Incredible to see a Generals reference in the wild, it was such an interesting entry in C&C.

I 100% agree with the sentiment, but you can’t really compare not following religious rituals and what the religious consider murder. The existence of injustice is enough to mean something to someone. That’s how empathy works.

People get up in arms over the death penalty, and I don’t think it’s right to tell them that if they don’t like it, just don’t commit a capital crime or pay attention to scheduled executions.

The same for both Ukraine and Israel/Palestine, people are demonstrating and attempting to bring their beliefs to the government. The people who have true conversations about abortion see these as equivalent.

I don’t think they are blaming their religion for their voting in so much as outlining that their convictions that are informed by/in line with their religion (life begins at conception) makes abortion their largest single issue. Those of honest conviction see abortion as murder, and specifically murder of a baby, and that trumps the rest of the ticket. There are plenty of grifters and hypocrites on that side too, but I would hazard that the “silent majority” on the right are the sincere convictions type.

Can you really choose what you believe, though? Could you make yourself stop believing in gravity or anything else you truly believe in? Could you make yourself believe in flat earth if someone told you too? The mind isn’t something so malleable that you get to pick and choose your beliefs like a salad bar. Religious beliefs are one of the hardest to change, with even those leaving organized religion ending up frequently still believing in a God of some kind.

I grew up in a religious household but open minded and science oriented, so I deconverted and consider myself an atheist. I whole heartedly agree that the world would be a better place without religion, it’s the world’s greatest con job, but let’s not kid ourselves about the spectrum of the word choice here. It’s a (lesser) reverse of the religious telling anyone that isn’t heteronormative in any way that those are choices. It’s all brain chemistry occurring in a black box that we know vanishingly little about for how much we have studied it.

That is true of everything that isn’t barred by the fundamentals of physics, and disingenuous and you know it.

You can murder people, you can enslave others, Hindus can slaughter and eat cows, etc, you just don’t want to because it’s illegal.

For most religious people the tenents of their faith are core to their being and not something they just kinda like. Otherwise they tend to deconstruct from their religion after the inertia runs out. That’s why religion in the West is on a downward trajectory outside of Islam which is driven by immigration.

I fully support reproductive rights as much as the next guy, but let’s not pretend that the person outlined above single issue voting against abortion isn’t looking at the other side as otherwise great but you have to accept a few sanctioned murders. You would probably be single issue voting if we had a modern Aztec government that was close to a utopia but practiced human sacrifices to Quetzalcoatl because it maintains prosperity.

Librewolf didn’t take as much adjustment as I would have expected, and it even supports toning down specific security postures for QoL niceties like Firefox account sync. Made the switch just to try it out and haven’t gone back. Excited to see what people come up with for more forks/hard forks in the future.

Just tried out Libation for the first time this week, very happy so far. Further testing of results is still required, but this was an excellent suggestion.

Finally got around to backing up my over 200 audiobooks in a DRM-free format after this post reminded me it was on my to-do list. Libation is pretty damn good.

You should if you want to be a science writer or academic, which lets be honest is a better comparison here. If your job involves latin for names and descriptions then you probably should take at least a year or two of latin if you don’t want to make mistakes here and there out of ignorance.

Depending on your forecasted capacity needs, Ubiquity does have some attractive options depending on your comfort with managed vs unmanaged switches is. I am making some assumptions based on homelab tendencies. I have been very happy with the UniFi ecosystem personally, though I know it’s not everyone’s cup of tea. The Dream Machine Pro has been very good for me both operationally and reliability wise, and there are expansion options for 10Gb Ethernet or SFP+ switches that cover most (pro/prosumer) price ranges.

They are definitely not the best bang for buck necessarily, and I have not tried any MikroTik alternatives to directly compare so take my opinions with a big grain of salt. I work in a purely Cisco environment and am used to working almost exclusively in CLI, but I found the UniFi GUI and environment easy enough to pick up with a little effort. UniFi firewall is too permissive by default if you are using something like the Dream Machine as the front end, but as a Boundary non-expert it was not too difficult to configure satisfactorily. Wireless APs are pretty great too.

I can’t help but read the ph as an f, even though it is clearly a concatenation.

And there you go from the moral/intellectual high ground, mocking them as toddlers and saying it’s right and normal to laugh and make fun of them.

I can’t stand vaccine hesitancy and anti-science bullshit. I’ve had to deal with this becoming a Fox News thing in my own family, and lost too many people from alternative “Eastern” medicine over “Western” medical science. But the mockery and ridicule only feeds into the Christian persecution complex most of that rural white population already embraces, and causes the wagons to circle.

That may or may not be entirely true, but you have to admit that was a damn good burn. Someone had to say it, it was too perfect a setup not to.

Dear God yes, why the fuck is my Fold trying to install fucking candy crush and a bunch of other games every time it does a software update?! And recently it has a new system app trying to install games as well, that comes back if dismissed in any other way than opening it to get the offers and then clicking on the never option. And apparently never is like 3-6 months according to Samsung, because it does come back.

I really hope the Pixel Fold 2 is a solid phone, because that is where I plan to migrate to after nothing but Samsung phones since the Note 3, which was has been all downhill since TBH (RIP microSD cards).

So your argument is sticking your fingers in your ears and shouting “la la la, I can’t hear you”? Just because you don’t believe that a law would ever be used, doesn’t mean it isn’t real and cannot be used. Just because a law was ratified in 1930 doesn’t mean it no longer exists. There is not statue of limitations on how long laws exist for, and laws don’t die of old age.

Yeah, no shit the congress is the only body that can raise an army. No one is arguing otherwise. The army and the militia are two different things. The President activates the National Guard to active duty, done by Executive Order.

Just because the draft is unpopular doesn’t mean that you couldn’t be drafted tomorrow if WW3 broke out. Until it is repealed, it is still the law and can be used. Until there is a lawsuit that takes one of the many laws surrounding the unorganized militia before the Supreme Court and it gets ruled unconstitutional, it’s still legal. Texas, California, New York, Ohio, and Florida all have similar laws to Virginia, none have been struck down as unconstitutional or a violation of the 13th Amendment.

The idea that a foreign power could invade the continental US or that we could have another actual civil war is or should be ridiculous, but that in and of itself won’t stop either of those things from happening. If they do happen, watch how quickly people get drafted into their State Guard when a shooting war is taking place.

Here is Virginia’s laws on this matter for example, which mirror multiple other states laws:

Article 8. Unorganized Militia. § 44-85. Regulations and penalties.

Whenever any part of the unorganized militia is ordered out, it shall be governed by the same rules and regulations and be subject to the same penalties as the National Guard.

1930, p. 965; Michie Code 1942, § 2673(71); 2015, c. 221.

§ 44-86. When ordered out for service.

The commander in chief may at any time, in order to execute the law, suppress riots or insurrections, or repel invasion, or aid in any form of disaster wherein the lives or property of citizens are imperiled or may be imperiled, order out the National Guard and the inactive National Guard or any parts thereof, or the whole or any part of the unorganized militia. When the militia of this Commonwealth, or a part thereof, is called forth under the Constitution and laws of the United States, the Governor shall order out for service the National Guard, or such part thereof as may be necessary; and he may likewise order out such a part of the unorganized militia as he may deem necessary. During the absence of organizations of the National Guard in the service of the United States, their state designations shall not be given to new organizations.

1930, p. 965; Michie Code 1942, § 2673(72); 1958, c. 393.

§ 44-87. Manner of ordering out for service.

The Governor shall, when ordering out the unorganized militia, designate the number to be so called. He may order them out either by calling for volunteers or by draft.

1930, p. 965; Michie Code 1942, § 2673(73); 1944, p. 25; 1958, c. 393; 1984, c. 765.

§ 44-88. Incorporation into the Virginia Defense Force.

Whenever the Governor orders out the unorganized militia or any part thereof, it shall be incorporated into the Virginia Defense Force until relieved from service.

1944, p. 25; Michie Suppl. 1946, § 2673(73); 1984, c. 765; 2011, cc. 572, 586.

§ 44-89. Draft of unorganized militia.

If the unorganized militia is ordered out by draft, the Governor shall designate the persons in each county and city to make the draft, and prescribe rules and regulations for conducting the same.

1930, p. 965; Michie Code 1942, § 2673(74).

§ 44-90. Punishment for failure to appear.

Every member of the militia ordered out for duty, or who shall volunteer or be drafted, who does not appear at the time and place ordered, shall be liable to such punishment as a court-martial may direct.

1930, p. 965; Michie Code 1942, § 2673(75); 1958, c. 393.

I hate to break it to you, but yes, the President does have that power as the Commander in Chief. Multiple States also have the same codified in State law, and the Governor can do so as well. There are prescriptions for both volunteer requests from the unorganized militia, as well as drafting them as well.

If called to arms by the President, they would be armed like/by the National Guard and/or requested to bring their own guns. The unorganized militia is also known as the reserve militia to the Guard. Hopefully there is never an invasion severe enough to call the entire country to arms, but it is 100% possible.

Everything is a law that can be changed, even the Constitution. It takes more to change certain laws, like the Constitution, and the Constitution prevents certain things from being part of laws. If you disagree with the 2nd, convince 75% of the country you are correct and we can change the law.

You forget that every adult (codes say male technically, so you could try disarming women and see what the supreme court says) not involved in military service is legally considered to be the unorganized militia, and only the national guard are considered the organized militia.

10 U.S. Code § 246 - Militia: composition and classes:

(a) The militia of the United States consists of all able-bodied males at least 17 years of age and, except as provided in section 313 of title 32, under 45 years of age who are, or who have made a declaration of intention to become, citizens of the United States and of female citizens of the United States who are members of the National Guard.

(b) The classes of the militia are— (1) the organized militia, which consists of the National Guard and the Naval Militia; and (2) the unorganized militia, which consists of the members of the militia who are not members of the National Guard or the Naval Militia.