I worship the lovely soup.

Agreed, although there are other costs associated with pregnancy than healthcare such as extra food and supplies.

I don’t know if you mean this ironically but parents of a miscarried fetus really should get bereavement leave. It’s extremely traumatic and would take time to recover from.

Medicaid has different income limits for different states. For a family of 3 in Michigan it’s about 2755 per month. If you make less (per household) you qualify for Medicaid. Search “Medicaid Requirements” plus your state. Everything is covered. The 2400ish we bring home a month barely covers our bills, but it’s worth it for Medicaid if you have a chronic health condition (or on our case my spouse, our child, and myself all have serious health conditions). My medication for my pituitary deficiency would cost me thousands a month. My spouse and child have a genetic vascular condition and they need scans every year to make sure they’re not about to die.

Another thing you can do is a Medicaid spend down. I’m not sure how it is for every other state. But let’s say your limit is 3000 for your family but your income is 4000 and your medical bills are 2000 a month. You pay the difference between your income and the limit (1000), and Medicaid covers the rest. I believe you have to have a serious health issue to qualify for a Medicaid spend down.

If you are low enough income to qualify for SSI, Medicaid is given automatically (I think in every state).

In our state of Michigan you apply for Medicaid at DHHS. They have a very easy to use website for a few years now (it was a big hassle before that). Let me know if you have more questions about this.

I loved the labels. Testtomcels.

I was playing with some kids I was babysitting in McDonald’s play tubes when I was 18. I bent my ankle weird. I’m turning 30 in a couple months and there’s literally not a single day without ankle pain. Sometimes it’s disabling. Several times they haven’t actually found anything wrong with it but last time they said it had something (can’t remember) and it made a lot of bad clicking sounds when the podiatrist handled it. I’ve tried lots of things to help.

Oh yeah, I forgot it even had ads because we have a pi hole.

I use the free version and it’s fine and free?

I used to think “good” kids had “good” parents and vice versa but I learned this isn’t always the case. I should have realized, I was only such a “good” (quiet) kid because my parents scared me. I didn’t feel safe. But some good parents raise genuinely respectful yet also self-respecting kids.

Off the top of my head I can think of buying all the houses that are for sale that I can buy. The next day I start the process of selling them at a quarter of the price I bought them for to families only. No landlords. It would be an opportunity for many families that they would never get otherwise. And I’d still get a fair amount of money if I were able to buy a few houses. I could do the same thing with vehicles probably more easily too. I’d also be able to pay a contractor for upgrades to my house even though those upgrades may take months and a contractor may run off with money (something I did and something that happened during an actual spend down I did in 2019). If I could pay for an expansion on my house I could foster kids.

I keep hearing this and I wonder about how they do this. I mean how to they keep records of every shoplifter? Do the employees recognize the people every time they come in? How many shoplifters can they keep track of? Are they like “ah yeah it’s shoplifter 687, put this video in his file”? Do they bother with people stealing an occasional item like basic clothing or food? Are they watching a single shoplifter over years, like what if they only steal once in a while and it’s low value? I’m curious about this, I’ve never actually heard from anyone who was watched over a period of time and then prosecuted.

What? Why? I can’t walk anywhere in my city and I certainly love the self checkout.

What are some fun or useful things you print? I see a lot of prints online that are toys or action figures, and that’s pretty neat but I usually am not impressed with the quality.

If this claim were true (I see comments saying it’s probably biased), 40% is an extremely high number. Baby’s could eat like 10 to 20 (ballpark example figure, I know it varies) jars of baby food every week, it would suck if 4 to 8 of them had toxins. It’s not like it’s a whole fruit you can wash off. I agree with your point about unnecessary gloom in the news, but I don’t think there’s really much of a bright side to 60% uncontaminated baby food. If they took figures like 5% and sensationalized it I’d agree with you more. 60% is barely “most.”

Which is why I think emojis are fine. I just think traditional writing does not qualify as a poor medium.

I have nothing against moderate emoji use that accompanies coherent text, but I disagree that texting is a poor medium for communication. We’ve been effectively writing for thousands of years. It’s a skill that can be difficult for some people, and can take practice to become good at, but that doesn’t make it a bad medium.

I asked my child, an expert in this field, and he gives it a one trillion out of ten.

My mom (border of gen x and boomer) explained all the references to me when I was a kid watching Futurama for the first time. Honestly, Futurama and seeking out information related to the references (either my parents would tell me or I’d look it up in the 2010s when I really started having access to the internet) is probably the biggest way I learned about past culture. At this point I’m explaining the references to my kid but he really is just so far removed from it. Because they’re from like 4 generations ago and have been referenced so much since. Still interesting but I do feel like it, “hits different” as the teens say.

I don’t know what the person you’re replying to does for work, but I feel like what their work is really makes a big difference. Teachers don’t (or shouldn’t) teach kids any differently based on orientation, political ideology, etc., other than perhaps excusing them from work that goes against their beliefs (for example celebrating a holiday they take objection to). The teacher isn’t required to “go against their beliefs” and do something they disagree with, only to keep their mouth shut about any disagreements they may have with a student’s lifestyle. A teacher should not be able to refuse to teach anyone because they are not being asked to do a special job catering to any particular student. If they disagree with the curriculum, I would guess they just shouldn’t be a teacher then (as in, if you’re a high school science teacher you may be required to teach evolution).

Similarly with a doctor, they should not be able to say “I refuse to treat you because you’re gay/religious/political.” Everyone gets the same medical care. The only exception I can think of is transgender medical care, but if they don’t want to do that they can just not go into that field.

Anything that involves creating is a little different. A wedding photographer would be more actively participating in a gay wedding. Or a Christian wedding, etc. If they feel really uncomfortable with that, they shouldn’t have to. That doesn’t change my opinion that they’re closed-minded and bigoted, and it doesn’t mean people can’t leave them bad reviews stating as much. Plus, these services are not basic rights, whereas healthcare and education are basic rights.

I would literally never pay money for my kid to be able to watch Disney or probably any TV. The only thing I ever pay money for is a few educational apps and they are cheap. You can’t rent kid’s movies at the library if you don’t pirate things.