Unfortunately political systems are often held together with “tradition” and “gentleman’s agreements”, where conventions dictate how people should behave. Politicians typically followed them because it is seen as the honourable and right thing to do.

However, it seems to be a recent trend among the hard right that politicians just ignore those conventions because:

a) those conventions are inconvenient b) honour means nothing to them, and c) nothing actually enforces those unwritten rules - so there are no consequences for ignoring them

Similar things have happened here in the UK as well. I guess our political systems both assume some degree of good will & trust in its representatives, and it generally turns out that trust is misplaced.

Maybe it came along at the right time in my life, but Fallout 4 has got to be in my top 2-3 games ever.

The atmosphere in 4 is unlike almost anything I’ve played before or since. The story is great fun and I loved the settlement-building - it gave the game a sort of second life as a fairly chill building game once the story was complete.

Fallout 76 was just poorly judged and clunky. The multiplayer aspect ruined it. Although with that said, I did enjoy the C.A.M.P. idea. That was a good mechanic.

I feel like perhaps your response isn’t the most productive way to help someone in crisis.

New contender for “worst take of 2023”

Never underestimate the will of bigots to obsess over other people’s genitalia.

Edit: I said the above to be facetious and poke fun at these wall-eyed transphobic lunatics. I realise that trans / NB issues encompass SO much more than that, and I was being deliberately reductive in order to make a point. I hope that comes through ❤️

Interestingly there have been some studies (I seem to remember one in particular back from 1999) that show nicotine having a positive effect on Ulcerative Colitis. Opposite seems to be true for Crohn’s though.

Although every piece of medical advice I’ve ever heard is to avoid smoking at all, especially tobacco. Dry herb vaping is OK though.

I must admit, it’s quite refreshing to hear a critical take on the Israeli government from a Jewish person. I don’t know if it’s due to the news sources and forums I typically frequent (e.g. BBC, Guardian, etc), but I feel like it’s quite rare to hear an opinion from someone who actually lives there or who practices the religion.

It’s also quite reassuring (as a fairly ignorant outside observer who is only beginning to learn the tiniest bit about the complex and bloody history of this region) to hear that not every Jewish person or every Israeli likes the way that the state is developing.

Edit: I made some language changes because upon re-reading the parent comment I realised that the poster didn’t actually say whether they lived in Israel or not and I had made a faulty assumption.

Same in the UK. I can’t drive through Oxford’s zero emission zone in my wife’s Euro 6 VW Golf without a fine, but I can in my 1967 carburetted Beetle…

The only fish I can think of that might’ve dropped the Bic is a smoked haddock.

Almost everything!

Dude… who hurt you?

I think what makes me even sadder is that Ian Chambers (one of the directors at the hospital where Letby committed her crimes) left his job shortly after Letby was charged… only now to be interim director of nursing at a Salford NHS trust.

He spent years enabling Letby and covering up her crimes, gaslighting and silencing numerous senior doctors… only to go somewhere else and continue managing at a high level the moment that there was a risk of facing consequences for his failures.

I don’t know what’s more disturbing- the fact that Chambers moved on once he realised the jig was up, or that another trust ACTUALLY HIRED HIM. Disgusting.