. It’s pretty easy to know in advance what the talking points are since they never shut up and parrot the same problem and solution over and over. “Shouldn’t take guns, it’s a mental problem not a gun problem”.

Things are basically boiled down to a problem and a solution. A lot of people try to convince people that the problem isn’t what people think it is, and that’s hard to do. Even if they are just misinformed, it feels like trying to dismiss their fears.

So what you do is you agree with the problem, then use lefty talking points as the solution.

“Oh yeah, gun violence is pretty bad! And I love the Constitution, we shouldn’t mess with that!” (Use small words and also throw in some patriotism, makes them feel like you’re on their side. You want to sound like a right wing media con artist) “so instead of taking guns away, we should instead start having more, free, mental health care in this country. Since it’s a mental health problem and these people are crazy, that is the solution that makes the most sense!” (Don’t try to get them to agree to your solution, just state it as the obvious one)

It becomes weaponized cognitive dissonance. Their brains fry because you said the things you should to agree with them, flagged yourself as an ally, but then said the thing they were told is the bad and shouldn’t want.

If they try to argue with your solution, rinse and repeat to a different talking point. “Oh yeah it might cost more, and we shouldn’t have to pay more for it, so we should get the rich people who are screwing average hard working Americans over by not paying taxes to do that. We should shut down tax loopholes and increase funding to the IRS so they can go after them instead of the little guy”

Always sound like you’re agreeing with them, but giving solutions that they disagree with that seem to be off topic but are related.

Either they will get flustered and stop, or they will slip up and say something racist or sexist or something, and then you can have HR bust them. Document it and also see if you’re in a single party consent state.

Keep in mind too that they’re not always accurate. I know of one in my city that regularly takes photos of people going through on the green because it’s a bit of a wonky intersection. And that means a person gets to spend their day in court instead of at work fighting a ticket they did not deserve.

Mel Brooks once pointed out that dictators hate to be laughed at. And he would know, given he fought the Nazis in WWII.

So laugh. Mock them. Humiliate them. Their overinflated egos can’t handle even the slightest scratch, so short of shooting them this is going to be the best way to hurt them.