Comments on: Open thread 9/12/2025

By: Snow on Pine

Snow on Pine — Sun, 14 Sep 2025 15:47:29 +0000

Art Deco—

When I used to live in Northern Virginia, attempted robberies and assaults in locations like the parking garages at the mall at Tyson’s Corner were starting to be reported.

By: Art Deco

Art Deco — Sun, 14 Sep 2025 13:07:36 +0000

In some apartment complexes, I’ve always thought that it was a bad idea to locate the communal washers and dryers in an often badly lit basement area, because it seemed to me to be a perfect place to get ambushed, especially late at night or in the early morning, when no one else is likely to be around.
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Depends on the type of tenant, the likelihood of outsiders getting in the building, &c. I’ve lived in four buildings with washer-dryers in the basement. One might have been better lit. None of the tenants were an issue, though we had one neighbor with bad manners and sketchy friends. All the buildings had security, though not impregnable security. One lacked an elevator to the basement.
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It would be better if you had a small set of washers and dryers on each floor. They’ve had that in the assisted / independent living centers where my relatives have been billeted, but it may have been too much to add that amenity in extant buildings when it came to be a tenant expectation that the building have laundry services.
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The one person I’ve known who was subject of an attempted mugging in a parking garage it was in an underground garage located in a downtown. The fellow I knew pulled out a pistol and the mugger hit the road. Word of it reached a local law firm and attorneys in the office were debating possible legal culpability. They later discovered that the pistol wielder was one of the name partners in their own firm.

By: Snow on Pine

Snow on Pine — Sun, 14 Sep 2025 12:16:58 +0000

P.S. Same thing with badly lit, multi-story parking garages.

Too bad that we have to be aware of, and to take into consideration such things these days.

By: Art Deco

Art Deco — Sat, 13 Sep 2025 10:53:22 +0000

I think havening Washer/Dryer in a basement is a bad ides, carry clothes up and down to wash.
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We’ve looked at houses with the washer / dryer in the kitchen or adjacent to the bedrooms in a large hall closet. I’m partial in particular to the latter, so long as it is properly engineered and you’re in no danger of a flood.
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The basement is where you should have the furnace, hot water heater, a tool bench, dirty storage you haven’t placed in the garage (e.g. paint), old school darkrooms, &c. We had a 1,200 sq foot house with those features (less the darkroom) plus the washer-dryer. I don’t think you could have put it upstairs in that house. Once you had all that in the basement, you had nothing left to finish. (We’ve aged sufficiently since then that it would put us at more risk than I’d like to be lugging laundry up and down stairs).
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By: AesopFan

AesopFan — Sat, 13 Sep 2025 09:38:52 +0000

John Hinderaker lays the cards on the table.
https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2025/09/why-do-they-call-trump-hitler.php

Two of the radio and television shows that I was on yesterday were hosted by liberals. In each case, they asked what I thought *we* can do to reduce political violence. For starters, I said, you can stop calling everyone you disagree with Adolf Hitler. They didn’t seem to think that was a good idea.

Which raises the question: Why do liberal politicians, talking heads and social media influencers relentlessly liken Donald Trump to Hitler? In every relevant way, Trump is the exact opposite of Hitler. Hitler invaded Poland, France, Belgium, Russia, the Netherlands, Denmark, Norway, Yugoslavia, Greece, and no doubt a couple more that don’t come to mind. Trump has invaded no one. Hitler murdered six million Jews; Trump is the best friend Israel has ever had in the White House, and has Jewish grandchildren. Hitler raised taxes and greatly expanded the powers of government. Trump has cut taxes and tried to reduce the scope of government. Trump is literally the anti-Hitler.

So are liberals so stupid that they don’t understand how illiterate their Trump/Hitler equivalence is? I don’t think so. I think they are trying to get him killed.

Groups of Germans tried to assassinate Hitler. How does history remember them? As heroes. If you are a loyal Democrat, and you hear your party’s leaders say, thousands of times, that Trump is the same as Hitler, what are you supposed to conclude? That anyone who assassinates Trump is a hero.

I think that is the plan, and I think that is the Democrats’ motive. So far, two Democrat loyalists have taken the hint and tried to kill President Trump.

Same with Charlie Kirk. He has been ritually denounced as a “Nazi” thousands of times, day after day, for years, by influential Democrats. Why? Kirk was the exact opposite of a Nazi. I don’t think Democrats have so characterized Charlie by accident, or out of ignorance. I think they were deliberately trying to get him killed. And now they have succeeded.

I think we conservatives should aggressively call out Democrats whenever they engage in encouragement to assassination. We have seen that their strategy works. We shouldn’t pretend that we don’t understand what they are doing. Responsibility needs to be laid at their door, and they need to be held accountable.

By: Philip Sells

Philip Sells — Sat, 13 Sep 2025 07:33:22 +0000

That video is rather interesting. I may take a look at his other material on home architecture.

By: AesopFan

AesopFan — Sat, 13 Sep 2025 04:19:55 +0000

I agree with almost all of the video presenter’s complaints, and could add a few of my own.

We have had one new home in our 50 years of marriage, the first one we bought after AesopSpouse got his law degree. We got to pick our flooring, carpets, and the tile surround for the fireplace, a design that I still have a couple of tiles of. We finished the basement ourselves, complete with a wood burning stove that was a “performance bonus” from the company I worked for at the time (there was a choice of items; they probably got a good deal on all of them). We eventually moved one wall opening to make a better traffic flow (sometimes I do wonder what the developers were thinking when they designed these tract houses), and AesopSpouse built some masonry retaining walls in the back yard.
All of that in only 9 years! We weren’t really anticipating moving back to Texas, but the snow and winter fogs finally got to me.

It’s the house we were in when, as I think I’ve mentioned before, I was teaching at the precursor to UVU, the Utah Technical College. Looking at the maps, our neighborhood — mostly filled with young families like ours — has been completely overlaid with the current campus and buildings, along with our children’s elementary school.

By: Wendy K Laubach

Wendy K Laubach — Sat, 13 Sep 2025 02:16:07 +0000

Oh, and we put in all the windows we possibly could consistent with windstorm and budget constraints.

By: Wendy K Laubach

Wendy K Laubach — Sat, 13 Sep 2025 02:15:21 +0000

We built our house in 2006, but it has an actual kitchen, it’s own room, galley style, no island.

We did opt for a lot of interconnecting spaces, as we both enjoy the interesting sightlines and the sunlight sources from many different directions in each room. I have to admit that we didn’t take full account of how difficult it would be to isolate noise, especially since all the interior doors have operating transoms.

I don’t understand the complaint about ceilings being too high. All ceilings under 9 feet make me tense, and I’d prefer 10, 12, or even 14, even for small rooms, as you’d find in old-fashioned New Orleans homes. Alcoves and niches provide all the cozy relief I need.

By: Miguel cervantes

Miguel cervantes — Fri, 12 Sep 2025 23:57:23 +0000

Well that would be foolish

https://www.ynetnews.com/article/rjmegkejgg