Dolly Parton, Queen in the South, First of Her Name, bringer of knowledge, Slayer of Jolene, long may she reign

my wife has a friend who sent Dolly Parton a painting she made & a letter explaining how much Dolly's music meant to her while she was transitioning. Dolly responded to it personally & paid for her top surgery. Sounds like an urban legend but it's real. I think we're going to more stories like this.

Man, if you ever want to feel wise, clever, and well informed, watch depositions of cops on youtube Q: "Why did you arrest her?" A: "She was trying to stop officers from going into her apartment." Q: "Did you have a warrant? A: "No." Q: "Was there some kind of emergency happening in the apartment?"

Also, I am begging people to understand that when people say things like "no men in..." they're referring to trans women. I don't have the energy to deal with people who think that allies are pulling some fucking reverse Uno card here. If someone meant "and trans women are not men," they'd say it.

This whole situation, the way that trans people keep getting fucking insulted over and over and over even though we don't have a fucking thing to do with this, just really fucking sucks. I fucking hate it. I really don't need to see a constant flood of articles of "allies" calling me a man, ffs.

We’re just feeding people to the CTE machine

James Downie@jamescdownie.bsky.social · 20h ago

"Researchers considered every former N.F.L. player who died from 2016 to 2021. There were 878. Some died in their 20s, some in their 80s, most in between. The study’s main finding was simple math: At least 215 of those 878 former players — 24.5 percent — had C.T.E."

If humanity survives this era - which I doubt - almost everything we did will be seen as a cautionary tale for future humans. I mean this isn't quite hubris, but it's damn close:

Hypervisible @hypervisible.blacksky.app · yesterday

A consistent pitch by the makers of ai wearables is that they solve the problem of getting to know your child. www.businessinsider.com/parents-brea...

Absolutely no shade on Adam here at all but this is a great opportunity to do a general PSA that while ARCs are close to the finished book, they are often different in meaningful ways. In my case, there's one chapter that was at least 50% rewritten. #BookSky

Adam, as the world falls down 🏳️‍🌈@trickstertao.thechaoticneutral.com · 2d ago

Been reading it from an ARC but felt guilty for enjoying something so much for free, so buying this now.

props to Mary Douglas for turning this apparently regular domestic frustration into an academic publication rather than a totally justified murder. (Deciphering a Meal, 1972)

Minister @melaniejolycan.bsky.social we need 'mandatory' 🍁 labelling. 🇨🇦s want this. Retailers do not do this voluntarily. 🇨🇦s grassroots #boycottusa movement is needed more now. Mandatory 🍁 labelling helps the movement. Please move on this @liberalca.bsky.social #cdnpoli

Andrew Bolter@lifestar57.bsky.social · 3d ago

“Loblaws has removed country-of-origin signs from fresh produce signage in some stores, and the CFIA fined Loblaw-owned stores $10,000 each for falsely promoting imported food as Canadian.”

This is one of the many arguments I make when talking about the threat that is Christian Nationalism in church settings. It is indefensibly bad theology.

LNRJBL@lnrjbl.bsky.social · 3d ago

This is some weird stuff. The obsession with preserving "western civilization" and "America" is dare I say, idolatrous. God's kingdom is not bound by national boundaries.

I remember trying to convince people that these ideas weren’t as fringe as they thought. I hate that I’m being proven right on this point.

Samuel Perry@profsamperry.bsky.social · 3d ago

Pretty hard to pretend this culture-warring pronatalism is fringe when the de facto leader of the SBC is espousing it. baptistnews.com/article/mohl...

Fuck tenure, I want revenge.

The Times Delenda Est

flyingrodent@flyingrodent.bsky.social · 3d ago

We’re not sorry and we’ll do it again. Fuck you.

It sure does. Rage baking and/or procrastibaking are mindfulness training. Also, by the end, you have something delicious and there is a sense of accomplishment for creating it.

Dee Crescitelli@dcrescitelli.bsky.social · 3d ago

I often rage bake! It really helps!

Neo-colonialism. Gebru knows this quite well, but if you have missed it, much of the data that creates "AI", that LLMs are based on, gets processed by developing world intellectual labor.

Timnit Gebru@timnitgebru.blacksky.app · 4d ago

Friends, have you seen the investigation on UK students hiring Kenyans to write their papers & dissertations? I assume it wasn't cross Atlantic news as the media only seems to be interested in laundering eugenics to the mainstream. www.theguardian.com/education/20...

Ten years ago a neighbour who lives on the park up the street screened the final Tragically Hip show on a huge screen on the front of his house. By word of mouth alone — my kids came and got me — a crowd gathered. I think about that night often.

Kara McNair@karamcnair.bsky.social · 3d ago

Timely. CBC is rebroadcasting the most Canadian event of all time TONIGHT at 7ET (21 min from now) - the Tragically Hip’s final concert. No idea if people outside Canada can watch it. Canadians can watch it on cable, OTA, or on CBC Gem. www.cbc.ca/music/tragic...

@ketanjoshi.co keeping it real. Watch out for AI crap, people (I’ve made this type of mistake myself.

Ketan Joshi@ketanjoshi.co · 3d ago

An AI generated fake climate solution with 1.5k RTs on bsky. Tell me again how 'the left is against AI' It extremely clearly is not, even though it *should* be

this is absolutely going in textbooks one day

NOTUS@notus.com · 4d ago

A 1-year-old baby appeared in immigration court without legal representation this week in Arizona and received an instruction: File an asylum application before the next hearing or face deportation. https://www.notus.org/immigration/baby-asylum-hearing

Again 100% correct. Turner was right. #cdnpoli

iTunes Brian 🇨🇦 🇮🇪 🇷🇸 🇺🇦@itunesbrian.bsky.social · 4d ago

The 17th Prime Minister of Canada (the late) John Turner is now vindicated! He warned Canadians about a free trade agreement with America. Brian Mulroney won the argument, & this is why we are in this position today.

A man in Spokane attacked a trans man with a hatchet. The man smashed his windows and tore down pride flags in the front before attacking Alexander Wolfe. He said he did it to "save the kids." Wolfe was had to get 3 staples in his skull as a result. www.spokesman.com/stories/2026...

'I just fought for my life on my front lawn': Transgender man attacked with hatchet at South Hill home

A 25-year-old Spokane man is facing a felony assault charge after police say he damaged a transgender man’s South Hill home and then attacked him with a hatchet, fracturing his skull.

spokesman.com

It’s worse than this. Having been in the room with many of them (long ago, before I knew they were psychopaths), the tycoons who are left running the industry have an active contempt for ordinary people, including their own workers. They actively want to oppress, control and punish them.

Amanda Mull@amandamull.bsky.social · 4d ago

Tech execs do not have, like, a theory of mind for people who aren’t tech execs. If they did, they wouldn’t be so frequently baffled by how repulsive normal people think their whole deal is right now

I want to circle back to something that was framed as 'proof of guilt' when actually it was protection from harassment. Why did the police drop the investigation into Dave Harris' harassment of Prof Jason Arday? Racism? This could have been nipped in the bud then and there.

Americans 🇺🇸 I’m talking to you. Canada is your closest ally and trading partner. But Trump is about to make everything you buy from us insanely expensive. For you. Right now would be an ideal time to contact your senator and house rep to remind them they have a role in all this. (202) 224-3121

You can’t understand it unless you recognise: the people doing it *loved it*, they had an absolute blast, just as they always do kicking fuck out of some despised unperson, until suddenly all their fun was ruined and they were left babbling excuses.

I was quite enjoying not-remembering this man existed. Please return to your hidey-hole, Mr. Barbaric Cultural Practices Hotline.

The Walrus@thewalrus.ca · 5d ago

Chris Alexander’s mayoral bid has split the right in Toronto. As the former Conservative cabinet minister's old controversies resurface, journalist Taylor Noakes considers whether or not Alexander’s divisive federal record will derail his municipal run: https://ow.ly/pzon50ZC5jr

Having never heard of it, I looked up the LCI. I had a mouthful of chocolate chip cookie while reading the first sentences of the Wikipedia page on it and -- quite literally -- felt suddenly ill. That any university would authorize such a conference to happen on its campus is revolting.

Nate O@nateo.bsky.social · 5d ago

Everything comes back home: the LCI, a secret white supremacist, pseudo-science conference held on UCL property (and used their branding w/o UCL’s permission), accidentally revealed by Toby Young, who was personally invited. Young was disgraced and reappeared with his ‘Free Speech Union’

I'm quietly unfollowing people openly posting AI slop. Particularly egregious is AI slop expressly produced to for the post itself. You don't need to AI to express a simple sentiment.

This is not a secretary or assistant for the local flooring company... when Trump's account posted ‘bomb the shit out of them’ that was Natalie's fingers that typed that

The Dogs Ate Pills. Gen X references abound. What does that mean for…. During the week a dog named Bunsen texts his family. Those texts are saved. Today they are shared. This is Texts From Bunsen! #TextsFromBunsen