This year’s Hater’s Guide To The Williams-Sonoma Catalog is up, and as usual it does not disappoint; it’s exactly what it says in the title. This is one of my favorite Christmas traditions. Drew Magary has written a new entry…
Secession: What A ****show
As far as I can tell, there are two active secessionist movements in California. They’re both … problematic. First, there’s the CalExit folks. They get most of the press attention, but seem to be primarily a money-making operation for the…
Framing For Goblins: Say Your Right Words
This one is mainly for the folks in the media, although really it applies to all of us. Please stop using the coup’s words for things. I’m not even going to bother linking to the article that annoyed me enough…
No, Harris: Just, No
The New York Times and USA Today are both flying trial balloons for a possible Kamala Harris re-run for the Presidency. No. Just, no. Harris was a bad candidate to take on Trump in 2024, for a lot of reasons:…
Artificial Stupidity: It Only Seems Right Because You Don’t Know It’s Wrong
Credit where it’s due: generative AI is really quite impressive at creating plausible-seeming text. But it’s very bad at creating factually accurate text. Last week, the writer John Scalzi took a look at how well various genAIs did when asked…
What Comes After: The U.S. Is Not Worth Rebuilding As It Was, So What’s Next?
This is probably controversial, but it shouldn’t be: The United States is not worth rebuilding after … all this. At least, not without substantial changes. For one thing, although the U.S. had some good things about it (even some great…
When You’re A Political Pirate: You Don’t Have An Article I, Section 8?
The U.S. stopped paying attention long ago to the Constitution’s statement that Congress, not the President, is authorized to start wars. The U.S. doesn’t actually operate by the actual text of the Constitution. It hasn’t for a long time; arguably…
Hey, Democrats: Stop Funding Fascist Coups
This is not a complicated issue, folks. A vote for the NDAA is a vote for fascism. Among other things, voting for the National Defense Authorization Act is quite literally voting for: (It was actually difficult to come up with…
Self-Interesting: Fairness And Equality Are Rational Choices
It seems obvious to me that wanting a State that actually treats all people fairly and equally is the rational, self-interested, choice. But that doesn’t seem to be a majority opinion. Most people who would even use a term like…
Yeah, It’s True: They Are The Bad Guys
I already had a concept of what I was going to write about this morning; something about how the pardon power should be redesigned. But I’d rather write about a line from the book I was reading last night. I’m…