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DuplexFields

Ask me how the FairTax proposal works. All four Political Compass quadrants should love it.

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joined 2022 September 05 05:51:34 UTC
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DuplexFields


								

								

								
								
								

								
							
					
 
				


				
Ask me how the FairTax proposal works. All four Political Compass quadrants should love it.

				
				
				

				

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					joined 2022 September 05 05:51:34 UTC
				


				
					

					
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				Culture War Roundup for the week of July 6, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
While private equity is often seen merely as predation of slack time / redundancy in a business, I see it as an attempt to find profitable business models in the face of blatant anti-business sentiments in governance.


“See?” the PE-bought biz says, “We’re no Randian exceptional beings trying to make the world better. No need to try to kill us, we’re already dead inside.”


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of July 6, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Good catch! It’s when a person’s image of themselves shatters that they’re most susceptible to rumination and ideation.


I vigorously maintain that the poetic and glamorous reporting on Kate Spade’s suicide is what killed Bourdain: “She hanged herself with a scarf from her own fashion line,” said the news report on the car radio, and I literally yelled at the radio, “You fools! You’re causing a wave of suicides!”


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of July 6, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I will believe this is about defense against taxation and antitrust judgments, and not capitalistic hypercompetition, until someone gives me sufficient evidence my priors are mistaken.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Small-Scale Question Sunday for July 5, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Thank you, Actual Progressive. I intuit, then, that unrepresentative depictions/hiring/election results are taken as evidence (not proof) that oppression or bullying has kept the depiction from being representative?


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Small-Scale Question Sunday for July 5, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
One could even flatly say having Representation in the Republican party and the conservative movement would be, to their eyes, a bad thing.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Small-Scale Question Sunday for July 5, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I’ll count that as both: dewhitening the leadership as primary, and secondarily as a form of psychological conditioning.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Small-Scale Question Sunday for July 5, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I’ll count that as primary: a form of psychological conditioning.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Small-Scale Question Sunday for July 5, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
"Representation" should be defined for this comment thread as people of diverse backgrounds being seen as protagonists, deuteragonists, and antagonists in fiction, being elected representatives, and being hired for visible jobs at management/executive levels.


Is Representation a primary goal of the progressive project? Or is it a secondary goal, a virtue signal for societal diversity, since it can be seen as a sign that oppression has ceased, a sign that diverse people should be expected walking around in public, using services, present in labor jobs, and other signs of diverse social integration?


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Friday Fun Thread for July 3, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
A corporation is already a profit-maximizer with decision-making so distributed it’s practically an egregore. Why not see if LLMs trained on management books can do management better than humans?


The idea of stock ownership of an LLM corporation is interesting, and the CEO-bot won’t need a salary or golden parachute.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of June 29, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
To my eyes, the man believed he was still being assaulted by the group, which is why he wrapped his arm around the policewoman’s neck.


Then he looks down at her uniform and realizes he assaulted in mistaken defense, and in the adrenaline rush insists that the police go chase the real bad guys, which is a chargeable offense on grounds of offensive racism.


This whole sequence of events disturbs me.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Wellness Wednesday for July 1, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I may grab a copy!


I’ve developed a notation for standard grid logic puzzles that has been helping me greatly, I may do a video about it.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Wellness Wednesday for July 1, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I’m feeling healthier than I have in a while:


    

  • Two months ago, gave away my Chromebook that was keeping me up to 1am.
    • 

  • A month ago-ish, started watching movies on cheap Tuesdays at the Regal theater. First two I saw were meditations on men’s mental health: Backrooms and TADC finale.
    • 

  • Started doing logic puzzles again.
    • 

  • On Monday, quit Twitter. Immediate improvement at work and at home.
    • 



				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Small-Scale Question Sunday for June 7, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
One and a half octaves, and we as a country used to all have singing practice every Sunday morning. Amateurs can do a fine job with a week’s practice.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of June 1, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
In America, it would be the KA-BAR combat knife, wielded by our most deadly warriors.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Friday Fun Thread for May 22, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Gemini was cleverer:




Walking over is a great option if you just want to grab a detail spray, buy a voucher, or stretch your legs, but if you're planning to actually wash the vehicle, walking a block over leaves you with one minor logistical problem: your car is still in the driveway!




It went on for a couple of paragraphs about car washes, and gave me a fun tip about letting rain wash my car: spray it down with a hose after a storm before the rain dries completely to clear the dust dissolved in the rain.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Friday Fun Thread for May 22, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Which, ironically, makes his the most likely to have been genuinely attributed to a scribe writing out the memories of a Galilean fisherman.


I personally take the traditional attributions at face value. Between AD 30 and the destruction of the Temple, the movement (and the Jerusalem church in particular) swelled to such size that good scribes and decent writers would have been readily available to help the Apostles write out their recollections of the Master’s teachings, and their letters to other cities’ bodies of believers.


As for who wrote Hebrews, since we don’t know which human wrote it, we can call it the book of the Bible in which the authorial guidance of the Holy Spirit is most transparent.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Friday Fun Thread for May 22, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I mean, Hart already did that.




The New Testament: A Translation by the Eastern Orthodox theologian and philosopher David Bentley Hart, first published in 2017.






Hart explicitly stated that his goal was to provide a "pitilessly literal translation" that preserves the distinct linguistic talents—or lack thereof—of each individual writer, rather than smoothing them out into an artificial, uniform majesty.




I’m planning on grabbing a copy soon.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Friday Fun Thread for May 22, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Yes, my process was thoughtful and my choices are specific. Translation teams tend to homogenize their output across authors, not deliberately but by unconscious bias. My goal was to make it truly feel like an anthology written by different authors with different thought processes.


The 1978-2011 NIV is a Bible for everyone, with the most vulgar (low grade level) contemporary plain English. This matches the low phrasing of Mark, widely believed to have been Peter’s scribe. Thus, the Gospel of Mark and Peter’s letters.


JB Phillips translated the New Testament in the 1950’s with an eye for digestibility and teasing out a sense of meaning and spirituality. Thus, the Gospel, Revelation, and letters of John, the Apostle of light and love.


The 1990s’ ESV is a retranslation of the KJV, ASV, and RSV, consistent and clear in translated word choices, and suitable for Bible study and doctrine. It’s the one I’ve spent the longest time reading, 18 years of weekly Bible study. Doctor Luke, Paul’s Greek scribe, compiled the accounts and anecdotes in Luke and Acts as two volumes of faithful and accurate testimony for Paul’s trial in Rome.


The 1903 Weymouth translation is an attempt by a master translator to write as if the authors natively thought and spoke in British English, like Dickens or Doyle. “Translated from the original Greek text into modern English, Weymouth's goal was to produce a Bible version without theological or ecclesiastical bias.” - Google. Lately I’ve found unique phrasing in Weymouth’s Paul’s letters that makes them a good match for Paul’s lawyerly writing.


The 1999 HCSB New Testament has a deliberate focus on adding a Hebraic flavor to the New Testament; for example, by using Messiah instead of Christ in many places. It also has higher phrasing than the ESV with a similar translation philosophy. I find it a delight to read, my current favored translation, and a match for the Hebraic (Jewish) focus of both Matthew and Hebrews.


James and Jude, believed to have been the sons of Joseph, and thus Jesus’ half brothers, are given two translations favored by groups of denominations. “While the NASB is favored by independent conservative evangelicals, the REB was a massive collaborative effort sponsored by virtually all major mainline Protestant and Catholic bodies in the UK and Ireland.” - Google


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Friday Fun Thread for May 22, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
A New Testament That Actually Feels Like an Anthology:



Most of these translations are available on BibleHub, except Phillips, and BibleGateway, except Weymouth. The REB is available on neither.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of April 27, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Who is John Galt?


(Context: the question is the focus of the first chapter of Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged. It's meant to be asked with world-weary cynicism, with the undertone of "Why would you expect anything nowadays to not be rotten, falling apart, or incompetently handled?" Nobody in the setting even knows who John Galt is, and they still ask it.)


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of April 27, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
For context, Allen made his reservation after the President announced he'd attend. Guy checks into the hotel before the event with his weapons, is surprised he's never once searched, and not obviously surveilled.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of October 2, 2023
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Thanks! Of course, re Trump, that was predicated on him not winning the Presidency.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Small-Scale Question Sunday for April 5, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I thoroughly enjoyed Robert Harris’s Cicero trilogy (Imperium, Lustrum, and Dictator), the great orator’s professional life and the waning of the Republic seen through the eyes of Cicero’s scribal slave.


Your recommendation for post-Roman Britain is now on hold in my library audiobook app.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of March 30, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I started in on Gravity’s Rainbow, but it was in no way a book I enjoyed. After three pages I returned it to the library.


I want to enjoy reading. My flavor is more in line with Weymouth’s Veddy British translation of the New Testament. His St. Paul is a true philosopher.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of March 9, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Iran is run by an ethnic supremacist Arab ruling class forcing (at pain of death or worse) the native Persian populace to bow to their god. The tens of thousands of protesters they killed are more legibly a genocide than the fog-of-war deaths of far fewer non-Hamas Palestinians.