Commenter Archive

I'm kinda surprised they didn't wait for a Friday afternoon news dump.

I've told this story before but, hell, I'll tell it again.

A friend of mine applied for a job back in the early oughts and they gave him one of those $5 Lego kits to assemble. Just a simple little structure and a minifig.

"You want me to build this?", he asked. "Yes", the interviewer said.

They included the instructions and everything. He just laid out the instructions, built the structure, and presented the final product to the guy.

The interviewer nodded and started disassembling the lego set and putting it back in the box.

"You'd be surprised by how many people this weeds out", he told my bud.

The Pope Must Diet! wasn't as good as its conceit.

But what script could possibly live up to "the wrong guy becomes pope"?

That said, "Do you know who I am? I'm Cardinal Rocco! You're lucky you're being fed here!" was one hell of a line.

Maybe there should be a push for police reform that does stuff like weaken police unions.

Smoke enthusiasts will be pleased to know that we have black smoke at the Vatican.

"WITH A FREAKIN' PENCIL"

It seems that Columbia has reclaimed the library from the people.

Reading the story, it seems like there were five cops, two of them pled guilty, this is about one of the remaining three of the five.

The three defendants still face the prospect of years in prison after they were convicted of federal charges, though they were acquitted of the most serious charges there, too. Two other former officers previously pleaded guilty in both state and federal court, including Emmitt Martin, who defense attorneys blamed for the majority of the violence.

Bean and Smith are out on bond and under house arrest after their federal convictions. Haley is being held in federal prison.

Nichols, a 29-year-old Black man, fled a traffic stop after he was yanked out of his car, pepper-sprayed and hit with a Taser. Five officers who are also Black caught up with him and punched, kicked and hit him with a police baton, struggling to handcuff Nichols as he called out for his mother just steps from his home. Nichols died Jan. 10, 2023, three days after the beating.

While I am 100% down with the whole "the getaway driver gets charged with murder even if he was outside waiting in the car when the guy got shot inside" thing, this isn't exactly a complete miscarriage of justice.

Merely a more minor one.

Just in time for finals, Columbia's Butler Library has been reclaimed by the people.

Imagine hanging out behind the rectory and bumming a Chesterfield off the Cardinal.

We used to be a country. A proper country.

Luigi fans should be pleased: His legal fund has officially passed one million dollars.

No link and the stories popping up in the Google are from last year or earlier.

One of the big things that Hunter Thompson brought back when he was novel was that he'd tell us the stories that journalists only told each other in the bar after their story was submitted.

The real story will involve three-pack-a-day Cardinals arguing with four-pack-a-day Cardinals about some weird intricacies that you need to speak Italian to understand coupled with a weird mix of the guys who have their top three priorities in *THIS* order arguing against guys who have their top three priorities in *THAT* order.

And, when they come outside temporarily to order some chicken piccata and another gross of cartons of Marlboro Reds, Camel Lights, and Pall Mall Filterless, they'll say that they're close, seriously, this close... because everybody has their top three priorities in the right order, they're just arguing about particulars.

And back to the yelling in Italian about some weird stuff that Americans (even the Catholic ones) have never even heard of.

I guess this sort of thing wouldn't survive with a Hunter Thompson.

Seattle Times reports: "UW protest ends with 31 arrests at occupied building on campus"

In a message to the UW community, President Ana Mari Cauce condemned what she described as a “dangerous, violent and illegal building occupation and related vandalism.” Four new manufacturing machines, valued at $35,000 to $120,000, were damaged. The university in a statement said the group started fires in two dumpsters on a street outside.

Where are the Free Speech Warriors now?

Anyway, I've seen arguments that the students who damaged these machines should be held accountable.

But who will be held accountable for Mumia Abu-Jamal?

But even if you think we shouldn’t have a Department for Education, we still need to, uh, do that.

This is the "we still need Good Things!" argument.

I agree that we need Good Things.

"So you should support the existence of the extant Department as it exists in its current form!"

No.

Eh, the "by explaining the dynamic, you're excusing it!" is a poor argument.

I mean, would you buy it in service to why Israel shouldn't be bombing Occupied Palestine?

"What about October 7th? YES OR NO? WHAT ABOUT OCTOBER 7TH?!?"

"That's abuser logic."

Those arguments will accelerate political pressure to get USG to stop selling weapon systems to Israel. Right?

You get that if that argument gets popular, that's the result, right?

I don't know where the tipping point is but I think it's somewhere between "actively aiding Palestinians" and "ceasing to sell weapons systems to Israel".

But maybe India will be able to come up with some good stuff worth selling.

It's an "is" statement.

Not an "ought" statement.

It's up to $700,000, according to twitter. When it passed Karmelo Anthony's, that was seen as a moral victory of some sort.

The foolishness has become competitive.

One of the theories of AI that I've seen is that we'll have super-persuasive AI prior to having super-intelligent AI and that is when things will *REALLY* start getting weird.

Anyway: Family uses AI to create video for deadly Chandler road rage victim's own impact statement.

Pelkey’s sister and brother-in-law used the technology to recreate his image and voice likeness to “talk” to the courtroom about his life and the day he met Gabriel Paul Horcasitas, who shot him during a confrontation near Gilbert and Germann roads.

“In another life, we probably could have been friends,” the AI creation of the 37-year-old Army veteran said, addressing Horcasitas. “I believe in forgiveness…”

The AI video also included real video clips from videos taken while he was alive, along with some of his personality and humor, while showing a real photo he once took with an "old age" filter.

"This is the best I can ever give you of what I would have looked like if I got the chance to grow old," the AI version of Pelkey said. "Remember, getting old is a gift that not everybody has, so embrace it and stop worrying about those wrinkles."

The phenomenon he's describing does seem to exist, though. The accuracy of that particular point seems to be there.

But that's an "is" statement, not an "ought" statement.

My position is that she shouldn't have said it.

That poor five year old boy shouldn't have to hear that word and it's distressing that it was targeted at him.

And I'm also not particularly surprised that this turned into a major big deal. Did you see River Page's article on the issue in The Free Press?

The Omnicause. It's a phenomenon that I'm sure you're familiar with.

Here's lifted from Google: "Omnicause" refers to the tendency in some activist and progressive circles to view all social justice issues as interconnected and equally important, often leading to a broad, encompassing approach that can dilute focus and effectiveness.

You know how Greta Thunberg is a big Palestine supporter now and how that's just as important as Global Climate Change?

That phenomenon.

Surely you've encountered the phenomenon, if not the term, on the other blog when the topic of Genocide comes up.

There has been a metapoint made about how we know about this story in the first place.

A guy filmed it, posted it to the internet, and said "internet, do your thing".

Since then, the internet has done many things.

Maybe the pendulum will start swinging back soon.