"Snare of Preparation" could pair well with "A Function of the Social Settlement" on pragmatist themes: knowledge can't be generated in advance, it can only emerge from dialogue under the pressures of real problems

"A Function of the Social Settlement" would be perfect. Could also look at chapters of *Democracy and Social Ethics*.

Tater totchos, otoh ...

Pantagruel was a stoner, not so much "coded" as "crypto-":

www.veryimportantpotheads.com/rabelais.html

The Palantir Manifesto is a remarkable attempt to combine the ideological pre-occupations of Italian Facism with the writing style of the Zodiac Killer

Opening text of a thread by Palantir from X Because we get asked a lot. The Technological Republic, in brief. 1. Silicon Valley owes a moral debt to the country that made its rise possible. The engineering elite of Silicon Valley has an affirmative obligation to participate in the defense of the nation. 2. We must rebel against the tyranny of the apps. Is the iPhone our greatest creative if not crowning achievement as a civilization? The object has changed our lives, but it may also now be limiting and constraining our sense of the possible. 3. Free email is not enough. The decadence of a culture or civilization, and indeed its ruling class, will be forgiven only if that culture is capable of delivering economic growth and security for the public. 4. The limits of soft power, of soaring rhetoric alone, have been exposed. The ability of free and democratic societies to prevail requires something more than moral appeal. It requires hard power, and hard power in this century will be built on software.

Palantir put out a 22-point summary of their CEO's book The Technological Republic. It's pitched as a defence of the West, but if you read it through the VDA framework, verification, deliberation, accountability, what it's actually doing looks rather different.
twitter-thread.com/t/2045574398...

At some point this whole line of thinking just runs into the brick wall that Christianity is fundamentally inseparable from supersessionism.

Oh my god. That was, itself, way too long (as she admits) but truly leaves nothing but smoking ruins in its wake.

The Boston Molassacre

It's got six separately thrown mini bowls joined into holes in the main platter, which sits up on a high foot to leave room for the bottom of the bowls

(forgot alt text but the pics are what the description says they are ...)

Didn't make it in time for this year, but working on this scallion and orange themed seder plate. (IYKYK.) Documenting now because I don't trust it to survive the glaze fire ... most complex thrown and altered construction I've tried yet.

I've seen it attributed to "a Chinese fable"

When the stars threw down their spears
And water'd heaven with their tears:
Did he smile his work to see?
Did he who made the Lime make thee?

Been thinking this for years but didn't want to inflict it on the world. Though there's probably a great essay to be written about queerness and "villainy" in there.

So it seems the issue hinges on Leo's use of "wage war," which he seems to reserve for wars of choice. Is this how "wage" is used in just war theory? It does fit the etymology.

It shouldn't have to be like that! As the joke goes, "In the physics department they need millions of dollars for labs. But in the math department all we need is pencil and paper and wastebaskets. And in philosophy, only pencil and paper!"

I dunno, if I could divert that money from our federal gangsters into, say, mutual aid or even state or city government, I'd do it ... this year.

Normally I agree! But hard to square that with the knowledge that the money seems to only go to cronies, foreign autocrats, and missiles. Right now it feels more like "it's good to pay protection money. It reminds you that we're all being robbed by the same gangster -- together!"

The style manages to be both clipped and tedious, the sentences stripped of ornament but making no effort at elegance. Probably because elegance is not one of those hard, objective, rational values.

I've only read a little LW but I can hear the similarity. It also reminds me of the bits I've read of like SlateStarCodex, Tyler Cowen, etc.; and at the end of the essay he thanks Yglesias for help drafting it. Would be a fun task for a literary critic to properly analyze this whole style cluster.

How would you define the style?

*Hans Moleman voice* I was actually curious what the Pope means in the context of just war theory. Presumably something like, "even if a war is just, it cannot please God?"

If the democracy floats, it's a witch. If it sinks, it was innocent.

It's kind of like the block clubs of other South Side neighborhoods, which we don't have in Hyde Park. Flash Mob Block Club.

This is fascinating. Are they trying to prevent the teen takeover? Or just keep an eye on it?

Someone looking for op eds about AI leading to deskilling, either arguing that it is or isn't happening

@leifw.bsky.social has collected a bunch of them

Thanks! That is a very silly view.

I saw the best minds of my generation produce high quality content for startups that laid them off on a zoom call