We have several topics for you this week. First, how much does it cost to be happy in each state? Next, we have language issues. Then, we discuss the Procrastination Café in Tokyo, followed by a discussion of whether juries should have a right to ignore the law. And finally, we discuss a professor who was fired for showing an image of Muhammad.
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We have several topics for you this week. First, how much does it cost to be happy in each state? Next, we have language issues. Then, we discuss the Procrastination Café in Tokyo, followed by a discussion of whether juries should have a right to ignore the law. And finally, we discuss a professor who was fired for showing an image of Muhammad.
1. Topics
2. Additional Resources
3. Merchandise/Support the Show
4. Contact Us/Follow Us/Rate/Subscribe
New episodes every week!
Listen, rate, follow, and subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts!
Follow us:
5. Credits
This week, how much does it cost to be happy, language issues, procrastination, nullification, and Muhammad. Welcome to Subpar Talks. Hey everybody. Welcome to Subpar Talks where we have conversations about everything. I'm Jeff.
Chris:And I'm Chris.
Jeff:Thank you again for joining us for another episode here. And as always, let's get our standard disclaimer out of the way. We will from time to time have some profanity on this podcast, perhaps a lot of it, and we do tend to touch on some mature subject matter. So if that doesn't set well with you, then that's OK. Maybe this is not for you. But for everybody else, sit back, relax, grab your favorite beverage, turn the volume up and get ready, because here we go with this week's topics. OK, in episode 11, we did the happiest countries. Do you remember the happiest countries?
Chris:I do remember that. I know Finland was number one. Yeah, Finland
Jeff:was number one. So in that episode we also looked at, uh, the study that determined how much you have to make in each country to be happy. And it was a little depressing because um, to be happy, I think I had to be somewhere in Africa, shitting in a hole.
Chris:Yeah.
Jeff:Um...
Chris:You just hope you have a hole to, to shit in.
Jeff:Right, assuming you have a hole. Yes. So the, that same study, I think it's the same study, it was done at Purdue University, but they determine how much you have to be happy in, or how much you have to make to be happy in each state. So I figured we'd run through this, not spend a lot of time on it, but run through these and look at how much money a person has to make to be happy according to each state. And we can run down the, we'll do the, the least expensive, if that's the right word, expensive. And then, uh, we'll talk about the, the most expensive. This is no surprise. Tell me if you're surprised on this, but Mississippi is at the bottom of the list. To be happy in Mississippi, you have to be pulling in$87,465. Are you surprised that, again, I'm surprised that these dollar figures, but are you surprised that Mississippi is at the bottom? I'm very surprised at the dollar amount. I'm not so surprised that Mississippi's at the bottom. I'm surprised that there are happy people in Mississippi. Well done. Yeah, that's How could you possibly be happy there? But I gotta think somebody pulling in$87,000 in Mississippi is probably living like a king, wouldn't you think? I would think that's got to be pretty good. I mean, where are you gonna spend it? right? Like what is there. I don't know. Kansas is next. Tell me if you'd want to live in any of these states in the bottom 10 So far. I'm over two. Oklahoma. No. Nope. Alabama? No. Arkansas? Nope. Georgia? No. Tennessee, Tennessee,
Chris:depending on where Tennessee could be a possibility, I could see something like Nashville. And we talked about this in a prior episode of the difference between Nashville and the rest of the state. Now Tennessee is a, is a pretty state. I will definitely say that. And I don't know much about the, I guess you'll say the culture in the state. I have been to Nashville a few times and I definitely like the city, at least from a visiting standpoint, so I could see that. But you know, Georgia, I haven't been to a lot of Georgia. I've been to Atlanta and holy shit, it's so fucking hot. Just scorching. Yeah, it's horrible. And I say that living in Dallas, that's bad enough. I just, there's what is gonna take me to Georgia?
Jeff:Yeah. I've only driven through, uh, Georgia and I did drive through Atlanta and yes, brutally hot and humid. I don't want any part of that. Uh, Tennessee was, uh, I've been a national, that was cool. Um, the eastern part of Tennessee, like the, the Smokey Mountains, that was, that's a really pretty area. I don't know if I'd wanna live there, but yeah, it's a cool place to visit.
Chris:No, I can't see living there, but it's, it's nice to, to visit, to drive through.
Jeff:Yeah. OK. So that was number seven, least expensive. Uh, Missouri is next. I don't think I'd wanna be in Missouri. It probably depends on where, but I don't think so. Uh, New Mexico. Could you live in New Mexico? So,
Chris:I don't know a whole lot about New Mexico, except there's a whole lot of desert. Um, I've been through, you know, some of the ski areas. The mountain is nice and I've been to Albuquerque. The one thing, so this always takes me to Breaking Bad. I remember on one of the episodes of Breaking Bad, they had the radio on and said something about they have 330 days of sunshine per year.
Jeff:I remember
Chris:that. Yes. Now that's compelling. I like that idea, but I don't like what is, what's gonna drive me there. I can't see. Visiting is one thing, and I like that idea of the weather part. But otherwise, no.
Jeff:No, I don't think so either. And honestly, 330 days of sunshine, I think that's too much. I need more variation than that. Yeah. And that's where my wife's family is from and that's where she's from. And. I've been there in the summer. We were there in June, so not even the hottest part of the year, and it was over a hundred degrees. It was terrible and I don't want to hear anybody say it's a dry heat. Fuck yourself. Uh, stick your head in the oven. It's just dry heat too. Yes, exactly. It was awful. But I've also been there in December. and there was a blizzard, like there was tons of snow. So in Albuquerque? Yeah. Yeah. Really. So yeah, it snows. Yeah. And then Santa Fe is like, I think about an hour north of there, which, you know, that's nice. And then you are getting into the ski area. Uh, and then rounding out the top 10, least expensive in order to be happy is Indiana. I don't think I want any part of Indiana. I've only driven through Indiana, but I didn't see anything that would make me wanna stay there. I've driven through
Chris:there. I've been there, I don't know what, probably three times I guess, for. There's nothing that would take me back there. I, I don't have
Jeff:Did you go to Indianapolis?
Chris:I did go to Indian. That's the only place that I was in Indiana actually, when I Oh, OK. Was there for work when I drove through, I was through the northern part like Gary, Indiana coming into Illinois. But when I was there for work, I. Indianapolis, uh, there's nothing. Taking me back to
Jeff:Indianapolis, Gary, Indiana is a shit hole. Yes it is. I remember driving through there on the way to Chicago and holy hell, like I can't imagine living there. That's where the Jacksons are from.
Chris:Yeah, that's what I was about to say. That's where the Jacksons are from, and not that it's OK, but it's probably no wonder that their dad beat the shit out of
Jeff:them. It's gotta take out his frustration of living in Gary on somebody. Exactly. The kids are the logical choice. OK now for the most expensive in order to be happy. Coming in at number 10, is Vermont. To be happy in Vermont, you gotta be pulling in$122,850. That seems really, these all seem high again, but that seems really, really high in Vermont. Like what's there that's
Chris:really high. Yeah, I don't know. That's really high. When it's so rural area, they don't have any big cities. Not really. They have big towns. but there are towns. I've been through several places in Vermont and nothing is big. I mean, maybe that's kind of like, you know, the, when you mass produce something versus you're only making a few. So there's yeah, some small towns and no big cities cuz it's, it's, it is nice. I will say that it. Beautiful area in the correct time of year. And I'm saying that like the fall, amazing. Mm-hmm. it's amazing in the fall, the, the, the temperature, the weather, the colors, all of that. But I don't know why I would wanna
Jeff:live there. That's what I wonder too. And I also, this, I tend to look at the politics of a lot of stuff, but it's so weird because usually in rural states, Rural areas, you're gonna find a ton of conservative people. And Vermont is a really, really liberal place, yet it's a rural state. It's bizarre. Yeah, very strange.
Chris:Probably because it's surrounded by so much more in the, the New England area that is liberal
Jeff:also. Yeah, it's a good point. Next is Rhode Island. Hundred$23,000. See, I think I'd like to live in New England. It might depend on which state, but I think I could live in New England.
Chris:It would definitely depend on which state I would need to be in a decently populated area, which means there's enough to do activity people. I don't want to be in a rural part of it. But yeah, it is a really nice
Jeff:area. Yeah, I think I'd wanna be close to Boston. I like Boston. Uh, Connecticut is next. We talked about this on the happiest states.
Chris:Yeah, and I think I could live in Connecticut. I would love the proximity to New York without. Not that I would've a problem being in the city, in New York City, but if I wanted to be out of the city, Connecticut would be a perfect place. You could commute and driving or train easy enough and get to experience the city in all of its excitement and then be back in an, uh, more typical urban environment.
Jeff:and we're already white, so we just need the money. Right,
Chris:exactly. half of it's done.
Jeff:Right. Next is Maryland,$130,000 to be happy. In Maryland, same thing. I
Chris:think Maryland could be kind of cool right there by DC as well. Yeah,
Jeff:lots of activity. Alaska's next. Could you live in Alaska? I, I don't
Chris:know too much about like Anchorage or Fairbanks, Juno, something like that. I feel like I would need to be in those places because the rest of it is just so desolate. Now I'm fascinated with Alaska. I really am fascinated with it because I know that there are some things that are so d. than anything. You can experience other places in the United States, but I would have to be in one of those populated areas
Jeff:you need to, to watch. Well, it was a book. I read the book and watched the movie called Into the Wild. Mm-hmm. And it's a true story about a guy who just gives up everything. He is young, he is like 20, I think. he just gives up everything and decides to go live in Alaska. Like he's got really no experience living in that environment or anything. But yeah, chooses to do it and well, it doesn't go well. He dies. But it's interesting.
Chris:Well, that's not good. So there was a movie called The Edge that took place in Alaska, and it was with Anthony Hopkins and Alec Baldwin, but they were, they went to this lodge place and then he, uh, Anthony Hopkins and Alec Baldwin took this plane, and I can't remember why they were going wherever they were going. but they encountered, there was a bird strike on the plane and the plane crashed, and so then they were having to survive in the wild, but beautiful scenery. It was a good movie too. But yeah, I, I think there's a lot of intriguing things about Alaska. It could be difficult for me to live there, though.
Jeff:Uh, next up is Oregon,$136,000 to be happy in Oregon. Pacific Northwest Yeah, that's where Newman learned to climb trees like a Ringtail lemur. Massachusetts is next. Speaking of New England, I could live in Massachusetts. Seems like a nice place. Boston's close was.
Chris:I spent quite a lot of time in Massachusetts driving around other parts of the. For work. I've been to Boston, I don't know, two or three times, I guess not for very long. Mm-hmm. I have to say this, and hopefully nobody in Boston is listening to us. The accent is really rough to me. That's, that's a reason right there that I just can't be in Boston and, and if they want to, they can say the same thing about my accent, but it just doesn't
Jeff:work for. You know, I always heard before I went there the first time, I always heard like, uh, people are rude. Like you're gonna get rude people in Boston, and I didn't encounter that at all, like everybody I'd encountered, seriously, everybody I encountered was nice. They were not rude at all. Even kind of self-deprecating in a lot of instances, like making fun of themselves and their accent and stuff. It was really, I don't know, it was totally different from what I was expecting. Yeah. Well that's, that's cool. I was talking to a lady, I don't remember what, I don't remember where this was, but she was apologizing. She said, you know, people in New England are slow And I responded, well, you should come to Texas. You think you're slow up
Chris:here? Whoa, that is the truth.
Jeff:Yeah. Yeah. You'll be the queen down here. Take a trip west of Fort Worth. That's, that's where you find the slow, right There you go. All right. We're getting into the heavy hitters now. California is next$149,000 to be happy in California.
Chris:That's rough. I bet there's a lot of unhappy people in California.
Jeff:No doubt. There are also a lot of unhappy people in the next one, which is New York,$155,000 to be happy in New York. Yeah. I think some of
Chris:them are just pissed off because they're all on top of each other.
Jeff:Yeah. Well, New York City has what, 8 million people I think at least. and New York's a big state. Like geographically it's pretty big. And I know that people, like, there are rural places in New York and they probably want nothing to do with New York City is, uh, but
Chris:is the rest of New York the same politically as New York City or are
Jeff:they very different? So New York City obviously is, is a liberal. Actually, I find this entering interesting. Staten Island is the only borough that votes Republican. Like a majority of people in Staten Island vote Republican, but every other borough heavily democratic. OK.
Chris:That's why they're more seen as outcasts compared to the rest of New York City, I guess.
Jeff:Yeah. Uh, Buffalo. Albany, those are liberal places, but I imagine it's like anywhere else. You get into rural places and it's gonna be pretty conservative except for Vermont. Evidently And then number one, this doesn't surprise me at all, Hawaii. To be happy in Hawaii, you have to be pulling in 200,$3,000 a year. That's crazy. and here's the question.
Chris:What are those people in Hawaii doing to make that kind
Jeff:of money? I don't know. Well, I think they're all unhappy. Yeah. That's where the air is so Dewey sweet that you don't even have to lick the stance. Right? I don't think I could live in Hawaii. Wouldn't you feel like you're totally separate from everything that's happening? Everything that's going on. I think
Chris:so. Even more so than Alaska, because at least Alaska is connected to more land. You're far, far, yes. I mean the very idea that how, look how far you'd have to go just to get to Washington state from Alaska, but yeah, you're still connected to land. Hawaii's just hanging out there. It's kinda like
Jeff:Pluto. It's the Pluto of American states So how far behind is Hawaii from Pacific time? Is it four hours?
Chris:Um, it is, it's two to three hours depending on the time of year cuz they do not observe daylight savings time. So, OK. When the rest of us jump forward, they don't. So from Pacific, that would put them three hours behind. Then when we are on standard time, they're two hours behind Pacific I think
Jeff:is right. So think about daylight savings time and cuz I used to think about this when I was a kid, but Monday Night Football now. Like seven 30 and so our time, central time seven 30, so that's five 30 on the West Coast. Mm-hmm. So Monday night football in Hawaii is starting at two 30 in the afternoon. I don't think I could deal with that kind of stuff in the middle of the day. Right. right? Yeah. It's so messed up. So I don't think I could live there. No.
Chris:You remember as kids when, uh, we've talked about this before, like when Sunday night football is ending and they talk about what's coming on next. It was always what's coming up next Everywhere except the west coast. The west coast was already far enough behind. Nevermind Hawaii. Barely hanging on the edge out there. Yep. And then we've got Guam as a territory. They're even
Jeff:farther than that. I saw a Jeep a few weeks ago with a Guam license plate. Really in Texas, I had so many questions. I still have so many questions. Yeah, I don't, I don't understand it. I have a scene on occasion and on occasion, like maybe five times ever a Hawaii license plate. Mm-hmm. but Guam, what the hell?
Chris:That's gotta be military. For somebody to be in Guam and back in Texas, it's gotta be military and I, and for that, they could have come up from one of the military bases around here.
Jeff:Yeah, true. Just so weird to see. Yeah. OK. So Hawaii's the most expensive and since we are in Texas, Texas is the 14th least expensive state to be in. If you wanna be. To be happy in Texas, you have to be pulling in about$97,000 a. So well, according to that, I am a miserable son of a bitch. I was
Chris:gonna say, I think that explains a lot of the people that I've come in contact with.
Jeff:no doubt,
Chris:maybe we should live to Mississippi and at least we could be happier even if everybody else is miserable.
Jeff:maybe, but oh my god, Mississippi. No, that can't be good. No. OK. So this is an episode, by the way, where we are kind of jumping from topic to topic. And Chris, I think you know this about me, but I am, and I think you're, you're much the same way, but a bit of a stickler for language. I like the nuance of language. I like the intricacies of it. I, I love learning how it evolves, like where phrases come from, things like that. Would you say you're the same way? Absolutely.
Chris:I love hearing, I wouldn't say so much into the etymology,
Jeff:is that the right word? I think so. Or is that bugs? No, that I think bugs is entomology, so I think it's etymology. It's not intimate,
Chris:not as much the source of the word. Sometimes I'm interested in like what other language did it come from, but definitely why do we say these things when you're talking about idioms phrases? Yeah, things like that. Very much into
Jeff:things like that. OK. So I'm also a stickler for grammar. I think grammar Nazi is the common term of parlance. and maybe so, but I like being correct with my language and my son has actually made fun of me for sending him grammatically correct texts. But that's what I do.
Chris:I can't not, I can't not do that. And I typically punctuate my texts too. I don't understand people. I have seen these texts. I'm like, I don't know how to read. Because everything's running together. If I have to think right too much about what it means, then it's
Jeff:messed up. I agree. Just put a goddamn period in it, a comma, you know? Yeah. Sometimes a comma can do wonders. Commas are very
Chris:effective.
Jeff:I, I say that because there is a Christmas song, we are right on the heels of, of the Christmas season, and, There's a Christmas song. What is it? Oh, we need a Little Christmas, OK? Mm-hmm. And the singer is telling things that, saying things that he wants, right? And he tells Santa to climb down the chimney. And that line is always bug me because I'm wondering if you can climb down something. I thought climbing was only. well, do I even need to say it? If you're climbing, you're going up right? Can you climb down? And I haven't consulted the authoritative source otherwise known as a Google. I haven't consulted it on that. I just wanted to see what you thought about it.
Chris:Typically I would not, uh, typically I couldn't say that. I would think climbing down something sounds. But I have heard climbing down a ladder, not so much like climbing down stairs. You go down the stairs, you can climb stairs, but I go down the stairs. Yeah, you climb a ladder. But I've heard climb down a ladder. You could go down the ladder two. What about climbing a. Climbing a tree by definition. Sounds like you're climbing up the tree.
Jeff:You're going up the tree. Yeah. Yeah. But how do you get out of it? You come down, come down, go down. Or do you climb down? Get out. Get out of the tree. I don't know. There's
Chris:that. Just get out of the
Jeff:You could fall. That'd do it.
Chris:Yeah. I've done that too.
Jeff:That's always bugged me. Maybe you can climb down. I don't know. I just never liked that line. It doesn't sound quite right. I have so many other issues with language and how people use'em, and the obvious ones are two and two and your, and your like, how do people not learn that stuff? That bugs the hell outta me. Yeah.
Chris:And there and there. And. Yes, there's their location, there's their possessive, and there's There they are. Yep. I cannot stand to see that used incorrectly. At least speaking it sounds right, even when you don't know what you're doing.
Jeff:So we had one of the most idiotic candidates ever running for Senate, uh, Herschel Walker in Georgia. I don't know how much you paid attention to that race. I didn't know. I didn't pay attention to it really at all. The only stuff I saw was when Herschel Walker would say something when he would open his mouth and that made the rounds on social media, like all the dumb shit coming out of his mouth. But, You know how conservatives like to, to make fun of, of pronouns, right? Like some so and so wants to use this pronoun to identify, you know, as, as you know, their particular gender or whatever. And this shows you the state of things we're in. But Herschel Walker is running for a seat in the US Senate and he proclaims at a rally. I don't even know what a pronoun is, and everybody started cheering like that was something to be proud of. Right? Holy fuck. Yeah. Have you heard, ever heard anybody say supposedly way too
Chris:many? Yeah. Yeah, and I, now I will say this and I, OK. This is one of the things that I just don't agree. I read this recently where someone was making the, taking the stance, making the argument against whatever you want to call it, that there are other words, and, and I can't remember all of the examples they gave possibly is one of them that it's one of those words ending in b l y and that we have other words like that, that have that type of, that kind of form to. and that supposedly with A B L Y would just be following that same kind of pattern, and so it is more of a dialect versus a right and wrong, and therefore we shouldn't be critical of it. I just personally don't agree with that. I don't understand why do we want to excuse people? For saying things that are incorrect. Right. And just say, oh, well there are other words like that. And that's just the way you choose to do it.
Jeff:Yeah. That's the thing. There are, we have these rules. There are rules in language, and we have to have these rules. in order to have effective communication and, and people have to know what you're writing and saying. And I mean, there have to be standards in place. I understand language evolves, but there's a right and a wrong and mm-hmm. I don't care who's claiming it. Supposedly is not a word. It's like I, regardless, it's not a word. Right. Stop saying it. Right. And I've heard,
Chris:um, especially. Ooh, that one breaks up the, the X in there is when it just goes up my spine. Like, don't do
that.
Jeff:Especially, I only heard that, but that would drive me nuts. OK. And this one to, I think this one tops the list when somebody is talking about something that they saw, but they used the word scene. I've seen it. I've seen it. Oh my God. If anybody could say anything that makes me just want to slap them across the face, it's that right there. Yeah. It's
Chris:horrible. And I try, there are certain things where I want to cut people a little bit of slack for. We say things. Words or phrases, meaning saying the words in certain ways differently than we would write. I happen to be one of those people, yeah, that will speak more formally than a lot of other people, but that's just me. But I still have my times. Speak very casually and I know that whatever I just said is not something I would write. It's just not the same. Yeah. Speaking, you know, spoken word and written word are different, but at the same time, I don't say things in wrong tenses like that. I saw things. I have seen things
Jeff:you.
Chris:Oh, that, that's another thing right up my
Jeff:spine. Just I seen it. I seen it. Pa I seen it. Yeah. OK. On uh, I don't remember what episode this was. It might have been last week, I don't know. But we were talking about prison and. A shiv and a shank. Do you remember that? I do,
Chris:and I don't
Jeff:know the difference. OK. Well, I didn't either. We were wondering that and I looked it up. This is from the National Law Enforcement Memorial Organization, something or other. I have that wrong. It's in L E O M f.org. That's too many letters, but anyway. Here's their answer. The term shiv is slaying for any sharp pointed object that is used as a knife and can be created out of anything from a sharp of glass to a hardened sharpened toothbrush handle. Similarly shank refers to a makeshift knife like weapon, and the two terms are often used interchangeably. So bottom line, I guess there's really no differe. Either or. Well,
Chris:that's good to know because I feel the need to use those
Jeff:terms on occasion. So the only thing is a shank. Shank is also a verb, but yeah, they're interchangeable. So you can't
Chris:shive somebody. You have
Jeff:to shank them. You have to shank'em with a shiv or you shank them with a shiv. Right.
Chris:OK. OK, here's, all right, so I just thought about this. Here's another word, and I used to say this all the time because I thought that it was correct, and I thought it sounded, well, I don't know. I don't want to say elite more. Correct. How about that? I thought it sounded more correct is to say I am nauseous, and when I found out that the correct way to say it is I am nauseated. First of all, I was shocked, like, OK, there's no way that that's right and that I've been saying it wrong all that time. Because not only did I not want to think that I was wrong, but how could so many other people be wrong around me? But I will never, I don't for, I haven't for years and years. Said. I am nauseous. I would say I am nauseated. Nauseous is an adjective for like a smell. There is a nauseous smell that is making me nauseated.
Jeff:Yes. Yeah. If you say you're nauseous, uh, you're giving the impression that you're disgusting, like you're giving off something, this type of foul odor to somebody which you might be, you could be nauseous and nauseated. Yes. If you pissed yourself because you're so drunk. You could be nauseous and nauseated at the same time.
Chris:that's true. Or my nauseous odor is making everyone around me. Nauseated.
Jeff:There you go. Yeah. Um, so yeah, Shiv and shank. There is a difference. Kind of, but not really. All right. Next topic. You brought this up several months ago, and we kind of had it on the back burner, or even beyond the back burner, but you brought it to my attention. There is a cafe in Tokyo called the Manuscript Writing Cafe, and what it is, is it's geared toward people who are. Procrastinating. In fact, that's what they call it. Just generally, people call it the procrastination cafe. So if you have some deadline, if you're a writer, if you're an editor, if you're an artist, you have to have something done. You can go to this cafe, you can order coffee or tea. Uh, and I think it's unlimited. It's like self-serve and you're supposed to work on your project. and there are three different levels of like oversight, I guess. There's the mild where the only thing they'll do there is when you're, when you try to leave, they're gonna ask you if you got your project done. And I guess you, you could lie and say yes, but you just went out. Uh, and then there's like medium intensity where they're gonna repeatedly come over to your table and ask you if you're making progress, whatever. And then there's the high intensity, I don't remember what they call it, but this is where somebody will stand behind you and make sure you're doing what you're supposed to do. This sounds like the last place in the world I would want to be when I had to get something done. Exactly.
Chris:No, I could not take that. I would, I would probably get
Jeff:charged with assault or something there.
Chris:Yeah. I mean, if they're standing over you, that's like a, a horrible parent. And if they're, yeah, just repeatedly asking you. That's just nagging. I don't need that either. Yeah. And I'm sure you pay extra for that. Like that's why I left home. I
Jeff:mean,
Chris:Right, right. I mean, maybe I do need it. I don't want it.
Jeff:do you procrastinate with stuff? Oh,
Chris:absolutely. Which is
Jeff:exactly why I don't want that Yeah, I do too. I
Chris:found this a long time ago. I, it was a while before I realized exactly what was going on, but like in high school, you know, and I'd have to write papers. I would really try, I did, I, they would give us time in class to go to the library, research, all of that. And that just means you have a lot of time to work on it. And the more time I had, the more difficult it was for me to concentrate on those things. But as the time narrowed and I got down to the deadline, I didn't have any choice but to focus and I, mm-hmm. I put out some really good papers, and seriously, I got good grades on them. I really did. It was just that I literally could not focus prior to that. And so, I, I know there are people who procrastinate just for the sake of, in my case, I, I'm not saying that that wasn't part of it, but yeah, the closer I got to a time, the more I could focus and I was able to get it done. I don't procrastinate at the last minute. I procrastinate when there's plenty of time.
Jeff:right? So in college, I, I would have papers due and I remember staying up all night a couple of times finishing a paper. And of course when I got done with it, I swore I would never do that again. I'm gonna, the next one that comes along, I'm going, you know, stay on top of it and get it done in plenty of time and whatever. And of course I didn't. So I ended up doing the same thing. You know, again, it wasn't really until law school. I learned pretty quickly. I, I cannot afford to procrastinate because in law school you have, well, in like your last year you're gonna have papers, but I'm just thinking of exams. You have one exam at the end of the term on the entire course, and if you don't stay on top of your notes and make some kind of outline or whatever, you're not gonna make it at all. That just kind of scared me into staying on top of stuff. But yeah, unless I have some kind of hard deadline, it's hard for me not to put stuff off, which is probably not a good quality, but I rationalize it by saying I work better
Chris:under pressure. I know I do. I mean, there's all kinds of reasons why people do it, but I absolutely do work better under pressure. No question. And there were times where I considered going to law school with a, a really good self-awareness, self self-evaluation. Mm-hmm. I knew I couldn't. For that. There are other reasons too. I don't know if I would've been dedicated enough anyway, but, but everything that you just said, there's no way that I would've kept up with studying.
Jeff:Well, putting that aside. Yeah, you'd do well in law school if you could get past the procrastination stuff. Yeah. Putting that
Chris:aside, but that's a huge part of it, Yeah. If you could just get past the studying, you'd do fine.
Jeff:she's everything I ever wanted at a woman, except for the walking right? If I ever go to Tokyo, I don't think I'm gonna go to this cafe. I don't want somebody standing over me. I don't want even somebody asking what I'm doing, what I'm working on. Go fuck yourself. It's not your none of your business.
Chris:Not if it's something serious. I almost feel like I need to go in there with something really minor and just
Jeff:see how it goes. That is true. Just to get the experience. Yeah,
Chris:because if we had something like that here, I think somebody would
Jeff:die. You know, somebody gets. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Seriously, somebody would die.
Chris:Yeah. It would be someone that went in there and paid for whatever is happening, but then they'd get pissed off and kill somebody.
Jeff:Welcome to America. Right. OK. Do you know what jury nullification is? I have heard it before
Chris:and I never can really keep
it.
Jeff:So I'm gonna give a very loose definition here. It is basically when a jury in a criminal trial gives a not guilty verdict, even though they think that the defendant has clearly broken the law. So in other words, You as a juror, you're weighing all of the evidence. You're listening to the testimony, you're looking at the evidence, you're hearing the witnesses and all that stuff, and you say, clearly, this person violated the law. We're supposed to have a guilty verdict here, but for various reasons you're gonna say not guilty. That's jury nullification. And so you just don't agree with the. You don't, yeah, that's OK. I'm glad you said that. It's a good way to put it. You as a jury, collectively, I guess you're saying we don't agree with the law, so we are going to give a not guilty verdict. So this has come up. I don't know of any, there's a long Wikipedia page on jury nullification, but I, I don't know of any cases offhand or any famous cases where there has been jury nullification. but I just noticed this in the UK it's called a perverse verdict. That's perverse. I think I like that better. That's perverse. I do too. That's great. would you ever do that? Could you ever think of a scenario where you knew somebody was guilty, but you're gonna say not guilty? I can't think
Chris:of anything off the top of my head, but yes, I have absolutely thought that in the past that that law, whatever a, a law specifically that was being considered, but that I was considering, just say that doesn't make sense. How could somebody be convicted of doing X? So now that's me. I would think it would be extremely rare. That a majority of people talking about the first 12 people outta Walmart here could consider that concept that, oh, I know they did this, but I don't agree with the fact that it's wrong.
Jeff:Yeah, I, I agree. That would be a big step for a lot of people. And maybe they're not even thinking on that level. I think of, I can't think of any scenario. I mean, I, you'd have to take it on a case by case basis, but I think of like the civil rights era. Like Rosa Parks doesn't go to the back of the bus and she doesn't give up her seat for a white person. That's a good example. Yeah. She was guilty. But should she have been guilty? Right, right. That law's totally messed up. So, yeah, and, and the bigger question I guess is do juries, jurors even have a right to nullify? You're basically nullifying the law. If you're not enforcing you, you're not doing your duty as a juror. Do you even have a right to do it? I struggle with that, but then I think of that I, I think about like civil rights cases, like, yeah, absolutely. If a law is fucked, then no, don't enforce it. But I don't know, I
Chris:think there's that. I think it's worth considering, I mean, we talked about this before too, is kind of what is a democracy? If the democracy Yeah. Is a government of the people. If representatives of those people have made a law that is so wrong in the eyes of this jury, could the jury not take it into their hands to nullify that as, Hey, we are the government too. It's a government of the people. Can we not have an effect on this now? Yeah. How many of those people do you want making those laws but Right, but I, I get the concept and I also wonder how often that could happen because you would have to have a unanimous verdict, so Right. You could have people on that jury that don't agree with it. How often are you going to have a unanimous verdict on that? That we're gonna nullify. But I, I, I didn't even know until not too long ago, and I'm surprised by that, but I didn't, that that was a thing and I thought, that's
Jeff:actually kind of cool. It shows you, um, it shows you how much people or how much power, you know, average people can actually have, uh, to do something like that. You could see where you could run into a massive problem. Yeah. And this is just, you know, hypothetically so far anyway, but what if you had people like harming other people, but you had a group of people who were saying, no, we don't care. We, we like this person, we like what they stand for, whatever. And you're just gonna nullify the verdict. Like, right. That's where you could run into a problem. But yeah, I guess
Chris:you just have to hope that all of the people on that jury, If they are all of a well, that if you have people like that, hopefully they truly are the outliers, right? If you have 12 of those pe, those same people on a jury, you got a really big
Jeff:problem. OK, so the next topic, this has just been as of this recording, just in the past. Week or so at least that I was made aware of it and I saw the article in the New York Times. There was a professor at, I don't know how you say this, it's, it's Hamline, H a m l I n E, university. I don't know if they say it. Hamline or Hamlin University. Mm-hmm. She was teaching a global art history course and she had in her syllabus, That there might be images in the course that students would be looking at, that certain people might find offensive. And if they did not want to view those, they did not have to. They're not gonna be punished for not viewing those particular images. And she was set to show two images of Muhammad. Now I thought, Before reading this article, I thought that was a widespread thing in Islam that people of that religion were not supposed to view images of Muhammad. I thought that was a, a widespread thing. I didn't know that. Yeah. Evidently from what I read in the article, that is a more extreme version of Islam. That's the more hardcore. That you don't view images of Muhammad. But anyway, she was cognizant that there might be some students who are of that particular strain of Islam who don't want to view an image of Muhammad. And so that's why she put that in her syllabus. And then before she showed these images to the class, she told them, you can leave. You don't have to look at these if you don't want. She gave a clear. and she showed the images and a student complained and there was a big brew haha, over the whole thing and the professor ended up getting fired for it, which absolutely is ridiculous, absurd, asinine. I don't know what adjectives I should be using, but it's ridiculous. Yeah,
Chris:that's insane. I mean, first of all, they're not part of the religion. What happened to separation of church and state? Right? You could say anything that might offend somebody or, or be wrong in their religion, but you're not practicing the religion in the class.
Jeff:Right? I just don't understand it. And people were saying, oh, it's Islamophobic. You know, you're, you're showing this, this image of the prophet Muhammad. Why should she have to accommodate people's religious leanings in a classroom, uh, uh, uh, in a public university? Like that's not her job to do. No. And she gave advance warning in the syllabus, and my first thought was when I read that, I was like, well, students don't read the syllabus like, I know that from firsthand experience, but she gave the warning in class that this was gonna happen, and you can leave if you don't want to. It seems like the student who complained was just like she had an ax to grind or, or something. I don't know. But yeah, I think that was totally wrong. I
Chris:think so too that that doesn't make any sense. That, that she would be fired for, for something that's part of the class, particularly giving warning. and if it's a, not a, not a Muslim university, this public university like you said right then, um, OK. That's part of
Jeff:the instruction. I mean, yeah, it's part of the curriculum. Like what if I was What if, what if you have some group of students who are offended by nud? And you're in an art history course, hello. Like, there's gonna be tons of it. Like, buckle up and get ready, or Don't sign up for this course. I just don't. Perfect example. I don't know if she's gonna sue or not. I personally think she should, but you know, that takes a lot out of a person and a lot of money and everything else. I don't know, I just, I found that troubling that that.
Chris:Yeah.
Jeff:OK. That is another episode of Subpar Talks and if you like this kind of stuff. There's gonna be more of it, so you should absolutely follow us on whatever platform you're listening to this on. That way you will get new episodes delivered automatically on every Tuesday. You don't even have to do anything. And while you are there, go ahead and rate us. We would be ever so grateful if you'd give us five stars and leave us a. Just type something there. It doesn't matter what you type, but the way things work is if you type something there, that's gonna make it easier for people to discover the show. So we would appreciate it if you do that and we will read it for sure. Uh, you can go to our website, that is Subpar Talks dot com. There. You can email us. You can leave us a voicemail, say whatever you wanna say. It doesn't matter. We are going to read it or listen to it if it's a voicemail. You can follow us on social media on Twitter. We are at@subpartalks on Facebook. We are subpartalks.com If you wanna follow our personal Twitter accounts on there. I am at@independentjeff and I
Chris:am at Chris Bradford tx.
Jeff:and we have other, other social media links on our website. You can find those there. And finally, share@subpartalks with your friends. Get the word out to your friends, family, colleagues, whoever. Tell them to listen to this show because the more listeners we have, the easier it is for us to get this content to you each and every week. And that is an episode. Brought to you by, at least on my end, apple cider and a couple of shots of fireball. All right.
Chris:I was on the Long Island ice tea wagon tonight, so
Jeff:so there you go. That was our fuel. That was our fuel for episode 24. OK. There you go. That is another episode of Subpar Talks, and we will be back next week. Until then, so long.