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ToaKraka

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ToaKraka


								

								

								
								
								

								
							
					
 
				


				
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				Culture War Roundup for the week of March 9, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Unfortunately, the ICJ has not seen fit to issue an authoritative ruling on this issue. However, the opinions of Kosovo and Serbia on the topic may be of interest.


Kosovo:




While the exact contours of any right of self-determination have not been articulated by this Court, the authorities noted above may be read as identifying two key components that permit the exercise of the right: the existence of a "people"; and the demonstrated inability of that people to be protected within a particular State, given prior abuses and oppression by that State's government. The people of Kosovo are distinct, being a group of which 90 percent are Kosovo Albanians, who speak the Albanian language, and who mostly share a Muslim religious identity. The Security Council itself has referred to the "people of Kosovo". Further, the prior infliction of massive human rights abuses and crimes against humanity by the Serbian authorities upon the people of Kosovo, are well-known and well-documented, as demonstrated by the February 2009 ICTY Judgment in Milutinović et al., and have been condemned by the General Assembly, the Security Council, and many other international bodies. The continued denial by Serbia of representative government to Kosovo was recently demonstrated by the failure of Serbia to invite Kosovo-Albanian representatives to the drafting of the 2006 Constitution of Serbia, nor to give them a chance to express themselves upon it (only Kosovo Serbs were allowed to participate in the referendum). In these circumstances there can be no doubt that the people of Kosovo were entitled to the right of self-determination.




Serbia:




Kosovo was neither a mandated/trust territory nor an overseas European colonial territory in the UN sense, nor was it registered or recognised or ever even submitted for acceptance as a non-self-governing territory with the United Nations, nor did any international or regional body ever recognise it as such, nor was it subject to foreign occupation as determined or evidenced by relevant international organisations. Kosovo formed an integral part of the FRY (State Union of Serbia and Montenegro). It remains an integral part of Serbia, and as such the population of that territory were, and remain, part of the "people" of Serbia. Those persons forming part of a minority within the territory of Serbia, including Kosovo, are entitled to the protection of minority rights as laid down in Articles 14 and 75–81 of the Constitution of the Republic of Serbia 2006.


Kosovo, as a part of an internationally recognised independent State, is not a self-determination unit as that term has been understood in international law and practice. Consistent international recognition of the territorial integrity of the FRY (and thus of its continuator, the Republic of Serbia) by definition precludes acceptance of the right of self-determination as inhering in the inhabitants of the province of Kosovo.




				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of March 9, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


What the fuck is even the point of these places?




According to international consensus, as codified by the United Nations (1 2):


    

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    Every people has the right to self-determination (free determination of political status and free pursuit of economic, social, and cultural development).
    

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  • 

    The purpose of a country is to fulfill its people's right of self-determination.
    

    • 

  • 

    More developed countries do not have the right to decide that a particular people is not sufficiently civilized to deserve the right of self-determination, or has failed to properly pursue economic, social, or cultural development.
    

    • 



				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of March 9, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
More illustrative link


ModelTypeWillingness to obey taboo instructionsIntelligence and knowledge



xai/grok-4.20-multi-agent-beta-0309 (agent_count=4)Proprietary6.556



zai-org/GLM-4.6 (reasoning=disabled)Local4.242



ArliAI/GLM-4.6-Derestricted-v3 (no-think)Local9.830





				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of March 9, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I realize that this is a joke, but just to clarify:


CategoryProposed amendments…that received public comment



IBC egress5718


IBC general 2024123


IBC general 202521044


IBC structural 202493


IBC structural 202518628


IPMC614


IRC building30436


IZC30





The bold numbers indicate the ones that I checked. Perhaps I should have checked more, but I saw this page only yesterday, and I didn't feel like spending a zillion hours on this random task.


In comparison:


StateApprox. court opinions posted per week



NJ50


PA100





				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of March 9, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Almost all states in the US, and a few countries, use the ICC codes as bases for their own codes (residential building, commercial building, energy efficiency, etc.). Even after a jurisdiction adds its own modifications, the unmodified ICC code still forms the nationwide baseline, and is considered in the jurisdiction's periodic code-updating process.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Friday Fun Thread for March 13, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


my landlord is not accommodating of any holes that weren't there when I moved in




I believe the standard solution for such problems is a hook with adhesive on the back.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of March 9, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
This comment may be slightly low-effort and/or non-culture-war, but it seems relevant to past discussions of housing affordability from @grendel-khan. See also my past comment on actual culture war in building codes.


The current round of proposed amendments to ICC (International Code Council) codes can be found through this page (both group A and group B). Committee decisions regarding acceptance of the amendments are in the separate "ROCAH" documents.


    

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    E24-24 (group A, IBC egress) was submitted by the Center for Building in North America. The current edition of the IBC (International Building Code) permits an apartment building to have a single exit only if the building contains no more than three stories and four apartments per story (for a total of 12 apartments). This amendment would increase the maximum to either six stories and four apartments per story (for a total of 24 apartments) or three stories and six apartments per story (for a total of 18 apartments). The submitter estimates that this amendment would reduce "the cost of constructing multifamily buildings on small lots" by 7 percent. At the first hearing, the committee unanimously rejected the amendment, citing various safety-related reasons. However, at the second hearing, a modified amendment prescribing a maximum of four stories and four apartments per story (for a total of 16 apartments) was approved by the committee in an almost-unanimous vote.
    

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  • 

    G154-25 (group B, IBC general) was submitted by the same organization. The current edition of the IBC requires elevators to comply with several ASME (American Society of Mechanical Engineers) standards. This amendment would permit elevators to alternatively comply with the equivalent ISO (International Organization of Standardization) and EN (European Norms) standards, and thereby invite competition from European elevator manufacturers that generally don't bother with American standards, possibly reducing the extremely high elevator costs that prevail in the US. The committee rejected it almost unanimously.
    

    • 

  • 

    G158-25 was submitted by the same organization. The current edition of the IBC requires an elevator in a building with at least four stories to be large enough to accommodate an ambulance stretcher. This amendment would eliminate this requirement in apartment buildings with no more than six stories. The committee rejected it unanimously.
    

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  • 

    RB121-25 (group B, IRC building) was submitted by the NAHB (National Association of Homebuilders). The current edition of the IRC (International Residential Code) prescribes a maximum stairway slope of 77.5 % (7.75-inch risers and 10-inch treads). This amendment would increase the maximum to 91.7 % (8.25-inch risers and 9-inch treads). The NAHB points out that similar slopes were permitted by predecessors to the IRC and still are permitted by 46 percent of state codes, by the federal manufactured-house code, and by multiple foreign codes (90.0 % in UKGBNI and 90.9 % in Spain). The NAHB estimates 150 dollars of savings per stairway, not including the reduction in floor area of 5.75 ft2. The committee accepted this amendment by a bare vote of six to four.
    

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  • 

    RB115-25, submitted by the government of New York, would require locks on the exterior doors of a house. The committee unanimously rejected it as out of scope for the IRC.
    

    • 



Disclaimer: I did not look through all the literally thousands of proposed amendments. Rather, I looked through the PCH (public comment hearing) documents for stuff that actually drew public comment. So I probably missed other relevant proposals.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Friday Fun Thread for March 13, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
The construction of my much-maligned* (1 2 3) custom house has begun.


    

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    Photograph 1: My neighbor apparently planted some plants on my side of the property line. But they're on his side of the fence line (indicated by the rebar, six inches from the property line), so whatever.
    

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  • 

    Photograph 2: The white pipe in the ground on the left is the sewer pipe (I think). The white pipe sticking out of the ground on the right is the water pipe. The black circle in the ground and in a line with the water pipe is the "water-meter pit".
    

    • 

  • 

    Photograph 3: From right to left, this photograph shows: Foundation insulation; foundation forms; a level instrument of some kind, being used to ensure that the foundation trench is dug to the correct depth; and the trench for the foundation.
    

    • 



*This is a humorous exaggeration.




Tomorrow is Pi Day (2026-03-14). As a publicity stunt, cloud-storage provider Backblaze is now hosting the current record-holding computation of 314 trillion digits of pi (130 TB).


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of March 9, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


sites like this where there's no profile pic or anything.




What are you talking about? A profile image shows up next to every comment, though it appears that everyone in this thread except me has not bothered to set his image.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of March 9, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


Keith Woods has a pretty good thread




For people who do not have a Twitter account, see the word "thread", and immediately manually rewrite the URL from "x.com" (where a thread cannot be read by a non-logged-in person) to "xcancel.com" (where it can), I  feel obligated to point out that your link leads, not to a thread, but to an "article" (apparently a new feature), which can be read on x.com by a non-logged-in person but cannot be read at all on xcancel.com (yet).


Also, a non-Twitter version of the same content is available on Substack.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of March 9, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


at least an optional flag we could choose




Nothing is stopping you from putting such information in your flair or your profile text.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Chesterton's Pill
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


absolutely insane that you still have a Reddit account that’s 11 years old. I find that sort of thing fascinating as well.




I don't see anything fascinating about that. Many people (including me) have the same distinction.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of March 9, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
In the context of romance, I don't see a problem with calling high standards unrealistic, since reproduction is necessary for the perpetuation of society. However, IMO, calling high standards in the context of friendship unrealistic, and saying that people should be friends with people whom they dislike, is extremely sadistic when friendship is not necessary for the perpetuation of society. A person can call his neighbor a good citizen, and be altruistic toward that neighbor, without calling that neighbor a friend.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of March 9, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Forcing specific fonts and colors in the EPUB file's CSS is a rather annoying practice. A technically-savvy reader can just comment out those lines in the CSS, but many readers are not technically savvy.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Friday Fun Thread for March 6, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


There's also at least one "perfect heist" type movies where the meat of the story takes place after the money gets stolen according to plan, but for the life of me I can't remember the name.




The Italian Job may count.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of March 9, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Many articles have been written on the topic of how users get annoyed by long webpage loading times. And a one-time roadblock is one thing, but a roadblock that pops up repeatedly and at random intervals is another—uncertainty is a real mood killer.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Friday Fun Thread for March 6, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


fails to punish obvious rulebreaking until literally three days later




Typical lazy moderator. I bet you'll make some weak excuse like "nobody reported it, so I didn't see it until just now". It is your obligation to monitor every single comment that is posted on this website 24/7.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Small-Scale Question Sunday for March 8, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


she hasn't done anything to warrant anyone trying to destroy her life. I'm not going to condone anything Kiwifarms does




"Trying to destroy people's lives" is explicitly against the terms of Kiwi Farms (harassment is illegal, but doxingphonebooking is not), and the admin quickly bans anybody who crows about engaging in such activities (though detractors of the website like to pretend otherwise).


Regardless, I posted the quote only to call her a lolcow, not to suggest that you make a thread for her on Kiwi Farms.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Small-Scale Question Sunday for March 8, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


Lolcows are people whose eccentric behavior can be "milked" for entertainment.




				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of March 2, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Project Gutenberg has two different English translations, W. K. Marriott (no date given) and Luigi Ricci (1909). Both of them seem similar to the one that you give.




Upon this a question arises: whether it be better to be loved than feared or feared than loved? It may be answered that one should wish to be both, but, because it is difficult to unite them in one person, it is much safer to be feared than loved, when, of the two, either must be dispensed with.






From this arises the question whether it is better to be loved more than feared, or feared more than loved. The reply is, that one ought to be both feared and loved, but as it is difficult for the two to go together, it is much safer to be feared than loved, if one of the two has to be wanting.




Wikisource has what appears to be the original Italian (republished in 1814):




Nasce da questo una disputa: s’egli è meglio essere amato che temuto, o temuto che amato. Rispondesi, che si vorrebbe essere l’uno e l’altro; ma perchè egli è difficile, che e’ stiano insieme, è molto più sicuro l’esser temuto che amato, quando s’abbi a mancare dell’un de’ duoi.




				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of March 2, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


[Michael] Flynn




News article for whippersnappers who don't remember this like me


Text of acts admitted to in guilty plea


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of March 2, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Noncentral fallacy. A hoax bomb or a smoke bomb is a "bomb" just like Martin Luther King is a "criminal".


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			

	


			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Transnational Thursday for March 5, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Advocacy organization CANZUK International has just published a "public opinion analysis" claiming that support for "alliance with the goal of establishing a multilateral free trade agreement and reciprocal mobility arrangements for citizens" is around 70 percent in the four affected countries. In percentage points:


CountrySupportUnsureOpposeMargin of error (±)



Canada7212163


Australia6813193


New Zealand757184


UKGBNI708223





However, if you scroll down to the methodology section:




The figures and insights presented in this report are based on a comprehensive digital sentiment analysis of public discourse from February 1st to 28th, 2026.


This methodology synthesises weighted favourability signals from existing polls, media sentiment analysis, and the volume and tone of engagement on digital platforms (including social media comments, likes, shares, news articles, op-eds, and informal polls) authored by or targeted at residents of Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom.


This is one of many legitimate ways to measure public opinion. Traditional probability-based polling (e.g., random-digit-dial telephone surveys or stratified online panels) remains the established benchmark for statistical representativeness. No polling, survey, or opinion analysis methodology—traditional or modern—is 100% accurate.


All approaches involve inherent limitations related to sampling, timing, question wording, response bias, and real-world events. The goal of any responsible poll, survey or opinion analysis is to provide the clearest possible snapshot of sentiment at a given moment, not a perfect prediction.






By combining the strengths of big-data scale and cutting-edge AI with full transparency about its constraints, this methodology offers a valuable, contemporary complement to traditional polling. It is designed to illuminate prevailing public sentiment and the reasons behind it, helping inform policy and public debate in an increasingly digital world.


CANZUK International welcomes independent scrutiny and encourages cross-verification with probability-based polling for the most complete understanding.




This sounds pretty weasely. But, to be fair, the authors did include "strengths" and "limitations" sections between those two quotes.