I think the USA was already on a not-so-slow decent into fascism, and this assassination just gives another talking point to justify what they are doing, not change course. I can imagine people putting this at the back of their mind soon, just like they did with the assassination attempt on Trump. A civil war isn’t going to break out (there’s only one military in the USA, and no established apparatus for a coup (except for an auto-coup)), but there is a chance of war in a geopolitical conflict.

The last time Qatar was attacked was by the Ottoman Empire. Your comment indeed highlights how many think about the Middle East as a homogeneous blob.

There’s a difference in how people perceive Syria, Lebanon and Iran, and the Gulf states. An attack on a stable Gulf state is a big deal. SA and Qatar have been at odds historically, but you can see them being brought closer together by this event. If the Arab states are pushed much further, they may unite and fight back.

Given the amount of dehumanization of Arabs by Israel, I can imagine them “feeling justified” to drop a nuke on Riyadh or Mecca as a retaliation. Hopefully cooler heads prevail, but they will keeping poking the bear (falcon?) so long as they have support from the US. Of all the nuclear powers, I believe Israel is the most likely to use them. Russians at least see Ukrainians as fellow Slavs, but there’s little Semetic solidarity.

It’s true that what happens in the US has massive consequences for the rest of the world (including the Middle East, as stated above). But given the course of the federal government and the courts in the US already, I can’t see there being any fundamental change here; maybe some minor acceleration, but things are pretty far gone already.

I expected a megathread when Israel bombed Qatar, not when some white-wing guy got shot.

People really like a personal story over geopolitics, eh.

We “retired” when my wife was 30 and I was 33. That was nine years ago.

As Australians, healthcare is free, so that wasn’t a concern. (That being said, we also take out yearly travel insurance policies, which are surprisingly cheap compared to regular private insurance.)

That, not having kids (but we’ve met people who did a similar thing BECAUSE they wanted to spent time with kids), and living very frugally was what made it possible, and continues to make it possible. When we were working, after having paid off our small apartment, we could live on less than 20% of our combined income by being very tight.

The more you save, the more you can invest, and the less you’ll need invested to sustain yourself. It’s a positive feedback loop, and after three years of trying to be as frugal as possible, tracing every dollar, it became second nature.

After building our investments, our cost of living has gone up, but not by much. When you’re building your portfolio, being extra stingy pays off greatly. We have been slow traveling non-stop for the last nine years, because the cost of living is cheaper in (almost) every other country, even when you consider paying for short-term rentals. Next year we’ll hit 100 countries visited.

We’ve also done extra university courses, languages courses, and have a ton of hobbies. Even without work, there’s not enough time in the day if you have an active mind.

Fellow Australian, I retired at 33, which was 10 years ago now.

It’s crazy how quickly you adjust to living frugally, and spending any money just seems wasteful and unnecessary.

Healthcare is free, so doesn’t matter.

During the economic boom, Japanese people had money, but traveling overseas was still scary if it wasn’t Hawaii or Cairns, and even if they had the courage, they didn’t have the vacation time to get all the way to Newfoundland and back. Hence the many various theme parks that popped up all over the country, each more bizarre than the last. Most of them are shut now, many abandoned in various states of decay. Quite fun to explore!

We went to the mostly abandoned Anne of Green Gables theme park in Hokkaido, Canadian World, a couple months ago.

The translation of the book was done particularly well, I think. It was prescribed in schools. And the setting was attractive to those stuck in big cities.

Hey now, you’re a wok star, get your flame on, sauté.

What they did in Tokyo? Drop 1600 tons of incendiary bombs, killing 100,000 civilians, destroying half the city, making a million people homeless? I’m pretty sure Israel is already emulating this strategy.

No no, I’m pretty sure that’s a Bienenstich.

I’m a gold candidate male, but even if I pass QA, I’ll probably still need a day 1 patch.

I think the battle sprites look amazing, but in the field, the details on the models get squished into too few pixels, and it’s a jarring juxtaposition against the beautiful pre-rendered backgrounds. I can remember some reviewers sharing my opinion at the time, but you might be right that calling it ugly is a bit much.

Original VII is great how it is. I was happy to have an alternate telling for the remakes.

Unlike VII, VIII has always been ugly and needs a graphical upgrade to match their over ambitious models for the hardware. Also needs a combat overhaul so it’s not so super easy, and draw is not so tedious.

Tactics original is pretty, but could use some QoL updates.

We’ve been living out of backpacks on the road for the last ten years, so it’s easy to keep track of your stuff… Only item in our bags that hasn’t changed is a zip-up flannel towel. It’s perfect for keeping your toiletries in order, light-weight and washable, doubles as a flannel on the rare occasions you need such a thing, and has Hello Kitty on it.

Since the bags themselves have been replaced, it’s the clear winner. 2nd place is a Tony the Tiger colour-changing spoon from a bag of Frosties in 2016.

Chuffed

Yes, very pleased or satisfied. Like, you’d be chuffed if you made a great pavlova, or parents got you a Megadrive for Chrissy.

After 25 years of writing Japanese and trying many cheap and expensive options…

「Zebra Clip-on multi」

is my forever pencil (+pens).

This is Piaget’s conservation of volume test. I did this experiment at school (we went to the elementary school next door and ran tests on the kids). Most of the kids said the higher one held more liquid because it was ‘taller’, though some said the short one had more because it was ‘fatter’.

A further complication is that the aluminium is considerably thicker on the base and the top… so there’s more thin metal, and less thick metal.

Ah, the best game I got for free from work.

My company’s giant publishing overlord handled distribution (in our region) for the giant publishing overlord that handled distribution for the giant publishing overlord that owned Monolith. (THQ, Sega, Warner)

Ah, what a shitshow of an industry. Happy days.

My point is, by looking at one of the replies, that people might just be misunderstanding the argument being presented, as they have a different understanding of what ‘inherent’ means, and if you look up a dictionary definition, you can understand why.

For example: in “existing in something as a permanent, essential, or characteristic attribute.”, the first two clauses are immutable, but third is mutable.

As last names are a social construct, their characteristics and usage can change over time. Just because they started as, or are predominately used as a tool of patriarchy, doesn’t mean that’s what they will be in the future. If you believe that something ‘inherent’ is an immutable trait, that you would disagree with the premise of the argument, but if you think it’s just a characteristic trait, then you would generally agree - if I change my last name to ‘Orange’ to signify my love of the fruit/colour, it is still a last name, but has nothing to do with patriarchy, proving that patriarchy is not an immutable trait of last names.

Personally, I think that both marriage and last names are predominately used as tools to enforce patriarchy historically and currently, but can imagine that changing in the future. But when I initially looked at the OP’s statement, I disagreed, because I understood ‘inherent’ to be an immutable trait.