DABDA

I’m guessing it wouldn’t be a valid legal argument, but I liked the thought experiment of claiming that it can’t be piracy if the rights holder is intentionally publicly sharing the content. Like trying to charge trick-or-treaters for theft when they took candy out of the bowl you left out with a “Free!” sign attached.

For everybody’s sake, I hope you’re right.

I’d think sending tens of billions of dollars to foreign governments - plus spending hundreds of millions on aesthetic remodeling of the white house - while simultaneously threatening and endangering the food security and medical coverage of the entire country would be considered bad politics, too. At this point I honestly wouldn’t even be surprised if they try spinning furloughed workers as attempting an insurrection or something and that the workers actually owe money to the government for their machinations.

Just remember laws evidently don’t hold any real weight anymore so nothing is settled until it’s settled. Here’s one of many articles about intentions to block back pay: https://apnews.com/article/trump-federal-workers-back-bay-shutdown-785eb776d2312d1f68f7e91961d0a93a

Johnson, a lawyer, said he hadn’t fully read the memo but “there are some legal analysts who are saying” that it may not be necessary or appropriate to repay the federal workers.

I was just sharing that comment to demonstrate a proper mindset and wasn’t intending it to be an actual guide anyone should follow - but you’re definitely right. A good carry permit class will cover what is recommend to do and say if you’re ever involved in an incident.

carrying makes me extremely polite

I saved this comment from u/jlbraun about 13 years ago (would link to the source comment but fuck that site):

As a gun owner, you have to be cool-headed, moreso than the police ever have to be.

You do not start shit, act aggressively, flip the bird, roll your eyes, talk shit, or even raise your voice. To anyone. Ever.

A combat instructor (who happened to be Buddhist and a Marine) once said to me: "From now on, if no one’s life is on the line, you will lose every argument. You are always wrong. You are sorry for impinging on their day. You will apologize and apologize again. You will back the fuck down. You will put your tail between your legs. You will let them talk shit about your ladyfriend. You will let them call your mother a bitch and a whore and your dad a bastard. You have no ego. "

“You do all this because if you are the one to start a fight, by default that fight now has a gun in it, and if you start losing, you’re going to pull it and kill him. And even if you don’t go to jail because you could convince the jury that it was self-defense, you’re going to have to live with the fact that you could have saved someone’s life and yet you let your ego kill someone.”

“You are not the police, so don’t act like them. Though all of you [civilians] are better shots than the police, you do not have the training, the continuum of force policy, or a union plus free lawyers protecting you if you screw up.”

ed: He also said: “but after backing down and trying to apologize, if at any time you then feel your life or that of a loved one is in danger, put three rounds into his [cardiothoracic] vault, call the police, give a statement, go home, and sleep like a baby. You did all you could for your attacker, and he was the one that made the final decision to kill himself.”

There’s probably a simple explanation for it, but it’s weird to me that the bottom text has a fixed height* but the top has oversized Cs, Gs, Os, and Ss.

*or whatever the proper font terminology equivalent might be

I’m choosing to believe it’s another element of the meme displaying the Joker’s disregard for order or something.

That website is loaded with ads (of course), has no information about itself/staff, and most of the links in the whole “digital chew” footer don’t resolve to anything.