I think many people have gotten to a point where they have one thing figured out and limit themselves to doing that one thing.

I feel pretty safe and happy as long as I am allowed to just keep doing the job I have been doing for a few years, and live in my house, and not get exposed to any weird and challenging situations. I am very lucky that I have a job I can keep doing indefinitely, and some friends and partners I really like so I don’t need to worry about finding more. Having a job and a partner seems to be all society really demands of me, so as long as neither of those things implode I feel pretty happy and able-to-handle-stuff. If either of them ever disappeared or something out of the ordinary happened, I would definitely be panicking and flopping around like a fish out of water.

I don’t know if there are people who just feel completely secure in general and ready for everything. I assume that there are. People’s minds seem to differ a lot and it would be weird if nobody wasn’t neurotic. As attractive as it is to imagine Genghis Khan riding into every battle thinking “OH GOD OH GOD I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT I’M DOING”, it seems easier to believe he was calm and composed than that he was a really good faker.

Man, I don’t know. I think during that scene I was thinking that I would leave without the watch, then have a friend get it a few weeks later and mail it to me. I know that’s a cop-out answer, but cop-out answers are all I’ve got.

But if I did, I definitely wouldn’t stay around to make Pop-Tarts.

I didn’t know all drugs were OTC in Mexico (is this true?)

I have complicated thoughts on this, but I don’t think 100% OTC drugs and freedom of TV drug advertising can coexist peacefully.

(and I agree with commenters mentioning antibiotics and addictive substances as likely exceptions)

I think you’re right to ask “Is there a sense?”

That is, the naive answer is like the story of the economists in the bar. Bill Gates walks in, and the economists start dancing and cheering, shouting “Hooray! On average, everyone in this bar is really rich right now!”

A lot of worries about immigration sound kind of like economists in a bar, and then a homeless guy walks in, and then they start crying and sobbing because now on average the people in the bar are poorer.

I think there are some people kind of developing the intellectual work it would take to be more sophisticated than this - like Garett Jones - but I’m not convinced that actual immigration opponents have read them or are familiar with them.

The studies show that the death spike is the same in northerly cold latitudes vs. southerly warm latitudes, so probably not.

Request fewer of these “you are wrong and bad but I will not explain why” asks.

Some examples -

Coyote Run:

Turisas:

Decemberists:

Ayreon:

Arcade Fire:

I would recommend against LJ/Tumblr just because everyone seems to get stuck on them. If you don’t think you’ll get stuck on them, they’re a good way to get readers quickly.

No.

I’m not sure I have this thing. Or, I mean, my eye has a corner, and it itches sometimes, but it doesn’t seem like there’s a specific thing there that can be cut out. Am I missing something?