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VoxelVexillologist

Multidimensional Radical Centrist

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joined 2022 September 04 18:24:54 UTC 

				
User ID: 64


				
				
				

			

		

	














	


		


			



	

		

			

			

				

					

						

							
						

						

							
							

								
VoxelVexillologist


								

								

								
								
								

								
							
					
 
				


				
Multidimensional Radical Centrist

				
				
				

				

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					joined 2022 September 04 18:24:54 UTC
				


				
					

					
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User ID: 64


					
					
					
				

			


					

						
					



		

	

 











			
			

			
			

			




	


		

			
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				Friday Fun Thread for February 13, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


the most valuable circulating USD coin




Pedantically, aren't Double Eagles still, in theory, legal tender?  They're worth far more than their face value, so I doubt anyone uses them as "currency" per se.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Friday Fun Thread for February 13, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I once knew a guy that would eat the whole apple, core and all.  Lots of apple seeds might be a poisoning concern, but I hear the core is otherwise fine, if less tasty than the rest.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of February 9, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
What did you think "mandatory reporter" meant? Vibes? Papers? Essays?


Sarcasm, obviously, but the vibe of such laws is distinctly "better some arbitrary number of questionably-founded investigations than a few children actually get abused".  For some value of arbitrary there, I'd even agree with the statement (disclosure: am mandatory reporter of some things), but of course the state considers false investigations as roughly harmless.


But I'm also not strictly opposed to the state investigating whether a kid in the hospital fell down a flight of stairs or "fell down a flight of stairs".


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Friday Fun Thread for February 13, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
IMO this is going to depend heavily on the apple cultivar.  Oranges beat Red Delicious and Granny Smith hands down.  Kanzi and Envy apples are much better, although I might call it close compared to mandarin oranges.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of February 9, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Would your legal chances really be that much better if you start asking lawyers about dismembering your murder victims and disposing of evidence?  I'm not a lawyer, but it sounds like the crime-fraud exemption would presumably have applied in this sort of case.  Are sleazy consigliere-types really common outside of Hollywood and TV fiction?


It does admittedly seem like some of the cases around the edges might be a bit fuzzy.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of February 9, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


The normal slogan is about how Code Is Free Speech, and that's pretty well-established under standing precedent, but this isn't even 'just' code.




Am I wrong in thinking that someone could easily pull the Phil Zimmerman PGP gambit here [1] : find a print-to-order publisher (Amazon?), and upload the G code (text!) for your CNC or 3D printer, and buy a nice hard-back book (with ISBN!) to carry over the California border.


    

  1. As far as I can tell, those books were never printed in quantity, and these days are quite the collectors item if you're trying to get a hold of one.
    2. 



				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of February 9, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


I don't object to having a sensitive Klingon who just wants to study medicine




This wouldn't be out of place in the earlier Trek canon either: a good chunk of the Worf-centered episodes of TNG and DS9 focus on how to straddle "warrior culture" and "modern neoliberalism" to attempt to satisfy both, not always succeeding.  Worf ends up teaching martial arts (Mok'bara) to crewmates, takes up prune juice as "a warrior's drink", and manages to be a questionable father to Alexander.


Honestly, some of the best Trek episodes are reflections on the human conditon like those.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of February 9, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


American media fails to publish story about news likely to be highly damaging to the preferred narrative of American media




Given the ubiquity of linking That One Onion Article every time there is a mass shooting in America, I'm always darkly tempted to post it when there is one elsewhere (it's not that infrequent).  Frankly, I feel bad even making the reference here: it's a shitty, inaccurate headline that makes people feel morally superior in their smugness and does nothing for the real people who have died, and their loved ones having to live through it.


I recognize I'm not doing much better in this regard right now, but clearly Canadian gun laws as they stand didn't stop this one (or the last one a few years ago, nor Australia's laws the Bondi massacre, and I could go on).  I'd like to think good law could do better, but it's hard to design non-authoritarian systems that cope with the idiosyncratic and sometimes violently unpredictable failure modes of the human psyche.  Sometimes there are signs (which would have lots of false positives to aggressively filter on), and sometimes people just break, it seems.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of February 9, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Unless you were researching rare ant species, which many of us learned about later.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of February 9, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


Red pill's somewhat accurate read on gender dynamics is simply pure envy that women in real life can have lots of casual sex if they want and, worse, there is little punishing them if they do.




While there is certainly an element of truth to this statement, it's missing the irony that while the average woman could do this, said average woman doesn't want casual sex anywhere near as much as the men thinking this do (certainly counterexamples exist).  There is a lot of comic/tragic source material in "men are annoyed that women could be having lots of casual sex (which they don't want), while women are annoyed that men keep propositioning them for casual sex (which they don't want)."  Lots of jealousy to go around, and a relative dearth of happy outcomes.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of February 9, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
The US declared a unilateral ceasefire after that bombing operation completed.  Iran doesn't have to accept it, but if they choose not to they shouldn't be surprised at a kinetic response.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of February 9, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Aren't the Japanese somewhat famous for ambivalent feelings on mixed-race children?  How strongly would a Japanese audience see her as their athlete?


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of February 9, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


Because the NBA is in the USA so he lives here for work and would never get a gold solo-carrying Cameroon.




For individual sports, this sometimes goes the other way: many sports cap athletes per country, so you sometimes see athletes that would miss a big national team fly the flag of an alternate citizenship despite training elsewhere just to make it to the competition.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of February 9, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
My intuition is that the Internet (The Algorithm, The Feed) killed monoculture dead, and partisanship is, if anything, somewhere between a scavenger feeding on its corpse and the attempts of the cleaved pieces to cling to some minimal signs of life independently.


I see slight signs of effort to re-form the scattered pieces, but I'm not holding my breath.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of February 9, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
IIRC Bad Bunny made some comments about not touring in the US for political reasons (ICE) right before the halftime show selection was announced.  I'm still not quite sure what to make of that, but the actual show didn't exactly lean strongly into the direction of those comments either.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of February 9, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
International sporting events are generally weird: the UK competes as a single "Team GB" (and I assume implicitly Northern Ireland and overseas territories) in the Olympics, but as separate "countries" (England, Scotland, Wales) in the World Cup.


American Samoa has a far weirder political status than Puerto Rico.  The US Virgin Islands also have their own Olympic team (and drive on the left).


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Small-Scale Question Sunday for February 8, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Kid Rock has played at a Super Bowl before: he was part of the infamous 2004 halftime show, although not as famously as Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of February 9, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


The performance was trashy with some sort of sugar plantation theme (which were never in America




There was (and remains) a decent amount of sugar cane production in Louisiana, as well as a smaller amount in other southern states (Florida, Texas, Georgia).  Hawaii also had a sugar crop from early Polynesians until this century, but that seems culturally distinct from Latin America.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of February 2, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
This would IMO be a great premise for a Star Trek episode.  Or maybe a sci-fi novel.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of February 2, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Three Felonies a Day came out back in 2011.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of February 2, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
If you're not careful here, you're going to end up with nonsensical results like "ATF can't arrest you for unlawfully possessing (or using) a machine gun, as long as you do so within 100 yards of an elementary school."  Or the DEA for drugs.  I guess there aren't any machine gun sanctuary states, so the local cops could still go after you, but those theoretically could exist in the current framework.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of February 2, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


Either the Republicans capitulate, or the Democrats shut down DHS, which they're fine with.




IIRC TSA (which is part of DHS) causing domestic air travel woes was one of the things that brought both sides to the table a couple months ago.  This part of the year isn't quite as busy, but I still would expect it to force eventual cooperation.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of February 2, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I think that might be part of it, but the first year of real decline was the last of Biden's term.  I don't know that 2025 full numbers are out yet.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of February 2, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


I mean just look at the world as it is today, Christian doctrine exists in a wholly different reality to what's actually happening in the world. The amount of [sin]...




I feel like you're sneaking in an assumption that Christianity exists as a system to reduce the absolute amount of "sin" in the world.  But it isn't: it freely acknowledged that we mortal humans are in a state of bondage to sinfulness, and only through God's grace exercises of free will in faith and good works can be found worthy.  If you really wanted to eliminate sin, you probably shouldn't keep popping out more sinners (although there are traditional Christian anti-natalists like the Shakers).  Instead it's a moral framework for self-improvement and


The vision of "Based Catholic Authoritarian State" that enforces morality with an arm of the state is tempting to quite a few folks, but I don't think is generally considered the victory condition you seem to think it is.  At best, it seems like those rules existed to encourage true faith (you don't have to go to church Sunday morning, but everything else is closed), not enforce it, although beliefs do differ somewhat.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of February 2, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


there is an opioid epidemic,




It surprisingly hasn't gotten much press coverage, but opioid overdose deaths in the US are actually down substantially over the last two years.  I'll treat it as good news, personally, but I have seen "we ran out of prone-to-addiction folks" mentioned as a possible cause.