The thing is about Australian wildlife is that most Aussie animals won’t back down from a fight, but most of them don’t go looking for a fight either.
If you’re worried about visiting Australia because of our deadly fauna, here’s a hint. If you see an Australian animal, walk away from it.
A kangaroo has trouble disemboweling a retreating person because its attack involves rocking back on its tail and kicking you with both feet. It’s not really able to do any damage on something that’s moving away.
Magpies will generally let you know where their territory is, and if you stay out of it while they’re nesting, they won’t knock a hole in your head.
You literally have to get in the water to be bothered by sharks or crocodiles. Swim where the locals swim.
Snakes and spiders are about the only thing that you might happen upon by surprise and they tend to be happy to let you leave, but will happily fuck you up in self defence.
Y’see, Aussie wildlife mostly kills idiots who approach it, try to pat it, or catch it. Our animals mostly kill and maim stupid people.
I guess, my point is, we don’t have anything like lions or bears that will chase you down, pull you out of your car and tear you to pieces.
Also, the chances of being shot in this country is almost non existent.
Australia’s a pretty safe place to visit, comparatively.
The current Supreme Court has just granted cert in Anderson v. Griswold, a case from which at least two Justices should recuse themselves. Neither Clarence Thomas nor Amy Coney Barrett can participate with propriety. Barrett is even more compromised than Thomas when it comes to Trump. 1/ #LawFedi #AndersonvGriswold
We cannot have confidence in Barrett’s independence and impartiality when it comes to Trump. She compromised herself by accepting nomination to the Court from a President who made it clear he expected the Court to keep him in power. 4/4 #LawFedi #JudicialEthics #Recusal #andersonVgriswold #AmyConeyBarrett
WE ARE 100% ABOUT FREEDOM AND PLEASE IGNORE THE FACT THAT EVERY LAST NEO-NAZI IN AMERICA ENDORSES OUR VISION OF FREEDOM AND ALSO THAT OUR PARTY ATTEMPTED A COUP D'ETAT TO ESTABLISH A RAPEY FUCKWIT AS OUR UNQUESTIONED INFALLIBLE DICTATOR is the dumbest, most insanely, categorically preposterous position any political entity could make and the fact that the political party that did it is still remotely viable in America seems like a pretty good chunk of data for Failed State studies.
Weird that Haley and/or, say, every last fucking Republican politician alive stumbles and wheedles around "What caused the American Civil War" because, if they say what actually caused the American Civil War, they will ALIENATE MILLIONS UPON MILLIONS OF REPUBLICAN VOTERS and not a single goddamn one of them, nor the balance of rank-and-file Republican voter who actually CAN answer the question, sees that as a grave ideological problem.
That you must lie to validate open and gleeful racists to be be viable in your political party.
This is an ongoing problem, to say the least.
Via Emptywheel:
NYT said that #Trump's projection that #Biden is a threat to democracy is brazen.
Actually, it's superb manipulation of their own failures.
NYT quoted 31 words from Biden about democracy, 66 from Trump lying, PLUS 21 from a MAGAt, 16 from MTG, and 36 from Trump's campaign (they also quoted Josh Shapiro).
Basically, bc NYT couldn't resist disseminating Trump's rants, they gave him a campaign ad to attack democracy. #media
🧵Via Clara Jeffery: 1/…
When I heard that #Scalise had multiple myeloma—which my dad died of—I wondered if he'd get stem cell treatment despite having voted & campaigned against stem cell therapy. My dad was too old for this option. Lucky for Scalise, hypocrisy is no barrier
Jake Sherman: STEVE SCALISE will be out of DC until Feb…getting a stem-cell transplant.
House GOP has 220-seat majority. Bill Johnson is out Jan. 21. After that, w Scalise out, GOP will have a bare bones 218-seat majority
The main time I am sympathetic to journalists leaving out alt text is if you're liveposting a rapidly developing or dangerous situation, such as a police riot. But hopefully you can come back and add alt text later where it is missing. And most if the time, we are just sitting at our desks with little excuse. #accessibility
They want us dead. They want us dead and everyone who says "Oh, it's not so bad," or “you're just overreacting" is aiding this kind of abhorrent infringement on the rights of #LGBTQ people to exist.
I... am not sure what my future looks like. I cna't return to the UK. I can just hope that Oregon doesn't throw people like me under the bus.
Reminder that we predicted last week what was going to happen in Ohio with high accuracy https://genderanalysis.net/2023/12/counterpoint-ohio-trans-youth-care-ban-veto-was-a-victory-for-a-gatekeeping-surveillance-state-targeting-trans-adults/
A #podcast that does it right is Molly White's Citation Needed (recently moved off of Substack, yay!).
Thirty seconds into this issue, https://citationneeded.news/issue-46-checkmate-crypto/ , she's deep into the stuff about the actual subject. And there were no content-free jokes at all.
My Citation Needed newsletter is no longer on Substack!
Hortus Eystettensis: The Beautifully Illustrated Book of Plants That Changed Botanical Art Overnight (1613)
“Virtually every institution seized upon that term, ‘diversity.’ And I always ask, ‘Well, where is justice here?’ Are you simply going to ask those who have been marginalized or subjugated to come inside of the institution and participate in the same process that led precisely to their marginalization? Diversity and inclusion without substantive change, without radical change, accomplishes nothing.”
– Angela Davis
https://jezebel.com/angela-davis-on-racial-reckoning-diversity-and-inclusi-1844853369
People, if your #podcast doesn't say anything about its nominal topic for the first five minutes (talking instead about the podcast itself, making in-jokes between the hosts and guests, etc, etc), I'm not going to listen to any more of it.
This is why I almost never listen to podcasts...
My favorite reads this year.
Full reviews at: https://jturiano.com > Book Reviews.
1. The Collective by Alison Gaylin
2. Falling by T.J. Newman
3. Educated by Tara Westover
4. How to Stop Time by Matt Haig
5. The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
#bookreview #bookreviewers #bookreviewer #favoritebooks #bookstoread #topfivebooks #topfivebooks2023 #readingcommunity #writingcommunity
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Degrees in Philosophy and Computer Science, once had a US TS/SCI(redacted) clearance, radical-for-the-US politics, ex-Libertarian, zen-buddhist-pantheist-atheist.
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