Just want to say that I love this bot.

Keeps me clued in without having to pass through the filter of anyone involved in politics.

Good catch! You are 100% correct.

I’ll update the message, but strikethrough the original so this still makes sense.

Wow, that’s a lot more complicated than I would have expected!

Our system, although it’s basically the way it is because things change slowly here, kind of works for us. Between 16-18 here, you’re no longer in school, you go to college (different meaning than in the US!) or vocational training. It’s an in-between child and adult stage, where most people start doing grown-up things for the first time.

But isn’t the age of consent 18 in the US? How does that work?

In the UK you used to be able to get married at 16, but the age of consent is 16, so it kind of made sense.

“Probably. I mean, not based on data or anything, but probably.”

The fact that there is no equal-but-opposite version of Piers Morgan shows how skewed our media really is. The guy was already dodgy from his Mirror days, well before he was a TV host - the fact he’s been able to build himself up into this “voice of the people” is nothing short of mind-boggling.

Maybe Batman observes the Sabbath?

I don’t know why you posted that image, but I’m glad you did. I didn’t know about Quasimodox before - they’re fantastic!

The main image on their landing page is of Makoto, my favourite SFIII:3S character, so that’s 100 points before even entering the site.

I’ll admit, I didn’t know the Supreme Court had said that.

It’s an insane interpretation - and I see that many justices said so at the time.

I guess whether or not the writers of the amendment actually meant every able-bodied man when they wrote “well-regulated militia”, or whether they meant a militia, is impossible to know for sure.

But to say that the word meant something different at the time is patently untrue. Around the English speaking world at that time, local militias - with that specific word used - were used to keep order. It was a common word for an actual thing people would have been familiar with.

That’s half right…

Militias were always things that you joined and they had a chain of command. Just because they were volunteer forces, it doesn’t mean that they weren’t an organisation. The Peterloo Massacre (1819) was conducted by the local militia. They were all volunteers, but they operated as a paramilitary group.

“Well-regulated militia” literally meant what it sounds like today - a well-regulated volunteer armed force.

The amendment is saying that the government shall not prevent people from joining well-regulated armed militias. Which admittedly sounds terrifying to modern ears but, historically, armed militias helped keep the peace in the days before police forces.

It depends.

Are the people actually part of a well-regulated militia, necessary to the security of a free state? Or had the government spent the last century reframing that right as “any idiot can own a lethal weapon without training”, and as a result the people are a disorganised and easily-suppressible rabble?

“The” priority, not “a” priority. The majority of people do not think it is the single most important thing the government should do, which is fair. We have people choosing between heating and eating, the majority of the country one paycheck away from homelessness and an electoral system that doesn’t represent the people. I’d agree rejoining the EU isn’t “the” priority, but it certainly is “a” priority.

I’d tell a reduction reaction joke, but I want to stay positive.

There are worse places to live.

Don’t get me wrong, there are loads of better places to live, but there are definitely worse places.

America makes great animated series. It makes great movies sometimes too. Admittedly both of these things are usually actually made overseas, but you guys write them.

You also have a nice flag. Although you do kind of ruin it by being super weird about them.

You have really cheap petrol / gas. That’s definitely something you beat most of the world at. I think that’s the winner - cheap gas.

I think you’ve misunderstood the comparison with candy bars. Many medicines that health insurance companies charge through the nose for are sold for very little, sometimes pennies a dose, in other countries.

Insulin doesn’t actually cost that much to make. Two to four dollars a dose.

Paracetamol is dirt cheap. In the UK it can bought for as cheap as a penny a tablet, and that’s twenty times what it costs to make.

The insurance companies charge stupid prices for them though, despite them being of similar production costs as candy.

deleted by creator

If masked vigilante crime-fighters count, I have a true story that might give you faith that there are superheroes out there.

This is before COVID.

There were a lot of homeless people in Manchester City Centre. There still is, but before COVID, it was more pronounced.

There was a homeless guy who used to sit in front of the building where I worked. On my way out of work, I used to grab him a cup of coffee and chat with him for a few minutes before heading off for my tram.

One Monday as I approached him I notice that snaking out from under his hat is quite a deep and angry-looking cut that had been stitched.

I asked him about it and he said some guy had come walking down the road attacking homeless people with a broken bottle. They’d all been taken to hospital, patched up and given antibiotics, but everyone was really scared now.

A couple of days later, he mentioned that the police have found the guy who did it. And ‘found’ is the correct word - the guy was lying by the side of the canal beaten to a bloody pulp. Apparently he’d been attacked by someone dressed all in black wearing a black mask.

So, I know for a fact that there is at least one person willing to put on a costume in the height of summer and beat up villains - I imagine there are many more.

I was amazed, but you can buy a “dinasour” colouring book, so maybe they’re right.

Dinasour Coloring Book

Third’s the one with the hairy chest!

I’m surprised they have it in the US!

I knew they said it in Australia and Canada, though - I don’t know, I guess I just assumed it was a commonwealth thing. It’s got that specific flavour of daftness to it.

I probably get a month, possibly two, out of them between washes. I work from home though, so they don’t really get that dirty.