Yeah, that's my experience too. I haven't seen anyone flip the T'birds the bird.

Back when Top Gun owned Miramar, I'd go down to a relative's house for the yearly airshow. The Angels had a rendezvous point nearby, and we'd see them go by at perhaps a 60 degree angle right over the house. It seemed like they were at 200' as we could clearly see the pilot looking out. Then we'd go to the nighttime show afterwards. Good times.

All good points. Somewhat OT, I remember aircrews hating the Balanced Budget Reconciliation (2012 or so?), where the grownups in the Capitol decided to live within a budget, and each side gave up certain things. Training funds for the military was one of the losers.

Both sides hated it. Hated! And that was the last time the government tried to live within a budget, regardless of administration.

Well said.

Fun with furries!

Well, furry things, anyways. I liked the helpful inclusion of the "AOL Keyword" at the end.

It was a simpler time.

Heh.

(Kudos for the appropriate username.)

a bad mod

For the past couple of months, I've been talking myself into making the switch from Apple to Android. My daily mantra is "fuck Apple" (it's the next best thing to having a servant whisper in your ear, "Remember Athens").

So I decided to make the switch this month. And now I read this garbage. I'll reiterate: well, shit.

On the one hand, I'd like to get away from the poor performance, poor architecture, and what I consider a poor UI with Apple.

On the other hand, this crap with Gemini sneaking into everything Android. And, perhaps I'm misguided about my opinions of how bad Apple really is (the grass is always greener, etc.)

On the third hand, Apple is certainly doing its damnedest to try to integrate its second rate AI into everything, everywhere, like everybody. So should I give this AI stuff any particular weight?

And, of course, there's the ever present question of "who do I want to give my data to?" the evil corporation, or the slightly less evil corporation who is not quite competent enough to be first place in the AI space.

Sort of a modern re-phrasing of "He who fights with monsters should be careful lest he thereby become a monster. And if thou gaze long into an abyss, the abyss will also gaze into thee"

A Godwin thread, how fun! I'll play.

I thought I'd take a look at wiki to refresh my terms, which sayeth, "Fascism is characterized by support for a dictatorial leader, centralized autocracy, militarism, forcible suppression of opposition, belief in a natural social hierarchy, subordination of individual interests for the perceived interest of the nation or race, and strong regimentation of society and the economy.[3][4]"

Good enough atm. So, on to the Gedankenspiel...

support for a dictatorial leader: I got gigged in basic for not saluting the general's *empty* car. You can bet I supported dear leader's conveyances and anyone decorated with pretty bits of metal on their collar tabs for the next four. Dictatorial? No. They have limits. Authoritarian, yes.
centralized autocracy: Centralized, yes. Autocracy, no.
militarism: Well...
forcible suppression of opposition: Hmmm. Does fragging count?
belief in a natural social hierarchy: Hierarchy, yes. Natural? For some, yes, for most, it takes months or years to gain steps up the ladder.
subordination of individual interests for the perceived interest of the nation or race: For most I'd say nation for sure. Some might secretly have racial overtones, but nothing like most homogenous nations where the race *is* the nation.
and strong regimentation of society: Yes. Two or more battalions are actually called a "regiment".
and the economy: See Pres. Eisenhower and MIC.

And, ofc, the caveat: "What constitutes a precise definition of fascism has been a longrunning and complex debate among scholars." So, yeah, there's lots of ways to slice and dice.

"Additionally, the intrusion of ICE agents into a polling place on Election Day should raise serious red flags amid concerns that Trump could use federal law enforcement to intimidate voters in future elections."

I expect NG deployed in all major blue cities. Maybe a few red cities to make sure the locals don't get uppity. I've seen a few headlines about the "strategic" plans that the blues have to deal with what's coming up in this and '28s elections, but I have little faith in blue's ability to execute strategery atm.

Well done. Too bad the AI gets the plaudits while the human gets the dregs. Guess we better get used to it.

Fun fact: Today's MOTD

"On the Internet, nobody knows you're a dog. -- Cartoon caption"

We don't do compromise anymore. We don't have the time for that.

Yes, but this was back in the 70s.

It was a different time.

I switched to DuckDuckGo a while back. Later, I found out that they were based off of Bing. I remember being annoyed, but realized that security was better then the disadvantage of using a slightly less capable search engine.

I still use Google from time to time, when being lazy and or I can't find something from DDG. Maybe once a year I can find something that's not on Bing. And of course, Google enshittified itself, so there's that.