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🇺🇸 Fiat justitia ruat caelum

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🇺🇸 Fiat justitia ruat caelum

				
				
				

				

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				Culture War Roundup for the week of March 16, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
All else being equal, I would support a system where the only people who got to vote were "net taxpayers."  People who pay into the system more than they get out of it.  And some kind of adjustment for kids, like if you get child tax credit and that is why you aren't a next taxpayer it can be adjusted somewhat.


However, not all is equal and this would disenfranchise not only the stupid, lazy, and shortsighted disproportionately, but also disenfranchise specific racial groups disproportionately.  Which to some extent is fine, in the sense that it only does so because stupid, lazy, and shortsighted people are disproportionately in certain racial groups.  But I am also uncomfortable with removing these groups from having much of a say at all in how they are treated and recognize the moral hazard there.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of March 16, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Huh.  Don't all the passengers get the bends when that happens though?  Recoverable if there are enough hyperbaric chambers, but still seems unpleasant.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of March 16, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Democrats also reject the legitimacy of elections, though with less concrete explanations of what would make them more comfortable with them.


For Trump, it was Russian Collusion.  Bush was "Selected, not Elected.".  In smaller elections there are complaints about voter suppression.  Locally there was a big kerfuffle that State funding got pulled to send out extra busses to bring people  to poll locations on Election Day.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of March 16, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Yes!  The point is, more than the Lizardman Constant truly believes that there was fraud, when our system only works when we all agree that voting is fair and honest.  Both sides need to bend over backwards to make sure that everyone has faith in our elections because that is the only way we keep the ship running.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of March 16, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
At least the version I heard in school:


In the American past, there was a group of people (Freed descendants of African slaves) who had a legal right to vote but the people running the voting booths did not want them voting.  They created lots of ways to prevent this group of people from voting:


    

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    Some created tests with a mix of hard and easy questions, and required someone had to answer five random questions correctly.  Naturally the people running the voting booth would make sure the easy questions were given to people they liked, and the hard questions to people they didn't like.
    

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    Others skipped the test and made a "Poll tax" which was set in a way that most African Americans could not pay.
    

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This was frowned upon by the rest of America and some severe and broad laws were passed to make it impossible to require someone to pay money or to take a test in order to vote.


Democrats complain that most Government Forms of ID require paying a small amount of money to discourage people from losing theirs and to help offset the costs of printing the card and maintaining the ID system.  Voter ID is then associated with a Poll Tax, which we all learned in school is Racist and Bad.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Small-Scale Question Sunday for March 15, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
There have been times where one party or the other sweeps the election, but the response is for the opposite party to adjust it's positions.  Each party has the incentive to adapt their positions to the electorate, and because they are both doing this at the same time naturally it falls to around a 50/50 split.  It's actually more like a 33% split because there's also a third of people who feel cut out of the process, are too apathetic or too adverse to both parties, and don't vote.


Given that we have more real-time feedback with internet sentiment and good polls, the parties adjust much faster now and it is unlikely there will be a sweep again.


That said, the real mystery is why the two parties are so different from each other.  Or are they?


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Small-Scale Question Sunday for March 15, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Someone who cannot read The American Reader: Words That Moved a Nation is not a literate American.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of March 16, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Or because they got government contracts to mass produce a bad product before there was any market feedback.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of March 16, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Things change when you're in a pressurized cabin designed to be as lightweight as possible.  Which is also what gives us hope for space swords in the distant future!


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of March 16, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
There are copilots who should prevent this as much as possible, but realistically what would the average passenger do?  A determined pilot could dive down faster than a passenger could react.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Friday Fun Thread for March 13, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
In development does not mean in production.  He has approval from the rights holder (20th Century Fox/Disney) and the original show runner (Wheadon).  He has the original cast and one of the show runners from Dollhouse on board.  He has a script for at least the first episode of season 2. He has an animation studio that has declared interest.


It doesn't sound like he has money.  Or as he puts it, "a home."  But really it's the money needed to begin production which would be provided in the place where it will be distributed (these days a streaming service).  Disney has first dibs, but would somewhere like Apple or Amazon pick it up?  One thing that would encourage such a move would be to prove there are still fans out there, in sufficient quantities to make it worth it. Hence the hype campaign right now.


If the hype does not explode, this will go nowhere.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Friday Fun Thread for March 13, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
That's why it's an animated series, I expect.


But like I said, I thought a podcast audio drama would be the best possibility.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Small-Scale Question Sunday for March 15, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I think there is value to knowing the words the author selected.  Consequence is a word that shows it's not just "class" and that class is more than just how comfortable your life is.  Consequence means that these character's lives are considered more significant through the means they get their bread.  The word choice is an introduction and an education into a mindset that is unlike ours.


With about 40-80 hours of practice, you can accustom yourself to the vocabulary and grammar differences.  The number of words you will need to look up will go down to maybe a dozen a book.  This is very different from requiring everyone read all novels in their original language, because learning a whole language takes 1000s of hours.


Also modern people write like that sometimes.  Pick up This is Happiness by Niall Williams for example.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Friday Fun Thread for March 13, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Nathan Fillion announced on Instagram that a second Firefly season is in development.  It's a cult classic/niche hit.  Has at least a million dedicated fans, which is an unfortunate amount.  Disney Plus, which holds the rights at the moment, would probably need the number of fans to be in the 10s of millions to consider beginning production.  It sounds like Disney was open to Fillion bringing the rights somewhere else so maybe he could manage a low budget thing on Crunchy roll but I don't feel like that's his goal.


I always felt that Firefly would make a good fan-funded high-quality podcast serialized story, like The Magnus Archives.  This is a little ambitious but we will see how it goes.  If you think Firefly has more than 1 million fans, prove it by liking the Instagram post.  We will see how it shakes out.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of March 9, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I'm confused.  How many people in the US would be actually surprised/outraged if we got into a hot war and someone bombed a military base, which also had a school on it?  We'd be upset about getting bombed at all, but I don't think the fact that a school on the base also got hit would add to the upsetness.  It seems like a legit strike would also harm people at the school.


Schools on military bases are probably really convenient and the risk is low right now because we are unlikely to have people attacking us on the continental US.  But it is a risk that they probably had to assess and accept.  If an attack on US soil seemed more likely, the schools would probably be moved.