Regarding concealed carry, if the guns are staying securely holstered I personally don't worry about it. I don't love gun culture and won't keep guns in my house, but I don't worry about who might he coming through my door with a firearm on their person. Accidents when a gun is properly holstered with the safety on a very unlikely--I'm at much greater risk getting into a car than standing or sitting next to someone with a secured firearm. I would put my foot down if someone wanted to bring their gun out of the holster and, say, display it to my kids. And I would not take kids to visit a home where I knew firearms were not properly secured and were left lying around.

What do you say? In most cases, you just let it go. The insulin issue is concerning; that could be actually life-threatening. How to address it would depend on the specific situation. Is this a person who might listen if you talk about the real risks involved? Is the situation ongoing and so drastic that you need to call social services? You're going to have to followyour best judgment if a life is at risk. Oh, I just saw your update that the actual condition isn't type 1 diabetes. For most other conditions, skipping daily medication isn't so drastic. Concerning but maybe not urgently life threatening. Spanking for pooping in the bathtub I would gently push back on if I had enough of a relationship with the person to do so and talk about my own experience with gentler parenting approaches, but millions, maybe billions of humans have survived bring spanked as toddlers; unless you have reason to believe the child is at risk of serious harm there's not a need to intervene more directly. The best thing you can do is probably be a support and resource for both the child and the parents. The rest of it? Pass the been dip and change the subject. Talk about something you can agree on--the weather, a recent sports game, reminiscences about visiting Grandma's house...remind yourself as many times as needed that it's OK for people to be wrong. The only way lots of people won't be wrong about lots of things is if they are transformed from individuals I to puppets mind-controlled by some external force. People being wrong is far better than people ceasing to be individuals.

How are you with not judging yourself? I ask because in my experience compassion and non-judgmentalism needs to start with self-compassion. A person who is constantly critical of themselves can't help but be critical of others as well. There are books about self compassion; that might be a place to start. Radical acceptance is another concept that can be worth investigating. I also like The Anatomy of Peace and other books by the Arbinger Institute.

Is this a kid with generally high anxiety? It sounds from your post like you perceive them to be emotionally fragile, so you are tiptoeing around in the way you talk to not upset them. Some kids really are that emotionally fragile; if that's the case it's probably worth looking into neuropsychologicsl evaluations to get a better grasp of what is going on. You might research Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/24099-rejection-sensitive-dysphoria-rsd Growth mindset is what you want to cultivate, but it's a lot harder for some kids than for others.

I've said many times that emotional health has to be first priority--that's true whether a person is 7 or 13 or 25 or 75. Nothing comes before that--not academics, not sports, not church attendance, not high earnings... Life is to be lived, not just prepared for or gritted through. School is hardly a guarantee of social connection, but if you have a kid who is craving more connection it can be worth trying. It's also true that some kids don't really establish close friendships until college; that's OK too if they are reasonably happy at home; family connections are real connections.

Fried bread really needs to be eaten fresh--it's not hard to make though!

My grandpa always called pancakes hotcakes. Grandma made amazing hotcakes--she would beat the eggwhites and then fold them into the rest of the batter to make them extra fluffy. Best eaten with peanut butter and maple syrup...

We call those scones out my way! Entirely different from the baked goods called scones elsewhere...

My kids love the orange chicken.

I'm glad to read these experiences. I have had terrible insomnia for years and have been reluctant to take anything other than unisom but I'm wondering now if I should try trazodone. I know one of my doctors mentioned it once.

Unfortunately there are lots of incompetent therapists in the world. A friend experienced two separate therapists pushing her to identify as trans. Friend is very open minded and leans heavily progressive, but she's not a teenager--she has enough maturity and self-awareness to judge for herself and determine that her mental health struggles have nothing to do with being a female in a male body. These things ARE happening--not to everyone, not every therapist, not everywhere--but they are real experiences.

And: it is doing the opposite of breaking down stereotypes. It is reinforcing stereotypes.

I never mentioned any trans hegemony. But a movement, yes--the movement that has a huge percentage of teenage girls especially obsessing about identity and turning all their angst to discussions of identity-- their own and everyone else's. It's absolutely pushing boxes and stereotypes. I'm very, very unimpressed by gender stereotypes. I'm a female who never cared for fashion, can't be bothered with makeup, and has rarely had interest in anything typically associated with femininity. I was one of 9 female cadets in an ROTC corps of over 200 in college and definitely preferred combat boots and short hair (so much more convenient, except for the annoyance of having to get it cut frequently!) I've never owned a pair of heels. I do wear dresses of the comfy variety because comfort is about the only thing I care about in clothing. None of which has anything whatsoever to do with whether I am male or female.

The current trans movement has absolutely moved us backwards when it comes to gender stereotypes. Young people are in some cases being explicitly taught that how male or female they are depends on which stereotypes they identify more with--remember that gender spectrum graphic with Barbie on one end and G.I. Joe on the other? If you're a female who would rather wear combat boots than high heels, you must not really be a girl. I hear young women in my sphere bemoaning the fact that if they try a pixie cut people will assume they identify as something other than a woman. They tell me it's fine for me as a middle-aged woman but that among their own peers choices of dress and hairstyle are seen as identity signals.

I've encountered them at rest stops along freeways. Can't say exactly where--my roadtripping experience has criss-crossed the country, but definitely a few times. Cold but far easier to clean than a standard toilet.

I think this assumes way more thinking-through and rationality than most people put into their decision-making process. It also ignores the fact that we're stuck in a two-party political system. If one side is actively promoting things like drag story time and school curricula that teach first graders that anyone can grow up to be a man or a woman or a neither with zero correlation to biological sex, people who don't want those things will tend to support the party that isn't promoting them. Bathroom bills represent a "look, we did something!" opportunity for that party.

We can't protect beliefs from criticism without completely doing away with freedom of speech, and we don't want to do that. As for harmfulness--that's the rub, isn't it? In so many cases, people on each side of a belief divide see the other side as actively harmful.

This is similar to other subjectively experienced and understood truths. From my perspective, trans identity probably needs to be treated similarly to the way we treat religions. We try to make room for people to live in accordance with their internally experienced realities and beliefs, without demanding that everyone else recognize and accept those beliefs as absolute reality. That will require compromise. Interacting across belief boundaries always involves compromise. It has to somehow be OK for a person's subjective experience and belief to be real and valid to them, and for it to be not real or valid to others who don't share that subjective experience or belief. Respect and understanding need to be extended on both sides.

An eclipse can be pretty neat even with clouds. If you get thin clouds you can see the sun through them with eclipse glasses--that happened here with the partial eclipse last fall. With thick clouds you will at least get the sudden falling of night effect.

We drove from Utah to Idaho for the last one. The drive up in the morning was fine, and our viewing location (random empty lot we decided to stop at) wasn't super crowded; but the traffic on the drive home was completely insane--what should have been a three hour drive took nine hours! It's the ordinary problem--people trickle in over time in advance of a big event, then once the event is over everyone heads home all at once. I'd take that into account in making travel plans, and if possible plan to not head home immediately after the eclipse.

It's very, very worth going to an area of totality if you can. I drove a few hours for the last one and it was by far the most awe-inspiring thing I have ever experienced. Totality is an entirely different experience from a partial eclipse.

Murphy's Law

My guess as to what could be driving the bottom surgery thing is not wanting penises in the women's restrooms. Remove that and you can come in. Add one and you have to go elsewhere.

My post was actually sparked by the post before yours that claimed that bathroom laws aren't really about wanting safe spaces for women but about wanting "to make it illegal and unsafe for trans people to exist in public." There's something that happens on both sides of the political aisle in the US: demonize the opposition, claim they don't really care about the things THEY say they care about, make them out to be fundamentally ill-intentioned people who want to hurt their countrymen. Turn them into bogeymen to fight against. It's an effective way to leverage fear and create momentum for one's chosen side. And it's absolutely toxic to the overall culture and any hope of productive political dialog and compromise. Neither the half of the population that might vote conservative nor the half that might vote progressive (nor of course the overlapping parts in the middle) is evil. Painting them and their intentions as such is never helpful. Is there an occasional genuinely bad apple in the lot? Sure. Are there lots of folks who don't often think deeply about stuff and are primed and ready for manipulation (such as the afore-mentioned fear-mongering...)? Sure. Are there politicians pragmatically manipulating and pandering and eagerly pointing the finger of blame at the other side? Sure. Most people, however, are truly not motivated primarily by desire to hurt someone. Fear of BEING hurt or of their loved ones being hurt...yes, that's a big factor on all sides. If we ever want someone to listen to our perspective, we have to start by listening to theirs. Not by telling them "you don't actually believe what you say you believe." And if we want compromise--and yes, we should almost always be seeking compromise, not my-way-or-the-highway--we need to start with the assumption that they are coming to the table in good faith. Someone has to start.

Demonizing half the population of the country-- regardless of which half it is in our polarized system--is never helpful. People are complex. Demonization is often an effective way of rallying people for a cause, but it ultimately undermines community--locally and nationally. I'll always argue against such.