Joe Ferrare
@joeferrare.bsky.social
Father, writer, veteran, retired.
OK, cover me. I'm going in.
March 26, 2025 at 7:16 PM
OK, cover me. I'm going in.
Does everything work? I draft in a distraction-free app (Focuswriter), but Scrivener has some nice plotting features.
March 26, 2025 at 7:15 PM
Does everything work? I draft in a distraction-free app (Focuswriter), but Scrivener has some nice plotting features.
Agree with the idea you should look at desktops first, not distros. Lately, I'm a KDE with Wayland fan, though I used XFCE for years. Unless you pick Cinnamon, in which case install Mint, I'd recommend Fedora. I would recommend Void, but that takes a bit more knowledge starting out.
March 26, 2025 at 7:13 PM
Agree with the idea you should look at desktops first, not distros. Lately, I'm a KDE with Wayland fan, though I used XFCE for years. Unless you pick Cinnamon, in which case install Mint, I'd recommend Fedora. I would recommend Void, but that takes a bit more knowledge starting out.
She neatly sidestepped the fact nobody should have been in that chat. It's like saying you're investigating who loaded that gun that was brought into an elementary school, not why the hell there was a gun in an elementary school? TBF, she may have addressed that earlier.
March 26, 2025 at 6:46 PM
She neatly sidestepped the fact nobody should have been in that chat. It's like saying you're investigating who loaded that gun that was brought into an elementary school, not why the hell there was a gun in an elementary school? TBF, she may have addressed that earlier.
I've seen a lot of generals come and go, and the security guys are the first ones at their doors, eager to tell them all the rules, both general and specific to the unit. It's hard to imagine the folks on that text chain didn't get that.
March 26, 2025 at 6:40 PM
I've seen a lot of generals come and go, and the security guys are the first ones at their doors, eager to tell them all the rules, both general and specific to the unit. It's hard to imagine the folks on that text chain didn't get that.
Hegseth was a captain and Gabbard was a major, iirc. In my experience officers always have security clearances and get trained every year like everybody else. A fundamental rule is that you can only use government-provided equipment for secure communications. Period, full stop.
March 26, 2025 at 6:38 PM
Hegseth was a captain and Gabbard was a major, iirc. In my experience officers always have security clearances and get trained every year like everybody else. A fundamental rule is that you can only use government-provided equipment for secure communications. Period, full stop.
You're going to have to learn to use a new OS either way. One will have more of a learning curve, but you'll have extra brain cycles to deal with that because you won't be getting ads and pointless "features." Bonus: not being seen as a continuing revenue stream by the people you already paid.
March 17, 2025 at 8:08 PM
You're going to have to learn to use a new OS either way. One will have more of a learning curve, but you'll have extra brain cycles to deal with that because you won't be getting ads and pointless "features." Bonus: not being seen as a continuing revenue stream by the people you already paid.
IAMAL, but saying any part of the law is "made up" is correct. It's all made up. Some things are just written down in more authoritative ways and places than others.
March 13, 2025 at 9:56 PM
IAMAL, but saying any part of the law is "made up" is correct. It's all made up. Some things are just written down in more authoritative ways and places than others.
As a retiree I understand his feelings, but I'd counter with this from JRR Tolkien, via Gandalf: "All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us." I did my part during my day, and will continue to. We all know nothing lasts forever.
March 12, 2025 at 5:53 PM
As a retiree I understand his feelings, but I'd counter with this from JRR Tolkien, via Gandalf: "All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us." I did my part during my day, and will continue to. We all know nothing lasts forever.
Good for getting tough spots off windows, too.
March 10, 2025 at 7:02 PM
Good for getting tough spots off windows, too.
It probably ought to say "see the world during that brief period of goodness between the civil rights backlash (etc.) of '60s and the 2016s..." Shit was not great in the '60s, either.
March 10, 2025 at 5:57 PM
It probably ought to say "see the world during that brief period of goodness between the civil rights backlash (etc.) of '60s and the 2016s..." Shit was not great in the '60s, either.
You forgot letting people like Steven Miller clawing away at the underpinnings of civil society to create culture war distraction memes.
March 10, 2025 at 5:14 PM
You forgot letting people like Steven Miller clawing away at the underpinnings of civil society to create culture war distraction memes.
You shouldn't accuse people of beliefs they haven't evidenced. I'm not saying the bill is harmless, or that I agree with it. Just that the government can already do what the post says the bill will allow it to do. I'm trying to understand what this changes and the post isn't helping.
January 9, 2025 at 10:31 PM
You shouldn't accuse people of beliefs they haven't evidenced. I'm not saying the bill is harmless, or that I agree with it. Just that the government can already do what the post says the bill will allow it to do. I'm trying to understand what this changes and the post isn't helping.
who then causes the state or its people harm. They can already detain illegal immigrants and jail people for theft, so the effect seems to be to scare the feds into not allowing catch and release. It may do more onerous things via the sections of the bill it amends.
January 9, 2025 at 10:27 PM
who then causes the state or its people harm. They can already detain illegal immigrants and jail people for theft, so the effect seems to be to scare the feds into not allowing catch and release. It may do more onerous things via the sections of the bill it amends.
So I just read the bill, but I haven't read the bill it amends. What it says is that immigrants suspected of crime can be detained and only released back into the US on a case-by-case basis, not as a general rule. It allows the states to sue the federal government if the feds release a person
January 9, 2025 at 10:20 PM
So I just read the bill, but I haven't read the bill it amends. What it says is that immigrants suspected of crime can be detained and only released back into the US on a case-by-case basis, not as a general rule. It allows the states to sue the federal government if the feds release a person
Call me crazy, but various law enforcement personnel have always detained everybody, citizens included, if they're credibly accused of theft crimes. There must be more to it. I guess I'll have to look it up.
January 9, 2025 at 10:08 PM
Call me crazy, but various law enforcement personnel have always detained everybody, citizens included, if they're credibly accused of theft crimes. There must be more to it. I guess I'll have to look it up.
That's not the way it worked last time, and I doubt it will again. Most Americans hate to think about politics and he's constantly forcing them to. It'll be four years of chaotic hell and they'll hate him the worse for it.
January 9, 2025 at 10:03 PM
That's not the way it worked last time, and I doubt it will again. Most Americans hate to think about politics and he's constantly forcing them to. It'll be four years of chaotic hell and they'll hate him the worse for it.
I'm trying to use the Oxford comma after learning the AP way. It's a small thing and I'm no longer required to write in that style. That said, every defense I've seen of the Oxford comma reduces down to "readers are too stupid to know what you meant if you leave it out." I disagree.
January 9, 2025 at 9:57 PM
I'm trying to use the Oxford comma after learning the AP way. It's a small thing and I'm no longer required to write in that style. That said, every defense I've seen of the Oxford comma reduces down to "readers are too stupid to know what you meant if you leave it out." I disagree.
Robert Heinlein, Philip K. Dick and a lot of other SF authors. Kurt Vonnegut, Richard Bach, John Irving for more mainstream fiction. Just good prose-wise, Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Albert Camus stand out. #pretendpanel #writingcommunity
January 9, 2025 at 9:44 PM
Robert Heinlein, Philip K. Dick and a lot of other SF authors. Kurt Vonnegut, Richard Bach, John Irving for more mainstream fiction. Just good prose-wise, Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Albert Camus stand out. #pretendpanel #writingcommunity
Sorry, I'm too old to recognize that. I'll take it as a cutting remark and retire from the field duly chastised.
January 9, 2025 at 6:47 PM
Sorry, I'm too old to recognize that. I'll take it as a cutting remark and retire from the field duly chastised.
I'm happy you were able to guess my age within ~20 years based on me saying I'm the child of a WW II veteran. I assume you're not a boomer, and therefore not challenging my statement because you haven't known as many boomers as I have. Wise of you.
January 9, 2025 at 6:33 PM
I'm happy you were able to guess my age within ~20 years based on me saying I'm the child of a WW II veteran. I assume you're not a boomer, and therefore not challenging my statement because you haven't known as many boomers as I have. Wise of you.
I suspect what you're experiencing is an older generation using different words to say "these kids today..." something that's happened every generation since at least the ancient Greeks.
January 9, 2025 at 6:26 PM
I suspect what you're experiencing is an older generation using different words to say "these kids today..." something that's happened every generation since at least the ancient Greeks.
I've never met a boomer who thought we were peak anything. My father survived the depression and WWII and my mother survived the blitz. No one thought about generations until somebody stupidly named age cohorts and assigned 10s of millions of people the same characteristics.
January 9, 2025 at 6:24 PM
I've never met a boomer who thought we were peak anything. My father survived the depression and WWII and my mother survived the blitz. No one thought about generations until somebody stupidly named age cohorts and assigned 10s of millions of people the same characteristics.
Learn the rules and practice until you integrate them into your style, but don't think about them as you write. It can lead to clunky prose because you're choking off the flow. #pretendpanel #writingcommunity
January 8, 2025 at 6:51 PM
Learn the rules and practice until you integrate them into your style, but don't think about them as you write. It can lead to clunky prose because you're choking off the flow. #pretendpanel #writingcommunity