Damus

Recent Notes

Isabel Ruffell profile picture
Contemplating transitioning off Linux to #FreeBSD or #NetBSD but worried about #accessibility. Does anyone have experience of using #braille displays with the BSDs?

I think BRLTTY claims to run on those platforms, but I have found FreeBSD documentation disclaiming support for braille devices, but perhaps this is outdated.
Isabel Ruffell profile picture
I was inspired by the latest announcement about the IRGC and national security, and the expanding scope of terrorism, to wonder why #Labour don't just go the whole hog and invoke the Treason Act 1351 as amended.

I shouldn't encourage them.

Or we could just go the ancient #Rome route and institute maiestas trials for anything displeasing Netanyahu or #Starmer or, I suppose, #Burnham.

#UKPol
Roberto von Archimboldi · 6w
nostr:nprofile1qy2hwumn8ghj7un9d3shjtnyd968gmewwp6kyqpq5dfgp5vl35lccmx2mvc9w7a256j9jgztn3lu5c2q2u2z64m9u0rqnnay7w nostr:nprofile1qy2hwumn8ghj7un9d3shjtnyd968gmewwp6kyqpqkpzrnysdqppzuhah8htgtdapw5svrxzxz5s4yeqt06fw9yyfaecsznr37k and this is why it is a very bad idea to advocate for controls on speach...
Emeritus Prof. Christopher May · 7w
The thing about free speech is that if you don't support it for your opponents then you have no argument for free speech... While free speech should not be absolute (as is often noted there is no rig...
Isabel Ruffell profile picture
@nprofile1q... I'm curious, then, how you differentiate one arbitrary limit ("fire" in a crowded room) from another (my or your beliefs).

I am comfortable with banning hate speech and groups opposed to human rights as a baseline, and think that is entirely compatible with democracy.
Roberto von Archimboldi · 8w
nostr:nprofile1qy2hwumn8ghj7un9d3shjtnyd968gmewwp6kyqpq5dfgp5vl35lccmx2mvc9w7a256j9jgztn3lu5c2q2u2z64m9u0rqnnay7w nostr:nprofile1qy2hwumn8ghj7un9d3shjtnyd968gmewwp6kyqpq4eh0ysh5lvt36x7r7myrwv2gv7hcjgm...
Isabel Ruffell profile picture
@nprofile1q... @nprofile1q...

For sure it worsened significantly then, but that door was opened under Blair: the coalition just piled through it.

And now we have the incoherence of the globalised neoliberal university meeting petty chauvinism and xenophobia, which has pulled the financial rug away.

This is an illustration of the contradictions of the British Right, of course, and #Labour is replicating them, as we have come to exppect.
Emeritus Prof. Christopher May · 8w
One of the great puzzles of UK politics is why a Govt. that leaps to 'rescue' the Steel sector, or move to reorganise the railways, cares so little about the plight of the University sector. Both as ...
Isabel Ruffell profile picture
@nprofile1q... It's not really puzzling. They have imbibed so much of the Reform rhetoric that they see universities as part of the annoying woke tendency. And that is on top of the Thatcherite assault on universities which measures them in very narrow economic terms.
1
Roberto von Archimboldi · 8w
nostr:nprofile1qy2hwumn8ghj7un9d3shjtnyd968gmewwp6kyqpq5dfgp5vl35lccmx2mvc9w7a256j9jgztn3lu5c2q2u2z64m9u0rqnnay7w nostr:nprofile1qy2hwumn8ghj7un9d3shjtnyd968gmewwp6kyqpq4eh0ysh5lvt36x7r7myrwv2gv7hcjgmm76y9gxcdxdwq6zmf2ptqfcrxg6 there is a good article in this month's LRB. It points the finger at the...
@[email protected] has moved · 9w
nostr:nprofile1qy2hwumn8ghj7un9d3shjtnyd968gmewwp6kyqpq5dfgp5vl35lccmx2mvc9w7a256j9jgztn3lu5c2q2u2z64m9u0rqnnay7w Yes, but for the EU, its only a relatively small issue, they have much bigger fish t...
Isabel Ruffell profile picture
@nprofile1q...

I really don't want to overstate our significance or suggest that this wouldn't be trouble they would sooner avoid, but locking us back into the European mainstream might help to head off the prospect of having a Putin fanboy in their rear, as opposed to presenting a united front. Having a bit more economic weight on the scales and another seat on the Security Council wouldn't hurt,if we could be house-trained.

But it's not going to happen!
@[email protected] has moved · 9w
The (continuing) problem for the uk/EU 'reset' and for (prospective) Labour leadership contenders pushing re-engaging with the EU, is these position(s) presume a neutral & permissive stance from the E...
Isabel Ruffell profile picture
@nprofile1q...

You're probably right, but it is possible that strong progress on this issue would keep Reform out, which is in the Eu's interests (whether it outweighs the risk is hard to say). Itt might tempt enough #Labour support back, however reluctantly. But I can't see any of them crossing their stupid (Reform-appeasing) red lines to achieve a meaningful rapprochement, Their candour about their disdain for large swathes of their base has gone so deep. so it's a moot point, I fear.
1
@[email protected] has moved · 9w
nostr:nprofile1qy2hwumn8ghj7un9d3shjtnyd968gmewwp6kyqpq5dfgp5vl35lccmx2mvc9w7a256j9jgztn3lu5c2q2u2z64m9u0rqnnay7w Yes, but for the EU, its only a relatively small issue, they have much bigger fish to fry
Isabel Ruffell profile picture
I know I keep saying this, but can we please stop calling transphobia "gender criticism"?

One of the entertaining things of the #EHRC guidance is that it makes clear that "gender criticism" is defined by opposition to the very idea of trans people, and makes the absurdity of the label clear by using gender as the criterion for policing its guidance in support of supposed "gender critics
".

Of course, they maintain that being opposed to trans people is not "#transphobia", which is nasty. /1.
Isabel Ruffell profile picture
So, per the BBC, Mr. Burnham, the Great White Hope for #Labour is unwilling to talk about rejoining Europe because he is afraid of Reform in the upcoming By-election.

Very heroic.

If you can't take on the fascists over a demonstrably failed and unpopular decision in a by-election, how could anyone believe you are prepared to do it nationally?

Why is Labour collectively so craven?

#UKPol
Totts · 13w
nostr:nprofile1qy2hwumn8ghj7un9d3shjtnyd968gmewwp6kyqpq5dfgp5vl35lccmx2mvc9w7a256j9jgztn3lu5c2q2u2z64m9u0rqnnay7w oh I know who he was. I just couldn't spell his name correctly. You should see me att...
Isabel Ruffell profile picture
@nprofile1q... sorry for pedantry. I just wanted to be sure I was raging at the right person.

When the youngest and I were doing Easter baking, his election ad was on every third YouTube video, which did lead to a certain amount of ... expostulation.

At least my #Labour MP had the decency to meet me in person and lie to my face. (Well, he does work for #Streeting - what can you expect?).
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Totts · 13w
nostr:nprofile1qy2hwumn8ghj7un9d3shjtnyd968gmewwp6kyqpq5dfgp5vl35lccmx2mvc9w7a256j9jgztn3lu5c2q2u2z64m9u0rqnnay7w my spelling is notoriously bad. I have an extensive diction but the letters sort of jumble up xxxx