I don’t know one that sums up Florida, but I know one that sums up how I feel about Florida: Fremdschämen.

Edit: Actually, I guess we could just add Höllenloch to it and get what you were trying to say: Fremdschämenshöllenloch or Vicariously embarrassing hell hole. I’m sure someone whose German is much, much better than mine will breeze through here and correct me.

I have to use Windows and Teams for work and I’m starting to feel like a computer historian or an operating system archeologist every time I use my work PC.

Someone called me directly on Teams the other day and the old Skype ringtone played; now I already knew that MS absorbed Skype but it was weird because the actual ringtone is sort of low-fi, like it’s probably the same 20 year old .wav file.

I’m pretty sure the new W11 file explorer is just Edge which is just Chrome.

I feel like I’m looking at geological layers whenever I dive into OS settings.

Some window skins are clearly from Vista.

Aesthetically it is a nightmare, but it also clearly demonstrates that W11 is six operating systems in a trenchcoat.

Why wasn’t he arrested and charged for this before being sent to El Salvador? If he is this heinous of a criminal, why was he the alternate for the seat on the flight down to El Salvador?

Let’s argue for argument’s sake that he is the kind of person the DOJ claims he is. Does this mean he is guilty before being given a chance to defend himself? Shouldn’t he be afforded an opportunity to hear the charges and offer a defense? Granted, immigrants without citizenship can be deported for any criminal activity, but this guy had a court order preventing that. So why couldn’t the DOJ arrest and charge him before sending him to a death prison? Wouldn’t it be in the interest of the nation to maybe find out more about his network before disappearing him, especially since they claim he smuggled thousands of people?

This is some kafkaesque, fascist, dumbass bullshit.

Amazing! Thanks for taking the time to share. I figured there was an aesthetic interest in addition to the morbid curiosity.

I went through a phase where I wanted to build a library of weird, bizarre, cult, occult, and outlandish books (which I why I had a copy of Dianetics among other religious texts). I abandoned the idea mostly because I didn’t want to dedicate space to books that I never wanted to read or felt repulsed by reading.

If you like kitschy and bizarre books, I recommend checking out the following (if you haven’t already encountered them before):

• Telecult Power by R. Durbin
• Apocalypse Culture by A. Parfrey

Telecult Power makes me laugh since it’s a how-to for developing telepathy and telekinesis. Apocalypse Culture creeps me out and reading essays from that book is like dropping into a conversation midway while no one cares to explain what’s going on.

Bibleman and A History of Christian Hymnody are wildly different theological materials; what’s the criteria for your collection?

Do you study religions or is the there something else, like an aesthetic thing, that drives your collection?

Also, how much of this have you read and is there any of it that you believe?

Sorry for the barrage of questions, but I find the notion of collecting cult and religious media to be fascinating, especially if it’s for reasons other than faith.

Wow, you might be serious.

I used to keep tabs on the weird religious stuff for fun, but most of it turns my stomach these days to the point that I can’t even laugh at it.

Definitely got super drunk and riffed on Kirk Cameron videos back when he had that Way of the Master series (e.g. the banana video).

I used to have a copy of Dianetics that you would have thoroughly enjoyed.

You should try to acquire a copy of a Mormon seminary textbooks. There should be a series of four of them: Old Testament, New Testament, Book of Mormon, and Doctrine and Covenants/Church History (this is one is a gold mine). The Mormons apparently make them available as PDFs for the current versions, but the older ones are sure to be better.

I’ve got you tagged now as “collects weird religious stuff”. Congrats.

You want me to send you free copies of the Book of Mormon and the Watchtower, too?

I consider it a civic duty to collect these whenever I find them and throw them in the trash.

There are a lot of complicated reasons why high tariff are a global problem in a global economy, but simply put:

1. High tariffs raise prices
2. High prices reduce sales
3. Fewer sales reduces profit

Reduced profit for a single company or industry isn’t usually detrimental to a national or global economy. But when an entire country’s economy is hit with reduced profits across every industry, then it creates a problem.

So in summary, Americans are going to get fucked directly, “foreign countries” are going to get fucked indirectly.

I mean, yeah. That was kinda the point.

I’m glad he connected the dots, but he’s incapable of having a true moment of self reflection.