I'm not working right now and my wife is supporting me. To be brief, I'm taking time to be healthier mentally and my wife can see that I'm making a concerted effort. I let her know frequently how much I appreciate it, and I'm also accomplishing a lot and putting myself in a position to be successful again in the near future. I've supported her financially at times in the past as well.
Because of this, we're actually in a very good place in our relationship. I had put a lot of stress on her by being manic, obsessive, paranoid (not about her or our relationship), constantly using, etc. We've both noticed the improvement and have been more introspective and open about what causes us to argue. Anyway, just a counter-anecdote to the top comment.
Constantly using various recreational drugs. It's actually not something my wife has a problem with at all, and even recently she encouraged me to keep doing so. The decision to stop was my own. There have been many extended periods of heavy use and total abstinence in my life already, and I wouldn't change that. In general it's a habit that I have good control over, and one that has never jeopardized my physical wellbeing. Emotionally, psychoactive drugs can have myriad effects, but on the whole they have influenced my personality in remarkably positive ways.
No meth or heroin for the last many years. I never liked either much anyway. I've referring mostly to psychedelic drugs and marijuana, which normally are considered soft, but I've consumed them to a degree that would probably shock most people.
And meanwhile the US Department of Defense, as of 2009, had 27,000 employees working in public relations / propaganda and contracts out the development of astroturfing software. Government-paid shills are not unique to Russia, and this article does nothing to prove that Russia was involved with the DNC emails.
Beyond that, it doesn't matter who leaked / hacked the emails. If Putin was behind it, then he did a great service to open democracy in the US.
Related to this are emails between Clinton campaign advisor Philippe Reines and Marc Ambinder, a politics editor at The Atlantic. The emails showed a quid pro quo in which Ambinder used certain words and descriptions as requested in exchange for an advance copy of an HRC speech.
Good introductions can be found in The Case for Peace by Alan Dershowitz and Terror and Liberalism by Paul Berman; both excellent books that have sections devoted to detailing Chomsky's thuggish and cranky behavior.
Awesome. I've checked out the Macaulay library a few times in the past looking for samples for electronic music. It's a great resource, and has features like rating by audio quality. Check out the unearthly vocalizations of various Oropendolas:
The US government commits terrorist attacks on a regular basis. I may not convince all of you about the air strike in Syria the other day, or the hospital that was intentionally hit a few months back, but can any of you deny that the Shock and Awe bombing campaign at the outset of the Iraq war was terrorism? Shock and Awe was the "use of overwhelming power and spectacular displays of force to paralyze the enemy's perception of the battlefield and destroy its will to fight". The stated purpose was to terrify the civilian population. The Oxford Research Group estimated that there were 6,616 civilian deaths.
that's not the common understanding of Terrorism. That's just war.
I'm sympathetic to anti-Iraq war views.
Less sympathetic to those actually against the war. Most seemed like they didn't want any response to terrorism at all, which is unacceptable.
There's an ideology out there that wants to come to my country and kill me and my family. I'm perfectly fine killing those people first - or at least making sure they can't come here and commit the ultimate hate crime.
You can't respond to terrorism with overwhelming force, its a concept. A tactic. It just goes underground when stamped out or gets taken up by other idealogues who act alone.
We went to fight extremists who happen to use terrorism. We also spent most of our time and money with our dicks in our hand instead of 'killing them before they killed us.'
They don't want you dead, anyway. they want you terrified.
Because of this, we're actually in a very good place in our relationship. I had put a lot of stress on her by being manic, obsessive, paranoid (not about her or our relationship), constantly using, etc. We've both noticed the improvement and have been more introspective and open about what causes us to argue. Anyway, just a counter-anecdote to the top comment.