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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: July 3rd, 2023

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  • I don’t know: Does that framing take away from the international law argument? How long has that argument been in play and how has that worked so far? It’s a powerful framing in that it illustrates the power that money being used to fuel hate could instead have for some semblance of good. Even if it’s impractical among today’s US elected officials. Also, arguments like this are how to get negotiation leverage. In general in this political climate, while we might want to be prepared to compromise I challenge the wisdom of leading with a compromise. I say different strategies need to be tried until something sticks.


  • It’s disheartening to hear. Typically the Anti Defamation League draws attention to rising antisemitic behavior whenever there is a tension abroad but often does so to divert attention from the issue abroad.

    To be clear, any kind of hostility/prejudice/discrimination to any group is wrong. Supporting one group shouldn’t negate from the other. As someone who identifies with neither group I can see why one or another would resort to name calling — it gets us nowhere. But to shut down discussions because people are frustrated is also wrong.

    And then there are people to use these events as an excuse to get away with bad behavior.


  • I am also pretty upset about geopolitics. It feels like the majority have been conditioned to have such a strong bias and are incapable of any kind of introspection. If we all approached such topics with the willingness to learn from each other and hear different perspectives maybe things would be different. Unfortunately I can’t solve the world’s problems this week. Maybe next week?

    Otherwise, I am dating, but meeting new people and assessing fit is a challenge.



  • Let’s study the conflict before making such comments.

    I am not aware of any conflict in US history where the US did not defend an American journalist dying performing their duty abroad. This is a war crime, and it sets precedent for Americans when they travel or work abroad anywhere in the world.

    Hamas is not representative of all Palestinians. Hamas’ attack is a reaction to a 75 year history of tit-for-tat where “Israel” continuously breaks international law including murdering of civilians, the international community condemns them, and the big world powers like the US give them impunity. Like Russia to Ukraine, Israel is an occupying force of the Palestinians — the longest in modern history.

    Comparison to Bid Laden is a false equivalence.



  • When I rolled my own blog software I wasn’t spending my time writing. Switched to static blog software a few years ago, namely Hexo, because I wanted my articles in markdown. Now I have to troubleshoot someone else’s code occasionally.

    I strongly dislike JS. But I have a lot of old school HTML/CSS experience so I don’t mind creating my own layout. It’s mostly the lack of sufficient documentation and how upgrades can break without a hint to what changed. Ug




  • At some point you have to trust your gut?

    Speaking more broadly than FOSS:

    The large national nonprofits probably don’t need your money, and the small local nonprofits probably do. At the same time nonprofit can lose sight of their mission, and bigger orgs need admin, specialty jobs, and leadership that are full time jobs that a family could live on. So it’s hard to generalize. Their mission is the goal, not making decisions based on finances.

    I look at their finances to get an idea of where they are at. These can be “lagging indicators” if there really is a time sensitive need though.

    Examples: Ran into one person who was trying to promote their non-profit rather than solicit donations — when I looked into their finances it was clear they didn’t have the money to get there but had done great work already. Another person who doesn’t pay himself for the work he puts in because it’s all volunteer based and only seeks contributions for his projects.


  • Not sure about foss specifically, but I’ve had some non-profits prompt me to up my contribution to cover transaction fees. But they seem to be closer to 3%.

    A (for-profit) employer used to do gift matching and would also give us pocket money to contribute to the organization(s) of our choosing. It got me into a habit of contributing on a roughly quarterly basis.

    I try to identify places where there is actual need so I am not consistent. Some of the big-name non-profits get disproportionate attention, or they spend too much money on fundraising, or they grossly overpay their key people. Other non-profits do good work and are sorely underfunded. It’s not just transaction feels, I find the act of making individual contributions in itself an inefficient allocation of resources.