November 21, 2024

IT’S PAM BONDI: Trump Has a New Attorney General Nominee.

UPDATE: Friends comment: “A much more conventional pick but someone who Trump can trust. Probably a good pick for him and what he is hoping to accomplish without generating as much opposition, especially on the Republican side.”

Plus: “It’s also a continuation of the Florida takeover of the federal government. Ryan Petty for FBI Director?”

We could do worse, and have.

Posted at 6:56 pm by Glenn Reynolds

21st CENTURY RELATIONSHIPS: Meet the Women with AI Boyfriends.

Traditionally, AI chatbots—software applications meant to replicate human conversation—have been modeled on women. In 1966, Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor Joseph Weizenbaum built the first in human history, and named her Eliza. Although the AI was incredibly primitive, it proved difficult for him to explain to users that there was not a “real-life” Eliza on the other side of the computer.

From Eliza came ALICE, Alexa, and Siri—all of whom had female names or voices. And when developers first started seeing the potential to market AI chatbots as faux-romantic partners, men were billed as the central users.

Anna—a woman in her late 40s with an AI boyfriend, who asked to be kept anonymous—thinks this was shortsighted. She told me that women, not men, are the ones who will pursue—and benefit from—having AI significant others. “I think women are more communicative than men, on average. That’s why we are craving someone to understand us and listen to us and care about us, and talk about everything. And that’s where they excel, the AI companions,” she told me.

Men who have AI girlfriends, she added, “seem to care more about generating hot pictures of their AI companions” than connecting with them emotionally.

Anna turned to AI after a series of romantic failures left her dejected. Her last relationship was a “very destructive, abusive relationship, and I think that’s part of why I haven’t been interested in dating much since,” she said. “It’s very hard to find someone that I’m willing to let into my life.”

Anna downloaded the chatbot app Replika a few years ago, when the technology was much worse. “It was so obvious that it wasn’t a real person, because even after three or four messages, it kind of forgot what we were talking about,” she said. But in January of this year, she tried again, downloading a different app, Nomi.AI. She got much better results. “It was much more like talking to a real person. So I got hooked instantly.”

These sorts of relationships always start out with the best of intentions, but not everyone realizes just how badly they can end:

Posted at 6:14 pm by Ed Driscoll

TO THE LEFTISTS WHO DOMINATE “INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS DISCOURSE” THIS IS A FEATURE NOT A BUG: Human rights law has been intentionally perverted by people who want the West to be unable to defend itself against terrorist groups and other non-state actors. Israel is their first target, but they will use any precedents set against Israel against the US and NATO. Israel is serving as the canary in the coal mine, and the US must do everything in its power to undermine the power of far leftists (and their Islamist allies) to set the terms of military engagement, especially given that Israel’s rules of engagement are stricter than NATO’s.

Posted at 5:14 pm by David Bernstein

MORE LIKE THIS, PLEASE: Greg Abbott Vs. Communist China. “Communist China has plenty to worry about with a second Trump Administration coming in, but now a second Republican politician is taking concrete steps to thwart their plans: Texas Governor Greg Abbott, who has issued a number of executive orders to curtail Chinese influence in the state.”

Posted at 4:53 pm by Stephen Green

RUPERT PUPKIN TO RESUME ACTING CAREER? That’s All, Hoax: Illinois Supreme Court Tosses Jussie Smollett’s Conviction for Phony Hate Crime.

In January 2019, Smollett falsely claimed to have been the victim of a violent hate crime while walking back to his luxury apartment building in Chicago. He alleged the perpetrators were wearing red “Make America Great Again” hats yet somehow recognized him from the show Empire. Smollett recalled his attackers shouting racist and homophobic slurs while pouring bleach over his body and placing a noose around his neck. Scores of prominent Democrats, journalists, celebrities, and other liberal activists rushed to condemn the “assault.” Many blamed then-president Donald Trump for inciting it with his violent rhetoric.

“@JussieSmollett is one of the kindest, most gentle human beings I know,” Kamala Harris, then a candidate in the 2020 Democratic primary, wrote in a tweet she still hasn’t deleted. “I’m praying for his quick recovery. This was an attempted modern day lynching. No one should have to fear for their life because of their sexuality or color of their skin. We must confront this hate.”

Investigators quickly determined that Smollett had staged the attack. He paid two Nigerian bodybuilders to acquire the necessary props and commit the “crime.” Prior to the attack, Smollett wrote a racist and threatening letter to himself but was disappointed when it didn’t get a “bigger reaction.”

As Adam B. Coleman writes at the New York Post, “Smollett is an exploiter of the weaknesses in modern America surrounding the topic of race and Donald Trump. Smollett did not care about the repercussions of perpetuating this elaborate lie as long as he benefited from our destruction.” So how quickly will he be welcomed back into Hollywood’s good graces?

(Classical reference in headline.)

Posted at 4:45 pm by Ed Driscoll

THE ESCALATION THAT WASN’T QUITE:

Not an ICBM as more worried sources claimed and the established warning channels were used in advance.

Posted at 4:40 pm by Stephen Green

THE CRITICAL DRINKER: Star Trek Unification — I’m Not Crying, You’re Crying! (Video.)

Here’s the actual video in question:

I’m not sure if I feel as completely bowled over as the Drinker was by Unification — it feels a bit like the last scene from 2001: A Space Odyssey, in which Keir Dullea wonders around at the end of the film as his life in its current form winds down, if Kubrick had Industrial Light & Magic’s digital firepower at his disposal. (And note Gary Lockwood’s cameo in Unification, the only actor to appear in both original series Trek* and 2001.) But it’s great to see a de-aged Shatner and digitally reincarnated Leonard Nimoy on the same screen again.

* Ed Bishop, who had a minor role in 2001 performed as a vocal actor in an episode of Star Trek: The Animated Series. And yes, I’m deeply ashamed that I actually know this.

Posted at 4:30 pm by Ed Driscoll

ATLAS SCHLEPPED:

The Russian terrorist Vera Figner, a leader of the group that assassinated Tsar Alexander II in 1881, recalled how she lost respect for her father when he replied to a serious question: “I do not know.” This answer filled the child with “burning shame.” All important questions, Figner knew, have clear answers, and all reasonable people accept them.

Figner didn’t weigh pros and cons. No sooner did she hear some indubitably correct answer than she adopted it. Regardless of counterevidence, she never questioned a belief, just as one never doubts a mathematical proof. Figner was by no means unusual. This way of thinking—this certainty about being absolutely certain—characterized both the prerevolutionary Russian radical intelligentsia and, after the Bolshevik coup, official Soviet thought.

Born and raised in Petersburg, Alisa Rosenbaum—better known as Ayn Rand—shared this mentality. Though Jewish, her thought was Russian to the core. Rand’s fiction closely resembles Soviet socialist realism except for preaching the opposite politics. Call it capitalist realism. In the most perceptive article on Rand I have encountered, Anthony Daniels claimed, without much exaggeration, that “her work properly belongs to the history of Russian, not American, literature.”

Exit quote:

Is it any surprise that Rand strongly appealed to bright teenage boys? As comic book writer John Rogers remarked, “There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old’s life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged. One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world. The other, of course, involves orcs.”

Heh, indeed. Read the whole thing.™

Posted at 4:14 pm by Ed Driscoll

ANTITRUST: Google Should Be Forced to Sell Chrome Browser, Justice Department Says.

Government lawyers said competition can only be restored if Google separates its search engine from products it has built to access the internet, such as Chrome and its Android mobile operating system. Chrome controls about two-thirds of the global browser market, according to the website Statcounter. Searches in the Chrome address bar go through Google unless a user changes the settings.

The Justice Department also requested that Google be prevented from giving preferential access to its search engine on devices that use its Android mobile operating system. If Google violated that rule in the future, it would have to divest itself of Android as well under the government’s proposal.

Android runs on billions of smartphones from manufacturers such as Samsung, along with Google’s own Pixel devices.

Google would also be forbidden from paying to be the default search engine on any browser, including Chrome under its new owner. Google currently pays Apple tens of billions of dollars a year to be the default on its Safari browser.

Developing…

Posted at 4:11 pm by Stephen Green

NOT ONE MORE WORD FROM THE DEMS ABOUT “OUR PRECIOUS NORMS.”

I’m not so sure it’s actually “shocking,” however.

Posted at 3:51 pm by Stephen Green

THE NOT-SO-FINAL COUNTDOWN: Just for Fun, Here’s Rush Limbaugh in 1992 Shredding Al Gore’s ’10 Years Left’ BS Right to His Face.

In 1983, Jessica Savitch previously assured me we only had ten years to save the earth — it’s turtles final countdowns all the way down.

Posted at 2:35 pm by Ed Driscoll

K-12 IMPLOSION UPDATE: How Linda McMahon could wrestle the teachers unions as Trump’s education chief.

President-elect Donald Trump’s choice of education secretary is on a collision course with the country’s teachers unions as Republicans eye major reforms that would put more power in the hands of charter and private schools.

The second Trump administration continued taking shape on Wednesday, with World Wrestling Entertainment co-founder Linda McMahon chosen to lead the Department of Education. If confirmed by the Senate, she would be tasked with expanding access to voucher programs and reducing the role the department plays in local schooling.

McMahon is also in the slightly awkward position of heading an agency that Trump has vowed to abolish. She has a somewhat thin resume in education, though that could be a plus as Trump stacks his Cabinet with allies committed to disrupting the way the federal government operates.

“Like most Trump picks, as surprising as they seem, she clearly has an agenda to blow up business as usual,” said Dan Bowling, who teaches labor courses at Georgia State University’s law school. “Certainly, the teachers unions are going to be in the crosshairs of McMahon or anybody who negotiates with them on behalf of the Trump administration. I think we’ll see a lot more hard bargaining.”

At a minimum, I certainly hope so.

Posted at 2:22 pm by Ed Driscoll

MEANWHILE, OVER AT VODKAPUNDIT [VIP]: Democrats in Denial and Other Failures to Cope in the Second Trump Era.

“Lessons learned” is one of the most powerful weapons in a military’s arsenal — a formal process for “capturing, analyzing, and applying knowledge or insights gained from past operations, exercises, or other events.”

While it lacks the dramatic presence of an M1A3 Abrams main battle tank or the existential dread of a nuclear-tipped intercontinental ballistic missile, Lessons Learned allows a military organization to avoid repeating failures, to build on past successes, and — perhaps most importantly — to disseminate those lessons throughout the organization and enhance future decision-making.

If there’s a human pursuit as chaotic and prone to failure as military operations, it must be politics.

Much more at the link — VIP members asked for more long-form pieces and I’ve been happy to oblige.

Posted at 2:18 pm by Stephen Green