Arthur D. Hlavaty

A Non-Disparagement Agreement

Fri, 14 Mar 2025 13:31:56 GMT

Sarah Wynn-Williams is forbidden to publicize Careless People, her tell-all memoir of working at Meta/Facebook. You and I are not.

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Rump the Statist Pig

Thu, 27 Feb 2025 17:06:00 GMT

Radley Balko on the current regime

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For the fun of it

Mon, 24 Feb 2025 12:02:24 GMT

Let’s hear it for the hobbyists

Thanx to Arts & Letters Daily

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The Unnamable

Wed, 04 Dec 2024 11:50:52 GMT

The names ChatGPT dares not speak,

Thanx to Ars Technica

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Crackpot idea

Mon, 25 Nov 2024 12:21:42 GMT

I think Biden should resign some time before January 20 so the rump gang will be distracted by trying to remove Kamala Harris from the historical record.

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Both sides

Fri, 22 Nov 2024 21:10:21 GMT

AI gets sensible attacks and ones that sound like “I’ve been anti-electricity ever since they gave Grandpappy the chair.” We have all been here before.

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Appropriate

Thu, 21 Nov 2024 12:51:47 GMT

Fake money buys fake art

Thanx to andrewducker

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It Gets Better

Fri, 19 May 2023 13:53:23 GMT

The Religious Right wants to have same-sex marriage, abortion, consensual sodomy, and other such abominations overturned by an unelected activist Supreme Court. I’m opposed, but I have to admit that’s how we got those goodies in the first place.

But there has been actual moral progress. All of those are now favored by the majority, which they weren’t before. To take another example that was widely seen as the Court meddling at the time, I know many people (me for instance) who are not fond of Clarence & Ginni, but I don’t know anyone who wants to throw them in jail *for being married to each other*. Resisting the constraints on individual sex, dope, and expression was always much of the Good Parts of libertarianism, and now to a great extent I don’t have to be one anymore because we won those.

I wonder if there is similar progress in pop culture. Star Trek had deep intellectual and personal content like its text ancestors but laughably crude special effects. Star Wars did precisely the opposite and flourished. SF (which one reads) was supplanted by sci-fi (which one watches). But both franchises have survived and now Trek may be triumphing by being interested in its people.

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Sympathy for the Capitalist Devil

Fri, 21 Apr 2023 12:44:54 GMT

Disney vs DeSantis is reminding us that capitalists do not engage in the disinterred pursuit of pure evil but often protect us from worse entities.

Corporations are staying away from states that will not allow valued employees abortions or same-sex marriages.

Those who fling enough feces in all directions long enough eventually hit something rich and lawyered up. Fox News has encountered not one but two of those, and perhaps the first softened them up and the second will apply the coup de grace.

That judge who ruled that the FDA made a legal error in not considering Ritually Unclean as sufficient reason to ban a product has aroused the ire of Big Pharma.

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Sportsball

Tue, 04 Apr 2023 17:19:49 GMT

The recent championships suggest that basketball may be becoming one of those sports (like soccer and tennis) where we should speak of “[unadjectived] $SPORT” and “men’s $SPORT.” Some thoughts, admittedly from a distance:

1) Caitlin Clark appears to be GOOD (maybe even Simone Biles level);

2) There is controversy over whether it is good to be “color-blind,” but NCAA officiating isn’t. Neither is public reaction to unladylike gestures;

3) When Kyler Murray, a Black man, became the first choice in the NFL Draft, President Trump ignored him and congratulated the white second choice. Jill Biden did a milder version, offering to invite both of the finalists. As with Benghazi vs. 34-counts-and-we-haven’t-even-gotten-to-espionage, some will find the liberal woman’s offense much worse.

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Let’s Bring This to America

Sat, 25 Feb 2023 15:19:58 GMT

A defeat for mandatory fun

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Weapon

Sat, 11 Feb 2023 15:48:19 GMT

MRI fails to respect 2d Amendment rights

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Hope

Fri, 09 Sep 2022 11:56:05 GMT

I’ve always liked the idea of constitutional monarchy: a separate person occupying the role of Human Exemplar of the Nation, which should not be usurped by the likes of Nixon and Trump. The Exemplar will have flaws, but should be regal.
Now we have King Charles III. There are flaws. I fear there will be a Royal Homeopathist, and while rulers are permitted to have outside affairs, they should not be caught expressing a desire to be a tampon.*
Meanwhile since Brexit (aka Votey McVoteface) the elected government has thrown up (there is more to this sentence) a collection of losers culminating in Liz “Throw Away That” Truss. (https://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2022/08/the-gathering-crisis.html)
Charles has shown a certain amount of independent thought. Emperor Franz Josef said that the role of the monarch is to protect the people from the state. Is it too much to hope?
* It could be worse. A slight change of succession, and we would have KING CAUGHT SUCKING TEEN’S TOES.

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Another sign along the cynic route

Sun, 26 Jun 2022 10:55:09 GMT

Do we even have a counterculture anymore? [Ted Gioia]

Thanx to RAW Illumination.

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Astounding Tautologies

Mon, 10 Jan 2022 10:54:46 GMT

Asian bakery is Asian

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Not a contradiction in terms

Wed, 22 Dec 2021 11:41:57 GMT

Libertarian feminism

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Understanding public health

Tue, 31 Aug 2021 09:21:56 GMT

Zeynep Tufekci knows things.

Thanx to Arts & Letters Daily

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You may already be a Winner

Tue, 06 Jul 2021 09:26:13 GMT

Because God is an iron, the person mostly harshly punished for being on America’s side against Russia and its ill-programmed puppet is named Reality Winner. She’s getting out. [The Intercept]

Thanx to Avedon's Sideshow.

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Infrastructure

Tue, 22 Jun 2021 09:53:02 GMT

Why infrastructure costs so much

Thanx to Avedon's Sideshow.

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The Generous Spirit

Wed, 05 May 2021 10:20:38 GMT

John Scalzi on his “rivals.”

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May the Fourth Be with You

Tue, 04 May 2021 11:54:05 GMT

There is an old folk motif about getting one’s dearest wish. 44 years ago my tribe got a sci-fi movie that could be taken seriously.

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Presidential

Mon, 03 May 2021 14:42:46 GMT

I admire President Biden for controlling his speech disability, his touch-dominant nature, and his old tendency to trust the Republicans.

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