Incompetence of the powerful
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The Perpetuation of Our Political Institutions
“If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide.” – Abraham Lincoln Lincoln’s words come from the Lyceum Address, more formally titledThe Perpetuation of Our Political Institutions:Address Before the Young Men’s Lyceum of Springfield, IllinoisJanuary 27, Continue reading
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It figures
There is a competition called the International Math Olympiad (IMO). It’s an international competition for high school students. It consists of six questions that competitors have to answer within a time limit. There are only six questions, but these are extremely difficult questions, of course. At least at the level of excellent, but pre-university mathematicians. Continue reading
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Blaming
Politics in the US seems to be more about nonsensical blaming than it used to be. I think it’s because once they’re elected, the greedheads and powerheads just assume that the rest of us are stupid, and will just accept whatever tripe comes out of their mouths. This may be at least partly due to Continue reading
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History continues
I had never heard of Haskell Indian Nations University in Kansas before, but what’s going on there is yet another case of large scale immorality and incompetence. In this case by the regime of the orange baby, but it’s been going on a lot longer. In the linked article, Haines Eason asks: “Can you name Continue reading
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Just tariffic
The orange baby just sent a “letter” (evidently on its twitter platform) to South Korea threatening to impose large tariffs on South Korean goods unless they do something about the “Trade Deficits (sic) engendered by your Tariff, and Non Tariff, Policies and Trade Barriers.” South Korea and the US have had a free trade agreement, Continue reading
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Business as usual
“As with Musk, what is striking about {Sam} Altman is not that he is a rich guy who is concerned with increasing the wealth of rich guys. That is to be expected. What leaps out to me is the extent to which these men who fancy themselves visionaries are actually sunk neck-deep in the dreary Continue reading
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Future infamy
Funny thing happened in 1857. The US Supreme Court heard the case Dred Scott v. Sandford. Their ruling was that African Americans could never be considered citizens of the US, and that Congress could not prohibit the practice of slavery in the territories of the rapidly expanding United States. The decision was written by Roger Continue reading
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Orange Gangster
The term “gangster empire” seems pretty apt. The orange baby has, throughout its adult life, functioned like a crime boss (or at least like what normal people understand a “crime boss” to be. Source material: Lucky Loser. “We have now entered a new phase of Western-led global savagery — prefigured by the genocide in Gaza Continue reading
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There is a FASCIST DICTATOR in the US now
This is not something to worry about maybe happening; it’s immediate and real. The orange baby actually was elected for real. Then handed a “can’t be prosecuted for anything” card by John Roberts’ court. Now it’s not going to allow any possibility (or election) to remove it from office, because that’s how fascist dictators operate. Continue reading
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Just the latest version of nonsense
The Pessimists Archive posted an article about how modern refrigeration really started in the US in the late 1840s, when the inventor Dr. John Gorrie served ice to guests in the summer, in Florida. He got a patent on his new process a couple years later. But this was Florida, which has been…well, Florida…for a Continue reading
About Me
I’m Pete Harbeson, a writer located near Boston, Massachusetts. In addition to writing my own content, I’ve learned to translate for my loquacious and opinionated pup Chocolate Bossypaws. I shouldn’t be surprised, but she mostly speaks in doggerel. You can find her contributions tagged with Chocolatiana.
Check out my other blog, Techlimitics, where I’m grappling with the nature of simplicity.