I'm a Retired Professional Asshole, what's your excuse? Retired Union member, Small business owner, Fire Department life member. Family travel, roller coasters, theme parks, the occasional camera and computer.
Avatar from my High School yearbook, gradient added. I’m much older now.
Cis White Boomer looking to learn to be a better person by listening to others.
I know conservatives hate this kind of take "I'll never apologize for AMERICA" They say.
Thing is... saying that isn't as fun if you know damn well that what your government is doing makes no sense. It's not making YOU safer, or wealthier, or proud of your country. I don't really find the whole "fingers in my ears I love the USA" solution comforting.
It's embarrassing to know that your country is being used by powerful people for their private murderous projects and you can't make it stop.
Hey look at this
* A dream denied: My 54-year quest to publish a short story in F&SF https://www.scottedelman.com/wordpress/2025/11/12/a-dream-denied/
* The algorithm failed music https://www.theverge.com/column/815744/music-recommendation-algorithms (h/t JWZ)
* Why the filibuster? https://coreyrobin.com/2025/11/11/why-the-filibuster/
* Britain’s Railway Privatization Was an Abject Failure https://www.rosalux.de/en/news/id/53917/britains-railway-privatization-was-an-abject-failure
* The lawsuit is over! https://linkletter.org/update-33-the-lawsuit-is-over/
4/
The Free Software Foundation (NASDAQ: RMS) has announced the Free Software alternative to the evil, DRM-infested, locked-down, defective-by-design iPhone: the GNUPhone.
The key technical innovation of the GNUPhone is that it is completely operated from the command line. “What could be more intuitive than a bash prompt?” said seventeen-year-old Debian developer Hiram Nerdboy. “The ultimate one-dimensional desktop! Just type ‘dial voice +1-555-1212 --ntwk verizon --prot lte --ssh-version 2 -a -l -q -9 -b -k -K 14 -x’ and away you go! Simple and obvious!”
The phone will also serve as a versatile personal media player. “I can play any .au file or H.120 video with a single shell command! The iPod could never measure up to this powerful ease of use.” Video is rendered into ASCII art with aalib. “If blocky ASCII teletype softcore pinups were good enough for 1970s minicomputer operators, they’re good enough for you. Respect your elders.”
Actual successful voice calls are expected by 2030 to 2032. Regulatory approval is proving problematic in the corrupt, corporate-captured US environment. “The FCC said that if we dared switch on this, uh, ‘piece of shit’ in a built-up area in its present form, they’d break all our fingers with a fourteen-pound cluebat,” said Nerdboy. “They’re obviously shilling for Apple, Samsung and Google.”
The second version of the GNUPhone will run EMACS on the HURD kernel and be operated by writing eLisp macros on the fly. “It’s the clearest, most elegant and natural operating environment anyone could conceive of,” said Nerdboy. “Really, we’re not out to destroy Apple; that will just be a completely unintentional side effect.”
(slightly updated)
myrmepropagandist
Cory Doctorow
Nowhere Girl
Admiral Wonderboat
David Gerard
Warner Crocker
BrianKrebs
Ms. Que Banh
Jonathan McDowell 
Quinn Nelson