TheRealKuni

I once heard someone say:

“My teens were my body’s puberty, my twenties were my mind’s puberty. By my thirties I started to have a handle on things.”

That has really stuck with me. I’ve loved my thirties!

It’s absurd how attractive she is.

This is the second greatest news I’ve heard all day, second only to my father’s successful surgery.

I saw this title and briefly thought Mock the Week was back.

Fascinating, I didn’t realize the Roman Catholic Church didn’t have deaconesses. The Eastern and Oriental Orthodox Churches do, and several Protestant denominations do.

Ah, right, okay, reading the Wikipedia page, the presence of deaconesses fell off when the church became institutionalized under Constantine and started removing women from leadership roles. Just went downhill from there.

Good job, Roman Catholic Church. Ignore your own holy text which contains examples of deaconesses in favor of a patriarchal system that was mostly enforced after the Roman government took an interest in the church. 🙄

If only.

And it’s sinking enough that they’re trying to move capitals to a new city. Oof.

They are literally, physically and governmentally, separate.

I’m not trying to say that Israel isn’t being horrible in the West Bank (they are), nor am I saying that the pattern of behavior towards Palestinians is not the same in both places (it is), nor am I denying that the overarching conflict is one and the same (it is). I’m saying that the genocidal siege of Gaza, and specifically the ceasefire negotiated with Hamas, do not directly deal with the West Bank nor the Palestinian Authority.

So it isn’t that the settlers got an “exemption” from the ceasefire, it’s that the ceasefire didn’t deal with that region to begin with.

Right. Sure it isn’t

That reads as sarcastic so I’m not sure what you’re trying to say.

West Bank isn’t part of the ceasefire as far as I know, since it wasn’t part of the conflict in Gaza.

In the Netherlands? What a shame to learn that level Americanesque idiocy has found a foothold.

In fact, one has a similar learning curve going from Android to iOS (as I learned when I transitioned to iPhone) even if iOS is broadly considered more “user friendly.”

I think you’re onto something. Switching to Windows would be painful to anyone used to Linux regardless of all the philosophical differences simply because the OS works differently. Lord knows I despise MacOS despite people who use it saying, “it just works.”

The investigation is taking its sweet time.

Not really. We already have the preliminary report. Final reports take a long time. Often a year or more.

That’s all possible. But they need to move because Jakarta is fucked. It’s sinking faster than an other city in the world and they have no way of controlling that rate because the city is full of unregulated wells.

Half as Interesting just did a video about this.

(That said, they could’ve just moved to another city rather than building a new one.)

But what does your bridge leader say you should do today, Teft?

If it were as easy as having rich, industry parents Jayden Smith would have an Oscar by now.

Exactly. And Lance Stroll would be a multi-time Formula 1 champion, rather than a joke who only has a drive because his dad bought the team.

Her performances lean heavily on elaborate set pieces and fifty costume changes.

And this means she has no talent because…?

She can barely dance

Neither can most choral singers, orchestral musicians, concert pianists, does that make them untalented?

has the most generic singing voice, minimal vocal range

Ah yes, famously it is impossible to be a talented mezzo-soprano.

she still writes songs like a 20-year-old despite being 36 years old at this point. The most adversity she’s ever faced is “x celebrity was mean to me”. She has no artistic perspective and nothing interesting to say.

Valid criticism! But it doesn’t mean she isn’t talented.

In the grand scheme of things, there are hundreds of THOUSANDS of people with more talent than her making art right this moment.

Sure, but does that mean she has no talent? There are lots of numbers bigger than 74, does than mean 74 is 0?

I can’t play an instrument and sing at the same time. I also can’t dance. And there are MILLIONS of people more talented than I am in the world, making art. Does that mean I have no talent? Someone should really let the symphony chorus I’ve been singing in for the last 16 years know.

The world isn’t black and white, my friend. You don’t have to be Weird Al or Geddy Lee or Mozart to be talented.

Listen, I’m not making value statements about her music or her ethics or her politics or anything. I, as a musician, am saying you can’t call her “no-talent.”

If it wasn’t for her family’s existing wealth, there would had been a possibility thwt we may have never heard of her.

That’s not unique. The most famous in many fields had a helping hand, because success can be expensive. Wealth does not preclude talent or skill. A person can be talented or skilled and come from a wealthy background. In fact, it tends to be common in music because wealthy parents have the resources to get their kids training and instruments at a young age.

Taylor Swift music is generic white woman fantasy

Again, you don’t have to like her music to acknowledge her talents. She’s an accomplished singer/songwriter, performer, and musician regardless of whether you like her content.

There’s Fandom that are toxic, then there’s hers who drown out any valid criticisms of the artist.

“Her music is generic white woman fantasy” is valid criticism. The “therefore she has no talent” part isn’t.

She’s also a MAGA incognito, surrounds herself with MAGAts. Like that saying; if youre having dinner with nazi’s, what does that make you?

I don’t really know anything about her politics. I do recall a video of her arguing with her publicist and parents because she wanted to support a Democrat. But this is an irrelevant non-sequitur. Even if a person were a card carrying member of the Nazi party, they could still be talented.

Come on. You don’t have to like her music, but you can’t claim she’s no-talent.