TheLiverDoc on Twitter - "Please don't mix fruits and a whole lot of raw green and colored veggies into a blender and make yourself a detox juice if you have pre existing liver disease. This is the second patient this week who seems to have developed kidney injury after daily consumption of home made…"
BBC Radio 4 - Best of Today, Can health strikes be averted? - "'The NHS is, is, on its knees and this government has done nothing about it'
'Well, you say this government has done nothing about it. What they have done in recent times is provide extra funds, and quite considerable sums of money and what they point is out is we've got a huge number, of, of doctors, huge number of nurses and that extra money and yet actually and a very significant health charity was pointing this out the other day after work done by the Institute for Fiscal Studies is that actually, the spending doesn't seem to be making the difference that it ought to make and there might be more fundamental things that are going wrong'"
She changed the topic to staffing - even though the interviewer pointed out the NHS had gotten a lot of extra staff
BBC Radio 4 - Best of Today, Free School Meals: Parents go without so their children can eat - "150 people responded. And I asked them why, if, free school meals should be universal, 4 to 1 they said they should be universal. They said that it would reduce, it would end inequality, that would end stigma and bullying in schools. That it would make the menu accessible to all children. If you're on free school meals, there're some things on the menu each day in school you can't have. And they said if everyone was on free school meals, we'd create a sense of solidarity and the quality of those meals would go up because all families would finally know what was in them"
Leftist logic as usual - the equal misery principle. Clearly if private health care is banned, the quality of public healthcare will go up since everyone will have to use it. Of course, you'd need to ban home meals to enforce "solidarity" with free school meals for everyone and end "stigma". And clearly kids only ever stigmatise and bully each other based on free school meals, and won't look for new things to pick on if there're universal free school meals.
BBC Radio 4 - Best of Today, Watch the series before criticising, says The Crown’s historical consultant - "Young people have said to us about The Crown, Oh, that's how the Monarchy works. So that's how we have two heads of our government: one that we disagree about and we elect and the other one that represents all the things we do agree about and that's the Royal Family"
Meme - "let's play hide and seek. i will hide and you will seek professional help"
Ducklings swim in a line behind their mother to reduce drag and propel themselves forwards - "swimming in a line behind their mother helps to reduce drag, and actually propels the ducklings forwards... Dr Zhiming Yuan, who led the study, said: 'These principles could be potentially applied to design modern freight carrying vessels, e.g. a water-train, to transport more cargoes without extra fuel cost.'"
Meme - Alex "Tropical" Forrest @380kmh: "when the train always stops in exactly the same place, the air conditioner always drips in exactly the same place, and a tiny ecosystem is born #TrainTwitter"
Meme - "Elmo knows better than to question a man who just tore off half of his friend's head to wear as a hat. There's no place for weakness on the Sesame Street."
IsItBullshit: burying a dead body vertically with a dead animal on too : IsItBullshit - "Seems everybody on Reddit thinks they could totally be a super cool murderer if they wanted to, so of course everyone feels the need to share their totally unique advice about burying a dead human vertically and placing an animal on top for false-positives for police dogs. Is it really that simple?"
"Bullshit. Too difficult. Once I helped dig a grave. It was in an awkward spot in the graveyard and had to be done by hand, and it had to be six feet deep, and it had to be done that day. We were strong landscapers but had never done this before, getting only some cursory tips and rules from the curator. It completely exhausted three or four of us including one of the biggest and strongest dudes I've ever worked with... The important point is that the hole was coffin length and still only one person could work in it. You just can't easily dig a narrow hole that's six feet deep"
"This is something they always get wrong in movies, the ease and speed at which someone digs a grave. And Breaking Bad when Walter buries his barrels of money, that would have been days and he would be near death from exhaustion."
Meme - "Greta Thunberg Just Destroyed Andrew Tate On Twitter, And People Are Loving It"
"Me watching people lose their mind were "small pp" joke."
"Imagine a child telling a grown man he has a small dick what weird fucking world we live in"
Meme - "Peter, you know that Andrew Tate got arrested?"
"Yeah, thanks to Greta Thunberg who DESTROYED him epic style!"
"Pete, she literally just told him "haha small pp", every woman says that, tf is so special about that?"
"NOOO GRETA OWNED ANDREW EPIC STYLE! YAASS QUEEN W SLAYYY GIRLBOSS!!!"
Existential Comics on Twitter - "The amazing thing about these misogynist self help gurus like Andrew Tate, or even Jordan Peterson, is how obvious it is that they are deeply unhappy people. It is a dead end ideology, even if you get everything you want you'll remain bitter, insecure, and hateful."
Ironically, bitter, insecure, and hateful describes this commie perfectly. Also, claiming Tate and Peterson are the same - what a joke. The main thing they have in common is that the left hate them
Andrew Tate's Hustlers University reportedly put a 'bounty' on KSI's head - "The case against the Tate brothers is based on the accusation that they seduced women by falsely claiming to want a relationship or marriage."
Liberals keep gloating about his detention, but this perpetuates the Victorian stereotype that women are naive and helpless. Then again, that's what modern feminism is about anyway
Tate rape allegations, text exchanges with women detailed in court document - The Washington Post - "Their lawyers say the fact that they have not been charged shows a lack of evidence and argue their continued detention violates their human rights. In closed court sessions, Tate’s lawyers have said the sex was consensual... Prosecutors have said the messages are evidence of the methods used by the brothers to “gain the trust of victims they manipulated” by posing as “affectionate, honest people,” according to the court order... Tate and his co-accused said the women were free to leave or call the police. “Ask them for evidence and they will give you none,” Andrew Tate said as he was led out of court on Wednesday after an appeals court upheld a 30-day extension of his detention. “Because it doesn’t exist.”... Defense lawyers point out that two other Romanians described as “injured parties” in the case file have spoken out in favor of the Tates, saying they are not victims"
Indian airline forgets 55 passengers as plane takes off - "The Go First Airways flight from Bengaluru to Delhi departed at 6.30am on Monday without 55 people who were expecting to travel. They were all left sitting on one of four buses used to take passengers to the plane at Kempegowda International Airport."
The Heirs of the Dragon | Game of Thrones Wiki | Fandom - "The timeline has been moved around somewhat from the book Fire & Blood, both due to condensation as well as the need to age-up the younger actors. This is directly comparable to how Game of Thrones aged-up Daenerys Targaryen from 14 to 16 in Season 1: under UK filming law, a fictional character cannot be portrayed having sex under the age of 16, regardless of the actor's actual age (Emilia Clarke was 23 years old when playing the 16 year-old Daenerys)."
Unfortunately I cannot find a source for this
Nerdfighteria Wiki - Make a Book with Meat (or other atypical materials) ft. Ben Denzer - "you go to the grocery store and you see a packet of slices of American cheese. If you put a cover around it that instantly becomes a book--so some of the books I've been making play with this idea of ready-mades in a sense. This is a book of 200 one dollar bills that are used bills that I sorted in order of serial number. This is a book that I recently made in quarantine of one roll of Charmin Ultra Strong toilet paper. I recently made a book of scratch-off lottery tickets. So, this is 77 lucky sevens and so they're all lottery tickets that you can scratch off. So, this book is worth potentially quite a bit if all these is a winner--but who knows... the most challenging um book i've tried to bind together was this book i recently made at the University of Michigan called "20 Slices of Meat". I've been wanting to make a book that was made out of 100% meat for quite a while and while I was there, I went to Zingerman's Deli and they were kind enough to kind of show me all the meats and guide me towards the mortadella."
Meme - "Before: *Ronald McDonald with The Hamburglar, Birdie the Early Bird, The Fry Kids, Grimace, Captain Crook, Chicken McNuggets, The Happy Meal Gang and The Professor*
Now: *Ronald McDonald alone*
You're not always gonna be friends with people you started with"
The identity of Grimace, Ronald McDonald’s purple pal, finally revealed - "Grimace—furry, purple, Grimace, is a tastebud. Trust me, I pinched myself. Brian Bates, who has worked for the fast food restaurant chain for a decade, confirmed it in an interview with CBC News. He’s apparently supposed to illustrate that McDonald’s meals taste delicious, and thus resembles taste buds and papillae."
Rat Study Offers Insight on Why Men Love Lingerie - "researchers allowed virgin male rats to mate with female rats wearing special “jackets”. Later, the researchers presented the male rats with the opportunity to mate again, and most chose to mate with the females wearing the special jackets rather than the females not wearing anything. It was also found that the male rats ejaculated at a quicker rate when mating with the females wearing the jackets. During the mating process, the male rat mounts the female from behind and grabs hold of both sides of her. When the female rats were wearing the jackets, the male rats could feel the special cloth with their whiskers as they mated. Just as the dogs in Pavlov’s experiment salivated at the sound of the bell due to its association with the presentation of food, the male rats showed an increase in sexual arousal with the jacketed females, because the jackets became associated with mating. This gives us more insight whereas to why men love lingerie on women, as the study indicates that a similar mental reaction occurs when men see their woman wearing lingerie. In other words, when a man sees his wife or girlfriend in lingerie, he knows he’s about to get lucky."
Meme - "Angel, So happy you are with us! Thank you for all your hard work! It doesn't go unnoticed! Happy Holidays"
"Here is your new rate of pay that goes into effect on Dec 26, 2022!
Current Rate of Pay: $15.00
New Rate of Pay (on 12/26): $15.00"
Meme - "The funny thing about "truckers are going to need to learn to code because of Al" is AI may end up coming for the coding jobs before it comes for the trucker jobs. The data we have so far says AI is killing more white collar jobs than blue collar jobs."
"When you actually think about it it shouldn't be that surprising: AI is better than humans at pattern recognition AI is worse than humans at spacial awareness I wonder which jobs are more vulnerable? I think the theory that it would automatically wipe out blue-collar jobs first is some level of hubris. The belief that robots would come for 'dumb' jobs before 'smart' jobs, even tho in reality the way AIs 'think' and the way humans think are completely different"
The eating habits we need to bring back from the 1950s - "When Elizabeth was crowned Queen on June 2, 1953, sugar, butter, cheese, margarine, cooking fats and meat were all rationed. Fortunately, sweets, eggs and cream had come off ration in February, March and April respectively, so there was surely a trifle or two to be had at a street party. Sugar, though, did not come off ration until September that year. For a time of jubilation, it was by modern standards a fairly dismal diet, reliant on potatoes and without any of the exotic ingredients we take for granted. It was a simpler time, when olive oil was only sold in small bottles from the chemist, to loosen ear wax. Now 70 years on, we have more choice than you can shake a chopstick at. We’re also facing an obesity epidemic that would be inconceivable to an average 1950s family... According to food historian Dr Annie Gray, the general culture lent itself to better fitness and health. “Plates were smaller. Snacking didn’t happen all day,” says Gray. “Alcohol consumption was far less too.” Meat consumption was less than today. Meals were bulked out with oats, pulses and bread – brown bread became the norm; the National Loaf introduced in 1942, was made from wholemeal flour to combat wartime shortages of white flour. The ration diet wasn’t about starvation; men were allowed 3,000 calories a day – slightly higher than the 2,500 recommended today. In many ways, a 1950s diet can seem counterintuitive. “There were biscuits, cakes and sugar,” says Gray. “The difference is that today we eat sugar in more insidious ways.” People however were still consuming less sugar than we do. Even when rationing finished and everyone went crazy for sugar, many of the habits of the war were very ingrained. “It was still about not wasting food and using whatever you had. And also walking places. All of that was part and parcel of people’s lives,” says Gray Today we need to be reminded to walk 10,000 steps, something that wouldn’t need saying in 1953. The proportion of households with access to a car has risen from 14 per cent in 1951 to 75 per cent in 2010... “Sixty per cent of people went home for lunch in the lower classes,” says Gray. When she was writing the Call the Midlife Cook Book, Gray would have a two-course lunch typical of the era. “Sausages and something like a rice pudding. And as long as you have small portions it feels like a massive meal.” Dinner in the 1950s would have been cooked from scratch, rather than delivered or out at a restaurant. Meals took place around a dining table. Contrast with today, where approximately five per cent between the ages of 45 to 54, of a 2021 Statista survey, said they ate with family at the dinner table only once a month. Mindless eating with your various screens wouldn’t have been an option given that in 1953 there were only 2.7 million television sets in existence. “One of the things that is quite good about a 1950s meal is paying attention to what you’re eating and stopping when you’re full,” says Gray. It’s one of the many lessons she says we can learn from a 1950s diet. Eating proper food and making healthy decisions. For bariatric surgeon Andrew Jenkinson, author of Why We Eat (Too Much), his concern is what we’re eating, not how much. “It’s nothing to do with calories,” he says. “You can eat a lot of healthy foods, such as meat, fish and vegetables with high calories without it translating into weight gain. It’s what the food does to you from a metabolic perspective. The western diet has too many refined carbohydrates that affect your insulin levels and cause inflammation. It’s not the fact that it’s really tasty, it’s the fact it disrupts the metabolic signalling, causing weight gain.”... “We’ve introduced a Deliveroo culture. Restaurant food will tend to add sugar, salt and veg oils to make it tasty so we go back and have more.” Even the treats of the 1950s, such as cakes and biscuits, are more likely today to be shop bought and have shelf-life lengthening palm oil in them. The point where it all went wrong, he says, was the 1980s when saturated fats were wrongly demonised, and cereals replaced eggs as a healthy breakfast. “The big scare that saturated fats caused cardiac disease, which has been proven to be not reliable evidence, unfortunately, meant the the western world went towards more refined carbohydrates.”"
Weird how a bariatric surgeon doesn't know that it's as simple as calories in and calories out, like all the nutrition experts on Facebook
Does Wealth Rob the Brain of Compassion? - The Atlantic - "More than a decade ago, as a postdoctoral researcher in the lab of the UC Berkeley psychologist Dacher Keltner, Piff used a series of rigged Monopoly games to see how people would respond to being placed randomly into a position of privilege... As the games progressed, rich players became more and more cocksure. They spoke louder, moved their pieces more aggressively, and even consumed more pretzels from bowls that the researchers had put out as part of the experiment. “We had little gradients on the table where you could measure how much space a person is taking up from when they began to when they ended,” Piff told me. “The richer players began to take up more room. They got bigger as they got richer.”... The Monopoly experiment wasn’t the most rigorous science ever, and Piff never published the results, although the study was later replicated by others and referenced in Piff’s popular TED Talk, “Does Money Make You Mean?” But his observations were consistent with a large body of social science finding that people of higher socioeconomic status, compared with those lower down the ladder, are more prone to entitlement and narcissistic behavior. Wealthier subjects also tend to be more self-oriented and more willing to behave unethically in their own self-interest (to lie during negotiations, say, or to steal from an employer). In one study, Piff and his colleagues stationed a pedestrian at the edge of a busy crosswalk and watched to see which cars would let the person cross. Suffice it to say that Fords and Subarus were far more likely to stop than Mercedeses and BMWs... Wealth-related differences in attitudes and behavior are particularly important wherever the rich have an outsize sway over politics and policy. If, for instance, wealth makes people less compassionate, then a government that believes that the rich should behave in the interests of the populace may have to force them to do so. Political scientists such as Benjamin Page and Martin Gilens have found notable differences in the policy preferences of affluent versus middle-class Americans, not only on purely economic matters like taxation but also on public-education funding, racial equity, and environmental protections, all of which the rich have been significantly less likely to support. This matters because of the influence the rich have over government officials... While wealthy families donate significantly more money to charity on average than poor families do, they tend to give away a smaller share of their income... Raymond Fisman, a behavioral economist at Boston University, has found that the elite—regardless of political affiliation—tend to be “efficiency minded” as opposed to “equality minded.”... Some of us are born better off than others, “but that’s not how people experience relative privilege or relative disadvantage,” Piff said. “What people do is attune to the things they’ve done: ‘I’ve worked hard. I worked hard in school.’ You start plucking out those things.” Successful people tend to feel deserving of their lot. As a corollary, they tend to view less-fortunate people as having earned their lack of success. “So you’re more likely to make sense of inequality,” Piff explained, “to justify it, make inequality seem equitable.”... “These findings should call into question any beliefs in noblesse oblige—elevated rank does not appear to obligate wealthy individuals to do good for the benefit of society.”... the most compassionate choice isn’t necessarily the best one. Wealthy subjects, regardless of politics, are prone to a more utilitarian mindset than their less-wealthy counterparts, which enables them, as Piff and his co-authors note in one paper, to “make dispassionate choices to serve the greater good that others might find quite difficult.” During a pandemic, for example, health authorities may have to weigh the likelihood that a given vaccine could severely harm a small number of recipients against the prospect that it could save millions of lives."
Rats love driving tiny cars, even when they don’t get treats
On this the Italians all agree: True ragu needs time. - The Washington Post - "At its most basic, ragu can be defined as a range of slow-cooked meat sauces typically paired with pasta. The most famous iterations are Bolognese ragu, the rich ground-meat sauce enhanced with milk and cream from the Emilia-Romagna region; and Neapolitan ragu, made by braising large pieces of pork, beef or a mix in tomato puree. Really, the two could not be more different. Neapolitan ragu is a robust tomato sauce infused with the flavor and fat of braised meat, and usually served with short, sturdy pasta. Bolognese-style ragu is dense, almost spoonable, delicately flavored and with a minimal amount of tomato. It is typically served in lasagne or with fresh egg tagliatelle. But never spaghetti. Why? Because, for the most part, people in Bologna eat tagliatelle. Indeed, the mayor of Bologna, Virginio Merola, recently launched a social media campaign to inform people that the dish known in many parts of the world as “spaghetti Bolognese” does not exist. He calls it “fake news.” There is also a long-standing dispute between the Bolognesi and the Neapolitans over whose ragu came first, but that is unlikely to be resolved anytime soon. Besides, there are now variations across Italy. In Tuscany, which borders Emilia-Romagna, ground pork and/or beef are the meats of choice, but dairy is omitted. Farther north, ground rabbit or duck becomes the main ingredient. Ragu from Abruzzo leans more toward the Neapolitan style. Lamb is often part of the mix, not surprising in this mountainous region where sheep farming is still a way of life. These regional sauces have one essential element in common: an invisible ingredient called time. A great ragu needs time to transform from a pot of disparate ingredients into something whole, rich, complex and deeply satisfying. “A gentle, long, slow simmering — so it barely blips on the stove — has always been regarded as an essential ‘ingredient’ of a good ragu,” says Jenny Linford, author of “The Missing Ingredient: The Curious Role of Time in Food and Flavor.” Cook a ragu quickly, she warns, and the results are very different: “The elements remain separate, rather than melding together, with the result being simply meat in a comparatively insipid, watery tomato sauce — two-dimensional in flavor, a world away from the classic rich ragu so beloved of Italians.”... Even when your ragu is done, it’s not yet finished. Let it cool to room temperature, then refrigerate it overnight. This final act truly unifies the sauce"
The Communist Cookbook That Defined Prague’s Cuisine - "In the newly independent Czech Republic of the 1990s, cheap comfort food—such as goulash, pork knuckle, and dumplings—dominated every eatery. Meanwhile vegetarians were encouraged to feast on fried cheese and stewed cabbage. (The late Anthony Bourdain famously called it “the land vegetables forgot” in an episode of his travel show No Reservations.) For the most part, tourists loved Prague in spite of the food rather than because of it. But Czechs didn’t understand the criticism. After 40 years of communism, the culinary splendor that once dominated Czech culture was a distant memory due, in part, to one very specific cookbook. As a former cultural capital of both the Holy Roman and Habsburg Empires, ingredients and ideas once flowed freely between Prague and major metropolises in Austria, Hungary, Italy, France, and beyond. By the time Napoleon’s army claimed victory in the Battle of Austerlitz, the city was an epicurean epicenter rivaling Paris and Vienna. Czechs were roasting goose better than Germans, using gnocchi in ways the Italians never thought of, and incorporating French techniques that made their meat sauces even richer. Royal banquets often featured delicacies including pheasant, turtle, and Španělské ptáčky (Spanish birds), a Czech version of roulade made from beef or veal. Economic and gastronomic excellence even survived the First World War. It wasn’t until the Nazis invaded in 1939, implementing stringent rationing and 10-12-hour workdays, that Czechoslovak cuisine took its first big hit... When communists came to power in 1948, citizens were hopeful they could return to a life containing more prewar luxuries. Though the quality of food improved, life under socialist ideas still proved restrictive. Twenty years later, when liberalization started to gain traction, the party saw a need for even stricter control. In an effort to consolidate power, they purged reformist officials from the government and established a range of restrictions on everyday activities. Eating was no exception. The state Restaurants and Cafeterias company soon issued a national cookbook entitled Receptury teplých pokrmu, or Recipes for Warm Meals. Dubbed “normovacka,” or “the book of standards,” it dictated what cooks in the country could serve in 845 recipes. Ladislav Pravaan, curator of the Gastronomie Muzeum of Prague, explains that the book even specified sources and serving styles for everything from sauces to side dishes. The cookbook’s authors, František Syrový and Antonin Nestával, were relatively well-known chefs at the time (Nestával had even represented Czech gastronomy at the 1967 Montreal Expo). But the book emphasized limiting food imports and cooking economically, so it didn’t include anything you might expect to try at a culinary competition. Nutrition was also a core component of the book... Cooks that wanted to deviate from these recipes had to get approval from the Ministry of Health, a request that could take years to go through. Most people opted for the easier route, which is how thousands of nearly identical menus came to be established across the country. Paired with limited ingredient diversity, the nation suffered a creative drought: It wasn’t just that all the same dishes were served, but the dishes were prepared exactly the same way, resulting in identical versions of dishes, too. Each bite was calculated as a means of productivity, and dining for pleasure was considered extravagant. “Special” meals were no longer considered, and the scope of Czech cuisine shrunk... “Meals at home were often prepared from prefabricated components as there was a noticeable lack of fresh produce,” Thorne says. Though homemade meals weren’t as strictly regulated by the state, there was still little opportunity for originality there. Another problem? Farms became collectivized by the state, which meant even previously ubiquitous ingredients such as asparagus, broccoli, and thyme became largely unavailable. Pravaan recalls interruptions in basic supplies including onions and garlic as well. Imported fruits and vegetables were missed most, though. Jan Valenta, of Taste of Prague food tours, remembers craving oranges and receiving a rare treat of gift-wrapped bananas under the Christmas tree... Self-described “gastronaut,” guide author, and Prague Food Festival creator Pavel Maurer says that before the Velvet Revolution, following the fall of communism, there were only three restaurants in the city serving foreign cuisine (Russian, Chinese, and Indian). To get a table, you’d have to book at least a month in advance... According to celebrity chef (a phrase you wouldn’t hear 20 years ago) and reality TV host Zdeněk Pohlreich, foreign chefs are to thank for incorporating standards of cooking and service into the scene"
The commies will continue to boast that citizens of communist countries ate better than in the US
National Service (NS) Reservist in Singapore: What to Know - SingaporeLegalAdvice.com - "The maximum validity of an exit permit is 3 years, although it may cover the full duration of your academic course if you are studying overseas."
Ironically, it is better to say you're working (you get 3 years) than that you're a PR (you get 1 year). If you get married and move that should be 2 years
T. Greer on Twitter - "Here Zhang keys in on something I have pondered on before: China has a broader class of public intellectuals than America does. In America, we have experts who vacillate between extreme expertise in a very narrow issue and general echoing of whatever their social milieu says…"
Meme - "Hi James I love your work! I love this picture but my stupid self couldn't hold the 1 the right way. Could you fix it?"
*Young girl holding 17 with reversed 1*
"Fixed."
*Old woman holding 71*
Meme - "Streaming: $89
OD (?): $5
Apple TV+: $5
Amazon Prime: $9
Peacock: $10
Paramount+: $10
HBO Max: $15
Netflix: $15
Disney+: $20
Cable: $79"
Meme - "My mom recently passed away, my dad found this going through one of her old purses...
Special Request. PNl David Jarvis Anderson
Navy Recruiting Station, Philadelphia, Pa.
Nature of Request: Special Liberty
Reason for Request: My wife is planning on getting pregnant this weekend and I would like to be there when it happens."
Meme - BrilliantVillain @lntergalacticQ: "Ever since I found out cats don't meow to other cats, that's just some shit they learned to manipulate humans and moews are supposed to mimic infant human cries I'm noticing a lot of fake shit about my cat"
The Case Against Marriage - The Atlantic - "As Chekhov put it, “If you’re afraid of loneliness, don’t marry.” He might have been on to something. In a review of two national surveys, the sociologists Natalia Sarkisian of Boston College and Naomi Gerstel of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst found that marriage actually weakens other social ties. Compared with those who stay single, married folks are less likely to visit or call parents and siblings—and less inclined to offer them emotional support or pragmatic help with things such as chores and transportation. They are also less likely to hang out with friends and neighbors... those who were married without children were the most isolated. The researchers suggest that one potential explanation for this is that these couples tend to have more time and money—and thus need less help from family and friends, and are then less likely to offer it in return. The autonomy of successful married life can leave spouses cut off from their communities. Having children may slightly soften the isolating effects of marriage, because parents often turn to others for help. The sociologists found that, for the most part, these trends couldn’t be explained away by structural differences in the lives of married versus unmarried people. They hold true across racial groups and even when researchers control for age and socioeconomic status. So it isn’t the circumstances of married life that isolate—it’s marriage itself... modern marriage comes with a cultural presumption of self-sufficiency... In his book The All-or-Nothing Marriage, the psychologist Eli Finkel examines how, over the past 200 years, American expectations of marriage have slowly climbed Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. Just a few generations ago, the ideal marriage was defined by love, cooperation, and a sense of belonging to a family and community. Today’s newlyweds, Finkel argues, want all that and prestige, autonomy, personal growth, and self-expression. A marriage is supposed to help the individuals within it become the best versions of themselves. This means that more and more, Americans turn to their spouses for needs they once expected an entire community to fulfill... one of the main arguments in favor of marriage is that it’s still the best environment for raising children. But as Cherlin argues in The Marriage-Go-Round, what matters for children is “not simply the kind of family they live in but how stable that family is.” That stability may take the form of a two-parent family, or, as Cherlin points out, it might be the extended-family structures that are common in African American communities, for example"
Given the dysfunction of African American children, this is not comforting