Vegas_Millennial

I was surprised to read a few weeks ago that childhood (under 18) deaths have soard since 2020, primarily due to suicide. While homicide rates for children are up slightly the past few years, they are about the same rates as 20 years ago. Childhood suicide rates, on the other hand, have nearly doubled in the past 20 years. And to reiterate the point made by @augustus, a life lost at that young age will greatly reduce total live expectancy numbers more than a life lost at a greater age.

I'm sure @SouthOfTheBordercan't be blamed for bringing all the drugs! 😂

Could be true. During that period of school shutdowns and virtual learning, the education level went down and will have likely affected an entire generation.

Yes, the covid shutdowns probably caused more long term health problems than the number of deaths they reduced from slowing the spread until a vaccination was ready. Now we know better for next time.

The US continues to have more immigrants than most other rich developed countries. It's much easier to keep a stable happy, healthy, population if you restrict who can enter based on a merits-based system of income, education, and age.

Let's please not discuss politics. Anything to add about San Francisco would be welcome. If San Francisco were to have gay strip clubs, I would go visit. The last time I was there in 2018 I only found one bar with go-go boys, but no strippers.

I was at SFO airport last week. I was flying Alaskan airlines first class and had a four hour layover which I spent at the airport in the Alaska first class lounge. While I felt no desire to venture into the city, I must say the airport was one of the more pleasant airports to layover in.

That makes sense. Even they're attitude towards the shared electric scooters left all over the sidewalks is sort of live and let live.

Actually, we were discussing San Francisco. But that's good advice for everyone to follow anyway: to please try to stay on topic.

I also visited on a week the sun was out. So yes, it was very much an anomaly that week 😆

I would say the decay of San Francisco could be the Internet. Now that is so easy to find guys online, there is less demand for gay bars and theaters.

I am thankful that San Francisco has a large swath of gay escorts and massuers available. During my last visit in 2018, prices and availability for their services were better than New York, and almost as good as Los Angeles.

You, like most others, call it an outrage because you worked hard to provide for yourself and your community. Unfortunately there's a growing vocal mindset who believe they and others are pre-destined to fail, that life is rigged against them, and they're owed three square meals a day and shelter without contributing back what they can to society.

Oops, I think now you forgot to say "when parents are estranged." Nope, it's there. I added bold for emphasis

#MeToo

That's good to know. I'll be on my first trip to Europe, including Germany, in a few weeks. I am planning to have enough cash on me before I leave, in case I have trouble with foreign ATMs. I much prefer to be prepared with cash.

I just had my first 3 way sex of the year. Nothing planned, it just happened. We met at a park during a gay picnic, and shared an Uber to my hotel for some 3 way fun afterwards. It was great! No plans, no discussions. Just fun 😊

Women's sports was already destroyed before transexuals participated. It's boring!

I mean about a dozen states. Washington is the only one that I know of that passed based on a Google search today. California's AB665 hasn't passed yet, but is similar to Washington's based on what I read on the California legislature's most recent version of the bill. I have not kept track of the status of other bills in other states related to this issue. Before I read Washington's law and California's bill today, my understanding was about a dozen states were proposing changes to allow minors to elect gender reassignment without parental consent. I now know from reading these two bills (one of passed, one proposed) is for children estranged and/or physically abused by their parents. I am not aware of the conditions of language proposed in the other states' bills. But I now know with confidence the language these two states have approved and proposed, because I read them.

I thought sharing facts would help (help the both of us). The Washington Bill which passed does indeed approve gender treatment and surgery without parental consent, provided the parents are estranged. I was unaware of this last requirement. In the event the parents are estranged, then the medical facility must notify the State who then may or may not try to contact the parents. I personally see no reason why an estranged parent should allow to make any decisions over their estranged children, if the parent is the one causing the estrangement by kicking the minor out of the house. So now we both know that some states do allow surgery for minors without parental consent if those parents are estranged. We should both be in a better position to discuss this with others in the future.

A society's greatest strength is also its greatest weakness. The freedom to live out of doors and camp in any public space is a personal liberty some enjoy at the cost of discomfort by the majority around them. Some cities are better able at reducing personal liberties for minority groups to keep their cities pleasant and secure for the majority. "He who would trade liberty for some temporary security, deserves neither liberty nor security." Benjamin Franklin San Francisco has historically been a very welcoming city to diverse groups of social minorities. That may have been a factor to its current state of problems. I do not have an opinion of which one is better or worse (that would be political discussion). I do know that not all homeless are mentally ill. Some just prefer not having to work to pay rent.

That situation is not limited to American Express. My local supermarket, Smith's, did not accept VISA for over a year because of its high processing fees. While I do not use credit cards for every day purchases, I keep one card of each major credit network (American Express, Discover, Master Card, and Visa) in my wallet for emergencies.

For those who disagree, might I suggest Johnson's in Wilton Manors. They actively promote a gay men's club for gay men only. They check government identification for gender. Any non-males must be accompanied by a male. The DJ reminds them not to screech or "woo-hoo" at the dancers. I won't take up any more time discussing what Montreal clubs should do. I plan to visit Montreal next summer and hopefully enjoy these male strip clubs. For those looking for "men only" nights, it might be time to take a trip down south to see how it's done. 😊

The 9th Circuit ruled in 2018 that cities cannot ban camping in public spaces. https://www.nlc.org/article/2018/09/19/what-the-ninth-circuits-camping-ruling-means-for-housing-first-strategies-in-cities/ This 2018 ruling applies to cities in the following states: Alaska, Arizona, California, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington. You may have noticed a large uptick in urban camping that started year that has yet to subside. I noticed it in Portland, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Las Vegas almost overnight as transient homeless set up camp on sidewalks that year. For my masters thesis in 2019, I interviewed homeless people in tent camps in Las Vegas. A majority of whom I talked to said they previously used about half of their disability checks for affordable weekly rentals. But now that the police can't arrest them for camping on the streets, they would rather sleep outdoors and save their disability checks for more beer and cigarettes. While my masters thesis was not on San Francisco, I suspect many urban campers there have no desire to move indoors for a nominal cost. Amusingly, one of the homeless men I interviewed in Las Vegas said he rotated to California every few years because California would give him bonus payments as a newly homeless person in that state, and then move back to Nevada when he no longer qualified for the California bonus.

As you point out, there are nearly as many hurdles to develop government subsidized housing as there are for a private citizen to build a house or operate a business in that state. That is one reason the native-born housed/working population of California has been in decline, as those who can afford to move away do so to locations with fewer government restrictions that apply to operating a business or raising a family. I used to live in California. I moved to Nevada partly because in my line of work every project in California was bogged down with environmental assessments and lawsuits.