On Sat, 4 Jan 2025, 186282@ud0s4.net wrote:

> On 1/4/25 1:08 AM, rbowman wrote:
>> On Sat, 4 Jan 2025 01:43:35 +0100, D wrote:
>>
>>> As a counter to that, I've started to drop a few "negros" in
>>> conversations here and there out in town, and I also started to wear my
>>> MAGA hat on the streets of Stockholm.
>>
>> When I was growing up niggers preferred to be called Negroes. It's hard to
>> keep track. Of course when I was growing up we also had polocks, wops,
>> kikes, and and other designations. My mother was politically correct
>> before her time and would accuse my father of sounding like Hitler.
>>
>> The punchline is she thought any male Negro over the age of five was going
>> to rape her. My father had no problems with niggers. They were just people
>> until proven differently. I learned about hypocrisy and pretty words
>> early.
>>
>> I don't have a MAGA hat. In the summer I have a NRA hat that I wear
>> hiking; that's almost as good.
>
> My father was a racist - northern racist. However
> he WAS kinda odd about it. He'd sometimes rant about
> 'niggers' but most any 'negro' he ever worked with
> was "OK" - sometimes they'd be over for dinner ...
> and this was "the south". Even saw him stand up to
> the Jim Crow bubbs once or twice. My mother had
> been raised with her fam/brothers often employing
> and working closely with 'negros' and didn't freak
> about it at all.
>
> In short, the 'racism' picture even in the southern
> USA was not as simple and monolithic as the usual
> rhetoric/media likes to portray. Reality would not
> be as 'politically useful'.
>

I found, in my life, that the best way to integrate people is to work
together towards a common goal. That leads to respect and very little
racism, and "integration" happens automatically.

On 04/01/2025 10:31, Diego Garcia wrote:
> On Fri, 3 Jan 2025 07:27:46 -0500, -hh wrote:
>
>>
>>> Linux is good all by itself. Doesn't need advocacy.
>>
>> Its a tool like anything else, so use the right tool for the job.
>>
>
> Your limited mind certainly would come to that simplistic conclusion.
>
> A computer is *not* a tool -- it is a meta-tool. IOW, it is a tool
> that is used to create other tools. A computer is akin to a grand
> piano. By itself it does nothing; it requires a consummate virtuoso
> to bring forth its potential.
>
> (Note: YOU are not a consummate virtuoso. YOU are a subservient
> user of simple tools.)
>
> GNU/Linux allows the computing virtuoso to shine. GNU/Linux
> embodies the most efficient design and structure for the most
> effective computing.
>
> Microslop/Apphole does not. Microslop/Apphole are made only to feebly
> empower idiots and retards -- like YOU.
>
>
>>
>> For example, take a new digital camera: wouldn't it be nice to not have
>> to wait a year to read its new RAW file format? Most folk just want
>> pics, so they choose a platform where its supported on launch, not to
>> have to sit down to DIY write & test a 3rd party driver first.
>>
>
> Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha! Another whopper from the mind
> of a simpleton!
>
> Remember film cameras? Did the user of a Brand X film camera have
> to buy Brand X film and then send his exposed rolls off to Brand X
> for development? No. Film from any camera could be taken to any
> corner drug store for processing. All cameras used the same film
> that used the same processing.
>
> It should be the same with digital cameras, but the grubbing camera
> makers have found a way to capture their users (and milk their money)
> by creating unique RAW formats for each brand.
>
> There is nothing exceptional about the RAW format. Nikon, for example,
> uses the standard TIFF image format with the addition of a few extra
> proprietary tags. That's all. But those extra tags make the format
> essentially closed and that's all Nikon, and the other makers, want.
>
> The specs for these RAW formats could easily be published to allow
> the public, and FOSS, to write their own software.
>
> I want to use GNU/Linux to process my images and not junk Microslop/
> Apphole.
>
> The camera manufacturers are to blame and they should be assailed
> with lawsuits, boycotts, and whatever else it would require to
> cease their egregious exploitation.
>
> But instead they have craven apologists like you that defend
> their despicable actions.
>
>
>>
>> Meantime, my New Year's Resolution is to tweak my Linux NAS
>>
>
> Linux should include code that would halt all execution
> on the hardware of infidels.
>
>
What a load of totally opinionated irrelevant crap.
This computer is a tool. I create words. I create engineering drawings.
I create web sites.

This is a tool that allows me to do this.

In the UK we have another meaning of 'tool'.
It fits you exactly

--
Of what good are dead warriors? … Warriors are those who desire battle
more than peace. Those who seek battle despite peace. Those who thump
their spears on the ground and talk of honor. Those who leap high the
battle dance and dream of glory … The good of dead warriors, Mother, is
that they are dead.
Sheri S Tepper: The Awakeners.

On 04/01/2025 11:15, D wrote:
>
>
> On Sat, 4 Jan 2025, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
>
>> On 04/01/2025 00:43, D wrote:
>>> Negro has also become a symbol word.
>>
>> You have to be really uneducated and thick not to know it simply means
>> 'black'.
>
> Are you saying that the woke establishment, and 99% of non-english
> speakers in europe are uneducated?? ;)

Probably.

>
> I always try to explain the difference between nigger and negro, but
> apparently that difference is beyond most, if not all people today. =/
Nigger is to negro as Santa Claus is to Saint Nicholas. and goodbye is
to God be with you

--
Of what good are dead warriors? … Warriors are those who desire battle
more than peace. Those who seek battle despite peace. Those who thump
their spears on the ground and talk of honor. Those who leap high the
battle dance and dream of glory … The good of dead warriors, Mother, is
that they are dead.
Sheri S Tepper: The Awakeners.

On Sat, 4 Jan 2025 12:21:32 +0000, The Natural Philosopher wrote:

>>
> What a load of totally opinionated irrelevant crap.
> This computer is a tool. I create words. I create engineering drawings.
> I create web sites.
>
> This is a tool that allows me to do this.
>
> In the UK we have another meaning of 'tool'.
> It fits you exactly
>

In the real world we have a term that describes the subservient
technical class to which you belong:

Flunky

Now go and do as you're told. Don't concern yourself with
the ways of the Masters.

--
Systemd: solving all the problems that you never knew you had.

-hh wrote:

> chrisv wrote:
>>
>> -highhorse wrote:
>>>
>>> Its a tool like anything else, so use the right tool for the job.
>>>
>>> Advocates in COLA have historically fight against the wisdom of
>>> understanding that everything has its own strengths & weaknesses,
>>> swimming against uses where other solutions are better.
>>
>> Of course, -highhorse is lying. He's a trolling asshole who gets-off
>> on attacking decent, reasonable people. His solutions are better, by
>> gum, and he'll ridicule anyone who thinks otherwise.
>>
>> According to the -highhorse troll, "Linux is what sloppy cheapskates
>> who cut corners prefer to use, rather than a quality product."
>
> (snipped, unread)

Let me guess: Quotes from cola advocates proving that, yes, they do
consider value when making a choice! How terrible!

That must mean that they would rather use Windows or Mac! Not.

-highhorse doesn't understand the importance of software freedom, so
he takes it out on his moral and intellectual superiors. He thinks
it's about being a "cheapskate" or a "freeloader". -highhorse claims
that "the open source nature of Linux tends to attractthe type of
persona who somehow believes that all avenues are one-way streets set
up to benefit him (and only him) as the true & deserving holy center
of the universe."

-highhorse is a stupid person and an asshole.

--
"Way to miss the point, which was that the FOSS model is at risk of a
catastrophic failure because the 'center cannot hold' when the status
quo is that there's far too many freeloaders who never pay" - lying
asshole "-hh"

On 2025-01-04 01:08, rbowman wrote:
> On Sat, 4 Jan 2025 01:43:35 +0100, D wrote:
>
>> As a counter to that, I've started to drop a few "negros" in
>> conversations here and there out in town, and I also started to wear my
>> MAGA hat on the streets of Stockholm.
>
> When I was growing up niggers preferred to be called Negroes. It's hard to
> keep track. Of course when I was growing up we also had polocks, wops,
> kikes, and and other designations.

The funny part about Poles is that if you call any one of them a polock,
they probably won't react. The term for a Pole in Poland is Polak. Being
a Polak is a lot less insulting than being called a pole. As for kike,
the term only makes sense considering how they would sign their
documents on their arrival. They refused to draw an X since it was
similar to Christ's crucifix so they would draw a circle called a kikel
instead.

> My mother was politically correct
> before her time and would accuse my father of sounding like Hitler.
>
> The punchline is she thought any male Negro over the age of five was going
> to rape her. My father had no problems with niggers. They were just people
> until proven differently. I learned about hypocrisy and pretty words
> early.
>
> I don't have a MAGA hat. In the summer I have a NRA hat that I wear
> hiking; that's almost as good.

That is my position on blacks as well: treat them as normal until they
demonstrate that they aren't. Unfortunately, it doesn't take long for
them to demonstrate that they shouldn't be a part of Western Civilization.

--
Andrzej (Andre) Matuch
Telegram: @AndrzejMatuch
Zephyrus G14 GA401QM on Fedora 41
KDE supporting member

On 2025-01-04 01:27, rbowman wrote:
> On Sat, 4 Jan 2025 01:49:55 +0100, D wrote:
>
>> I think there's a sabb with an even wider one, but cannot find it. I saw
>> it in a garage many decades ago.
>
> Oh, the 900. I've seen a few of those. Saabs always were a minority brand
> in the US. I liked the old ones, but there were some really strange beasts
> like the Sonnet II. I don't know why there was a Volvo on every block
> while Saabs were driven by middle-aged lesbians.

Volvo used to be synonymous with safety and they were built to last
forever. It was their reputation and it was very much the reality. Once
Ford bought the company though, everything went downhill. Now the
Chinese own them and I can't help but notice that they're at the bottom
in the reliability index.

--
Andrzej (Andre) Matuch
Telegram: @AndrzejMatuch
Zephyrus G14 GA401QM on Fedora 41
KDE supporting member

On 2025-01-04 03:32, 186282@ud0s4.net wrote:
> On 1/3/25 3:10 PM, Andrzej Matuch wrote:
>> On 2025-01-03 09:06, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
>>> On 03/01/2025 13:56, Andrzej Matuch wrote:
>>>> On 2025-01-03 06:28, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
>>>>> On 02/01/2025 20:06, Andrzej Matuch wrote:
>>>>>> On 2025-01-02 14:42, rbowman wrote:
>>>>>>> On Thu, 2 Jan 2025 08:36:41 -0500, Andrzej Matuch wrote:
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> I find GNOME rather clunky whereas KDE, at least on Fedora and
>>>>>>>> Nobara,
>>>>>>>> is perfect out of the box. I imagine that a lot of people who
>>>>>>>> try out
>>>>>>>> Linux and face GNOME are going to wonder how to do the basics,
>>>>>>>> and they
>>>>>>>> will likely find that the way extensions work is rather clunky,
>>>>>>>> especially during upgrades. Meanwhile, KDE is very familiar and
>>>>>>>> offers a
>>>>>>>> ton of features they could only dream of in Windows like the
>>>>>>>> desktop
>>>>>>>> effects, theming options and widgets. Unlike Cinnamon too, the
>>>>>>>> widgets
>>>>>>>> in KDE actually work as they should.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> The Ubuntu box has GNOME. I live with it but I'm not a fan. I'd
>>>>>>> rather
>>>>>>> have a menu structure rather than the 'Show Applications' button
>>>>>>> that
>>>>>>> brings up three or four screens of unsorted stuff.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> GNOME was designed with the belief that anyone looking for an
>>>>>> application will press the Windows key and then type the name of
>>>>>> what they're looking for rather than select it from a menu. That's
>>>>>> how I do it whether I use Windows, GNOME or KDE so I would agree
>>>>>> with their design choice.
>>>>>>
>>>>> Odd, since MATE - a superset of GNOME - expects you to use a menu.
>>>>> Its very XP like.
>>>>>
>>>>> And since XP was what I was running when I switched entirely to
>>>>> Linux, I didn't have to relearn very much at all..
>>>>
>>>> We are talking about GNOME _now_ not then.
>>>>
>>> Fairy Nuff. I have no idea what it is now, but MATE is still built on
>>> gnome3  libraries AFAIK
>>> And was a sort of fork of gnome2 desktop
>>
>> I always thought that MATE used GTK2. If it indeed uses GTK3, all the
>> better.
>
>   GTK3 is a little better.
>
>   MATE isn't horrible, but it's still not my fave.
>   LXDE is my fave - JUST ENOUGH GUI. It's small
>   and it's sane and does what you need the way
>   you'd expect. Somewhere between the Win-2k
>   and XP experience.
>
>   DID like Win-2K ... still have it in a VM and
>   DO use it sometimes. Still ran 8/16 ... a big
>   advantage for people who love 'antique'-ware.
>   Nice simple GUI with few frills.

I haven't used much of LXDE but I know that I liked it. If I remember
correctly, that was what I installed on the computer I bought my parents
in the 2000s. I'm surprised that LXQT isn't as interesting though. I
used it for a moment a few months ago.

--
Andrzej (Andre) Matuch
Telegram: @AndrzejMatuch
Zephyrus G14 GA401QM on Fedora 41
KDE supporting member

On 2025-01-04 07:23, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
> On 04/01/2025 11:15, D wrote:
>>
>>
>> On Sat, 4 Jan 2025, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
>>
>>> On 04/01/2025 00:43, D wrote:
>>>> Negro has also become a symbol word.
>>>
>>> You have to be really uneducated and thick not to know it simply
>>> means 'black'.
>>
>> Are you saying that the woke establishment, and 99% of non-english
>> speakers in europe are uneducated?? ;)
>
> Probably.
>
>>
>> I always try to explain the difference between nigger and negro, but
>> apparently that difference is beyond most, if not all people today. =/
> Nigger is to negro as Santa Claus is to Saint Nicholas. and goodbye is
> to God be with you

I actually had no idea about the last one. I think I'll use the long
form from now on.

--
Andrzej (Andre) Matuch
Telegram: @AndrzejMatuch
Zephyrus G14 GA401QM on Fedora 41
KDE supporting member

On 2025-01-03 20:57, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
> On 03/01/2025 18:37, -hh wrote:
>> On 1/3/25 11:43 AM, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
>>> On 03/01/2025 16:31, Chris Ahlstrom wrote:
>>>> The Natural Philosopher wrote this post while blinking in Morse code:
>>>>
>>>>> On 03/01/2025 13:32, -hh wrote:
>>>>>> Sea levels have already risen by 4 inches since 1993, and hard
>>>>>> science
>>>>>> has found the primary energy imbalance reason why:  its
>>>>>> anthropometric.
>>>>>
>>>>> Sea level rise has been 3mm/yr for the last 4000 years. Nothing has
>>>>> changed
>>>>
>>>> This source disagrees:
>>>>
>>>>      https://ocean.si.edu/through-time/ancient-seas/sea-level-rise
>>>>
>>>> Also, sea level is *not* the same all over the world. The article
>>>> mentions that
>>>> as well.
>>>>
>>>> It's an interesting read.
>>>
>>> Well I will merely quote from the Wiki:
>>> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Past_sea_level
>>>
>>> "Sea level has changed over geologic time. As the graph shows, sea
>>> level today is very near the *lowest level ever attained*  (the
>>> lowest level occurred at the Permian-Triassic boundary about 250
>>> million years ago)."
>>>
>>> "Recently, it has become widely accepted that late Holocene, 3,000
>>> calendar years ago to present, sea level was nearly stable prior to
>>> an acceleration of rate of rise that is variously dated between 1850
>>> and 1900 AD."
>>>
>>> *Long before any CO2 excess was present*.
>>
>> Yes, the rate of raise was nearly stable **before** the Industrial Age.
>>
>> Which is the point:  the contemporary acceleration in the rate of rise
>> is a change, and it is coincident with the advent of the Industrial Age.
>>
> But LONG before any distinctive rise in CO2, which really dint start
> until post WWII
>
> So no correlation with CO2 at all.
> Try not to be a climate denier
>
>
>
I don't know much about sea level changes. I live about 250 miles from
the sea, so I don't have to deal with it. But that doesn't mean I can
deny the changes in the climate right here where I live.

I'm a farmer, the third generation of my family to own and operate this
small chunk of the world. Among other crops, we have raised vegetables
and sold them on a roadside farm stand since 1962. We have records going
back most of that time, with small notes about things like the weather.

50 years ago, while there were exceptions (there are ALWAYS exceptions
when taking about weather trends), we could pretty much count on the
first killing frost happening between September 20 and the 25th.

The last 10 years or so, that event has moved to October 5-10. And in
2024, the first killing frost was on October 25th.

So the climate IS changing. I've watched it do so. But is it natural, or
man-made? In my layman's opinion, it's probably both. The basic
mechanism is probably natural, augmented by Man's contribution.

But what can we do about it? Little of any significance, unless we are
willing to take drastic measures - kill off about half the human
population, give up modern power-hungry technology, that sort of thing.

I'm not willing to do that, and I don't think anyone else is, either. So
what I'll do is continue to take advantage of the changes that are
happening, adapting as best I can.

I can now grow fruits and vegetables that I couldn't dream of 50 years
ago. Better, long-season varieties that I couldn't grow when I was a
kid. For now, the climate is changing toward being better, here. That
won't last, but it'll probably last longer than I do.

TJ

On 04/01/2025 15:58, TJ wrote:
> So the climate IS changing. I've watched it do so. But is it natural, or
> man-made? In my layman's opinion, it's probably both. The basic
> mechanism is probably natural, augmented by Man's contribution.
>
The point is that far far more drastic changes have happened without
modern humanity being involved.
The odds are in favour of natural change and CO2 doesn't make any real
difference at all,.

> But what can we do about it? Little of any significance, unless we are
> willing to take drastic measures - kill off about half the human
> population, give up modern power-hungry technology, that sort of thing.
>
Far better to pretend to 'do something' and make a shitload of money and
impose draconian restrictions on a population you despise.

> I'm not willing to do that, and I don't think anyone else is, either. So
> what I'll do is continue to take advantage of the changes that are
> happening, adapting as best I can.
>
The only sensible alternative

> I can now grow fruits and vegetables that I couldn't dream of 50 years
> ago. Better, long-season varieties that I couldn't grow when I was a
> kid. For now, the climate is changing toward being better, here. That
> won't last, but it'll probably last longer than I do.

I thought that too. Until a winter around 2002 killed every Escallonia I
had that had been flourishing...

--
To ban Christmas, simply give turkeys the vote.

On 2025-01-04, 186282@ud0s4.net <186283@ud0s4.net> wrote:

> My father was a racist - northern racist.

Q: What's the difference between a northern racist and a
southern racist?

A: A southern racist doesn't mind black people living
close by as long as they don't get uppity.
A northern racist doesn't mind black people getting
uppity as long as they don't live close by.

--
/~\ Charlie Gibbs | Growth for the sake of
\ / <cgibbs@kltpzyxm.invalid> | growth is the ideology
X I'm really at ac.dekanfrus | of the cancer cell.
/ \ if you read it the right way. | -- Edward Abbey

On 2025-01-04, The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> wrote:

> Well calling them Indians was a mistake made by some twat who thought
> the world was a lot smaller than it turned out to be. And he had sailed
> west to India...
>
> An alarming number of words are mistranslations and corruptions.

God bless Vespucciland!
-- Firesign Theatre

--
/~\ Charlie Gibbs | Growth for the sake of
\ / <cgibbs@kltpzyxm.invalid> | growth is the ideology
X I'm really at ac.dekanfrus | of the cancer cell.
/ \ if you read it the right way. | -- Edward Abbey

On 1/4/25 10:58 AM, TJ wrote:
> ...
> I don't know much about sea level changes. I live about 250 miles from
> the sea, so I don't have to deal with it. But that doesn't mean I can
> deny the changes in the climate right here where I live.

I'm close enough to the US Eastern Seaboard that it affects our weather,
and if winter precipitation is going be as snow, sleet or rain.

> I'm a farmer, the third generation of my family to own and operate this
> small chunk of the world. Among other crops, we have raised vegetables
> and sold them on a roadside farm stand since 1962. We have records going
> back most of that time, with small notes about things like the weather.
>
> 50 years ago, while there were exceptions (there are ALWAYS exceptions
> when taking about weather trends), we could pretty much count on the
> first killing frost happening between September 20 and the 25th.
>
> The last 10 years or so, that event has moved to October 5-10. And in
> 2024, the first killing frost was on October 25th.

I've casually noticed a similar trend; for our garden the first killing
frost would nominally be in mid-September, but particularly the last few
years has been later. This year, it wasn't until November. It was
great to have two more harvests of lima beans, but it also sucks to be
cleaning leaves out of gutters after Christmas instead of Thanksgiving.

> So the climate IS changing. I've watched it do so. But is it natural, or
> man-made? In my layman's opinion, it's probably both. The basic
> mechanism is probably natural, augmented by Man's contribution.

Oh, its of course going to be a sum of multiple contributors; the
question has invariably been not that, but of what relative magnitudes
and rates relative to each other.

> But what can we do about it? Little of any significance, unless we are
> willing to take drastic measures - kill off about half the human
> population, give up modern power-hungry technology, that sort of thing.

There's been some increasingly serious discussions on what the
geoengineering options are. Some are relatively affordable, such as
stopping the use of cleaner bunker oil in shipping, so as to reintroduce
SOx pollution. Others are probably well-intentioned from an Engineering
standpoint, but are viewed as being politically expedient to not change
the current Status Quo - basically, its only practical if a third party
subsidizes it, instead of the polluter source.

> I'm not willing to do that, and I don't think anyone else is, either. So
> what I'll do is continue to take advantage of the changes that are
> happening, adapting as best I can.
>
> I can now grow fruits and vegetables that I couldn't dream of 50 years
> ago. Better, long-season varieties that I couldn't grow when I was a
> kid. For now, the climate is changing toward being better, here. That
> won't last, but it'll probably last longer than I do.

I've seen arguments made where it won't matter because CO2 is plant
food, so we'll be able to grow triple-canopy jungle everywhere which
will 'quickly' sequester the excess CO2 into wood .. but that misses
that there's more than just CO2 needed to grow trees, such as
nutrition+sun+rain, all in the correct proportions.

-hh

On Sat, 4 Jan 2025 04:28:40 -0500, 186282@ud0s4.net wrote:

> On 1/4/25 1:27 AM, rbowman wrote:
>> On Sat, 4 Jan 2025 01:49:55 +0100, D wrote:
>>
>>> I think there's a sabb with an even wider one, but cannot find it. I
>>> saw it in a garage many decades ago.
>>
>> Oh, the 900. I've seen a few of those. Saabs always were a minority
>> brand in the US. I liked the old ones, but there were some really
>> strange beasts like the Sonnet II. I don't know why there was a Volvo
>> on every block while Saabs were driven by middle-aged lesbians.
>
> In the early 80s I saw a Saab that LOOKED almost like a Ferrari -
> deep deep met blue, just beautiful.

https://www.hagerty.com/media/market-trends/valuation/saabs-quirky-sonett-
gaining-attention/

https://www.reddit.com/r/WeirdWheels/comments/pshhnm/saab_sonett_iii/

The Sonetts weren't too bad but like some women you had to look at them
from the right angle. It was like several designers worked independently
and they stitched the pieces together.

One of the best looking cars from the era that never caught on was the
Opel GT.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opel_GT

There is one in town. I used it as a landmark for years for a turn to a
trailhead. afaik it never moved. Finally it moved around the block and I
was lost.

The Natural Philosopher wrote this post while blinking in Morse code:

> On 04/01/2025 15:58, TJ wrote:
>> So the climate IS changing. I've watched it do so. But is it natural, or
>> man-made? In my layman's opinion, it's probably both. The basic
>> mechanism is probably natural, augmented by Man's contribution.
>>
> The point is that far far more drastic changes have happened without
> modern humanity being involved.

Nah, the point is that the effect of modern humanity have caused changes
far more rapidly than normal, leaving ecosystems/species little time to
adapt.

> The odds are in favour of natural change and CO2 doesn't make any real
> difference at all,.

Nonsense.

And humans have had other effects, such as environmental degradation,
extinction of species due to over-hunting, eating up all the local nutritious
vegetation like a swarm of locusts.

<snip>

--
Laughing at you is like drop-kicking a wounded humming bird.

On Sat, 4 Jan 2025 10:09:47 +0000, The Natural Philosopher wrote:

> On 04/01/2025 06:16, rbowman wrote:
>> On Sat, 4 Jan 2025 02:06:17 +0000, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
>>
>>> On 04/01/2025 00:43, D wrote:
>>>> Negro has also become a symbol word.
>>>
>>> You have to be really uneducated and thick not to know it simply means
>>> 'black'.
>>
>> The best PC invention is latinx. It sounds like something you take
>> when you haven't shit in three days. I don't even think the latinx
>> people care for it. Indian is touchy too. Some are into 'Native
>> American', some aren't.
> Well calling them Indians was a mistake made by some twat who thought
> the world was a lot smaller than it turned out to be. And he had sailed
> west to India...
>
> An alarming number of words are mistranslations and corruptions.

True and it gets confusing as more East Indians come to the US. However
Native Americans were called Indians for a few centuries. Even the Bureau
of Indian Affairs never changed its name.

It's like the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
When it was started in 1909 'colored' was good. Then colored became bad
and negro became good. Then black. Now we're back to 'people of color'.

On Sat, 4 Jan 2025 04:39:14 -0500, 186282@ud0s4.net wrote:

> On 12/31/24 10:03 PM, rbowman wrote:
>> On Wed, 1 Jan 2025 01:40:33 -0000 (UTC), pothead wrote:
>>
>>> Biggest assholes where I live are Tesla owners, Dodge Hemi and Mustang
>>> owners.
>>> It used to be Land/Range Rover people but things have changed.
>>
>> When you pul up behind a F-250 with imitation bull testicles dangling
>> from the trailer hitch you have a good idea what you're dealing with.
>
> Got stuck in southern Kentucky once behind a Ford Courier with a
> likely 1000 pound hog in the back. Every time it would twitch its ass
> the whole vehicle would wobble :-)
>
> That 'truck' had REAL balls hangin out the back ! :-)

At least it wasn't a Pinto. You make do with what you got. Those mini-
pickups were cute. I rode shotgun in one on a way to a party. It was
mostly bikes but the one guy with a pickup was elected to bring the kegs.
For ease of loading/unloading the kegs were as close to the tailgate as
possible. I noticed he was having a little problem with lane control. He
said "I'm not sure the front wheels are touching the road much."

On Sat, 04 Jan 2025 18:19:23 GMT, Charlie Gibbs wrote:

> On 2025-01-04, 186282@ud0s4.net <186283@ud0s4.net> wrote:
>
>> My father was a racist - northern racist.
>
> Q: What's the difference between a northern racist and a
> southern racist?
>
> A: A southern racist doesn't mind black people living
> close by as long as they don't get uppity.
> A northern racist doesn't mind black people getting
> uppity as long as they don't live close by.

I believe that came from Billie Holiday's 'Lady Sings the Blues'. She saw
it all.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Web007rzSOI

On Sat, 4 Jan 2025 10:15:10 +0000, The Natural Philosopher wrote:

> On 04/01/2025 07:56, 186282@ud0s4.net wrote:
>> The USA is inherently isolationist ... would rather NOT
>>   mess around with any other countries. There's "Here"
>>   and "Over There".
>
> Till some guy drives a truck into you and it turns out it's all about
> 'over there'
>
> Like the UK in the 19th century, the average American has no idea how
> much of his peace prosperity and wealth comes from hard noised
> businessmen backed up by thin red lines of very tough men indeed,
> operating in far off countries.
>
> The UK learnt that there is no 'over there' after all.

General Smedley Butler's 'War is a Racket' was in part about his time in
the Marine Corps division of the United Fruit Company during the Banana
Wars'.

On Sat, 4 Jan 2025 10:07:13 -0500, Andrzej Matuch wrote:

> On 2025-01-04 01:27, rbowman wrote:
>> On Sat, 4 Jan 2025 01:49:55 +0100, D wrote:
>>
>>> I think there's a sabb with an even wider one, but cannot find it. I
>>> saw it in a garage many decades ago.
>>
>> Oh, the 900. I've seen a few of those. Saabs always were a minority
>> brand in the US. I liked the old ones, but there were some really
>> strange beasts like the Sonnet II. I don't know why there was a Volvo
>> on every block while Saabs were driven by middle-aged lesbians.
>
> Volvo used to be synonymous with safety and they were built to last
> forever. It was their reputation and it was very much the reality. Once
> Ford bought the company though, everything went downhill. Now the
> Chinese own them and I can't help but notice that they're at the bottom
> in the reliability index.

A friend's father gave him a new Volvo when he graduated college. He had
some sort of feeling that he would live as long as the Volvo or something
and hung on to it for years. After a minor accident he was irate when the
insurance company paid out based on the value of the car, which was about
$100, despite his paying for a policy that was designed for people with
rare vintage cars.

Another friend who lived in Boston had two Healey 3000s stolen which were
never recovered. Sick of the aggravation he bought a Volvo. That too was
stolen but the cops found it abandoned with little damage.

On Sat, 4 Jan 2025 10:58:09 -0500, TJ wrote:

> I don't know much about sea level changes. I live about 250 miles from
> the sea, so I don't have to deal with it. But that doesn't mean I can
> deny the changes in the climate right here where I live.

I live at around 3000', so no problem. However 13,000 years ago the whole
area was the bottom of a lake whose shoreline was at 4200'. Things change.

TJ wrote:

>So the climate IS changing. I've watched it do so. But is it natural, or
>man-made? In my layman's opinion, it's probably both. The basic
>mechanism is probably natural, augmented by Man's contribution.
>
>But what can we do about it? Little of any significance, unless we are
>willing to take drastic measures - kill off about half the human
>population, give up modern power-hungry technology, that sort of thing.

The West sure can't do anything about it. Southeast Asia drives
climate change. They are building hundreds of coal-fired power plants
every year in China and India.

I'm rather astonished that this point almost never comes up in the
media, even given what liars they are.

-hh wrote:

>I've seen arguments made where it won't matter because CO2 is plant
>food, so we'll be able to grow triple-canopy jungle everywhere which
>will 'quickly' sequester the excess CO2 into wood .. but that misses
>that there's more than just CO2 needed to grow trees, such as
>nutrition+sun+rain, all in the correct proportions.

Mostly though it's the need for water that limits plant growth.

That's where nuclear power and desalination comes in.

On Sat, 4 Jan 2025 10:05:44 -0500, Andrzej Matuch wrote:

> The funny part about Poles is that if you call any one of them a polock,
> they probably won't react. The term for a Pole in Poland is Polak. Being
> a Polak is a lot less insulting than being called a pole. As for kike,
> the term only makes sense considering how they would sign their
> documents on their arrival. They refused to draw an X since it was
> similar to Christ's crucifix so they would draw a circle called a kikel
> instead.

I had never heard that which led me to consult that infallible source of
wisdom:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kike

"A variation or expansion of this theory published in Our Crowd (1967), by
Stephen Birmingham, postulates that the term "kike" was coined as a put-
down by the assimilated U.S. Jews from Germany to identify eastern
European and Russian Jews: "

I've seen that in action. For historical reasons Germans, Catholic,
Reformed, and Jewish, were well established in upstate NY. After WWII many
new people arrived that were derogatorily called DPs (displaced persons)
The well established Jews were embarrassed by the backward Eastern Jews.

Around the time of 'Shoah' I'd watched another movie that focused on
Germany. The same situation existed. The established German Jews thought
of themselves as Germans and had no use for the kaftan wearing eastern
Jews with their weird fur hats. Even in 'Mein Kampf' Hitler doesn't really
start to rant until he talks about his time in Vienna exposed to the old
fashioned eastern types.

But we weren't into etymology. I've read some theories about the
derivation of 'wop' but we just knew they all carried knives and were
criminals. Even pizza was an exotic thing generally found in sleazy
barrooms. Some of the other slurs were easier to figure out.