Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn.

When your entire life is steeped in white supremacy, equality feels like discrimination.

The most dangerous place for a black man in America is in a white man’s imagination.

Wow, I can’t imagine what it was like to comment in morse code.

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll

They’re not red states to be hated; they are voter suppression states to be fixed.

Somebody needs to explain to DeSantis that nobody needs to do anything to make him look bad.

You passed on an opportunity to be offended? What are you even doing here?

This blog will pay for itself.

Incompetence, fear, or corruption? why not all three?

Lick the third rail, it tastes like chocolate!

Balloon Juice has never been a refuge for the linguistically delicate.

Imperialist aggressors must be defeated, or the whole world loses.

We cannot abandon the truth and remain a free nation.

President Biden is doing good where he can, and getting it done.

When someone says they “love freedom”, rest assured they don’t mean yours.

Welcome to day five of every-bit-as-bad-as-you-thought-it-would-be.

Elections aren’t won by handwringing, cowering, and/or bashing your own candidates.

“Until such time as the world ends, we will act as though it intends to spin on.”

We need to vote them all out and restore sane Democratic government.

“Joe Biden deserved better than he got from some folks in his own party.”

Just because you believe it, that doesn’t make it true.

Beware of advice from anyone for whom Democrats are “they” and not “we.”

Black Jesus loves a paper trail.

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56Comments

  2. 2.

    Tissue Thin Pseudonym

    I think an idea for a next novel is starting to gel in my head. It has a beginning. It has an ending. It has part of a setting. It has 3-4 major characters.

    Now all I need is a middle, including what the plot is actually about.

  3. 3.

    I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet

    Ars has the latest chapter in the encryption saga…

    Federal prosecutors urged a federal appeals court late Monday to keep a child-porn suspect behind bars—where he already has been for seven months—until he unlocks two hard drives that the government claims contains kid smut.

    The suspect, a Philadelphia police sergeant relieved of his duties, has refused to unlock two hard drives and has been in jail ever since a judge ordered him to do so seven months ago—and after finding him in contempt of court. The defendant can remain locked up until a judge lifts the contempt order.

    The government said Monday he should remain jailed indefinitely until he complies. The authorities also said that it’s not a violation of the man’s Fifth Amendment right against compelled self incrimination because it’s a “foregone conclusion” that illegal porn is on the drives, and that he is only being asked to unlock the drives, not divulge their passcodes.

    “This is not a fishing expedition on the part of the government,” federal prosecutors told the 3rd US Circuit Court of Appeals of Philadelphia.

    I still think (as I’ve argued earlier) that some sort of compromise will eventually be found for encryption stuff. If a court can issue a search warrant that lets the authorities take all of your papers, then a search warrant for encrypted devices necessarily would seem to require unlocking of the encryption, too. Saying encrypted stuff is more important than physical papers does not seem supportable by the plain reading of the 4th Amendment:

    The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

    How one finds that compromise when breaking encryption is so difficult, well, that’s an exercise for the reader.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  4. 4.

    I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet

    Meh. I tried to fix a broken close tag and got thrown in moderation. Help?

    Thanks.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  12. 12.

    sinnedbackwards

    Impressed at the few comments on the Snowden and CIA threads.

    Marketing sort of teaches us 80% of the population are sheep. I don’t suppose civilization could survive otherwise.

  17. 17.

    Prescott Cactus

    I hate laundry too. I’m a hanger guy. I’m leaning towards pass. Sorry.

  20. 20.

    JustRuss

    Hunter cat just dropped a rat on the back porch. Earlier today I watched him run down a bird in flight and catch it. Little guy is fast.

  21. 21.

    Mike J

    The state Democratic Party has filed a stinging complaint with national Democrats over the “explosive situation” and “paranoid fantasy of fraud and delegate theft” created by Bernie Sanders supporters at Saturday’s state convention, warning it could be a harbinger of what’s to come in Philadelphia in July.

  22. 22.

    Dog Dawg Damn

    @Adam @Adam L Silverman: Been blowing through graphic novels suggested by you and others. Currently, really really obsessed with Scalped. Probably time to admit I’m not into the superhero books, except for the X-men and Punisher. Thoughts on which iterations of those franchises are the best?

  24. 24.

    Tissue Thin Pseudonym

    @Prescott Cactus: Not sports. It’s a science fiction . . . thriller? . . . mystery? . . . exactly what isn’t clear. It’s set about 40 years in the future, and the protagonist is bioengineered to have greatly enhanced sensory capacity, at the expense of being able to talk as well as having an autistic like lack of certain social skills. The partialness of the setting is that I haven’t figured out the rest of the technological changes over the 40 years, and how they would play into the story.

    I’m hoping to have something written up this week that might be the opening of the book, might be heavily modified into a scene in the middle of the book, and might end up not appearing in it at all, but would give some of the feel. When it’s done, I plan to post it on my blog.

  28. 28.

    Mnemosyne

    @Tissue Thin Pseudonym:

    Just don’t make it post-apocalyptic with the fate of the entire universe in the balance if the hero fails. I’m really, really sick of those. I realized that I’ve been enjoying re-reading the Vorkosigan Saga because she presents a functional future where people are living actual day-to-day lives in the background of everything else.

  30. 30.

    Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (Formerly Mumphrey, et al.)

    For all who missed it in an earlier thread, some wingnut running for Congress in my district (the Fightin’ 8th!) in Virginia put a screen shot of something he wanted people to see on his campaign Facebook page. What he most likely hoped they would not see were the two tabs he left open in the screen shot on which he’d been looking at porn. I guess this guy’s political career will be thankfully short, if not uneventful…

  31. 31.

    AkaDad

    1. Sanders and Clinton supporters unite.
    2. Wave election.
    3 Dems control Congress.
    4. Pass progressive legislation.
    Or
    1. Sanders’ supporters throw tantrums
    2. Trump wins.
    3. Apocalypse.

  32. 32.

    Prescott Cactus

    @burnspbesq: We write to alert you to what we perceive as the Sander Campaign’s penchant for extra-parliamentary behavior Sounds Bundy like. Love Ralston.

    @Tissue Thin Pseudonym: Found your Kickstarter page and Amazon page. Your blog I can not find and I’d like to track it’s progress. lil help ?

  33. 33.

    Mike J

    @AkaDad: Almost certainly 95%+ of Sanders supporters are level headed people who will do everything they can to stop Trump. The other 5% won’t lead to apocalypse because they were either 1) Randroids or b) non-voters. We weren’t going to get their vote no matter what happened. We didn’t get them the last two times and we won handily.

  34. 34.

    CaseyL

    @Mike J:

    We didn’t get them the last two times and we won handily.

    A data point in support of your thesis: at least one of the people I’ve Unfriended said if Sanders doesn’t get the Dem nomination, she’d vote for Jill Stein, like she did in 2012. Thus revealing herself to be a frikkin’ idiot; hence the Unfriending.

  35. 35.

    sinnedbackwards

    @Major Major Major Major: Well, gee, I guess that would explain it.

    The response was boredom and a desire to comment on how little response it had, not realizing how geriatric it was.

    Maybe I should sleep more and BJ less.

  37. 37.

    Mike J

    @CaseyL: We’re somewhat privileged here in Washington that we have a lot of margin for error with idiots in presidential campaigns. The only downside is that we have had statewide elections that are tighter than a gnat’s asshole, and we do need even the idiots for those.

  38. 38.

    Peter

    @Dog Dawg Damn: The best Punisher book is Garth Ennis’s Punisher Max. I’m not generally a fan of Ennis’s, but he was perfectly suited to writing that one.

    Note: Punisher Max was the adult like of comics. Shit gets gory. And graphic. And terrible in a lot of ways.

  39. 39.

    TheMainGaucheofMildReason

    @Tissue Thin Pseudonym:

    It’s set about 40 years in the future, and the protagonist is bioengineered to have greatly enhanced sensory capacity, at the expense of being able to talk as well as having an autistic like lack of certain social skills

    Actually sounds a lot like the protagonist of Peter Watts’ Blindsight

  40. 40.

    Dog Dawg Damn

    @Peter: cool. Definitely likes parts of Preacher. As long as he stays away from romance and women, it’s pretty fun. The Blood Meridian homage that opens volume 3 is one of the best sequences I’ve ever read.

  41. 41.

    TheMightyTrowel

    ARGH need a rant away from my real name! We’re having ugly internal politics: our Head of School (an Alpha Mean Girl) and her boss the Head of our Research School (another Alpha Mean Girl) are in a feud. What this means for my school is that we were supposed to hire someone on a 50% contract who’s been working casually for 2 years and doing amazing things, but the HoRS just vetoed the hire with no justification or consultation to screw over the HoS. There’s no way to appeal the decision and no explanation will be forthcoming. We’re going to keep the guy on as a casual as long as our budget can cover it, but this is supreme suck for him and deeply deeply frustrating for the rest of us caught in the middle. I hate university administrators. The worst petty Napoleons.

  42. 42.

    2liberal

    how come my nym and email don’t populate any more? using chrome under win 7.

  43. 43.

    Luthe

    @Mnemosyne: Try reading some of John Scalzi’s more recent stuff. Lock In and Redshirts are both really good and involve no fates of the universe.

  44. 44.

    seaboogie

    I am so over the uglitude of this political process this year*, that I am now watching “Unlikely Animal Friends” on Netflix as an antidote. Animals – even usual predator/prey – have more comity than the erstwhile hoomans in the US Congress will ever achieve.

    *Canada’s longest election cycle was 81 days. Oh yes. The last one was 78 days. One reason I miss living in Canada. The other reason is, well, reason….they have more of that.

  46. 46.

    Tissue Thin Pseudonym

    @Mnemosyne: No apocalypse. I can’t think of anything I’ve written or have had a desire to write that comes anywhere close to one. This one might have some big picture political implications, which is larger than what I usually do, but that would be about it.

    @Prescott Cactus: Just click on my name in any of my comments. It links to my webpage, from which there is a link to the blog.

    @TheMainGaucheofMildReason: I’m unfamiliar with both the author and the title. I’ll give it a look. Who knows, it might cancel this whole project.

    Edit: Well, a quick glance at the Blindsight page on Amazon indicates that, while the protagonist may be similar, the stories are nothing alike. So, I’m good to go.

  47. 47.

    TheMightyTrowel

    @seaboogie: We’re having a nearly unprecedented 8 week election right now down in Australia. It’s ugly–a whole US election cycle crammed into 2 months complete with racist pols, Murdoch papers attacking regular people who have the gall to question wingers about their trickle down policies and knee-jerk hippy/green party punching–but it will be over on 3 July.

  49. 49.

    Prescott Cactus

    @seaboogie: Hope you are back to pre crisis mode and that life is returned to 100% normal. Hope things are good with the landlady and that freezer is quiet. Alos found a 2013 update on Tubular Bells. Surround Sound.

    @Tissue Thin Pseudonym: Was using Google… Tom much noise.

  50. 50.

    Mike J

    @seaboogie:

    I am so over the uglitude of this political process this year*, that I am now watching “Unlikely Animal Friends” on Netflix

    If you vote for that ducking you;re voting for genocide.

  51. 51.

    Tissue Thin Pseudonym

    I’ll also need to research some of the stuff that goes into a police procedural. This story isn’t quite that, but kind of close. The protagonist works for the FBI, especially in investigating crime scenes and participating in interrogations.

  52. 52.

    magurakurin

    @CaseyL: I will lay big odds that Jeff Weaver ends up working for Jill Stein when this is all said and done. Bernie will endorse in the end. But there will be more bullshit between now and that time. Sadly.

  56. 56.

    Miss Bianca

    @Tissue Thin Pseudonym: Sounds like you’re most of the way there!

    I’m getting to your book, btw – I’m in the middle of rehearsals for “King Lear”, so life has taken a crazy turn, but it’s working its way up the stack!

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