Samson's Wig

The only thing that saved AISD from these money-grubbing cavemen was COVID. Mike Morath and his fellow fundie pieces of excrement in higher office have a hard-on for AISD, I guess because they love any reason to screw with Austin. One of our schools was one more F away from being taken over by TEA (which allows the state to take over the entire district) before the pandemic hit. I'm sure we're back on track for it now, but I haven't been paying attention as closely as I used to. I'm not sure any of it matters when state education is driven by standardized testing (which is just another way of funneling money to political cronies). Too many public school teachers check out completely once STAAR testing is done, and who can blame them when it's essentially the only measuring stick used to determine their performance? Combine that with the fucked up recapture system for funding, and it's amazing Texas isn't further down the list of state education rankings than it is.

I understand that dumb people do dumb things. The thing I don't understand is how anyone has the energy for shit like this, no matter how dumb they are. I'm too fucking tired to be passionate about a cause, whether noble, evil, or otherwise. I'm off for a sandwich and a nap.

Odds of this guy actually being convicted in Florida? I put it at maybe 10%. In Texas, it would be 0%. Too many dumb fucks like him in the jury pool.

It's New Mexico, man. You have to leave your assumptions at the door. May as well be Mars.

Amen. The neighborhoods around 360, especially those west of it, serve one purpose only. They exist to pay ridiculously high taxes and then shut the fuck up about the complete lack of services. We're paying for the party, but we're not invited to it. It's the area the city gives the absolute last fuck about regarding any issue. There are half as many schools as needed for the kids out here and no adequate fire services (despite being the part of the city most likely to have a massive fire disaster - I guess we can thank Lord Una Massa for sending us his ill-begotten daughter, Councilwoman Sana Massam, and ensuring she had disaster training. Let's just hope she's willing to leave her district to provide assistance), the cops will take an hour or more before moseying out to this distant neck of the woods to do anything (there isn't even a police station within miles of the area - the furthest western police station is in Rollingwood, lol), and the water pressure sucks every night past ten o'clock because we live on hills and this fucking city can't manage a party planning committee much less a water department that understands pumping water uphill requires a bit of pressure. Lots was discussed about folks with no power during Snovid, but little was ever said about the tons of folks stuck west of the city with no water (and no power) for almost two weeks, and no way to leave our homes because the city had/has no equipment for dealing with icy hills and couldn't be bothered to even attempt to do anything until national news picked up the story. We did what folks over here always do, fend for ourselves and take care of each other. The city has never given a fuck about anything out here other than scouring the streets on a daily basis trying to find anyone doing so much as building a doghouse so they can raise their property taxes. They also get really interested if anyone dares to take down a wild boar terrorizing the neighborhoods, even though the city itself will do nothing about it. "We won't solve your problems, but you're not allowed to solve them either" is essentially the status the city expects folks on the western edge to agree to. Most people out here have some means and are relatively self-sufficient. There's no need to feel sorry for anyone, and that's not the intent of the above. Everyone out here is well aware of our "rich devil" status (despite it being largely ill-founded) in the minds of the average young Austin resident, which give the city carte blanche to do little more than come out and apply cheap ass chip seal on our roads once every five years. The point is that anyone who thinks Lost Creek will regret disannexing is hilarious. The entirety of the western part of the city would love to join them. There is near zero benefit to being in the city limits out here.

There was definitely something wrong with him, but how he managed that level of success communicating predominantly online is rather astounding (and sad for all parties involved).

Yeah. I meant simultaneous as in simultaneous as well. The best way to flirt with one woman is to flirt with all the women in the room. I have no doubt there are guys communicating online in the manner you describe, but that's creepy as shit and likely has a success rate barely above zero. Life is for the living, and communion with others (whether sex driven or not) is kind of the point of why we're here. I'm not sure I would count what you're describing as living. Whatever blows their skirt up, I guess, but the thought of anyone doing that makes me feel sad for them.

In person, how else? If you played your cards right, and with a little luck, you might even get more than one of them naked simultaneously as well.

You could do that before the Internet, too.

We had a party line when I was a teenager. Finally got a dedicated line senior year. I think back on those years of basically never using a phone fondly these days. It created zero impediments to hooking up, you just had to get out and go somewhere.

NM Too late to the party.

We were at the McCallum Performing Arts Center for the Lamar Middle School band concert when the shit really hit the fan last night. Getting a bunch of grandparents and kids with musical instruments back to vehicles in a torrential downpour was less than pleasant. I felt really sorry for the old folks on blood thinners. They were freezing, and almost nobody dodged getting soaked. Umbrellas were damn near useless. Happy for the rain, though.

How have I never come across this jackass before? Does he typically only slither around in the lounge, smelling his own taco-scented farts? I can understand college kids being drawn into this level of overweening-weisenheimer thinking without the subsequent cognitive dissonance, but it's inexplicable in an adult with a fully developed brain. Maybe I've made the wrong assumption, and he's posting from a college campus, but it's more likely from his mom's basement or a nap pod at Google headquarters. I don't think I've ever put someone on ignore before, but he wins the prize. Based on this thread alone, he's either a propagandist in need of further training or a moron, so:

Twitter was always an echo chamber. It's just a much less civilized echo chamber now. It was never more than a small percentage of the population circle jerking each other in whatever echo chamber they created by curating their feed. Now it's one big echo chamber, solely curated by Robotron Pastebody, instead of the fragmented echo chambers it was before. Let's not pretend like it was ever a genuine source for measured information. It's much worse now, but it was always shit.

While I acknowledge firsthand how easy it is to get sucked in, I humbly suggest that everyone just ignore this shit because it isn't important, it just seems like it should be. It's really just a bunch of dicks, whether the protestors or the cops/elected officals, playing games with no real consequences. It's theater. There are more interesting and more important things to spend your time and energy on. Like getting laid. Or taking a nap. Or taking a nap after you get laid.

This is nothing more than cosplay for all parties involved. What a joke.

It's kind of incredible that the government heard some kids were acting like dipshits and the response was, "They think they know how to act like dipshits? Hold my beer!"

They just want you to think there are more tents, man. Don't fall for it.

NM

That's been students in Texas since, well always.

I assume it's the horse's blood.

Simple fix. All new parking lots must have a rooftop covered in low-water requirement plant life. Start a program to retrofit existing lots. Or we could take the easier approach and just eliminate parking requirements altogether, as our Austin council prefers. Who needs to drive when public transport is so readily available? All of those currently existing lots can be replaced with affordable $1,000,000 quadplexes. It won't make it any cooler, but think of the graft!

That's funny, because this post makes it seem like you're exactly the type of driver I was describing. You're not maintaining your speed, you just think you are. And that's the problem. But go with God and all that. Everyone thinks they're a great driver and almost all of us are wrong. I'm certainly doing something regularly and obliviously that is pissing someone off.

Fascinating. So you're one of those guys on the freeway. Every time I get on an open highway it's obvious most people aren't aware cruise control even exists, especially younger drivers. It's infuriating dealing with all the chucklefucks who will drive a couple of miles per hour slower than you would like to, but only speed up after you pass them and then slow right back down after they get in front of you again. I gues they can't handle being behind someone. Anyone who pulls that shit should lose their highway driving privileges. Pick a fucking speed and stick with it.