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romad1

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11 minutes ago, oblong said:

I've seen some people bring up Michael Vick and how he was treated vs Favre.

Have at it.

I'll say both suck.  Favre obviously got away with a lot because he's whiter than Vick.   Vick should have  been shunned and I still shun him despite whatever happy story rehabilitation that has happened. 

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20 minutes ago, romad1 said:

I'll say both suck.  Favre obviously got away with a lot because he's whiter than Vick.   Vick should have  been shunned and I still shun him despite whatever happy story rehabilitation that has happened. 

I don't disagree.  But how did society treat people prior to Vick when it comes to those activities?   From what I have read it was a common thing to do not just in black communities but generally poorer ones.  It's great that it's been shunned properly and all of that.   But was it right he took such a big bullet and so many others didn't?  And it's not to suggest he didn't deserve it but comparing how outlets like ESPN act right now when we learn what we have about Favre.

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4 hours ago, oblong said:

I don't disagree.  But how did society treat people prior to Vick when it comes to those activities?   From what I have read it was a common thing to do not just in black communities but generally poorer ones.  It's great that it's been shunned properly and all of that.   But was it right he took such a big bullet and so many others didn't?  And it's not to suggest he didn't deserve it but comparing how outlets like ESPN act right now when we learn what we have about Favre.

My sister in-law is from Mexico and her parents live in Sabinas Mexico. We go down to visit and her family, they raise Shamo fighting Roosters. They are huge freaking chickens and fight on the top tier in Mexico.  They fight to the death of course but it is part of the culture. In fact they were having charity matches while we were there last time to raise money for a local homeless shelter.

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20 minutes ago, Tigeraholic1 said:

My sister in-law is from Mexico and her parents live in Sabinas Mexico. We go down to visit and her family, they raise Shamo fighting Roosters. They are huge freaking chickens and fight on the top tier in Mexico.  They fight to the death of course but it is part of the culture. In fact they were having charity matches while we were there last time to raise money for a local homeless shelter.

Awesome?

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5 hours ago, oblong said:

I don't disagree.  But how did society treat people prior to Vick when it comes to those activities?   From what I have read it was a common thing to do not just in black communities but generally poorer ones.  It's great that it's been shunned properly and all of that.   But was it right he took such a big bullet and so many others didn't?  And it's not to suggest he didn't deserve it but comparing how outlets like ESPN act right now when we learn what we have about Favre.

i agree that peasant and more backwards culture tends to have low attitudes toward animals.  It’s still common among native americans to eliminate bothersome pets by taking hammers to their skulls.  

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30 minutes ago, Tigeraholic1 said:

My sister in-law is from Mexico and her parents live in Sabinas Mexico. We go down to visit and her family, they raise Shamo fighting Roosters. They are huge freaking chickens and fight on the top tier in Mexico.  They fight to the death of course but it is part of the culture. In fact they were having charity matches while we were there last time to raise money for a local homeless shelter.

 

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14 minutes ago, romad1 said:

i agree that peasant and more backwards culture tends to have low attitudes toward animals.  It’s still common among native americans to eliminate bothersome pets by taking hammers to their skulls.  

It's probably more humane than what I've heard about in rural areas around here with hunting dogs that won't hunt. There's a lot of dumpimg going on

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11 hours ago, gehringer_2 said:

too depressing to think about the comparison of outrage generated by abuse of dogs vs abuse of poor people......

:classic_dry:

Sadly the reason is probably because we're more conditioned and used to seeing the abuse of poor people.

Favre got lucky the Queen died when she did.  His dick pic got more coverage, granted salacious things always tend to get the headlines.  As for Vick, from what i've heard, sounds like he's a great example of actual rehabilitation.  

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34 minutes ago, ewsieg said:

As for Vick, from what i've heard, sounds like he's a great example of actual rehabilitation. 

I will say up front I know nothing about Vick, didn't follow and don't care about his situation. So the following may or may not have anything to do with him.

That stipulation made, I believe that it's not uncommon for decent people to get pulled into or just grow up in cultures where things seem 'normal' from the inside that are most definitely not considered normal on the outside and often those people end up perfectly happy to move out of their old culture and into a new one once it opens to them. Which to my mind is what 'rehabilitation' , when successful, is often about.

Edited by gehringer_2
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It’s Not A Housing Shortage

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The number of houses sold fell for the seventh straight month in August. The Dow is looking shaky in the wake of another 0.75 percent interest-rate increase, with more still to come. The global economy, previously humming like the late summer bugs, is creaking to a stop as still as the air before a September thunderstorm. 

Last weekend, the Wall Street Journal declared homeownership for all “a dying dream.” It may as well have said the American dream is dead, too, since that’s what it amounts to for so many. The price of buying a house in most areas is still far out of reach for a large swath of Americans, despite the recent price tumble. The costs of inflation are also pinching wallets and not helping the problem. As the single item most associated with success, a house is the cornerstone of the American dream. But when 61 percent of renters in the U.S. can’t afford to buy in their city, and the median house costs half the price of a retirement fund, it’s no wonder we’re also seeing an increase in mental illness, depression, and suicide. There’s a reason literature’s greatest protagonists (Dostoevsky’s Raskolnikov, for one) go off the rails while living in seedy rented rooms. This is where dreams go to die. 

In the midst of all of this, my husband and I just bought our first home. We’ve been hoarding pennies like misers from both our jobs, but that wasn’t the real reason we were able to afford one. The real reason is that we chose to buy in an economically depressed market. Our new town has a handful of homes as old and historic as any you’d see in the posh downtowns of Old Town Alexandria, Virginia or Franklin, Tennessee, only they are miles away from any urban center and need more of the loving attention the latter have received. For less than the cost of a mobile home in Washington, D.C., we bought one of these homes, 122 years old and now ours. 

Out in Toledo, Ohio, to pick up a piece of furniture from an estate sale, we witnessed a similar phenomenon. Walking up the front steps to the beautiful 1920s colonial brick home of the couple selling us the furniture, we couldn’t believe it had just sold for only $300,000. If it had been in Charleston, South Carolina, it would have cost at least $1 million. The 30-something homeowners were both self-employed. If a hairdresser and a landscaper can afford a home like that in Toledo, what is everyone else doing?

It’s like the old realtor’s line about “location, location, location,” but on steroids. With the rise of social media and online journalism, key housing markets have become trendy in a way they never could have before. A classified ad now has a national audience, and bougie neighborhoods a ream of TikTok viewers. People are moving to areas they have no connection to and no relatives near because they saw it online and thought it looked cool. I know a few. This has the effect of driving up prices in areas that otherwise would never have known such demand. 

Meanwhile, cities like Tulsa, Oklohama are paying people to move in. With an average home value of $235,000, and a $10,000 incentive from the government to buy one, some towns still can’t find enough residents to fill their lots. Capitalizing on the pandemic, West Virginia now has a state program dedicated to bringing remote workers to the state, complete with $2,500 in mortgage assistance, $12,000 cash, and professional-development opportunities. 

It’s no wonder Americans can’t afford houses: they’re all trying to live in the same five places. Such disproportionate demand has made it harder for the locals in those places to buy in their hometowns, while outsiders with money can come in and scoop up the most desirable lots. But it also has the more lasting effect of creating discontentment. For those who can’t buy a house and can’t pick up their remote job and move to Tulsa, there’s not much left to hope for. And for those who can move to Oklahoma on a dime, with no family and no connection to the town other than an incentive check from the government, are they not in the same position as the one who sweeps in from afar to buy up the nicest properties?

A storm is coming, and many Americans have no place to shelter. But this is not for a lack of affordable houses—just a lack of affordable houses in prime locations. It is true that builders cannot keep up with the demand in places like Colorado, Florida, Tennessee, and Northern Virginia, but in the Midwest and other rural regions across the country, in towns no one ever visits on vacation, countless homes stand for sale and empty—old, beautiful, and undesired by most. The towns they fill are thinly populated, and the old storefronts are mostly dark. What would happen if we started buying and living in these towns, dusting out the cobwebs and bringing in new life? One has to wonder what kind of people we would have to become to choose a quiet life over nightlife, and a county fair over a $75 brunch.

This piece gets at one of my pet issues in how housing / demographics are framed, which is this idea that rapidly growing areas (including the one I live in) are simply about the wants and desires of those moving to them, rather than simply the availability of jobs.

Some of us don't have the luxury of working from home, and the ability to move to West Virginia and find a job that fits those skills. Trust me, I would go back home in a heart beat, but in my niche industry within engineering, it would involve having to change careers, and I suspect that's the case for a lot of people in other fields as well. Unless I could do something remotely, which is a unicorn job in my field.

My own view is that elite media types vastly overstate the ability to which normal people can defer income to stay home / rural or have the ability to do remote work, in part because journalism jobs are easy to remotely.

Edited by mtutiger
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8 minutes ago, Motown Bombers said:

I would change careers if I had to lives in Texas and no amount of money could get me to move to West Virginia or Oklahoma. 

I just think that it's an incredibly entitled viewpoint to assume that people can just abandon their careers and up and move on a whim.... and divorced from the reality that most people live with.

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