That sounds like propaganda.

At some points in history, fire departments were privatized. It wasn’t a great plan. Fire tends to spread.

Then they are going to be put in special classes with other unvaccinated

In the same school? That’s not going to achieve much.

Going to a restaurant, vaccinated or unvaccinated seating?

Will that work as well as a “smoking section” and a “non-smoking section” in a restaurant? We tried that, it didn’t work.

Huh?

Well, I dont wanna start a debate, but the official website of GNU indicate that the “g” in GNU isn’t silent.

Yeah, but that’s wrong. It’s named after the animal, and the animal is pronounced without a G sound. I’m not going to mangle the pronunciation because they screwed up.

And the subscribers are underpaying by such a huge amount that they’re losing even more money from them than they are from the unpaid users.

They should be free to struggle and suffer to their hearts desire

That doesn’t really make sense if they live in the same communities. If there’s universal healthcare but it’s opt-in, there will be people who opt out. Those same people will catch viruses and other diseases, not be able to go to the doctor, then show up on the same subways and airplanes as the people who take care of themselves. This means the uninsured become disease vectors.

Hierarchical Officious Oracle

Yeah, they missed the best part.

GNU stands for GNU’s Not Unix, which is a recursive acronym. And, when pronounced properly (like the animal) the G is silent. The entire Linux ecosystem has words that start with G based on an acronym where G essentially comes from nowhere, and isn’t actually pronounced.

Just a little.

English has a rote greeting in “How are you doing?” But, you can respond with anything from “great!” to “oh, okay”. It would be a big faux pas to take that as an opportunity to launch into all your medical issues. Maybe in Chinese it’s ok to respond honestly, but just not to assume someone is actually asking you if you want to eat something.

If there is a WWIII, the US will be at the center of it.

What’s happening in Ukraine is most likely going to prevent a wider war. If Russia were to win easily, there’s a good chance the lesson they’d learn from that is that nobody will stop them if they invade a weaker neighbour. Eventually that might lead to WWIII. The war being prolonged and limited to just one country is a way to drain Russia of fighting age men and war materiel without the war spreading. Even the war ending too quickly might mean Russia is able to regroup and launch another attack on a neighbour.

Biden’s plan was one that was extremely unlikely to lead to a wider war. Besides, Biden was giving them weapons, not selling them. If anything it was a give-away to the defence companies on behalf of the US tax payers. But, maybe that’s OK if it keeps US soldiers out of the war and prevents Americans from getting killed.

For those countries it’s not soft power. Seriously man, if I have to point out the difference between soft power and hard power to you like this, this conversation isn’t worth continuing.

I’m pretty sure your job title isn’t “Mathematician” though. You’re a “risk analyst” or “quantitative analyst” or something. You’re also not doing pure math, you’re using somewhat advanced applied mathematical processes to model financial information. Just like how a rocket engineer isn’t a physicist but may have a background in physics.

That’s a little more than soft power

It’s soft power until they start using it.

This stopped being the yardstick for influence around WW1

And that was a mistake. Population and resources is key to a nation’s power. It’s a large reason why the US is so powerful. Per capita a lot of European countries have similar levels of wealth, but the US has nearly 350 million people, which is only slightly less than all the states in the EU combined. If the EU were more centralized it would be a single state with a power to rival the US. But, as a collection of 27 countries which only surrender some of their power to the EU government, it’s not able to match the US.

I don’t know that they aspire to bring Hanification to me here in California.

Only on a limited basis. They definitely don’t want you to talk about Taiwan and how Taiwan is an independent country. Right now, because the US is strong, you’re free to talk about Taiwan all you like. But, as China gets stronger, they may require that their trade partners have local laws enforcing the one-China policy. They’ve already managed to push that onto the Olympics. And after they get that rule everywhere, what’s next? Maybe laws forbidding people from using Winnie the Pooh to mock their leader?

The US deposed democratically elected leaders all over South America

That’s not really about free speech. That’s about who holds power in various countries.

It would make for an interesting duel though. Can you maneuver the cutting part of the blade to somewhere dangerous while your opponent controls their handle?

It’s a weird spear with a dangerous cutting blade near the wielder. All the danger of a long sword blade for the user, without the ability to use it for cutting or slashing because of the handle.

IMO, English Canadians don’t really have a food that they can call their own. Quebec has poutine, tourtieres, pea soup, and other things. English Canada eats many of those things, but also a lot of generic North American or European things: hamburgers, steaks, North-American style pizza, pasta, stew, etc.

Where I think Canada might be a bit different is that after decades of high levels of immigration, Canada has a lot of foods from other parts of the world. It’s common to find South Indian, Pakistani, Punjabi, Turkish, Persian, Carribean, Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, Thai, Korean, Mexican, etc. restaurants in a city. Many of them cater to immigrants from those countries, so they’re authentic tasting.

A lot of that is made at home too. While a home-made stir fry probably wouldn’t taste authentically Chinese to someone from China, there are many meals from around the world that have been adapted for Canadian tastes. Very white people in Canada often cook adapted versions of Indian curries, Chinese stir fries, Mexican tacos, Thai curries, etc.

How do you know people don’t like spicy food? Don’t worry, they’ll tell you.