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MadMonzer

Epstein Files must have done something really awful for so many libs to want him released.

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joined 2022 September 06 23:45:01 UTC 

				
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MadMonzer


								

								

								
								
								

								
							
					
 
				


				
Epstein Files must have done something really awful for so many libs to want him released.

				
				
				

				

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					joined 2022 September 06 23:45:01 UTC
				


				
					

					
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				Culture War Roundup for the week of September 29, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
In Rome, you order pasta rather than pizza. The local specialities are arabiata, amatriciana, carbonara, and giricia.


In Bologna, the local pasta dishes are the heavier, meatier ones, with ragu the most famous (known outside Bologna as spaghetti bolognese). Bologna is also the spiritual home of filled pasta dishes like tortellini and ravioli.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of September 29, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Balti, Chicken Tikka Masala, Vindaloo. No spices in British food, no sir.


[For Americans not aware of the history, all of these dishes originated in the UK and are largely consumed by white British people]


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of September 29, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


The smaller irony is that we can look FURTHER back in history to compare what happens when Italians conquer a place vs. when Muslim Arabs conquer a place: the Roman and Ottoman empires, respectively.




The Ottoman Turks were not Arabs. Turkish immigration has caused its own interesting set of issues, what with Imam Gulem's network of dodgy charter schools, but they are profoundly different to the ones Arabs cause. Turkish Cypriot immigration to the UK has been trouble-free, though it isn't clear if it has been an economic net positive.


If we are keeping score, the Ottoman Empire was also rather less assiduous than the Romans when it comes to persecuting Christians.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of September 29, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
It is also possible to order Italian staples in the wrong regions and get mediocre food. Ordering pizza in Rome or carbonara in Bologna is like ordering a well-done steak in Paris - it's a signal to the kitchen that you don't care about food quality.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of September 29, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
That's a lot of debt. EA has about $2 billion in annual operating cashflow (which will drop after the take-private because some of the $600 million or so in stock-based compensation will become cash bonuses) of which $250 million a year is being reinvested in the business (excluding major acquisitions, which EA seem to be dependent on). The reported profit after tax is $1.1 billion, with depreciation most of the difference. At a low-end LBO interest rate of SOFR+200, the interest on $20 billion in debt is going to $1.2 billion per year.


Absent another pandemic or other dramatic increase in revenue with minimal investment required to deliver it, EA are going to have to eat their seed corn in order to pay the interest. I wonder if JP Morgan are doing a favour for the Saudis by lending slightly too much on this one.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Small-Scale Question Sunday for September 28, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Isn't Erika Kirk supposed to be the replacement for Charlie Kirk?


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of September 22, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


...regardless, it is my observation that American politicians are big on the performative aspects of politics




For structural and cultural reasons, there is no distinction between a King and a CEO in the American system, so mayors, governors and presidential hopefuls need to demonstrate their ability to do both. A British Prime Minister needs to do a lot less performing because the royals take on most of the performance burden of making the country look and feel like a country. And we have similar institutions at local levels - the traditional British (Lord) Mayor has largely ceremonial and representative functions while the leader of the majority group on the council is making policy, setting budgets etc.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of September 22, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


One compelling Trump thesis is he thinks he's found a cheat code where he doesn't even have to finish doing things. He can just start things, talk about what it's intended to do as if it's already done, and expects to reap the same benefits even if nothing actually happens at all like he describes as the policy takes place - or more likely, collapses under its own weight quickly.




One of the main criticisms Dominic Cummings makes of the British political class is that this was the main way Blair thought about governing, and the only way Cameron and Johnson did. People were talking about the "permanent campaign" as something that started in the Clinton administration, although in Clinton's White House the key political operator was a pollster (Dick Morris) and not a PR/comms person like Alastair Campbell or Malcolm Tucker - something that Cummings calls out as significantly less harmful. Conventional wisdom is that this development was partly driven by the need to generate content for cable news.


In so far as Trump's style is different from earlier versions of the permanent campaign, it is that David Cameron would announce Project Shoebox with grand promises and then both Cameron and the press would ignore what the project actually did, whereas Donald Trump will announce Project Shoebox and then post a fish tale on social media about how Project Shoebox has already made the national foot four sizes larger in only a month.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of September 22, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


Do you want a police force which is unfailingly polite and courteous to everyone, but impotent as a result and a laughingstock to hardened criminals?




It is perfectly possible to be polite and scary at the same time, and it works on both professional criminals and law-abiding citizens. (I agree it doesn't work on junkies who are as high as a kite at the point of arrest.) British police are trained how to do it, and American police could be. Old-style Italian mob bosses in gangster movies are probably the best on-screen example given the relative lack of non-comedy British cop shows.


The reason why ICE are instead acting like the secret police rounding up {disfavoured ethinc group of choice} is because that is the show that Trump wants to put on for his core supporters, not because it is the most effective way of achieving a policy goal.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of September 22, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
The term I usually hear applied to women (or men who can't perform machismo as well as Donald Trump) who talk like that is "whiny little bitch".


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of September 22, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Friendly media gave Harris easy opportunities to differentiate herself from Biden without being disloyal. The correct answer to "what would you have done differently?" is not "Nothing" - it is "With hindsight, we should have stopped the pandemic-era emergency spending as soon as everyone who wanted to be was vaccinated and pivoted to controlling inflation."


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of September 22, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


The difference with Ford is that Ford succeeded (as Speaker of the House, not VP) from a disgraced Nixon admin.




And pardoned Nixon, which was extremely unpopular at the time.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of September 22, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I mean that the claim "voters respond to price levels, not to inflation rates" is a claim that could be empirically tested using the standard methods of political science research, and has not been.




"people see with their own eyes that they can now afford less than they used to"




The voters who swung hardest against Biden in 2024 were working class non-white voters - roughly the group who were most likely to see their incomes keep up with Bidenflation. Historically, voters were pissed off with inflation even when wages were rising faster than prices economy-wide, which is why Nixon felt the need to promise to "Whip Inflation Now". The "voters punish incumbents for inflation" effect appears to be distinct from the "voters punish incumbents for falling living standards" effect. Conventional wisdom among both politicians and political scientists (backed by empirical research which you may or may not believe) is that the electorate as a whole evaluates "falling living standards" based on the first derivative over the 1-2 years before the election. (Voters who personally suffer a large drop in living standards will sometimes turn against the party that was in government at the time for the rest of their lives - one of the advantages Reform have over the Conservatives in the UK is that voters in the North of England don't blame them for Thatcher). It is therefore a surprise if voters evaluate "inflation" based on the price level.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of September 22, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


Eh? Do American voters really have no attention span, they forget about inflation that happened a couple years ago?




Voters can have a long memory for things that actually happened, and a shorter memory for campaign messages. Conventional wisdom among both professional politicians and academic political scientists is that voters look back 1-2 years, but not a full term, when evaluating incumbents' record on the economy (and, presumably, other real issues like crime).


One interesting and afaik formerly unstudied possibility that emerged from the 2024 election is that voter anger about inflation can persist a lot longer than voter anger about other bad economic outcomes (in particular, temporary high unemployment) because "prices are higher than I think they should be" is something voters feel in the present even if the inflation has stopped.


Part of the point Cummings was making about the Brexit campaign is that the nature of paid online advertising allows you to back-load your campaign into the last week in a way which was impossible with a campaign involving a lot of activist effort, and difficult with paid MSM advertising because the media is already saturated with political ads the week before the election.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of September 22, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I agree that it is a bad outcome. But the solution is proportional representation, not redrawing districts.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of September 22, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
That can arise naturally from FPTP without gerrymandering. If a 65-35 city is reasonably homogeneous, then every district will be roughly 65-35 and a majority-party sweep is the default outcome.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of September 22, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Checking the history, ibuprofen was pharmacy-only in the UK until 1996 (whereas aspirin and paracetamol were on general sale). So when aspirin became contra-indicated for children because of the risk of Reye's Syndrome, a generation of kids grew up with paracetamol as the most available pain relief. The messaging from people who send public health messages (I was too young at the time to be more specific) was "ibuprofen is a stronger version of aspirin", so I assumed that it was also unsuitable for young children until I had kids of my own and bothered to check.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of September 22, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


I hate having Tylenol in the house. It was one of the scarier parts of pregnancy and neonates. My 2 year old slurped up half a bottle while I was trying to dose the 3 month old and I called poison control crying. Couldn't sleep all night from shaking, though they told me it was below their threshold for going into the ER. An overdose is a miserable death.




This attitude feels odd to me - I wonder if it is a difference in national cultures around paracetamol/acetaminophen (bizzare that the pharmaceutical name and not just the trade name has a BrE/AmE difference - I think it is the only drug where this is the case). I can't imagine not having suitable paracetamol preparations for all family members (Calpol is the brand of children's paracetamol syrup in the UK, the pills for adults are all generic) on hand if needed - and adult paracetamol in Europe is the strength of "extra strong" Tylenol in the US. I keep them safe with the prescription medicines - mostly for the dog's sake. (Paracetamol and antifreeze are the dog poisons our vet is most worried about, although according to the RSPCA slug pellets are the cause of most fatal dog poisonings in the UK). One time I forgot and the 4 yo tried to chug a half-finished bottle of Calpol, although he spilt enough that there was no risk of an OD.


I know the UK licensed safe paracetamol (with an antidote incorporated into the tablets so you can't dangerously overdose) for dementia patients. It was taken off the market because the antidote caused nausea often enough to be a problem, but we now have a better antidote. It seems odd that nobody has tried again.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of September 22, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


We recommend judicious acetaminophen use—lowest effective dose, shortest duration—under medical guidance, tailored to individual risk-benefit assessments, rather than a broad limitation,




Given that paracetamol is so hepatotoxic it would be hard to approve under today's standards, this is good advice for anyone, pregnant or not.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of September 22, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Paracetamol use during pregnancy is strongly correlated with having pain and fever during pregnancy (no citation needed), which are in turn correlated with a number of underlying conditions that are known or suspected to be causative of childhood autism. Without a proposed causal theory for paracetamol causing autism, Occam's razor says that this is a classic "umbrellas cause rain" result.


<snark>You can now make stereo-specific thalidomide without the teratogenic isomer, so perhaps pain relief in pregnant women needs to turn full circle</snark>


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of September 15, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
If real fascism is in the offing, you should oppose it effectively - which doesn't necessarily mean violently. The moral imperative to be effective is as strong as the moral imperative to oppose fascism in the first place. Empirically, disorganised political violence in a democracy is an ineffective tactic.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of September 15, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


Pentecostals have rock-concert services at which they seek to demonstrate a set number of 'signs of faith' listed in the bible. 'Speaking in tongues' is the most popular of these. Snake handling is a popular way to make fun of them, but is a fringe movement therein. Politically conservative, they might have women clergy, and moral theology varies a fair bit. They take the bible 100% literally and hold a variety of post-biblical supernatural beliefs, but usually less firmly than Catholics.




How black is Pentecostalism in the US? In London most of the Pentecostal churches are ethnic churches for some African or Caribbean country.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of September 15, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
And you just refuted the transactivist point of view by making an obviously correct argument about the meaning of words.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of September 15, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
The trans-inclusive definition of "woman" is self-evidently incoherent. But pointing that out is an argument about the meaning of words, not about what Caitlyn Jenner is.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of September 15, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


MTF transsexuals are either women, or they aren't.




This seems like the worst possible example - “Are transwomen women?” seems to be a question where 90% or the disagreement about the meaning of the word “woman” and only 10% about ground truth.


If you exclude people who believe in intrinsically gendered souls (for whom the question, “Can female souls be incarnated in male bodies?” is meaningful even if the correct answer is unknowable with mortal technology) I don’t think you would get any disagreement on questions like “Does Caitlin Jenner have testicles?” or “Does Caitlin Jenner have a considered, sincere belief that she is supposed to be a woman?”