I've got British Bake Off from YouTube on in the background. I'm always amazed at the amount of alcohol they put in things--and themselves.

So apparently there's a Pokémon gym in my company's parking garage, but it's "owned" by Team Valor. Does that mean the other team isn't allowed to use it?

It may be owned, but here gyms turn over from team to team with shockingly great regularity. Like it's not uncommon for some gyms to turn over within in an hour or less.

Are there going to nerdgangs having dance battles in the parking garage as they fight for access to Pokémon?

Yes. If it's a high status or convenient gym to hold. The one at my school is in a locked part of campus. You can't really reach it from classrooms, but you can't access it unless you are in the gates on the campus itself. This gym turns over far less -- I held it for 20+ hours since it's summer and there aren't people on campus.

Evolution in politics reminds me of two things. The first is that it reminds me, in lots of ways, of the Personality Myth episode of Invisibilia which looked at research that indicates that personalities change over a lifetime (usually for the "better") based on experience. [link] If that happens, then it seems totally reasonable that the beliefs we hold also change based on experience Why not? Why should one's political beliefs not evolve in all sorts of ways. It's not flip flopping or inconsistency. It's experience.

The difficulty, of course, is when someone's beliefs shift away from our own as opposed to towards them. Then we view it scathingly. Or we question how "real" their shift is. For example, Diana Ravitch was a key voice in creating the current state of ed systems, with frequent testing and the privatizing of public schools via charters. She know is one of it's most vocal and ardent critics. I feel myself being very eye rolly about her change in position, but she's a well respected voice of dissent now. Or George Will leaving the GOP is causing not sympathy but schadenfreude. It's weird and interesting to consider our responses to other people's changes.

Oh yea. And of course it's Saturday AM, I have a long day and I'm all, "I'M AWAKE."

I'm so post-market sweaty, Pumpkin is licking my shins. It's not so much hot as it is muggy. Shower, likely cool, then shopping.

Plei (quite a few posts ago)

It's funny, but a lot of your stated positions are very Hillary! (Outside of the war thing, where I believe she gets painted as a lot more hawkish than she actually is, given that even her support of the resolution that got us into the mess was worded very strongly in favor of the whole "only as a last resort should diplomatic solutions fail us") Who also gets painted as a centrist!

No, Hillary is a super hawk. Even on the Iraq thing, it took her a long time to say that the vote was a mistake and an even longer time to say that the war was a mistake. Her time as SecOfState provides other examples. For example, Obama was torn over the idea of pushing out Gaddafi in Libya. Hillary pushed hard for the hawkish position. When Gaddaifi was caught and killed, she quipped "we came, we saw, he died.". In her book, Hillary also essentially admits to pushing hard as SecOfState to make sure that the coup in Houduras stuck, with the pro-coup politicans pushing democratic forces out. Again, she boasts in her autobiography of this as a great accomplishment.

Incidentally Hillary is not just against single payer as a matter of pragmatism. She has explicitly said she thinks it is too anti-competitive, and too expensive. For her, being anti-single payer is a policy position. Hillary beats Trump of course. But on foreign policy and economics she still is a lesser evil, not a positive good. On social issues she has taken good positions up to a point. But it strikes me as hard to be truly feminist or truly anti-racist if you can't strongly oppose the economic inequality that devastates women and people of color.

Timelies all!

When I went to pick up the little guy at daycare, he was wheezing and having a bit of difficulty breathing. I took him to a nearby emergency room, where Gary joined us and we spent all night getting him checked out. He has some sort of virus that affects his breathing. He spent the night in the hospital. (Gary stayed with him.) They put him on oxygen and an IV. Now he's off of both, and breathing better.

The joys of parenthood, huh?

Oh, yikes, Sheryl. I'm glad it turned out okay.

I love to shop, so it pains me when I have shopping experiences that are horrible. nothing fit. Same brands, same sizes, completely not fitting in different ways. Next size up too big. Some size different brand, one can barely get on, one weird gaps and loose in places. Whole experience made me feel like I have an alien body not meant for human clothes. BAH! Grabbed the same size of something I have at home that fits, but is wearing out - company has changed the style and/or materials - no longer fits. Wearing mumus for the rest of my days.

Sheryl, I'm glad the little guy is on the mend!

Oh, Sheryl. Poor little guy and poor you guys! I'm glad he's doing better.