Iran has responded to Trump’s assassination-by-drone of Qasem Soleimani with a barrage of ballistic missiles aimed at two US air bases in Iraq. So I guess Trump has gotten the war he wanted. Fuck.
This tweet offers some insight into the question of just how prepared the administration is for the conflict Trump has triggered.
Open thread. No trolls.
Trump seem to be calmer now.
It’s the Inverted Madman Theory : Trump act as if he were mad, but to be able to give up any ground he want without needing to explain himself.
(the Madman Theory was that Reagan tried to look like an uncontrolable, nuke obsessed psychotic manchild to bully other nations in accepting stuff without negociation)
@Moggie, Crip Dyke:
It’s like the comments elsewhere that anybody who explicitly has ‘rational’ or ‘skeptic’ in their usernames probably isn’t the former and is likely the latter about the wrong things.
@Ucalegont:
Others elsewhere have noted that by doing this, the U.S. has explicitly set any reform activities in Iran back by a generation. There were active reformist movements going on in Iran (not getting very far because the Council of Clerics is still in control, but they were there), but they’re now being silenced in much the same way people calling for measured response in the U.S. were after 9/11.
True. I think part of what bothers me is that, even though I know that I learned a lot and taught a lot over many years, when I first became a “world expert” on DV targeting trans* trans folk in 1993 or so, it was a lot like being “world expert” on the number of lentils of different kinds in Crip Dyke’s kitchen cupboard:
I didn’t have great answers, and none of my answers were very precise, but fuck if there was any competition for the title.
The only thing that eventually made my expertise worth anything was that I had enough humility about my knowledge level on DV issues compared to the folks who had been working in the field (some as much as 25 years by then) to shut the fuck up and listen.
That doesn’t really seem like a skill Mr. Expert has in any quantity.
lol
I think “conclude” is the more appropriate verb.
@Jenora Feuer
Mainly, it’s that bigots and edgelords thought they could rebrand themselves to be more palatable by having an excuse rooted in what they perceive to be skepticism or realism. For instance, “race realism” instead of racism or “gender critical” instead of TERF.
@Crip Dyke
How many kinds of lentils do you have in your cupboard? FWIW I think I have only one kind at present.
@Jerona Feuer:
I’m very ignorant about Iranian matters but what you say looks a lot like it. I also suspect that it is convenient for “the US” to keep the ayatollah regime alive.
Hi, everyone. Shut up, Woody, you are neither responsible nor qualified to talk to me and it’s not funny anymore. I’ve decided to live my age.
Thanks for the package and link to the ruleset everyone. I know I am late but I will do my best to understand it and create some better housing and infrastructure of my user. A new picture is definitely in order. It will probably be furry and maybe not as nice as other kittens. It’s not something I am going to rush. The clothing stuff needs to fit and be practical. I hope you have not taken her too seriously. She talks a lot of scary talk, but she is really just very stressed out.
Please moderate any content of mine any way you want. I’m glad that there is no war yet and the plans for the coming years seem to be much less apocalyptic than I feared. I hope she does a good job at the confusing stuff she does. I’m very happy that I am not really the one doing her job.
@Naglfar:
There’s that, but there’s also a certain amount of self-image reinforcement involved. You get the people who were involved in skepticism when it was mainly dealing with Bigfoot and Nessie, and only ran into the fact that skepticism demanded they re-examine their own beliefs afterward. So it’s not so much ‘rebranding’ as it is refusing to admit their worldview is inconsistent, because their worldview includes both ‘more rational than thou’ and ‘don’t question free market magic’, and when the two ran into each other it was the ‘rational’ part that gave way (but they can’t allow themselves to admit it).
Basically, for a lot of them, I don’t think it is an excuse, it’s two well-entrenched beliefs that they refuse to accept are actually in conflict.
(That’s not better, of course. If anything, it’s worse, because somebody who accepts they’re lying is easier to convince to stop.)
@Lyzzy,
Don’t feel the need to change your Gravatar pic if you liked the little elven(?) one enough to use it. Animal avatars are not required here; just that a bunch of people liked theirs for various reasons to use them. If you like the original one best, stay with that.
@Redsilkphoenix
Thanks for the offer, but I really want Lisa to become more catlike. She has planed to do so for quite some time and was only worried that time was running out.
@Rhuu
You haven’t lived until you get an FBX file with hundreds of objects inside forming a beautiful and complicated 3D scene. And the objects are named Cube001, Cube001.2, Cube001.3, … Cube001.468 and so on.
@Redsilverphoenix,
Also, thanks for the hint. I made a mistake in the drawing and managed to lock myself out of my own virtual living space. It should work better now. My software is still confusing and new to me, but I am improving and trying my best to concentrate on doing it properly instead of fast.
News about the Tehran plane crash: a plane from Kiev landed in Toronto with 138 unexpectedly empty seats.
That means the vast majority of 176 people on the Tehran plane were headed to Canada, mostly because they live here and were coming back from the Christmas break.
63 were traveling on Canadian passports; the rest might be dual citizens, permanent residents, or here on a visa (eg a student visa). Several universities have reported they’ve lost students or faculty.
I’m (selfishly) hoping I don’t hear any names I know.
@numerobis
It’s heartbreaking for all the victims and the people who loved them. I hope your loved ones are safe.
@ Crip Dyke,
I really appreciated everything you said in the other thread. You took down every single one of Sapphire’s points, and I learned a lot from reading what you said. You really know how to cut to the heart of things. I admire you for being so patient.
@Crip Dyke, Hippodameia
Seconding all of this.
@Redsilkphoenix,
Sorry about the misunderstanding, but that other role wasn’t exactly an elvish anime character. She is indeed some sort of magical girl*boy*other but I’m unsure about virtual lineage (I don’t often have a reason to care enough in the real world ). Anyway, she has less to do with movies and cosplay and more to do with playing roles and throwing some sort of dice. This is a hobby that can be fun for years and years but also can can lead to very bad feelings for those involved, not to mention problems in the real world. There are a lot of not-so-traditionally-male-guys in role-playing but not every one of them is having a good time.
From my point of view, this is a huge difference, because people easily get the wrong idea about role models (I sure did) and that is one of the reasons my relation to time and space is currently as chaotic as it sounds. In my opinion, one does not want to smile and nod their way into an exciting life before being ready. I do feel ready but I would caution everyone attempts this: Please oh please be careful, as days like today push you towards your limits.
Anyhow, today was a stressful day, let’s see about tomorrow, I still think that I want to be more catlike but I have other projects that need to be addressed.
It’s funny, y’know, because I ***can*** be patient. When I’m not too hurt, when I have the energy, when I think the person will benefit (or even when I’m in a shitty place but my kids are involved – they get all the extra benefits of the doubt b/c they’re my kids), I can be patient as fuck.
Then other times all I can do is yell, “FUCK YOU!” over and over at the top of my lungs.
I don’t know what switched on all my patience in that other thread. Frankly, I sometimes wish I could access it more often. But on the other hand, swatting down a troll can be very fun and satisfying.
@ Crip Dyke
I would love to see your comments (edited as necessary) as a post on your blog. I think all that deserves a wider audience.
Ok, seems like this thread has cooled down a little once again. I seem to have spent about 24 hours awake which felt like a lot less. I confused some important stuff and am still not quite sure what happened, but I found the kitten I was looking for and have used it as my profile picture for now (I am looking for some species of cat that combines elegance with the ability to be fast and skillful and this one was special to me).
I will work on the rest of my virtual flat later now that I have a proper avatar and remembered the importance of keys and how to use them properly. Seems like everyone else was a lot less stressed than me which is humbling, but at least I think I am beginning to get the jokes even though I have two comments.
@Rhuu
I’m sorry for the confusion of literal with actual burns. I admit that I am still curious about burns and trauma treatment but I really have to start with the basics again and learn how to communicate better and with less lag or false diffidence. If there had been any actual calls for action my hands would have been too shaky to even serve soup or coffee (which is currently a very powerful stimulant for me). Guess I’ll put on more of that special cream that makes everything better and softer and maybe try to dream about the moon. Also, I think I will have to find some alternative to scented candles because they are based on fire and I think I am rather hot-headed at the moment. Maybe a humidifier with mint oil could work? It smells really calm and reassuring and I like
peppermint tea. I really should have checked if that cup was part of my bag, it would have been a more relaxing evening…but I am glad that other people have great plans too and that even though my timeline estimate was wrong, it wasn’t that horribly wrong.
So, since this maybe-war is all so very depressing, and I have the privilege to not be directly affected unless WWIII breaks out, here’s a bit of vapid fluff news: 2020 Emojis.
Unicode 12.1 released an expansion on non-gendered and multi-racial (i.e. multiple figures with different skintones in a single image) emojis late last year. There still isn’t anywhere near a full range of options, but it helps. Apple and Google have supposedly already included them on most devices; expect the other major platforms to include them sometime in the first half of 2020.
[No link included, I couldn’t find a relevant one on a short notice.]
One of the recent internal documents criticizes Unicode’s approach to non-gendered emoji, claiming that the approach so far has mostly been geared toward giving cis people an option to not specify a specific gender rather than nonbinary representation. Link for the curious:
https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2020/20004-gender-update.pdf
Unicode 13.0 will only slightly expand on 12.1, but will instead mostly include a variety of new things. It’s heavy on the “animals” and “objects” categories. Expect most major platforms to release them sometime in the second half of 2020 (with Apple and Google probably being the earliest, as usual). List here:
https://unicode.org/emoji/future/emoji-candidates.html
Note that the above list is not finalized; nothing new will be added at this stage, everything is pending final approval, and there’s a chance one or two will get yanked at the last minute. It’s happened before.
@epitome
No worries about virtual hugs. I was too stressed last morning and this leads to my intuition taking over and me trying desperately to save everyone — in this sense, I sometimes want a virtual distance, so I don’t accidentally brush away nice people when I have to rush (and I know that I do rush too much at the moment). It’s really nice listening to the people who are able to stay calm in a crisis in here and your comments helped me in staying calmer despite the time lag I encounter and my overdrive for information, reassurance or a chance to do something positive. It was a bit overwhelming for me because my last vacation was a bit too intense to be relaxing (I learned a lot though). Thanks a lot and have a nice day, I’m finally tired enough to go to sleep now.
@Pink Haired Old Lady
I assume you mean that Sapphire thread?
Yeah, maybe I’ll do that.
Since peoples seem to not recognize him, the old avatar of Lizzy is a SNES game character of intentionally ambiguous gender, which at the time I found super cool because of that.
Japan, the land of being simultaneously very progressive and very conservative.