Sat. Sept. 7, 2024 – I wonder if I could train a bot to be me?

By on September 7th, 2024 in culture, decline and fall, march to war

Then I could post in 2124… but would it be worth reading?

Cooler all day, and overcast, with the possibility of rain. The national map has us on the edge, and that usually means, no rain. We’ll see. It was off and on light misty drizzle yesterday, which kept temps down. Only 78F in the driveway… and 82F driving around. Nice.

Did some driving around to get the kids where they needed to be. Spent some time on auctions. Even did some repairs, sorting, and putting away. I need to make some changes to my office, but don’t know what to do yet. I’d like to find room for a turntable so I could listen to some of the vinyl I’ve been picking up lately. Don’t know if that is possible without giving up too much room for my other interests.

Today I’m sleeping in. At some point, I might take oldest to the gub store to see what they have in the case. Something like a full frame 22 would be a good choice for her to keep working on some target stuff, and building some good habits. Plus, it’s been a while since I saw my buddy and his wife. Later I have an auction pickup in Conroe. I might pay the guy to bring it to Houston, or I might make the run up there because I don’t want to wait. It’s for my non-prepping hobby…

Life goes on and the wheel turns. Gotta keep moving. Stack something, learn something, spend some time with someone.

nick

73 Comments and discussion on "Sat. Sept. 7, 2024 – I wonder if I could train a bot to be me?"

  1. Greg Norton says:

    When Adam Savage says you are “brilliant”:

    Savage did not have the Speedmaster on his wrist when I met him in Dallas. I wanted to ask about how he dealt with the overhaul issue.

    Once upon a time, the Germans had a very advanced industrial economy which produced a wide variety of innovative products. Then they abandoned nuclear power and allowed the US to blow up their gas supply from Russia.

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  2. Greg Norton says:

    BTW, lead time on Sortimo products is into December right now.

    As I said, the Germans had an advanced industrial economy.

  3. Greg Norton says:

    We saw “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” last night.

    The new owners of Alamo, Sony, didn’t fool around with DEI concerns. The movie was on most of the screens in the Lakeline/Austin multiplex.

  4. Greg Norton says:

    The new owners of Alamo, Sony, didn’t fool around with DEI concerns. The movie was on most of the screens in the Lakeline/Austin multiplex.

    Among other non-PC aspects of the “Beetlejuice” sequel is the fate of the title character’s wife.

    Also, Jeffrey Jones’ character appears in the film albeit in claymation form.

  5. Ray Thompson says:

    Another night of high school football. County rivalry between Harriman and Oliver Springs.

    https://www.raymondthompsonphotography.com/HHS

    Another time sink for the bored on the weekend.

  6. Nick Flandrey says:

    Sunny and hot- in the sun.   Only 75F in the shade, with a decent breeze blowing.   I guess someone else is getting our rain today.

    I’m up, caffeinated,  and ready for a shower anyway, if not ready to start my day.

    n

  7. Nick Flandrey says:

    I’m a vegetarian, don’t eat processed food and work out regularly. So WHY was I and so many others diagnosed with colon cancer young?

    – for starters, why do  you believe that meat. processed food and not working out are risk factors?  secondly, maybe there is another common cause??

    n

  8. Nick Flandrey says:

    More than 1.7 million therapy logs for American patients are exposed online – and leak includes video sessions

    By Matthew Phelan Senior Science Reporter For Dailymail.Com

    Published: 18:34 EDT, 6 September 2024 | Updated: 18:34 EDT, 6 September 2024

    Psychological profiles and therapy sessions for thousands of patients, including ‘telehealth’ audio and video and even driver’s licenses, has leaked to the open web.

    Over 1.7 million activity logs, comprised of an estimated 5.3 terabytes of mental health data, were left exposed online by the healthcare start-up Confidant Health.

    The Austin-based firm — which promised to build ‘the next-generation of virtual care’ for those seeking addiction treatment and other behavioral therapies — had left its patients’ confidential information exposed via a ‘non-password-protected database.’

    – WTF?  

    n

  9. drwilliams says:

    Once upon a time, the Germans had a very advanced industrial economy which produced a wide variety of innovative products. Then they abandoned nuclear power and allowed the US to blow up their gas supply from Russia.

    The most recent evidence seems to be pretty strong for the Ukrainians.

  10. MrAtoz says:

    – WTF?  

    Who needs an IT department? Don’t computers work with rainbows and unicorn farts?

  11. drwilliams says:

    Life expectancy in the United States, 1860-2020

    https://www.statista.com/statistics/1040079/life-expectancy-united-states-all-time/

    Data at 5-year intervals. Monotone increasing from 40 in 1860 to almost 79 in 2020, except:

    1865, 1920 with major decreases, and 2020 with a slight dip.

    1865 War Between the States

    1920 1919 Pandemic

    2020 CDC (bad guidance and defective experimental treatments).

    Causes of death are distributions and there are always outliers.

    Unless there has been recent research refuting earlier findings, a pure vegan diet does not supply all the amino acids the body needs. 

  12. drwilliams says:

    Over 1.7 million activity logs, comprised of an estimated 5.3 terabytes of mental health data, were left exposed online by the healthcare start-up Confidant Health.

    The Austin-based firm — which promised to build ‘the next-generation of virtual care’ for those seeking addiction treatment and other behavioral therapies — had left its patients’ confidential information exposed via a ‘non-password-protected database.’

    There seems to be a real need for third-party certification employing tiger teams to probe corporate customer databases. 

    How many times was the data downloaded? How many times was the downloader OUS? And how many times was the OUS downloader using U.S. technology?

    Difficult and costly for U.S. justice to find and prosecute criminals in other countries, and many of those criminals are state actors. Much easier for the U.S. government to determine the origin of the attack–and even with an unlocked database it’s illegal to access patient records without authorization–assess a hefty fine for each record (monies to go directly to customer/patients), and deduct the total from U.S. funding for the country of origin. Giving those countries, of course, the opportunity to dispute in a U.S. court.

  13. Greg Norton says:

    Over 1.7 million activity logs, comprised of an estimated 5.3 terabytes of mental health data, were left exposed online by the healthcare start-up Confidant Health.

    The Austin-based firm — which promised to build ‘the next-generation of virtual care’ for those seeking addiction treatment and other behavioral therapies — had left its patients’ confidential information exposed via a ‘non-password-protected database.’

    There seems to be a real need for third-party certification employing tiger teams to probe corporate customer databases. 

    The Cloud! Hot Skillz!

    Not that it really matters. Buried in the terms of service with most of the online mental health providers is a waiver of HIPAA.

  14. Greg Norton says:

    Once upon a time, the Germans had a very advanced industrial economy which produced a wide variety of innovative products. Then they abandoned nuclear power and allowed the US to blow up their gas supply from Russia.

    The most recent evidence seems to be pretty strong for the Ukrainians.

    Oh, sure. And the jabs were “safe and effective”.

  15. lpdbw says:

    2020 CDC (bad guidance and defective experimental treatments).

    As much as I am critical of the mRNA treatments, I think you are leaving out several other issues.  Primarily, medical malfeasance in the treatment process for Covid patients.  Putting patients on ventilators was fatal half the time, and using Remdisivir was criminal.  Without those 2 interventions, I think the death rate would have been half what it was.

    Allowing physicians to prescribe Ivermectin and HCQ could, maybe, have reduced the number even further.

    Instead, those physicians were fired, censored, and blocked from getting their prescriptions filled.

    Allowing government to be involved in healthcare is a crime.

  16. paul says:
    and deduct the total from U.S. funding for the country of origin. 

    Why are we giving them money in the first place?  Money stolen from us as taxes.  Other than perhaps in a case of some disaster like a volcano or hurricane? 

  17. lpdbw says:

    Unless there has been recent research refuting earlier findings, a pure vegan diet does not supply all the amino acids the body needs. 

    I follow a bunch of diet and nutrition doctors, and even the most skeptical of them say that a vegetarian diet is better than the standard American diet.   Unhealthy, but less unhealthy than SAD.

    You can, as an adult who has completed growing, if you are careful, and measure everything, get enough nutrition from a vegan diet.   Except B12.  If you want only natural foods, you could get your B12 the way rabbits and gorillas do.

    The problem with this is also limiting your intake so you don’t get fat.  You need to eat enough of this, and enough of that, to get the required essential amino acids and essential fatty acids.  Along with all that food comes a bunch of carbs.

    The word “essential” has meaning.  There are no identified essential dietary carbohydrates.

    There is a theory that tumors generally require glucose to grow, and a ketogenic diet retards their growth, and enhances the efficacy of other treatments.  Ketogenic veganism requires labratory level measurements and continuous hunger.

    for starters, why do  you believe that meat. processed food and not working out are risk factors?  

    For meat and working out, because of propaganda.  See my statement above about government being involved in healthcare.   That includes food.

    I personally believe that all processed food is suspect.  Any that contain industrial lubricants (seed oils/vegtable oils) is tabu for me.  

    Did you know that Seventh-Day Adventists are heavily involved in developing our national dietary guidelines?    In other words, religious vegetarians, not science, are telling you what’s good to eat.

  18. Greg Norton says:

    Allowing government to be involved in healthcare is a crime.

    HCQ had to be kept available for Lupus patients.

    To put the situation in context, at the time, people were plotting arbitrage on the jabs.

    Americans still have enough cash in the reserve currency that anything they want badly enough will distort the entire planet’s supply of a good or service.

  19. Greg Norton says:

    I’m a vegetarian, don’t eat processed food and work out regularly. So WHY was I and so many others diagnosed with colon cancer young?

    – for starters, why do  you believe that meat. processed food and not working out are risk factors?  secondly, maybe there is another common cause??

    Family history is unreliable with regard to colon cancer.

    We were always told it didn’t run on either side of my family tree and then my mother had most of her large intestine removed a few years ago at 78.

    Younger women also fudge smoking in health history to avoid having problems getting birth control pills, which, combined with cigarettes, raise the probability of death from thrown blood clots.

    Of course, it is her body and her choice, right?

    Ah, The Mail. Sweet Schadenfreude as the Summer festival season ends and the UK returns to toiling in the damp, dark, cold of the city.

  20. drwilliams says:

    @nick flandrey:           

    6 September 2024 at 14:43         

    I’m going to drop this here, and then leave for a while to do errands.   Not ideal.  Observations, not judgements.

    @drwilliams, you are arguing from the leftist perspective that the GUN is important, and also from the idea of group guilt.  This is uncharacteristic of you.  The crime the kid committed was the unlawful taking of life.   What he used to do it is immaterial wrt the crime committed.  The kid, individually, made choices. ACTIVE choices.   He decided to steal the gun.  He decided to bring it to school.  He had to have separated the upper and lower to conceal it in his bag.   He assembled it.   He went to the classroom.  He chose to insert a magazine, pull the charging handle, and then pull the trigger.  He made that decision many times. At ANY point in the chain of decisions he could have ended without bloodshed, and then later without as much blood shed.  HE made the decisions.  HE has sole responsibility for taking those lives.

    There is no collective or group guilt or responsibility for the kid’s actions, unless it turns out the father egged him on or encouraged him.   

    The most deadly school killing incident was a fire.   It does not matter how the killing was accomplished, the victims are dead, and how they got dead is a distraction at best.

    ———–

    Absent encouragement from the father, or some other person, there isn’t and can’t be group guilt.  It’s opposite what our whole legal system is built around.

    You can’t be an accessory unless you KNOWINGLY contribute.

        Someone can be accused of being an accessory to a crime by:

            Coming up with the idea

            Commanding someone else to commit the crime

            Hiring someone to commit the crime

            Instigating the commission of the crime

            Giving advice on how to carry out the crime

            Concealing the crime, before or after the fact

        Essentially, someone can be nailed for being an “accessory” to a crime if they in any way knowingly assisted, contributed to, aided, or offered advice to another so they could commit a crime.

    Group guilt is absurd on its face.  What about the guilt of the LEOs involved?  The neighbors?  CPS? the school and school district staff- after all, the evidence  that they failed in their duty of care is smeared in red on the floor…    The school district hired consultants, spent taxpayer money to “secure the schools”, institute anti-bullying schemes, train teachers in SEL,  hire councilors, hire cops to be in schools,  determined the schedule and assignments for those cops, and has declared the schools to be “gun free zones” yet there was a gun there…  so they are all guilty too.

    What about the press that glorifies these murderers?  Or the internet providers who carry the ‘news’?  Where is their guilt?  How is it parceled out?   

    When everyone is guilty, no one is guilty.   

    Our western world is built on the idea of free will, that INDIVIDUALS can choose and act or not act. And it’s built on the idea that there must be an ACT.   Thinking about a crime isn’t one.   Talking about a crime isn’t one.  Only when there is a ACT, a choice, an expression of volition, does there become a crime.

    It may yet come out that the father did have some participation in the crime, beyond buying a gun for his son’s use (which is legal.) 

    Remember that the bug eyed freak that murdered people at Sandy Hook Elementary killed his mother to get access to her secured guns.   Should she have bought a better safe?  Maybe put it in a concrete vault?  Stored firing pins in a bank safe deposit box?   Where does it start and where does it end?   That’s why group guilt isn’t a thing, and why the only one (so far) who committed a crime is the kid.

    ————

    sorry to drop this and leave, but stuff isn’t gonna get itself and the kid needs a ride.

    First, it’s not clear where your information on accessory came from, but here is mine:

    Accessory before-the-fact

    An accessory before-the-fact is someone who did anything to encourage, aid, or assist in any material manner in the commission of a crime, thereby “participating in the design of the crime.”

    https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/accessory

    Providing a minor unsupervised access to a firearm subsequently used in the commission of a crime can be argued to “assist in any material manner”. 

    The father had been put on notice by the visit from the sheriff that his son may have had “issues”. The son claimed innocence due to “hacking” (we always believe those claims, don’t we?) and law enforcement received assurances that the son did not have unsupervised access to firearms. 

    Unsupervised access to firearms by a minor is historically common and does not often rise to negligence except as a technical violation used punitively by a fascist state to punish and control the population (“Show me the man…”). When children play with firearms and tragedy ensues, there is usually negligence sufficient for civil tort and often criminal charges in the current legal landscape.

    In this case the father bought the gun and gifted it to his son for Christmas—his son was not alleged to  “steal” it in any report that I have seen. Further, I have seen no report that the rifle was secured by the father in any way that limited the son’s access.

    If the facts are as I have described, based on the reports I have seen, then the negligence of the father can reasonably rise to criminal negligence, making him an accessory before the fact and equally guilty in the murders.

    The son made a series of decisions culminating in multiple murder. But that chain of decision was solely enabled by the actions of the father. The arrest and charging of the father is perfectly reasonable under the circumstances as described.  If the rifle had been locked up and liberated by force or deception or if the rifle had been stolen, the origin of the chain would have been a clearly discernible crime by the son. 

    “@drwilliams, you are arguing from the leftist perspective that the GUN is important”

    Not guilty.

    I’m arguing for personal responsibility for the father for foreseeable and preventable criminal acts of his son.

    Long before the left and right political appellations emerged from French politics, it was a matter of common law that parents have liability for some acts of minor children:

    Almost every state has some sort of parental responsibility law that holds parents or legal guardians responsible for property damage, personal injury, theft, shoplifting, and/or vandalism resulting from intentional or willful acts of their un-emancipated children. Such statutory liability may have certain conditions and limits attached to it, and virtually every such statute limits such parental liability to a certain dollar limit. However, such parental responsibility statutes do not abrogate or affect common law liability parents might otherwise have for failure to prevent children with dangerous propensities from committing foreseeable acts and damages. Parents are not automatically liable at common law for the acts of their children. Parental responsibility laws are one vehicle by which parents are held accountable for at least a minimal amount of damage caused by their children as a result of intentional acts or vandalism.

    Most parental liability statutes specify specific ages or age ranges applicable to the statute. The age of majority in most of the U.S. is 18 years old, but there are a few exceptions, such as Mississippi (21) and Nebraska (19). However, the age of majority is often different from the age below which parents are responsible for damage to person or property caused by their children. Hawaii enacted such legislation in 1846, more than a century before it became a state, and its parental responsibility law today remains one of the most broadly applied, with no monetary limits and liability imposed for both negligent and intentional torts by unemancipated minors.

    https://www.mwl-law.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/PARENTAL-RESPONSIBILITY-LAWS-CHART.pdf

    And in particular:

    “common law liability parents might otherwise have for failure to prevent children with dangerous propensities”

    (note: this reference deals with damages rather than capital crimes, but is historically applicable)

    Minor children are under the supervision and control of their parents, who bear legal responsibility for their actions.  Modern statutory law has a variety of examples that covers a wide range. We could cite hundreds of examples of hypothetical situations and ask is this one or that one over some line, but it does not illuminate the present situation. 

    On a broader note, my personal bias is that the current laws are sufficient to handle this tragedy. If they are, then the shrieking and moaning of the gun grabbers will be pro forma. If they are not, then we have a potent argument for more gun laws put in the hands of the totalitarian party just before the election. 

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  21. Lynn says:

    Sat. Sept. 7, 2024 – I wonder if I could train a bot to be me?

    No.  All of the current so called AI machines are 100+ generations past their originator, the old ELIZA program.  

       https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ELIZA

    AIs are not capable of original thought like we are.  God gave us free will which is the power of original thought.  Until the programmers can figure out how to program free will, bots will only respond to queries.

    That said, the current generation of AIs are very good at responses to queries.  Sometimes, they are even better than humans.

  22. drwilliams says:

    What Junk Nutrition Science Looks Like

    https://wattsupwiththat.com/2024/09/06/what-junk-nutrition-science-looks-like/

    The money quote:

    Statistically significant hazard ratios cannot include unity (one) in their confidence intervals.” [ source ]

    The link compares cardiovacular disease, coronary heart disease, and stroke. No cancers of any kind.

  23. lpdbw says:

    I’m arguing for personal responsibility for the father for foreseeable and preventable criminal acts of his son.

    Regardless of the historical evidence you give, I personally find this a repulsive stance.

    My oldest son was an alcoholic and a drug dealer by the age of 17.  Probably earlier.  I only discovered the alcoholism at 17, and didn’t know about the drug dealing until years later.  He was that functional, and good at concealing things.  Admittedly, I was also naive.

    By the arguments  presented, I was criminally and civilly liable for his actions throughout the years.  I provided him means when I provided him housing, food, transportation, and alllowed him to legitamitly earn and spend money without close supervision.   

  24. drwilliams says:

    My oldest son was an alcoholic and a drug dealer by the age of 17.  Probably earlier.  I only discovered the alcoholism at 17, and didn’t know about the drug dealing until years later.  He was that functional, and good at concealing things.  Admittedly, I was also naive.

    By the arguments  presented, I was criminally and civilly liable for his actions throughout the years.  I provided him means when I provided him housing, food, transportation, and alllowed him to legitamitly earn and spend money without close supervision.   

    I don’t follow your logic. Being an alcoholic is not criminal, and you did not know about the drug dealing at the time. 

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  25. paul says:

    If a food has a TV commercial it’s suspect.  Why?  Have you ever seen an ad for tomatoes or corn or carrots?

    Canned veggie ads are between brands.  “Libby Libby Libby on the Label Label Label and you’ll like it on your Table Table Table” or “Ho Ho Ho Green Giant”. 

    I rummaged in the cabinet the other day.  I know why I have the butter flavor spray, for popcorn.  I bought it. Doesn’t work for me.  There’s a couple of cans of spray canola oil.  Ick!  Then a couple of cans of “Grill Master” soy oil spray.  I think if stuff is sticking to the grill, the heat is too high or you are impatient.  All five cans are headed to the trash.

    I bought a spray can of olive oil at HEB. Just olive oil.  No soy lecithin, no silicon whatever for anti-foaming.  “No propellants”.  I don’t know how that works, maybe like spray cheese.  Or maybe what they use isn’t classified as a propellant…. like, nitrogen. 

  26. paul says:

    The father gave his son a rifle.  Nowhere do I see anyone saying it was kept in the gun safe.  But assuming so…

    Somehow the kid knew the combination or found it written down or he found the key.  He was wacky enough the FBI knew about him.  That’s got to be pretty wacky.   Ditto various teachers at school.  No one could be bothered to lift a finger?   Just give the kid more mental drugs?

    He didn’t need a gun.  He could have used a car given to him by his Dad and run over the football team or a bunch of kids waiting to get on the school bus.  So would Dad be charged for giving his son a car?

    If so, why? 
     

  27. Greg Norton says:

    Canned veggie ads are between brands.  “Libby Libby Libby on the Label Label Label and you’ll like it on your Table Table Table” or “Ho Ho Ho Green Giant”. 

    I haven’t seen canned veggie ads in prime time in decades.

  28. Lynn says:

    “Sleep No More” by Seanan McGuire
       https://www.amazon.com/Sleep-No-More-Seanan-McGuire/dp/0756416841?tag=ttgnet-20/

    Book number seventeen of an eighteen book dark fantasy series. I read the well printed and well bound MMPB published by DAW in 2023. I will buy future October Daye stories when the MMPBs are released.

    Many hundreds of years ago, many of the fae left a far off land and landed on what would become the west coast of the United States. There they built their realms and fought their wars, both on the land and the sea. The humans do not know of their realms and their travels but, humans do not see everything. This is the fae’s story.

    In the beginning there was the Three of the fae. Oberon, the King of the fae and his two Queen sister wives: Maeve and Titania. All of the fae are descended from them, both together and singly. They are the most powerful, way more powerful than their children, the Firstborn. All three of the first are missing and have not been seen in hundreds of years. But Luidaeg, the Firstborn sea witch, has been dragging an old man around everywhere she goes.

    Before Oberon disappeared, he put a gaes on Titania to stop killing their descendants. Titania had grown jealous and heartless, and was encouraging her children and their children to kill Maeve’s children and their children. Titania had succeeded in genociding entire races like the Luidaeg’s Roane.

    October and her older sister August are being raised by their pureblood father Simon Torquille and mother Amandine in a large stone tower in the Faerie. October’s real father is a human so she is a changeling, looked down upon and often killed without reason by the purebloods. But October is protected by other purebloods by August and Simon. October is looking forward to August leaving so she can go with her, still protected.

    But everything is a lie.

    Please note that although the author and I share the same middle and
    last names, I do not know if we are related. We are McGuire’s, there
    are many of us. I paid for my book and all of the books that I own
    written by her.

    There is a wiki for the October Daye books at:
       https://october-daye.fandom.com/wiki/October_Daye_Wiki

    The author has a website at:
       https://www.seananmcguire.com/

    My rating: 5.0 of 5 stars
    Amazon rating: 4.7 out of 5 stars (1,252 reviews)

    Lynn

  29. lpdbw says:

    re: advertisements

    I only see ads on Tubi and YouTube, and sometimes on the games I play on my phone.

    It’s mostly pharma and health and beauty stuff, with adult diapers mixed in.  The game ads tend to be ultraprocessed food, like breakfast cereal, and more games.

    Occasionally I get a Kroger or HEB ad, or a car ad.   

  30. drwilliams says:

    @paul

    The father gave his son a rifle.  Nowhere do I see anyone saying it was kept in the gun safe.  But assuming so…

    Somehow the kid knew the combination or found it written down or he found the key.  He was wacky enough the FBI knew about him.  That’s got to be pretty wacky.   Ditto various teachers at school.  No one could be bothered to lift a finger?   Just give the kid more mental drugs?

    He didn’t need a gun.  He could have used a car given to him by his Dad and run over the football team or a bunch of kids waiting to get on the school bus.  So would Dad be charged for giving his son a car?

    If so, why? 

    Absent any conflicting report, the assumption is no gun safe or the son had unsupervised access to such. 

    As far as knowledge of any teachers, the murderer shot up a new school on his second day of attendance. 

    A 17-year-old cannot legally own a gun or a car. He can use both. It’s not legal in most places for him to walk down the street with a gun. He can drive down the street if he has a license and permission of the car owner.

    If his Dad gave him the car keys and let him drive the car, and one day he decided to run over some people, would or should his Dad be charged? If he posted social media of running over people and liked images of people who had used cars as murder weapons, would or should his Dad be charged? The circumstances are very different.

    Kid starts growing a beard. His parents are green fanatics and won’t let him shave to save the environment. He buys a razor and tries to shave in secret, cutting himself and bleeding to death. Are his parents negligent? 

    Parents feed their kids hot dogs, one of them tries to swallow one whole and chokes to death. Parents sue Oscar Mayer because the package doesn’t say “chew properly” or “cut into small pieces 0.30 ±0.05” or smaller before eating”.  

    Parents feed their kids hot dogs, one of them tries to swallow one whole and chokes to death. Parents are professional hot dog eaters, and are arrested  and tried  for criminal negligence for not instructing their kids on hot dog eating. 

    All sorts of hypotheticals. 

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  31. Lynn says:

    “Silencing the Right”

       https://areaocho.com/silencing-the-right/

    “The attack on free speech by the FBI continues. The latest claim by the Feds is that the Russians have paid 2800 social media influencers to spread pro-Trump propaganda and influence the election. According to them, the propaganda includes:

    • Republicans are “victims of discrimination of people of color”
    • white middle-class people are being discriminated against”

    “Disappearances will begin shortly. It’s for their (and your) own good.”

    I agree with Divemedic.  People will start disappearing after the election.  Maybe before.

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  32. Greg Norton says:

    Occasionally I get a Kroger or HEB ad, or a car ad.   

    Here in Austin, lately, HEB seems to spend more ad money on Favor, their Uber Eats/Doordash-type service than they do for the stores.

  33. paul says:

    Yeah, I’ve seen the Favor stuff at the Burnet store.  I’m on the wrong side of the train tracks… nothing goes past the tracks.  Cable TV, Dominoes, you name it. 

    Besides.  The shopping on-line and picking it up curbside is cool.  But I like to wander the store and see “new stuff”.  And maybe talk to a few folks.

  34. paul says:
    A 17-year-old cannot legally own <snip> a car. 

    Huh.  There were plenty of guys is HS that owned their car.  Usually a pick-up.  With a gun rack in the back window.  With a shotgun and a whatever else on the rack.  In an unlocked truck if the windows were rolled up.

  35. Ray Thompson says:

    A 17-year-old cannot legally own a gun or a car

    I owned a car at 16. Titled in my name. Insurance in my name. I also owned a motorcycle. Titled in my name. Insurance in my name. I also owned two guns. Purchased by me, in my name.

    10
  36. lpdbw says:

    HCQ had to be kept available for Lupus patients.

    I remember hearing that cover story at the time.  And I believe there were actually shortages, and HCQ is an important tool for lupus sufferers, who are likely to die from the disease.

    I say “cover story”,  because I believe that the CDC, NIH, and Big Pharma conspired to get an EUA for the mRNA treatments, and it required a huge pushback against anyone proposing a treatment for Covid, since it’s illegal to do an EUA for a disease that has other effective treatments.

    From the lupus.org website, some calculations using America only:

    1.5 million lupus sufferers.

    70% with the systemic version =1.05 million

    10% of lupus sufferers will die prematurely presumably WITH HCQ.  Without HCQ, probably higher.

    Doubling the 10%, we get roughly 200,000 deaths.

    But that presumes they are  all denied HCQ 100% due to diversion to Covid sufferers.  And the shortage is permanent.  And the market won’t adjust to increase production.

    How many people do they claim died due to Covid?

    I don’t have an answer to the drug triage problem, but I also have a problem with saying lupus sufferers are so important as a class that we can condemn anyone else to death rather than deny them access to this life-saving drug.

    Which is precisely what they did.

  37. paul says:

    The posts by drwilliams today seem to me, to be not in character.  Your mileage will vary.  Like The Troll is using his name.   Drwilliams, to me, is not known for pasting a wall of text. 

    On other sites, where they are hard core Trump haters still butthurt Her lost, there’s a circular vibe.  “Show your sources!”  So I do. How about you show your sources?  Teach me, educate and maybe convert me.  After being yelled at and insulted as an idiot, the thread stays up, my posts are deleted by the mod for citing some horrible site like Voxday, aka HGG or ZeroHedge. 

    Shrug.  

  38. Rick H says:

    I see no evidence in the comment metadata that the posts by ‘drwilliams’ are from somebody else. The metadata is consistent with his past comments – looking back at data over two months.

    In addition, that ID has often posted longer comments.

  39. drwilliams says:

    @Ray Thompson

    I owned a car at 16. Titled in my name. Insurance in my name. I also owned a motorcycle. Titled in my name. Insurance in my name. I also owned two guns. Purchased by me, in my name.

    It was a simpler time in the 1920’s.

    7
    1
  40. drwilliams says:

    @paul

    I could have shortened the  “wall of text” by omitting the paste of Nick post yesterday, but did it that way so it was on the same page.

    As for the length remaining, well, it comes from thinking about it overnight after being insulted. 😉

    I was a bit sloppy earlier:

    “A 17-year-old cannot legally own a gun or a car. He can use both. It’s not legal in most places for him to walk down the street with a gun.”

    Much too simplified. With respect to guns (aka long guns), he cannot purchase a rifle or shotgun from a licensed dealed (Federal law 1968, iirc). Purchase otherwise would be subject to state laws. Carrying ditto, with a mix of “no” “only with permit” and “yes”. Georgia requires permit. Doubtful the kid had a permit. Will he get charged? Very doubtful.

    I could have shortened that earlier post, or laid a few more courses in the wall. 

  41. drwilliams says:

    @RickH

    “In addition, that ID has often posted longer comments.”

    uh-oh. been torturing electrons again still.

  42. drwilliams says:

    Peter has a link to a discussion of “The toaster-****** problem

    language warning

    The gist is that there is no effective local correction to the behavioral outliers when they can withdraw to an on-line group of like-mindeds that amplify their complaints and further marginalize their behavior. In the old days it was termed “deviant behavior”. Now it’s all supposed to be normal.

  43. Nick Flandrey says:

    Back from my errands.   

    Lot of cops doing speed traps.    Crazy accidents on I45 in the Woodlands.    I watched a cop PIT * a car right in front of me.  She was trying to flee the scene of an accident… if I figured it all out correctly.

    When I came back thru about 2 hours later, there was another accident in roughly the same place…

    ——

    beautiful day.  Lots of people out enjoying it.

    ——

    Failed in 3 of my goals for this outing.

    Did manage to pick up my auction item in Conroe.

    nick

    ** well, sorta PIT, she was driving away and he smashed into her to stop her.

  44. Greg Norton says:

    The posts by drwilliams today seem to me, to be not in character.  Your mileage will vary.  Like The Troll is using his name.   Drwilliams, to me, is not known for pasting a wall of text. 

    The Troll has been busy since August 26.

    He’ll be busy until December 17.

    Thanksgiving is the 29th this year, the last day possible under the law proclaiming the holiday as the 4th Thursday in November.

  45. Nick Flandrey says:

    Note that the reason for the toaster -f#cker rant was nasa posting a pride flag image…. made from differently colored space images.   Which is so far outside NASA’s mandate that you can’t even see it from space…

    n

  46. Greg Norton says:

    ** well, sorta PIT, she was driving away and he smashed into her to stop her.

    If he had the plates, why?

    Houston is already insolvent due to the heroes pensions. Paint for body work on an Exploder is complex and expensive.

    1
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  47. Nick Flandrey says:

    @drwilliams, it was not my intent to insult you.    You are still arguing to apportion guilt to people who didn’t do the crime (and there is no end to how finely you can slice that once you start), and  basing it on hypotheticals.   “Should have known” “could have done”   – which have no place in criminal charges because we CAN”T know what’s inside someone else’s head.   Allowed in civil because the consequences are less.

    And I think there is a HUGE difference between charging parents money damages for vandalism done by their children and criminal charges like murder.   Parents DON’T control their kids actions, and  don’t know what is in their heads- ask any parent of a suicide.  

    Is there negligence?  Maybe.  Criminal negligence?  Maybe.   That’s a slippery slope too.

    Locked gun safe didn’t stop Adam Lanza.   If won’t stop the kid who buys a couple of gallons of bleach and ammonia either.  Didn’t stop the guy with the knives in japan.   Didn’t stop the white van guys.   

    Unless dad encouraged the kid, and that changes everything, this is not a path we want society to go down because it’s the opposite of a free society.

    n

  48. Greg Norton says:

    Note that the reason for the toaster -f#cker rant was nasa posting a pride flag image…. made from differently colored space images.   Which is so far outside NASA’s mandate that you can’t even see it from space…

    NASA Administrator Bill Nelson is further along the dementia trail than Corn Pop.

    As much as people hate Rick Scott RINO-FL, running at the top of the ticket under Florida law meant that people had to think about the Scott vs. Nelson Senate race on their way to voting for DeSantis in the contest for the Governor’s Mansion in 2018.

    Bill Nelson has been owned by the NASA contractors since they got him a Shuttle ride in the 80s.

    Nelson was not an astronaut in the traditional sense.

  49. Nick Flandrey says:

    If he had the plates, why?  

    don’t know.   Easiest?   It was multiple agencies including Oak Ridge North, Montgomery County Emergency Services, but not Houston… didn’t get video of the actual manouver, and I can’t read the door as I drive off… 

    n

  50. drwilliams says:

    “Which is so far outside NASA’s mandate that you can’t even see it from space…with the Hubble or the Webb telescope…”

    FIFY

  51. drwilliams says:

    “@drwilliams, it was not my intent to insult you.”

    geez, Nick, I know that and meant to convey that knowledge with the emoticon.

    All the talk about me would be flattering if I wasn’t so crotchety today.

  52. drwilliams says:

    @Nick

    You are still arguing to apportion guilt to people who didn’t do the crime (and there is no end to how finely you can slice that once you start), and  basing it on hypotheticals.   “Should have known” “could have done”   – which have no place in criminal charges because we CAN”T know what’s inside someone else’s head.  

    Nonsense. The charges are appropriate as a matter of law. It’s up to the prosecution to make the case and a jury or judge to decide based on a full elicitation of the evidence. 

    “Locked gun safe didn’t stop Adam Lanza. If won’t stop the kid who buys a couple of gallons of bleach and ammonia either. Didn’t stop the guy with the knives in japan. Didn’t stop the white van guys. ”

    Immaterial. Not all criminal acts can be stopped. That does not mean that reasonable precautions cannot be required.

    “Unless dad encouraged the kid, and that changes everything, this is not a path we want society to go down because it’s the opposite of a free society.”

    In a free society if I were the parent of one of the children killed, or the spouse of one of the adults killed, I would present the father with a cup of hemlock and give him the choice.

  53. paul says:

    I didn’t mean to insult anyone.  Crotchety  works.  Just that today seemed out of normal

  54. drwilliams says:

    H&I TV derailed me again this afternoon in the form of Wonder Woman.

    I left the tv on in the kitchen and wandered by, then had to reverse course. Rick Springsteen played a bit part of a rock singer in a plot about extortion in the musical industry (Episode 51 “Amazon Hot Wax”, Ricks second appearance on the show). Lyle only appeared at the far end of a phone line. Lynda got to sing. Twice. Rick did not sing.

    Caught an episode of Hawaii 5-0 Friday afternoon. Possibly the best tv show opening (theme music and audio) ever.

    1
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  55. paul says:

    I just watched a silly movie with Jackie Chan and a colored guy whose name escapes me.  Rush Hour.  Fun movie to watch.  
    Would be better if someone’s testicles had dropped at puberty so he didn’t sound like a 12 year old boy.  At least his voice didn’t crack.  🙂   

    Fun movie.  Good plot.  It went fast.  

  56. MrAtoz says:

    Unless dad encouraged the kid, and that changes everything,

    Exactly. Before the act still has to have malicious intent proved by the DA. That will be hard unless the father gets tRumped . This will be another case that highlights the rotten court system.

  57. Nick Flandrey says:

    Woke Apocalypse: Sony Humiliated After $200 Million Diversity Video Game Disaster

    by Tyler Durden

    Friday, Sep 06, 2024 – 07:30 PM

    Get woke, go broke is not just a mantra, it’s a rule, and the epic woke failures keep piling up in 2024 as the majority of consumers continue to reject DEI in movies, streaming, marketing and gaming.  

    Video games in particular have been aggressively targeted by NGOs and far-left governments for the dissemination of progressive propaganda, ostensibly because they are by far the most popular media for the younger demographic.  From childhood to early adulthood the average western consumer will spend more time on video games than all other entertainment combined, making gaming a ripe venue for ideological grooming.

    As we noted in recent articles on queer activist games like Dustborn, there is a vested interest by some very powerful people to dictate messaging in the video game sphere.  The US government and the EU have been actively influencing gaming through ESG-like subsidies; offering developers millions of dollars if they plant woke content into their projects.

    Concord launched with disastrous results.  Gaming service Steam logged a maximum of only 697 players for Concord and initial sales show only 25,000 units purchased.  The lack of player interest has led Sony to treat the project as a total loss and the company is scrapping the entire game – Pulling it offline after only two weeks and giving customers full refunds.  In other words, Sony just took a $200 million dollar loss on a game that they are throwing down the memory hole, possibly forever. 

    The problem is, companies have forgotten the basic rules of the free market – Know your primary customer base and give them what they want.  Don’t try to tell your customers what you think they should want.  Don’t try to shame them into buying your product, or they will destroy your business.  The primary customer base will make or break you.

    Fat positivity people can’t be action heroes and the vast majority of players don’t want trans propaganda and gender fluid pronouns shoved in their faces.  These DEI tropes will never become popular; they will never succeed.

    Companies like Sony are breaking the most fundamental tenets of marketing that made them popular in the first place.

    Grand Theft Auto is the number three best selling video game franchise ever… and it’s about the anti-wokest thing ever.    Tomb Raider is 21, and it had millions of boys playing as a big breasted woman.  Mario Bros, Pokemon, Zelda… not inclusive, they are escapist fantasy, and people DON”T need to “see themselves” in the game.  I’d bet most people would rather see ANYONE but themselves in the game…

    n

  58. lpdbw says:

    Jackie Chan and a colored guy whose name escapes me

    @paul, never change.

  59. paul says:

    I turned the a/c off a couple of days ago.  Opened a few windows.  For now, a couple of open windows in the dining room plus the sliding door in the living room works great.  I have one window open in this room and one upper window open in the bedroom.  

    We, being me and Penny, got cold last night.  I’m getting under the blanket and quilt and she’s right there against my leg.  Yeah, I hate that she cuddles.  /s   Buddy even hopped up.  With cold feet.  There’s plenty of room but they seem to have a one dog on the bed at a time rule.  Buddy doesn’t cuddle. 

    It’s currently 76f and 43% humidity out my kitchen window.  Almost “itchy dry”.    No wind.  Pretty nice actually.  The forecast says 58f tonight.  I’ll be closing windows when I go to bed. 

    I’m not saying Summer is over.  But close….. 

  60. paul says:
    @paul, never change.

    Uh.  Am I being insulted or laughed at?  For not calling him the proper current term of “African-American”. 

    No matter, what you see is what you get.     I grew up with Grandmama calling colored folks Darkies.  Say that with a thick Southern drawl.  But that was in Mobile and she was born in 1895.  It didn’t seem malicious.  No telling what they called white folk. Don’t care anyway. They were nice folks. 

  61. drwilliams says:

    Manhunt underway after several people shot in Kentucky near Interstate 75, officials say

    A manhunt is underway for at least one suspect after several people were shot Saturday near an interstate in a rural area of Laurel County, Kentucky, located south of Lexington, according to the sheriff’s office.

    The active shooter situation occurred near Interstate 75, about nine miles north of the city of London, where “numerous persons have been shot,” said the Laurel County Sheriff’s Office.

    The London Police Department has identified 32-year-old Joseph A. Couch as a person of interest who is considered “armed and dangerous.” He is described as a White man roughly 5 foot, 10 inches, weighing about 154 pounds, police said.

    https://www.cnn.com/2024/09/07/us/kentucky-interstate-75-shooting/index.html

    Wow. Racial ID. Stats from DMV database, no doubt. Probably couldn’t figure out a way to work Christian MAGA supporter in there.

  62. drwilliams says:

    @paul

    Now don’t you be gettin’ crotchety, too.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0fhfi_WKrU

  63. lpdbw says:

    insulted or laughed at?

    Admired, actually.   I’m sick of political correctness and in favor of communication, and you communicated.

  64. Ken Mitchell says:

    HCQ for Covid?  In March 2020, Donald Trump started talking about using HCQ as a treatment for Covid. Where might he have gotten THAT idea?

    Turns out that Trump was following Elon Musk on Twitter.  Musk had friends who were doctors in France and Italy, and a couple of those doctors had done preliminary treatments of Italian Covid patients. Y’all knew that Italy was an early Covid hotspot, right? Starting in October 2019 or so.  Seems that many high-end “Italian” leather products were produced in Italy with Chinese workers from …. Wuhan. 

    ______________________

    https://twitter.com/RiganoESQ/status/1240273631604809728

    Gregory Rigano  @RiganoESQ

    UPDATE: Full peer reviewed study has been released by Didier Raoult MD, PhD https://drive.google.com/file/d/186Bel9RqfsmEx55FDum4xY_IlWSHnGbj/view?usp=sharing…. After 6 days 100% of patients treated with HCQ + Azithromycin were virologically cured

    __________________________

    So NONE of the Covid vaccine deaths needed to happen. NONE of the nursing home deaths in New York needed to happen. NONE of the ventilator deaths need to happen.  And banning HCQ was murder. 

  65. Greg Norton says:

    Grand Theft Auto is the number three best selling video game franchise ever… and it’s about the anti-wokest thing ever.    Tomb Raider is 21, and it had millions of boys playing as a big breasted woman.  Mario Bros, Pokemon, Zelda… not inclusive, they are escapist fantasy, and people DON”T need to “see themselves” in the game.  I’d bet most people would rather see ANYONE but themselves in the game…

    There are rumors that Sweet Baby, the controversial DEI consu.tancy, is involved with GTA VI.

    OTOH, GTA III arrived with the non-PC material mostly intact on the Switch.

    The best non-PC material in the game series is always the radio selection.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4QneBltsXgg

  66. paul says:

    Admired?  Me?  That’s a very very nice compliment.   Thank you.

    Remember back in school and there were the almost yearly tests?  The “this shape is like that shape” pictures?  And the word puzzles?    This was all pre 1976.  Look, I did first grade twice because Hawaii was 6 months behind Oceanside, California.  

    So all of these tests and Mom got called in.  I guess I was in 6th grade.  Somehow or another the tests said I had a 140 or so on the IQ range.  Dunno, I’ve always felt like I’m ignorant.  I mean, I know stuff but I ain’t all that smart.  Then I had my motorcycle crash.  I was 19 pushing 20.  Cracked the helmet when I landed in the gutter.  Spent a month in the hospital with pins in my thigh bone and almost a year on crutches.

    I dropped out of college because F it all, I was doing good to make my bed and go to the cafeteria for meals. No one seem to notice I had a problem.  I knew I was messed up but who to talk to?    I was messed up bad for a couple of years.  Brain healed or rerouted or whatever.  Took about four years to feel sort of normal again. I’m not sure how to describe it.  I’m still not the same as before the crash. That version of me is gone.  Yeah, and the leg hurts almost all of the time.   But I don’t limp.  

    Yet, folks tell me I’m the smartest person they have ever met.    Uh, yeah, whatever. Try telling me I’m handsome if ya want in my pants.  🙂  

  67. Lynn says:

    I left the tv on in the kitchen and wandered by, then had to reverse course. Rick Springsteen played a bit part of a rock singer in a plot about extortion in the musical industry (Episode 51 “Amazon Hot Wax”, Ricks second appearance on the show). Lyle only appeared at the far end of a phone line. Lynda got to sing. Twice. Rick did not sing.

    Bruce Springsteen or Rick Springfield ?

  68. Lynn says:

    I just watched a silly movie with Jackie Chan and a colored guy whose name escapes me.  Rush Hour.  Fun movie to watch.  
    Would be better if someone’s testicles had dropped at puberty so he didn’t sound like a 12 year old boy.  At least his voice didn’t crack.     

    Fun movie.  Good plot.  It went fast.  

    Chris Rock. Good actor. Incredibly great episode about driving while black. Got beaten up by Will Smith recently.

  69. lpdbw says:

    Chris Rock.

    No, Chris Tucker.  I had to look it up, because I’ve never seen the movie.

    Don’t know Chris Tucker from Adam.

    I’ve seen Chris Rock bits on the TV. He seemed moderately funny.

    re: beat up by Will Smith

    Remember just a few years ago, they were complaining about “Oscars so white”?
    I long for the days when I could watch a movie and the people in it looked like me and had my values.

  70. Lynn says:

    Chris Rock.

    No, Chris Tucker.  I had to look it up, because I’ve never seen the movie.

    Don’t know Chris Tucker from Adam.

    I’ve seen Chris Rock bits on the TV. He seemed moderately funny.

    re: beat up by Will Smith

    Remember just a few years ago, they were complaining about “Oscars so white”?
    I long for the days when I could watch a movie and the people in it looked like me and had my values.

    That is what I get for not looking stuff up.  At least I got the first name right.  

    The second and third movies are good too, not as funny as the first.

    Every kid should be required to watch this video before being allowed to drive a car or motorized vehicle: “Chris Rock – How not to get your ass kicked by the police!”

       https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uj0mtxXEGE8

  71. Nick Flandrey says:

    How in the heII do you make a woke version of GTA?   It’s whole point is non-PC.   You club hoes with baseball bats, ffs and steal cars…

    n

  72. Ray Thompson says:

    Am I being insulted or laughed at?  For not calling him the proper current term of “African-American”.

    Laughed with.

    Watching reruns of Adam-12 and people of color (or whatever the term of year) are being called negroid. I am surprised that part is not getting bleeped.

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