I guess it just really goes to show that no one “chooses” to be gay. I think we all knew that already, and one natural consequence is that every now and then a complete asshole MAGAt is going to be gay. It’s inevitable.

So you’re saying it’s a one dimensional age check which doesn’t invade your privacy because you can just lie to it completely?

That’s a valid point. I just want to clarify that’s what you meant.

Hey, I don’t know if you’ve heard about this or not, but… there’s pornography on Steam.

I haven’t actually. But now I understand why Steam asks for my birthday over and over. It’s surprising that people don’t complain about that more. All the new age verification laws have drawn vociferous ire, but Steam has been doing it for years and remains beloved.

Most corporate lawyers are there to steer you way around any danger. I used to think they would help me understand exactly where the legal boundaries are, but I’ve been disappointed time and again that they won’t play it even close to the line. To be fair to them, laws are written in language and always have room for interpretation so if you work in an industry where you’re doing novel things, they can’t always say exactly what will get you in trouble.

A lawyer that will lean in and go in hot on issues where it’s well known that you’re operating over the line… yeah that’s a very “wartime consigliere” kind of thing which I imagine few corporate lawyers are able to pivot to at the drop of a hat. Sorry, Tom.

Anyone they perceive to be hated by “the other side” is an instant saint. Look what they did with Charlie Kirk.

Think of all the job creation he’s going to spark in Argentina though. /s

Yeah all 3 of you should cancel.

Let’s not forget “privileged and detached from the vicissitudes of paying rent and gas costs.”

I understand your point. Don’t understand mine? When the world has already been damned for 80 years and your leaders aren’t doing anything about it, you no longer have anything to lose and the whole “just one more election” bit starts to fall flat. Losing can be an opportunity for change in a party, when you’re finished rewarding them for staying terrible. At some point we need a party to actually be good, not just less worse than the other guys.

The Israel situation has been boiling for almost 80 years now. If you need to make your leaders lose one election to send a message that they need to change their tune on it, so be it.

Ukraine right now is at the forefront of modern warfare innovation. Despite being small and embattled, larger countries are coming to Ukraine to learn what they are doing with the latest drone tech. For Ukraine, this is a real, everyday, life or death battle and they have been thrust to the cutting edge of what’s possible by this. They are also very smart and making the most of it.

Meanwhile the US is fat and slow and sheltered, invested in the warfare of decades past. So the US has a lot to gain from watching closely what’s going on or even having a formal security partnership with Ukraine to learn first hand.

If the US goes a whole generation without major military conflict, it will literally forget how to do it and lose its edge. It will have no battle hardened commanders and all its tactics will be decades old. I believe this is one reason the US starts so many conflicts. Its whole empire is built on its military might and that sword needs to stay sharp.

What does this have to do with Israel?

Well, I want to avoid direct comparisons between Ukraine and Israel, because one is an innocent nation that’s been brutally invaded and the other is an aggressive religious ethnostate carved out of other people’s lands and maintained through force, brutality and espionage.

But let’s just say that Israel, too, is very active in warfare, counter terrorism, and espionage. Remember their scheme with the exploding pagers? When’s the last time the US pulled off something like that?

The US wants to learn from Israel. Like Ukraine, Israel is full of smart people who are living it every day and pushing the boundaries. You don’t get into top condition without real experience and pressure, exercise. Israel has that in a way the US does not.

This is one factor. There are many others including the wackadoodle religion stuff. But this is one factor I did not see mentioned yet.

It’s no Butlerian Jihad but it’s a start.

Are you implying that the whim of Shitstain L’Orange is not itself good reason for any damn thing he pleases? Burn the heretic! /s

Just take it as a description of what people are perceiving, not a way of trying to derive the facts. You’re correct, there is data. If you haven’t figured out by now that data is not what governs people’s perception, then you aren’t paying very close attention. We are in a post-data, post-truth culture where knowing the fact is not enough. You have to poll, separately, how those facts are trickling down to perceptions.

Gas hit $6.50 here. Imbecilic.

Eclipse implies that Microsoft ignored or refused their zero-day reports and/or did not pay out bounties as requested, somehow causing financial harm in the process.

“Somehow?”

Were the bounties not earned? Because simply not paying as a promised for services rendered is a very clear financial harm.

Yea of course people would like to be able to charge you for the air you breathe. That doesn’t mean they are or even could. I have a hard time imagining how Sam Altman is going to block me from gaining knowledge through other means.

She won’t :(

I mean one day we’re complaining about how corporations have shipped manufacturing jobs overseas, and the next day we’re complaining that the government is preventing someone from doing same. Make up your fucking minds.

I think it’s interesting how housing makes it explicitly official that we have a two-class system. There’s “affordable” housing and “other” housing.