I think there's a place for Democratic representation. One of the benefits of it is that you don't need to have a bloody war every time the king or one of his sons turns out to be a knob. You just wait a few years and everyone goes yeah that guy sucked and votes for someone else.
I mean really, both monarchy and voting for a representative involve a bunch of people getting together to decide who's going to be the next king, it's just that in one case it's a war contest and then another case it's a popularity contest...
The one upside of not having regular war contests is war actually sucks a lot and only really shows who's better at killing the enemy. Of course the downsides are that the cities end up crowded with all the wannabe elites because living in capital cities isn't so dangerous as it might be otherwise.
The upside of making it a popularity contest is that you never have anyone that's that unpopular for that long. The downside making it popularity contest is that there's absolutely no reason to believe that popularity even remotely relates to any practical skill.
To give the devil his due, the ability to wage war is much closer to a practical skill required in statecraft, and constantly infighting has the benefit of giving the elite classes something to go kill themselves in, helping to keep it from getting to oversized. Also, if you go back to Rome, the Roman empire was constantly being overthrown by people from within its own military because those people were at least competent in one thing. It was actually once an era of relative peace arrived that the caliber of people overthrowing the Roman emperor just weren't high enough to effectively rule...
I mean really, both monarchy and voting for a representative involve a bunch of people getting together to decide who's going to be the next king, it's just that in one case it's a war contest and then another case it's a popularity contest...
The one upside of not having regular war contests is war actually sucks a lot and only really shows who's better at killing the enemy. Of course the downsides are that the cities end up crowded with all the wannabe elites because living in capital cities isn't so dangerous as it might be otherwise.
The upside of making it a popularity contest is that you never have anyone that's that unpopular for that long. The downside making it popularity contest is that there's absolutely no reason to believe that popularity even remotely relates to any practical skill.
To give the devil his due, the ability to wage war is much closer to a practical skill required in statecraft, and constantly infighting has the benefit of giving the elite classes something to go kill themselves in, helping to keep it from getting to oversized. Also, if you go back to Rome, the Roman empire was constantly being overthrown by people from within its own military because those people were at least competent in one thing. It was actually once an era of relative peace arrived that the caliber of people overthrowing the Roman emperor just weren't high enough to effectively rule...
God bless graf for keeping the one functioning nitter instance and running. Sometimes it looks like I might need to get an x account and I don't wanna
"no guys I work from home is just as productive as coming to the office"
While dirt farmers in North Korea get fortune 500 tech jobs wfh and apparently it's just fine.
While dirt farmers in North Korea get fortune 500 tech jobs wfh and apparently it's just fine.
The moment overpaid wfh desk jockies need to walk to the
The store the crackdowns begin.
The store the crackdowns begin.
I wonder if YouTube shadow and posts with the quebecois word "tabarnac"?
I'll let you know.
I'll let you know.
Who wants to be the ones to tell these idiots what imperial Japan was actually like?
They'll not want to take credit for much of that after hearing about it!
They'll not want to take credit for much of that after hearing about it!
I've said it before in different ways, but I'm even more convinced of it today: every book long enough that it needs to be read over multiple sessions should have a ribbon glued in the spine as a bookmark. It's simply too useful to not have.
If Amazon gave me the option I'd include it in every copy of the graysonian ethic, but as things are I bought a length of ribbon and some clear glue and glue a ribbon into every book I buy.
Previously I might fold in a page where I stopped (damaging the pages), or I'd put the book down face down (which can damage the spine), or I'd use a piece of scrap paper as a bookmark (which works but you don't always have scrap nearby). The other difference between a ribbon and a bookmark is the ribbon is generally much more secure. A bookmark can fall out, but the ribbon is secure in its location until you pull it directly and fully out from between the pages and put it on another page, even if the pages become loose.
If Amazon gave me the option I'd include it in every copy of the graysonian ethic, but as things are I bought a length of ribbon and some clear glue and glue a ribbon into every book I buy.
Previously I might fold in a page where I stopped (damaging the pages), or I'd put the book down face down (which can damage the spine), or I'd use a piece of scrap paper as a bookmark (which works but you don't always have scrap nearby). The other difference between a ribbon and a bookmark is the ribbon is generally much more secure. A bookmark can fall out, but the ribbon is secure in its location until you pull it directly and fully out from between the pages and put it on another page, even if the pages become loose.
Anyone have any suggestions for good domain name providers who might support a dynamic DNS script? I obviously need something new now that godaddy decided to shut down their API...
And for people about to go "wow you're so stupid didn't you know godaddy is shit", I started using them 20 year ago and they were basically the first guys I found and they worked ok for me for most of those 20 years...
And for people about to go "wow you're so stupid didn't you know godaddy is shit", I started using them 20 year ago and they were basically the first guys I found and they worked ok for me for most of those 20 years...
I know some things are just better in book form. You can't stop for an hour in the middle of a movie to explain the minutae of political relationships between different factions of dwarves or something, but you can do that for a surprising amount of time in a book.
One of my favorite series is called Hell Mode, and each volume is like 400 pages because it goes into such detail about so much stuff that you could make the narrative into an anime but it wouldn't be the same story.
One of my favorite series is called Hell Mode, and each volume is like 400 pages because it goes into such detail about so much stuff that you could make the narrative into an anime but it wouldn't be the same story.
Just finished the adventures of Tom Sawyer with my son, we just started the Hobbit.
I read Tom Sawyer in college and remember enjoying it, but it apparently was long enough ago that I forgot many of the plot beats so it was kind of like enjoying it again for the first time.
I've never been a fan of Lord of the rings or Tolkien -- not saying it's bad, rather than that I just was never a fan -- never had access to the books, and I was aware that the movies were very popular and highly regarded, but I ended up watching the trilogy one day with my brother, and it was like the super long director's cut where the last movie was like 7 hours long, and then probably just wasn't a good way to experience that movie. Regardless, I'm pretty interested in seeing how the book plays out. I've got a giant monstrous tome containing all three Lord of the rings novels for when he's a little bit older.
I think The Hobbit is 19 chapters, and as a general rule of thumb I try to do a chapter a week, so whatever I read next day assume I'll be starting it before the end of the year. I'm kind of giving bullfinch's mythology the side eye, apparently it's a really good mythology book.
I read Tom Sawyer in college and remember enjoying it, but it apparently was long enough ago that I forgot many of the plot beats so it was kind of like enjoying it again for the first time.
I've never been a fan of Lord of the rings or Tolkien -- not saying it's bad, rather than that I just was never a fan -- never had access to the books, and I was aware that the movies were very popular and highly regarded, but I ended up watching the trilogy one day with my brother, and it was like the super long director's cut where the last movie was like 7 hours long, and then probably just wasn't a good way to experience that movie. Regardless, I'm pretty interested in seeing how the book plays out. I've got a giant monstrous tome containing all three Lord of the rings novels for when he's a little bit older.
I think The Hobbit is 19 chapters, and as a general rule of thumb I try to do a chapter a week, so whatever I read next day assume I'll be starting it before the end of the year. I'm kind of giving bullfinch's mythology the side eye, apparently it's a really good mythology book.
It sure seems to me that when organizations with unlimited amounts of money want to call for horrible things or support horrible things, there's absolutely no repercussions, but magically the government seem to be able to find all of the money and power to suppress speech when it's just some guy named George.
Maybe it's time to impose jail terms for state actors who violate civil rights?
Maybe it's time to impose jail terms for state actors who violate civil rights?
I simply cannot watch the movie wish by Disney anymore without seeing it as the story of a young girl who wants to overthrow the government upon realizing that she would have to pay taxes.
https://youtu.be/6A5raLXDsmc
https://youtu.be/6A5raLXDsmc
You almost can't even be mad at the people who make "free" stuff that's going to inevitably get worse, they're just doing the thing that made a bunch of people filthy rich.
If course, that doesn't mean you keep falling for it.
When you're a kid you might see a perfectly good hot dog on the ground and say "hey, free hot dog" but as an adult you probably get wiser.
If course, that doesn't mean you keep falling for it.
When you're a kid you might see a perfectly good hot dog on the ground and say "hey, free hot dog" but as an adult you probably get wiser.
"Poisoning the water supply" is going right to the top of the list.
You shall rrrrrrrue the day you rrrrrrrefused to rrrrrretain my serrrrrrvices!
You shall rrrrrrrue the day you rrrrrrrefused to rrrrrretain my serrrrrrvices!