My wife is greater than 90% likely to be furloughed if CR doesn't pass.

[NNadir]

Nevertheless she agreed with me that it should not pass.

I am proud to have had the privilege of loving her all these decades.

Our country is more important to her, and to me, than our personal well being. After all, there are people who died to defend our country when it was a democracy.

[MontanaMama]

1. I'm sure this is a really stressful time in your house.

Thank you for posting this. If the CR doesn’t pass, a lot of us will be hurt. We have to focus on the big picture.

[NNadir]

2. It's nowhere near as stressful as it would have been when our kids were small...

...and I was building my career in fits and starts and my wife was working in less interesting and prestigious roles.

In the Biden years we did quite well - better than ever before - building on the legacy of the Obama years.

The attack on science by the orange slime mold in the White House has and will hurt us personally, but not as much as with many others. It will not prove repairable; scientific expertise and infrastructure is not a spigot to be turned on and off.

Nevertheless the scientific training my youngest son has obtained before (and during) the fall will be valuable anywhere in the world, wherever civilization remains intact.

As is the case with many people, our suffering will pale before the suffering many others will endure. Having lived through worse times (personally) I can appreciate how much worse it will be for others. What is of course the worst is what the fall of the United States will mean to those generations after us.

Thank you for your comment.

[80-10-10]

3. Are you a man?

Edit: I looked at your profile and see that you are.

[NNadir]

4. Yes, but why would that matter? Any human being should be outraged.

[80-10-10]

20. When you said your wife

I thought you were a woman. And yes, I know that women can have wives but I recognized your name and started wondering if I had your gender wrong.

[NotHardly]

6. WTF kinda question is that?

[JoseBalow]

11. Trolling

[Brother Buzz]

14. I have a high degree of certainty this is Eleanor Abernathy MD JD

When she was eight, Eleanor Abernathy was a smart and ambitious young girl who wanted to be both a lawyer and a doctor "because a woman can do anything". She was studying for law school at 16, and by 24, she had earned an MD from Harvard Medical School and a JD from Yale Law School. However, by 32, suffering from burnout, she had turned to alcohol, became obsessed with her pet cat, and would randomly take to cutting pieces of her own hair. By the time she was 40, she had assumed her present state as a drunken, raving lunatic.

[GP6971]

17. They're not very friendly. I welcomed them after their first post and

haven't even received a TY. The nerve!!

[Brother Buzz]

18. She definitely displays antisocial behavior without her "medication"

Eleanor Abernathy enjoys "brief moments of lucidity" after taking psychoactive medication, but she abruptly resumes her usual bizarre behavior when she's informed that the "pills" are actually Reese's Pieces. That being said, she believes her medication helps her speak intelligibly rather than her usual gibberish.

[80-10-10]

22. You know, it would be so nice

if people did not react so aggressively. You're assuming the worst. He said "my wife" and I saw past posts of his and thought he was a woman. Before you bash me for my assumption, it's not that I don't know that a woman can have a wife. We sometimes jump to conclusions in life, okay?

[Swede]

7. Are you?

[KPN]

5. Thank you NNadir, and your wife! "We shall overcome" by being strong and unbending which may require many of

us to sacrifice. It's important that those who can, do. Some unfortunately cannot, but that certainly does not include our elected Democrats in my view. ....

I'm rambling. Thanks so much again.

[Passages]

8. Thank you both!

[LexVegas]

9. Are you in a dual income household? nt

[NNadir]

10. Yes we are. But my job is also in science. I've already...

...taken a pay cut (in exchange for equity I may not live long enough to realize, if in fact it ever becomes valuable.)

We also have savings, not tremendous but significant. Nevertheless it will be painful and worrisome.

I'm more worried about my wife than myself. She's younger than I am. Her parents lived long lives. I've already outlived both my parents by a significant number of years, so I will not live long enough to experience all the sure to come pain of the fall of the United States.

[MichMan]

12. If people are furloughed due to a shut down, aren't they usually eligible for back pay?

[NNadir]

13. I don't know but may find out. We are assuming that "furlough" may evolve into layoff or dismissal

That's what's happening at Johns Hopkins in the attack on science.

My wife's boss is a tenured and somewhat prominent scientist. He's worried that he'll be furloughed or worse.

Other professors, active and dynamic scientists with active important projects relevant to human health have been asked to consider retirement.

[MichMan]

16. I misunderstood

I thought she was a Federal employee

[NNadir]

19. I am the only person in my immediate family who is not in academia.

Three of us are in the sciences and one is in the arts. The son in academia is a graduate student in nuclear engineering, relatively safe for now. The other son is in the academic area of the arts. Thus far, he's probably more secure.

They have not turned their malignant eyes yet on the arts. To go full Godwin, Hitler struck science first ("Jewish," i.e. real, physics) but ultimately he hit art too. My favorite painter, Max Beckmann, suffered horribly.

It is of course not the same as the 1930s in Europe, but neither is it entirely different. The common factor is the enthusiasm for the lie displayed but a subset of the population.

We are all in this together, government, academic, and yes, commercial. We must work to save what can be saved and when the time comes, restore what can be restored.

[JMCKUSICK]

15. I'm sorry NNadir

I wish our country hadn't traveled down this ugly road.
God Speed

[eppur_se_muova]

21. Sorry to hear that. I guess I'm one of those people the WSJ would call a "Lucky Duck" ...

I don't make enough money to pay taxes, and I can't be fired because I don't have a job. Almost seems like a good situation to be in right now.