Best posts made by Rinel

@Kestrel said in What do you eat?:

This is a cookbook I own; I bought it in New Orleans where I also ate at an extremely cheap, local-favourite vegan diner called Sweet Soulfood in the Tremé neighbourhood. I recommend using the "look inside" feature to see what the author has to say about embracing veganism as a reclamation of his African heritage from the malnutritious effects white colonialism has had on his communities, and the disproportionate impact Western cuisine has on black people in America, who have higher incidences of chronic disease such as diabetes and various heart conditions.

It's also a thing that hasn't been accepted widely by the black community in the South, and I don't think it's appropriate at all for white people to be telling black people how to eat ethically.

It's very important to distinguish between veganism and vegetarianism. Vegetarianism has an ancient history. Veganism, in contrast, has only been possible since the 20th century (when it was invented), because a vegan diet will cause fatal B12 deficiency without supplementation that was impossible to provide through vegan means until then.

@nyctophiliac said in The Art of Lawyering:

Okay, so I could totally google this but I thought it might be a good topic of conversation here because why not! Some of these questions will likely be really obvious but... I have always wondered...

1. Jury System. Just why would anyone ever want to be tried by a court of their peers when the majority of our peers aren't all that smart - why not rely on a professional with experience? (Like a Judge!) Does this happen anywhere other than America? What do yall lawyers think about this?

2. The Gavel. Talk to me about this. ORDER ORDER! BLAM BLAM! Is it just to punctuate that you mean business? What do yall lawyers think about this?

3. Why did you choose the section of law (family, criminal, etc) that you chose? Or did it choose you?

4. Bond and bail, what's the difference?

5. Why on earth did you choose to practice law to begin with? Was it the money or..?

6. What is the most hilarious case you've worked on?

7. What is the saddest case you've worked on?

8. Criminal Justice Lawyer Types: What's the scariest person you've represented?

9. Would you ever represent someone that is guilty but they wanted you to get them off the hook? Would you lie for them? What's the furthest you'd go?

10. Do you like arguing? How can you manage to keep your shit together when impassioned?

Thanks in advance for humoring me

1. Judges are more biased and jaded than juries. Also, in several jurisdictions, including mine, they're elected.

2. It's a politer version of shooting a gun into the air.

3. I have a birthday card from someone the state executed.

4. Bail is a type of bond used to secure release from prison, but in reality they're used interchangeably in the criminal realm.

5. I met people who were affected by the criminal justice system. So it was either law or armed revolution.

6. I've had some great interviews. One guy was charged with stealing electricity. From his neighbor. With coathangers.

7. ...all of them. Maybe the asylum case where my client's husband had been murdered in front of her and her children during a church service.

8. All my clients have been very well mannered and polite. As a student investigator, I interviewed a few people who were pretty obviously professional murderers. I've never felt unsafe in a corrections center because of the inmates. I'm much more afraid of LEOs.

9. I'm a criminal defense attorney. Most of my clients are guilty, statistically speaking. Guilt is immaterial to my job, except when I'm pursuing a very specific kind of relief in post-conviction proceedings. My job is to ensure that the constitutional protections afforded to all citizens of the country are afforded to my clients. So yes, I'd represent someone I thought was guilty of rape or murder without losing any sleep. I would not lie to protect my client. I haven't had a capital case yet. I will admit that I do not know what I would do in such a situation. But in other cases, no. I swore an oath and will neither commit nor suborn perjury to the court.

10. Yes, as everyone here who's interacted with me will attest. I don't practice in court, so it's not much of a problem. It takes a lot to truly anger me, even though I'm constantly irritable, and when I'm truly enraged my hate burns cold. You just keep it bottled until you can release it, like any other professional situation.

ETA: I would and have represented people I suspect are guilty of murder and rape, I should say. And I lose sleep but it's over deadlines

@Auspice

I've voted Republican in every coroner election I've ever voted in, because the Republican is the only one with a medical degree.

Here's my pithy and probably overly reductive take on the matter: if "cancel culture" isn't strong enough to do anything more than make Natalie Wynn quit Twitter and devote a video to the topic, then I sort of doubt its power.

Most of the people upset about cancel culture, and who are affected by it, are unrepentant bigots who are being deplatformed. To which I say, good. I am glad people like Milo Yiannopoulos and Notch and Nina Paley and Bret Weinstein* aren't having people bend over backwards to let them spew their garbage.

*Weinstein does actually offer one of the stronger arguments against deplatforming. His actions at Evergreen were fine, IMHO, but he went full alt-right after leaving the college. Partly this is due to him being a sort of shitty person, but there's no doubt that when people get lumped in with garbage people, they tend to adopt some garbage views.

@Auspice said in Separating Art From Artist:

Publishers and studios won't touch something that might be 'risky'

That's always been the case, and as you yourself pointed out, censorship usually affects the oppressed more than the oppressor.

Thankfully self publishing is in full swing these days, so now is actually the best time to be a new author.

@Aria said in Good TV:

Please excuse me while I ugly snot-cry at The Good Place finale.

Girl, same. I thought I was doing fine, just sniffling, and then... waves.

Oh God.

@Roz said in A Lack of Imagination:

I don't have the voice in my head, though. Like, the idea of that is honestly HUGELY WEIRD for me to consider. WHY DO YOU HAVE AN INTERNAL NARRATOR?! My thought process all feels a lot more abstract. Like, feelings and impressions and such.

I don't have an internal narrator. I am the internal narrator.

@Ominous said in Covid-19 Gallows Humor:

lawyers are actually fae.

Pfft. Please. Look, if you give me s̸om͢e ̨ơf ̕ỳơu͠r͢ ̧ti̸m͏e͏ then I'll easily explain how we are completely above-board and honest.

Ellis Marsalis Jr., father of Wynton and Branford Marsalis and accomplished jazz pianist in his own right. Huge name in Louisiana, especially New Orleans, and we won't even be able to honor him with a jazz funeral. He died of COVID-19 and there won't be a single second line for him, because of COVID-19.

That probably doesn't make sense to almost any of you, because New Orleans doesn't really make a whole lot of sense to begin with, but the enormity of it is... pretty overpowering.

Atheist internet leftists seem to think they're the majority of the movement, which is kind of adorable in that exasperating, "you've never actually done anything outside of Twitter, have you" sort of way.

Leftism in the Global South is inextricable from Christianity, and there are plenty of us in the States who are religious and leftist.

@Ganymede

You aren't wrong but this is a bit like telling Sudanese refugees there aren't food shortages. There's enough food on the planet to feed everyone. That's not much consolation to people who can't get any.

Your writeup was really informative, though.

So y'all know how I kept posting in here like "wow all this is familiar?"

...yeah.

Got my diagnosis today.

Avatar The Last Airbender is as good as everyone said it would be.

I feel like a kid again watching it. The part of me that usually is like "ugh kid stuff" is just... quiet. It's really, really good.

Even though I had to find it elsewhere because Netflix has a quality so bad it's unwatchable.

Double posting because I need to vent

@Kanye-Qwest said in The ADD/ADHD Thread (cont'd from Peeves):

It has helped me immensely to have a Neuroscience doctor tell me : You are not just lazy. Your brain is atypical.

I spent most of the afternoon of my diagnosis crying for this reason. It was just too much to process emotionally, especially given how many times I'd been told I was lazy by parents, teachers, and professors. I distinctly remember my Ancient Greek professor telling me "you aren't bad at learning vocabulary; that's just a narrative you've constructed for yourself."

That little joy was prompted by me coming to him and asking for advice on how to learn vocab because I was struggling with it (and always have, in every language I've studied. I have studied five languages).

Fuck you, Esposito.

@Kanye-Qwest

I'm so sorry. You're worth a ton.

My parents never said anything half so cruel to me, but lazy was so frequently said that I've just known it was true for over half my life.

@Derp @Ganymede

When my friends started the firm and I joined up, we knew we'd lose a lot of cases as we learned the law, but we resolved that we would make the state bleed for every single fucking inch.

This case is my little baby straightrazor. When I submitted it in state court last year I got a call from the DA saying that it was longer than what he was used to.

Then he ended up giving me book recommendations because he's a liberal whose favorite magazine is the Atlantic and he was surprised to see the word "Kafkaesque" in a memorandum.

It was a weird phone call.

@Aria

Thanks! I'll look into it in a couple weeks since I kindaaaa just dropped all my discretionary income on terrestrial clothes.

Was that wise? No

But am I going to rock the hell out of this adorable top?

Also probably no

I just realized the reason I'm not getting out of bed is that I'm hyperfocusing on my daydreams

And that I've got depression

When people have the temerity to be walking around and doing things

I never minded being an agoraphobe until I had to deal with living with two other humans who also never leave the house.

@ganymede said in How are you coping with COVID (and other 2020 fun)?:

I'm a lawyer. We're supposed to be essential. But not all of us have to deal with criminal stuff.

And those of us who do can't always handle it. I quit my job and have been unemployed since August, though I'm keeping up my license. It was too much. Still living with my parents, helping around the house, trying to fix my mental state. Hopefully going to start up a joint venture with my mother educating lawyers about trans issues, but everything is in flux right now.

So, like... I've been talking to friends, playing video games, and trying to ignore the crushing sense of failure.