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  • deltagodeltago Member Posts: 7,811
    Pretty sure he resigned after making the post (and any outlets saying he resigned prior is revisioning history as it happens) after he received huge amount of black lash pointing out people who can’t just pull themselves up by the bootstraps and dig themselves out like seniors.

    He apologized and said didn’t mean the seniors that vote for him, oh no. He meant those lazy people who expect what they pay for (running water, electricity) and it’s them being lazy for not planning on the government and electricity companies for not planning properly.

    It’s mind spinning.

    And no, he doesn’t expect you to unfreeze the pipes to get water he expects you to go outside, shovel up some snow, boil it by rubbing two sticks together to make fire and use that.
    semiticgoddess
  • jjstraka34jjstraka34 Member Posts: 9,850
    deltago wrote: »
    Pretty sure he resigned after making the post (and any outlets saying he resigned prior is revisioning history as it happens) after he received huge amount of black lash pointing out people who can’t just pull themselves up by the bootstraps and dig themselves out like seniors.

    He apologized and said didn’t mean the seniors that vote for him, oh no. He meant those lazy people who expect what they pay for (running water, electricity) and it’s them being lazy for not planning on the government and electricity companies for not planning properly.

    It’s mind spinning.

    And no, he doesn’t expect you to unfreeze the pipes to get water he expects you to go outside, shovel up some snow, boil it by rubbing two sticks together to make fire and use that.

    He claimed in a follow-up he was "taken out of context", and this is apparently another phrase we may have to discard entirely, because pretty often now that is just something you say reflexively when you know you've stepped in it. Either that, or he just simply doesn't know what it means.
  • semiticgoddesssemiticgoddess Member Posts: 14,903
    Well, the power is now out and I don't know when it'll be back. It's almost as cold indoors as outside, and I can't generate enough heat on my own, even swaddled in blankets and towels. The cold makes you hungry, but we mostly only have junk food to eat. We can't cook without clean dishes, the dishwasher isn't working without water, and the microwave has no power. At least stuff in the fridge won't spoil fast; it's too cold inside.

    I'm hoping we can take shelter at my parents' place, but there's also a convention center that's being kept open as a warming place. But I don't want to take up limited space there if I have an alternative.

    My girlfriend's dad has been hard at work trying to maintain the house as best as he can without water or power. Mom is at work, unfortunately, and Lily and Isabelle are just trying to stay warm. I'm sitting in the car to warm up while my phone charges; with all the road closures, I'll definitely need a GPS to get anywhere today.
    Arvia
  • semiticgoddesssemiticgoddess Member Posts: 14,903
    Back when I was living as a straight guy in a wealthy neighborhood and still confident that my Ivy League education would translate into a middle class job, public policy was never something that impacted me directly. It was something I cared about in a more indirect and abstract way. These days, my everyday life depends on public policy, from local to national.

    I'm still more worried about how politics affects other people than how it affects me, but these days, the folks whose everyday safety depends on a functioning government are people I know personally; not just folks in a different neighborhood I'd never met.
    jjstraka34Arviadunbar
  • deltagodeltago Member Posts: 7,811
    Well, the power is now out and I don't know when it'll be back. It's almost as cold indoors as outside, and I can't generate enough heat on my own, even swaddled in blankets and towels. The cold makes you hungry, but we mostly only have junk food to eat. We can't cook without clean dishes, the dishwasher isn't working without water, and the microwave has no power. At least stuff in the fridge won't spoil fast; it's too cold inside.

    I'm hoping we can take shelter at my parents' place, but there's also a convention center that's being kept open as a warming place. But I don't want to take up limited space there if I have an alternative.

    My girlfriend's dad has been hard at work trying to maintain the house as best as he can without water or power. Mom is at work, unfortunately, and Lily and Isabelle are just trying to stay warm. I'm sitting in the car to warm up while my phone charges; with all the road closures, I'll definitely need a GPS to get anywhere today.

    I can speak from experience (squatting in a home that had no heat and power for a month) that it is difficult to stay warm. I use to take warm showers constantly just to warm up. But your case sounds much worse as there is no water either.

    My suggestion would be to insulate a closet as best you can and just stay in there. The smaller area is easier to warm up, and if you have couch cushions (or even outdoor patio cushions) you can use those as both insulation and comfort. Like building a fort when you were a kid.
    Grond0semiticgoddessArvia
  • BallpointManBallpointMan Member Posts: 1,659
    Rush Limbaugh died today.

    I dont celebrate death - anyone's. I remember when Osama Bin Laden was killed and I internally justified not celebrating simply because I'm not for *anyone* dying.

    For perhaps the first time SINCE then, I'm having to internally justify not celebrating a death. That should speak volumes about how corrosive and awful I viewed Rush Limbaugh and his career.

    semiticgoddessDinoDin
  • Grond0Grond0 Member Posts: 7,305
    edited February 2021
    Rush Limbaugh died today.

    I dont celebrate death - anyone's. I remember when Osama Bin Laden was killed and I internally justified not celebrating simply because I'm not for *anyone* dying.

    For perhaps the first time SINCE then, I'm having to internally justify not celebrating a death. That should speak volumes about how corrosive and awful I viewed Rush Limbaugh and his career.

    We've referred a few times to the way in which reality can come as a nasty shock to people who believe they can determine how the world works. Covid-19 and climate change are obviously big examples of those. However, in Limbaugh's case it's possible, if there's an afterlife, that he might be having second thoughts over his views on the benefits of smoking ...
    Edit: he died of lung cancer if the reference isn't clear.
    BallpointMan
  • jjstraka34jjstraka34 Member Posts: 9,850
    edited February 2021
    Rush Limbaugh died today.

    I dont celebrate death - anyone's. I remember when Osama Bin Laden was killed and I internally justified not celebrating simply because I'm not for *anyone* dying.

    For perhaps the first time SINCE then, I'm having to internally justify not celebrating a death. That should speak volumes about how corrosive and awful I viewed Rush Limbaugh and his career.

    He WAS a talented broadcaster. He used that talent to inject poison into the American body politic every day for 30 years. The 5 most important figures in conservatism in my lifetime are Roger Ailes, Rush Limbaugh, Newt Gingrich, Mitch McConnell and Donald Trump.

    The result is what we have now. A right-wing movement utterly devoid of any policy concerns that relentlessly, purposefully lies to their own audience until they have created an actual alternate reality. It didn't happen in 4 years. It took 3 decades of Limbaugh, his clones, and taking that idea to TV by way of FOX News to get here. And "here" is a party that wants to claim the mantle of patriotism while outright endorsing the attempted overthrow of a legitimate election.

    Limbaugh was at the heart of all of this, central to it. I won't take any personal shots outside of providing historical context, which is damning enough. Suffice to say, this is a man who used to openly mock the deaths of gay AIDS victims on air and who insisted Michael J. Fox was faking his Parkinson symptoms. It takes alot of nerve for anyone who is a fan of this guy to ask for respectful discourse in wake of his passing, but I guess I'll play ball by bowing out. But he is not some conservative Walter Cronkite. He was a modern-day Father Coughlin.
    smeagolheart
  • DinoDinDinoDin Member Posts: 1,567
    Rush Limbaugh died today.

    I dont celebrate death - anyone's. I remember when Osama Bin Laden was killed and I internally justified not celebrating simply because I'm not for *anyone* dying.

    For perhaps the first time SINCE then, I'm having to internally justify not celebrating a death. That should speak volumes about how corrosive and awful I viewed Rush Limbaugh and his career.

    One thing is that there's nothing to really celebrate. Bin Laden was sort of unique in being able to galvanize and organize radical Islamists in a way few have been able to emulate. Limbaugh was absolutely a pioneer -- media conservatives were more like William Buckley before Limbaugh. But Limbaugh has uncountable number of successful copycats. The overwhelming majority of conservative media is basically Limbaugh-ism.

    I have no problem admitting that someone who caused more harm than good is dead. That's the case here, imo. But it's also not going to have much of an effect.
  • jjstraka34jjstraka34 Member Posts: 9,850
    edited February 2021
    DinoDin wrote: »
    Rush Limbaugh died today.

    I dont celebrate death - anyone's. I remember when Osama Bin Laden was killed and I internally justified not celebrating simply because I'm not for *anyone* dying.

    For perhaps the first time SINCE then, I'm having to internally justify not celebrating a death. That should speak volumes about how corrosive and awful I viewed Rush Limbaugh and his career.

    One thing is that there's nothing to really celebrate. Bin Laden was sort of unique in being able to galvanize and organize radical Islamists in a way few have been able to emulate. Limbaugh was absolutely a pioneer -- media conservatives were more like William Buckley before Limbaugh. But Limbaugh has uncountable number of successful copycats. The overwhelming majority of conservative media is basically Limbaugh-ism.

    I have no problem admitting that someone who caused more harm than good is dead. That's the case here, imo. But it's also not going to have much of an effect.

    He's the absolute genesis of "the cruelty is the point". American conservatism has nothing to do with people like David Brooks and Mitt Romney, and it never has in my lifetime. It has always been AM radio and FOX News. Trump just realized he could cut out the middle man and sell the straight dope himself instead of leaving it to people like Limbaugh.

    And no, his passing doesn't make a lick of difference in the overall scheme of things, just like FOX News marched right along without Ailes. The acolytes have learned all the lessons and then some. Laura Ingraham has been circling like a buzzard over his time slot since he was diagnosed.

    Limbaugh's ENTIRE appeal was being as cruel as possible to, and offending groups conservatives didn't like. That was WHY he was successful. So this insistence he be shown respect and dignity upon his passing by the same people who own liberal tear coffee mugs is just more of the endless disingenuous, bad faith horseshit they weaponize on a daily basis. Limbaugh openly mocked both Kurt Cobain and Jerry Garcia the day after they died. Do not fall for the game being played today. The whole project he and Gingrich basically undertook in tandem in the '90s was to relentlessly dehumanize the left. Read any YouTube comment section (about......ANYTHING really) and you'll see they succeeded beyond their wildest dreams.
    Post edited by jjstraka34 on
    DinoDin
  • DinoDinDinoDin Member Posts: 1,567
    edited February 2021
    Just going to pile on with my own pet Limbaugh grievance here, as I think it's a key part of his career that should be remembered.

    There was probably no more important media figure boosting the 2003 Iraq invasion than Limbaugh. He spread the misinformation about WMD's. He spread the misinformation about connections between Hussein and Al-Qaeda. He whitewashed shortcomings in disastrous post-Hussein occupation, he made excuses and whitewashed US war crimes in Iraq. He demonized press outlets that exposed Bush admin lies, warcrimes and other shortcomings. He advocated for a merciless treatment of the region and its civilians post 9/11. And, imo, no conservative media figure had a larger reach than Limbaugh during this period. He did more than anyone outside of actual government in engendering the "you're either for the Iraq War or a traitor" attitude that was commonplace among American conservatives during the W Bush administration.
    jjstraka34semiticgoddesssmeagolheart
  • jjstraka34jjstraka34 Member Posts: 9,850
    edited February 2021
    DinoDin wrote: »
    Just going to pile on with my own pet Limbaugh grievance here, as I think it's a key part of his career that should be remembered.

    There was probably no more important media figure boosting the 2003 Iraq invasion than Limbaugh. He spread the misinformation about WMD's. He spread the misinformation about connections between Hussein and Al-Qaeda. He whitewashed shortcomings in disastrous post-Hussein occupation, he made excuses and whitewashed US war crimes in Iraq. He demonized press outlets that exposed Bush admin lies, warcrimes and other shortcomings. He advocated for a merciless treatment of the region and its civilians post 9/11. And, imo, no conservative media figure had a larger reach than Limbaugh during this period. He did more than anyone outside of actual government in engendering the "you're either for the Iraq War or a traitor" attitude that was commonplace among American conservatives during the W Bush administration.

    The rose-tinted glasses among even some liberals WHO WERE THERE for this era pisses me off to no end. At best, in polite company during these years, you were Neville Chamberlain if you spoke out against the war, and one step from John Walker Lindh (look him up if you need to) at worst.

    Yes, the mainstream press rolled over for the Bush Administration, but the jingoistic assault from AM radio (led by Rush and Hannity as a one-two punch) and FOX had to be experienced to be fully appreciated. And there WAS no liberal counter outside of blogs and a fledgling Air America with hardly any syndication. And, of course, when it all fell apart, no one who had accused you of being an outright traitor for being 100% correct apologized. Instead, they just all of a sudden didn't want to talk politics anymore. My politics weren't formed by Trump. They were formed by the nationalistic fervor of 2002-2006.

    As I have said numerous times, a MAJOR part of Trump's success in the 2016 primary was offering Republican voters no questions asked absolution for what can only be described as gung-ho support of what took place in Iraq. It was nothing less than a kind of religious bloodlust, and no one is ever going to tell me different.
    DinoDinGrond0
  • Mantis37Mantis37 Member Posts: 1,173
    edited February 2021
    The legacy of the Iraq war lingers on. Even now the British left are still riven by divisions over how to move on from the traumatic notion that as soon as a left wing party becomes electable it is also liable to participate in wars that many consider unjust.

    While Limbaugh certainly was a great populariser of liberal bashing it is of course a sentiment that has often been aired in private over the years. I believe this exchange is over one hundred years old...

    Child: “Mother, are liberals born bad or do they become so?”
    Mother: “They are born bad, and they become worse.”

    These days our notions of public & private are of course being blurred by the changing nature of communications and the shifting Overton window.
    Grond0Balrog99
  • jjstraka34jjstraka34 Member Posts: 9,850
    edited February 2021
    After reading up more on the Texas power situation, it's now pretty clear that after similar cold fronts in 2003 and 2011, plenty of people warned that the nuclear and natural gas plants needed to be winterized, but the anti-regulation inclination in Texas is so strong it went nowhere. Rick Perry has been quoted within the last 48 hours as saying this is the price Texans should be willing to pay to avoid burdensome regulations, which sounds eerily similar to their Lt. Governor saying old people should be willing to die from COVID-19.

    Maybe, someday soon, folks will realize that this is what eventually happens when you put people who hate government, who don't believe in government, in charge of it. You get a group of leaders who believe people should die for their cult-like devotion to concepts from a shitty Ayn Rand novel.

    Meanwhile, as Beto O'Rourke is spending all his time contacting vulnerable residents and directing them to warming stations, the guy who beat him, Ted Cruz (it appears, no one from his office has denied it's him) has most likely hopped a flight to Cancun with his family.

    Edit: Cruz, living up to his reputation as the slimiest politician in existence, has essentially thrown his daughters under the bus and blamed them for the trip.
    Post edited by jjstraka34 on
    Grond0BallpointMan
  • BallpointManBallpointMan Member Posts: 1,659
    jjstraka34 wrote: »
    After reading up more on the Texas power situation, it's now pretty clear that after similar cold fronts in 2003 and 2011, plenty of people warned that the nuclear and natural gas plants needed to be winterized, but the anti-regulation inclination in Texas is so strong it went nowhere. Rick Perry has been quoted within the last 48 hours as saying this is the price Texans should be willing to pay to avoid burdensome regulations, which sounds eerily similar to their Lt. Governor saying old people should be willing to die from COVID-19.

    Maybe, someday soon, folks will realize that this is what eventually happens when you put people who hate government, who don't believe in government, in charge of it. You get a group of leaders who believe people should die for their cult-like devotion to concepts from a shitty Ayn Rand novel.

    Meanwhile, as Beto O'Rourke is spending all his time contacting vulnerable residents and directing them to warming stations, the guy who beat him, Ted Cruz (it appears, no one from his office has denied it's him) has most likely hopped a flight to Cancun with his family.

    Edit: Cruz, living up to his reputation as the slimiest politician in existence, has essentially thrown his daughters under the bus and blamed them for the trip.

    Nooooo. He's just being a good dad and flying with his daughters down to Cancun, Mexico. They dont have school for the week (Wonder what's going on in Texas that might cause them to have a week off school?).

    And since everyone noticed, he's going to fly back up now and say it was the plan all along.
    DinoDin
  • jjstraka34jjstraka34 Member Posts: 9,850
    edited February 2021
    jjstraka34 wrote: »
    After reading up more on the Texas power situation, it's now pretty clear that after similar cold fronts in 2003 and 2011, plenty of people warned that the nuclear and natural gas plants needed to be winterized, but the anti-regulation inclination in Texas is so strong it went nowhere. Rick Perry has been quoted within the last 48 hours as saying this is the price Texans should be willing to pay to avoid burdensome regulations, which sounds eerily similar to their Lt. Governor saying old people should be willing to die from COVID-19.

    Maybe, someday soon, folks will realize that this is what eventually happens when you put people who hate government, who don't believe in government, in charge of it. You get a group of leaders who believe people should die for their cult-like devotion to concepts from a shitty Ayn Rand novel.

    Meanwhile, as Beto O'Rourke is spending all his time contacting vulnerable residents and directing them to warming stations, the guy who beat him, Ted Cruz (it appears, no one from his office has denied it's him) has most likely hopped a flight to Cancun with his family.

    Edit: Cruz, living up to his reputation as the slimiest politician in existence, has essentially thrown his daughters under the bus and blamed them for the trip.

    Nooooo. He's just being a good dad and flying with his daughters down to Cancun, Mexico. They dont have school for the week (Wonder what's going on in Texas that might cause them to have a week off school?).

    And since everyone noticed, he's going to fly back up now and say it was the plan all along.

    Multiple outlets have already confirmed he booked his return flight at 6am this morning and was originally scheduled to come back Saturday. So he's not only using his daughters as a human shield, but it's a transparent, easily disprovable lie. It would be an obvious lie even IF the flight purchase records hadn't been uncovered just by the fact that he had a full suitcase, which no one would need for a chaperone flight. But the thing is, this is what you get when someone has absolutely no shame. He'll ride this all the way and tell you it's, in fact, YOU who are crazy for suggesting he's not being honest. The language in his statement is parsed for maximum effect so the pedantic supplicants in the right-wing media can spin it a certain way.

    This is a party that is concerned about optics and emotion over everything else. No one is expecting him to go fix the power grid himself. But, as I mentioned Beto is literally spending all day organizing calls and communication with vulnerable populations. He doesn't even hold public office. Cruz could absolutely be doing the same thing, or something of similar value. But, even barring that, he could just not do anything at all. The one thing you CAN'T do is get caught escaping to Cancun, and then tell everyone the piss on their head is actually rain. He would have been better off if he'd just stayed for a week and let it blow over. Trying to slither back like it WASN'T meant to be a vacation makes it 100x worse.
    semiticgoddess
  • jjstraka34jjstraka34 Member Posts: 9,850
    edited February 2021
    Also, for the record, Andrew Cuomo should resign immediately given the revelations about underreporting the nursing home deaths in New York, and his mafia tactics in trying to threaten a State Democratic lawmaker. He's always been absolute trash, and it's a godsend that he has never attempted to spring into a Presidential race. His daily press conferences last summer shined his image, but he was always among the worst Democratic politicians in the country, from a moral and policy standpoint, and I refuse to sit around and defend him. If he broke any laws, he should be prosecuted. Even if what he did isn't criminal, he should step down. But he won't. He'll probably win reelection going away. New York can do alot better than this guy, but his father was an institution, and now so is the son.
    Post edited by jjstraka34 on
    BallpointManDinoDinBalrog99
  • DinoDinDinoDin Member Posts: 1,567
    edited February 2021
    jjstraka34 wrote: »
    Also, for the record, Andrew Cuomo should resign immediately given the revelations about the underreporting the nursing home deaths in New York, and his mafia tactics in trying to threaten a State Democratic lawmaker. He's always been absolute trash, and it's a godsend that he has never attempted to spring into a Presidential race. His daily press conferences last summer shined his image, but he was always among the worst Democratic politicians in the country, from a moral and policy standpoint, and I refuse to sit around and defend him. If he broke any laws, he should be prosecuted. Even if what he did isn't criminal, he should step down. But he won't. He'll probably win reelection going away. New York can do alot better than this guy, but his father was an institution, and now so is the son.

    In many ways his failings and now Texas' exemplify the problem of having one-party dominance. And obviously serve as a warning about the growing problems in our national politics -- where one party is currently not trying to win a majority of the population (because it can win via minority rule). Similarly, in some purple states like Wisconsin and Michigan, this is the dysfunction gerrymandering reaps.
  • QuickbladeQuickblade Member Posts: 957
    edited February 2021
    lroumen wrote: »
    The biggest issue I have with these articles is that I cannot understand the temperatures. Fahrenheit has some strange cut offs (40, 59, 68, 77, equaling to 4, 15, 20, 25 celcius).

    I see constant mentioning that the thermostat should be turned down to either 77 or 68... that is wasting so much energy. Hereabouts we keep a thermostat at 18 or less and it is plenty warm.

    What is the insulation like in US houses?

    The cheapest shit that can be legally used. Seriously.

    I would wager that 95%+ of people live either in houses that were built by the lowest bidder who likely skipped on more-than-code levels of insulation, or live in older houses and have skipped on necessary tightening energy code renovations over the last 15 year or so, because they can get away with being grandfathered in as existing construction having houses that leak like sieves.

    I never thought about insulation much, but doing a deep dive into it for a few months, I would never settle for "just code" levels of insulation. It's probably the best way to save money in a house long-term.
    semiticgoddess
  • lroumenlroumen Member Posts: 2,508
    So in short, people living in texas could be melting in summer or freezing in winter because the houses have almost nothing?
    That is such an odd concept. I would expect to have a lot of insulation as a necessity to create a constant temperature environment.
    I guess they make a risk assessment and apparently the cold does not happen often enough.
    sarevok57
  • sarevok57sarevok57 Member Posts: 5,975
    lroumen wrote: »
    So in short, people living in texas could be melting in summer or freezing in winter because the houses have almost nothing?
    That is such an odd concept. I would expect to have a lot of insulation as a necessity to create a constant temperature environment.
    I guess they make a risk assessment and apparently the cold does not happen often enough.

    it could also be affected by housing in tornado alley as well, since homes in that area are more than likely to get destroyed in the future, they probably don't want to waste too much material if they are just going to have to rebuild again
  • smeagolheartsmeagolheart Member Posts: 7,963
    edited February 2021
    jjstraka34 wrote: »
    Also, for the record, Andrew Cuomo should resign immediately given the revelations about underreporting the nursing home deaths in New York, and his mafia tactics in trying to threaten a State Democratic lawmaker. He's always been absolute trash, and it's a godsend that he has never attempted to spring into a Presidential race. His daily press conferences last summer shined his image, but he was always among the worst Democratic politicians in the country, from a moral and policy standpoint, and I refuse to sit around and defend him. If he broke any laws, he should be prosecuted. Even if what he did isn't criminal, he should step down. But he won't. He'll probably win reelection going away. New York can do alot better than this guy, but his father was an institution, and now so is the son.

    I disagree.

    I'll start off by saying I don't know the details of how much he underreported but Democrats hold each other to too high a standard. Andrew Cuomo sucks, but he's not awful. Underreporting deaths is nothing to denying the whole damn pandemic which is what the republican party offered. Releasing covid patients to nursing homes was obviously a terrible decision in hindsight but I'll give him somewhat of the benefit of the doubt since this was very early in the pandemic right. Once they learned this was as awful as it was they stopped right.

    At any rate, Trump goes out there and says grab em by the (female sex organs) and incites a literal coup attempt against the United States and we're worried about a Cuomo. If we had just taken it seriously, hundreds of thousands fewer would have died. But Republicans don't care about people and pushed for business reopening resulting in a 9% hit to GDP. Korea and other countries that took it seriously and paid people to stay home haven't taken nearly as big a hit. So anyway, Cuomo - I don't think he needs to resign. Sure primary him. But no gifts need to be given to Republicans. Al Franken shouldn't have resigned either.
  • QuickbladeQuickblade Member Posts: 957
    edited February 2021
    sarevok57 wrote: »
    Quickblade wrote: »
    lroumen wrote: »
    The biggest issue I have with these articles is that I cannot understand the temperatures. Fahrenheit has some strange cut offs (40, 59, 68, 77, equaling to 4, 15, 20, 25 celcius).

    I see constant mentioning that the thermostat should be turned down to either 77 or 68... that is wasting so much energy. Hereabouts we keep a thermostat at 18 or less and it is plenty warm.

    What is the insulation like in US houses?

    The cheapest shit that can be legally used. Seriously.

    I would wager that 95%+ of people live either in houses that were built by the lowest bidder who likely skipped on more-than-code levels of insulation, or live in older houses and have skipped on necessary tightening energy code renovations over the last 15 year or so, because they can get away with being grandfathered in as existing construction having houses that leak like sieves.

    I never thought about insulation much, but doing a deep dive into it for a few months, I would never settle for "just code" levels of insulation. It's probably the best way to save money in a house long-term.

    i used to be an insulator for years and i couldn't believe how piss poor the code was in the US especially in the lower parts

    from what i recall the reason why they get away with garbage R values in houses in the lower US states especially is because they have "tropical" or "warmer" climates and don't need it, which is hilarious because insulation in a home keeps the desired temperature in the home, it just doesn't protect against cold, it also protects against heat

    luckily here in Canada our R values are way higher and usually we never get this problem ( which i guess is obvious since we are a northern country that can get some seriously cold temps, and even hot temps as well )

    but realistically you want to have at least an R value of 20 in your walls, and you want at least R 40 in your attic, anything less than that, and the desired temperature is just going to leak out of your house, plus you also want some good windows to, you can have R 5 million in your walls, but if your windows are 50 years old, you might as well have nothing

    when it comes to batts ( which is what the insulation pieces are called ) roxul is the best material to use ( it on average has higher R value than other brands ) and for your attic you want some sort of loose fill fiber glass, climate pro is probably the best to use for that, and when it comes to loose fill you want at least 15 inches of it in your attic, ( if its fiber glass loose fill ) if you use the paper stuff ( celolite, celulose? i think its called? ) then you want at least 11 or 12 inches of that, but in my opinion fiber glass loose fill ( climate pro ) is better than the paper stuff because the problem with the paper insulation is that once it gets wet the startch in it starts to degrade and that is what is giving the paper it's fire resistance, but once that startch is gone then the paper stuff can catch fire easier, and i know from experience fibre glass loose fill can't catch on fire because one day our insulation truck caught on fire and the insulation didn't light up at all, although all the glass in it did melt though, and the flames were a good 10 feet high destroying that roof on the box part, ah good times


    especially if you own your home, no matter how much you spend to insulate the place, it will save you money, in the future, sometimes even the near future, plus sometimes if you are lucky you can use the money to insulate your place as a "grant" of some sort for your taxes because you are using it to save the environment or some such, or at least, you can do that in canada

    What SHOULD be modern energy code around here in central Texas is R13+5 (13 in the studs, plus R-5 external) in the walls and something like R-38+ in the ceiling.

    I bought the mineral wool/Roxul/Rockwool. I had to special order it and/or had to drive a hundred miles to pick it up.

    It costs more than the standard fiberglass insulation, but I will never ever use fiberglass again. For my purposes of insulating a 12'x16' exterior shed it cost about $250 more, but the stuff is fireproof, waterproof, basically insect and rodent proof, insulates better (higher insulation for a given thickness), and easier to install.

    If I had a house, I wouldn't bat an eye at an extra couple thousand for insulation. Problem is, I'm not sure about $10,000+ for an insulation redo.

    And yes, HUGE electricity bills. We just seem to take it for granted about running that A/C 24/7.
    Grond0sarevok57Arvia
  • sarevok57sarevok57 Member Posts: 5,975
    Quickblade wrote: »
    sarevok57 wrote: »
    Quickblade wrote: »
    lroumen wrote: »
    The biggest issue I have with these articles is that I cannot understand the temperatures. Fahrenheit has some strange cut offs (40, 59, 68, 77, equaling to 4, 15, 20, 25 celcius).

    I see constant mentioning that the thermostat should be turned down to either 77 or 68... that is wasting so much energy. Hereabouts we keep a thermostat at 18 or less and it is plenty warm.

    What is the insulation like in US houses?

    The cheapest shit that can be legally used. Seriously.

    I would wager that 95%+ of people live either in houses that were built by the lowest bidder who likely skipped on more-than-code levels of insulation, or live in older houses and have skipped on necessary tightening energy code renovations over the last 15 year or so, because they can get away with being grandfathered in as existing construction having houses that leak like sieves.

    I never thought about insulation much, but doing a deep dive into it for a few months, I would never settle for "just code" levels of insulation. It's probably the best way to save money in a house long-term.

    i used to be an insulator for years and i couldn't believe how piss poor the code was in the US especially in the lower parts

    from what i recall the reason why they get away with garbage R values in houses in the lower US states especially is because they have "tropical" or "warmer" climates and don't need it, which is hilarious because insulation in a home keeps the desired temperature in the home, it just doesn't protect against cold, it also protects against heat

    luckily here in Canada our R values are way higher and usually we never get this problem ( which i guess is obvious since we are a northern country that can get some seriously cold temps, and even hot temps as well )

    but realistically you want to have at least an R value of 20 in your walls, and you want at least R 40 in your attic, anything less than that, and the desired temperature is just going to leak out of your house, plus you also want some good windows to, you can have R 5 million in your walls, but if your windows are 50 years old, you might as well have nothing

    when it comes to batts ( which is what the insulation pieces are called ) roxul is the best material to use ( it on average has higher R value than other brands ) and for your attic you want some sort of loose fill fiber glass, climate pro is probably the best to use for that, and when it comes to loose fill you want at least 15 inches of it in your attic, ( if its fiber glass loose fill ) if you use the paper stuff ( celolite, celulose? i think its called? ) then you want at least 11 or 12 inches of that, but in my opinion fiber glass loose fill ( climate pro ) is better than the paper stuff because the problem with the paper insulation is that once it gets wet the startch in it starts to degrade and that is what is giving the paper it's fire resistance, but once that startch is gone then the paper stuff can catch fire easier, and i know from experience fibre glass loose fill can't catch on fire because one day our insulation truck caught on fire and the insulation didn't light up at all, although all the glass in it did melt though, and the flames were a good 10 feet high destroying that roof on the box part, ah good times


    especially if you own your home, no matter how much you spend to insulate the place, it will save you money, in the future, sometimes even the near future, plus sometimes if you are lucky you can use the money to insulate your place as a "grant" of some sort for your taxes because you are using it to save the environment or some such, or at least, you can do that in canada

    What SHOULD be modern energy code around here in central Texas is R13+5 (13 in the studs, plus R-5 external) in the walls and something like R-38+ in the ceiling.

    I bought the mineral wool/Roxul/Rockwool. I had to special order it and/or had to drive a hundred miles to pick it up.

    It costs more than the standard fiberglass insulation, but I will never ever use fiberglass again. For my purposes of insulating a 12'x16' exterior shed it cost about $250 more, but the stuff is fireproof, waterproof, basically insect and rodent proof, insulates better (higher insulation for a given thickness), and easier to install.

    If I had a house, I wouldn't bat an eye at an extra couple thousand for insulation. Problem is, I'm not sure about $10,000+ for an insulation redo.

    And yes, HUGE electricity bills. We just seem to take it for granted about running that A/C 24/7.

    what is the thickness of studs in central texas? here in canada our average stud is 2x6 which fits r20 or r22 ( if using roxul ) batts, do they only use 2x4 studs in texas?
  • Balrog99Balrog99 Member Posts: 7,367
    Germans have to throw away beer because of the Coronavirus? What is the world coming to? What's next, dogs and cats sleeping together???

    https://www.reuters.com/article/BigStory12/idUSKBN2AM1I0
    ArviaBallpointMan
  • deltagodeltago Member Posts: 7,811
    edited February 2021
    Balrog99 wrote: »
    Germans have to throw away beer because of the Coronavirus? What is the world coming to? What's next, dogs and cats sleeping together???

    https://www.reuters.com/article/BigStory12/idUSKBN2AM1I0

    I have mixed feelings about this.

    The first feeling is this shows how far shutdowns effect the economy, and even though frontline services like bars and restaurants feel the pinch the most and first, other businesses that supply them also suffer.

    The second feeling is that the coronavirus has now been going on for over a year and it shouldn’t surprise these businesses that sales are down, and therefore production of said products should also be down. Not unlike bars and restaurants who needed to adapt to their service model by offering takeout and delivery, these secondary companies also should have been able to adapt to the changing market. Cutting back production on draft beer, IMO, should have been a given. Smaller breweries may not have been able to do something like this, however, and that is where government assistance might be able to assist them. But having a global giant like Carlsberg (close to a billion dollars in net profits in 2019 ) is wrong and is taking aid away from companies that do need it more.

    Thirdly:
    dg0p6q8kzwj5.png[img][/img]
    Balrog99Grond0BallpointMan
  • MichelleMichelle Member Posts: 549
    I want to hate you all. I do.
    Everyone treats me like I am a bubble headed idiot, or a child, even those that are 20+ years younger than me treat me that way. Just because I am terrified of you does not mean that I am less than you. I fucking hate being me to the core but I am not stupid. Everyone treats me like I have not one bit of a brain though, why? Seriously, why??!! I just had a 20 something year old treat me like I was her little sister, and not very smart,, why!?

    I hate that I am so afraid of you all, but does me being a coward make me stupid?

    Yes it is political. Many people like me are living on the streets and people ignore them every day. No one ignores me, but they still treat me like I don't matter. I don't know why people see me as one thing only and trust me it is not my brain, but I am not stupid.

    This is how pathetic I am, I have to apologize for this rant. Really, I am sorry...
    Whatever later.
  • smeagolheartsmeagolheart Member Posts: 7,963
    We don't know why people treat you the way they do. We only barely know you from your comments here. It really sounds like you're hurting and you should seek guidance from others in real life who can possibly help. Wish you luck. There's anything we can do let us know... Stay strong.
    Michellesemiticgoddess
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