Compulsion is Compulsion, no matter who does it. This is Brilliant Theft is Theft, no matter who does it. Freedom of Association has no room in it for *private* action that takes that away Freedom of Association. If I have a business and have voluntary associations such that I choose to serve some people and to not serve others, that might make me a jerk and it might lose me business, it might make me smart and it might gain me business, but it's got to be my choice. If I would normally serve the current disliked minority in my shop except for the fact that if I'm SEEN to serve them by the wrong people I'll have a private campaign against me as those people do everything possible to ruin me by preventing me from doing business physically or by attacking my customers or suppliers, then I am NOT free to make those choices. Does it really make a difference to losing my CHOICE to voluntarily associate if there's a law that says I may not serve "those people" o...
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Which means that I've been married longer than you've been alive?
Hehe.
I remember when I was married 13 years I was in a writing group, not *that* much older than anyone else, and everyone was like... wow, 13 years! I don't know anyone who's been married for 13 years.
It was sort of weird.
I think you've heard this story before. When I was younger, dumber, and of course more ignorant, I kept getting attacks on my age. And since at the time I didn't realize that I could just remove my birthdate and blogspot would hide my age, I couldn't figure out how to remove my age. So I just lowered it.
My reasoning was simple, as things go. If people want to attack me for my age, I might as well make it easier for them. It is always the enemy in the shadows, behind you, that does the most damage. If they come out in the open, and if my profile helps their little desires of vindictiveness, that's a good thing for me.
After I figured out that I could remove my birthdate completely, I just sort of kept it that way. I actually never thought anybody would fall for it. But they did. I think it actually motivated people who wanted to find some dirt on me, to attack my age. Human beings are weird like that, I suppose.
It was hilarious that one time Jimbo came to my blog and he said "you're not 17, I say you're a Chinese intel agent infiltrating, how do you plead". Paraphrased of course.
He suspected that my age was older than what my profile said, the other stuff was Jimbo's usual self.
Which means that I've been married longer than you've been alive?
Yah, I do feel my age. Book and Laer are talking about their kids, and graduation and I'm like...
It was sort of weird.
I call it the Elf Syndrome. Recently, it takes longer for young people to find themselves and what they want in life. Heck, some people around my state are still doing clubs and hanging around till 6 am, while they have Wife and Kids at home. One guy out of the Navy enlisted, he was doing his two year associates and was telling me how if he went back to Cleveland, his birth place, and went to the clubs around there, there would still be people he knew from High School hanging around.
Some people never grow up. And as our society promotes longer life, the period of childhood extends as well. Elf Syndrome.
It is not like these Eternal Child folks are eternal bachelors. They have a wife and kids, they just never matured. So plenty of folks that aren't even capable of being married for 13 years, Synova. Plenty.
Bookworm in her room wrote about some of these trends. Some of the reasoning, like the lowering of the status of "manly men" and taking pride in serving a function in society, rather than the Endless Narcissism you see on the net and from the Baby Boomer gen Dr Sanity writes about.