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.

Public Key

npub1elumgku3sjshye2k7rxw36rch8d5mf3up63d992407ye03lg0duszt590g

NIP-05 Address

gmcgath_at_liberdon.com@mostr.pub

Profile Code

nprofile1qqsvl7d5twgcfgtjv4t0pn8gaputnk6d5c7qagkjj42hlzvhcl58k7gpz4mhxue69uhhyetvv9ujumt0wd68ytnsw43qyx3hng

Publishing to

relay.mostr.pub

Author Public Key

npub1elumgku3sjshye2k7rxw36rch8d5mf3up63d992407ye03lg0duszt590g

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Last Notes

2024-10-01 13:22:42

According to this article, college students just don't read books anymore. That would explain a lot. https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2024/11/the-elite-college-students-who-cant-read-books/679945/
#education

2024-09-24 10:16:13

The Banning of the Bard.
https://oll.libertyfund.org/publications/reading-room/2022-10-19-the-banning-of-the-bard
#Shakespeare #bannedBooksWeek

2024-09-17 11:03:35

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Chase Oliver (2/2): "We are dedicated to the principle of non-aggression and to peaceful solutions to conflict. This is also something we pledge as part of attaining party membership. LPNH's statement should rightfully be condemned by all people."
#LPNH #LibertarianParty
Please boost. People need to know that the LPNH does not represent libertarians.

2024-09-17 11:03:14

Chase Oliver, the LP candidate for president (1/2): ""I 100% condemn the statement from LPNH regarding Kamala Harris. It is abhorrent and should never have been posted. As Libertarians, we condemn the use of force, whether committed by governments, individuals, or other political entities."
https://www.yahoo.com/news/nh-libertarians-double-down-political-035900099.html
#LPNH #LibertarianParty

2024-08-25 00:15:18

The French government has arrested the CEO of Telegram.
If supporting unmoderated communication is a crime, why aren't the CEOs of telephone companies being arrested? The EU and especially France have gotten frighteningly hostile to free speech.
https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/telegram-messaging-app-ceo-pavel-durov-arrested-france-tf1-tv-says-2024-08-24/
#EU #France #censorship #Telegram

2024-08-24 17:13:35

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@npub1ryz…g7u9 Just from reading the article quickly, it's the pre-approval part which is bothersome and different from normal food products.

2024-08-18 11:39:07

In a sense, Trump is right. Taxing Social Security benefits is taxing the same income twice. But eliminating the tax means Social Security will collapse even sooner. There's no good way out, and the Demopublicans are firmly opposed to preventing the collapse. https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-warned-cynical-social-security-tax-plan-1939015
#Trump #SocialSecurity #taxes

2024-08-18 10:40:08

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@npub1ryz…g7u9 Socialism is a more or less internally consistent set of ideas. Harris also came out for abolishing income taxes on tips because she thought it would get her some votes.

2024-08-17 13:58:18

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@npub1ryz…g7u9 I forgot a third possibility: that she'll say whatever she thinks will get her more votes than it loses.

2024-08-17 13:16:59

Harris is either insane or idiotic. She's proposing to hand out money to first-time home buyers, claiming that subsidizing demand will *lower* housing costs. She may be fully as dangerous and stupid as Trump. https://www.cnn.com/2024/08/15/politics/kamala-harris-plan-housing-costs/index.html
#Harris #economics #housing

2024-08-15 17:54:14

A curse on Mozilla. Showing the email addresses of incoming mail is one of the most basic functions of a client app, yet I have to get an add-on to to get Thunderbird to do it.
Showing just the name and not the address weakens both security and usability. Yet all the mail clients are determined to impose it on us.
#Mozilla #Thunderbird #email

2024-08-11 21:06:39

Suppose you get a car today and keep it 20 years. In 2044, will you be able to find a service shop that has the equipment to talk to its computer?
https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2024/07/providing-security-updates-to-automobile-software.html
#automobiles #cars #obsolescence

2024-08-10 23:48:59

This interview with Trump should scare you to death. He intends to deport millions. To use the National Guard to do it. To bring these people directly across the border and dump them. To use the military inside the US. To give police immunity from prosecution. This is a formula for a police state.
https://time.com/6972022/donald-trump-transcript-2024-election/
#Trump #deportation

2024-08-10 17:46:31

A thought experiment: Can I prove that the state of Montana exists? Not easily. (If you live in or near Montana or have been there, substitute an appropriate distant location you've never been to.)
Most of our knowledge is based on a preponderance of evidence, not rigorous proof, and on the assumption that the world isn't conspiring to fool us. This means we sometimes need to correct what we "know," based on new evidence. #epistemology #conspiracyTheory

2024-08-09 12:12:26

Two things are happening at once: Hamas supporters' murderous hatred of Jews and love of bloodshed, and suppression of legitimate speech as "antisemitism." We shouldn't let either blind us to the other. #Hamas #Palestine #antisemitism #Israel

2024-08-07 15:38:02

Walz has proclaimed he's "not weird." This "weird is bad" line from the left is getting to me. I'm weird and proud of it! #Walz #weird

2024-08-04 08:56:20

A quarter of those polled said schools should have protesters arrested for opposing the Israel-Hamas war. Not for vandalism or disruption, not for supporting mass murder, just for opposing a war which the respondents support.
https://www.thefire.org/research-learn/national-speech-index-july-2024
#freeSpeech #firstAmendment

2024-08-01 15:22:44

#QualifiedImmunity for SWAT thugs strikes again. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJ-SGGtP0Bg

2024-07-27 10:55:39

To join this movement, you must be white (and female). It's not the usual white nationalists; this is apartheid by Democrats. Racial #segregation hasn't been so normalized in decades. https://www.usnews.com/news/top-news/articles/2024-07-26/more-than-160-000-people-join-white-women-for-kamala-harris-zoom-call

2024-07-11 19:38:07

The #DEA is a gang of thugs with no regard for the law. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0XBzV0bDZdQ

2024-07-02 15:21:59

Where did the contemptible #CRIT awards crowd come from? This article gives a plausible explanation. Apparently pro-Hamas people have taken over a significant part of the table-top gaming community. https://quillette.com/2024/07/02/a-tale-of-waffles-and-syrup/

2024-06-29 16:15:32

So many sites (e.g., Bluesky and LinkedIn) are using JavaScript to override my mod key preferences and keep me from leaving their page when I click on a link, that I'm increasingly right-clicking and choosing "Open link in new tab." They haven't figured out how to override that yet.

2024-06-28 18:11:01

Even as a Trump 2nd presidency grows more likely, the left is screaming with outrage at the Supreme Court's placing limits on executive agencies making up rules. In January they'll reverse themselves on a dime and start yelling "Resist!" again. https://www.statnews.com/2024/06/28/supreme-court-chevron-ruling-federal-emergency-response/

2024-06-20 00:35:16

Saying #Juneteenth (or as I would prefer to call it, #Emancipation Day) is only for black people is like saying Independence Day is only for states on the East Coast.

2024-06-17 14:01:38

Matthew states that there was a mass resurrection at the time of Jesus's death, which Mark, Luke, and John all failed to notice. (Matthew 27:51-53) Curiously, there isn't a single independent record of this unprecedented event in history. #religion

2024-06-11 11:16:17

A person is no longer an individual but a "they," a quantity of collective personhood. Headline just seen: "An 11-year old was flown to a hospital after they were hit by a car in Massachusetts on Tuesday night." Next year it will probably be "75 pounds of human flesh were flown to medical facilities after contact with automotive machinery."

2024-06-06 16:06:55

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@npub1ryz…g7u9 That's the right answer to my question. :)

2024-06-06 09:34:38

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@npub1ryz…g7u9 Where's Francisco D'Anconia when we need him?

2024-05-29 23:16:55

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@npub1ryz…g7u9 The article indicates that the government getting in the way was a major factor.

2024-05-27 17:02:30

#Fascism is essentially a more dishonest form of socialism. It nationalizes in practice while leaving private ownership in name.

2024-05-25 10:08:01

Remember when #Biden said the newly supercharged #IRS would be going only after the super-rich, and anyone who said otherwise was paranoid? https://finance.yahoo.com/news/irs-says-taxpayers-filed-suspicious-100125779.html

2024-05-24 15:35:17

Socialist paradise. https://nypost.com/2024/05/23/lifestyle/travel-warning-venezuela-caribbean/ #Venezuela

2024-05-24 14:30:11

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@npub1ztu…ldta I don't use apps whose authors try to decide for me what information I can access. It's arrogant and contrary to the basic idea of the Internet.

2024-05-24 12:53:52

The idea that living beings are "assigned" a sex at birth is pseudoscience on a level with Flat Earthism. https://reason.com/volokh/2024/05/23/the-language-wars/

2024-05-24 12:38:07

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@npub165f…232e I believe it was Gab. A pretty disgusting site, from what I've heard about it, but people could legitimately want to access it for research.

2024-05-24 10:10:46

The "Unified Reich" panic is at least partly a reflection of attitudes toward the German language. "Reich" means "kingdom" or "empire." In the context of the 1870s, which is what the stock background of the controversial video refers to, it's analogous to "United Kingdom." It sounds scarier in German.

2024-05-24 09:58:07

Occasional reminder to avoid #Tusky Mastodon client. The developers decided you should only be able to access sites they like, and redirect you to an unrelated, uninformative site if you enter a URL they dislike. https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-2737/FP_6.pdf

2024-05-23 22:56:53

#Biden lies about a #Trump video, claiming to show thereby that #Trump "only cares about holding on to power." The difference between the two looks smaller every day. https://reason.com/2024/05/23/biden-spreads-misinformation-about-trump-calling-for-a-unified-reich/

2024-05-22 17:03:43

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@npub15fq…yzaa If you reject the idea that the Constitution means what it says, then it can mean anything.

2024-05-18 10:40:42

The lie "Hate speech is not #freeSpeech" remains popular. One group says that pro-Israel speech is "hate speech," another group says that pro-Palestine speech is. Either way, they want to censor. https://www.thefire.org/research-learn/coalition-letter-reps-james-comer-and-virginia-foxx-congressional-request-suspicious #censorship

2024-05-12 09:15:56

#Capitalism promotes peace. People don't like to kill each other when it's more beneficial to trade.

2024-05-10 19:54:00

Somehow people who declare they want the Jewish population removed from Israel "by any means necessary" still get away with being called "anti-war protesters."

2024-04-22 15:14:24

The words "by any means necessary" should put a chill into anyone who values human life.
https://cdn.masto.host/liberdon/media_attachments/files/112/315/511/891/412/551/original/b3e0926d71b923e0.jpg

2024-04-20 01:12:01

Buying movies on physical media may gradually become a thing of the past. It will become harder to keep permanent copies. "Buying" a copy that works only while the vendor supports it is just extended leasing. https://www.theverge.com/2024/4/19/24135140/target-dvds-physical-media-selling-stop

2024-04-17 15:50:04

September 6 has been declared #FirstAmendment Day in Eastpointe, Michigan. This is worth building on, but other places have chosen September 25. https://www.thefire.org/news/victory-michigan-town-declares-sept-6-first-amendment-day-after-fire-sues-its-mayor-shouting-0

2024-03-27 14:36:38

Just heard from someone who lost his #Mastodon account unexpectedly. Don't forget to export an archive regularly, especially if you're on one of the smaller instances. It could go away without warning, leaving you disconnected from your followers. The option is somewhat buried in the settings, making it easy to forget. #backup
Please boost or repost in your own words if you think it's worth knowing. Favoriting does nothing to inform people.

2024-03-23 11:20:49

The reason for the annual government #shutdown #budget crisis is that #Congress has adopted the insane procedure of putting almost all appropriations into a single bill that requires a yes-or-no vote.
This wouldn't work even on a family level. Imagine deciding once a year, "This is what we're going to spend for the next year, or else we won't buy anything. Which shall it be?"

2024-03-16 17:35:42

Facebook, this is not the way to encourage 2FA.
https://cdn.masto.host/liberdon/media_attachments/files/112/106/569/241/700/695/original/fdbdc5bc22be6d89.png

2024-03-16 14:58:54

Still watching #YoungSheldon as it trudges its way to its dreary end. The creators seem determined to make sure there are no likable characters. I've watched it this long, might as well finish.

2024-03-15 19:49:09

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@npub1fzy…pkz4 I regularly used a VPN to watch shows on Netflix that were only available in Germany. The only reason I stopped is that Netflix raised its prices so much I ended my subscription.

2024-03-15 19:47:07

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@npub1tqv…n2g0 Even China hasn't outlawed VPNs, so that's unlikely, but legislators could try to impose capricious limits on them.

2024-03-15 19:45:14

#Texas passes a privacy-invading law which people can easily circumvent, and to their immense surprise, people circumvent it. #VPN https://www.cnn.com/2024/03/15/tech/vpn-searches-spike-texas-pornhub/index.html

2024-03-15 17:52:41

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@npub1p67…xh53 Congress might. I'm not going to, and I hope you aren't.

2024-03-15 14:33:59

Pro-#Hamas goons invade #NewYorkTimes facility, attempt to stop delivery of newspapers. https://abc7ny.com/protest-ny-times-pro-palestinian-protesters/14523077/

2024-03-15 14:08:36

My #grammar complaint for today is pointed at space.com: "The third state capital to experience the total eclipse is Indianapolis, Indiana (pop. 888,000). Colloquially known as Indy, the sun will be completely extinguished by the passing new moon..."
I've never heard anyone call the Sun Indy.

2024-03-15 12:46:36

Boosting the worst #Republican candidates to give themselves the best chance of winning is an alarmingly common technique by #Democrats. They'd rather wreck the country than lose the election. https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/adam-schiff-steve-garvey-katie-porter/

2024-03-15 11:55:21

Pre-Musk #Twitter whitelisted pseudonymous US government propaganda accounts. https://theintercept.com/2022/12/20/twitter-dod-us-military-accounts/

2024-03-15 11:32:25

Some depressing numbers about belief in #astrology : Getting a college degree doesn't shake many out of that pseudo-science. Belief is higher among younger people than older ones, and it's _higher_ among agnostics than the general population. At least it's lower among atheists. https://today.yougov.com/entertainment/articles/42292-one-four-americans-say-they-believe-astrology

2024-03-15 11:16:00

#Biden flatly lied in his SOTU speech when he claimed to have expunged criminal records for #marijuana possession. Or maybe he's just an elderly man with a poor memory. https://www.marijuanamoment.net/fact-check-biden-falsely-claims-his-marijuana-pardons-expunged-thousands-of-convictions-in-state-of-the-union-address/

2024-03-15 01:23:20

What in the world is going on with #Dreamwidth? In the past couple of days, I've gotten 403's most of the time accessing their login page. Clearing cache and cookies just now didn't help.

2024-03-14 11:26:49

SFWA announces scholarships for people with the "right" skin color and sexual orientation. https://file770.com/pixel-scroll-3-13-24-pixel-would-like-a-word-with-engineering/

2024-03-14 02:26:03

If you missed my silent film on Twitch, you can play it on-demand. Last time the on-demand video stayed up for about a week. https://www.twitch.tv/madfilkentist
#silentFilm #Stummfilm

2024-03-13 23:42:09

#Massachusetts governor issues blanket pardon for people with misdemeanor #marijuana convictions. https://www.boston25news.com/news/local/nobody-should-face-barriers-gov-healey-pardons-people-convicted-possessing-marijuana/O5ZAXNZHBJE7BK7LIQGX2NIHLY/

2024-03-13 23:24:43

Javert is solidly behind this bill in the #NewHampshire legislature. https://www.wmur.com/article/bill-name-change-criminal-new-hampshire/60189873

2024-03-13 20:55:37

Incredibly, Trump is better than many lawmakers on the #TikTok issue. I think he's called it correctly; the bill is rooted in cronyism with Facebook. https://www.cnn.com/2024/03/13/politics/house-vote-tiktok-ban-bill/index.html

2024-03-13 20:17:07

Silent movie tonight, with live accompaniment! Gertie the Dinosaur and The Lost World. 8 PM EDT on Twitch.
https://www.twitch.tv/madfilkentist
#silentfilm #stummfilm

2024-03-13 13:44:21

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Working now.

2024-03-13 13:41:34

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@npub1ur3…kgke As I said: without evidence. You offer none. You say in successive sentences that he was a "terrorist" and "preached peace." Nothing in your reply makes any sense.
Muting.

2024-03-13 13:25:06

Still more weird stuff. Getting a 403 from #Dreamwidth 's login page, which has worked for well over a decade. https://www.dreamwidth.org/login.bml

2024-03-13 13:14:47

Weird stuff going on with #Presto Music. They've got a new, sucky download system that forces you to download tracks one at a a time instead of a ZIP file. Today my new downloads wouldn't play then disappeared after a reboot. Now I can download a ZIP and the files seem OK; but it puts a severe dent in my trust in Presto, which had been high before.

2024-03-13 11:57:56

I want to find the website of the shop where I'll pick up my bicycle, but @npub1naz…t4p3 tells me I shouldn't search for that and should read real estate listings instead.
https://cdn.masto.host/liberdon/media_attachments/files/112/088/244/690/669/957/original/c27913fc437e6d76.png

2024-03-13 11:33:34

Delete your #Glassdoor account now. They are publishing the real names of users, who are their to talk about past employers, without their consent, and won't remove the information unless you delete your whole account https://cellio.org/blog/2024/delete-glassdoor

2024-03-13 11:24:58

Then there's the Religious Left, which claims without evidence that #Jesus preached a socialist state. They may be extrapolating from Matthew 5:41, where he tells people to submit to forced labor.

2024-03-13 11:12:28

Even for an #atheist, some notions of God are more implausible than others. The idea of a Cosmic Mad Scientist who created the universe as an experiment makes a certain amount of sense. The Creator as a psychopath who tells a father to murder his kid as a loyalty test is close to the bottom.

2024-03-12 17:38:52

#Nevada 's government wants to deny minors secure communication. "For their own good," of course. https://www.eff.org/press/releases/reject-nevadas-attack-encrypted-messaging-eff-tells-court

2024-03-12 16:22:28

#Biden was let off in the classified documents case because of his poor memory, but the documents he retained were from 2017, when he stopped being VP. Apparently #Hur was saying Biden's memory had already deteriorated 7 years ago. That's even more disturbing than I'd originally thought.

2024-03-12 15:57:20

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@npub1hm9…tmy3 That would be bad enough on a regular social media site. On one that's designed for people to talk about their former employers, it's truly awful.

2024-03-12 11:08:23

Certain things make me immediately inclined not to take an article seriously. Examples include using "illegal" as a noun and capitalizing some skin colors while putting others in lower case.

2024-03-10 01:01:14

When attacked by more force than you can oppose, surrender may be the only option; but at least have the courage not to disguise it in lies like "Negotiations are never surrender." https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/257048/vatican-pope-francis-white-flag-ukraine-war-negotiations #pope #Ukraine #Russia

2024-03-09 14:20:51

The rejection of objectivity is a major contributor to America's ongoing disintegration. The claim that there's no such thing as objective truth gives news media license to publish "their truth" and editorialize shamelessly in "news" stories. People learn they can't trust the news and turn to rumor mills, which are even less accurate but feel more believable.

2024-03-01 20:27:59

Socialists calling anyone who disagrees with them "fascists" is nothing new. When I was a college student around 1970, they did the same thing. It's a carryover from the USSR's claims that it was saving Europe from fascism.

2024-02-29 20:45:57

I've long known it, but it's time for me to say it: The Republican Party has become the party of big government. Not because the #Democrats have improved, but because the #Republicans have leapfrogged them.
There are Republicans who still fight for limited-government values, and drawing conclusions about people just from their party affiliation is wrong, but these people are increasingly forced to the margins.

2024-02-25 14:08:34

The best explanation I've seen of the #TimBurke prosecution. Using publicly available URLs may be "unauthorized access" under the twisted logic of the #CFAA. https://www.theverge.com/2024/2/23/24081656/tim-burke-journalism-hacking-cfaa

2024-02-25 11:03:22

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@npub1k06…zyu9 Mediawiki is just software. It can be used by highly trustworthy sites or by liars promoting malicious sites.

2024-02-25 10:17:57

Just boosted (and then unboosted) a post about WikiFlix, but some things seem odd. The Wikimedia article shows "Status: Rejected." The domain for #WikiFlix is toolforge dot org. Who's behind it, and is it trustworthy?
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WikiFlix

2023-12-18 10:29:32

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@npub1ryz…g7u9 I'm unimpressed by the arguments given for the reversal. They handwave about "biodiversity" and complain that tree planting is ("most insidiously of all") "an excuse to avoid cutting emissions". The complaint is that tree-planting doesn't give governments enough opportunity to expand their power.

2023-11-06 16:24:42

Criticism of Israel's actions is legitimate. Sympathy for Palestinians is legitimate. Support for #Hamas, which explicitly supports genocide of Jews. is vile. "The stones and trees will say O Moslems, O Abdulla, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him."
https://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/hamas.asp

2023-10-29 22:15:58

What I find most lacking on Mastodon is discussions of questions. If I post a question on some difficult issue, I might get a favorite or two, but rarely a thoughtful response. I've given up trying.
For all its faults, #Reddit offers a high chance of getting an answer. After taking a break from it, I've started using it again, being more careful to avoid the toxic parts.

2023-10-21 14:14:44

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@npub1rjw…x2sh Since I've never killed anyone, I can't be sure what I'd feel, even with someone I thoroughly wanted dead, but Count Dracula is one of the most likely candidates.

2023-10-21 08:53:52

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@npub17a5…uxgc In Haverhill? That's practically in my back yard, and I never knew about it. Many thanks!

2023-10-17 14:19:57

What Hamas has done is beyond excuse, but a starvation blockade is also unjustifiable. https://www.npr.org/2023/10/12/1205484240/israel-gaza-bombardment-humanitarian-crisis

2023-10-14 10:21:01

Demonstrators in Sydney yell "Gas the Jews." https://www.jta.org/2023/10/11/global/sydney-government-apologizes-for-pro-palestinian-protest-that-included-gas-the-jews-chants

2023-10-04 15:57:50

WARNING. At 2 PM Eastern Time, the National Emergency Broadcast system will make your phone make a loud noise. Even if it's on vibrate or mute. Even if a dentist is drilling your teeth or you're driving in heavy traffic.
TURN YOUR PHONE OFF.
I've heard it will blast you when you turn it back on, but at least you can be prepared for it.

2023-10-03 13:49:06

In Milton's time, a book needed a license before it could be published. #BannedBooksWeek https://oll.libertyfund.org/reading-room/2023-10-03-breashears-areopagitica

2023-10-03 10:44:30

Around here it's currently around 10° C and predicted to approach 30. Typical New England weather.

2023-10-03 10:37:47

Hint for Fahrenheit-Centigrade conversions: Memorize the important tens (18s in F.) and you can get a good sense of where a temperature lies without doing calculations in your head.
-40° C = -40° F (this one's easy)
-10° C = 14° F (seriously cold)
0° C = 32° F (freezing)
10° C = 50° F (between chilly & warm)
20° C = 68° F (pleasant)
30° C = 86° F (hot)
40° C = 104° F (argh)

2023-10-02 22:44:32

Occasional reminder that I have nothing to to with the #LibertarianParty of #NewHampshire (#LPNH). It's fallen into the hands of some disgusting people.

2023-10-02 21:19:10

An unusual angle on #BannedBooksMonth: Confucius was banned in #China under the Qin dynasty. Also during the Cultural Revolution, when almost everything that wasn't dyed deep red was banned.
https://oll.libertyfund.org/reading-room/2023-10-02-mentzel-analects-banned-books

2023-10-01 16:20:49

I'm wondering how many Americans are going to the #Chengdu #Worldcon. Several SMOFs are, because they'd never miss a Worldcon, and a pro author whom I slightly know is, but I wouldn't be surprised if the total is less than 50 people. I haven't encountered any data, though.

2023-10-01 10:05:41

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@npub1ks4…x88p That attempt to defend the so-called paradox of tolerance is a deadly error. It says that you grant people's freedom to speak, to exist, etc., on your terms, subject to a "contract" which you assert. Nothing stops them from asserting another "contract," with terms in it like "no blasphemy allowed."
Tolerance doesn't mean being nice to everybody. It means recognizing their autonomy and keeping the high ground.