Y'ALL.

I just got home from the #NoKings protest in #OKC.

Early numbers reports and a statement from the rally podium say THIS WAS THE BIGGEST PROTEST IN #OKLAHOMA HISTORY.

It was gorgeous.

We marched for about 1.2 miles to the rallying point outside City Hall. This took about 30 min.
Spouse & I were with 5 friends (3 more joined us later). By the time we had been at the rallying point for 20 min, the marchers further back WERE STILL COMING.

Literally every flavor of human represented.
1/

#TIL there's a Japanese miniseries about #Thumbelina, and the title translates as "The Story of the Thumb-Princess."

This makes me furiously happy.

@mhoye If we want an ungamable education system, we're gonna need a helluva lot more teachers -- enough that there's a close enough relationship between every student and their teacher(s) that the teacher can tell from conversation whether or not the student has gained the necessary knowledge. No more tests, exams, homework, or grades. No more automated processes whatsoever. We'd need a reimagining of education from the ground up and across the board.

The existence of the band #Aerosmith implies the existence of the bands Terrasmith, Hydrosmith, and Pyrosmith.

This Is Just To Say

they have stolen
the democracy
that was in
your government

and which
you were probably
counting on
for survival

Don't forgive them
they are fascist ass-pastries
so repulsive
and so cowardly

IN HAPPIER HAPPY NEWS,

MY NEW BOOK IS OUT.
🎺 🎶 🥁 💃 🥳 🍾 🥂 📚 💖

APPETITE FOR ANTITHESIS: (DE)KNOWING GOD IN A LENTEN PRACTICE

Foreword by N. Irish philosopher #PeterRollins.

So, happy #Lent a week in -- but it's not too late to give up God for a season. My book can help! 😁

Links and book description following in thread!

#theism
#atheism
#pyrotheology
#RadicalTheology
#DeathOfGodTheology

1/

Sad day. RIP Loretta Swit. 😔

"Loretta was a supremely talented actor. She deserved all her 10 Emmy nominations and her 2 wins. But more than acting her part, she created it. She worked hard In showing the writing staff how they could turn the character from a one joke sexist stereotype into a real person — with real feelings and ambitions. We celebrated the day the script came out listing her character not as Hot Lips, but as Margaret. Loretta made the most of her time here.”

--Alan Alda

1/2

Analog TVs put off a high-pitched whine that apparently only dogs and I can hear. German analog TVs have a louder whine than American ones. When I lived in Germany as a kid, I could walk into a house and tell you if the TV was on even if the TV wasn't in my line of sight and the volume was muted.

My parents have a grandfather clock that used to keep me awake at night all the way on the other side of the house with my bedroom door shut.

#ADHD
#BrainPermanentlyOn

cc @ZenHeathen

I feel like I'm seeing less and less #alttext on images that cross my timeline, and it's not good, y'all. Please don't exclude our visually impaired friends. Thanks!

Y'ALL

I just saw what might possibly be the most godawful ugly vehicle iI have ever laid eyes on in my entire life:

a shiny gold swasticar cybertruck.

I was driving, so I couldn't take a picture, and I will forever be dismayed. But it literally made me exclaim "Oh. My. GAWD" out loud.

It's like a 1984-style refrigerator went out and had a fling with a gold-plated Dumpster and this was the misbegotten offspring.

Goddammit Marty why didn't you and Doc get that book back from Biff

When the 12yo is having a rough morning & cannot make herself get out of the car when we pull up to #school, we try our very best to talk it out, and when that doesn't work, we drive away from school & go to a new-to-us used #bookstore & have #coffee & peruse #books for an hour before driving back to school & trying again, this time successfully.

She was 2 1/2 hours late to school.
I'm teaching her that caring for her emotional health is more important than conformity.

#safety
#6thGraderLife

The goal of the companies who run AIs is to

1. get us all to use AI until the point where

2. we're dependent on AI, then

3. remove all access to AI and

4. grant the privilege of use only to those who pay a monthly fee,

5. which will periodically rise

6. while the service becomes worse and worse.

It'll be enshittification of enshittification.

enshittiception

@grammasaurus @GottaLaff Pelosi's statement proclaims two things loudly and clearly:

1. If the craven cowards have a leader, she is it.

2. She doesn't understand what "political" means. She has made a career of it, but she doesn't know what it means. EVERYTHING HUMANS DO IS POLITICAL, because everything each of us does affects the choices we all make together as we live together in the "polis." So hell yeah the choice to impeach Trump has ALWAYS been political. And so is the choice not to.

@alice A UPS worker recently asked me, "Would you like to round up to feed the homeless? Before you answer that"--he lowered his voice--"you should know that before your donation gets to the point of buying food for anybody, first UPS takes their cut, then [organization] takes their cut, then [something I don't remember] takes their cut, so in the end these donations are practically worthless. Don't ever round up. Just give someone on the street a dollar. It'll do way more good."

Good advice.

@cy Most of them probably, yes. But if you're on the receiving end, it doesn't really matter if they're bits or people -- the emotional impact is the same.

It's like how people are getting into "relationships" with AI and considering an AI chatbot to be a romantic partner. The "partner" is automated, but the emotional response in the person on the other end is very real.

We live in weird, weird times.

"At this rate, Skeletor could be cackling over the nuclear codes with his best pal Lex Luthor and we’d be instantly blasted with podcasts about how the armies of darkness have legitimate concerns."

https://lauriepenny.substack.com/p/what-is-wrong-with-you-people

no one:

no one at all:

no one on this side of the Andromeda Galaxy:

Oklahoma House *passes "Christ Is King" resolution*

me: YE GODS can you people PLEASE stop showing everybody your ass and just DO YOUR FUCKING JOBS

https://kfor.com/news/oklahoma-legislature/oklahoma-house-passes-christ-is-king-resolution/

#Oklahoma
#OklahomaHouse
#priorities

@aronow YES PLEASE.

And in the spirit of that...

@br00t4c This reminds me of an exchange with spouse & then-6yo over some of my #genealogy research.

_____________

me: aw, here's an error. i have to delete all the Hoos

spouse: who?

me: yes. anna hoo

him: anna who?

me: yes

6yo: but who is she?

me: she is, yes. or was. she's dead

6: who's dead?

me: right

6: anna?

me: yes. anna hoo

6: i don't know!

me: third base!

6: ?

spouse *dies laughing*

"The electorate doesn't want the truth, it wants answers in line with their thinking."

--CJ Cherryh,
THE VINDICATION (Cyteen, 3),
1988

Well, *that* certainly hasn't changed in 36 years. 😑