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Fiat justitia ruat caelum

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Fiat justitia ruat caelum

				
				
				

				

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					joined 2022 September 05 01:56:25 UTC
				


				
					

					
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				Small-Scale Question Sunday for November 2, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
The X1 has a bigger problem that I noticed.  When watching a video of it, it looks like the center of balance is somewhere completely different than where a human's center of balance is.  This made simple things like bending down to close a dishwasher door take forever to figure out.


I can see some kind of justification of an initial "orientation" period that has a human expert on the other side, helping a robot learn where everything is and how to care for the specific appliances in the customer's house.  But the problems of the X1 goes beyond that.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of November 3, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


Also Israel's goal is to create a massive refugee crisis on Europe's doorstep.




Can you back up this claim?  Not just that this is an effect of Israel's action's, but an actual goal that the State of Israel is seeking to enact?


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of October 27, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
When Carlson talked with Fuentes, did he take the attitude of, "you need to justify all these things you say and back it up?" or did he take the attitude of, "Everything you're saying is reasonable and sounds true to me?"


Carlson can be harsh with the people he interviews, like he was with Ted Cruz.  That he isn't asking probing questions with Fuentes indicates that he agrees with him.  If you have a show like this and you interview someone, you're either sponsoring them with publicity, trying to elucidate what someone really believes, or trying to force them to appear foolish.  Which is Carlson doing here?


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of October 27, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
The Heritage Foundation unequivocally denounces Fuentes.


How that squares with refusing to denounce Carlson is left as an exercise to the student.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Wellness Wednesday for October 29, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
The Onion: American Psychiatric Association Adds ‘Obsessive Categorization Of Mental Conditions’ To ‘DSM-5’


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Wellness Wednesday for October 29, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I discussed going into the rabbit hole here: https://www.themotte.org/post/2273/wellness-wednesday-for-july-23-2025/350068?context=8#context


She is currently seeing a psychiatrist who's a bit more into that sort of cutting edge between the future and woo.  I'm cautious but going to keep with it for a year unless she recommends something that seems obviously dangerous.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Wellness Wednesday for October 29, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I think the diagnosis will help some.  Every time I commented here about A, I would always receive some well-meaning, "What punishments are you using when A acts out?" like I've never considered trying the normal parental levers of behavioral adjustment.  It's also been challenging to get a babysitter but now we can use the magic words and hire someone twice as expensive but who knows what they're in for.


It's funny though how some people are.  My mother called me and the first words were, "Are you sure it was a doctor who diagnosed her?  Did they test her for at least 8 hours?"  She kept grilling me about what happened before she was satisfied that it was a genuine diagnosis and then she didn't seem to have much to say.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Wellness Wednesday for October 29, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


Mostly she wants me to give her a piece of paper and a pen, and then cuts it up into hundreds of tiny shapes, and draws things for her dolls on them, and leaves piles of tiny bits of paper all over the place, over and over again.




Oh, yeah.  A does this.  And when she does art, unless she's told to do something specific for an assignment, she will draw a heart with the word "Love" on it every time.  Thousands of hearts with "Love" on them and I try to treat each one as special as the first.  Thousands of hearts on shreds of paper no larger than an inch across.  Scattered around her bedroom.


I think there are probably lots of kids who are "on the specturm" in a sense.  But they don't necessarily need to be diagnosed, treated, etc unless it's hampering their life in some way.  With A, she wasn't learning in school because she was spending about 20% of instructional time in the school office freaking out.  She's someone who needed a diagnosis, support, etc.


I see a lot of A's traits in myself, but I got through school ok because it was easy for me.  I didn't make friends though.  I could see a case for young-me getting diagnosed and in some kind of therapy to learn how to form human friendships.  But I personally was fine without friends?  I felt weird and different, which aren't great feelings to have as a kid.  But I don't think I honestly craved friendship the way most kids do.


It's only really a disorder if it's hampering your ability to live a normal life.  Given Z's age, it's really up to you to decide if Z is happy or if Z needs help and to pursue a diagnosis.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Wellness Wednesday for October 29, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
If it's of interest to you, I think the things that most made the neuropsychologist test for Autism were the following anecdotes:


    

  • 

    Several times now, when I'm driving in the car, one kid will ask me a question.  I will answer the question.  A will then say, "Mom!  I wasn't the one who asked you the question, C asked you the question." And my response is befuddlement, because I didn't use A's name, and I'm looking at the road not her, so why did she think I was talking to her?
    

    • 

  • 

    She gets scared by figures of speech.  "Make your head explode," made her scream and cry for a half hour.  "I wish I could pack you in my suitcase and bring you back with me," made her run to her room and cry in her bed.
    

    • 

  • 

    Funny movies scare her.  George of the Jungle disturbed her, Pink Panther was scary, it's all scary to her.
    

    • 

  • 

    She learned one knock knock joke in Kindergarten at a Pool Party.
    

    "Knock Knock"
    

    "Who's there?"
    

    "Splash"
    

    "Splash who?"
    

    "Splash you!"
    

    It's the kind of joke that only works in a swimming pool.  It's the only joke she used for the next two years.  She would repeat it everywhere.  Over and over again.
    

    • 



However, on examinations, A would give the correct answers to, "What word do you use when you greet someone?"  "When you talk with someone, where should you look?"


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Wellness Wednesday for October 29, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
It's Autism


I've written here before about my daughter who been a challenge to raise.


Since my last comments, I had connected with a Psychiatrist who did some blood work and recommended we give A some supplements.  Vitamin D, P5P, L-Methionine.  We've been at it for almost two months now and I think there has been some change in a positive direction.  I've been trying to keep a record going of the behaviors that are most odd to us:


    

  1. Agressiveness - hits siblings or others
    2. 

  2. Stuck-ness - Keeps trying to do the same thing over and over again
    3. 

  3. Perfectionism - Panics if she does something she thinks is not perfect
    4. 

  4. Language - Does not understand figures of speech.  I can probably expand this bucket to include all things language related she has trouble with - pronouns, reading, etc.
    5. 

  5. Obsessiveness - Piles, checking her door is closed, obsession with a specific TV show, etc.
    6. 



Here is the when we first started the supplements:


    

  1. Aggressiveness - 4
    2. 

  2. Stuck-ness - 4
    3. 

  3. Perfectionism - 5
    4. 

  4. Language - 4
    5. 

  5. Obsessiveness - 3
    6. 



And here is where I would put her today:


    

  1. Aggressiveness - 1
    2. 

  2. Stuck-ness - 2
    3. 

  3. Perfectionism - 3
    4. 

  4. Language - 4
    5. 

  5. Obsessiveness - 2
    6. 



We have some days where aggressiveness trends back up to a 4 or 5, but the trigger is often she does something rude, doesn't realize it's rude, gets mad at a sibling for saying she did something rude, and then lashes out.  And this is more of a weekly occurrence than a daily occurrence.  It feels like progress to me.


Well, we had a 1 year follow up with the Neuropsychologist who diagnosed her with ADHD, we told her about how we pulled A from school due to disruptive behaviors that kept her in the school office for hours every day, we emphasized how weird A's understanding of jokes and speech can be, and she agreed to test her for Autism.


She had a couple days of testing.  Her ADHD symptoms have improved somewhat since last year.  Her verbal IQ increased about 15 points to a normal range now.  There's a test where the kid has to avoid kicking a soccerball before a signal is given and she did better than the average kid, instead of worse like you'd expect from ADHD.  However, not knowing if she was giving the correct answer or behaving the correct way was driving A up a wall and she threw a fit at some point, so not every test was completed.


A week later, Dr. [redacted] gave us the results.  Our daughter has learned human behavior like a Miss. Manners textbook but has definite signs of Autism on display during an ADOS-2 test.  Repeating words and phrases over and over again for minutes, bumping her hands together to expel nervous energy, talking super fast then slow, not really conversing with Dr. [redacted] but rather having a one-sided conversation.  Couldn't describe what made a friend different from someone else, what the experience of having an emotion is like, etc.


So now she needs to up her speech therapy to 1 hour a week, get some kind of occupational therapy, and maybe join some sort of support group with similar people.


Meanwhile I feel like I've been gaslit for the last five years.


She was evaluated for Autism when she was 2 and couldn't talk.  They said there weren't any signs.  Last year, with this same Neuropsychologist, they didn't give her the ADOS-2 test but gave her some other kind of test and said she didn't show signs of Autism.  For the last year I've been going crazy, reading books on BPD in children (doesn't seem to exist but people will certainly sell you books on it), books on ADHD, dyslexia, nutrient deficiencies, ODD, etc.  We've tried high carb low fat diets, elimination diets, supplements, you name it.  And all along it was Autism, which honestly I suspected since she was 7 months old and made her first pile. (The second she learned to crawl, she gathered all her toys into one place and lay on them like a dragon guarding a hoard.  The second she learned to walk, she started eloping at parks like being able to find and return to her mother wasn't a consideration for her.)


Meanwhile, now that I'm putting "Autism" in the search bar, it turns out there's all kinds of official sounding terminology for all the weird behavior she's been doing.  It even explains her writing numbers and letters backwards.  But before this week I ignored results with Autism, because I'd been told on two separate occasions that she doesn't have it.


It feels like the weight of the world has been lifted from me.  The responsibility of being the parent of a weird kid has been lifted from me.  There's a name.  It's not my parenting style.  It's not my fault.


The biggest head trip is how similar she is to me, if I wasn't a genius.  I didn't get frustrated in school, reading came easy to me, I learned figures of speech like I learned the months of the year.  But the social stuff, and repeating my own words, and the one-sidedness to my speech.  That is a lot like me.  A lot of things my daughter did, my mom would say, "That's just what kids are like," and "I think the school is being ridiculous, sending her to the office so much," when it was for things like chasing a teacher around the classroom.  Maybe that's just what her kids are like (except I was better behaved at school, partly because I was in gifted classes, partly because I finished everything ahead of time and was allowed to read books most of class).


But I also feel lost in the woods without a map.  I have to sign her up for therapies.  Where do I start?  I don't know.  We're going to see if this diagnosis means the school can take her back.  But we're also concerned about what that would look like.  It's all a lot.


I've also started having dizzy spells since hearing the results.  Don't know if that's related but it started a couple hours after the appointment.  So that's weird.  Overwhelming stress transferring from one bucket to another in an inefficient fashion.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of October 27, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Cody, specifically, became a problem.  Cody doesn't seem like the person who would shoot Obi Wan in the back.  Cody could rightfully assume that Obi Wan would be one of the good ones.  He just took down Grevious in front of him!  Sure, some Jedi were evil, that had been demonstrated elsewhere in the Clone Wars.  But not Obi Wan.


They had the choice to give Cody an arc where he started distrusting Obi Wan, or they could do the chip thing instead.  They chose the chip thing.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of October 27, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
The chips became narrative necessary in the Clone Wars TV show because the Clones and Jedi developed such a trust from working together that, in the above scenario, the clones would have sided with the Jedi over the political leaders. The clones also had evidence that the "evil witch coven" was alive and active, they saw Count Dooku slaughter many clones, fought Ventress, etc.


Absent all that development, it makes sense without the chips.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of October 20, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I always assumed, by the context is is often used in, "Victim of Circumstance" means a person victimized by who they are and how their life has gone.  A short person unable to play professional basketball is a victim of circumstance because they cannot control how tall they were.  Brown cannot control how crazy he is, therefore he's a victim of circumstance.   This is not mutually exclusive of him being 100% responsible for murder. I don't think I can explain it in any more granularity. If this isn't what "Victim of Circumstance' means then I apologize for using the wrong word, but I don't think we disagree on anything substantial here.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of October 20, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
God, nature, the criminal justice system, molecules bouncing together in a predetermined way, take your pick.


Except I already said several times on this thread that I do think Brown was responsible so I don't know why you keep asking me this.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of October 20, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I said, "Absolutely not," in response to the question of "Should [this] absolve him of responsibility?"  It absolutely does not absolve him of responsibility.


However, it does seem like there were a lot of failures from other people that lead to this happening to Brown.  The insane asylums closed down before he was even born.  He was allowed to walk free from jail many times when it was clear that something like this was inevitable.  He was born with mental illness, which can't be his fault, strictly speaking.


I would definitely support some kind of law that held people accountable for going under sentencing guidelines if there is a reoffence.  Don't know if it would be jail time, but victims should certainly be able to sue judges for this.


I think I am realizing that "Victim of Circumstance" doesn't mean what I thought it did.  I saw it used in all kinds of situations where the "victim" was obviously vicious and committing severe moral faults, so I assumed the definition required that.  But it seems that people think "victim" must mean "innocent."


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of October 20, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Absolutely not.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of October 20, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
07mk gave the response I would have but also I didn't mean "innocent" when I said "victim of circumstances."  Brown is clearly not in the drivers seat of his life, even if he's (allegedly) guilty as sin of cold blooded murder.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of October 20, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Ah, my bad.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of October 20, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
In addition to what ABigGuy4U said, the 19th letter of the Alphabet is S, so 1919 is SS.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of October 20, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
The pharma industry benefits from regulation because it prevents competition.  If a company is large enough before regulation, it can easily use its already-existing compliance department to comply with regulation.  If a company wants to lobby, they should lobby for regulations they would find easy to meet but they know their competition will find onerous.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of October 20, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
He also has a 1919 tattoo that hasn't been getting as much attention. (Visible in the third image here: https://www.cnn.com/2025/10/22/politics/graham-platner-tattoo-senate-candidate)


How many Nazi symbols does someone get tattoed on themselves before they start to wonder the providence of them?


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of October 20, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I don't think it's paradoxical - the more woke someone is the less they follow the old norms of "give everyone a fair chance and make sure the system doesn't abuse its power over people" and are more likely to be unwilling to defend really bad people.  Sure, most of the work a defense attorney might face will involve protecting the rights of someone who's just a victim of circumstances, like Decarlos Brown.  But sometimes you might be called to defend someone who you cannot in good conscience, like someone homophobic or racist.  It's better to be able to pick clients and then take on a few pro bono cases to feel better about it.


I worry that we will start to see the same shift in Medicine.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Small-Scale Question Sunday for October 19, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I misread this as international travel, so this is advice specifically for that, but if you get mugged or lose your passport, go to the embassy.  I traveled in a group to Australia and one of the guys lost his passport (WYD Sydney, so we were mostly 14-18 years old with a handful of chaperones.)  He went to the US embassy, made a few phone calls to his parents, and was back home before the rest of us.


As far as establishing identity goes, you weren't born with an accurate photo ID.  At some point the government just takes it on faith that you are yourself if you have the right papers and someone willing to vouch for you.  You hopefully keep your birth certificate, marriage certificate, SSN card, etc at home (in a fire proof safe if you're forward thinking.)  People routinely lose everything in fires and floods and then start over again.  Not great or convenient, but they don't suddenly become non-persons.


A lot of the advice is along the lines of, "Don't travel alone."  You might lose your phone, but your travel buddy would hopefully still have his.  Even if you are traveling alone, hopefully you still have some phone numbers memorized - family members, best friends who would be willing to drop everything for a few hours and help you out.


A lot of travelers wear something like this under their clothes with some cash and their ID.  It's not going to deter a serious mugging, but it does protect against pick pocketing


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of October 20, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
The article goes into it a little, but right now we already have 9,000 congressional staffers.  It already takes about 10,000 people to run congress, but only a small percentage is elected.


The hope is that if races become smaller, each congressman needs to fundraise less money and spend less time campaigning.  Smaller races will be won in the tens of thousands instead of millions.  They will have more time to actually run the country and can decrease staff accordingly.


Committees are already divided into subcommittees.  It's not unreasonable to divide that even further, into sub-subcommittees.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of October 20, 2025
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
We need a bigger House.  If we have 10,000 Representatives split proportionally, we wouldn't be squabbling over how to best gerrymander each little slice.


Pros:


    

  • Less money being raised - representative spends more time governing than fundraising.
    • 

  • Representatives would be "Friends of Friends," the ratio would be back to 30,000:1 citizens:representatives, which is where it was at the start of our country.  It would be easier to know your representative and for the representative to actually represent a geographic area.
    • 

  • Much harder for parties to whip/control the House, which would lead to less gridlock/conformity.
    • 





Many other questions are along similar logistical lines: how would voting work? Would they use clickers? What if the clickers break? How could C-SPAN get the cameras in? Wouldn’t a large House end up more under the sway of leadership than ever? It’s like nobody’s ever seen a parliament of a few thousand people!






In fact, we know how to run a legislative body consisting of several thousand people, because Americans do just that all the time. I’ve even participated in one!






The 2014 Minnesota Republican Party state convention had 2,020 voting delegates at its opening. I was an alternate, but ended up serving as a voting delegate. It was a pretty thrilling day! The GOP senate endorsement was closely fought, and we went to ten ballots over two days. (I had to drop out after the first night.) We followed Robert’s Rules of Order, which work just fine for huge crowds, with standard convention rules. We cast paper ballots and handed them to trusted ballot-counting teams. The House floor “debates” you see on C-SPAN are mostly on-camera onanism to an audience of six or seven people, but, at the MNGOP convention, we fiercely debated the merits of each candidate among ourselves—not so much on mic, but person to person. The candidates courted us. Their surrogates courted us. Candidate teams were back in their offices just off-site, printing up supportive flyers and (as the losing candidates grew desperate) nasty slanders for rapid distribution on the floor.






It was a blast. In the end, the body reached a collective decision. Our candidate was not my first choice, but he was far from my last. Similar conventions happen everywhere in the country, year in and year out, for both parties, without major drama or disaster. The House can run just as smoothly! This is what a republic looks like!




Combined with an amendment about making districts boundaries as close to their geographic center as possible, it would create a more fair system overall.