Friends, colleagues, gorons one and all----it appears to me that we are indeed living in the end times. I speak not of religion or myth, but of the end of this great American experiment. Between the pandemic, race wars and Trump, this is not the country it was just five years ago, or even five months ago.
Question: do you PERSONALLY, HONESTLY think that in five or ten years, things will be BETTER or WORSE than they are now?
Yours,
HRM Darvnivs Maximvs, King of the Gorons and Ireland, lord of all deli workers, rex graecorum, et cetera.
What's wrong about this? The prominent belief that sex and gender are different concepts is accepted by both liberals and sociologists. We have two words to categorize women: transwomen and ciswomen. So why is it offensive to say that ciswomen have a different experience than transwomen? They're both women (gender) but have different anatomy (sex). ...and? So why is Rowling getting raked over the coals?
It's heartfelt, and most of it seems reasonable to me. The most objectionable parts seem to be:
Women deserve and are entitled their own spaces (i.e. it's okay to exclude transwomen in same cases)
We must not be too hasty to allow transwomen to enter female-designated bathrooms, dressing rooms, and other vulnerable spaces. Rowling laments that Scotland allows a person to simply declare they are a woman, to be considered one in the eyes of the law.
Rowling has a history of domestic abuse (she is traumatized by it to the point where sudden loud noises frighten her). This has instilled into her a latent fear of men, making her leery of cagey men who want to pose as transwomen, to enter safe spaces of women. Most of us liberals can agree that it's bigoted to conflate transwomen with men. This is a sticky scenario, though. Here we have a battered woman, who has a visceral reaction to a male body, and fears that a criminal cismale will potentially pose as a transwoman and invade women-only spaces and assault them.
I have no figures to back this up, but my intuition is that it's less likely for a dangerous man to pose as a transwoman, than it is for a transwoman to be thrown into a group of men and be assaulted. So is this a utilitarian issue, where we have to weigh the options? As trans rights take hold, wouldn't it follow that criminals will exploit them for their own ends?
Why is it so controversial that a person's sex will inform their experience? The way I see it, if that was false, then transgenderism wouldn't exist to begin with. Isn't the central issue with being transgendered that the "gender" of your brain doesn't align with your bodily sex? So how could your biology NOT have an affect on your mentality?
As for Rowling, I'm not sure how I feel about this. I think her feelings are valid, and besides, as a man and supporter of feminism, I'm troubled by the idea of attacking a woman for her opinion. But, I can also see how her comments are problematic and transphobic. It's ironic to me that feminist activists would harass and threaten her. Surely there must be a middle-ground where feminists stand up for their transwomen members, and not outright attack another woman?
Oh yes, a return to the original style of Paper Mario and Thousand Year Door.
It's called Bug Fables. It's good. It's whimsical and charming and also has layers of depth. The combat takes the best parts of Super Mario RPG (3 characters in each battle which are developed equally across the game), Paper Mario (the most obvious inspiration), and Mario & Luigi (the combinations).
The art style is a more simplistic childlike version of Paper Mario. I suppose you could compare it to Yoshi's Island, but a little smoother. Other than that, flat land and cell shading- that's what you're getting here.
The sound design is excellent. The music is addictive and fitting and the sounds give the general feel of a "lived in" world.
The storyline is a return to that older Mario RPG style. The characters are fleshed out and there's emotional moments with some depth but without straying from that childlike charm.
Oh, but there is one more thing. The game is HARD. This is the "Lost Levels" of Paper Mario style games. There's a challenge badge you can equip at the very start which makes the game even harder. You'll have to think through every single boss fight with that thing on, but you get extra XP and special rewards for every boss you beat with it on.
I have only just begun, so this isn't a detailed review, but I highly recommend it. It's on Switch right now, maybe other things I dunno. It's $25 of your earth dollars.
A few questions which I legitimately feel might be answered here before this forum hall.
The neck hold that the cop did... is that ever allowed, is that some kind of textbook way to restrain someone?
Also, the cause of the call was presumably that Floyd was using a counterfeit bill and resisted arrest. Not that either of these would dismiss the horrible abuse of power/murder that was committed, but--did he resist, and was he using counterfeit currency? Media is painting him as a deciphal of Christ at this point, so I'm curious if either of these are true.
I seriously would like to know why it is so offensive to say "all lives matter," and why the Sacramento radio guy had to resign... can someone explain or justify this to me? I must be missing something...
As usual, to use a private server for one of these dead console games, just change your console's DNS as indicated by the above site.
(I also found a way to get the free DLC for Dragon Quest IX with another DNS 172.104.88.237 , and Metal Gear Solid 4's online mode with yet another but that does involve downgrading to a previous version. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G9d4ij88...e=youtu.be )
Personally I'm just very glad that these games that go offline can come back online without necessarily having to hack your PS3.
Woo! I loved these games, and their good punk soundtracks (despite N64's inferior sound quality). I would sink hours into them. I'm looking forward to zipping around those newly rendered gorgeous levels.
![[Image: c9NiRKq.png]](https://i.imgur.com/c9NiRKq.png)
