Steam does a lot of shitty things — including using gambling mechanics on kids and failing to moderate the neo-nazi clubhouse that are their forums — but they are not a monopoly and do not behave in a monopolistic or anticompetitive manner whatsoever. Their success and market share is genuinely earned on merits.

Personally, I would prefer GOG, but many games don’t release there, or release there much later. Epic could compete, but their heart is clearly not in it as they refuse to give customers features they want out of a platform and do engage in anticompetitive practices.

I completely agree.

Religion - and all dogmatism - exists solely as a tool for the powerful to subjugate and oppress others. This has been the case for all of recorded human history. Christianity is no exception.

I won’t take a fantastical mythological approach to any ancient document, even if that’s what modern acolytes are doing. I won’t pretend to care about their fan fiction, but I will casually correct factual mistakes and move on. Why? Because it’s therapeutic. I was raised in an abusive evangelical home, and besides that abuse, because my existence was “sinful”, the insistence on reading “The Bible” and learning that it doesn’t actually say any of the things I was told it did was formative. The people who demanded I read it clearly hadn’t themselves, and never dug deeper than the english words — which they insisted were “God-inspired.” Yes, the english ones. Which english ones? All of them. And whatever you wanted to extrapolate from them, which meant all your hate and torture and mental, physical, and emotional abuse were also the literal words of god. Fuck that. Fuck those people.

You are right that nothing can change a cultists mind. They are in a cult of millions and millions. Their own holy book disagrees with all their dogmas, their speech, their actions, their teachings, but pointing it out will never change their minds. I’ll do it, anyway, because I need to. Liars should be exposed, even the liars themselves won’t recant.

There is actually a lot of historical context missing and — like most things Biblical — this has been terribly mistranslated and deeply abused and twisted by patriarchal leaders to suit their own political ambitions.

Ephesus was home to the cult of Artemis/Diana, and the Temple of Artemis which was one of the Seven Wonders of the ancient world. The cult was matriarchal, Artemis being the goddess of girls and fertility, natural forces and archery, among other things. Her priestesses spoke with the authority and voice of their goddess, who was strong, fierce, and independent and the culture developed around this for hundreds of years.

The entire letter is to a specific group of people regarding specific cultural conflicts. What the letter is saying is that women who are converting must not be allowed use their sex as an excuse to suppress or dominate male teachers. Instead, they need to learn this new religion respectfully from the existing teachers, who are men, rather than taking over by force as the culture would have historically promoted as their Ephesian/Artemisian birthright. Flaunting wealth and social status is also frowned upon. And while the sexist “women made the mistake” line is there and is intentional, the call back to being “saved by childbearing” is meant to extend a familiar bridge for Artemis cultists. If it’s not immediately obvious why, then do you remember what Artemis was goddess of?

It would match their current mission of doing crimes.

The problem is hyper-focusing on an awkward conversation you had ten years ago when you are supposed to be paying attention to the meeting. Or hyper-focusing on wikipedia articles about spiders when you are supposed to be doing laundry. But you don’t even realize it’s happening.

Surprisingly, stimulants like caffeine are the solution to that problem.

Who? Assholes.
Why? Assholes.

Jaws.

The shark prop didn’t work well and looked terrible, which resulted in much of it being left out of the movie. The movie is more terrifying because of this.

Aren’t we due for a magnetic pole reversal? Would this be related?

I still enjoyed Elden Ring, but I agree completely. I prefer the metroidvania world design of earlier From Software games. The sense of progression is one of the best parts of those games, and Elden Ring’s open world robs the it of a lot of the magic of earlier titles, where discoveries were around every corner and in every nook and cranny. I never felt the same joy of exploration and hard won progress as I did in Dark Souls, Bloodborne, and Sekiro.

It’s a plausible theory. They want to create a system that inevitably leads to revolution, so they need to weaken those that might revolt as much as possible. They are also stubbornly sticking to the old rightist tactic of inflicting pain and suffering while trying to blame that pain and suffering on their opponents. That tactic is starting to fail, which means they have to fall back to weakening those who will rise up. They are openly admitting that they know their criminal coup has been noticed and won’t be forgotten.

That’s no different than declaring “feudalism for all.”

A better source.
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/11/09/trump-administration-tells-states-to-undo-full-snap-benefits-00643887

USDA’s latest memo, sent Saturday to state directors of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, instructed states to deliver just 65 percent of benefits during the government shutdown and required those who already sent full payments to claw back that money.

There really is no bottom to this administrations evil.

I have yet to see an english translation that isn’t terrible, but only the worst and most unreliable use the word “hell.” The actual word is Gehenna, a real place that was considered cursed, desecrated, and very undesirable. It does not mean “hell” in the way any modern reader would picture it, as that concept does not exist anywhere in Jewish or Christian scripture. It is a pagan addition.

The word “lust” here also does not mean “horny” it means “covet.” It means an overwhelming desire to possess something. The word “woman” also properly means “married woman” and not just “any woman.” Jesus is not talking about fantasizing, but about a desire with intent to take something that belongs to someone else, inflicting harm.

I do not think that a name like Pedophile Field would be very good for business.

If I see a black air traffic controller I am gonna be like “Boy, I hope he is qualified.”

Which is exactly what Jesus would have been like.

So the person who did it and the person who ordered it will now be charged with hundreds of counts of violating civil rights? Right?

Right?

There was a time when I could not have imagined liking those kinds of games. My partner got me Dark Souls Prepare to Die Edition and I hated it. Hate may be too kind a word for how I felt. I’ve always loved metroidvanias and the style seemed right up my gothy, witchy alley, but I couldn’t get past the first basic zombie.

Then we watched a bunch of videos and realized that the game was designed to be played slowly and deliberately. There were no “junk” enemies and paying careful attention at all times was the game. When it clicked, it clicked, and now From Software games are my favorite.

Liesl Clark and Rebecca Rockefeller have been added to the Menu.

During covid, there were ghost kitchens in LA that made Nashville Hot Chicken pizza. It was torture, but it was also delicious. I miss it.

This Gen Xer supports Gen Z.