Presentation is huge, at least for me. The thing that pulled me over to the Linux side was people posting screenshots of their tricked-out desktops with cooling-looking terminals. It made learning the terminal look fun, not intimidating.

You avoided my bigger question.

Love should be conditional. It should be reciprocated.

Years and years of mental abuse makes the love for your family go away.

Right. Because your love was conditional. Which is a good thing. You loved them; they abused you; you quit loving them.

What am I missing here?

Sure, I’ve heard that referred to as your “logical family” (as opposed to your “biological family” ). I have estranged family members, too.

What’s interesting is HC Trumbull’s contrast with the Arabic concept of blood being thicker than milk (from the Wikipedia entry) which seems to be closer to your meaning. I’m not sure if this is referring to people who have fought together or if it’s some kind of “blood brother” ritual, though. Unfortunately, in English the word “blood” is used as a metaphor for family.

In my case, and in the case of some of my friends, family members are just a disappointment while my friends and I have unconditional love for eachother and are even there through the hardest times.

I’m glad that you’ve found friends like this. I don’t understand the appeal of unconditional love, though. I expect that if I turned into a horrible person, my friends’ love for me would go away, and I wouldn’t think any less of them for that.

It seems like your love for your family is conditional upon them not being assholes. I think that’s completely reasonable and appropriate, but why have unconditional love for your friends but not your family? If your friends started treating you the same way your estranged family members have, wouldn’t your love for your friends also cease?

Maybe I’m missing something important about love here. This seems likely, because a lot of people hold the value of unconditional love in high regard and act as though its goodness is so obvious that it doesn’t need to be explained. Perhaps you could tell me how I’m wrong here.

Yes, and that’s a good thing for you. But is it a good thing for the dog? I’ve known dogs with very abusive human companions.

This is why I don’t understand why unconditional love is put up on a pedestal. The person that you love unconditionally could fall, hit their head, and become a completely different person who now treats you horribly. Should you still show them that same love?

People saying this mean to say that family bonds are more important than friendships.

That is how this phrase has been interpreted since the 12th century.

But it’s incomplete. The full expression:

blood runs thicker than water from the womb

This version comes from “The blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb”. A couple of writers in the late 20th - early 21st century made the claim that this was the original phrasing; however, they did not cite any sources to back up this claim. See details in the Wikipedia entry.

I had the same thing, but it was a matter of finding the right meds.

This isn’t the fault of democracy; it’s the fault of the US system. Nobody knew what made a good democracy when the US was founded. After 250 years it’s really showing its age and the need for an upgrade. Primarily, Congress needs to be dismantled and replaced with a parliament.

You never heard of a talking horse?

Not sure if you’re kink-shaming or ableist-shaming.

There’s already Latex, and the purists calling it Lateh only make it seem like they know and are ashamed.

It’s always been pronounced “Lah-tek” or “Lay-tek” (not “Lateh”). That’s because it comes from Greek where X makes a K sound.

Why would you want to hook up with a loser like that, though?

You should read the article even if the “answer” is in the headline.

People who don’t read past the headline can miss important details or even get the core issue completely wrong.

I watched Dominion and Earthlings. I can’t think about food made out of meat without thinking of the animals.

If everybody were vegan or vegetarian, that would be fine. Unless you have some way to get everybody else to quit eating meat, this is a pointless argument.

meth-like

Why would you create something before there was demand for it? Seems completely backwards.

The one criticism that I felt had some truth to it is that it looks like it was designed by a 14-year-old boy. I think it appeals to my inner 14-year-old who wants neon icons and DRAGONS. But if Dr460nized is too garish for you and you want something more sophisticated, now there’s Mokka.

Why wouldn’t I want to reboot?

I use Garuda, and it hasn’t borked for me in years. I update it about once a week.

I saw the perfect comeback for this: “Everybody pees, too, Karen, but if you’re doing it 60 times a day, then you might have a problem.” It goes from normal to pathological when it interferes with your life.