Charlie Kirk organized a hate campaign against my sister's Christian church for the "crime" of being woke. They were subjected to weeks of death threats and had to hold their events and services at a different church for a couple of months.
That was maybe five years ago? Charlie's role in American politics is to popularize fascism by sticking a smiley face on it. He was an overt hater when younger, but more recently promoted a persona of the nice reasonable guy who talks about traditional values, patriotism, the importance of family blah blah to suck people in and then dishes up the openly racist stuff once they are inside a ways. He is heavily recruiting within the evangelical movement.
I can't say enough to express my gratitude, lj. When I saw your email I actually whooped with delight. Haven't looked at the archive site yet, but infinite thanks to Michael Cain for it.
FWIW, my name and email seem to have carried over from the old site. No preview button that I can see, which will keep us on our toes :)
I have paid no attention to Kirk either, beyond what various liberal blogs would say about him, and now his canonization as a "free speech" advocate. Thos elevation has required everyone to ignore the content of his speech, which is a requirement for what I'd call free speech absolutism, exemplified by the Nazi march through Skokie IL back in the 70-s supported by the ACLU. There's an assumption in absolutism that the answer to free hate speech is more speech, which rests on an assumption of relative equality of speech. Don't like Kirk's speech? Ask your dad and a few billionaires for money to start your own Turning Point, and see if you can get MSNBC (or whatever they're called now) and the Democratic party to hype it.
Kirk's speech is an example of how speech can be leveraged into power, which is where free speech absolutism gets very fuzzy. Now you're defending Kirk's right to weild power, not just speech, and Kirk, like Rush Limbaugh, was very good at his chosen profession of using speech, and weilded a lot of power within the Republican party.
I knew barely anything about Charlie Kirk, but reading some of the absolutely appalling things he has said and advocated, I was truly revolted. This doesn't of course mean that I rejoice in or welcome his assassination; the political and ideological polarisation in America is quite terrifying enough, without bringing murder into it. What really scares me is the moving of the Overton Window; because of Kirk and people like him it seems increasingly possible to insult people's character and intelligence on the basis of their race and attract millions of fans and followers as a consequence. And, on the same Overton Window issue, normalising discussion of whether women should have the right to vote really scares me:
I am old enough to remember when your choice of Blogger or Typepad said something about you, but I don’t remember what that was … maybe 2003?
It is our duty today to remind everyone what the Bushes left us: Clarence Thomas, John Roberts, Samuel Alito. Oh, and hundreds of thousands of dead or broke (or both!) people.
In trying to work out how to navigate the archive site, I clicked on the Andrew Olmsted stuff. A couple of things (this is not a complaint - God knows that would be ridiculous from someone as clueless as me), just feedback about stuff you may already know about:
1. Both "hilzoy's Final Post" and "Andrew's final post" seem to go to the same post, called "Remembering Andy Olmsted".
2. Since I couldn't find the long thread of the comments, I went into the calendar archive, and as far as I could see none of the posts include the threads of comments. Am I missing something obvious, is this the new normal, or is this going to change?
I have a couple of suggestions regarding the commenting infrastructure.
First of all, I would like to see ongoing support for cuneiform, just like the good old days.
Also, having a requirement for comments to be sent with SASE could give the stamp collecting subject matter a big boost.
DaveC
Hallelujah! So many thanks to Michael, lj, Janie and anybody else who was involved. Days without a check in to ObWi felt weird - I'm so very glad it's back!
Hey Hartmut, glad you made it! If you can find that post in the wayback machine ( http://web.archive.org/web/20250000000000*/obsidianwings.blogs.com ) and take a screenshot, I can see if it didn't get transferred over or what.
According to Gemini, the default allowed tags are usually the following:
anchor, blockquote, strong or b for bold, em or i for italic and a couple of others.
I noticed that in the archive the post on proving citizenship when faced with ICE seems to be missing.
I wanted to post this from maddowblog there but found all comments sections closed before thw whole site got reduced to just the blog header.
* A U.S. citizen detained by ICE for three days tells his story: “George Retes is a 25-year-old U.S. Army veteran who served a tour in Iraq. On July 10, while on his way to work as a security guard at a Southern California cannabis farm, he was detained by federal immigration agents, despite telling them that he is an American citizen and that his wallet and identification were in his nearby car, Retes told me. While arresting him, the agents knelt on his back and his neck, he said, making it difficult for him to breathe. Held in a jail cell for three days and nights, he was not allowed to make a phone call, see an attorney, appear before a judge, or take a shower to wash off pepper spray and tear gas that the agents had used, according to the Institute for Justice, a public-interest law firm that is representing Retes.”
We really need to bring GIGO back into daily conversation and peoples' general awareness.
Not just the concept that original premises shape the reliability of output from the very start, but a concept of being extremely skeptical about the reliability of any information that really turns your crank.
I just watched a video where the watchlist was referenced. Since I hadn't paid much attention to him before, I may be influenced by some post-death whitewashing.
Hollywood star or celebrity (Robin Williams seemed to have been a favorite) took time out of their schedule and ‘outside the glare of the spotlights’, carried out some profoundly charitable action.
I've encountered such "just so" stories on YouTube. Recently, there's been a spate of AI-narrated videos on the Axis prisoners of war experiences in POW camps in the U.S. during and after WWII.
I hadn't paid much attention to Charlie Kirk. While I didn't agree with many of his ideas and policies, he seemed to be an open and honest advocate for them. He appeared to be all in on freedom of speech, unlike the many freedom of speech hypocrites on the Right.
I've been seeing stories of people using local electric grids being overwhelmed because someone set up an AI (LLM) data center in the area. They are incredible users of electricity. "HighYield x SemiAnalysis deep-dive into AI Datacenters, Gigawatt Megaclusters and the Hyperscaler race to AGI. How AI Datacenters Eat the World." How AI Datacenters Eat the World
By the way, I should have said: I very strongly support the continued front-paging of the Andrew Olmsted stuff. Even though I first started reading after his time (probably 2008 - hilzoy was still around for quite a while) I read every single thread about him that the front page memorialises, and it seemed (and seems) to me that he, what he represented and the relationship that e.g. hilzoy in particular had with him, was a clue to the intrinsic character of the best of ObWi. So that would be my vote, FWIW.
On “Kuzushi and Charlie Kirk”
Charlie Kirk organized a hate campaign against my sister's Christian church for the "crime" of being woke. They were subjected to weeks of death threats and had to hold their events and services at a different church for a couple of months.
That was maybe five years ago? Charlie's role in American politics is to popularize fascism by sticking a smiley face on it. He was an overt hater when younger, but more recently promoted a persona of the nice reasonable guy who talks about traditional values, patriotism, the importance of family blah blah to suck people in and then dishes up the openly racist stuff once they are inside a ways. He is heavily recruiting within the evangelical movement.
On “Excelsior!”
I can't say enough to express my gratitude, lj. When I saw your email I actually whooped with delight. Haven't looked at the archive site yet, but infinite thanks to Michael Cain for it.
FWIW, my name and email seem to have carried over from the old site. No preview button that I can see, which will keep us on our toes :)
Thanks again,
--TP
On “Kuzushi and Charlie Kirk”
I have paid no attention to Kirk either, beyond what various liberal blogs would say about him, and now his canonization as a "free speech" advocate. Thos elevation has required everyone to ignore the content of his speech, which is a requirement for what I'd call free speech absolutism, exemplified by the Nazi march through Skokie IL back in the 70-s supported by the ACLU. There's an assumption in absolutism that the answer to free hate speech is more speech, which rests on an assumption of relative equality of speech. Don't like Kirk's speech? Ask your dad and a few billionaires for money to start your own Turning Point, and see if you can get MSNBC (or whatever they're called now) and the Democratic party to hype it.
Kirk's speech is an example of how speech can be leveraged into power, which is where free speech absolutism gets very fuzzy. Now you're defending Kirk's right to weild power, not just speech, and Kirk, like Rush Limbaugh, was very good at his chosen profession of using speech, and weilded a lot of power within the Republican party.
"
My comment on this is apparently "awaiting moderation". Maybe because it has links?
"
I knew barely anything about Charlie Kirk, but reading some of the absolutely appalling things he has said and advocated, I was truly revolted. This doesn't of course mean that I rejoice in or welcome his assassination; the political and ideological polarisation in America is quite terrifying enough, without bringing murder into it. What really scares me is the moving of the Overton Window; because of Kirk and people like him it seems increasingly possible to insult people's character and intelligence on the basis of their race and attract millions of fans and followers as a consequence. And, on the same Overton Window issue, normalising discussion of whether women should have the right to vote really scares me:
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/14/opinion/douglas-wilson-evangelical-hegseth.html?unlocked_article_code=1.l08.9djO.hh9sD539663c&smid=url-share
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/sep/13/womens-suffrage-week-in-patriarchy
"
I am old enough to remember when your choice of Blogger or Typepad said something about you, but I don’t remember what that was … maybe 2003?
It is our duty today to remind everyone what the Bushes left us: Clarence Thomas, John Roberts, Samuel Alito. Oh, and hundreds of thousands of dead or broke (or both!) people.
Never forgive, never forget.
On “Excelsior!”
In trying to work out how to navigate the archive site, I clicked on the Andrew Olmsted stuff. A couple of things (this is not a complaint - God knows that would be ridiculous from someone as clueless as me), just feedback about stuff you may already know about:
1. Both "hilzoy's Final Post" and "Andrew's final post" seem to go to the same post, called "Remembering Andy Olmsted".
2. Since I couldn't find the long thread of the comments, I went into the calendar archive, and as far as I could see none of the posts include the threads of comments. Am I missing something obvious, is this the new normal, or is this going to change?
"
Iirc it was the post right before "What to do?" but the wayback machine's last entry is for Aug 23, and it was later than that
"
I have a couple of suggestions regarding the commenting infrastructure.
First of all, I would like to see ongoing support for cuneiform, just like the good old days.
Also, having a requirement for comments to be sent with SASE could give the stamp collecting subject matter a big boost.
DaveC
On “What to do?”
Hallelujah! So many thanks to Michael, lj, Janie and anybody else who was involved. Days without a check in to ObWi felt weird - I'm so very glad it's back!
On “Excelsior!”
Hey Hartmut, glad you made it! If you can find that post in the wayback machine ( http://web.archive.org/web/20250000000000*/obsidianwings.blogs.com ) and take a screenshot, I can see if it didn't get transferred over or what.
According to Gemini, the default allowed tags are usually the following:
anchor, blockquote, strong or b for bold, em or i for italic and a couple of others.
"
Hi!
Fortunately lj still had my email adress.
I noticed that in the archive the post on proving citizenship when faced with ICE seems to be missing.
I wanted to post this from maddowblog there but found all comments sections closed before thw whole site got reduced to just the blog header.
* A U.S. citizen detained by ICE for three days tells his story: “George Retes is a 25-year-old U.S. Army veteran who served a tour in Iraq. On July 10, while on his way to work as a security guard at a Southern California cannabis farm, he was detained by federal immigration agents, despite telling them that he is an American citizen and that his wallet and identification were in his nearby car, Retes told me. While arresting him, the agents knelt on his back and his neck, he said, making it difficult for him to breathe. Held in a jail cell for three days and nights, he was not allowed to make a phone call, see an attorney, appear before a judge, or take a shower to wash off pepper spray and tear gas that the agents had used, according to the Institute for Justice, a public-interest law firm that is representing Retes.”
Btw, how do tags work here? Still >/>?
On “Kuzushi and Charlie Kirk”
We really need to bring GIGO back into daily conversation and peoples' general awareness.
Not just the concept that original premises shape the reliability of output from the very start, but a concept of being extremely skeptical about the reliability of any information that really turns your crank.
On “Excelsior!”
Hi, lj!
I just got your email with the links to the archive and this new site.
Many, many - oh, a googolplex! - of thanks for preserving and continuing ObWi!
On “Kuzushi and Charlie Kirk”
I just watched a video where the watchlist was referenced. Since I hadn't paid much attention to him before, I may be influenced by some post-death whitewashing.
"
I'm not so sure about that Charles. He got his start with a watchlist against university professors
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Professor_Watchlist
The watchlist is still up.
"
Hollywood star or celebrity (Robin Williams seemed to have been a favorite) took time out of their schedule and ‘outside the glare of the spotlights’, carried out some profoundly charitable action.
I've encountered such "just so" stories on YouTube. Recently, there's been a spate of AI-narrated videos on the Axis prisoners of war experiences in POW camps in the U.S. during and after WWII.
I hadn't paid much attention to Charlie Kirk. While I didn't agree with many of his ideas and policies, he seemed to be an open and honest advocate for them. He appeared to be all in on freedom of speech, unlike the many freedom of speech hypocrites on the Right.
On “What to do?”
Woot!!! We made it!!
Huge props to Michael Cain especially, also to wj, LJ, and Janie for making this happen.
Thank you all!!
"
Looks like most of Andrew's stuff can at least be found on the Internet Archive Wayback Machine. Maybe change the links to Archive permalinks?
"
GftNC, most of the Olmsted links are dead, or will be come Sep 30. Some maintenance will be required.
On “I’m forever blowing bubbles”
I've been seeing stories of people using local electric grids being overwhelmed because someone set up an AI (LLM) data center in the area. They are incredible users of electricity.
"HighYield x SemiAnalysis deep-dive into AI Datacenters, Gigawatt Megaclusters and the Hyperscaler race to AGI. How AI Datacenters Eat the World."
How AI Datacenters Eat the World
On “What to do?”
By the way, I should have said: I very strongly support the continued front-paging of the Andrew Olmsted stuff. Even though I first started reading after his time (probably 2008 - hilzoy was still around for quite a while) I read every single thread about him that the front page memorialises, and it seemed (and seems) to me that he, what he represented and the relationship that e.g. hilzoy in particular had with him, was a clue to the intrinsic character of the best of ObWi. So that would be my vote, FWIW.
"
So, adversarial AI training, out in the wild. What could possibly go wrong?
"
If AI was real and ready for prime time, 95% of the spam would come from AI.
You know it's true.
"
If AI was real and ready for prime time, spam filters would work a whole lot better than they demonstrably do.
*Comment archive for non-registered commenters assembled by email address as provided.