Discworld QOTD, from Snuff "You should look for those who can’t believe that the law would ever catch them, who believe that they act out of a right that the rest of us do not have. The job of the officer of the law is to let them know that they are wrong!"

It is about this: because so many people do not give a shit about romance, shit gets tried in romance first. You should pay attention to romance publishing news and care about it, because they will try that shit here first.

Romance doesn't only outsell any other genre, it outsells them by A LOT. We are social creatures, we love to see other people kiss. It's just a fact. 🥰

I remember when her big thing was supporting MS charities. It was better for everyone.

i post this story every christmas, and will keep doing so until it stops making me cry merry christmas xx

I sincerely hope that she accidentally puts a third of the Republicans in the House in panic mode by airing video of the cocaine-and-gay-sex parties talked about by Madison Cawthorne.

After decades of Americans trying to tell other countries’ citizens how to fix their governments, it may be time to turn the tables.

Obviously Spotify has an audience...but not necessarily for you. And it only exists by exploiting artists – due to lack of compensation, label complicity, AI, etc.

At least two people on Bluesky say this book has manufactured quotes by them, when doing so would be the opposite of their opinions or positions, and never vetted their quotes for their approval. I suspect someone could get a lot of independent newsletter fodder chasing this down.

This is genuinely horrifying. Fact-free far-right agitprop given accolades by credible media across the political spectrum.

Good thoughts from the Klingon!

A 17-year-old worker died at a pork producer in Nebraska run by the governor’s family. Two investigations later, the boy’s mother is still searching for answers. trib.al/z7ZUF62

It is the annual Making Of The Soup. If you want to feed some folks sleeping rough, I got me two hundred takeout quart containers. And a metric fuckton of tomatoes. And a Vitamix. Chip in: Venmo linda-tirado-3 PayPal [email protected] Chime $linda-tirado-3 Happy Christmas to every one

Lunar System is about piecing together an evidence board about what happened to the ruins of a city under the moon and why the surface was abandoned. #TTRPG Find it here: https://k-ramstack.itch.io/lunar-system

A small (personal) example of this book’s intellectual dishonesty: My father-in-law is reading In Covid’s Wake, and excitedly told me he found a passage where I’m quoted. The quote in question is me saying the FBI worked to censor speech on social media. Huh? When did I say that?!

New comic. Merry Christmas! 💚🌟❤️

Would you believe me if I told you Mark Cuban didn’t want a peer reviewed answer to his question from the top medical journal

mark cuban, a man who sold his beloved basketball team to richer people with the promise that they would let him be involved in key decisions, then had to watch from afar as they ignored him and dismantled it with an incompetency never before seen in sports, still believes in private enterprise

Book publishers do not hire fact checkers for even nonfiction books! If an author wants a book fact-checked, they have to pay for it themselves. And an editor is more concerned about readability, flow, etc (and many of those positions have been cut, too).

And Tiny Tim, who did NOT die, sent the body of one of the terrorists back to Hans Gruber, with "Now I Have A Machine Gun! Ho! Ho! Ho!" written on itssweatshirt.

This Pope slaps

Republicans want to kill the post office and the media is there for it, which is why you have never seen a news story about how the police department has never turned a profit and is a waste

About 5 purchases of Architect of Worlds from this link would get me over the hump on that bill due on Friday: www.wargamevault.com/en/publisher... (Or roughly 7 purchases of anything that normally retails for $15.)

I have an orange fuzzy boy sitting in my lap, paws on my shoulders, headbutting my beard, and purring *loudly*. Happy birthday, Theoden Cat. I'm glad a slab of 8-10 oz of ham has made All Right With The World. Even if you got confused that you could lick and smell ham when your tummy was full.

This was exactly Adolf Eichmann's job.

The only true way is the Canadian way (As much as I wish it was a joke, it is in fact not one and this is exactly how it works here)

I just realized why so many people have been sitting on Epstein's files and why it's been like pulling teeth getting anyone to release them to the public -- it's because none of them want to give up their blackmail material

I've got an unexpected bill due on Friday. Any sales I can get through this WGV sale can help pay that bill! So, please do consider this for you "I've been good and deserve a neat game" self-gifting over the next three days!

Now more than ever.

I know one of you has to have a billionaire’s phone number, $1m to save one of the best fossil collections in the country is a bargain. www.nytimes.com/2025/12/19/s...

Look, posting on Twitter is proof that you're making mistakes. Move your posts from there to here, delete your account. You'll get better results for art and photography outreach, and you'll deny the Fascists valuable content and victims.

FAFO applies to the US Government.

I have had ham. Theoden Cat was given a 10 oz hunk of ham that he's eaten 2/3rds of. I've...returned it twice to his dish, but now he is Well Fed and sleeping on the bed. (He dropped the ham onto the nightstand and almost dropped it on the saucer there, which is *remarkable* politeness.)

Y'all are awesome! Because of that, we were able to help resolve this yesterday afternoon. In the process, I discovered that things don't look great for M on the rent front, either. Extended Christmas Magic? NYE Magic? We shall see!

Texas A&M University has declined to reinstate a faculty member who was fired after she was accused of teaching a course that recognized more than two genders, even after an appeals panel found that the dismissal was not justified.

Bending your institution to meet the prejudices of your dumbest, meanest students is a surefire way to destroy a university. Now any student can just scrawl “the Bible says this is wrong” on any test and skate to an A at the Oklahoma Football Outlet and Diploma Factory.

Sigh. Once again, if you are warning us about fascism while posting on Substack you’re asking us to do work YOU 👏 ARE 👏 NOT 👏 WILLING 👏 TO 👏 DO.

The swimmer tied a trans woman for fifth. The MAGA industrial complex took care of the rest.

“🇨🇳 China plans to field a force of nine aircraft carriers by 2035, according to a Defense Department report on Beijing’s military power released on Tuesday. The U.S. report says that the PLAN will embark on the largest carrier build-up effort in the Indo-Pacific since World War II.”

Nothing says Christmas like a whole wheat kitty loaf warming on the radiator. Photo from my collection, ca. 1970s (in case you can't tell by the rainbow of browns).

Y’all know we have a tool for finding exactly these kinds of bad redactions, right? free.law/open-source-...

“I miss blockbuster video” the library has every dvd totally untouched and I never see you there

Also good in Canada! Looks like Kobo and Apple both have it for $1.99 too. www.kobo.com/ca/en/ebook/... books.apple.com/ca/book/bloo...

Hey, so, my baby cat had an unexpected trip to the vets. The vet said it's nothing to worry about, but she's still poorly and seeing the vet cost money. If you've ever wondered about buying my books, it would be a wonderful gift for me and the small girl. www.smashwords.com/profile/view...

Posting on Twitter is evidence of idiocy.

I've got an unexpected bill due on Friday. Any sales I can get through this WGV sale can help pay that bill! So, please do consider this for you "I've been good and deserve a neat game" self-gifting over the next three days!

I'm going to do a deep dive into the last 15 years of traffic data and publish a full analysis, because it reveals some very interesting trends, but here is my initial takeaway: Bluesky in 2025 was more effective at driving traffic to our marine science website than Twitter. Ever. Was

So, in our very late-stage capitalist society, the oligarchs are working feverishly to squeeze even more money out of common folk.

Literally robbing Peter to pay Paul. Roughly 65% of veterans, who are 12% of the electorate, voted for Trump. Who thinks anyone doing anything for love of country or duty is a sucker and a moron. They deserve every bit of humiliation they get for this.

If Evangelicals can sue a bakery for religious persecution, I suspect a non-Christian could sue Lancaster Cabins for religious discrimination. They're not a church or religious support services business. I wonder if anyone's forwarded this to the Satanic Temple yet. They like filling lawsuits.