MTF
@emteef.bsky.social
November tomato. Western Massachusetts
Reposted by MTF
Yup. And when some of us can make choices that reduce harms, at no loss to ourselves, that helps those who are less able to make those choices because it reduces their cost, direct and otherwise.
It is not, as some people seem to believe, an act of judgement on those who don't make that choice.
It is not, as some people seem to believe, an act of judgement on those who don't make that choice.
December 9, 2025 at 2:31 PM
Yup. And when some of us can make choices that reduce harms, at no loss to ourselves, that helps those who are less able to make those choices because it reduces their cost, direct and otherwise.
It is not, as some people seem to believe, an act of judgement on those who don't make that choice.
It is not, as some people seem to believe, an act of judgement on those who don't make that choice.
The inability for everyone to make an ethical choice doesn't mean we all get to opt out of them!
i am also very done with every single conversation about consumer choices being derailed by the what abouts
people have disabilities, people are poor, people are plus sized
the inability for everyone to make an ethical choice doesn’t mean we all get to opt out of them
people have disabilities, people are poor, people are plus sized
the inability for everyone to make an ethical choice doesn’t mean we all get to opt out of them
December 9, 2025 at 2:24 PM
The inability for everyone to make an ethical choice doesn't mean we all get to opt out of them!
Reposted by MTF
The Supreme Court cannot “uphold the longstanding principle” or “strike down birthright citizenship.” The Supreme Court can follow the plain text of the constitution or declare itself in rebellion to the constitution. These are the only two options wrt birthright citizenship and the 14th Amendment.
The Supreme Court will ultimately decide whether to uphold the longstanding principle that grants citizenship to the children of non-citizens born in the U.S., following a legal challenge by the Trump administration. n.pr/48E1oko
Supreme Court agrees to hear arguments in birthright citizenship challenge
The Supreme Court will ultimately decide whether to uphold the longstanding principle that grants citizenship to the children of non-citizens born in the U.S., following a legal challenge by the Trump administration.
n.pr
December 6, 2025 at 3:59 PM
The Supreme Court cannot “uphold the longstanding principle” or “strike down birthright citizenship.” The Supreme Court can follow the plain text of the constitution or declare itself in rebellion to the constitution. These are the only two options wrt birthright citizenship and the 14th Amendment.
Prison is edging toward the disquietingly lenient option.
December 5, 2025 at 8:51 PM
Prison is edging toward the disquietingly lenient option.
Reposted by MTF
This is SO interesting!!
Today on Volts: I've had more requests to cover this than almost any other topic in the pod's history, so now, at long last, balcony solar! We dig into how "plug-in solar" took off in Europe & how it's making its way to the US, starting in Utah. Backyard DIY types rejoice!
What's the deal with balcony solar?
Cora Stryker joins me to explain how "plug-in" solar took Europe by storm and is finally, via Utah (?), making its way to America.
www.volts.wtf
December 5, 2025 at 7:48 PM
This is SO interesting!!
Definitely the zero stakes opinion that puts me most at odd with my feed here is that that political scifi show is Bad
December 5, 2025 at 4:46 PM
Definitely the zero stakes opinion that puts me most at odd with my feed here is that that political scifi show is Bad
Reposted by MTF
People expect miracles from medicine, but refuse the miracle that would let them avoid needing emergency care in the first place
December 5, 2025 at 3:00 PM
People expect miracles from medicine, but refuse the miracle that would let them avoid needing emergency care in the first place
Reposted by MTF
Since becoming a parent I have not, in fact, understood the parents who say “if you were a parent you’d understand” about vaccine hesitancy. Being in charge of this fragile little miracle has me saying things like “give her all the vaccines. Turn this baby into a pincushion” to doctors
December 5, 2025 at 2:44 PM
Since becoming a parent I have not, in fact, understood the parents who say “if you were a parent you’d understand” about vaccine hesitancy. Being in charge of this fragile little miracle has me saying things like “give her all the vaccines. Turn this baby into a pincushion” to doctors
Reposted by MTF
perhaps this is a good time to reup my take that speeding tickets should be made proportional not just to your wealth/income but to the kinetic energy possessed by your vehicle at the time a violation is detected.
December 5, 2025 at 3:54 PM
perhaps this is a good time to reup my take that speeding tickets should be made proportional not just to your wealth/income but to the kinetic energy possessed by your vehicle at the time a violation is detected.
Reposted by MTF
There’s an established penalty for ordering the killing of shipwrecked sailors (even during a war, which we are manifestly not in) and we should apply that penalty. I would say it’s vitally important to apply that penalty, in fact.
December 5, 2025 at 12:20 AM
There’s an established penalty for ordering the killing of shipwrecked sailors (even during a war, which we are manifestly not in) and we should apply that penalty. I would say it’s vitally important to apply that penalty, in fact.
Reposted by MTF
Liver cancer prevention in children. That is what RFK Jr trying to "scale back on" today.
He is a monster.
He is a monster.
Today is the start of 2 days of meetings of RFK Jr.'s ACIP, where vaccines skeptics outnumber actual scientists and medial experts. Their target: the Hep B vaccine, which has a ~90-98% (after 3 doses) effectiveness rate in preventing infection for up to 30 yrs.
www.npr.org/sections/sho...
www.npr.org/sections/sho...
Doctors warn delaying hepatitis B shot for newborns could revive a deadly threat
As RFK Jr.'s new vaccine panel ponders changing the hepatitis B vaccination schedule, some doctors recall past patients, including children, who died painful deaths before there was a vaccine.
www.npr.org
December 4, 2025 at 2:18 PM
Liver cancer prevention in children. That is what RFK Jr trying to "scale back on" today.
He is a monster.
He is a monster.
Reposted by MTF
empathy has downsides!
what most people need is morals + theory of mind
what most people need is morals + theory of mind
December 1, 2025 at 6:21 PM
empathy has downsides!
what most people need is morals + theory of mind
what most people need is morals + theory of mind
Reposted by MTF
fuck it, for the people in the back:
the jeff bezos owned washington post is the outlet responsible for making sure the primary complaint about AI was water. this may have been in part because jeff knew it was bullshit, so when amzn gets blowback they can easily prove their water footprint is small
the jeff bezos owned washington post is the outlet responsible for making sure the primary complaint about AI was water. this may have been in part because jeff knew it was bullshit, so when amzn gets blowback they can easily prove their water footprint is small
not to be conspiratorial but the outlet that successfully pushed this line and made it the primary complaint was wapo
December 1, 2025 at 1:44 AM
fuck it, for the people in the back:
the jeff bezos owned washington post is the outlet responsible for making sure the primary complaint about AI was water. this may have been in part because jeff knew it was bullshit, so when amzn gets blowback they can easily prove their water footprint is small
the jeff bezos owned washington post is the outlet responsible for making sure the primary complaint about AI was water. this may have been in part because jeff knew it was bullshit, so when amzn gets blowback they can easily prove their water footprint is small
Reposted by MTF
Probably my most radical view is that we should tighten laws on commerical speech to the point that we simply ban marketing
The ability of small firms to advertise directly to consumers across the country thanks to the internet is one of the things that makes the modern economy suck so much.
December 1, 2025 at 1:40 AM
Probably my most radical view is that we should tighten laws on commerical speech to the point that we simply ban marketing
Reposted by MTF
It's always guys who say "people don't want Republican-lite" who pitch Republican-lite but for racism & sexism.
December 1, 2025 at 12:36 AM
It's always guys who say "people don't want Republican-lite" who pitch Republican-lite but for racism & sexism.
Reposted by MTF
the primary thing that TPUSA provides to young conservatives is a blueprint for weaponizing the abject cowardice of university administrators against individual teachers and instructors, and university admins should take a long look in the mirror and think about what that says about them
OU has put the professor here on administrative leave:
November 30, 2025 at 8:51 PM
the primary thing that TPUSA provides to young conservatives is a blueprint for weaponizing the abject cowardice of university administrators against individual teachers and instructors, and university admins should take a long look in the mirror and think about what that says about them
Reposted by MTF
The Mandarin collar has a really handsome silhouette and I wish that it had been adopted as a business casual standard, since it's at it's best on a business shirt with no tie - the essence of business casual
November 28, 2025 at 2:14 PM
The Mandarin collar has a really handsome silhouette and I wish that it had been adopted as a business casual standard, since it's at it's best on a business shirt with no tie - the essence of business casual
Reposted by MTF
Pointed out by my friend @carloshasanax.bsky.social . There's something weird and unsettling about a fairly homogeneous culture spread out across Europe that then collapses into an orgy of genocide.
www.science.org/content/arti...
www.science.org/content/arti...
Headless bodies hint at why Europe’s first farmers vanished
Wave of mass brutality accompanied the collapse of the first pan-European culture
www.science.org
November 27, 2025 at 12:09 PM
Pointed out by my friend @carloshasanax.bsky.social . There's something weird and unsettling about a fairly homogeneous culture spread out across Europe that then collapses into an orgy of genocide.
www.science.org/content/arti...
www.science.org/content/arti...
Reposted by MTF
they are bad at their jobs, they didn't earn those jobs, they gatekeep people with actual principles, and they wanted Trump to win
November 27, 2025 at 1:05 AM
they are bad at their jobs, they didn't earn those jobs, they gatekeep people with actual principles, and they wanted Trump to win
This IS so sad.
Thank you for introducing me to the term anthrodenialism.
And also: we don't know where LEOPARD SEALS reproduce (successfully)? I thought the eels thing was wild, but seals?! Large mammals? 😮
Thank you for introducing me to the term anthrodenialism.
And also: we don't know where LEOPARD SEALS reproduce (successfully)? I thought the eels thing was wild, but seals?! Large mammals? 😮
this might be the saddest story I've ever written, about a seal that I will be thinking about for a long, long time.
defector.com/why-wont-nor...
defector.com/why-wont-nor...
Why Won’t Nora The Leopard Seal Abandon Her Dead Pups? | Defector
In the fall of 2021, Renato Borras-Chavez, a marine mammal ecologist at the University of Rhode Island, spotted a leopard seal on an ice floe. Borras-Chavez was on a research expedition to a glacial f...
defector.com
November 26, 2025 at 6:59 PM
This IS so sad.
Thank you for introducing me to the term anthrodenialism.
And also: we don't know where LEOPARD SEALS reproduce (successfully)? I thought the eels thing was wild, but seals?! Large mammals? 😮
Thank you for introducing me to the term anthrodenialism.
And also: we don't know where LEOPARD SEALS reproduce (successfully)? I thought the eels thing was wild, but seals?! Large mammals? 😮
I usually say "consumer-facing generative AI" when that's what I mean, but in this the year of our lord 2025-almost-6, if you in a general conversation pretend that someone who says "AI" does not obviously and virtually without exception mean that, you're being a dick!
November 26, 2025 at 6:47 PM
I usually say "consumer-facing generative AI" when that's what I mean, but in this the year of our lord 2025-almost-6, if you in a general conversation pretend that someone who says "AI" does not obviously and virtually without exception mean that, you're being a dick!
Reposted by MTF
A fitting moment to bring back this old transit meme. However they’re powered—gas, hydrogen, electricity, or driverless—leaning on cars instead of investing in quality public transit is still a poor long-term strategy.
November 25, 2025 at 10:59 PM
A fitting moment to bring back this old transit meme. However they’re powered—gas, hydrogen, electricity, or driverless—leaning on cars instead of investing in quality public transit is still a poor long-term strategy.
Reposted by MTF
blocking people insane about Will remains one of the most consistent ways to make this website a more pleasant user experience; he draws the maddest fuckers.
i have agreed with stancil and i have disagreed with stancil. he has sharp elbows. but the accusation that he is a raging transphobe is not connected to reality. and the weaponization of "i'm listening to trans people" to smear someone because you disagree about fucking econ polling is disgusting
No, I do not “pick on” trans people, I have never done anything like this. And frankly, I think the willingness of some people to completely invent accusations of transphobia in the desperate search for a cudgel against ideological opponents suggests they don’t really care about transphobia
November 25, 2025 at 5:01 PM
blocking people insane about Will remains one of the most consistent ways to make this website a more pleasant user experience; he draws the maddest fuckers.
Reposted by MTF
Joe Biden should have seized the Times under asset forfeiture
November 26, 2025 at 12:03 AM
Joe Biden should have seized the Times under asset forfeiture
Reposted by MTF
I have no idea why farmers keep getting a pass for water shortages, to the point where popular culture has now found a scapegoat to blame it on entirely, but it fucking sucks
November 25, 2025 at 4:37 AM
I have no idea why farmers keep getting a pass for water shortages, to the point where popular culture has now found a scapegoat to blame it on entirely, but it fucking sucks