ShouldaMarriedAStripper

Wall of text, you’ve been warned. The hassles of the last board switch kind of caused me to minimize and then cease my participation here. As someone who doesn’t do social media at all or participate much in online communities, and who is pretty private by nature, removing myself was kind of inevitable at some point. I also realized, when Trump got elected, that the polarization was only going to get worse, and reasonable discourse was going the way of the dodo, and I actually liked many of you bastards, even if you held views I disagreed with, so I bowed out of the Shaggy/Surlyverse. That said, this community is unique. And discovering it was a necessary outlet and a lifesaver at a time when there was a lot of bad shit going on in my life, so I’ll always be grateful to Bob, Rick et al, and I still feel an affinity to this community of assholes, even as a non-Longhorn and indeed someone who’s never been a TX resident. And whenever there’s been something newsworthy happening in TX, it’s still the place I come to first to lurk and get the best and fastest info. I comment now because of the week’s unprecedented events, and also because I think I can provide a perspective that is not common. I grew up in an old money family, in a place that was always studiously apolitical and regarded as the beacon for free market capitalism. There are too many billionaires in my immediate and extended social circles for me to keep straight. Since becoming naturalized, I’ve never voted for a Democrat for national office (state and local, yes.) I’m the last person a so called Conservative could accuse of being their opponent. I consider myself fiscally conservative and socially pretty liberal. I’m not religious- having grown up in a multicultural world, exposed to many belief systems, despite (or perhaps because of) having been baptized in one Christian sect and being schooled by another, I find monotheistic Abrahamic religions to be hypocritical at best, and extremely harmful at worst (whilst understanding the need for humans to believe in something bigger and better than the world they exist in. But don’t give me the “Christianity/whatever religion gives us the beliefs to do good yadda yadda. Everyone in my family who’s done loads of philanthropy has done so because that was their internal code, and none of them were/are believers in a monotheistic Abrahamic religion. Anyway, I digress.) I’ve also spent a lifetime trying to educate myself on the human condition, why the world is the way it is, why people do the things they do etc.- when you’re going out on the yacht every weekend, or flying off to ski in Switzerland as a child at the same time you’re being exposed to refugees and people in poverty, you either develop a conscience and wonder why things are the way they are or you become well, Donald Trump. I also took advantage of matriculating at one of few unis that offers a course of study that examines how economic systems, particularly post-Industrial Revolution, and systems of government, affect one another. Trump isn’t the reason we are in this situation. He’s just an inevitable product of the world we live in. I blame Mark Burnett. If he hadn’t cast Trump in that show, average Americans wouldn’t think he was a genius businessman, they’d see him the way wealthy people in NY or around the world who’ve had to deal with him have always seen him: as the narcissistic moron who somehow always managed to weasel his way out of any consequences of his (usually stupid) actions. The fact that shameless opportunists have milked this for all they can, from Murdoch, Hannity and such to the Cruzes and Hawleys of the world, shouldn’t surprise anyone. Posters like Loather are part of the problem, but we also have to understand why so many supposedly educated people buy into what Trump et al are selling and unhinged conspiracy theories like QAnon. (And yes, QAnon people, my family shows up on your internet lists of the cabal of elites who are controlling the world due to membership in XYZ organization, or association with ABC person, so clearly this is all an attempt to stop you from exposing us.) No system of governance, no empire, no nation state, no society that humanity has tried has endured forever. Why do we think think Western style Democracy allied to unfettered Capitalism (whilst enabling and embracing totalitarian regimes as long as they buy into the “Capitalism” part of the equation and give our companies access to their markets and/or cheap/unregulated labour in the name of “globalization”) is any different? Especially in a unique nation, where our past has created fervently held beliefs in freedoms that technology allows bad actors to abuse, and that has an unaddressed historical inequity because of slavery? Every single system of a society/civilization we have tried has consisted of tremendous inequities, often initiated by the sword. The East India Company didn’t project the British Empire’s influence peacefully. And all of the great empires of the 19th century and their economic might were built on exploiting the people and natural resources of other nations, whether it was forcing opium onto the Chinese in return for the tea they wanted, or umpteen other examples of Imperialistic gun-barrel “economics” on top of the “diplomacy”. The Industrial Revolution, and every other “economic miracle” we’ve had has been built on the suffering of people and/or resource draining of nations, to the benefit of some at the expense of others, be they factory workers in late 19th century Great Britain or the PRC factory workers churning out cheap goods today for our consumption. Rebuilding after global conflicts provided 20th century opportunities for great economic growth, but at the cost of tens of millions of deaths and great destruction. The one constant, the glue holding it all together, has always been hope. Hope that there’s a better future for someone. Bad shit happened, but we can rebuild and make it better etc. The narrative re: the youth in this country of today not having the chance at the same stable, secure future that their Boomer or Gen X parents had is accurate. But why is that so? IMO, the Democratic Party of my youth, post-Civil Rights movement, had one job: to reign in the worst instincts of free market, small government, every man for himself Capitalism that the GOP catered to. The problem was, from the time Marx and Engels were galvanized to write down their ideas for a better, fairer system by the penurious conditions suffered by 19th century factory workers, human nature has meant that “everyone should have the same” was an impossible ideal. Socialism, or even “liberal” economic ideas, never really worked long term outside of small nations with exceptional circumstances (Norway with their trillion $ North Sea oil funded sovereign wealth fund for 4 million people, on top of not having to spend much on defense etc.) And whether it was Labour in the UK, or the Democrats here, the realization that “unfettered capitalism” seemed to work better than “Socialism”, or even Keynesian theories or whatever, and that’s why they kept losing elections, brought to fruition Blair and Clinton’s pivot to “Globalization” as the answer to keep providing hope since there wasn’t another world war to rebuild from, or industrial or technological revolution to spur growth. The problem is, in the past, the people of First World countries were always the beneficiaries of the system. It wasn’t them being take advantage of, it wasn’t their natural resources being pillaged by a foreign corporation. But our middle class, instead of being the middle of 300 million Americans, and better off than 90% of the world’s population, when the barriers to protect local markets were taken away were now part of an ecosystem that is 7 billion people. And globalization may have benefited the 400 million new middle class Chinese it’s created, but it sure as hell didn’t benefit all the people here who used to be able to rely on a solid middle class future built on manufacturing. And we didn’t have a plan or vision, or will, to fund programs to give those people hope now that there are no more countries to take advantage of to improve our lot as a bubble of 300 million people. I think you see all these white small business owners, and educated white professionals, jumping on the batshit crazy QAnon train because they’ve seen what happened to the manufacturing sector here, and they’re scared shitless that a world where “their people” are losing their privilege means they’re next, and everything they’ve got is at risk. So pointing out the lack of logic in their viewpoints, or trying to reason with them, is pointless, unless there’s a way to address those fears instead of stoking them as Trump, and the GOP with their complicity, have done. When the Haves face the prospect of getting some of their advantages taken away in an attempt to give the Have Nots a chance at becoming one of the Haves, what do we expect to happen? What’s the answer? I wish I knew. I don’t think we’ve ever come up with a system that treats everybody well, so maybe there is no answer. Maybe western style democracy allied with unfettered Capitalism will inevitably fail just like all previous systems of operating a functioning society mankind has tried have eventually failed. We came a lot closer to our Republic falling this past week than I ever thought I’d see in my lifetime. I figured it would be my grandkids who’d have to deal with it. Shit on Loathe all you want. He deserves it by coming here and spouting the same tired BS the self-proclaimed silent majority of so called “Conservatives” spout to try to defend their indefensible views. But unless we figure out a way to address the existential issues at hand, the ignominious (and hopefully peaceful and un-disastrous) denouement of Trump’s catastrophic term in the days to come won’t make these people feel less threatened, and that means the threat to the Republic’s existence still remains. Tl;dr I know. If you’ve all discussed this umpteen times, mea culpa, I haven’t been around. Just be glad I’m not posting my thoughts on this pandemic and how it’s been mishandled, given my health care professional relative who was heavily involved in a major vaccination effort in China and on the front lines of SARS and other recent Asian epidemics, and my other relative who is a Nobel-level award winning doctor in a field that encompasses viruses and pandemics. Nice to see a lot of the familiar Shaggy names still here. Hope you and your loved ones all remain safe and healthy until we get COVID under control. Condolences to all who’ve suffered losses. I need a cheat sheet for the user name changes that have occurred though. And Fitlump is on Austin’s City Council?! That to me might be the single biggest sign of the coming Apocalypse. And when did the Cloak Room become the bastion of sanity and DT the lunatics’ asylum?! Oh, and condolences on Sark.

My Ex had some stuff in the cupboard that she would only get when my mother took her to non-chain Asian markets (e.g. not 99 Ranch, H Mart etc.) A lot of those things I didn't even know the English name for, but were used when she made dishes my mother taught her. Not weird ass things you'd get from an herbalist or anything like that, just stuff/brands I don't think the big chains carry.

I don't think this flight is longer than Auckland to Doha. That's 18h 20m. SQ's NYC to Singapore flight is longer than both, but that's suspended pending delivery of their A350s.

Mine's an "S", for "Shaggster". I mean, "Surlyster". Fuck, that's horrible. I need to find an avatar.

Does anyone know someone of Inuit background in Texas? We could fund a competitor called "Inuit Shack" and put him out of business as the "Inuit owned and culturally appropriate place to get your wine laced sno-cones".

Keep in mind blacklab still owns 28% of the Shag. What's 28% of a bunch of GIFs of guys shitting worth these days?

Noooooooo, damn hipsters have ruined Bay Cities already. Oh well, since the cat's out of the bag on this thread, Pro tip: order online and pick up your sandwiches and you can avoid the long "take a number" wait. Just go to the far left instead of to the right, and there's a rack against the wall where the online orders are put when they're ready. Can still take a while these days, so order them 30 minutes before you think you'll arrive or you'll end up waiting around anyway.

It's really difficult to articulate just what was unique about the Shag (and will be unique about Surly), but I think blacklab did an amazing job given the venue/format.

Yeah but the thread is about Los Angeles food recommendations. I've been to both Arcadia locations numerous times, and tried the Century City one once, and have never had what you call a "good day" when compared to the xiaolongbao you can get in Asia (including the Din Tai Fung's I've been to in Taiwan and Hong Kong.) IMO, not worth the wait on an L.A. visit.

Every Asian family I know (and since I'm Eurasian, that's a lot of families) just uses a rice cooker. Most of the modern ones have settings for all kinds of rice and even quinoa. Why try to reinvent the wheel?

"Most overrated xiaolongbao on earth", you mean.

No matches for 2 weeks, Gomez gets hurt, and now Shagmageddon hits. Great. Saturday morning can't come soon enough. I hope we twat Palace 5-0.

I haven't felt this disoriented since the first day of classes after my parents sent me thousands of miles away to boarding school.