The gun-nut people have a relevant saying (to politeness, not Satanic day care centers). "A well-armed people is a polite people." Anyway, I agree about the polite being forced by the immorality direction of causality.
I always felt a bit of local pride that Nebraska's mini-version of this got nowhere. It retrospect, the difference was probably at least in part because of who was making the accusations. The other minor joy in this was the my former state senator, who got beat just prior by a close friend of my family, tried to get back into politics by involving himself in this and came out looking like a liar and a pervert.
It's a terrible story and nothing will give them those years back, but the way it ended is pretty impressive. The Massachusetts version never acknowledged any kind of problems with the prosecution and was defended by many politicians (including the loathsome Martha Coakley).
My dad often brings up the Satanic ritual abuse panic as something deplorable. I don't think I quite realized this particular travesty was happening not only while I was growing up but in the same city; given his profession he must have been interacting with thus-blinkered people in realtime.
I also wonder what it indicates that people were going into moral panic on made-up Satanic cults in an era when there was little to no action on actual mass abuse in actual large religious institutions.
Usually when I assume people have all read something I'm wrong, so I'll link Fred Clark's perennially-useful post on the warmfuzzies people get from making up Satanists to oppose.
Pwned by 1. But on top of the danger-in-performatively-masculine-environments aspect is the enforcement-of-finely-graded-social-hierarchy aspect, which I think survived and was even refined in a lot of European countries even after duelling was effectively suppressed.
I also wonder what it indicates that people were going into moral panic on made-up Satanic cults in an era when there was little to no action on actual mass abuse in actual large religious institutions.
Projection. Also, "Real bad guys are rullll bad!"
I'm always puzzled with this story by what the conditions are that make people cut loose from their sense of plausibility. That is, prosecutors and the jury believed crazy, crazy stuff on the basis of testimony from preschoolers. Preschoolers say crazy stuff all the time and people have the sense not to believe them -- what happened here to make it all seems plausible?
I'm pretty sure the answer involves "really shitty detective work."
As a necessary but not sufficient condition.
I've never done much systematic reading on satanic panic but isn't there a body of literature connecting it to displaced anxiety about working mothers?
Right, there was sort of maliciously incompetent handling of evidence, but maliciously incompetent in the way police forces do when they're sure they've got the right culprit. What got them over the line from "This is a preschooler talking about imaginary chainsaw attacks" to "OMG it really happened!"
Oh, 11 makes sense. In that oh my god people are terrible kind of way that things make sense.
Next question: why are people terrible?
On the veldt, people who weren't terrible were eaten by people who were.
But really, you'd think the world has enough horrible shit happening at any given time that you could scratch whatever displaced psychological itch needs scratching without going so far into the weeds.
Didn't somebody write about how to use a really big lie for propaganda purposes?
I think maybe the horizons of the witchunters don't extend to the world.
"Keep your feet on the ground and keep hunting witches in the stars."
So originally that went:
20
16 made me laugh.
Posted by heebie-geebie
21
16 made me laugh.
Posted by lurid keyaki
22
20/21 made me laugh.
Posted by lurid keyaki
Then Heebie's terrible comment 20 ate my identical comment 21.
It's interesting to me how odd it is that this works in both directions, that these convictions were easy to get on bizarre evidence but more textbook sexual abuse often isn't even now. But I'm also overinformed in weird ways and I'm sure that's part of my bafflement.
Oh shit! I thought I double-posted and deleted it! That's funny.
Not as funny as 16, but funnier than the OP.
It's interesting to me how odd it is that this works in both directions, that these convictions were easy to get on bizarre evidence but more textbook sexual abuse often isn't even now.
It really is crazy. But it's all about people's attraction to clear situations: Satanic Panic means that there's nice bright lines around evil, and it's not us, and so it's controllable and understandable. Round crazy fucking situations like this up to 1. Actual sexual abuse is too close to making everyday people capable of evil, and so people would rather round these situations down to zero, didn't happen, quit harshing my mellow.
"Controllable" meaning "I have the illusion of control over this in my own life" in contrast to, say, car crashes. Or hurricanes.
I have control over my life in terms of car crashes. Any time I want a car crash, I can have one.
Wanting nice bright lines is also laziness. Control plus laziness equals craziness. Bam.
"You can't go to work because Satanists might eat your children" is probably a stronger argument against women in the workforce than some developmental psychology paper about whether or not daycare puts kids six weeks behind on learning to eat glue or whatever.
No one ever taught me to eat glue at all. No wonder I'm so fucked up.
Once you learn, it really sticks with you.
Sure, 28 is why we still teach stranger danger. It's sympathetic magic because if we all focus hard enough it won't actually be your stepdad or uncle or pastor or babysitter or foster sibling or what we'll over 90% of the cases actually are.
To give the Devil her due, Dorothy Rabinowitz and the Wall Street Journal, both of whom/which are horrible in so many ways, were very vocal early on regarding the insanity of the day-care-witchcraft-child-abuse prosecutions, especially about the Massachusetts (Fells Acres iirc) case. Shortly after, though, the WSJ resumed normal service with the Bill Clinton-Mena airport conspiracy.
The stuff I've seen given to our kid has been has been pretty direct about how it's not just strangers and that it could be a someone you know and trust.
To give the Devil her due
I see what you did there.
BTW, what's the appropriate anti-Stars and Bars? Logically it's just the US flag, but that's been totally appropriated by the same nationalist assholes. So what? 33-star designs?
I'm not letting the appropriate that. Fuck 'em.
42: That's interesting -- if there's a Civil Rights Era iconic logo, I don't know it. 'We Shall Overcome' is the song, but I can't picture an image.
After googling, SNCC had a black and a white hand in a handshake logo that's pretty obvious.
(One involved in the March to the Sea would be nice but I can't find such a one.)
The Grand Army of the Republic grave market is pretty distinctive.
We lived in Orange County during some of the McMartin preschool trial. Something I had not thought of it in a while. Utterly unhinged craziness, Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds level stuff; and quite obviously so at the time . Fortunately the country got all better about not getting fooled now.
I thought it was transparent nonsense at the time. But the therapists were saying the kids could/should be believed.
43: I understand that reaction, but I'm thinking about effective signalling. If you stick a Stars and Bars outside your house, you'll be understood to say, "I'm a racist asshole".* If you stick a Stars and Stripes outside your house, what will you be understood to be saying? Stand to be corrected, but AFAIK you'll be understood to be saying, "I'm a Republican voter", hence a racist asshole.**
*Depending on the observer.
**Not depending on the observer.
46 is awesome, but does it have wide recognition? Also the iconography is super-duper fascist (appropriation!). The GAR design is indeed distinctive. Recognizable? It has the advantage of looking superficially like a pentacle, which will give the wobblies to the wrong kind of people.
If you stick a Stars and Stripes outside your house, what will you be understood to be saying? Stand to be corrected, but AFAIK you'll be understood to be saying, "I'm a Republican voter", hence a racist asshole.
Nah, lots of people fly American flags. It doesn't necessarily imply any particular political orientation.
The rainbow flag is probably the closest widely recognized symbol to what Mossy is looking for. It references a different issue, obviously, but the sides line up pretty much the same.
54, 55: Thanks. But "doesn't necessarily imply any particular political orientation" is just the problem. I'm thinking of a symbol directly opposed to stars and bars. I thought of the 33-star designs with the stars arranged in a circle, because it would prompt double-takes,* while remaining distinctly American (which the rainbow flag isn't).
*If not hanging all folded up, but apparently Heebie is ok in that department.
But "doesn't necessarily imply any particular political orientation" is just the problem. I'm thinking of a symbol directly opposed to stars and bars.
Right, but there just isn't one.
The problem is that the right has co-opted all the widely recognized historic American flags, and to some extent the current one. Some might even argue they've co-opted the act of flying a flag entirely, but I don't think that's quite right, or at least it hasn't happened to the same extent it apparently has in Europe. (The European commenters here always freak out when the American ones talk about flying flags.)
This was apparently Sherman's flag at some point.
59: The very existence of the company linked in 60 is quite strikingly weird to me (though I'm not European).
Here's a cool one. Might come in handy depending on how things go in the next few years.
61: Sure, but then you have to teach everybody what it means. It's possible, just a lot of work.
Our national anthem is about the flag. It's a whole thing.
So your idea of a counter-Confederate flag is a good one, there just isn't a widely recognized one already out there to adopt.
64: Of course. That's another reason I thought of the 33-star, since it rides on existing symbols. I figure it could catch on pretty quickly in the current environment. You could get a few big ones into the front line of each anti-KKK march.
63 is great.
Or go full bore, march with EU flags? The Europeans would be less than chuffed, but maybe they'll be more likely to help you out in the next civil war.
I went into Northern Sun the other day, and they *still* don't stock plain black anarchist flags. Time to get on the anarchy train, compañer@s!
P.S. Alla them policemen is cawmuniss
70 is of course the reason 68 won't happen.
I have a Bennington flag that I put out on holidays.
AMERICAN FLAGS JAM UP THE BLADES OF THE UN BLACK HELICOPTERS
Good point, Grandpa. Clearly we should march with UN flags.
51: They did a revival of Arthur Miller's The Crucible in the 90's, and he specifically mentioned these daycare things.
I mean, one girl's story is believable and should be investigated, but then blood in kool-aid and trips to the cemetery. No.
76: yes, I remember. We studied the play in school, I think partly because this https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orkney_child_abuse_scandal
had just happened a couple of years previously.
(There was a similar scandal in Rochdale and the local authorities got it in the neck for believing there was some sort of massive sexual abuse ring operating in the town. Then, ironically, a few years ago they got it in the neck again because that time there really was a massive sexual abuse ring operating in town and they decided not to believe it existed.)
68. The 34-star flag (the 34th star is West Virginia) might be a good one. Still, just use the regular American flag. Idiots shouldn't be allowed to appropriate it.
I agree that idiots shouldn't be allowed to appropriate it, but to some degree they have. You deserve a visible symbol that says "I'm American and also not a barbarian."
"I'm an American and also a barbarian, but not a racist barbarian". Or similar.
I still think that using another symbol other than the American flag would be counterproductive.
Or at least using another symbol without also using the flag.
American flag with lace tatted all around it.
By all means, the standard flag as well. But something else alongside. Brand differentiation.
Fly the US flag below the UN flag. That says 'one nation, under black helicopters '
I didn't make the joke, but I do think we should mock confederate statues as participation trophy statues more often.
Someone complained that the gay bar in town was flying a rainbow American flag and so they took it down and now socialists are trying to flip the bar to be the DSA hangout. I can't think of any situation in which I'd feel comfortable displaying an American flag. Maybe directly in opposition to Nazis, maybe. But I kind of doubt it.
one nation, under black helicopters
E pluribus, uh, helium.
I'm not getting my butt tattoo covered or leaving my pants on just because some on the left are not as comfortable with traditional American symbols as I am.
Heebie, about politeness vs. white supremacy, there's a fun aside in The Arts of Deception (a book about P.T. Barnum and 19th century showmanship) about how Barnum had to rejigger his advertising when he took things south, because in New York the scam was part of the fun (caveat emptor!) but in 19th century Georgia, they'd beat you bloody for that sort of thing.
"If that don't bring them in, I don't know Missouri."
95: Maybe beating someone bloody is part of the fun?
A mohel would probably be pretty good at reindeer gelding.
Math is fake. Biting a reindeer's nuts with sufficient force to stop the production of sperm but not destroy production of testosterone, that my friend, is real.
You should picture me sitting there like the old man from the Dos Equis commercial when you read that.
Except I'm drinking Yuengling. And eating a doughnut. It was a strange day.
Reindeer gametes are the new reindeer games and Rudolph isn't going to join in those either.
Then all the reindeer loved him,
as they shouted out with glee,
"Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer,
can't impregnate me."
This has been the most boring fucking day. It's like a road trip except instead of a minivan we're trapped in our house. Would you like me to sing you my favorite song from Descendants 2?
110 How about something from Milo Goes to College?
To be fair, parts were perfectly fine. I just have cabin fever about doing this all over again and possibly Monday too.
You could become a storm chaser and leave home, unable to take the calm anymore. It would make good backstory for the Werner Herzog film about your disappearance: Hurricane Heebie.
But then how would you know a hurricane was involved? I've never seen that movie about the grizzly guy but I know it involves a grizzly.
On the other hand: Studio Geebly might be interested in your project.
Hang up an American flag with a pennon that reads "e pluribus unum" . That way clearly you aren't a barbarian because you speak Latin and you're aware of the country's actual motto, and you are celebrating diversity.
Lindsay Beyerstein on FB linked a flag with a mongoose with a dead snake in its teeth, saying "I tread where I please". Probably unnecessarily belligerent, and regardless of how it gets used now, the history of the Gadsden flag isn't objectionable. But I did like the twist.
117 But the only real non-Barbarians speak Greek.
Some years ago I thought of getting a Taunton flag, but couldn't find one I liked.
|| You had me at "Michael Palin as Vyacheslav Molotov".
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Death_of_Stalin
|>
People here are going to discuss this post at some point, why not now? https://www.ribbonfarm.com/2017/08/17/the-premium-mediocre-life-of-maya-millennial/
123. I am strangely taken by the phrase "the avocado toast exception." It could be an Edward Gorey book title.
I have been wanting to try avocado toast but not enough to figure out where I could. Making it myself just seems sad.
I put avocado on toast with just a little salt. It wasn't bad, but I think there must be more to it because it wasn't great either. Maybe I should have buttered the toast too?
125. It's the working title of Charlie Stross' next Laundry novel but one.
127. It was premium mediocre, of course.
Now that I've read (well, skimmed) more, I also love "towel-based personal branding." The guy has a way with a meme.
126
Mashed salted avocado on a toasted everything bagel is much better than on straight toast. You could also had a little lemon to the avocado (so basically simple guacamole), some sliced tomato, chopped red onion, and possibly cream cheese.
Of course, I fully cop to being a sad millennial who makes her own avocado toast and coffee and buys jeans at Old Navy, so I'm probably definitely doing it wrong.
127
Once your taste buds pass 40, they can no longer appreciate the nuanced flavor that is avocado toast.
Honestly, I don't think I started eating anything with avocado until after I was 40.
130-Last- Nope I'll be 50 in a few days and I've been enjoying avocado toast since before it became a thing.
Anyway, I really don't love avocados. I just feel I need to eat more vegetables and one of the few I will eat without displeasure is avocados.
Avocado toast is awesome, although it can be improved by the addition of Worcester sauce. It is also the only context on god's green earth where a poached egg is acceptable.
||
Since this thread has officially drifted off into luxury items like avocado toast, I have a consumer question.
Now that I'm free of my place in Cleveland, I'm going catching up on purchases that I was putting off until the whole thing was officially done. First on my list is a new laptop.
I will essentially be using it for intertubes and email. I'll probably watch videos, but it's not my primary means of viewing things like movies, so while I want an OK display, super high end on that score isn't really necessary. I will have a python distribution (anaconda) and R installed, but serious number crunching will be done on computers at work. I'd like it to be light enough to travel with it easily, but I haven't decided whether I want a hybrid laptop/tablet or not. I'm not a gamer at all, so high performance along whatever metrics gamers care about isn't a priority. Windows only, and my price ceiling is around $1,000. I've been considering a Surface Pro 4.
Suggestions?
|>
I think you should take the money and invest it in Cleveland real estate.
135- I hear the Surface is impossible to open up to repair. Things are hot glued together. It sounds like your requirements are easy to meet. Any reason you are not just picking up a ~$400 commodity laptop?
Try it with mustard sauce. Avocado diaboli.
Better opportunities in Houston right now.
||
Subsidiary question to 135: Does anybody have any experience of Chromebooks, for intertubes and email(intertubes)? Is it possible without excessive hassle to store data from them locally, i.e. on an external drive? The day I store important data in the cloud without a local copy is the day the world ends.
|>
My son has a chromebook. I have no idea about storing data locally and have no interest in watching the world burn.
All kids like watching the world burn. Fucking psychopaths, every one.
Subsidiary question to 135: Does anybody have any experience of Chromebooks, for intertubes and email(intertubes)? Is it possible without excessive hassle to store data from them locally, i.e. on an external drive? The day I store important data in the cloud without a local copy is the day the world ends.
If you're not interested in the cloud, why are you even considering a Chromebook? Supposedly you can force them to do stuff offline, but it would seem to defeat the purpose of having one. And they're not likely to have much in the way of local storage, necessitating the external drive you mention. Why not just get a proper Windows/Linux/MacOS laptop?
I saw that the establishment that took the place of the Eddie George Steakhouse in the Campus Gateway serves avocado toast. Maybe I'll skip on paying my mortgage next month and try it.
What was the establishment there before the Eddie George Steakhouse, for those of us with memories that stretch back to the before time?
I know somebody who likes their YogaBook laptop.
Also: https://smittenkitchen.com/2016/03/nolita-style-avocado-toast/
Not quite the way I do it, but looks very tasty.
148 etc
I have an ideapad, which is a Lenovo laptop that was sold in Asia and Europe (I bought it in China). It's a bit janky sometimes, mainly because I installed a bootleg operating system on it, but in general I would recommend Lenovos.
I remember the Smitten Kitchen show from back when I had an television.
re: 59
With a tiny number of exceptions (Rainbow flag, etc), or maybe the flags of tiny put-upon nations, only dickwads fly flags.*
We used to have a neighbour across the street in Oxford who had a 30ft flagpole on which he (we never met, but I can only assume it was a he) flew the US flag.
* I might grant 'flag of the country whose team you support, during a major international sporting tournament'.
147: No one remembers that far back. Before the Eddie George Steakhouse, the area was open fields and wreckage. I used to call it Little Sarajevo. The time before that is the stuff of myth, but old people tell stories that there were huge raucous bars overflowing with undergrads with fake ids drinking with utter abandon. The debauchery reached such heights that The University had to step in.
When we bought our house, there was a flag holder by the door, the kind that would hold the pole for a flag of maybe three or four foot across. We bought the house from Russians, so who knows what flag they were flying.
Time was, they used to put a rope down the side of High Street to stop kids from falling into the street to be crushed.
I only went in once. I was 22 when I arrived and way too old for that place.
It sounds like your requirements are easy to meet. Any reason you are not just picking up a ~$400 commodity laptop?
Quite possibly no. One reason I asked here is that, if I just go shopping online, I think I'm at risk for wasting money on features I'll never use.
My current laptop is 10 years old, so pretty much anything is going to be a major step up in terms of user experience.
I was struck on my trip to Copenhagen the other weekend how much (national) flag flying was going on. Nearly as many as rainbow flags (it was the end of Pride week). Including little flags on top of the buses. Apparently flag days are a thing there, though I'm not seeing any evidence that there was supposed to be one when I was there.
155, etc.: One of my best friends, who didn't drink, met her husband there. That's just about all I know about the place.
It's a great place for a non-drinker to meet a man who will put up with any inconvenience for $1 well drinks.
161, 162: Speaking of Flags and Lags, I seem to recall flying the Bunny Flag, at my house -- that was back in the old days when Mr Mustard was on South Campus, and I was married to my first wife and we shared the house with a few bunnies.
I was going to comment a bit back before I forgot that Nordic countries are pretty into flag flying, as a European exception. Of course, they sort of count as tiny put upon nations* Norwegians I believe are the most into flag displays, and possibly most into historical remembrance of being put upon (might be rivaled in that by the Finns).
Growing up I had a few neighbors who flew the Italian flag, with or without the American flag. One flew the Italian and American flags AND painted his house white with green and red trim. THAT felt a bit excessive. We used to get out our giant Norwegian flag for syttende mai, except we only hung it up indoors. (We did have postcard sized photos of then-King Olaf and then-crown-prince Harald hanging year-round in the kitchen, and after King Olaf died I remember my dad put black construction paper as a backing behind his picture.)
*if you count historical intra-putting upon.
We also have the flag of the Weimar Republic in our attic, for mysterious reasons.
Scandinavians love to decorate their Christmas trees with flags too. For some reason we have a box of cake decorations which include lots of little paper flags, mostly from the Nordic countries, but also inexplicably some Greek flags (similar pattern and color scheme?) We'd always put them on birthday cakes.
Greeks don't even have Christmas. At least not on the right day.
Lots of people fly Nebraska flags on football game days.
167: We had the exact same little cake flags, on toothpicks! I don't think they were ever actually used though.
170
Interesting. Were they South African flags?
(They were sort of a hazard on birthday cakes. We lost more than a few to accidental burning.)
No, they were Nordic and Greek. And maybe some other Europeans.
I've wanted to replace my netbook, but it seems like Chromebooks have killed the 10"/11" netbook market. At least if you want something inexpensive and relatively recent, as my netbook was 7 years ago when I got it.
Since I'm also looking for a new laptop, with an emphasis on a keyboard I actually like, I decided I should focus my money on that. Maybe next month when I can afford it. I'm very tempted to get a laptop with linux pre-installed, but I've heard mixed reviews of those. I also have various irrational hatreds that cut out a lot of models as options (won't consider HP, some Lenovos seem nice, but the keyboard layouts drive me crazy, etc.).
172
That's interesting. I didn't realize that Nordic/Greek flags had broader appeal. (Though, lord knows why we had Greek flags, so clearly it wasn't just a heritage thing.)
I've no idea why, but now I'm sad we didn't set any of them on fire.
How quickly we forget the Varangian Guard, protecting the heart of Byzantium.
I've wanted to replace my netbook, but it seems like Chromebooks have killed the 10"/11" netbook market. At least if you want something inexpensive and relatively recent, as my netbook was 7 years ago when I got it.
If you're set on the 10"/11" form factor, sure, but at 13" there are a bunch of great ultraportables these days with massively better battery life than they used to have. And the 10" form factor in particular makes it pretty much impossible to get a decent keyboard layout. It's true you're unlikely to get something both super light and super inexpensive that's not a Chromebook, but on the other hand, it will be a lot more versatile.
179: Any recommendations for 13" domain with either no keyboard or detachable keyboard, non-Apple? I've been knocking around the sites but all the marketing and specs bleed together to me.
179: Any recommendations for 13" domain with either no keyboard or detachable keyboard, non-Apple?
People seem to love the Surface Pro and to a slightly lesser extent Book. Pricey, though.
If you can hold off a month or two, there's a new generation of Intel processors coming out which should improve bang for power buck on laptops quite a bit.
Will that force down the price of decent older chips? I don't like to pay for cutting-edge.
I'm not so much worried about processing power on my laptop. I worry about my phone because it gets hot (Samsung) when I play Pokemon Go. Which is 90% of what I do with my phone.
Max the memory is my pretty much evergreen advice.
Will that force down the price of decent older chips? I don't like to pay for cutting-edge.
Force is a bit strong, but sure, they'll be a bit cheaper. Intel doesn't have a lot of competition right now, though, so it'll just be market segmentation. With laptops though, once the old stock is gone, you're generally getting the new chip whether you like it or not (absent refurbs or super budget models).
I vaguely knew Intel and AMD were the main players in microprocessors, but I guess they're literally the only players? Depressing. I hope the know-how goes generic someday and the duopoly is broken, but I imagine it might not just be a matter of patent life.
At this point I can't see a reason not to buy a laptop with an Intel processor. It seems like AMD has some good desktop options but laptops seem exclusively Intel above a certain price/level of quality.
Force is a bit strong
Watch it.
191. AMD appear to be concentrating on GPUs, and as the cheaper alternative are selling a lot of them to go in bitcoin mining server farms. I think they have a new CPU coming out soon as well.
I vaguely knew Intel and AMD were the main players in microprocessors, but I guess they're literally the only players?
Well, ARM are extremely competitive/dominant in mobile, and Qualcomm have big market share but are bad. But for laptops and desktops it's AMD and Intel.
Don't forget Nvidia and Imagination Technologies in GPUs, Freescale and Infineon in embedded/cheapo mobile, and the shadow competition, Apple and Google in-house designs.
By the way, both Acer and Asus unveiled new 2-in-1 laptops at the IFA event this week. May want to have a look at those when reviews come out.
190: That's an interesting question -- what prevents a new entry into the space? It might just be economic -- it's too expensive to implement an x86 chip that's competitive with Intel and AMD. There used to be a question of licensing, but I don't know what you'd be licensing other than a patent.
Thousands of patents per chip, I'd imagine.
That's an interesting question -- what prevents a new entry into the space? It might just be economic -- it's too expensive to implement an x86 chip that's competitive with Intel and AMD.
I doubt it's any one thing. Entrenched relationships with OEMs must be a big one. The engineering challenge of current chip technology would be another - from what I read they're getting close to the theoretical maximum chip density, where quantum effects start to generate errors. Intel and its main competitors are down to a 10 nanometre process (though most current gen chips are 14nm). In a few years, we're going to have to come up with entirely new ways of designing electronics to get any denser.
179: Any recommendations for 13" domain with either no keyboard or detachable keyboard, non-Apple?
I have opinions about this!
I used a Surface Pro 4 as my main work computer for the last year and a half or so. It was great! But I'm not sure I would recommend it right now, for a few reasons: 1- Supposedly Surfaces have had really bad repair/return rates; 2- I think the lack of USB-C/Thunderbolt will really hurt in a few years, and some competitors (Lenovo Miix 720) do better here.
Two broader points: First, if you anticipate this being your main computer for the next more-than-a-few years, I think it's worth waiting until the quad-core 8th-gen models come out. I anticipate this being a more noticeable jump in everyday performance than we've seen in a long time. Second, you may want to consider a fold-over 2-in-1 instead of the detachable variant, especially if you want a 13" screen (almost all of the detachable ones are 12-12.5"). The fold-overs aren't much heavier than the detachables, but the ability to spread out the electronics and battery between the bottom and top parts means they generally perform better (because they don't need to throttle the CPU as much from overheating) and have considerably longer battery life -- the Surface 4's battery life was my biggest complaint about it, and it's one of the better detachables in that respect.
Examples of lighter fold-over 2-in-1s: Dell XPS 13 2-in-1, HP Spectre x360, Asus ZenBook Flip S (haven't seen pricing or reviews yet for the 8th-gen version).
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