Blog/August 2018/Aug 17th

August 17th

As promised, no baby updates, just work, work, work!

I was heads-down, debugging ferociously, all week. I spent the majority of that time trying to understand why 8th was crashing in a particular context which I couldn’t replicate elsewhere. Finally, I figured out the issue: the end-result being, use “libffi”’s built-in support instead of rolling your own secret-sauce. The odd thing is that I was already using libffi for almost all the external connection stuff, but not for one specific thing (which was what was crashing). Arrggggh!!!

Esther was working on her work backlog and getting clients’ tax reports assembled. Sarah was still working on her Nespresso training; I think she’s finished now (maybe not, it wasn’t clear to me). Daniela’s getting ready to go back to work, and she and Jeremy are making arrangements to take care of the twins when she does.

There’s a concept called the “Overton window”, which means the range of ideas which are tolerated in public discourse. Over the past decades, that window has slowly been closing, and the rate at which it’s closing has increased dramatically in the past couple years.

I bring that up in connection to the recent unpersoning of the highly controversial, flamboyant, and fairly crazed conspiracy-theorist Alex Jones. He was dropped by the largest “social media” platforms (excluding Twitter, though they eventually caught up) and unpersoned in the space of 12 hours last week. It is obvious that the platforms colluded; and, given that many of the same people sit on the boards of all of them, and that their politics are identical, it’s not surprising. But the “platform monopoly” is a chillingly dangerous phenomenon, and we should all pay close attention.

It’s not that I like or admire Jones’ work; what I’ve seen of it I found repulsive. It’s that his work has been on those platforms for years without any comment from the Forces That Be; but suddenly, in less than a day, they all decided he was outside the Overton window and had to be eliminated. And: he has no recourse. There is no court of appeal, no lever big enough nor fulcrum he can position close enough to move them in any way.

What happened to him, can happen to anyone who is “unacceptable” in some way. Who’s next in their sights?

Most of you probably know I’m a “free speech absolutist”. I think one should be free to say even the most outrageous (and/or hateful/bigoted/etc.) things without being restricted by the government. And that’s pretty much what the US 1st Amendment is about. One might make the point that Google, Facebook, etc. are “private companies” and are thus not subject to the US Constitution’s restrictions. That is true, as far as it goes. However, they are acting as publishers who curate content, whereas they have always claimed protection from regulation and libel laws, etc., based on their being “neutral platforms” exercising no control over the content posted. Clearly, they are lying about that, and they are lying to their users about their neutrality. Notwithstanding Jones’ outrageousness, his opinions and thoughts should be permitted to be on display: how else can one combat them? Sunlight is the best of disinfectants.

The Overton window is now so narrow, that only Leftist or left-of-center opinions are tolerated; and quite soon, only Leftist discourse will be “acceptable”. Orwell cautioned us about it, he was off by only a few years.

Odd stuff:

• A high-security lock “invincible to the people who do not have a screwdriver”.
• How millenials killed mayonnaise.
• Roger Stone’s possibly stoned “Space Force” picture. Notice anything odd?
• Homo erectus was, apparently, just too lazy to live.
• Robby just graduated. Get out your wallet.
• The driver who was a spy. Only for real.
• Some scientists are “grumpy” over a new study blaming warming on a disrupted Atlantic flow.
• Inexplicably, people are giving Peter Strzok their money.

Our weather has remained pleasant, with lower-than-average summer temperatures. We’ll apparently continue that trend for the next several days!

This shabbat it’s once again just the three of us. Esther and I will eat, and Mom will nibble on:
homemade ḥalla, roasted chicken, mushroom soup, zucchini pashtida, various salatim, and peach cobbler.

Until next time,
shabbat shalom!

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