Did you even read your source?

> “I’ve really searched, and I’ve found no evidence that Dudley ever owned slaves,” Rushing said.

It is almost certain Dudley himself never owned slaves. However you argued that he had no connection to slavery. That claim is false and not supported by your article. You wrote:

> There is literally no proof of any connection between Dudley and slavery

The connection between Dudley and slavery is a matter of historical record echoed The Commonwealth of Massachusetts, the National Park Service and several other references I provided.

I think you’ve confused or mis-stated your argument. But thanks for the downvote. 🤷‍♂️

Edit: Holy stealth edit, Batman. You’re not arguing in good faith and completely changed your argument after actually deciding to read your own evidence. 🤟

>There is literally no proof of any connection between Dudley and slavery.

The 1641 Massachusetts Body of Liberties would like a word:

>Passage 91: "There shall never be any bond slaverie, villinage or Captivitie amongst us unles it be lawfull Captives taken in just warres, and such strangers as willingly selle themselves or are sold to us. And these shall have all the liberties and Christian usages which the law of god established in Israel concerning such persons doeth morally require. This exempts none from servitude who shall be Judged thereto by Authoritie."

As Mass.gov itself states:

>The first committee for the laws comprised of Governor John Haynes, Deputy-Governor Richard Bellingham, John Winthrop, and Thomas Dudley was formed to "frame a body of grounds of laws, in resemblance to a Magna Carta" (as recorded in John Winthrop's journal)

The National Park Service also provides more context to the decision to legalize slavery at this time in history.

Disclosure: I lived in Roxbury at the time and voted both times against renaming Dudley Square after a store (Nubian Notion) that hasn't existed in my lifetime. I felt and feel quite strongly this was a wasted opportunity to celebrate a deserving Boston figure of which there are many.

>Is this truly the going rate for the area? Has something substantial changed in veterinary medicine in the last decade that explains the cost?

There's a few things happening here:

1. High cost of doing business in the Boston area (as others have pointed out, the price drops off once you get outside of 495)
2. There's a nationwide shortage of veterinary workers which has also driven up costs

Your best bet is to search outside the city as others have suggested. Animal Rescue League and the MSPCA do offer subsidized spay and neuter services but both have months long waiting lists and limit their services by income, breed (e.g pit mixes), and/or zip code of residence.

You did the right thing!

Boston Animal Control is aware of the pup and like jtet93 said, it's probably just having a rest and ought to be left be.

There's lots of great suggestions here, but I'll add some thoughts about low-key options that don't involve drinking:

• School of Honk (Sundays, Somerville): Music-focused meetup with loaner instruments and friendly instructors - beginner-friendly!
• Park Run (Saturday/Sunday, Boston/Cambridge): Casual, timed 5k Walk/Run which often ends with a group going out for brunch and is attended by locals and visitors alike.
• Knight Moves Board Game Cafe (Daily, Brookline): Drop in and play games with friends or strangers. I haven't tried this one myself but hear good things.

I have some other ideas but DM me so I can get an idea of what your interests are. Good luck!

They now park on Tremont street in front of the BPD Headquarters.

Traffic doesn't seem impacted by the loss of a traffic lane, but the low-level corruption is even more obvious as there's dozens of No Parking/Tow Zone signs being flagrantly ignored. Still an improvement over the sidewalk, I guess.

The only bad part of being in a union is how stuck you can get with a bad one.

AFSCME IMO sucks. I looked into moving my department to SEIU and it’s even more difficult than unionizing in the first place!

SEIU seems great and really supports all its members.

I know it’s not what the OP asked for, but making your own is the right answer. I absolutely love making Egg Nog and am usually hawking it well into February to my friends and family*.

Egg Nog is easy to make and endlessly adaptable to different spirits. Despite what you may hear, raw eggs are perfectly safe if the proper ratios are used and you wait a bit prior to serving, which also helps with flavor.

/u/2amfeelslikesummer if you need an egg nog consultant I would love to bore you to death on the subject and walk you through it. It’s worth it!

Last year Walden Meats made an Egg Nog that was surprisingly good. It doesn’t have emulsifiers so you really need to shake it a lot before enjoying!

*Egg Nog does actually get better with age until it doesn’t.

> with your misleading post,

Wow, yikes. Misleading how?

Pet waste is a problem. The only reason I opted to reply to you is because my read of your post is factually incorrect by stating pet waste is a leading cause of waterways pollution in Massachusetts.

> Stormwater runoff is recognized by the EPA as the #1 source of water pollution in Massachusetts and the primary reason why more than half of our waterbodies are considered “impaired.”

The Mass Rivers Alliance has been studying our waters for decades and their website contains exhaustive details of where pollution is coming from and its impact. Pet waste is not mentioned in a single study by MRA or by the EPA that I can find.

Pet waste doesn’t register in their studies of our waterways because it is negligible compared other sources. That’s not to say there is no impact, but it’s impact is minute compared to other sources.

I’d like to be proven wrong and would welcome evidence to support your claim. I work in Animal Control and work daily to educate people about the importance of cleaning up after their pets and keeping their pets on leashes when not in enclosed spaces. I’d be delighted to learn something new, be able to provide scale to the problem, and hopefully convince more people of how important a cleaner city is to all of us. People too often think “it’s only one poop” but we both know how it doesn’t take many people not being responsible for there to be too much shit. Anecdotally, seeing pet waste seems to encourage more people to not do the right thing. It’s awful.

> Dogs can harbor lots of viruses, bacteria and parasites… (A single gram contains an estimated 23 million bacteria.)

And how does that compare to human waste and wastewater runoff? No one here is arguing dog waste is clean and safe. But neither should anyone claim human wastewater is any better and there’s a whole lot more of it being routinely dumped.

But…

Overhauling our sewer system will take decades, cost billions, and certainly isn’t the kind of “exciting” projects politicians are eager to take on but cleaning up after yourself is something each of us can do and which has an impact on public health and the environment each and every day.

Sadly, Animal Control Officers have very little in the way of enforcement tools available for enforcing waste pickup and leash laws. We can ticket but people but they can refuse to show ID and there’s nothing we can do except hand them a citation. But I’m not sure if there is an easy answer here.

People that are concerned about water pollution and shared spaces should really reach out to the Parks Department to encourage more dedicated infrastructure for pets and encourage more tools for education and/or enforcement if they feel that will help. They should also check out MRA’s website and send emails encouraging their representatives to address the serious wastewater issues in our state. We have an opportunity to be a national leader in the realm of clean water.

You ought to be clearer, animal waste from the agricultural industry is a serious (and leading) cause of water contamination.

While pet waste has similar environmental impacts (e.g introducing phosphorous in feces and nitrogen from urine), the scale is much smaller. In our area, sewage and storm drain run off from us humans is a far bigger issue when it comes to water contamination.

Still. Pick up after your damn pets.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/earth-and-planetary-sciences/animal-waste https://www.massriversalliance.org/water-pollution

Have you looked at Owayo? I’ve used them a few times to print charity jerseys for marathon runners.

The only downside is you’d need to make it a “group buy” as they do not do print on demand. But every print on demand athletic company I found was either stupid expensive $80+ jersey or very poor quality.

https://www.owayo.com

I don’t think so. I’m certainly not paying for it.

Here’s a photo of an ONT and power supply for reference: https://forums.verizon.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/18337iD83570BD590A9D88/image-size/large?v=1.0&px=999

I use an older model Unifi router. The Verizon ONT unit (usually installed where Verizon enters the home) outputs to an Ethernet cable so any router should work so you’re not stuck paying for the ridiculous “Quantum Gateway”rental.

If I was shopping these days, I’d be looking at Wi-Fi 6e as it’s stupid fast and is built to handle tons of devices and interference: https://slickdeals.net/newsearch.php?q=6e+router&searcharea=deals&searchin=first

$49/mo for Verizon Fios 1Gbps symmetrical with First Responder Discount and using my own router.

Oh, my sweet summer child, have you forgotten how Capitalism works?

There’s been a modest increase in the cost of natural gas but it’s way down since the summer, this is about profits.

Edit: For the late stage capitalists who insult while lazily failing to cite any evidence. Less than 50% of MA energy comes from LNG, so even MA paying more than the National price for LNG does not account for these wild price increases. This is the direct result of deregulation and profit-seeking.

Well, neither the EFF nor ACLU are picking this up and if the article is even half accurate they would be all over this. Both organizations have a presence here in MA.

Whereas the NCLA has a pretty poor track record of actually delivering on its mission of protecting individual rights as they’re usually suing to protect the rich and powerful: https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/New_Civil_Liberties_Alliance

Nobody said anything about winning. Everyone who was banned or muted is still banned or muted, so we’re still in the middle of this.

I was raised that an apology isn’t an apology if you’re still making excuses and/or lying about what you did and why. Taking responsibility means you stop making excuses.

I’ll take the downvotes for believing that and finding this apology somewhat lacking. Internet points mean about as much to me as “winning”. Downvote away. 🤷‍♂️

> I wanted to also say that I apologize for the way handled things with the temporary ban. It was not my intention to stifle conversation around the topic of bike lanes, safety, or any other concerns the community had but to dial the aggression back a notch while a new framework was put in place to better moderate discussions. I would also like to apologize for not being a better moderator over the years. I’ve been the sole mod since the sub was very small and I should have realized long ago that I didn’t have the time to property moderate a sub that has grown to 17k people. I’m really glad it’s gotten this large and I look forward to checking it out again in a little while and see what it’s become.

Thank you for saying all this. And while you’re still making excuses for what was a transparent abuse of power that was never intended to make this community better, this post is almost exactly what many in this community had hoped you’d find within yourself to say. I think many here do appreciate the thoughtfulness you’ve clearly put into this post. You’ve done the right thing and that is not always the easiest thing to do.

I hope a break from this community and the onerous responsibilities of moderation allows you to focus on an area of your life that gives you pleasure and joy. You are still a member of this community and will always be welcome.

That makes a lot of sense, sadly.

Well, El Presidente is no spring chicken so hopefully he finds the integrity and wisdom that has so far eluded him and decides his twilight years are better spent not holding a community hostage.

Or just loses the single sheet of paper he uses for all his passwords.

This is all a sad attempt at damage control.

Our only hope is the new mods just oust the bozo.

You need to go.

Not only have you failed at basic moderation for years, but then show up to abuse your power because someone spit in your face.

The fact you refuse to give up power after everything speaks to how completely unworthy you are of having power over others.

Since you utterly lack integrity and maturity, we can only hope the new moderators oust you so the community you’ve held back for years can thrive without you.

Just an FYI: The mod used their real first and last name and their location as their username.

More than a little surprised that our Mod used his first and last name followed by location as his username. But that’s the only honesty I’ve ever seen from him.

But what really surprised me after looking him up is how old he is while behaving like child and not a very smart one. Just goes to show you age does not always correlate with wisdom.

I’d suggest you read the room (and the clear distribution of karma). This is an important issue to the majority of active users.

If you believe that most of the active users are an “over the top caricature of activism” then perhaps you should make your own subreddit where you can ban your neighbors and live in a happy safe space with no stated rules and a singular and totally arbitrary moderator who only shows up to moderate when they are angry about something.

This is great news. Thank you for sharing.

Let us hope that others who have been similarly banned for appropriately expressing themselves are similarly allowed back.

I remain skeptical of our singular Mod who so far has not apologized, accepted any responsibility, or shown even a modicum of self-awareness. Even as he works along the edges to undo the damage he has wrought, he should still step down.