Granny Weatherwax

I think--though it's hard to tell through the florid prose--that they are saying even making fun of them is "domestic economic terrorism."

The party of free speech, everyone

I suppose that's the reason the headline sounds like the driver just happens to face murder charges for no reason, and the girls were killed by passive voice.

She's more Gytha Ogg-shaped

We've had two generations, I think, steeped in "if you can dream it, you can do it" and vision boards and manifesting and all the "end results do not require any actual work" pop philosophy. I'd be surprised if this did not play some part in how uncritically accepting so many people are of snake oil

The ones really getting to me now are the ones talking about AI "personhood" for a bedazzled autocomplete machine

I saw an argument recently that a growing field will be "AI therapists"--not therapy for real people using AI (bad enough) but providing therapy for the emotional "needs" of AI

ughghgh

Wirecutter does reviews every year and ends up saying “yep, Brother is the least bad”

He got his media job by looking the part. Same with the cabinet post. Now he thinks looking the part = competence for everyone, for his narrow definition of acceptable looks.

Sadly, no one in this administration is competent enough to point out the problem with his system.

I sometimes like to think of it as a fungus that will eventually just encase him and everyone else in the room

Quotation at the start of Wild Faith: "And sin, young man, is when you treat people as things. Including yourself. That's what sin is."--Terry Pratchett. (It is not mentioned in the book that Granny Weatherwax was the Pratchett character who spoke those words.)

Finally got to read Wild Faith by Talia Lavin @swordsjew.bsky.social and it's unbelievably prescient

Also starts off with this quotation, which meant she had me from the first page

The man lives on a private island

Surveillance for thee and not for me, I guess

Honestly step 2 isn't any easier where I am. What is this "department money" of which he speaks?

Was there an outcry from 160-year-old soldiers whose medals were stripped?

Formerly mysteriously ill dog begging for treats, wearing a shirt that says “I make mom sad with my choices every day”

It’s like they are checking how much we love them

By how big a vet bill we will foot

Our geriatric dog started doing this in January, and it was so dramatic I was sure it was the end. The final diagnosis was "eh, sometimes dogs do that" and a $4000 vet bill.

She's on a fancy prescription food now and doing fine. Hoping for the same for Artemis.

I've had 5 surgeries in the past 5 weeks and I certainly wish I had read this 6 weeks ago. Especially for the surgeries that were two days in a row so I wasn't supposed to drink (let alone eat) for something like 18 hours.

While piously lecturing "the left" about how terrible it is to celebrate violence

I think there is a reasonable chance that this meeting is the equivalent of the boss revoking remote work and mandating return to office because he feels more like a leader when he can make everyone’s actual eyeballs point at him

Could be much worse, of course. But could just be stupid.

A graph showing a real but meaningless relationship between the number of people per year who die by falling into swimming pools and number of films Nicholas Cage appeared in

One of my favorite examples: correlation between Nicholas Cage movies and drowning deaths
(www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/otm...)
I think we all know the next logical step.

You could do dozens of ads just on immigration and its cruelty and knock on effects
And the same for healthcare. And on and on. Why not start now?

And then ads that show the campaign promises (bring grocery prices down day 1/fund IVF/solve the war in Ukraine day 1/etc) with "how's it going now?"
Drive home how miserable the policies are making people of all walks of life.
Start now. There is a lot to cover, but that keeps the message fresh,

Maybe see if new insoles would provide more support for your outside shoes? This kind of injury takes a long time to heal and no time at all to aggravate
(Though please note I am not a medical professional, just someone with a lot of miles on my feet)

If physical therapy isn't an option--it would be the ideal way to have your gait assessed and specific treatments prescribed--I'll just mention that every nagging injury I've had like this involved wearing the wrong thing on my feet (worn out shoes, wrong kinds of shoes).
But get to PT if you can.

For a brief shining moment I thought you were talking about Star Trek: Strange New Worlds

I know my own mind, thank you very much. And if Magrat here thinks she’ll see the I aten’t dead sign following you, then someone is making mischief.
Naturally I thought of you.

Make the tea, Magrat

Gytha, have you been telling folks that you can Borrow? Or did you pinch my sign for some other reason?

Describe a single historical precedent for defeating authoritarians by being nicer to them.

Thank you for the link.

I cannot find words to express my horror at everything about this story.

I had a good time explaining the musical “The Book of Mormon” to mine. They did not return.

Where do we find the story behind the alt-text?