Charles Xavier Van Damme
@charlesxavier.bsky.social
Nerd, Bostonian in exile, Catherine Wheel superfan. “One half of my heart is Erin's, and the other half is America's. God bless America, and ever preserve her the asylum of all the oppressed of the earth, is the sincere prayer of my heart” - M. Corcoran
One of the great joys of my adult life has been realizing that I can just pick up a new skill every so often, take a fun little class in it weekly for a year or two, and simply enjoy meeting people and getting medium proficient and not attempting to become professional in it at all!
You actually going to endorse Daniel Biss, then?
Kat Abughazaleh@katmabu.bsky.social · yesterdaywelcome to the Losers Backing Winners club, it’s very exclusive
If Gretchen Whitmer didn’t have delusions of being president, we could have been saved months of tedious discourse.
40 years ago AIDS was a death sentence, it destroyed an entire generation of young gay people. Now? Magic Johnson is 66, and has been living with it for 35 years. Miss me with this nostalgic BS
Constantine@ajaxsinger.bsky.social · yesterdayFood, man. Food is so much better than it was in 1986. All of it. Poor-people food, restaurant food, fresh food, frozen food. Food is just a hell of a lot better.
I’m aware that “Christopher Nolan is a genius” is an extremely mid-brow opinion. I like being middle brow. I’m pretty committed to middle brow as a lifestyle really
“I don’t care about the politics” Man didn’t say shit until he saw how bad the polling was.
Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · 2d agoMoreno on Max Miller: "My daughter lives in constant fear of this man ... you can't fathom what that makes me feel like when the dad's number one job is to protect your kids... if there's any minimum standard for being an elected official, he feels to meet it. I don't care about the politics at all"
Trump rallies to be broadcast 24/7 into Tehran
James Carville hasn’t worked on an election in this country in more than 20 years, we don’t have to pretend he’s the “Democratic Establishment”
I was at Costco today and the woman in line scanning my card said “wow, you’ve been a member 22 years! That’s how old I am” and I think I gained arthritis in all my joints simultaneously.
There are lots of reasons why people’s happiness has gone down as their material wellbeing has going up, and I think an underrated one is that people make terrible choices about what will make them happy.
Laurasaurus@laurasaurus.bsky.social · 3d agoYou can also apply it to things besides physical goods. Lots of people have preferences that are short-sighted and make them less happy in the long run.
“I don’t know if he’s a liar or if he’s deeply stupid. Also he has my unconditional support”
Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · 4d agoSen. John Kennedy on Trump's blatant reflecting pool lies: "The president says it was caused by vandals. I don't know if he really believes that or it's part of his political messaging or he's just thinking out loud ... he grows anxious when he has an unexpressed thought."
Florida AG: Catholic schools must allow students to opt out of vaccines on religious grounds The Catholic Church: Getting the vaccine is a moral obligation I dunno, kinda feels like the Rs are more concerned with culture war BS than religious freedom www.npr.org/2022/01/10/1...
On COVID vaccinations, Pope says health care is a 'moral obligation'
Francis says individuals have a responsibility to care for themselves "and this translates into respect for the health of those around us."
npr.org
Dorit Reiss@doritreiss.bsky.social · 5d agoThis sets up a clash: schools can claim this violates their religious freedom. "Florida [AG] is telling Catholic schools to allow students to opt out of mandated vaccine requirements on religious grounds, or they may lose state voucher funding." www.miamiherald.com/news/local/e... 1/2
Alex Chilton by the Replacements is better than anything Big Star ever did (and better than anything else the ‘Mats did)
lil miss big boy@lighter.bsky.social · 5d agoPost your hottest music take. Mine is New Order is better than Joy Division.
Between this bullshit, the Thunder owner stealing the Sonics, the Grizzlies moving to Memphis and the Blazers owner threatening to move and trashing Portland in the process - why does the NBA hate the Pacific Northwest so much?!?
Defector@defector.com · 7d agoWNBA suspends Seattle Storm minority owner for being rude to transphobic shitheads:
"Discontent is the luxury of the well-to-do. If you've got to live here, you might as well like it." (Doc Tydon)
Elon Musk has one trillion reasons not to destroy his company, but he's decided poasting his shit takes is more important. But an AI won't have issues with prioritization?
Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · 6d agoBARTIROMO: It feels like we're moving into a Terminator-type world HASSETT: I hope not and I think not. AI companies definitely have an incentive not to destroy the world. That would destroy their companies too.
I think Haberman was broadly correct that Trump doesn't care if someone's gay or not, she just didn't understand/care that he didn't give a shit about being extremely cruel to gay and especially trans people to appeal to his voters.
Parker Molloy@parkermolloy.com · 6d agoI'll never forgive Haberman for being the person who pushed the "Trump is actually pro-LGBTQ!" argument in 2016. Naturally, she ignored criticism of her "reporting" on that.
The actual Galaxy Brain take is that the reason rap took off was that it was cheaper to be a hip hop artist than it was to buy an instrument and get lessons, which means… Reagan’s tax policies are responsible for rap music’s ascent.
Faine Greenwood@faineg.bsky.social · 6d agowhat do you even say at this point
This is why I want President Osoff/AOC/Pritzker to spend the next four years prosecuting every single one of these assholes. The good news is that they’ve been so blatant in their their won’t be a lack of evidence.
Faine Greenwood@faineg.bsky.social · 6d agolooking at the headlines and reflecting once again on how all the smart, hard-working, honest people I know feel like they’re going at least a little insane in our era of total Stupid Immoral Asshole ascendancy
I use AI quite a bit in my day job, and I see how it can be a useful tool. But it's telling that as the adoption of AI has gone from "explosive" to "steady growth" these companies sound more and more desperate. This isn't any more the singularity than Excel was.
Dare Obasanjo@carnage4life.bsky.social · last wk.“What we need to explain to the world: Number one, we are close to creating a genie that can grant any wish. Number two, we are going to make sure that our first wishes broadly benefit humanity” - Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI — This is definitely the opposite of Anthropic’s AI kills all jobs pitch.
Mr. Douthat didn't get where he is by a keen analysis of the world around him
Ned Resnikoff@resnikoff.bsky.social · last wk.Genuinely bizarre that Douthat would give up the cushiest job in journalism, where management clearly loves him, to join a newsroom whose defining attributes are its internal dysfunction and the constant stream of embarrassing leaks from disgruntled staffers.
Open the schools! (The schools, in this case, being classic Looney Tunes)
Widow's Bay DSA@gonebabygone.bsky.social · last wk.I saw someone suggest Nolan made Odysseus more brooding because Americans don't have any cultural background with the trickster hero and that might be the "Charlie Brown had hoes" of cultural anthropology
Christopher Nolan, since I know you’re desperate for the advice of a random middle aged BlueSky shitpoaster, hear me out: Christopher Nolan’s “Chronicles of Amber” Tom Hardy as Corwin, Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Random, Cillian Murphy as Eric. Michael Caine as Dworkin. Call me
