Doctorow is spot on here. Apple may be the most benevolent of the big tech companies, but it still has far too much power over its users.

A few weeks ago, John Hamer (from the Toronto-based Beyond the Walls inclusive online congregation of Community of Christ) reached out to ask if I would be interested in contributing a pre-recorded prayer to a June 12th “millennial prayer service” focused on Community of Christ’s Enduring Principles. The denomination describes its Enduring Principles as follows: Our Enduring Principles define the essence, heart, and soul of our faith community. They describe the personality of our church as expressed throughout the world.

Yes please.

Given the aggressively queerphobic language I’ve read on Gab, events like this are worrying but not surprising. More worrying is the way that this queerphobic language is increasingly used in the mainstream GOP. How do Republican politicians and voters feel about these events?

I’ve been plenty spooked by Ring’s video capabilities, but apparently I haven’t been worried enough about its audio surveillance.

Disappointing news, but glad for the fight that the EFF and others are waging.

The only thing worse than the already-bad reality of powerful, private data brokers is public agencies buying what they have to sell.

This is a peak example of what performative concerns about “free speech” boil down to.

I haven’t read much about this bill, but it’s worrying that powerful entities have such an advantage in the debate about limiting their power.

Depressing read, though I’ll freely admit I haven’t been paying enough attention here myself.

Very, very interesting read on how the purported objectivity of big data is influencing how (conservative) judges use corpus linguistics.

A few weeks ago, I posted about Book of Mormon dependence on the King James Version and the way that that sometimes raises interesting questions about how the text should be understood. As I continue my project of what a modern-language version of the Book of Mormon might look like, I’ve run into another example. 1 Corinthians 15:55 is referenced three times in the Book of Mormon, including in Mosiah 8 (Mosiah 16 LDS), where I’m currently working my way through the text.

What a mess. Glad to be pivoting toward my blog and Mastodon.

What’s the point in having an ethics board if you’re going to so flagrantly ignore them? Good on members for responding with resignations, and thank goodness Axon woke up to how dunb their decision was.

Over the past several weeks, I’ve been putting a lot of work into adjusting my online presence, a project that I expect to last through most of the summer. In dividing my website into distinct subareas and pivoting from a single Twitter account to a number of Mastodon accounts, I’m trying to do something about the context collapse that’s been keeping me from sharing some of the big things going on in my life lately.

This is unbelievably dumb. School shootings can’t be solved by technology—it’s a social and political problem. Shame on Axon.

Some good thoughts by Masnick on a good op-ed by Wheaton.

I have long been skeptical of gas prices as a talking point. Some interesting thoughts in here.

Thanks to a recommendation from BoingBoing, I just finished reading a Business Insider article describing a recent video in which Marjorie Taylor Greene: predicted that identifying as heterosexual will be a thing of the past within a period of less than 200 years thanks to LGBTQ-inclusive sex educators, who she called “trans terrorists.” More specifically, Greene was quoted as saying that heterosexual extinction would come about “probably in about four or five generations.

GOP has some reckoning to do.

Content moderation is a good thing, and ‘free speech’ should not be our primary concern when it comes to social media platforms.

Listening to The Aquabats tonight and remembering how I pegged the Mormon connection when I was first listening to them because of subtle allusions to food storage and pioneer hymns.

This is difficult but important to read. As gut wrenching as these shootings are, I am still distant enough from them that they don’t always stick with me. It’s helpful if depressing to read about what sticks with others who are closer to them.

Disappointing but unsurprising. I wish McConnell would show as much willingness to call out Republicans on guns as he does for Ukraine.

Tom the Dancing Bug is usually just the right level of dark.

This book me far too long to read. I started (and finished) a lot of books while supposedly reading this one, and it’s just a massive book with a lot to get through. I’m also unclear on how much I’ll take from the book in particular. I got a lot from the overall arc of the story, but given the timeframe of my reading it and the sheer amount of material—not to mention Schlosser’s interweaving of a particular nuclear accident and other historical details—it was hard to keep track of who was who and what had happened.

It makes me sick and angry to read all of this. We have so badly failed the children of this country.

Imagine thinking that this is the price we pay for American exceptionalism. Imagine thinking that mourning these children and wanting to do something about it is a partisan agenda.

I suspect that there is nothing as damning in Mormon history as Mormons’ failure to own up to that history, and Jana’s writing here captures that nicely.

This is one of the best things The Onion has ever done.

Love this.

Fascinating (if worrying) article on just how important the basic mechanics of an election are.

Lots of interesting ideas in this interview. I particularly like libraries running Mastodon instances.

Let’s do the same in the U.S., please.

I don’t think I want a Pence presidency any more than another Trump one, but I do want to see the GOP wrestle with what it’s going to be going forward.

Glad that there hasn’t been much conversation about this in Kentucky, but it’s still really worrying stuff.