gmcgath

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Last Notes

2025-11-11 11:37:06 GMT

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The 1925 Wizard of Oz is my choice for "worst movie ever made by a professional studio."

2025-11-10 13:27:53 GMT

It looks as if I'll be leaving Liberdon soon. I fully understand that the admins don't want to hand out a free lunch, but I'm just not using it (or Mastodon in general) enough to justify the cost. I haven't decided whether to migrate or move to another instance. I'll keep running @npub169j…mep2 for the foreseeable future.

2025-11-09 12:24:01 GMT

What — a word that ends in "rrh" and doesn't have any a, e, i. o, or u in it?? Oh, right, there is one.

2025-11-07 23:40:07 GMT

The Libertarian Party's new priority is numbers above everything. Anyone who says something vaguely pro-liberty is welcome. But it's already so far down the chute to irrelevance that it doesn't matter. #LibertarianParty

2025-11-05 14:19:21 GMT

Judicial Watch sends out junk mail marked "LEGAL NOTICE," insisting that you return a form, but it's not clear what you commit to if you do. https://garymcgath.com/questionable-mailing-judicial-watch/
#JudicialWatch #scams

2025-10-29 10:43:57 GMT

Congratulations to the Music Hall in Portsmouth, NH, which managed to offend everyone at once. It cancelled a scheduled event because of a planned peaceful protest against it, breaking its agreement with a pro-abortion group and suggesting that the anti-abortion protesters were a violent threat.
https://garymcgath.com/cowardice-portsmouth-music-hall/
#NewHampshire

2025-10-27 22:37:49 GMT

You can subscribe to my blog from Mastodon using blog [at] garymcgath [dot] com. (I have to mung the address, or Mastodon will turn it into a direct link to the blog, which isn't at all helpful.)

2025-10-27 15:07:41 GMT

Glenn Jacobs, who calls himself a libertarian, said in an interview with Reason that Trump "is going to dismantle the way government agencies can go after people for whatever reason they want." What strange alternate universe is Jacobs living in?

2025-10-27 10:53:30 GMT

There are good reasons to condemn Trump's wrecking the White House, but the loss of the "Office of the First Lady" isn't one of them. The office is pure nepotism and measures a woman's worth by whom she's married to.

2025-10-27 10:28:10 GMT

Bothsidesism now!
https://garymcgath.com/bothsidesism-now/

2025-10-23 21:59:09 GMT

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Likewise for organizers of fan conventions. If their message is "We're only telling people on Facebook," I'm not inclined to go.

2025-10-22 09:59:16 GMT

"Fascism" is a term with a specific meaning, but it's often used as a code. https://garymcgath.com/fascism-as-a-coded-term/

2025-10-17 14:40:42 GMT

Ready for your Halloween silent movies? I'll be accompanying the 1923 _Hunchback of Notre Dame_ with Lon Chaney at the Plaistow, NH Library on October 28.
https://plaistowlibrary.assabetinteractive.com/calendar/silent-movie-special-2/
#silentFilm

2025-10-06 10:26:58 GMT

@npub1hpu…se35 Check today's Girl Genius. :)

2025-10-05 14:59:09 GMT

If I post a link to the ActivityPub feed here so people can subscribe to it, Mastodon will instead take you to the blog itself, which is useless for the purpose. So instead, I'll post a link to the post on my blog where I explain how you can subscribe to it.
https://garymcgath.com/follow-this-blog-with-activitypub/
You'll find a lot more of what I say by subscribing to the blog than from my direct Mastodon posts these days.

2025-10-05 14:51:12 GMT

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I never understood that either.

2025-10-03 15:47:25 GMT

Apple, caving in to government pressure of an unknown nature, has removed an application that lets people report where ICE raids are happening.
https://garymcgath.com/iceblock-censored-apple-store/
#ICE #ICEBlock

2025-09-18 18:41:37 GMT

These days I'm not posting much to Mastodon, but you can follow my blog at [email protected]

2025-09-17 10:07:10 GMT

Some flame wars got me to wondering: What is the difference between sympathy and empathy? (The flame wars showed few signs of either.) https://garymcgath.com/sympathy-empathy/

2025-09-16 22:02:28 GMT

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"Shai Hulud" sounds like a REALLY nasty worm.

2025-09-15 13:58:13 GMT

In an email to me, Rockingham County (NH) commissioner Steven Goddu claimed that there is a presumption of guilt if you don't have documentation to show you're legally in the US. He is a dishonest person and a Trump puppet.
#NewHampshire

2025-09-15 11:10:35 GMT

In 1900, Georges Méliès made a rather impressive 10-minute film about Joan of Arc. Here it is with my accompaniment.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0K_XXfohNVI
#silentFilm #Stummfilm #filmMuet

2025-09-11 18:14:36 GMT

Rockingham County commissioners looking to get 30 silver by collaborating with ICE. https://www.bostonglobe.com/2025/09/11/metro/nh-county-jails-ice-detainee-revenue/
#ICE #NewHampshire

2025-09-11 14:28:36 GMT

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At least people are no longer imprisoned or executed for being the wrong kind of Christian.

2025-09-04 19:28:14 GMT

Seems I'm still a pro writer. I just found out (when they paid me) that Liberty Fund ran my article on "Marlowe, Goethe, and the Faust Legend" about a month ago. I hope you enjoy it.
https://oll.libertyfund.org/publications/reading-room/2025-08-06-marlowe-goethe-and-the-faust-legend

2025-09-04 12:25:02 GMT

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It's no big deal that he was invited. The problem is that he accepted.

2025-09-04 10:41:59 GMT

Police were called in on exhibitors at two fan-run cons in different countries. Both cases were related to AI panic, but the particulars were strongly different. https://garymcgath.com/police-called-convention-exhibitors/
#fandom #AI

2025-08-29 14:24:27 GMT

One upside to the migration: The ActivityPub plugin works with the new hosting. You can subscribe to [email protected] from Mastodon or anything else that uses the ActivityPub protocol (subject to local restrictions).

2025-08-29 13:26:13 GMT

Just noticed that the RSS feed URL for my blog has changed. The new one is https://garymcgath.com/blogging/feed

2025-08-29 11:12:31 GMT

A scumbag woman is charged with speech arousing "anger, alarm, or resentment." She's representing herself in what should be a simple 1st Amendment defense yet is raising a million dollars in a fundraiser. All sides are wrong or crazy. https://garymcgath.com/sometimes-everybody-is-wrong/

2025-08-28 21:43:50 GMT

The migration of https://garymcgath.com is complete. The one problem I've noticed is that all the email subscriptions have vanished, and I don't think I can recover them. You can re-subscribe on the left sidebar of the website. Sorry.

2025-08-28 21:41:58 GMT

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A communist, no. A socialist, yes, when it suits him.

2025-08-27 00:07:31 GMT

This woman sounds like a piece of dirt, but name-calling is protected by the First Amendment. Why her fundraiser needs a million dollars, though, is beyond me. Lawyers aren't _that_ expensive.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/minnesota-woman-charged-using-racial-212039698.html #FirstAmendment

2025-08-24 14:49:46 GMT

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Good, but the omission of similar concerns about US state governments is glaring.

2025-08-24 14:45:36 GMT

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They'll have to get more reliable first (which probably will happen). I've seen many mentions of AI-generated briefs that invented citations out of thin air.

2025-08-22 11:41:18 GMT

America is dying as a free society. In this blog post, I look at the murder suspects and reach an accusation.
https://garymcgath.com/wp/who-killed-america/

2025-08-21 11:11:01 GMT

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And it's only gotten worse.

2025-08-21 00:41:05 GMT

The Democrats have made it clear all they care about is getting elected, not about any principles. America's diagnosis: terminal.

2025-08-19 13:33:56 GMT

The nation's capital is under military occupation, and the Democrats are still pretending everything is politics as usual and grubbing for votes. They're making what would have been backroom gerrymandering deals in an age when politicians still had some shame.

2025-08-15 23:04:05 GMT

MK2 has folded with its pair of deuces. The video of the complete _Voyage dans la Lune_ with my accompaniment stays up on YouTube!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7EO07_Xt4U

2025-08-12 13:35:16 GMT

I've submitted a second escalation against the YouTube takedown of my video of _Voyage dans la Lune_ with my music, a 1902 film which MK2 ludicrously claims to have under copyright. MK2 has not given a single word of explanation. YouTube's takedown system is stacked in favor of copyright trolls; I risk a copyright strike by challenging the groundless claim. MK2 risks nothing.
At the moment, the video is available for all to view and listen to.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7EO07_Xt4U

2025-08-10 14:32:25 GMT

Remember when Republicans were against big government? Now they're telling small bookstores how to run their restrooms. https://www.msn.com/en-us/society-culture-and-history/social-issues/a-family-opened-a-town-s-first-bookstore-a-bathroom-bill-is-driving-them-away/ar-AA1KfjVa

2025-08-09 13:36:30 GMT

A big loss to filk, especially to the Canadian filk community. Jane G. reports that Tom Jeffers had a fatal heart attack on Wednesday.

2025-08-09 10:21:01 GMT

Unblocked once again on YouTube! Méliès' _La Voyage dans la Lune_ (A Trip to the Moon), the complete version with my original accompaniment.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7EO07_Xt4U
#SilentFilm #Stummfilm

2025-08-07 10:05:40 GMT

Yesterday I uploaded the 1902 film _A Trip to the Moon_ with my accompaniment to YouTube. This morning I was notified it's blocked because "CPR Agency for MK2" claims to own this 123-year-old movie. I've filed a dispute against the copyright troll. #silentFilm #Stummfilm

2025-08-07 01:32:57 GMT

The early silent classic _A Trip to the Moon_ with my original accompaniment. Includes the often-missing celebration scene. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7EO07_Xt4U #silentFilm

2025-08-05 09:47:56 GMT

A look at the fallacy: "Auschwitz was a concentration camp. Alligator Alcatraz is a concentration camp. Therefore Alligator Alcatraz is the same as Auschwitz."
https://garymcgath.com/wp/false-equivalence-fallacy/
#sanityProject #AlligatorAlcatraz

2025-08-05 00:48:19 GMT

Rhode Island business owners pledge to keep masked, armed thugs from invading their property. But they don't say how they'll do it.
https://www.boston.com/news/local-news/2025/08/04/dozens-of-rhode-island-businesses-pledge-to-keep-ice-out/
#ICE #RhodeIsland

2025-08-04 13:48:53 GMT

Those who say the Democrats and Republicans are equally bad should read this. https://www.aaronrosspowell.com/2024/07/08/the-false-equivalence-trap/

2025-08-03 12:15:10 GMT

With its latest email, Indivisible stopped even trying to hide that it's a Democratic party organization. Unsubscribed.

2025-08-03 10:26:40 GMT

From what I see in the news (that is, absolutely nothing), 50501's switch from principled positions to "rage" was a total dud.

2025-08-02 10:46:51 GMT

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Impressive migration work!

2025-08-01 10:06:21 GMT

August 2, a day of "rage against the regime"? https://garymcgath.com/wp/august-2-day-of-rage/

2025-07-30 11:29:18 GMT

Tom Lehrer: Not just a writer of biting lyrics but an excellent tunesmith as well. https://garymcgath.com/wp/tom-lehrer-as-composer/

2025-07-29 09:46:41 GMT

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Not the first. During World War II, the US had concentration camps for citizens whose only offense was having Japanese ancestry.

2025-07-29 09:42:26 GMT

Talking about "Alligator Auschwitz" trivializes the Nazis' deeds. https://garymcgath.com/wp/alligator-auschwitz/ #AlligatorAlcatraz

2025-07-29 09:30:35 GMT

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It sounds from the article as if these people are more interested in ruining the quality of service credit card companies can deliver than anything else.

2025-07-28 16:10:32 GMT

Nullification has a bad reputation from its use by slave states, but it could be a good response to Trump. States should declare that since ICE routinely violates the Constitution, they do not recognize it as a law enforcement agency and do not permit it to operate within their borders.
Not that it will ever happen.
#ICE #Trump

2025-07-26 10:16:44 GMT

Now on YouTube: The General, 1926 Buster Keaton film, with my original accompaniment. #silentFilm #Stummfilm https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLa7v5nmoxM

2025-07-22 10:47:42 GMT

Pope endorses faith healing over scientific medicine. https://www.boston.com/news/local-news/2025/07/20/pope-leo-declares-recovery-of-rhode-island-infant-first-miracle-of-his-papacy/

2025-07-22 10:18:24 GMT

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Keep a fire extinguisher close by!

2025-07-22 10:17:00 GMT

If you want to convince people to change their mind instead of "owning" them, read these six rules. https://garymcgath.com/wp/six-rules-bad-ideas/ #sanityProject

2025-07-21 11:02:20 GMT

A visit to a restaurant that was recently the target of an ICE abduction. https://garymcgath.com/wp/little-ice-breaking/ #NewHampshire #ICE

2025-07-20 12:00:54 GMT

Coming up on Tuesday, July 22: Silent Film _The General_ starring Buster Keaton, with my live accompaniment! Plaistow, NH Library. https://plaistowlibrary.assabetinteractive.com/calendar/silent-movie-special/
#silentFilm #Stummfilm

2025-07-20 11:57:41 GMT

I especially like the latest Jesus & Mo.
https://www.jesusandmo.net/comic/grew/
#webcomic #religion

2025-07-17 11:16:11 GMT

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The "made from real oranges" bit tells you how old it is, even more than the buggy in the illustration.

2025-07-17 11:14:59 GMT

My reply to an essay by Aaron Ross Powell. https://garymcgath.com/wp/aaron-ross-powell-essay/ #ethics

2025-07-14 10:11:49 GMT

Chaplin wasn't a Communist, but what were his views? One word that applies is "squishy." https://garymcgath.com/wp/evaluating-charles-chaplin/

2025-07-13 10:22:20 GMT

New Hampshire govt lawyers have filed a lawsuit claiming TikTok is somehow damaging children's "mental and physical health." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gM2POnKVYRE
#TikTok #NewHampshire #censorship

2025-07-12 15:02:17 GMT

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GIMP is free and has a lot of power. The UI is confusing but manageable.

2025-07-11 21:16:28 GMT

The anti-cultivated-meat lobby has pulled its playbook straight from tne anti-Rearden Metal lobby in _Atlas Shrugged_. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qc6TKIjZtQE

2025-07-11 13:14:24 GMT

The following is in Social Security's terms of service: "I agree that the Social Security Administration is not responsible for the improper disclosure of any information that the Social Security Administration has provided to me or any information that is on or from my computer or other device, whether due to my negligence or the wrongful acts of others."
As I read that, SSA could try to put spyware on my computer and can't be held responsible.

2025-07-11 10:24:17 GMT

I deleted my Hear-Me account a day after creating it. There just wasn't anybody interesting there, and no discussion of local matters in spite of its claim to being Boston-oriented.

2025-07-10 19:53:21 GMT

2025 Prometheus Awards. http://www.rawillumination.net/2025/07/prometheus-awards-announced.html?spref=tw
#scienceFiction

2025-07-10 19:45:52 GMT

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"CarPlay apps that stream audio for live sports events can show a scoreboard for the game on the CarPlay screen..."
Sounds like a great safety feature. The road is boring to look at anyway.

2025-07-10 14:00:16 GMT

I'm now also on I'm @npub1yep…hhuz where I hope to pick up some New England conversation.

2025-07-09 18:07:26 GMT

When a cat is involved in New Hampshire, tempers can explode. https://reason.com/volokh/2025/07/09/court-upholds-anti-stalking-injunction-stemming-from-public-pressure-campaign-over-allegedly-wrongly-withheld-cat/
#NewHampshire #cats

2025-07-09 17:01:43 GMT

The NH legislature passed a bill to tighten the grip of the Demopublican Party. Governor Ayotte, in a rare show of integrity, vetoed it.
https://www.bostonglobe.com/2025/07/09/metro/partisan-school-board-elections-veto-ayotte/

2025-07-09 10:23:15 GMT

Provincetown prosecutes people for constitutionally protected speech, while a violent assault barely gets a mention.
https://www.boston.com/news/local-news/2025/07/08/3-facing-charges-after-allegedly-yelling-homophobic-slurs-in-provincetown/
#Massachusetts #Provincetown

2025-07-09 09:48:07 GMT

On July 22, I'll be accompanying the silent film _The General_ at the Plaistow, NH library.
https://garymcgath.com/wp/plaistow-the-general/
#silentFilm #NewHampshire

2025-07-08 10:01:29 GMT

A wild theory is spreading over the Internet that if you see em dashes, you’re seeing something generated by a computer. This method of telling robots from humans is fast, simple — and worthless.
https://garymcgath.com/wp/the-em-dash-panic/

2025-07-07 14:59:34 GMT

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I agree in defining an atheist not as someone who claims there is no god, but as someone who doesn't believe in gods. It's usually associated with claims about reality (at a minimum, that reality hasn't given us satisfactory evidence of a god's existence) but isn't itself a metaphysical claim.

2025-07-07 09:55:45 GMT

How I made my short musical documentary, "Yearning to Breathe Free." https://garymcgath.com/wp/yearning-to-breathe-free/

2025-07-05 20:59:54 GMT

_People_ claims that "America Party" is a "MAGA-friendly name." Apparently they think America stands for centralized one-man power, and freedom is un-American. #AmericaParty

2025-07-04 00:26:46 GMT

"Yearning to Breathe Free," a 10-minute history of immigration to the US in still images, with my accompaniment. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-Oa4oTTHBU
#YouTube #immigration #history

2025-07-02 12:54:24 GMT

To the headline writer, the horrible thing wasn't that they beat him up on a whim but that they called him names.
https://www.boston.com/news/local-news/2025/07/01/suspects-in-alleged-hate-crime-in-provincetown-used-homophobic-slur-during-attack-police-say/

2025-06-30 10:06:16 GMT

It's any bookstore's right to decline to sell a book if they don't like it or the author. But is it a good idea?
https://garymcgath.com/wp/when-bookstores-refuse/ #bookstores #books

2025-06-30 07:15:18 GMT

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Also, a featured review described Toot! as "anti-fascist," apparently because it blocks sites the developer didn't approve of.

2025-06-30 06:59:04 GMT

Just deleted Toot! from my iPad after noticing it hadn't been updated in 2 years. I hadn't used it much in a long time anyway.

2025-06-28 11:34:20 GMT

Came upon this article on anti-immigrant activism by the KKK in the 1920s. It's scary how similar their propaganda was to anti-immigrant propaganda of today.
https://blog.history.in.gov/tag/1924-immigration-act/
#KKK #immigration

2025-06-27 09:54:49 GMT

Last month the anti-immigrant organization Judicial Watch sent out a phony census designed to look like an official document. Yesterday I got mail complaining that I didn't respond to it. Poor babies.
https://garymcgath.com/wp/judicial-watch-ignored-census/

2025-06-26 10:10:44 GMT

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I doubt that he'll be any more successful there than he is in Russia-Ukraine.

2025-06-26 10:08:46 GMT

The writers' organization Codex has expelled a member for unspecified code of conduct violations relating to his work for the government. A lot is strange and unclear. https://garymcgath.com/wp/code-of-conduct-issue/

2025-06-24 10:14:03 GMT

Sorry if you slept through the Era of Peace.
https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2025-06-24/israeli-defence-minister-orders-attacks-on-iran-after-ceasefire-violation

2025-06-23 10:33:52 GMT

The Moon journey in the 1929 film _Frau im Mond_ has some impressive science, along with a few silly bits. In today's blog post, I discuss the sequence in detail.
https://garymcgath.com/wp/fritz-lang-woman-in-the-moon/

2025-06-22 11:43:01 GMT

My impression is that there are Mastodon instances that are still going strong, and probably some close-knit subnetworks of instances are too, but Mastodon as a social network has little life remaining in it.

2025-06-22 10:46:19 GMT

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My favorite Liszt piece.

2025-06-21 13:38:29 GMT

New on YouTube: The moon journey sequence from the 1929 silent film _Frau im Mond_ (Woman in the Moon), with my accompaniment. Countdown, G-force stress, weightlessness, multi-stage rocket, retro-rocket landing, all 40 years before Apollo 11.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVSXSEGXV2c
#silentFilm #Stummfilm

2025-06-19 19:02:58 GMT

"Juneteenth" is very much worth celebrating, but it deserves a better name, like Emancipation Day. https://garymcgath.com/wp/call-it-emancipation-day/
#Juneteenth

2025-06-16 10:05:23 GMT

J. C. Bach helped to establish that printed music is copyrightable.
https://garymcgath.com/wp/when-music-became-copyrightable/
#copyright #music