Acilius
@acilius.bsky.social
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This is why I disagree when people say police unions aren’t real unions: they are often extraordinarily effective at securing gains for the workers who are members of them and advancing their interests. Those interests are just often not our interests! We sit on the management side of the table.
I know this from researching police salaries for a recent paper: many cities have a set of officers taking home more than $500k and they can’t really explain why
oaklandside.org/2026/01/29/o...
oaklandside.org/2026/01/29/o...
One Oakland police officer made $490,000 in overtime. The city can’t find records detailing much of what he did
One OPD officer logged 5,242 total working hours, racking up $490,000 in overtime pay. If he worked more than half of the time in a calendar year, why can't the city tell us what he did?
oaklandside.org
January 31, 2026 at 10:38 PM
This is why I disagree when people say police unions aren’t real unions: they are often extraordinarily effective at securing gains for the workers who are members of them and advancing their interests. Those interests are just often not our interests! We sit on the management side of the table.
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Love to the musicians. Love to justice and compassion. Love to American music. Love to America.
brass solidarity band performing “stand by me” in the streets of whittier next to alex pretti’s memorial. the crowd started chanting “the people united will never be defeated” so they incorporated it into the song. i love minneapolis
January 27, 2026 at 6:43 AM
Love to the musicians. Love to justice and compassion. Love to American music. Love to America.
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The numbers here stagger me because the only result of Musk buying Twitter is making enemies of millions of people with a LOT of spare time and energy to spend on grudges
still so wild to me that Disney bought Marvel for 4 billion, and Musk bought Twitter for 44 billion. what a terrible deal
January 26, 2026 at 5:36 PM
The numbers here stagger me because the only result of Musk buying Twitter is making enemies of millions of people with a LOT of spare time and energy to spend on grudges
My wife had an uncle who was active in his union and in the local Democratic Party. Then he had a series of strokes, and became a Trump supporter.
Look, at the end of the day the MAGA phenomenon really is symptomatic of a widespread mental health crisis that gets almost entirely ignored in public discourse. If you ask anyone with diehard MAGAs in their families/extended families, they’ll tell you all about it
January 22, 2026 at 3:39 AM
My wife had an uncle who was active in his union and in the local Democratic Party. Then he had a series of strokes, and became a Trump supporter.
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Reposted by Acilius
Amazing what ancient people built even though they were all skeletons
January 17, 2026 at 4:31 AM
Amazing what ancient people built even though they were all skeletons
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I'm da rabbit godfather. You come to me on this, da day of my daughter's wedding, and my udda daughter's wedding, and my udda daughter's wedding, and my son's wedding, and my son's wedd... Yeah I got a lot of kids. I'm a rabbit
January 6, 2026 at 6:45 AM
I'm da rabbit godfather. You come to me on this, da day of my daughter's wedding, and my udda daughter's wedding, and my udda daughter's wedding, and my son's wedding, and my son's wedd... Yeah I got a lot of kids. I'm a rabbit
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i feel #grateful every day that i lived to see computers that are bad at math. they said it couldn't be done but the human mind won't take no for an answer
January 2, 2026 at 2:16 AM
i feel #grateful every day that i lived to see computers that are bad at math. they said it couldn't be done but the human mind won't take no for an answer
Happy Christmas, if that's what you're into.
December 25, 2025 at 2:53 PM
Happy Christmas, if that's what you're into.
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Doesn't inspire confidence that they couldn't find "thesaurus."
December 22, 2025 at 1:45 PM
Doesn't inspire confidence that they couldn't find "thesaurus."
Very important to remember, when you see people using accommodations for the disabled, that you are not the police and any attempts you make to enforce what you imagine to be the rules are likely to be bad for the people you want to help.
Damn it sure would be embarrassing for the writer of this if there were any medical conditions where people could walk but not for long distances
Travelers bemoan a rise of able-bodied passengers who game the system to skip the lines. on.wsj.com/3N6apva
December 19, 2025 at 5:44 PM
Very important to remember, when you see people using accommodations for the disabled, that you are not the police and any attempts you make to enforce what you imagine to be the rules are likely to be bad for the people you want to help.
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He should have realized that when you share your password with that many people, one of them is bound to be an undercover password cop.
December 13, 2025 at 10:40 AM
He should have realized that when you share your password with that many people, one of them is bound to be an undercover password cop.
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I think if you're a man who's going to cover "Santa Baby," you need to just commit to the theme. Asking "Santa Buddy" for a yacht and a deed to a platinum mine is just delusional. You're lucky if your "buddy" will help you move.
November 30, 2025 at 11:54 PM
I think if you're a man who's going to cover "Santa Baby," you need to just commit to the theme. Asking "Santa Buddy" for a yacht and a deed to a platinum mine is just delusional. You're lucky if your "buddy" will help you move.
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Back in the 1950s, law schools apparently received inquiries (from potential applicants, I assume?) that sometimes included a lot of questions. Here, Dean Prosser of UC Berkeley imagines a reply.
jle.aals.org/home/vol10/i...
jle.aals.org/home/vol10/i...
November 9, 2025 at 7:49 PM
Back in the 1950s, law schools apparently received inquiries (from potential applicants, I assume?) that sometimes included a lot of questions. Here, Dean Prosser of UC Berkeley imagines a reply.
jle.aals.org/home/vol10/i...
jle.aals.org/home/vol10/i...
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THOUGHT FOR THURSDAY
November 6, 2025 at 1:10 PM
THOUGHT FOR THURSDAY
What I've been doing online lately: losthunderlads.com/2025/11/05/a...
Among the nostalgists
When I was a kid in the 1970s, I would often hear my older brothers talking with each other and with my parents about Vietnam and Watergate. I would ask them to explain what those words meant, whic…
losthunderlads.com
November 5, 2025 at 10:53 PM
What I've been doing online lately: losthunderlads.com/2025/11/05/a...
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When I was a small child, I thought "anti-Semitic" just meant "prejudiced," and I told my father he was "anti-Semitic against bunnies." I was very offended by how hard he laughed.
November 3, 2025 at 7:16 PM
When I was a small child, I thought "anti-Semitic" just meant "prejudiced," and I told my father he was "anti-Semitic against bunnies." I was very offended by how hard he laughed.
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Why did Indiana University attack and cut its own student newspaper?
Well, in a twist of irony any English professor would call clichéd, it turns out IU did it because they were angry about the students' reporting on a FIRE report naming IU as the worst public university for free speech in the US.
Well, in a twist of irony any English professor would call clichéd, it turns out IU did it because they were angry about the students' reporting on a FIRE report naming IU as the worst public university for free speech in the US.
October 25, 2025 at 1:05 PM
Why did Indiana University attack and cut its own student newspaper?
Well, in a twist of irony any English professor would call clichéd, it turns out IU did it because they were angry about the students' reporting on a FIRE report naming IU as the worst public university for free speech in the US.
Well, in a twist of irony any English professor would call clichéd, it turns out IU did it because they were angry about the students' reporting on a FIRE report naming IU as the worst public university for free speech in the US.
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It's weird seeing people argue about whether we should welcome or scold people who have just migrated here from Twitter because neither would have occurred to me naturally. I don't own the place. It would feel like welcoming people coming in to Target because I have been shopping there for hours
October 16, 2025 at 3:43 PM
It's weird seeing people argue about whether we should welcome or scold people who have just migrated here from Twitter because neither would have occurred to me naturally. I don't own the place. It would feel like welcoming people coming in to Target because I have been shopping there for hours
Explains a lot.
September 25, 2025 at 12:55 PM
Explains a lot.
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Reposted by Acilius
My blog, Dark Shadows Commentary, has a page called "Table of Contents and Episode Guide." That's one place to start reading it. There are others, all equally good. darkshadowscommentary.com/table-of-con...
Table of Contents and Episode Guide
I started this site as a collection of links to comments I’d made on other Dark Shadows themed sites, principally Danny Horn’s Dark Shadows Every Day and John and Christine Scoleri̵…
darkshadowscommentary.com
September 23, 2025 at 2:28 AM
My blog, Dark Shadows Commentary, has a page called "Table of Contents and Episode Guide." That's one place to start reading it. There are others, all equally good. darkshadowscommentary.com/table-of-con...
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Crude Wisdom
United States, Census, 1870
United States, Census, 1870
September 22, 2025 at 11:48 AM
Crude Wisdom
United States, Census, 1870
United States, Census, 1870
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The answer is always this map.
September 22, 2025 at 12:08 PM
The answer is always this map.