Thanks for the parenthetical. I think all clickbait titles should have such qualifiers. It really helps clarify exactly what the article is about.

sighs yes... this.

ignorance is ~~bliss~~ being set on effing fire!

And this is why I've raised my children to never to unconditionally trust people in a position of power, including even family. We had "the talk" early, made it abundantly clear what kind of behavior from an adult is never okay, watch interactions they have with people like a hawk, and check-in enough to know they are safe.

We don't have to live life afraid, but we mustn't ignore that predators can be anywhere and look like anyone.

I feel so terrible for this child and his siblings. The problems in their lives didn't begin with this rapist.

Life shouldn't have to be this way. 😭

Read the article. Watch the interviews.

"Evacuate, surrender, or starve."

Israel isn't even obfuscating their intent at all. Their government is intentionally committing war crimes and is actively cleansing Palestinians for their own gain.

Many "Western" nations, particularly the United States, have been complicit in these abominable crimes.

There is no integrity left. Nations like these do not deserve to be looked up to. They don't deserve respect when their governments are so morally bankrupt. Democracy is in decay.

Terrorism never is and never will be okay. It must be stopped. In responding, nations mustn't ever lower themselves to the degree that we are seeing today. This isn't about stopping terrorism. And never was. Their actions cannot be justified.

The nations complicit with Israel's actions hide behind moral platitudes and laws that they've twisted to make them appear on the right side when the reality is that they now embody some of the worst evils of humanity.

Vile.

I'm pretty sure that "x, formerly known as twitter" is the name of the company. So... forever.

I really, really wish the linked article explained more. What are they playing at? This is such a confusing level of control.

While riding home with my son this evening, I found myself apologizing to him. This world today--the people--are a profoundly unbelievable mess. He brought up things he's read in the news and I hardly know what to say. We both understand how insane it all is, but people still believe it... truly...

I get it. The world has always been a mess. This mess today is simply uniquely ours at this time in history.

But...

My gods...

What...

The...

sighs

I have to admit that I was confused by the meaning of this "panic defense". The following from the article helped a bit.

At the September hearing, Pohutsky said “the LGBTQ panic defense is often deployed as a component of other defenses to play on the unfortunate prejudices of some judges and juries in an effort to mitigate penalties for these crimes.”

But a linked article made this "defense" tactic even more clear.

Gay rights advocates are outraged after an Austin, Texas, man received a light sentence for stabbing his neighbor to death in what some are calling an example of the so-called gay panic defense.

For decades, the rare defense has allowed a victim’s sexual orientation or gender identity to justify violent crime in some cases. Now, advocates are saying it should be banned.

I'm honestly surprised that this was ever admissable in the first place. Well, I guess I shouldn't be surprised.

This is good for the people of Michigan and the other 19 states that ban it. May all US states follow in kind.

sighs

Yet something else to disable in Windows. I'm losing track of each thing at this point.

The modern prison-communication industry emerged four decades ago, after the federal government broke up A.T. & T.’s Bell System. New phone companies competed for customers by slashing prices. But inside prisons and jails a different model developed: telecom companies persuaded local officials to sign exclusive service contracts in exchange for hefty commissions. The costs of these commissions were passed along to incarcerated “customers” and their families, who lacked consumer choice. Price gouging was the inevitable result. By the nineties, prison phone-call prices in some jurisdictions had soared to twenty dollars for fifteen minutes.

I'll never understand how and why prisons and anything related are allowed to be privatized.

People make mistakes and some are prison worthy. However, we want them to do their time, grow in the process, and ultimately return to society as better people. Instead, we throw people in prison who don't belong there, keep out privileged ones who do far worse and need prison, don't provide the needed help, and make prison so miserable that people can't actually grow into something better.

WTF. I jokingly wanted to be a king (dictator) as a teen because I figured it would be faster to fix things... starting with firing every politician (although at that age I said 'off with their heads'). It's such a horrible idea. It wouldn't work. But then that thought comes back in moments like this and I'm like, "just give me a few years to fix things and clean things up". Ugh. No wonder people eventually end up doing insane things. How long can we wait for reform?

Just in case I'm asked, here's the basics steps to get it going:

• I downloaded the release from https://github.com/Helium314/HeliBoard and then installed. (Or set it up via Obtainium until its ready for F-Droid release)
• I downloaded the Swipe library linked on the HeliBoard Github page from here.
• Under HeliBoard settings -> advanced, I clicked "load gesture library" and selected the downloaded swipe library
• And for voice input, l downloaded Futo from the play store. FYI, it's free and offline, but not FOSS.

That's it.

Just setup the two apps with your specifics like the theme and etc. This is what mine looks like now:

I would be really interested in seeing this broken down by nation. Are any countries doing this better than others. Can others learn from them?

Or... are we simply a complete failure as a species... destined to become [choose your post apocalyptic story]