I'm hearing everyone come out and condemn this thing which is apparently "hate speech" and how apparently terrible it was for the BBC to continue broadcasting it (I don't think they did anything wrong- they were broadcasting a real life event). I understand the upset at kneecap (like supporting Hezbollah and talking about killing MPs) but I don't know how chanting "Death to the IDF" is hate speech- it's not even necessarily calling for death to humans, could be directed towards wanting to disband the organisation.

I don't know why the media and politicians are making such a big deal over it. It feels like they are trying to tell us how awful it was that these people said this thing and that we should apparently be outraged. Or maybe it's just me. I think there are worse things going on in the world.... particularly within the geographical piece of land variously known as Israel/Palestine/Canaan....

~~I'm probably banned from entering the USA now~~

Arrest:

https://youtu.be/8s_oOC_j4Ps

"Embrace, Extend, Extinguish" is when corporate pigs try to get ahead on open standards, make their client the main one used, then make their client drop the standard.

Email is at risk since most normies use Gmail or Outlook. Google and Microsoft could agree to drop support for all other providers and people probably won't switch to the other providers.

The most Meta can do is add a load of more users to the fediverse then take them away again. For them to successfully EEE the fediverse, it would require convincing existing fediverse users to switch to threads. I cannot see that happening on here on any noticeable scale.

The worst that can happen, is a bunch of new users appear on the 'verse from threads, then disappear again.

If anything, Bluesky is the bigger threat as it touts itself as "decentralised" in order to gain users who would have otherwise gone to Mastodon, then easily pull the plug on that, and we have to wait another decade for a maniac to ruin the platform to cause people to reconsider the fediverse.

Why can countries officially recognise both the Democratic People's Republic of Korea and the Republic of Korea as different political entities despite them both claiming to be the true Korea, but not the People's Republic of China and the Republic of China, instead having to choose a side?

Typically this is a Christian argument used against Islam - but I'm actually curious if this is seen as a valid argument from a secular point of view? (Even if it's not the "best")

Because essentially it's "your holy book contradicts the holy book it claims to be endorsed by", which personally I think I can see working on a secular level, even if you don't actually believe in the Bible either.

spoiler

! Also, full disclosure: Yes, I am a Christian. !<

The times are waxing late;

Be sober and keep vigil,

The Judge is at the gate—

The Judge that comes in mercy,

The Judge that comes with might,

To terminate the evil,

To diadem the right.

When the just and gentle Monarch

Shall summon from the tomb,

Let man, the guilty, tremble,

For Man, the God, shall doom.

Arise, arise, good Christian,

Let right to wrong succeed;

Let penitential sorrow

To heavenly gladness lead;

To the light that hath no evening,

That knows nor moon nor sun,

The light so new and golden,

The light that is but one.

And when the Sole-Begotten

Shall render up once more

The Kingdom to the Father,

Whose own it was before,—

Then glory yet unheard of

Shall shed abroad its ray,

Resolving all enigmas,

An endless Sabbath-day.

Then, then from his oppressors,

The Hebrew shall go free,

And celebrate in triumph,

The year of Jubilee;

And the sunlit Land that recks not

Of tempest nor of fight,

Shall fold within its bosom

Each happy Israelite:

The Home of fadeless splendor,

Of flowers that fear no thorn,

Where they shall dwell as children,

Who here as exiles mourn.

Midst power that knows no limit,

And wisdom free from bound,

The Beatific Vision

Shall glad the saints around:

The peace of all the faithful,

The calm of all the blest,

Inviolate, unvaried,

Divinest, sweetest, best.

YES, Peace! for war is needless,—

Yes, calm! for storm is past,—

And goal from finished labour

And anchorage at last.

That peace—but who may claim it?

The guileless in their way,

Who keep the ranks of battle,

Who mean the things they say:

The peace that is for heaven,

And shall be too, for earth:

The palace that re-echoes

With festal song and mirth;

The garden, breathing spices,

The paradise on high;

Grace beautified to glory,

Unceasing minstrelsy.

There nothing can be feeble,

There none can ever mourn,

There nothing is divided,

There nothing can be torn.

'Tis fury, ill, and scandal,

'Tis peaceless peace below;

Peace, endless, strifeless, ageless,

The halls of Zion know.

O happy, holy portion,

Refection for the blest;

True vision of true beauty,

Sweet cure of all distrest!

For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. -St Paul the Apostle

JERUSALEM the golden! With milk and honey blest; Beneath your contemplation Sink heart and voice opprest. I know not, oh! I know not, What joys await us there, What radiancy of glory, What bliss beyond compare.

They stand, those halls of Zion, Conjubilant with song, And bright with many an angel, And all the martyr throng; The Prince is ever in them, The daylight is serene; The pastures of the blessed Are deck'd in glorious sheen.

There is the throne of David, And there, from care released, The shout of those who triumph, The song of those who feast, And they, who with their Leader, Have conquer'd in the fight, Forever and forever, Are clad in robes of white.

O sweet and bless­èd coun­try, The home of God’s elect! O sweet and bless­èd coun­try, That ea­ger hearts ex­pect! Jesus, in mer­cy bring us To that dear land of rest, Who art, with God the Fa­ther, And Spir­it, ev­er blessed.

-Bernard of Cluny

No, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned astray; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one. Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive. The venom of asps is under their lips. Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood; in their paths are ruin and misery, and the way of peace they have not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes.