NightSG

But the pediatrician had to give that sedative. I'd go for a stuffed animal or similar. Both of mine had their favorites that they carried around for years, and IIRC, both were gifts.

Everyone wants a strong defense when they're being accused. The problem comes when that "defense" is so strong that even clearly unjust actions result in no effective discipline.

I would tend to think that in those "unwise" areas, the only wise decision is to move. If a ten year old can't safely walk to the park alone, then I wouldn't want them to be in the neighborhood at all.

More importantly, is she willing to keep to those commitments after they're made? My ex wife, when she was accusing me of infidelity because I would sometimes be 20-30 minutes late getting home from work or class, agreed to communication as verification; if I wasn't going to be home right away I'd text her, and she would do the same, but within a month she was back to her routine of "going to the store" for 3-4 hours, not answering her phone during that time, and coming home with a couple small bags of groceries. Shortly after that, she started going to the bar with her brother, dressing up more than she had when we were dating and disappearing for 6 hours or more at a time. I still got chewed out if I didn't let her know exactly what was going on within 10 minutes after my shift or class ended, but I also got chewed out if I made the mistake of asking her where she had been or why it took 4 hours to get a day's groceries from a store that was less than a five minute drive from the house.

Well, I'll say one thing for him; he's got more people praying than any President I can remember. Granted, a lot are praying that he'll go away and take Biden with him, but still.

Well, the 13th Amendment specifically allows for involuntary servitude "as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted," so I don't see the problem there. It still leaves the question of how you get them to work if they're locked up for life either way, but it should be possible to come up with an option short of continually physically forcing them. For example, 10 years' hard labor could be the sentence, and every day they're not working to their full potential doesn't count toward that sentence, plus adding certain privileges; you can work 6 days a week, have a soft bed in a private room and be out in ten years, or 3 days a week, have a decent bunk in a bunkhouse and be out in twenty, or not at all and die in a small cell on a cot.

So is it OK to knit white shirts during Sacrament meeting? I should get a kilt for the next time someone "suggests" that I should make sure to wear a white shirt Sunday morning. See what they say about that.

IMO, that should have existed all along; there have been many cases where it would have made sense for non-romantic pairings (i.e. roommates or even neighbors) to have essentially the same treatment as married couples under the law. One I can think of in particular was a pair of childhood friends, both widowed, who moved in together. Since they weren't related, it took quite a bit of legal creativity to set up everything so that their grown offspring couldn't make trouble over the house when one died, and ensure that either would always be able to visit the other in the hospital or manage each other's affairs if one was incapacitated. I personally don't see anything wrong with having some single, simple contract they could enter into that would give them exactly the same legal treatment as a spousal relationship, though I don't think it should be called marriage in that case. (And I'm pretty sure they wouldn't have wanted it called that either, since they were both fairly active on the Baptist singles scene.) I could see limiting adoption privileges to existing close family members of either partner, (for example, if either of them had had any minor children at the time) but other than that, it would essentially be a legal equivalent of marriage under a different title.

I move every couple of years to keep the statistical likelihoods confused.

I rarely eat a burger without piling on jalapenos, and my favorite chicken strip dipping sauce is mango habanero, but WingStop actually has some Cajun Extra Spicy wings that left me with blisters in my mouth from choking down two of them.

What if I find white shirts distracting and the insistence upon them to be unnecessarily contentious?

Hopefully not at the same time. Did he say which was the more painful punishment?

Nerf herders. Especially scruffy looking ones.

They just need some kind of honesty bond; if you get there and find out they were intentionally deceptive about something significant on the profile, they have to pay all the expenses for the date, including travel.

Problem is, they're generally a minimum of two hours away. A four hour round trip including gas is a lot to pay for false advertising.

Skip the wedding photos too. And anything with a beer in your hand. Might want to avoid the barely-street-legal-at-both-ends tube dress pics while you're claiming a current TR, too. Oh, and be realistic on "body type" too; just because Andre The Giant was an athlete doesn't mean a 4'11" woman at the same weight has and "athletic" body type.

Ours mostly drive. OTOH, I'm sure that's not an option in plenty of places that have a similar climate, and when dealing with the constant sweat on a bicycle, I'd be more worried about saddle sores than the smell.

To some extent, I think padded garment bottoms designed like and made from the same fabric as good bike shorts would be a boon for missionaries in some areas, but I've also had the fun of trying to get through to a lot of people that all those technical fabrics in bike and other sports base layers don't work right unless they're *directly* against your skin. It's amusing how many women will shell out good money for bike shorts, then claim it doesn't work, when the problem is that they were wearing WalMart panties under the shorts.

Would cost as much to fix the AC as I paid for the car. Plus, even with the best AC, it's going to be hot enough long enough to sweat all the way through an undershirt and dress shirt before it gets the car cooled off. I proved this accidentally by wearing a high-end maroon dress shirt in a car with great AC last summer; the seat belt sweat stripe is not a good fashion statement.

Another trick I use, since I prefer to be set up for "slow bug out," (effectively, meaning that I have time to pack a bag or two and head for mom's place or the ridge at the other end of her property) is to use new metal paint cans for non-food and well sealed food items. The lid seal is much better than a #10 with a snap on plastic lid, (rodent proofing is important in this area) and they can be repurposed as they're emptied as boiling/storage containers for water, cooking pots, or charcoal cookers. The gallon size (and proper labeling) also makes it easier to pick and choose at go-time, rather than having to either take a whole five gallon bucket for a short-term event or stop to repackage the contents. Since the most likely trouble here is a tornado, a less-than-a-day bug out to get out of the path, or a 3-5 day bug out or hunker down to wait for utilities to be restored are the main things I try to prepare for. Beyond that, it's just old habits from my Methodist grandmother that make me keep some extra food around; for most of her life, a hard rain could mean not being able to get into town for weeks.

Two to three hours on the road is bad enough on a dress shirt in the best of conditions. Throw in Texas heat, a cheap car, and the distinct possibility of having to do some roadside maintenance, ($700 1997 Saturn. So far, I've had to replace the brake master cylinder in an Autozone parking lot on the way to a dance, remove and clean up the throttle body on the way to a fireside, JB Weld a busted headlight adjuster on the way to another dance, and change a blowout on the way home from a SA planning meeting.) and I don't wear "Sunday best" for any drive over about 15 minutes.

The problem with LtC Grossmann's analogy in this situation is the dogs in the story don't have a union. "Punished and removed" rarely happens except for the most grievous offenses. Even then, the union often steps up and gets the officer reinstated, or the record is sealed and he moves on to another department.

Quick, let's rework the rumors; get it out there that the men's garments will change to a Borat-style mankini, and the women's will be sewn together at the knees to make wearing pants outright impossible.

Quite frankly, in that situation, I'd be more inclined to get my cards on the table, so to speak, in order to head off any rumors before they start.

I'm telling you, convert the Pope, and the problems will go away. Go big or go home.