July, 2025 archive
What’s in a Name? 0
Froma Harrop looks at RFK Jr.’s regime as Secretary of Health and Human Services and concludes, well, not very much. A snippet:
Bobby is Exhibit A at what could go wrong when public servants are elevated by reason of birth.
Visit the link to learn why she says that.
Fly the Fiendly Skies 0
How is this not price-gouging?
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
One more time, “accidental” and “negligent” are not synonyms.
And every time the police or news reports refer to an “accidental” shooting, they provide a “Get Out of Jail Free” card for negligence.
Republican Family Values . . . 0
. . . have never been anything other than a sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal signifying not much of anything but a talking point.
Unwarranted Search 0
The EFF reports that, if foreigners want student or exchange visa, the Trump maladministration wants access to all of their “social” media. Specifically, they want all accounts set to “public.” The EFF notes that
Follow the link for more about why this is a very bad invasive intrusive dangerous idea.
Republican Thought Police 0
El Reg reports that the Republican thought police are now trying to ban “woke” AI*. Here are a couple of snippets (emphasis added); follow the link to put them in context.
(snip)
“In the LLM world, attempts to ‘un-wokeify’ LLMs have literally produced an AI that named itself MechaHitler,” he said. “This isn’t just a problem in how LLMs are constructed – it’s actually a problem in how humans have constructed ‘truth’ and ideology, and it’s not one that AI is going to fix.”
_________________________
*That is, AI that doesn’t reflect and perpetuate their racism, bigotry, and prejudices.
Dis Coarse Discourse 0
Rebecca Watson bemoans the exploiting of staged debates, with a particular reference to the Jubilee Youtube channel, which has been in the news lately. She argues that they are devolving from a discussion of issues to a cage-match spectator sport in the pursuit of clicks and likes and lucre.
Or you can read the transcript.
Artificial? Yes. Intelligent? Not So Much. 0
Citing precedent? Nah. Just making stuff up.
So egregiously that it provoked a judge into kicking some lawyers off a case. Here’s a bit from the story at Above the Law:
Mission Impossible 0
In the midst of a longer column about the inanity and uselessness of Donald Trump’s having Iran bombed, Joe Conason makes a telling observation;
Follow the link for his reasoning.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
He was strolling through the woods one day when his gun became sentient and decided to fire itself.
This New Gilded Age 0
Starbucks workers at the “happiest place on Earth” are not at all happy with their employer. A snippet:
Karen Karen-Like 0
How dare these kids play basketball on a basketball court where they have a perfect right to play basketball? Karen wants to know.