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[IncompetentFortressMaker]

As a cat lover myself, let me just say those poor cats. What was the VA thinking, indeed?

[Eric Blank]

The same thing every other head of every government agency in the US thinks; if they can waste all their money and fail to do their job, then on next years congressional budget they can claim they don't have enough money and ask for more. And, of course, the director and friends get a raise and embezzle part of that budget increase or use it to pay private contractors they or their friends own. Profit. That's how you "run it like a business" and increase profits every year.

And of course we never audit them, never care who the would-be director "industry professional" owes their allegiances to, never ask "how does this public service being run poorly benefit the industry that it's intended to supplement and the people we put in charge of it." So more corruption, the service doesn't work, the private version of the industry gets their money anyway because people can't rely on the service that's being intentionally sabotaged, and best of all, Republicans can point at the services run by these industry professionals they insist should run them and say "Look! Socialism doesn't work! We should get rid of all public services and regulatory agencies and sell all public infrastructure to private businesses instead of overseeing it more directly and ensuring it functions!"

And yeah, Democrat leaders are in on it too, blablablah. But this is literally Libertarians and Republicans strategy.

[Frumple]

Veterans Affairs has been spending millions on cat experiments since at least 2015.

So many layers of outrage and surprise to process here. Firstly that the VA, for taking care of veterans, has a multi-million dollar research wing. Second, that they have so much money they can devote three facilities to testing just on cats. Thirdly, it beggars belief that the amount of research torture they're performing on these cats actually has benefits for veterans. The VA is a pioneer in amputation, constipation and sleep research? What?

Everything else aside, the VA kinda', like... is? Or at least is heavily involved with treatment of, amputation (they're VA, duh, they actually are one of the major medical organizations at the forefront of prosthetic research and related issues because a lot of their folks get shit blown off at some point), constipation (major issue with health care in general, but especially a lot of the demographics they work with), and sleep issues (again, major issue in general but especially with veterans).

I'm not sure why there'd be outrage or surprise the VA has multi-million dollar research facilities, though. Figuring out better treatment for vets is, like, part of what they do and obviously should be doing, considering the specific issues vets disproportionately deal with often aren't particularly well funded otherwise. That said, article gave no indication the mentioned facilities were dedicated to feline testing, just that they were using them.

If it's actually unnecessary testing, though, sure, nix it. I wouldn't exactly trust the sources in that article on the subject (gods bless 'em for the intent, but they're pretty clearly not actual medical professionals or anyone with field experience or relevant expertise in regards to animal testing, and the article didn't actually reach out to anyone that is), but if it's not doing much good there ain't exactly a use for it.

Link seems to be borked, in any case. Works if you leave everything before the # and get rid of the rest.

... also the article is from over two years ago. Maybe there's been some followup or something since?

[nenjin]

I fixed it. Discord did something weird to the URL.

Anyways for how poorly the VA serves veterans now it makes the questionable research seem that much more galling. I did some noodling around and their Office of Research and Development is quite substantial.

https://www.research.va.gov/

And then I went down the budget rabbit hole.

https://www.va.gov/budget/docs/summary/archive/fy-2023-va-budget-submission.zip

I'm pretty good at reading a budget and looks like R&D is allotted $9 million in mandatory funding. But is near $40 million after discretionary spending.

If that's actual budget for research in a.....nearly $300 billion dollar government agency, then that truly isn't that much. Animal research doesn't necessarily shock me. My mom worked for the University here in the virology lab and there were lots of animal experiments. But I don't know if mutilating a cat to simulate someone with a spinal injury not being able to cough is really a good use of the money they do have. Or drilling holes into a cat's skull and putting probes in so you can see what its brain does while it tries to sleep. Or removing half of a cat's digestive system to simulate a person's intestinal injury. When I think of the VA I don't think of research. I think of hospitals and doctors and therapy and such. Which it has a lot of. But I don't think of them as a driving force of medical research.

[Frumple]

Yeah... as far as I'm aware they're actually a pretty major testbed in some areas of medical research, at a minimum? Even though their specific budget isn't the biggest, they do a fair amount of partnership and whatnot, which is, like... completely understandable, given that the issues vets deal with is often a fair bit different than what the general populous does.

Any case, for all its problems the VA does... okay? Better than general healthcare (especially for vets, 'cause our country shits all over vets in practice), last time I bothered looking into it much. I do think there's been some degradation over the last handful of years (fucking gop) relative to previous performance, but they still do a hell of a lot of good.

Prior to my grandad ending in hospice a couple years before he passed, the VA was his primary doctor and they took pretty good care of 'im, all things considered, which meant I interacted with it way more than I particularly wanted to (though mostly because their nearest substantial facility was an hour drive out in a different timezone, heh) over the last like, decade, decade and a half. I've also been working with a couple vets for the last few years, and for all the frustration they seem pretty content with 'em, too.

It damn sure could be doing better, but in the goddamn hellscape that is US healthcare, well...

[scriver]

Plot Twist: The research was into the benefit of keeping pet cats on veterans' health

[delphonso]

I'm at a hotel and the toilet paper isn't perforated.

[pisskop]

Tear with your hands TP

[brewer bob]

I'm at a hotel and the toilet paper isn't perforated.

Obviously you have to use the whole roll in one go then. There is no other option.

[King Zultan]

You should take revenge on the hotel for their transgressions by stealing all of the toilet paper when you leave.

[scriver]

I'm at a hotel and the toilet paper isn't perforated.

Obviously you have to use the whole roll in one go then. There is no other option.

It's for deep wiping

[Kagus]

If you insert the entire roll with the paper's end sticking out, then you'll release TP whenever excreting waste, thereby resulting in a self-cleaning system!

[Frumple]

I don't know why, and it's a tragedy they don't taste even half as good as they smell, but airfried potatoes seasoned with curry powder smells amazing. Like, what god did they murder to make something smell this good, holy hell.

... it doesn't taste bad, incidentally. It tastes good. It just doesn't taste nearly as good as it smells. I'm mostly just boggling because I don't think I've ever smelled a food smell that smells as good as these things do, goddamn.

[McTraveller]

"Rated PG-13 for historical smoking."

[King Zultan]

I've also noticed smoking being mentioned in ratings recently and I can't figure out why they think it needs to be there.