Eccitaze

Things in either list Biden has the ability to directly influence policy on:

Don't worry, I'm sure they'll listen to Reason.

One of my favorite lines in literature ever.

The problem is that there's no incentive for employees to stay beyond a few years. Why spend months or years training someone if they leave after the second year?

But then you have to question why employees aren't loyal any longer, and that's because pensions and benefits have eroded, and your pay doesn't keep up as you stay longer at a company. Why stay at a company for 20, 30, or 40 years when you can come out way ahead financially by hopping jobs every 2-4 years?

Yeah, one of my favorite depictions of him are the Year One movies/comics, where Batman is fighting corrupt cops just as much as he's fighting the mafia and other villains of the week.

I do want to stress I'm not the same guy you were previously discussing this with.

I don't have a real preference one way or the other regarding Riker's sexuality, although now that you mention it, the thought of Riker as a leather daddy, or maybe a younger version of him in a fishnet shirt and a rainbow speedo... Hooooo man, that gives me the good tingles. (In case it isn't obvious yet, I'm very much gay myself lol)

All I'm saying is that it's probably safe to assume for the moment that Riker is heterosexual based on what we've seen of him, or at minimum assume that he's bi/pan with a strong heterosexual preference. I certainly wouldn't mind a Lower Decks episode showing Riker in a polycule with Troi and, say, another bridge officer, however.

That's very true, but considering how heterosexuality is much more common than bi/omni/pansexuality, it's usually safer to assume someone is heterosexual, all things considered.

It's kind of a moot point, though, considering Riker is a fictional character whose preferences are at the whims of the writers, and not a real person. If the writers so chose, they could have him declare that the reason he had sex with all those women and married Troi is because of internalized homophobia and that he was trying unsuccessfully to force himself to be straight.

But would you WANT to do that with your bare ass exposed to air cold enough to flash freeze poop?

I also pirated it, and yeah, I definitely got my money's worth from it. I tried to have fun, but it's the poster child for "mile wide, inch deep."

Maybe they can reuse the environment for a better game in the future.

Gonk has a few possible definitions to choose from:

• The TVTropes definition: absurd, over-the-top ugliness in animation

• The Cyberpunk 2077 definition: an idiot

• The Wikipedia definition: A series of vaguely creepy toys from the 60s

So, pick your poison I guess?

OKAY, time for some clarification as a Seattle local:

• This was NOT an isolated incident. The Cuff Complex, which was one of the bars that got raided, had been raided so many times in the past the owner had to put up a sign warning customers not to wear jockstraps because of the heavy enforcement (which ironically caused him to lose even more business because everyone was pissed at the owner for "policing bodies")

• Gay bars were being targeted disproportionately to straight bars. Remember, there are a LOT more straight bars than gay bars. Raiding 4 gay bars covers a sizable chunk of all the gay bars in Seattle, but raiding 14 straight barsis a relative drop in the bucket.

• A gay cabaret club owner crunched the numbers and found his establishment was raided 1,550% more than the average liquor licensee. The owner of the Cuff also owns another gay bar and a regular straight bar. His two gay bars are frequently raided, while the straight bar has NEVER been raided.

• The board that enforces liquor laws is the LCB. Two funny facts: First, the rule against lewd conduct was created by... The LCB, not the state legislature. Second, the LCB stands for the Liquor and Cannabis board, which means that they are already ignoring a law when it suits their purpose (the federal prohibition against cannabis).

• Finally, after the gay community collectively tore the LCB a new asshole during a board meeting earlier this week, the LCB reversed course and basically said "ah shit we fucked up" and is suspending enforcement of its lewd conduct rules. I strongly recommend this Mastodon thread from someone who attended the meeting, it's truly a thing of glory and demonstrates just how close the LCB was to getting slapped with a discrimination lawsuit: https://partyon.xyz/@nullagent/111851872885551640

The broader metaverse--mainly VRChat--had a brief boom during the pandemic, and several conventions (okay yeah it's furries) held events in there instead since they were unable to hold in-person events. It's largely faded away though as pandemic restrictions relaxed

Yeah, because having a chatbot that agrees to sell a car for $1 or writes a poem for customers trashing the company it represents is so much better than having something that can think for itself...