raymccarthy

juergen_hubert, 10 days ago to random

Thought of the day:

Based on my readings of old German folk tales, #QAnon in the current age and the "Satanic Panics" of the 1980s are just another incarnation of the #Witchcraft Panics of previous centuries.

raymccarthy, 11 days ago to random

"Israel’s military offensive in the Gaza strip has killed at least 36,439 Palestinians and wounded 82,627 since 7 October, the Palestinian health ministry said on Sunday."

The situation is bad, but why does every media outlet quote these bogus figures issued by an organisation that can't know and is controlled by Hamas?

C.f Ukrainians killed in over 2 years, and approx 10,000 glide bombs, indiscriminate daily shelling of civilians and missile & drone attacks on apartment blocks.

FANTASY.

juergen_hubert, 13 days ago to politics

1/ Okay, while the Trump verdict has been very riveting, I'd like to talk about failure states in democracies for a bit.

Any stable democracy needs peaceful transfers of power. If a ruling government loses in an election and thus loses power, they are free to moan about it - but in the end, they should leave office without violence because (unless they screwed up bigly) they realize that they will likely return to power one day. They are invested in the system, and do not want to overthrow the basic democratic order of their country - because it works for them.

Thus, a country needs multiple parties with an investment in democracy, who are willing to form a government - but who are also willing to leave peacefully. If this is not the case, then the democracy in question is in a failure state.

An good (or rather, very very bad) example of a "proportional representation" democracy in a failure state was the late Weimar Republic. Starting in 1932, the NSDAP (Nazis) and the KDP (Communists) received a majority of the vote and thus representatives. Both wanted to overthrow the Republic and its democracy in its own way, and thus it became impossible to form a democratic government - let alone switch between different ones. But the Weimar Republic had problems in this regard even earlier, since there were numerous miniscule parties with only a very small number of candidates. They only cared about a small number of issues, had no motivation to compromise, and thus were not willing to join a working government.

#Politics #Democracy #Elections #WeimarRepublic #Germany #History

raymccarthy, 14 days ago (edited 14 days ago) to random

Free: The Apprentice's Talent
everywhere except Amazon (reduced to 99c there)

The Apprentice’s Talent
Talents Universe 1
Part 1 of the Maisie Trilogy.
Mei Zhen Kelly is a 23 year old computer programmer from Belfast working in Dublin for nearly three years.

Released: 18th April 2016.

Updated: May 2024

160,450 words
Retail sellers:
Smashwords Store, Apple, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Amazon, Play Store
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/627843
https://books.apple.com/us/book/the-apprentices-talent/id1100808098
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-apprentices-talent-ray-mccarthy/1123641871
https://www.kobo.com/ie/en/ebook/the-apprentice-s-talent

driusan, 24 days ago to random

I'm going to start using the verb "Googled it" to mean "to take a widely used and well liked product and turn it into something horrific beyond HP Lovecraft's wildest imagination while coasting on inertia and the nostalgic memories of my users"

Godyssey, 27 days ago to random

The placement of a horseshoe above a door is a hotly debated topic. Some argue that it should go right side up, the horseshoe catching luck and giving luck to the home; others argue the shoe should be upside down, pouring good luck on visitors.

#FolkyFriday where do you fall?

SimonRoyHughes, 29 days ago to random

I understand this. I can draw Donald Duck's head, but can't for the life of me figure out how to do his body.

On the other hand, if I were king, I wouldn't pay for an unfinished painting.

SimonRoyHughes, 29 days ago to random

(I has ISBNs.)