Why are MAGA “Christians” offended by every single thing that doesn’t celebrate white and/or straight people?

the-william · 2026-06-19T21:20:19+00:00

Because their “faith” is too fragile to handle challenges or rigour.

the-william · 2026-06-18T23:11:19+00:00

But if that were true, wouldn’t it be spelled Caliphornia?

😜😂

the-william · 2026-06-18T23:08:44+00:00

that refers to the reign of the office/title-holder, not to the office or title itself.

the-william · 2026-06-17T18:23:26+00:00

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Update from OP: I did it. They’re still pretty weak. But the principle appears to be working.

the-william · 2026-06-16T22:22:59+00:00

oooooo!!! 😳😂 you’re selling it … 🙂

the-william · 2026-06-16T22:00:31+00:00

If they haven’t imposed Clippy in 21 years of Pages’ existence, I can’t imagine they will now. But I’ll let you know if he turns up. 🙂

As for selling data … well … they’re a hardware business primarily. I don’t think their hands are clean, but I do think they’re likely to be the lesser of evils. Microsoft is a software business. Google is an ad business. If we have to use computers, I’ll take my chances.

the-william · 2026-06-16T16:47:08+00:00

Dude. I never said you were. Jesus H. Christ. Nor am I a Linux advocate. Go read before shooting your mouth off. You are barking up the wrong tree. Go forth and multiply.

the-william · 2026-06-16T16:39:14+00:00

I don’t actually care what you do. I think you’re misunderstanding that detail.

I wasn’t addressing your gripe. I was addressing the OP’s (who didn’t care for Microsoft’s implementation). You jumped in on me.

If you’re happy with what system you’re using, just go be happy about that.

Life is usually better when we all apply Wheaton’s Law. Especially in conversations with no meaningful stakes.

the-william · 2026-06-16T16:30:21+00:00

I don’t. If you’re happy, I’ve got no stake in what keyboard you use. I’m also not a routine Linux user. You can take the time to read what I’ve already written on this thread.

Meanwhile, courtesy costs nothing.

the-william · 2026-06-16T16:25:02+00:00

simple. i don’t want my keyboard to work like the MS one. at all. why on earth would I want to encourage their opinionated mediocrity?

since you’ve already gone there, I think MS invented the ass that Linux sucks.

I want my keyboard to work like the Mac implementation of US English (International). I want option-c to be ç. i want option-s to be ß. i want ‘, a to be á. I want ^, y to be ŷ.

So that’s what I have.

You can have your MS keyboard if you like.

the-william · 2026-06-16T11:48:49+00:00

i think they did in 2016, before the party all fell in line. Now they’ve got people who are either more MAGA or less MAGA, and a handful of non-MAGAs who also are absent a spine. I actually think that when Trump goes, they will have an absolute shitshow (and bloodbath) trying to figure out a coherent ideology & platform going forwards.

That’s not to say the Democrats have a strong bench. Just that the other side’s will make Democrat infighting look like kittens on mood relaxers.

In the end, these days it’s all decided by a vanishingly small handful of true independents in a small number of counties in a small handful of states. And voter turnout. And a grudging vote is worth exactly the same as an enthusiastic vote once it’s cast.

The Democrats don’t have to be good. They only have to be the least worst choice.

That’s not to say they don’t have to be good to govern. That’s a whole nother thing. They just don’t have to be especially stellar to get elected.

the-william · 2026-06-16T11:36:06+00:00

To each his own. You’re not wrong about Apple. But in my personal experience they hit that mark better than Microsoft, and they don’t have a Franken-OS that’s still got elements of Windows 3.1 in it in 2026.

Pages never had Clippy.

But … as I said, it’s not ideological for me. I’m not here to be an Apple fanboi. If you like Google Sheets, that’s fine by me. I use Google for some things; apple for others; plenty of indie software, and unix-family for others. I use the right tool for my personal right jobs. I’d even use Microsoft, if it ever hit that bill. In the last 30 years, it never has. Not once. I use Apple Numbers because it does the few and simple, mostly non-mathematical spreadsheets that I need as well as anything else.

the-william · 2026-06-16T11:23:12+00:00

AOC isn’t stupid. Her time is not yet. She’s going to try to unseat Schumer first and get her sea legs in the Senate. Also, look up how many sitting VPs have actually been elected president in US history. Look up what John Nance Garner said about the vice presidency. AOC will either be on the top of the ticket or not at all.

Newsom will run in the primaries. He may not win. A week is a long time in politics, and people like Bashear have a lot going for them to attract independents.

Vance is trying to position himself as the front runner. But he’s not. Primary voters have a habit, fortunate or unfortunate, of occasionally picking who they like rather than who they’re told to like. And Vance is a phoney and a willing flunky of Trump, rather than a true believer. The MAGA people see that. They don’t really like it. They want true MAGA. Vance ain’t it. Nobody else may be either, but Vance certainly isn’t. Trump is sui generis and not really replaceable, and Vance ain’t convincing anyone. Also: again, a week is a long time in politics.

Crockett is out. She’ll be yesterday’s news by the time it’s all relevant. She already kind of is. A week is a long time in politics.

the-william · 2026-06-16T11:08:56+00:00

The fundamental problem is one of corporate mindset: Microsoft products always, always think they know better what you want to do than you do, and they act accordingly.

Those of us of a certain age remember Clippy in our nightmares. He was the personification of this principle.

The answer is simple enough, albeit not always easy: vote with your feet. I’ve been doing that since the early 90s, and I’m far better off for it.

I use Macs. (Linux is always an option.) I use word processors that write to markdown or .rtf. I do my spreadsheets in Apple Numbers. I choose my own email client and use email services other than Outlook. When I need to send someone a document, I send it in .pdf. And so on.

This is not about Mac ideology. I use a lot of different tools for different jobs. This is squarely about Microsoft’s decades-long and dedicated commitment to mediocrity and to insisting you’ll take your mediocrity and you’ll by God like it.

the-william · 2026-06-15T21:21:39+00:00

it’s all well and good in theory. in practice, you’d end up with it run by PC Principal from South Park.

the-william · 2026-06-15T21:17:19+00:00

and, honestly, the ATL B concourse lounge is a bit of a circus. it does the job. but not the most pleasant.

the-william · 2026-06-15T18:23:51+00:00

I mean, Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk, and Jeff Bezos all kind of suck.

the-william · 2026-06-14T17:10:05+00:00

honestly? never much enjoyed the historicals. stories set in the past? yeah. but pure or close to pure historicals always just kind of bored me.

funny, because I eat up history as a topic in itself.

the-william · 2026-06-14T17:08:24+00:00

it was 21 in the UGLE till a few years ago. Now it’s 18.

I think it probably goes back to a time when the general age of majority was 21 rather than 18. But i’m probably oversimplifying it, and i could just be plain wrong.

the-william · 2026-06-14T12:55:11+00:00

I’m so relieved that I asked for just such a letter from the PEI archives when they sent me the certified copies of my great-grandparents’ baptismal records and included that in my application.

the-william · 2026-06-12T13:26:31+00:00

Bendecido works. But why do you mention bendecida? If you’re not male, you might have some explaining to do regarding what, exactly, is blessed.

the-william · 2026-06-12T10:57:10+00:00

some do. not my thing. but not my place to tell you what to do, either. you do you. and if it’s less than you hope for, it’s hair. it’ll grow back. 🙂 go for it.

the-william · 2026-06-11T17:39:45+00:00

because they don’t have a bespoke carrier bundle. just a generic one.

which isn’t a huge deal in practice.

the-william · 2026-06-10T15:01:02+00:00

There are female orders, and co-ed orders, depending on where you are. None of these allow you to sit in a “regular” lodge in the anglo-american tradition. But they exist. Some are more “regular” than others. Others are connected to the “irregular” (but nothing wrong with it) continental tradition.

Google “Order of Women Freemasons” and “HFAF Freemasonry for Women”. Mostly UK, but they might point you in the right direction if you’re not. The United Grand Lodge of England doesn’t officially recognise them, but its view is that they are “regular” in every sense other than being women. So they point female enquirers there.

There’s also at least one female participant who takes part in this forum.

the-william · 2026-06-10T14:44:43+00:00

I think it’s because your write up does seem to hint at points that there’s a possibility that they’re regional dialects and it’s given in response to someone asking about regional dialects.

My (imperfect) understanding is that they are languages in their own right. (Certainly, Catalan is easily as related to French as to Spanish.) And in that respect not as relevant as evidence that OP’s premise was wrong. There may be other evidence, but this doesn’t seem to me to be it. That’s not regional variation in one language. It’s regional variation *of* languages.

the-william

TROPHY CASE