Samson's Wig

People like Tate are the worst that humanity has to offer. A weak, candy assed piece of shit with daddy issues desperately trying to convince himself and everyone else that he's a real man. Here's hoping he's punished to the fullest extent of Romanian law, whatever that is, or even better that one of the fathers of these women get hold of him and do the world a favor.

Trying to shift this problem into a classist argument is weak, IMO. The people who pay the most taxes, pay the largest bribes, or otherwise wield influence will get a little extra attention from the government when they ask for it. It works that way everywhere in the world, always has and always will. It doesn't matter if your society is capitalist, socialist, or fucking anarchist. Someone will have more things than other people, and with that comes the ability to buy influence. You may as well shout at the moon to fall out of the sky if you think this will ever change. We can't naively navigate our way out of this problem by complaining about rich people, even if it's the de facto argument to solve all problems lately. My solution? Hire the homeless to run Austin Energy, Austin Water, and even ABIA. It will provide steady income, airconditioned office space during the day, and they certainly can't do worse than the clowns that have been running things have done thus far. Why not give it a shot? If they do a good job we can elect them to city council and the mayor's office and really get things cooking around here.

It's Reddit. Your life will be okay if it disappears completely tomorrow. Take a breath.

Some people really don't like it when their free toy gets taken away.

This city will bend over backward for anything that brings outside money in, even to the detriment of the city, and it has been decided that tourists are the answer to everything. I do not understand for one second why someone would come to Austin as a tourist. What the fuck do they do here that is so special and can't happen almost anywhere else? Coming here for a convention or other event, sure. But just to visit? I don't get it. As for convention activities, SXSW is a prime example of something that has grown too large for Austin to handle. It's a complete shit-show every year now, and by all rights should move to a city better equipped to handle that volume of tourists at one time. But fuck no, we're going to cram even more people in, despite having too few hotel rooms, too few rental cars, too few traffic lanes, and too few of absolutely everything except young Instagrammers spending daddy's money. They're never going to limit flights. You'll wait in line for four hours outside in the Texas heat, and you'll like it.

There's only one reasonable answer to this question, and if it's the case it would get anyone else a swift(ish) death at the hands of the justice system. In this case, we all know something like that isn't going to happen, and sadly we can't completely disregard the possibility that he's just an idiot. But it's difficult to see anything here but traitorous behavior.

Austin's complete inability to elect/hire competent people to run its major service sectors, e.g. water, gas, electric, airport, aside, one major issue hitting the airport is that air travel is too fucking cheap these days (and Austin has become a tourist hotspot for peasants young people). It was mentioned up thread, although I don't recall who wrote it, that this is what happens when bus people start flying. I don't know when the airlines will recognize what other industries have figured out in spades over the last few years - jack up your rates and make more money serving fewer people. Stop trying to cram bodies in seats with dirt-cheap fares and simply charge double (or more). I know it sounds elitist, but I don't care. Take the fucking bus like I and everyone else that couldn't afford to fly used to do. Flying should return to being a special event that most people can't afford to do too often.

And tourists. All three groups shouldn't have a voice in how the city is operated — especially the cyclists.

Austin is so desperate to be a real city, but continues time and time again to fall flat on its face. We're a homeless guy in an evening gown, stumbling around trying to get admitted to fancy restaurants for dinner. Only the places with drunk hostesses think we're cool and let us in. I know it won't happen, but I'd sure like to see this pandemic bump in population evaporate into thin air. Surely people who moved here in the last couple of years have to be asking themselves, "What the fuck have I done?". The airport is half the size it needs to be, the traffic is as bad as cities four times its size, and you can't even find a fucking primary care physician who can see you sooner than six months from now. Austin does not have the infrastructure, private industry, or anything else to satisfy a population half its size, despite the city drowning in tax dollars to play with. What a shit show.

No embalming in Ecuador?

I think some of you live under rocks. Plenty of ugly/dorky men (and ugly/dorky women) are out there getting fucked regularly. Need proof? Walk outside. Ugly/dorky people are everywhere. They didn't just spring up out of the soil. That 80/20 number from up thread is nonsense and something incels bring up to justify their bullshit. Women can be choosier on dating apps because better-looking men will throw a fuck at a dog on occasion. He isn't going to marry her, though, and we're talking about companionship here more than sex. When it comes to long-term coupling, people generally are in line with their partners in terms of attractiveness. Should some people recalibrate expectations? Perhaps, but not for the reasons mentioned above. We live in an era where the lowliest skanks and dumbest fools think they're deserving of luxury, success, and free love. Why? Because lowly skanks and dumbasses permeate pop culture. Looking at you, fat half-Armenian family with no discernable skillset beyond middling oral sex skills and a willingness to whore on camera. Looking at you, everyone who got famous on Youtube. If these people have money, active sex lives, and fame, why can't anyone? The problem isn't that subpar people expect too much. The problem is that subpar people have legitimately been handed the keys to the kingdom. If we celebrate mediocrity (or worse) as a culture, then perhaps these folks' expectations aren't so unreasonable. Why study hard, work hard, develop skills, etc., when so many people can fast-track to success without putting in any effort? This culture didn't appear overnight, and yes the parenting trends of the last few decades have played a major role in the entitlement of otherwise forgettable people, but I mostly blame Ryan Seacrest. This thread has a hilarious combo of borderline incel comments mixed in with white-knighting bullshit. I think it boils down to this. This isn't an issue of equity, or modern gender politics, or anything else. Men and women have been treating each other like shit for centuries, but in the end, almost everyone loves fucking and will find a way to get it done. If you can find someone you enjoy being around who also wants to fuck you, lock that shit down. Only ~30% of American adults are single (which is the real reason some single people struggle to meet someone), so this is a lot of words and a long thread to discuss a minority population, a significant chunk of which has no interest in sex and dating (and another significant chunk of which is not heterosexual and haven't been factored into this discuss at all that I've noticed). So really, we're talking about maybe 5-10% of the adult population that wants a partner but has had trouble finding one. I don't think this is really a problem at all, or worthy of dissection, but rather, like many hot-button topics these days, serves as a vehicle for people to drape their other issues upon.

I'm mostly just pissed that I couldn't read some reviews of ceramic grill temp monitors on reddit yesterday. How dare they lock it down, I need my free advice!

There is someone out there who is proud to be popular in every county in Oklahoma. That may be the craziest thing to come out of this darkest timeline we've been stuck in for the last seven years or so.

Tons of them out there, of course. My earlier post was commenting on how there are fewer in a city like Austin, which skews young. Successful and attractive women of a certain age have trouble dating all over the world, apparently. Too many tiny-dicked Andew Tates running around out there I suppose, while the real men are largely married and settled. With the education gap skewing hard in the historically opposite direction, it will only get worse for these women - but much more enjoyable for a single and enterprising fellas who aren't wastoids.

Someone in that position should consider moving to a town that actually has a sizeable population of people over 35. Austin might be the worst city in America if you're over thirty-five and single (assuming you're looking for a partner). If you just want to sleep around with younger women, Austin is not a shabby spot at all. This is a young city and the single olds here tend to be used up divorcees with limited options.

It's mind-boggling, frankly. It's possible he was approached and declined, but I have difficulty believing that.

Absolutely, but that's a tough nut to crack when you live in a city full of young single adults like Austin. The average age here is very young, which doesn't typically lead to terribly thoughtful voting. Unless you have a plan for shifting the demographics significantly, it's not going to change. Austin is not a kid-friendly city (surprisingly bad in terms of schools, available activities, etc. - especially when it was known as a good place to raise kids just a generation ago), so most parents get the heck out of here once they hit a certain age, leaving young childless voters to elect similarly minded goobs into office. Most of the parents left here are those who can afford million+ homes and private schools, along with the high tax rates and general cost of living, so not a huge group. It's not really any worse than a city dominated by old folks, though, where absolutely nothing is ever approved if it costs money and nothing ever changes. It will be interesting to see if Austin's demographics age at all over the next couple of decades with all the transplants sticking it out, or if we continue to see people reach their thirties, settle down, and then get the fuck out to someplace with affordable housing and decent schools.

I know that there's a cultlike movement out there to ban circumcision that can grab hold of those so inclined, but to feel that strongly about circumcision can only mean one of two things: He is the rare recipient of a botched circumcision; He's not circumcised and is upset that women, in significant numbers, prefer circumcised cocks (which might be the only reason needed for continuing the practice). Otherwise, holy shit. Comparing it to female circumcision is fucking loony.

Completely agree regarding the police failing to do their job. They're only one part of the system, though. When the other parts will do absolutely nothing at all, there is plenty of blame to go around. The police can arrest every homeless person in town over and over and over but it doesn't solve anything and doesn't get those folks the help they need. Despite a couple of attempts to paint this with a partisan brush, it's possible to think the police in Austin are useless and sandbagging while at the same time lamenting the failings of the criminal justice system and mental health resources available to address things as well. Our DA sucks, our police department sucks, and our city council sucks. All of this can be true without political sides coming into play. Austin is a failed city on many levels, and the blame for that can be spread around widely, including up to the fuckery of the state government and its influence here. But locally we're a complete and utter embarrassment of a shitshow. Admitting as much shouldn't be shameful if you don't let politics get in your way.

'Too late to edit, but I should have credited JFK with the Community Mental Health Centers Act in the early sixties. That's what emptied all of the government-funded hospitals. Add on the lawsuits that made it extremely difficult to commit someone involuntarily, and the gutting of funding from the feds on down, and you get what we have today. We prioritize autonomy above all else in America. In general, I support this. It's who we are and how we got here. But sometimes, things like beneficence, justice, or just plain old ethics dictate that autonomy should take a backseat. The homeless/mental health crisis is one of these times.

No doubt Reagan and the congressional R's are responsible for gutting crucial funding, which remains a major issue to this day, and they deserve all the heat for that. State politicians deserve their fair share as well. Here in Texas the waitlist for the state hospitals is atrocious, all while we sit on a giant rainy day fund. It's stupid. However, the ACLU is responsible for making involuntary commitment damn near impossible. While well-intentioned, their actions have as much or more to do with the volume of mentally ill people on the streets today than the lack of funding. You can't force these folks to get help, and without that stick, many won't get it. Then you have cities like Austin, where the complicated scales of justice and fairness rarely tip towards reason, and you have a DA who refuses to prosecute these individuals just about anyone, perhaps with good reason due to mental health issues, but is just fine releasing them back on the streets to attack another innocent bystander rather than have them wait for a hospital bed in a jail cell, which sucks for them but is better for society. There has to be a way to force someone like that into treatment or otherwise get them out of society where they are clearly incapable of functioning and pose a threat to others. The abuses of the past don't mean we can't find a humane way of dealing with sick people today. The rock-throwing homeless piece of shit is back at it in the NW Hills area after having done countless amounts of damage to vehicles and injuring numerous people. He's been arrested numerous times, only to be sent right back out there to harm people. All you have to do is stop showering and act a bit nuts, and you too can get away with attempted murder in this town. The end result of these policies is that he's going to kill someone, and/or he'll piss off the wrong driver and they'll kill him (which obviously isn't exactly helpful for this mentally ill man). Doing nothing just encourages citizens to take matters into their own hands, which none of us should want. These are wholly failed approaches that result in a worse situation for the sick individual and for the rest of society. The answer to getting homeless people housed and cared for is involuntary commitment and treatment (not in all cases, obviously, just when medically necessary - which is extremely common in that community. Otherwise, we can all just continue volunteering at shelters and donating money to well-intentioned nonprofits, which will undoubtedly do some good for those few who seek help, and meanwhile the mentally ill homeless will continue to lead miserable lives and cause harm to our communities and never improve their situations. It's all fucked and makes me angry just thinking about how screwed up it all is with little that can be done.

And that reason? The ACLU.

Well, yeah. I meant not the type of dumbass one typically associates with pit bull ownership. These folks are dumbasses for sure, just educated dumbasses, making it all the more mind bottling.

Well, if there were ever someone I might support being shot...