frezik @ frezik @midwest.social

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6,912

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2 yr. ago

There's a defensible argument that Paul invented Christianity. Jesus (whoever he was historically) does not appear to have intended to produce a separate religion from Judaism. Paul did that.

It's not a complete slam dunk, but even if you don't buy it, it's still very apparent that Paul was the central figure in shaping what Christianity would become.

Strictly speaking, I don't think there's a single scripture that specifically calls out sexual abuse of children. There's general prohibitions against sex outside of marriage and such, but nothing that applies directly to pedophilia.

You get there by not being a monster. Literal, direct interpretations of the Bible won't do it.

Like Paul Ryan and Rick Santorum?

The more conservative American Catholics have a theology that's close to the right-wing, protestant-derived groups around them. Ask Paul or Rick about how their views on evolution jive with the Vatican's official position, and they'll start to squirm.

Eh, that's the least of the problems with ICE. Silencers should be generally available without jumping through hoops.

Yeah, this stuff takes time to work out. As long as the side effects aren't a big deal, they might err on the side of too much.

Covid vaccines were something of an exception because they were motivated and infections were widespread. Lots of chances to get good data. Treatments for other diseases don't have those advantages.

The HPV vax, for example, was released in 2016 on a three dose schedule. There's some studies out there that argue two doses would be plenty, but it's not a consensus, either. That's after almost a decade.

PrEP is already keeping HIV infection rates pretty low, at least in rich countries where there's money to do these studies. Not going to be good data on dose schedules for many, many years. Maybe even decades.

They may have been a foundation to build on, but they largely failed in their goals. There was a sudden surge in cities proposing budgets that defunded the police. Once the sausage making process was done, those budgets largely reflected the status quo.

The best you can say about its direct practical effect is that Chauvin was convicted. I do think we're seeing more cases of abusive cops actually being prosecuted for misconduct, or at a minimum, losing their job.

It's still taking some effort to even get that, though. I just ran across a case in my YouTube feed, where a civil rights lawyer with a channel brought attention to a case. This had happened months ago, but all the sudden, the prosecutor dropped the charges and the cop was fired. If it weren't for it blowing up on YouTube, that probably wouldn't have happened. There's almost certainly thousands of stories like it in process right now that aren't getting that attention.

Oh, and we got Juneteenth added as a day off. I guess that's nice. Except some companies have already dropped it from their holiday list (mine did).

Praise be the MAGAMind Collective! We think so you don't have to!

Bricks are not the only things that go on pallets. This was an electrician's truck, after all.

I help run a non-profit makerspace, and believe me, I know how non-profits in this country are bullshit. Not that my makerspace has done so, but when you go over the laws involved, it's quite obvious how many loopholes there are. Just for starters, the board can pay itself whatever salary they like. As long as you do all the paperwork, tons of stuff is legal.

(I was President for a year. I got a salary of $0 like everyone else on the board.)

That said, the reports coming out of AI Now are not what AI advocates in venture capital want to hear. Not at all.

The guy who made it explicitly rejected a van for his purposes. Maybe we should let him decide how to do his job?

. . . very small niche of of tradesmen . . .

How many niches does it take when, all together, they're no longer niche cases?

This is a weird argument to put here. You're actually advocating against the smaller option.

There are plenty of reasons a worker would choose a van. There are plenty of reason a worker would choose a truck.

Consider this setup:

Everything is made to be easily accessible. The rack can hold ladders and conduit that are as long as the vehicle (or even a bit longer). Other setups will have side access toolboxes.

Fifth wheels are not just for campers. They haul Bobcats. They haul livestock. They haul large sheds or even small houses. They haul several pallets of bricks.

For that matter, try getting pallet into a van as opposed to a truck bed. If it's even possible to fit it in a van, you have to be a lot more careful while doing it.

It does no such thing.

Are you aware of what a fifth wheel is? If you don't, you really shouldn't be commenting about what's better for work or not.

Every time I take an airplane, I feel tired and worn out. I don't want to do anything for the rest of the day except take a nap.

Trains are no problem.

The main reasons might be relatively low oxygen at altitude (cabins are usually pressurized somewhere between 1/3rd to 1/2 atmosphere) and uncomfortable seats. But I think the whole dreary process of getting on and off the airplane is part of it, too. Train stations are so much more low key, even in large metropolitan areas.

This "just buy a van" crap really needs to stop. There are plenty of reasons specifically to get a pickup truck. The F250 isn't even sold to customers without a commercial account with Ford. Work vans and trucks are often made on exactly the same platform with a different shell put over it. The van will tend to have worse gas mileage due to the frontal cross section usually being higher (they ride a bit lower while having a same or higher ceiling height).

The problem is really the F150 and similar. It's still gigantic, it's sold to whomever can apply for an 8 year/25% interest rate loan, and is rarely used for anything like actual work. The diesel version was also discontinued, which pushes some people--the type who do actual work with it--to either buy the F250 or find a somewhat older F150 model.

It is outright impossible to buy a small truck in the US. I know guys who do real work with it and they aren't happy having to buy a big machine. No, not the Maverick. That's "well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it" but for trucks.

It's a temptation every Miata owner faces.

But we wouldn't see sunrise/sunset.

She's also the founder of AI Now, which produces reports on the social impact of AI.

Its 2023 Report argued that meaningful reform of the tech sector must focus on addressing concentrated power in the tech industry.

The company behind Signal, Signal Messenger LLC, is not publicly traded. That and VC money tends to be where the problems begin. When it comes down to it, companies are just collections of people who band together to accomplish something that they couldn't on their own. We're so used to companies being soul sucking parasites of capitalism that we've lost track of what they're for.

Why split hairs about what's going on rather than focusing on the fact that he talked down to a subject matter expert?