GMcGath

Freelance writer. Lover of #liberty, #music, and #cats. Author of The Magic Battery, Spells of War, Files that Last, and Tomorrow's Songs Today.

Lately doing lots of writing on history for Liberty Fund. https://oll.libertyfund.org/person/gary-mcgath

I sometimes discuss upsetting subjects. If that's not what you want, don't follow.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/garymcgath/
Writing-related: https://garymcgath.com
Personal: https://www.mcgath.com/

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Last Notes

2024-10-12 10:40:53

The big news sites love to claim things are "proven" or "refuted" when it suits their agenda. Headline seen on CNN just now: "Milton and Helene prove climate change is a national security issue."
"This is a national security issue" always means "Panic! Panic! We can't afford civil liberties anymore!"

2024-10-10 09:46:04

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Legalization is done by the legislature, not the governor. Gubernatorial candidates saying they'll do something by decree which they can't, even when it's legalization, are showing an imperial mindset.

2024-10-02 10:11:43

A lot of Americans are thrilled with the prospect of the National Guard going door to door, hauling people out of their homes, and sending them en masse — somewhere. Are they also thrilled about the hundreds of billions of dollars the operation will cost and the economic effect of taking away so many workers?
https://english.elpais.com/usa/elections/2024-09-23/the-cost-of-trumps-mass-deportation-plan-more-than-10-times-immigrations-budget-and-a-possible-recession.html
#Trump #immigrants #deportation

2024-10-01 10:25:43

Interesting that Vermont sheriff John Grismore got a jury trial for kicking a shackled detainee twice in the groin. Most suspects would have been forced into a plea bargain by the threat of inflated charges.
https://news.yahoo.com/news/sheriff-being-retried-assault-charge-210616916.html
#Vermont

2024-09-20 00:36:43

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I found a simple solution: Drop Xfinity.

2024-09-16 11:10:21

Check before you post.
https://garymcgath.com/wp/dont-spread-misinformation-2/
#socialMedia

2024-09-06 11:26:30

People who are prosecuted rarely get a trial. Hunter Biden is just an especially conspicuous example of finding a plea bargain the safer choice. I'm not saying he's guilty or not, just noting it's the norm rather than the exception.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/hunter-biden-guilty-verdict-tax-evasion-trial/
#pleaBargain #HunterBiden

2024-09-04 08:48:17

Fact checking the "fact check": In an article claiming Harris never advocated censoring Twitter, AP quotes her: "...there has to be a responsibility that is placed on these social media sites to understand their power. They are directly speaking to millions and millions of people without any level of oversight or regulation, and that has to stop."
Nice try, AP.
#Harris #censorship #Twitter
https://apnews.com/article/kamala-harris-elon-musk-x-twitter-rfk-c7d6ca7cda02e29cb6acc5ad25d3d6dc

2024-09-04 00:37:11

New Hampshire candidates' positions on marijuana legalization. Further confirmation that Staples is a good choice. https://www.mpp.org/states/new-hampshire/2024-new-hampshire-primary-voter-guide/
#NewHampshire #marijuana #drugWar

2024-09-04 00:17:40

New on my blog: Spohr's Symphony No. 3. https://garymcgath.com/wp/spohr-symphony-3/

2024-09-03 22:33:41

My choices for the NH District 1 Republican ballot at this point (subject to more information):
Governor: Frank Staples.
US Representative: Walter McFarlane.
#NewHampshire #primary #election

2024-09-03 18:46:05

I vote in the Republican primary because there's some chance of limited-government advocates turning up on the ballot, and hardly any of their turning up on the Democratic ballot.
#primary #election #Republican

2024-09-03 18:28:38

Got a paper mailing from Russell Prescott running in NH 1st Cong. district. Boasts of endorsements by Rand Paul, whom I have qualified admiration for, & Al Baldasro, whom I have unqualified contempt for. An interesting dilemma.
The short description of Baldasaro on the card is "Trump's Veteran Coalition Chairman," suggesting Prescott considers a Trump connection desirable. (Paul is just "Senator.") That tips the balance & moves Prescott to my "NO" list.
#NewHampshire #primary #election

2024-09-03 11:31:33

Statue of Challenger astronaut Christa McAuliffe unveiled at NH State House.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNKEnRnZNyY
#NewHampshire #space

2024-09-03 11:26:53

Am I just noticing it more, or have there been an abnormal number of crashes in NH in the past week or two?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aewWpx_O4oc
#NewHampshire

2024-09-03 10:47:52

To paraphrase Jesus: If you defend only the rights of people who do things you like, do not your enemies do the same?

2024-09-03 10:39:29

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Handing the communication infrastructure over to the government for the sake of a little convenience is folly.

2024-09-02 20:34:30

Warner Brothers loves to make bogus copyright claims on YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_jYtxi8axZM #copyright #WarnerBros

2024-09-02 16:44:10

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Several events over the course of a few years: The start of the novel, Jim Taggart's wedding, the blowing up of the mines, etc.
It's also the wedding anniversary of my best friends, so I never forget.

2024-09-02 12:50:46

Happy "Brother, you asked for it!" day! #Objectivism #AtlasShrugged

2024-09-02 12:45:21

The Mass. Supreme Court overturned the state's ban on switchblade knives. However, jump ropes ("any similar weapon consisting of two sticks of wood, plastic or metal connected at one end by a length of rope, chain, wire or leather") remain illegal.
https://reason.com/2024/09/02/massachusetts-switchblade-ban-overturned-on-second-amendment-grounds/
#Massachusetts #2ndAmendment

2024-09-02 10:38:49

"Most people don’t have the luxury to consider environmental impact alone when purchasing what is often the first- or second-most expensive thing they will ever buy. They also have to worry about price and where they’re going to charge it. "
https://www.theverge.com/2024/9/1/24232206/ev-sales-slow-hybrid-phev-charging-ford-tesla

2024-09-02 10:22:18

Salem, NH man sentenced to federal prison for intimidation and vandalism against an NHPR reporter. Three others have been indicted.
https://www.bostonherald.com/2024/08/30/new-hampshire-man-gets-2-years-in-prison-for-harassing-journalist/
#NewHampshire #Salem #NHPR

2024-09-01 20:37:52

Some people welcome their new robot overlords. https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2024/08/19/artificial-intelligence-mayor-cheyenne-vic/

2024-09-01 17:47:47

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Sounds like any ban on VPNs will be futile.

2024-09-01 16:31:43

I assume the fans of Brazilian Internet blocking and VPN fans are predominantly left-wing, because most are cheering that Musk is the immediate target. Without that bit of information, I wouldn't have been able to tell if they were leftist or rightist. #censorship #Brazil

2024-09-01 11:11:07

Vance advocates nationalization of the assets of foundations whose ideas he disapproves of. https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidbowermaster/2024/07/17/the-rise-of-jd-vance-could-be-problematic-for-big-philanthropy/
#vance #socialism

2024-09-01 11:02:24

Kamala Harris supports continued work on the Trump Border Wall and anti-asylum measures. https://www.yahoo.com/news/harris-said-shed-sign-the-bipartisan-border-bill-that-trump-stopped-heres-whats-in-it-183310125.html #Harris #immigration

2024-09-01 10:49:30

Your occasional reminder that Hamas is a murder gang. https://www.yahoo.com/news/israeli-american-hersh-goldberg-polin-042524139.html
#Hamas #Palestine #Israel

2024-08-31 22:09:34

Internet censorship in Brazil is worse than I thought. https://www.techdirt.com/2024/08/30/brazil-bans-extwitter-in-battle-with-musk-takes-vpns-users-down-with-it/
#Brazil #censorship #VPN

2024-08-31 15:32:25

Harris has proposed a handout to first-time home buyers and a tax incentive for builders of starter homes for sale. This will create an incentive to offer homes for sale rather than apartments for rent, making rentals more expensive and scarce. Welfare for the middle class at the expense of the poor.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/antoniopequenoiv/2024/08/15/harris-will-propose-25000-in-down-payment-aid-for-1st-time-homebuyers-as-part-of-economic-agenda/
#economics #Harris #realEstate

2024-08-31 14:36:33

A candidate in New Hampshire apologized for incorrect information in a campaign ad. In other news, Hell is reporting record low temperatures.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QMPQu_MJdOs
#NewHampshire #Ayotte

2024-08-31 14:20:54

Another worthwhile article on what Telegram isn't. End-to-end encryption isn't the default, is hard to set up, and is unavailable for group chats.
https://usa.kaspersky.com/blog/telegram-why-nobody-uses-secret-chats/27662/
#Telegram #encryption

2024-08-31 14:13:07

Brazil's thought police can't easily catch people who use a VPN to access Xitter. The point of using a VPN is to hide what sites you're accessing. The people who risk arrest and fines are the ones who provide information about how to use one.
#Brazil #VPN #Censorship

2024-08-31 11:53:47

Florestan is a courageous cat. #cats #caturday
https://cdn.masto.host/liberdon/media_attachments/files/113/056/496/127/667/536/original/b13101a7327916ed.jpg

2024-08-31 11:08:17

The US still has boots on the ground, aka war status, in Iraq. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/islamic-state-militants-killed-u-s-military-raid-iraq/
#Iraq #war

2024-08-31 11:02:45

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It's pretty easy to install Wordpress on most servers. The ActivityPub plugin gives you federation capabilities, but you have to be careful to set your blog up properly from the start. It doesn't work with mine because the Wordpress instance is in a subdirectory, and I'd break everybody's links if I moved it up.

2024-08-31 10:09:06

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Big, monolithic sites are easy to block. Federated platforms like Mastodon have an advantage in dodging censorship. So do independent small websites and blogs, which is what the Internet was before social media. Perhaps they'll make a comeback as censorship becomes even more widespread.

2024-08-31 01:21:47

Recall the last time you were embarrassingly wrong. If you can't, that's a problem.
My latest was thinking Telegram is pretty much the same as Signal, aside from group discussion features.

2024-08-30 22:40:19

Brazil blocks X, threatens huge fines on anyone who uses a VPN to get around censorship.
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/30/world/americas/brazil-elon-musk-x-blocked.html
#X #Xitter #Brazil #censorship

2024-08-30 22:30:00

"Free speech zone" is a term George Orwell could have invented. It means an area outside of which free speech is not permitted. https://www.thefire.org/news/how-milwaukee-and-chicago-circumvented-free-speech-rnc-and-dnc
#1stAmendment #freespeech

2024-08-30 20:38:10

In general, if you pay the legally specified license fee, you can cover songs that have been published and performed, and neither the songwriter nor the performer can stop you. This is sometimes frustrating.
https://apnews.com/article/abba-trump-campaign-1965f788ab05e835b7facc1cddae8ed2
#Trump #ASCAP #BMI #music

2024-08-30 18:55:27

Saw a lawn sign today: "Jesus is my savior / Trump is my president." It's clearer to me now. Trump and his supporters have little in common except a bargain. He wants power, they want religious law, and each is offering what the other wants.
#Trump

2024-08-30 17:01:21

The idea that your identity consists of your ethnicity and skin color is the purest collectivism. It says that all you are is your ancestry and appearance, and you're interchangeable with anyone who shares those characteristics.

2024-08-30 09:41:59

Netflix claimed my livestreaming of a 1920 silent film with my original, improvised music used unspecified copyrighted material from one of its series. Or maybe YouTube claimed it on their behalf. Either way, a century-old movie infringing on their copyright would be a good trick.
https://garymcgath.com/wp/youtube-copyright-nonsense/
#Netflix #YouTube #copyright

2024-08-29 22:32:24

Brazilian judge threatens to block Xitter. Brazil has previously blocked other sites that have refused to provide authorities information on users. Fining people who access it with a VPN is a possibility.
https://apnews.com/article/brazil-x-elon-musk-shutdown-moraes-supreme-court-twitter-70fdaeef282e1ac7d649b99cf8241b42
#Brazil censorship #Xitter #vpn

2024-08-29 22:21:56

I was wrong about Telegram and may have posted inaccurate information about it in the past. Telegram does not do end-to-end encryption on messages by default, and it's somewhat tricky to send them up. Apologies if I've said otherwise. https://blog.cryptographyengineering.com/2024/08/25/telegram-is-not-really-an-encrypted-messaging-app/
#telegram #encryption

2024-08-29 21:49:51

The link for the articles I wrote for The Freeman (many years ago) has stopped working. That happens, but why is it redirecting to an article I have nothing to do with?
It isn't even a very good article. It blames the Mississippi Delta for poverty in Mississippi, but the delta is in Louisiana!

2024-08-29 20:18:21

Once a jolly reader, always got his news as text,
Saw two odd names in the candidacy.
Guessed at their sounds and didn't know he'd got them wrong:
You'll come a Waltzing KamAHla with me.
#Walz #Harris #filk

2024-08-29 12:32:32

In NH, EEE has become an issue. Someone died of it in a town less than 10 miles from where I live.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VT8QWi6kvPs
#NewHampshire #EEE

2024-08-29 12:25:47

Dispatches from the Imperial Presidency: Biden still thinks he has the power to give away billions by cancelling debts. The Supreme Court isn't buying it.
https://apnews.com/article/supreme-court-biden-student-loans-f566c623ccb3f322523d7e0a2f88b0c5
#Biden #SCOTUS

2024-08-29 12:06:15

Chinese general orders the US not to interfere with China's plans to conquer Taiwan. https://apnews.com/article/china-us-sullivan-xi-jinping-military-f309d86175fe4ba4a70dc7792591a5a5
#China #Taiwan

2024-08-28 20:18:20

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari is a movie completely free of plot holes, since any inconsistencies (and there are plenty) are the delusions of an insane person.

2024-08-28 17:34:01

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These are just general trends as I observe them; there are many individual exceptions.

2024-08-28 17:33:07

So many people on the left believe that insults and smears are the most effective form of persuasion. When they drive people into the opposing camp, they conclude only that they have to improve their insults.
The right is also adept at the technique, but the left is more oriented toward personal insults at anyone who disagrees with them, while the right directs its vituperation at the big names.

2024-08-28 13:46:34

Some article and videos claim to show dislike counts for a certain YouTube video. They never say where they got the numbers. There are browsers extensions that supposedly get this info, but I never see the same explanation twice of how they work. I strongly distrust all claims that a video had any particular number of dislikes.
#YouTube

2024-08-28 10:10:39

"Adagio." "Accelerando." "A piacere." These are Italian words, but musical annotations are their own language. https://garymcgath.com/wp/language-of-music/ #music #classicalMusic

2024-08-28 10:04:45

Three New England states, including NH, report "very high" Covid wastewater levels.
https://www.cdc.gov/nwss/rv/COVID19-currentlevels.html
#COVID #NewEngland #NewHampshire

2024-08-28 09:54:51

Massachusetts' new gun law is full of vague language and undefined terms. https://www.wcvb.com/article/controversy-sales-follow-passage-of-massachusetts-gun-law/61976537
#guns #Massachusetts

2024-08-27 23:31:21

One more on Snow White for today: This article accurately sums up the standard Grimm version of Snow White, which is far creepier than either Disney version. I've read Grimm in German, so I can vouch for it, though I haven't read the first edition, which the article says is even more disturbing.
https://www.grunge.com/185436/snow-white-the-messed-up-origins-of-disneys-classic-movie/
#SnowWhite #folklore

2024-08-27 21:49:56

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When everyone is stonewalling the press, maybe the journalists should think about why. American news outlets have abandoned all pretense at unbiased reporting; the only choice is which bias you prefer. Keep the commentary separate from the reporting, and maybe politicians will want to talk to them.

2024-08-27 17:32:34

Former corrections officer in NH sentenced for assault. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3z-LQ4R_2X8
#NewHampshire

2024-08-27 12:07:44

Walz has falsely claimed there are "misinformation" and "hate speech" exceptions to freedom of speech. https://reason.com/2024/08/08/tim-walz-was-dead-wrong-about-misinformation-and-free-speech/
#Walz #1stAmendment

2024-08-27 10:35:27

My reaction to the Snow White trailer: It's creepy. Uncanny-valley animals always surrounding her. Toon dwarfs in a live-action movie.

2024-08-27 10:00:52

Everyone's got a reason to boycott Snow White. It's got a pro-Israel actor. It's got a pro-Palestine actor. It has dwarfs. It denied short actors a chance to portray them. Snow White's defining characteristic is white skin. She doesn't have white skin.
I think "It's Disney" is the best reason not to give them my money.
https://www.theguardian.com/film/article/2024/aug/25/snow-white-israel-gaza-rachel-zegler-gal-gadot?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other
#SnowWhite #Disney

2024-08-27 09:23:49

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The "woke" normalize racism. With your false claim "We live in a racist society!" you tell people with racist views that everyone really agrees with them but just doesn't admit it. Then you wonder why they feel more confident in their racism and more willing to express and act on it.

2024-08-26 22:48:20

Continuing my rundown of #NewHampshire primary 1st district Republican candidates for House: Russell Prescott wants the border wall completed. Seems to support high tariffs against China. Otherwise not too bad. Wording of his statement on Social Security leaves room for sensible reforms such as raising the retirement age.
#NewHampshire #primary #election

2024-08-26 21:16:41

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Makes sense. Suing him would allow him to play the victim and obfuscate the case with legal issues. Saying he's a slimy liar who manufactures phony endorsements would have more reach.

2024-08-26 15:11:02

Finale music notation software is being discontinued (the finale of Finale?). Be sure to export your proprietary-format music files ASAP. Exporting as Music XML and then importing to MuseScore worked well enough for my personal use.
https://www.scoringnotes.com/news/makemusic-ends-development-and-availability-of-finale/
#Finale #music #software

2024-08-26 13:53:33

The No-Fly List — a "temporary" measure established over 20 years ago — is a secret list without due process. You find out you're on it only when you're denied a boarding pass. The government claims that to reveal who's on the list would defeat its purpose. That's enough to tell you its "purpose" is illegitimate.
https://www.dhs.gov/step-1-should-i-use-dhs-trip
#DHS #TSA

2024-08-26 10:20:23

That "right side of history" quote comes from an LA Times article which on the whole isn't worth linking to, but starts by favorably mentioning "a Louisiana middle-school librarian who sleeps with a shotgun under her bed and carries a pistol when she travels the back roads." The 2nd Amendment protects librarians too.
#2ndAmendment #libraries #librarians

2024-08-26 10:15:36

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Yet I saw a claim today that "no one on the right side of history has ever been on the side of censorship," even though censorship has occurred almost everywhere since there has been writing. The trick is to claim that a certain side ultimately _will_ be the winner in the march of history. Since no one can know for sure, you can claim anything you want is the "right side of history."

2024-08-26 09:54:26

"The right side of history" is a Hegelian or Marxist expression. It's based on the idea that history has a purpose and direction which it's futile to resist. Ultimately, it means that whatever happens is right unless it's later reversed.
#history #philosophy

2024-08-26 09:35:26

My blog has included a bunch of pieces on misuse of the language, but here are some expressions that I think are fine, regardless of what pedants say.
https://garymcgath.com/wp/nothing-wrong-with-expressions/ #language #usage

2024-08-03 00:58:20

Clovis Community College allowed only flyers that expressed "appropriate" opinions which didn't "offend" the administrators. A federal judge told them they can't do that. https://www.thefire.org/news/victory-california-college-censored-conservative-students-must-pay-330000-adopt-new-speech
#FirstAmendment #education #California