Link round-up for 15 September 2024

Various interesting stuff I ran across on the net over the last week.

o o o o o

Naughty cats get caught in the act.

This outing was a disappointment right from the start.

It's an anti-personnel mine that only blows up strict Islamists.

Don't tow my truck..... oops.

Las Vegas got some beautiful clouds heralding the end of summer.

What does it mean to be human?

Some of these new-style Halloween decorations are..... a bit odd.

Anime makes the world magic.

Very nice.

Why are you driving toward that?

It's an unlikely animal rescue machine.

Cas d'intérêt reviews a French novel of a disintegrating family in a disintegrating colonial empire.

Solar power is booming all over the world because in most countries it's now the cheapest form of electricity generation.  The vast majority of new energy capacity being built nowadays is clean energy.

Excellent take-down here of Elon Musk's Mars-colony nonsense.

A new book discusses strikes, unions and other labor activism -- in the Roman Empire.

Don't discourage kids' artistic interests.

This muppet seems oddly familiar.

"They're eating the dogs", dance remix.

Different people suffer different inhibitions.

Here's why "AI" has peaked and is doomed to deteriorate.

Ask a stupid question, get a smart answer.

The film Mulan includes a striking reminder of the reality of war.

Integrated monopolies have undermined consumer choice.  Break them up.

"I only use ChatGPT for --"  Doesn't matter.  It's still stunting your own skills (Tumblr login required).

Learn to understand emotions.

You're "queer", like it or not, because we say so.

In today's sexual cesspit of dreary kink and porn and degradation, plain old normal sex with love and affection feels like a transgressive fantasy.

This person turned down a job at Tesla.

Assholes gonna asshole.

This dumbass changed his mind fast.

Here's what's popular on TV these days, apparently.

Who the heck is Laura Loomer?

Yes, it matters who is in office.

Gay people will suffer for the crimes of those who persecuted them.

How stupid do you have to be to spend money on this stuff?

Health systems all over the country are dropping pointless, expensive, restrictive "Medicare Advantage" plans.

Socialization matters, and some people are worse than others.

Huge numbers of voters don't use the platforms where political ads typically appear, and many of those who do, block all ads.  Campaigns must adapt.

This person exists.  And it sounds like he's rightly in deep shit.

Religious-fanatic vermin destroyed what they themselves could never in a million years have created.

See blogosphere reactions to the Harris-Trump debate at Annie Asks You, Hackwhackers, No More Mister Nice Blog, and the Ovarit forum.  Some religio-wingnuts are calling Harris's triumph witchcraft.

See the complete text of Taylor Swift's endorsement of Harris.  The wingnutosphere is freaking out, and Elon Musk's instantly-notorious response was even more megacreepazoidal than you think.

In the Portland-area Fred Meyer labor dispute, the union reports no progress, but does not say whether or not it is still asking the public to boycott.  Also, vote Dan Rayfield for state attorney general to get a real investigation of price-gouging.

A new analysis confirms that sterilization surgeries have risen sharply in forced-birth states since the Dobbs ruling.

We have the absolute right to criticize and mock any ideology.

Here are some of the things Project 2025 would do.

The government is finally imposing safety rules for the ridiculously-oversized pick-up trucks and SUVs which are killing more and more pedestrians.  But it sounds like these will apply only to new ones being designed and do nothing about the monstrosities already on the roads.

I recently observed that "whatever nonsense Trump happens to babble forth becomes sacred dogma which few Republicans dare question."  The Haïtians-eating-pets thing is already being believed and taken seriously in the wingnutosphere.  You can see how many images in this collection use that theme.

Boeing workers have overwhelmingly voted to strike, knowing that the company's current situation gives them leverage.

Were you better off four years ago?

Here's how the MSM outrageously lie via choice of words.

Harris makes skilled use of facial expressions and body language.

A former Catholic tells the pope where to get off.

The website HeCheated keeps track of men in women's sports (click the "Results" button to access full lists).

Trump-era relic Louis DeJoy is still postmaster general, standing by to bugger up the mail in general and the election in particular.

The cost of tax evasion by the ultra-wealthy is in the trillions.

In Minnesota, five male criminals, including (at least) two sexual predators and one brutal murderer, have just been transferred to a women-only prison.

Texas is suing to get police access to information about women who cross state lines to get abortions.

A second Trump presidency could lead to a power struggle between Protestant fundamentalists and this theocratic Catholic cabal.

Ford is seeking a patent for technology to spy on conversations inside your car in order to target ads to you.

One category of men commits sex crimes at a far higher per-capita rate than others.

If Democrats hold the Senate majority without Manchin and Sinema, Schumer will do something about the filibuster, though it's unclear exactly what.

Paralympic athletes get disqualified for tiny, ridiculous infractions, while flagrant cheating is celebrated.

The Heritage Fundation spreads inflammatory lies about voting (found via Earth-Bound Misfit).

"Try thinking about the wellbeing of the baby instead of your revolting fetish, dude."

All over the world, 3D printing is serving as a work-around for citizens of countries that ban guns.  Of course, the büngwad who wrote the headline describes this as a "problem".

The UK is about to shut down its last coal-fired power plant.

British police waste too much time dealing with hurt feelings -- but only for some people, not for others.

Mridul Wadhwa is finally out as the head of the Edinburgh Rape Crisis Centre.  Reactions here.  Read about the damage he did.

You are kidding yourself if you doubt that Trump, if elected, would backstab Ukraine.

Precision weapons devastate Russian invaders.

A vile high priest embraces war, bloodshed, and dictatorship.

This is what life is like when religious fanatics take over a country.

More links at WAHF.

My posts this week:  some truths and inspirations, and contemplating a personal decision.

o o o o o

Only 46 days to Halloween!

I sometimes feel like this blog is as much therapy as communication.  It's the only thing I do now that involves any creativity.  Without it I think I'd finally go completely crazy.

To those people saying you're going to leave the US if your preferred presidential candidate loses -- who the hell do you think is going to take you?  Most decent countries aren't exactly easy to immigrate into these days.  Do you think Canada or Australia or anywhere else wants, or has room for, ten or twenty million disgruntled Americans?

There's a reason why the "weird" framing of Trump and his followers hit home in a way that previous attacks did not.  Mockery has a power all its own.  It never bothered the Trumpanzees and assorted wingnuts much to be called "fascist" and suchlike.  Fascists are dangerous and scary, and Trumpists like to be seen as dangerous and scary.  "Weird" suggests something goofy and ridiculous, which is far more damaging to the self-image of the pompous and self-important (like Trump) or of the types who view themselves as dominant and intimidating "alpha" males (many of the nuttier right-wingers these days).  It stung in a way that "fascist" never could.  From what I hear, Harris exploited the same weakness during the debate, reacting to Trump not as a menacing force but as something faintly absurd and pitiful, a doddering old codger rambling on about random nonsense.

Personal note

As some readers may have guessed, there are times when I suffer from suicidal impulses.  These episodes have generally grown stronger and more obsessive over time, especially since the death of my mother almost five years ago.  A range of health issues, isolation, exhaustion at the demands which life and practical necessity continue to make on stamina and energy I no longer have, and the near certainty that the future holds nothing for me but more of the same, all help to fuel this.  There are also issues I prefer not to mention here.

Over the last couple of weeks those feelings have grown stronger than, I would say, any other time in the last twelve years.  Even through the eyes of starkly rational assessment, sometimes making an end to things has appeared as the sanest and best option.

(I do, at least, have the benefit of not being at all religious.  If I were religious, it's likely I would have done it some time ago.)

I would ask that readers not attempt to prescribe "solutions".  There are major aspects of my situation you do not know because I have not mentioned them here.  If an option seems obvious to you, be assured that it is just as obvious to me, while you cannot know all the obstacles and limitations that I face.  More broadly, I am 100% done with being judged and told what I "should" do by people who are not me.  I have regular access to a professional counselor who has years of experience dealing with my specific situation and understands it in great detail, and also has extensive knowledge of issues like clinical depression, the effects of past emotional trauma, and various forms of therapy and medication.  What humanly can be done, is being done.

Nor am I asking for special sympathy.  There are many people in the blogosphere who face difficult personal challenges, some worse than mine.  I raise this to clarify some background which is necessary to understanding the frame of mind in which I have been operating, and which may make my attitudes and responses in certain situations more comprehensible.  And, yes, to make readers aware that this is a decision I may actually make at some point.  If so, please know that it was made rationally and after consideration of all relevant factors.  While I have never claimed to be entirely sane, I am fully able to assess problems in a rational and organized way while identifying and filtering out the effects of transient urges, wishful thinking, and self-catalyzing mood swings.  I do not make major decisions impulsively.

For now, I am making the best of things.  But this is part of who I am and what I am dealing with.

Truths and inspirations for 10 September 2024

If something's hard to see or read, click to enlarge.

My hope for these posts is that they will provoke thinking, not mere agreement or disagreement.  If they can get you to consider even one idea which you would not previously have entertained, or which would not previously have occurred to you, then I've succeeded in what I'm trying to do.

[For the link round-up, click here.]

Curious what women readers think of this.  Is it a big positive if a guy is into reading or foreign languages or the rest of the top list?  And since when is Marjorie Taylor Greene a hobby?

"Hate-speech" laws, in practice, punish those who tell truths that the authorities find uncomfortable.

And double-check ahead of time to make sure you're still registered!