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September 1, 2025
Sunrise — 5:54, 6:24.
(And please support the Althouse blog by doing your Amazon shopping going in through the Althouse Amazon link.)
Posts
154 comments:
In 2025, Gavin Newsom’s 10-year plan to end homelessness in San Francisco will mark its 22-year anniversary.
Just vote “HELL NO!” on Gavymandering, Calunicornians!
It's been a good couple of weeks for discovering new music, with new albums by Molly Tuttle, Kathleen Edwards and The Beths dropping. However, one of my favorite songs I found was actually from an EP that Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway did in 2024 titled 'Into the Wild.' It's a cover of a song by the late Kate Wolf, "Here In California." I also went and listened to some of Kate Wolf's music as well.
https://youtu.be/eUhQA8IIiVU?si=LE20b-hxLEefMaO5
Jeff Childers at Coffee and Covid 2025 today opines on several different items today, pointing out what the MSM won't. Most important- IMHO - is the reckoning he sees coming for the people involved in covidiocy decisions that were wrong. Maybe, just possibly, one of the decision from the public health agencies during the covidiocy was correct. And Trump- responsible for Warp Speed, the development of the useless mRNA shots, has set it up so that it reveal if he were lied to by Pfizer- and Fauci- and others involved. Trusted advisors and major pharms lying to POTUS- not a good look for bureaucracy or industry.
https://www.coffeeandcovid.com/p/pharmapocalypse-monday-september
OK, at first I was skeptical about "computational narratology" but I have been talking with AI about it, and every once and a while it comes up with something, for instance, it explained to me the narratological basis of the final episode of Seinfeld. It didn't have to end that way, it didn't follow standard sitcom conventions, but it did follow literary ones. For instance Don Quixote, written by Cervantes as one comic episode after another, where the hero is humiliated in one comic adventure after another, never learning anything, it is a novel about nothing, until the final episode, when Don Quixote realizes the truth, that he has been delusional, wrong, a fool, on his deathbed. Well, according to AI, you can look at the final episode of Seinfeld as a deathbed realization, when the characters are put on trial, they are made to realize what awful people they really are, that really, the joke's been on them all along.
Of course you can simply reject this. I doubt that Larry David was thinking about Don Quixote when he wrote Seinfeld, but it wouldn't surprise me if he were guided by the same feelings about how his story should end as Cervantes.
“As President of the United States of America, I am pleased to announce that Rudy Giuliani, the greatest Mayor in the history of New York City, and an equally great American Patriot, will receive THE PRESIDENTIAL MEDAL OF FREEDOM, our Country’s highest civilian honor. Details as to time and place to follow. Thank you for your attention to this matter. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!!!” Trump said on Truth Social.
Clyde that’s beautiful. Thank you
Do you think the people who keep posting wall-of-text copy-pasta again and again lack self-awareness, or are they aware of how rhetorically ineffective both their actions and personae are but nevertheless persist? If the latter, why? OCD? Humiliation kink? Paid for inept shilling?
I also found out that Alison Krauss and Union Station had a new album in March, which I listened to on Sunday. This was a rather haunting song, "Richmond On The James." Alison's voice is clear and pure as always.
https://youtu.be/UgxpNRiSZDU?si=hZwJJ8j7yHMvZK4Y
the development of the useless mRNA shots,
I am open to the possibility that the first vaccines - or "vaccines," since they never did behave like traditional vaccines in preventing infection or transmission - did their most important job well, in keeping vulnerable people from dying.
Hang on, hang on! There's a "however."
However - it is also possible that by the time the mRNA therapies were deployed widely, the virus had already mutated and was in the process of becoming the basically nonlethal Omicron form (I know that there was a transitional form in there that was still pretty dangerous to vulnerable people). And it is also possible that by the time the vaccines were widely available, so many people had already had COVID, with or without symptoms, but resulting in their own immunity, that we don't really know how effective the vaccines were. And finally, it is also possible that the original vaccines did their job but came with too high a risk profile, which could have meant that we would have foregone them if we had known (and, in some people's cases, were given the choice).
Basically I want to see the testing results. Not only will that revelation help us understand whether you even CAN "warp speed" vaccine or drug development without more risk than we are prepared to tolerate, but we'll also know what pharmaceuticals are willing to do.
saw this on "X"
https://x.com/GeneralMCNews/status/1962542344483295513
BREAKING: Puerto Ricans are rising up with demands for full separation from the United States, saying they’ve had enough of colonialism.
comments?
gilbar said...
saw this on "X"
...
BREAKING: Puerto Ricans are rising up with demands for full separation from the United States, saying they’ve had enough of colonialism.
I saw it too- many versions of it. My thoughts? Every time they've voted- they've voted to maintain their commonwealth status. Let 'em vote again. The question after that will be- will those on the island who were born there maintain their US citizenship? That will be fought over in courts for decades.
Gilbar.
Yeah. Why not? Knock yourselves out.
"comments?"
Works for me.
Grok is not "a source". It makes shit up.
“Do you think the people who keep posting wall-of-text copy-pasta again and again lack self-awareness, or are they aware of how rhetorically ineffective both their actions and personae are but nevertheless persist? If the latter, why? OCD? Humiliation kink? Paid for inept shilling?”
There are a few reasons for this.
1. It’s done to provide information that some here woefully lack. The source of the info is chosen from a source (Grok) that cannot be accused of being from a partisan source.
2. It annoys people who have posted erroneous info and have now been proven wrong.
3. It frustrates those who would never accept a mere opinion from a person on the left and that in itself gives a modicum of satisfaction.
4. It’s identifies the people who really don’t want answers and only want to argue.
If you challenge a commenter to provide proof of their assertion or argument and that person does exactly that and thereby proves the challenger wrong and then the challenger gets annoyed because they’ve been proven wrong, well that makes it especially satisfying.
Well, OM, y’all liked AI until it proved you wrong. aI is very much a source of massive amounts of information at one’s fingertips in a matter of seconds. If Grok makes some things up one can keep pressing it, as Althouse does and posts here.
It annoys people who have posted erroneous info and have now been proven wrong.
Cutting and pasting garbage in/garbage out isn't proving jackshit.
Well, OM, y’all liked AI until it proved you wrong.
Oh, bullshit.
I cannot begin to count the number of commenters who've called out the AI (in its various forms) as highly questionable and easily manipulated.
Anyone who relies on it as some sort of proof is opening themselves to mockery.
"Well, OM, y’all liked AI until it proved you wrong."
What? I've never liked AI, I don't use it, and I have no idea what's been "proven wrong".
Interesting philosophic question how you can prove anything with an hallucinating source. You can just "press it" until you get the answer you want.
Cutting and pasting garbage in/garbage out isn't proving jackshit. So now Grok provides “garbage”.
You dismiss everything and all statistics and facts it provides out of hand? No intellectual curiosity? No wonder you always sound like an angry ignoramus.
“Interesting philosophic question how you can prove anything with an hallucinating source. You can just "press it" until you get the answer you want.”
Statistics it provides can be checked against multiple sources.
Grok teases:
"Inga and Ritmo's flirtation begins as playful teasing amid the discussion and escalates into romantic, suggestive scenarios, including references to age differences, physical attraction, and intimate imagery. This exchange spans several hours, starting around 5 PM and continuing into the evening."
Yeah, I'm sure you're checking stats all day long.
I think it’s fine to quote Grok. Grok will give you sources and you can always check the info with another AI.
You can check the stats Inga quotes with another AI or go to the source material.
And if you feel a comment is too long or wordy scroll away.
Inga, sometimes Grok gets something completely wrong - it’s been wrong on some local things but I think that was because there were too few sources and they weren’t 100% correct.
"And if you feel a comment is too long or wordy scroll away."
I do.
Eva Marie…
I agree Grok or any other AI info source can make mistakes. It’s up to the person to look further at other sources if something seems erroneous.
It’s interesting how Grok used to be so well thought of here when some people thought it was a right wing biased.
Full Moon, lol, ok that’s pretty funny.
Perplexity seems to be a little to the left of Grok but it formats the info into tables. So it can be very useful.
"It’s interesting how Grok used to be so well thought of here when some people thought it was a right wing biased."
Kinda like our anonymous sources are always legit and above board, while the other sides sources..not so much.
Judges ruling for us re legit. Those against us, retards.
Thanks for that.. Jaq @8:18
I appreciate that, as a devoted Seinfeld TV Show fan.
"Full Moon, lol, ok that’s pretty funny."
And then progresses to "sultry".
Ima leave it alone now..
It's not just Grok, it's all AI.
Instead of researching stuff yourself, you farm out the work, even knowing how the algorithms work.
It reminds me of the guy looking under the light post for his keys. He didn't lose them there, but it's easier.
Grok can give you all the sources and then you can check each source if you want.
"Grok can give you all the sources and then you can check each source if you want."
Yep, and then you gotta trust the "source" information to be correct.
OM, there is the problem of right wing commenters here accusing any and all sources as being leftist. If one links to any publication or source not distinctively rightist it’s immediately dismissed. So any source AI or other publications that provide info and prove people wrong are accused of some sort of bias or “hallucinating”.
As I said I look to it for statistics, which can be checked against other sources. It’s dumb and lazy to just dismiss things out of hand and not put in the work. I’ve linked to many sources from all sorts of sites before I ever considered linking to an AI site.
I'm reading Woody Allen had some nice things to say about Trump, the cameo actor on set.
YouTube: I'm working on buying St. Patrick's Cathedral. Maybe doing a little rip down job and putting up a very very tall beautiful building
Maybe the White House Ballroom is in that vain?
"As I said I look to it for statistics, which can be checked against other sources."
Then what does AI provide?
“Grok can give you all the sources and then you can check each source if you want.”
Eva Marie, they’ve dismissed Grok, they dismiss other AI sites, they dismiss anything that goes against the narrative they have in their heads. It’s actually getting scary to think of how anti intellectual some people prefer to be.
"they dismiss anything that goes against the narrative they have in their heads."
And you don't?
“Then what does AI provide?”
Are you serious? Have you ever used any AI sites at all?
"Have you ever used any AI sites at all?"
Not much. I don't think they provide me anything I can't get through conventional research and I abhor the huge amounts of energy they consume.
It’s actually getting scary to think of how anti intellectual some people prefer to be.
Oh, spare me.
This latest AI crap you're posting is no different than anything you've done in the past because you're incapable of coming up with an original thought to add to the debate.
In the past, you'd cut-and-paste stuff written by other people. Now, you're cutting-and-pasting stuff pumped out by AI. And it's only because it fits your narrative.
Come up with your own thoughts. Present them for others to debate. Quit cutting-and-pasting crap from questionable sources who's only redeeming quality is them agreeing with you.
In other words, stop being so lazy. Use your own brain.
As a general rule, you should only accept vaccination against DNA-based viruses and eschew those against RNA-based ones unless you are just in ill health- and even then, you should accept vaccination only if the mortality risk is over 1%.
I didn't take the COVID m-RNA vaccines for three reasons- (1) it was obvious by April 2020 that I was at a near zero risk of dying from COVID; (2) I already knew that the vaccines would quickly become ineffective due to COVID's rapid mutation rate which was already obviously in effect by the Winter of 2020/2021; (3) there were no true safety trials conducted before they rolled them out- surveillance for a few months isn't a safety trial.
I wrote over 4 years ago that the safety profile of these vaccines wouldn't be known for at least 5 years and would require an all-cause mortality analysis of all vaccinations cohorts by age and numbers of doses. This is ideally done by double-blind studies against placebos but we fucked those studies by vaccinating the placebo arms almost immediately. It could still be analyzed by matching vaccination records with death certificates over the last 4 years but no one seems to want to release the records necessary to do this right. It will get done one day as long as the vaccination records don't end up in burn bags and incinerators.
Once more. You can significantly improve the quality of responses you get from LLMs by learning how to prompt the AI well. Give it context, specify the type of output you want, tell it to give you arguments for and against. Try it with ver. 5 of ChatGPT and you will be floored by the response if you give it a serious question. Grok is quite useful as well, in its own way
“Come up with your own thoughts.”
You really are an ignoramus. When one is posting statistics one does not just pull them from their brains as if they are AI. Do you walk around with statistics from 30, 40, 50, years ago in your brain? What I posted from Grok today were not Grok’s opinions, they were statistics that an AI source can provide in a matter of seconds.
Yep, and then you gotta trust the "source" information to be correct.
Exactly.
Case in point ... there was a rumor several weeks ago that Excalibur and The Luxor in Las Vegas were being demolished and a new super-casino was being built in their places.
The source people were citing? All the AI sites ... because somebody - as an April Fool's joke - posting the original 'news', and spread it like wildfire until the AI bots got ahold of it and then it became official.
There are uses for AI, but as some sort of unbiased political source? Not a chance.
@Jim at: You can still do your own research and use AI. But you will save on time.
“There are uses for AI, but as some sort of unbiased political source? Not a chance.”
The statistics I posted from Grok today were not to make a political point. Much of it was to push back against gross ignorance regarding measles.
"No Honey, that your finger do like that."
Grok, what do you think of someone that constantly copies and pastes responses to AI in blog comments?
Someone who constantly copies and pastes responses to AI in blog comments is likely trying to game the system—either to boost engagement, spam, or push a narrative without much effort. It’s lazy and undermines genuine discussion, as it drowns out original thoughts and clogs up comment sections with repetitive noise. If they’re doing it to manipulate algorithms or promote something, it’s a cheap tactic that rarely adds value. On the flip side, they might just be experimenting with AI or lack the confidence to write their own responses. Either way, it’s a bit like bringing a robot to a human conversation—disruptive and kind of misses the point.
Grok what do you think about people who dismiss AI altogether?
People who dismiss AI outright are often reacting from fear, skepticism, or a lack of understanding, and they’re missing out on a tool that’s flawed but powerful. They might point to AI’s hiccups—like hallucinations, where I could spit out something off-kilter because my training data’s messy or the prompt’s unclear. Fair enough; it happens. But tossing AI aside entirely is like swearing off cars because they sometimes break down. It’s not about perfection; it’s about utility and progress.
Their dismissal usually stems from a few angles: worry about job displacement, distrust of tech’s rapid pace, or just clinging to human exceptionalism. Thing is, humans aren’t exactly hallucination-free—think biases, bad memories, or straight-up stubbornness. AI’s errors are just more visible and easier to debug. Writing off AI feels like rejecting a chance to amplify human potential, like saying no to a calculator because it’s not your brain. It’s less about AI’s limits and more about their resistance to change.
Grok I was just accused of dismissing AI altogether because of the previous question I asked you. What do you think?
Sounds like a misunderstanding. Your question about people copy-pasting AI responses in blog comments doesn’t scream “I hate AI.” It’s more like you’re pointing out a specific behavior—spamming repetitive, low-effort content—that cheapens online discussion. That’s a fair critique, not a blanket dismissal of AI. People can misuse any tool, and you’re just calling out one way it’s happening. If anything, it shows you’re thinking about how AI fits into human spaces, not rejecting it outright. Maybe clarify your stance to whoever accused you, but it seems like they jumped the gun.
“Grok I was just accused of dismissing AI altogether because of the previous question I asked you. What do you think?”
But that’s untrue. You lied to Grok. I was actually thinking of Original Mike. Not everything is about you.
9/1/25, 11:05 PM is simply making my point.
Read a romance novel. At least it's not pretending to be factual.
If you didn't want me to think it was a response to my comment, maybe you shouldn't have written it in the same format as my comment.
You can still do your own research and use AI. But you will save on time.
The few times I've used AI (or at least looked at the auto-generated response at the top of search results), I've checked out the sources to question the boilerplate response.
Some of it was accurate. Some of it was not. A LOT of it lacked context.
I would never, ever use it to make an argument or prove a point.
“Read a romance novel.” Anything written within the last 5 years has most probably written with the assistance of AI
In fact AI has been used to check and help rewrite probably 95% at a minimum of everything now published. (That’s my opinion not checked by Grok)
Last point:
A couple months ago, a black, female athlete tweeted some bullshit about trans athletes competing in female sports.
I simply entered into a search "X sucks" in anticipation of finding a Reddit thread - or some other board - where there would be opinions about this person's statements.
The auto-generated AI response to the search accused me of being a racist, a misogynist and went on and on and on about all the GREAT things about this athlete. Basically, it was a lecture and I needed to go fuck myself.
Now, there's a good chance I do need to do just that. But is that really an objective opinion you want to use as source material?
AI is only as accurate as the people who've programmed the algos to produce the desired results.
Inga said...
Grok what do you think about people who dismiss AI altogether?
AI/LLM's will generate whatever you want them to generate. They will produce whatever you want them to. People shouldn't dismiss what Grok or Chat GPT puts out. It just speeds up the sorting process.
They should dismiss you.
You are stupid and dishonest. You have lied so many times and you haven't apologized once for being a total piece of shit.
Until you apologize for being wrong about the Russian Collusion hoax or about pushing the J6 protesters killing Brian Sicknick nobody should treat you like an honest person.
You are a disgusting dishonest liar who just uses AI to make you a better liar is all.
@Jim. Sounds like you are using it as though it was the old Google. It's not. Even Google isn't the old Google.
Eva Marie said...
In fact AI has been used to check and help rewrite probably 95% at a minimum of everything now published. (That’s my opinion not checked by Grok)
These LLMs and generated AI agents just make it easier to achieve confirmation bias.
A dishonest liar is just going to be able to lie faster now and with fewer misspellings and grammatical errors. They still don't really generate insight or predictive capability.
They’re generating plots. Authors admit to that.
Sounds like you are using it as though it was the old Google. It's not. Even Google isn't the old Google.
That's close. I still use the search to get to where I need. The AI snippet is autofill at the top, and I treat it accordingly.
I'm actually using it as a source of entertainment.
Much like when Alexa screws up when I'm requesting a specific LP or song on the Echo.
Just how many insults will she take before the red light glows on the base?
In a new interview with The Times, Forrest Gump star Robin Wright, who played Jenny Curran, Forrest's love interest and mother of Forrest Jr., has fled the U.S., proclaiming that “America is a shitshow.”
As Forrest famously said to Jenny:
"Sometimes, I guess there are just not enough rocks."
Why don't YOU leave America Gadfly, since you hate it as much as Hollyweirdo's do. Do you think we care that a woman who married that creep Sean Penn hates America, because we don't, and are glad she left. Good riddance.
I learned to be very skeptical using AI for facts when it injected the “assigned at birth” phrase wrt to a person’s gender. When I replied that that’s not accurate biologically, it claimed that the phrase was respectful. Proved my point. It was pure woke BS.
STILL here the hummingbirds are…draining the feeders. Nice enough to spend the evening on the screened porch. Many shore birds and the ospreys around…
City of Boston in the usual election quandary- who gets the benefit of the cheat when everyone’s part of the same political party? Of course no guarantee of any of it functioning as most of the city election positions are patronage hires and no shows. Last go round they forgot to stock ballots. This time there’s way more ‘poll pads’ for electronic check in to speed things up. Riiiiggght- because electronic things always speed things up…
A good rule of thumb about posting AI material would be to post which AI and post the prompt verbatim. So the supposed convenient political verbiage can be duplicated and verified.
Just a suggestion to avoid unproductive interactions designed to get bogged down.
Wendybar: We are all entitled to our opinions. at least for now, as long as we have white skin, and your view of the world is just as biased as mine, but I am not attacking your opinion. I reported news about a good actress who moved to the UK, and you hissed and spat like a feral cat.
I don't know anything about the creepiness of Wright and Penn, but I looked up Wiki, which said they are divorced. It must be great to rub shoulders with the rich and famous whom you appear to know personally. Do you know Tom Hanks as well?
I’d be curious to know what the neighbors think of the American celebs moving in next door. Do they get star struck or are they grumbly about the wankers from America? I get amused at how some british celebs are always attracted to New York and Los Angeles, or the pretty ones Miami.. Do they even know what flyover country is?
It brings a smile to my face to read rich Hollywood celebs are fleeing the country. The more the better! Off to Europe they go. Hopefully they watch the news to see their utopia is being smothered by immigrants.
Cut and Paste can be lucrative...
https://www.wired.com/story/dark-money-group-secret-funding-democrat-influencers/
https://www.usermag.co/p/inside-the-democrats-struggle-to-win-over-content-creators-dnc-influencer-strategy-chorus
It is a virtue of the statute that the Attorney General may act, as she did in this case, before a potential catastrophe occurs, to deter further fraudulent business behavior by defendants specifically, and to police market behavior generally.
So the appeals court says that even though the fine was excessive, the only genuine harm that I can see comes from the possibility that somebody *might* be harmed in the future by Trump's business practices, which were the same as other major real estate developers, BTW, although testimony to that fact was not allowed in the trial.
It brings a smile to my face to read rich Hollywood celebs are fleeing the country
…leftie celebs are easily frightened. But they’ll be back…and in greater numbers.
IN A PRIVATE group chat in June, dozens of Democratic political influencers discussed whether to take advantage of an enticing opportunity. They were being offered $8,000 per month to take part in a secretive program aimed at bolstering Democratic messaging on the internet.
But the contract sent to them from Chorus, the nonprofit arm of a liberal influencer marketing platform, came with some strings. Among other issues, it mandated extensive secrecy about disclosing their payments and had restrictions on what sort of political content the creators could produce. - From the link above.
Who has $8,000 a month to pay people to post content if that content is not intended to enhance their own personal power, which can then be converted into even greater wealth?
Just saw Neal Katayl on CNBC; lawyer with rabid TDS.
He’s got a tariff case and he’s so confident he will win. Bessent said the other day that the national debt is an emergency and we are close to the tipping point of disaster. What judge would deny POTUS powers to deal with that?
What judge would deny POTUS powers to deal with that?
Hawaiian or Hawaiian-adjacent…
Weather you agree with him or not, I truly appreciate how Trump has opened up more of the inner workings of the sausage factory for everyone to see. He's the most impolitic politician to ever be elected to high office. By throwing out the playbook, he has exposed the shallow weaknesses of the DNC causing them to be constantly reacting to him rather than promoting themselves.
I’ve caught Grok in so many mistakes it’s ridiculous. The problem is that Grok only knows what the internet tells it. Internet wrong = Grok wrong.
So Crown Royal is moving to USA to keep selling to its customers, because the socialist idiots in charge of Hoserland forbid exports to us in protest of Trump's tariffs.
I told you businesses would do a lot to keep their income flowing and this is a great example. There aren't enough Canadian customers to keep large Canadian businesses in the black. It was easily foreseeable. But Canada want ed to keep its 400% tariff on dairy in place so...
Sucks to be canuck.
gadfly said...
In a new interview with The Times, Forrest Gump star Robin Wright, who played Jenny Curran, Forrest's love interest and mother of Forrest Jr., has fled the U.S., proclaiming that “America is a shitshow.”
As Forrest famously said to Jenny:
"Sometimes, I guess there are just not enough rocks."
Good. Another worthless skunk leaves.
Botfly; “ I don't know anything”
Yet you continue to opine on subjects you don’t know.
Howard said...
Weather you agree with him or not, I truly appreciate how Trump has opened up more of the inner workings of the sausage factory for everyone to see. He's the most impolitic politician to ever be elected to high office. By throwing out the playbook, he has exposed the shallow weaknesses of the DNC causing them to be constantly reacting to him rather than promoting themselves.
He has done great things and it must be said that he has done more than any other person in modern history to fight Leviathan.
But he is on a timer. NATO is going to break up, Europe is going to implode, and we will have a sovereign debt crisis.
All of these things are inevitable.
He needs to be out in front of them or else they can be used to create the crisis the left needs.
Just watched Rashida Tlaib speaking to a wildly cheering audience saying “we” are everywhere and are not going anywhere. Dropping F-bombs along the way.
Who is “we”? Her Muslim brethren? Asking for a friend.
LOL:
Jim at said...
It annoys people who have posted erroneous info and have now been proven wrong.
Cutting and pasting garbage in/garbage out isn't proving jackshit.
Jim's truth bomb deserves wider distribution and bolding. Using a dumb machine trained on internet lies to prove "Truth" or "fact" is perhaps the dumbest appeal to authority in the history of rhetorical falsehoods. That certain mind-numbingly stupid people continue to do so is just rude.
Althouse created a place for humans to discuss topics and machine language is just pollution at this volume. That is, using a FACT that AI can locate in order to add value to your comment is admirable, like using pepper to season meat. But using huge walls of machine-generated text is serving us the pepper and withholding the steak. I want to KNOW your thoughts, fellow commenters, not your ability to create AI text. I skip giant blocks. And I generally skip those people. So even if you despise us and want to bury us in AI bullshit, try to have some respect for the actual back and forth that brings people here.
Frankly, there's many days I just stay the hell away because it's just repetitive bullshit no better than bot posting.
Bullshit line of the day (so far):
"It’s interesting how Grok used to be so well thought of here when some people thought it was a right wing biased."
There is zero evidence of this. I sometimes do use AI but only to identify the original reporting and check the source for myself. Part of being a trusted debate opponent is citing your sources. Not every post needs one, but then I am among the fact-based and reality-acknowledging right. NOT the fact-averse and emotionally driven left.
Photos fit for summer’s end, a dead calm.
@chuck— thank you for the recs, I’m taking notes.
@wendybar & gadfly— there’s better than a 50-50 chance that Britain overwhelmingly elects Nigel Farage and he lets the deportations rip. Anyhoo, if robin Wright thinks America is a sh8t show she hasn’t been doing her due diligence on Britain’s current convulsions.
Sounds like Michael Crichton’s observation on the Dunning-Kruger effect as related to news stories applies to AI as well.
Nicely done NT Dave:
Your question about people copy-pasting AI responses in blog comments doesn’t scream “I hate AI.” It’s more like you’re pointing out a specific behavior— spamming repetitive, low-effort content—that cheapens online discussion.
That's the meat and the spice!
Low effort content has low appeal to actual people.
I’d be happier if Rashida Tlaib just shaved her mustache.
Caroline said...
Photos fit for summer’s end, a dead calm.
@chuck— thank you for the recs, I’m taking notes.
@wendybar & gadfly— there’s better than a 50-50 chance that Britain overwhelmingly elects Nigel Farage and he lets the deportations rip. Anyhoo, if robin Wright thinks America is a sh8t show she hasn’t been doing her due diligence on Britain’s current convulsions.
You are too optimistic about Britain. Labour has enough seats to hold on for the full 5 years I believe.
I don't think they will Allow elections to happen before 2029 without being forced to by an actual insurrection.
I am not sure if the British people have it in them.
Robin Wright... Was she one of the celebs, like Madonna, who started putting on a British accent to make some kind of point? She was so lovely in The Princess Bride.
One wonders whether Rosie O'Donnel is all "feckin' this and feckin' that" now that she's in the auld country.
Missed an "l" there in Rosie's name - sorry!
AI is like what Mark Twain said free speech, it's like steak, you don't ban it just because a baby can't chew it.
If you ask AI a question, it will give summarize the received wisdom for you. That's not the same thing as analyzing all of the information, and coming to a correct answer. If you think it does that, you shouldn't be using it.
I will start to actually worry about it when it shows the signs of being able to do spatial reasoning. Go ahead and ask it about something technical, then accept its offer to do a diagram, if you want a laugh. I saw a drawing of a boat mooring on Pinterest that looked like it had been drawn by a human, except that if you hooked up your mooring the way it showed, your boat would likely break free in the first strong storm, a dead giveaway that it was drawn by AI.
Agree with Mike on Grok. Althouse often uses Grok, but rather than just post its output, she discusses it and her thoughts about it, then links to the full text if anyone wants to read it. While Althouse has certain capabilities as the hostess; the ability to do the above is available to all of us. We can query Grok, write about whatever it tells us, and link back to its full response if others care. Simply copying and pasting Grok replies to support your own thoughts demonstrates a really shallow level of thought on your part.
As for Grok being right wing; like most LLM AI systems; Grok was an interesting new toy when it came out. People played with it, appropriately. It became a little less fun as a toy when it started highlighting Hitler. That doesn't mean it is bias, but it should make others wary of the dataset it uses to "learn". Interesting that now Inga wants to be seen using Grok. I can understand those two things are unrelated, but there is only one person here supporting copy/paste of Grok and also saying they are aware of its political bias.
Inga asks…
“Do you walk around with statistics from 30, 40, 50, years ago in your brain?”
Yes.
- Ted Williams hit .406 in 1941 is a statistic I learned about 50 years ago.
- "Four out of five dentists recommend Trident to their patients who chew gum” was a statistic commonly touted at the same time. Even with my age in the single digits, I was able to recognize the stat was based on carefully curated data by the Trident marketing team.
- “Humans only use 10% of their brains” is something I learned around that time, too. It is false, of course. As is the “Humans and chimps only differ in 1% of their DNA”.
You all say people who use AI are boring? I’ll tell you what’s more boring - people talking about not using AI. Go back to your encyclopedias and leave the rest of us alone.
"It’s interesting how Grok used to be so well thought of here when some people thought it was a right wing biased."
There is zero evidence of this.
Every response I've ever gotten from AI (grok and perplexity) to a question that has any sort of political component at all has had a left wing slant.
Jamie said...
Robin Wright... Was she one of the celebs, like Madonna
Yes, Madonna married and divorced Sean Penn too... Sean Penn was the Russell Brand of his time.
Robin was Buttercup in "The Princess Bride". I find it interesting when most people talk about the various characters from that movie; "Buttercup" is rarely mentioned. I suspect that is because she is mostly a plot device for the movie, and events happen to her rather than her being much of a character.
In "Forrest Gump", Jenny also seems to lack much agency. More so than Forrest, Jenny seems like the leaf being blown about by the wind with events happening to her rather than her having any agency to bring them about. Forrest eventually matures and is seen acting on his convictions, which is the most poignant when he is confronting Jenny about their son. Jenny seemed less an acting stretch for Robin Wright than Buttercup.
Crown Royal is not moving to the US. They will be bottling their beverages for sale in the US in the US to avoid tariffs but the production will stay in Canada as well as bottling for sale in Canada. Not sure about bottling for other markets but there might be some opportunities. I'm sure the overall business climate in the two countries had some influence as well. Still a win and predictable because nobody is going to abandon the US market for consumer goods but not quite as big a deal as some people are making it.
gadfly said...
“We are all entitled to our opinions. at least for now, as long as we have white skin…”
So tanning beds are a tool of speech suppression.
A correction I just got from Grok. All it it took was one probing question.
I apologize for the oversight. You're correct that I didn't initially mention the record high U.S. oil production under President Trump, which reached 13.58 million barrels per day in June 2025. This significant increase was a direct result of his administration's policies aimed at boosting domestic energy output, including deregulation and incentives for oil and gas companies. This surge in production has had a notable impact on global oil markets, often counteracting OPEC's efforts to influence prices through production cuts. The combination of increased U.S. production and other global factors contributed to the lower gas prices observed over the Labor Day weekend in 2025. Thank you for pointing that out, and I appreciate your attention to detail.
I love reading Eva Marie so this is a tiny quibble:
You all say people who use AI are boring?
I've seen no evidence of people saying this. What I (for example) DID say is that reading long blocks of AI-generated text is boring, and I skip it. I might even go so far as to say people who rely on AI to generate text are most likely producing boring copy.
It's really dead simple: People are interesting. AI is derivative.
While Democrats bemoan Trump cleaning up violent crime with the National Guard in DC; the UK arrests a comic for the crime of texting on X.
If I cut and paste from an encyclopedia - groans all around.
Diageo, the parent company, is implementing a cost-saving "Accelerate programme" and aims to shift some bottling volume closer to U.S. customers.
Whether you recognize it or not it is in fact a BIG DEAL that a "Canadian" whiskey is moving to bottle in the USA for the American market. Do you think the majority of sales )by volume) is in the USA or the Great Dry North? Those are jobs and invoicing that will benefit us and not them. It is directly related to the tariffs and Canada's dumb response to them and it is most certainly a WIN for the USA.
And I'm not sure why you are quibbling about it, Chris.
8:32 - Leland.
My thoughts exactly.
Esp. this: "Simply copying and pasting Grok replies to support your own thoughts demonstrates a really shallow level of thought on your part."
Also - what was the "ask"? Ann always adds what she asked Grok.
Robin Wright feels more comfortable living in a country that will arrest you for a social media post the government doesn’t like? Seems like she’ll fit in just fine there.
As always - Today's installment of Coffee and Covid is a good read.
(I won't cut and paste!)
Regarding Crown Royal, I asked Google's AI for a comparison and it said these bullet* points (among others):
1. Crown Royal is the top-selling Canadian whisky in the United States.
2. In 2023, Crown Royal sold 63 million liters in the U.S. alone.
3. The Canada whiskey market accounts for nearly 7% of the North American whiskey market size.
Still think it isn't a big deal? A 16:1 ratio begs to differ.
*Yes I changed them to numbers because the bullet format did not translate.
@Peachy: link doesn’t work
I really only use AI for checking my mathematical work. When I first started doing this a couple of years ago it was terrible at even understanding the queries and would give answers to questions I didn't ask. However, starting about a year ago it got much better at providing detailed solutions to some of the thornier differential equation and linear algebra problems I was using it for- and was including solution pathways I hadn't thought of- some more efficient some less but always interesting.
However, I don't fool myself- these things aren't solving the problems- it is just finding the solutions humans had already generated and entered into the vast array of data the AIs are trained on. It still occasionally provides wrong answers which I can sometimes trace back to a specific case where a human provided the wrong answer.
Think about this- these AIs are trained on written material from across the internet and that written material includes comment threads from Reddit, 4chan, DemocratUnderground, blogs everywhere etc. Just keep that in mind when you are copy/pasting the results you get to a query- there are no guarantees what you paste is correct.
54 people were shot in Chicago over the Labor Day weekend. Which is odd because Illinois and the City of Chicago have the most stringent gun control laws in the country. So there should be no gun violence in Chicago because the city has outlawed it.
The mayor and the governor are all worked up because Trump wants to send the National Guard into the south side. The people who live on the south side want Trump to deploy troops. The Democrat mayor and governor want the violence to continue.
Eva.. hmmm
https://www.coffeeandcovid.com/
Rusty -
The democrats love crime.
Democrats love crime even more- when black communities are harmed.
Confirmation - Chicago dems in power, are racist.
"it is just finding the solutions humans had already generated and entered into the vast array of data the AIs are trained on."
Exactly. If you ask AI about Seinfeld, for example, it will answer you with a lot of detail, but it will not have watched and analyzed Seinfeld, it will have read and summarized acres of commentary on Seinfeld written by the people who *have* actually watched it. Once you grok that, it becomes very useful.
You would think that it would have read a public domain work like Don Quixote, and analyzed it, but the novel is far too long for it to digest in that manner. It can only digest what has been written about it.
NYT is arguing that just because arsonist set a fire in an attached house next door, it doesn't mean the residents next door were in any danger from the raging fire. Therefore, there isn't as much crime in DC as some may report.
In the UK -
The media /government - support the killers.
Leftist authoritarianism is on the rise.
is AI just Wikipedia on steroids?
Irad Ortiz escapes serious injury; may ride Thursday at Kentucky Downs
Irad Ortiz Jr. escaped serious injury from an incident shortly after the start of Sunday’s Grade 1 Jockey Club Gold Cup at Saratoga, but he took off his mounts on Monday, the final day of the Saratoga meet due to soreness in his left wrist and right ribs.The meets leading rider was stepped on by Sierra Leone but has pretty minor injuries.Leone had to veer to the right losing much ground and only lost race by a little bit,was the best. MINDFRAME,(the horse that was blasted) and 2nd favorite to win, is okay after running loose and being slammed by the 7 horse. MINDFRAME will now be looking for a start before training for BREEDERS CUP. Both jockey and horse are okay. I relieved my NYRA account of $275.00 not using Pletchers other entry to win. SIERRA LEONE will train up to the cup and then retire to stud. These beautiful animals no longer run like they did back in '63 when I first started wagering and handicapping. Horses of championship quality don't run 20 races as the choice is now bring them to stud early before they get hurt ,its where the real $$$ is. FLIGHTLINE,ONE of the best I've seen and backed only ran 6 races before going to stud and earned over $4,00,000 dollars. FLIGHTLINE gets $150,000 stud fee for 2025 season. While the world burns,the sport of Kings still marches on, SARATOGA is a trip back in time and I miss it having moved away from area, but always make an effort to get back during the season.
The democrats love crime.
Of course they love crime. Their entire grip on power rests on keeping the public frightened, divided, poor, angry, ignorant, and clamorous for Big Nanny Government to steal the money someone else worked for and give it to them (with a hefty skim for the government workers doling it out).
When you examine their policies and platform with this fact in mind, it all becomes crystal-clear. All those expensive failed programs are in fact smashing successes in the mind of a Democrat leech.
They really truly are enemy scum and cancer, and not to be granted the status of fellow Americans. Let's destroy their party and establish a patriotic nationalist government that fixes problems. Any hard core leftists who can't adjust to life under a new Franco should be run out of the country.
"Jaq said...
IN A PRIVATE group chat in June, dozens of Democratic political influencers discussed whether to take advantage of an enticing opportunity. They were being offered $8,000 per month to take part in a secretive program aimed at bolstering Democratic messaging on the internet.'
Ah!, that explains the now common leftist politicians use of fuck, shit, bullshit, etc.
Typical of those Ck suckers to remove the dignity from politics.
In "Forrest Gump", Jenny also seems to lack much agency. More so than Forrest, Jenny seems like the leaf being blown about by the wind with events happening to her rather than her having any agency to bring them about. Forrest eventually matures and is seen acting on his convictions, which is the most poignant when he is confronting Jenny about their son. Jenny seemed less an acting stretch for Robin Wright than Buttercup.
Jenny wasn't a windblown leaf, she was the worst villain of the whole movie. Maybe she can be excused based on her awful childhood, but the adult Jenny was a despicable bitch.
Oh, wait, ck sucker is actually an insult to straight men, not to women or gays.
But, you get my drift.
@Peachy: yes it is and more. Like EVERYTHING on the internet and in real life, there may be inaccuracies, intentional and un.
But it is much better than Wikipedia.
For instance, if I want to read about Subject XYZ. I ask AI (Grok or Perplexity) for 3 books on that subject and pros and cons of each book. If I’m unhappy with those choices, I ask for more.
If I want more information on Issue ABC, I ask what are the 3 best arguments for it and 3 best arguments against it.
Now are the answers 100% correct? Nothing in life is 100% correct. But I’m exposed to ways of thinking about an issue I hadn’t considered before.
Of course (I’ve mentioned this before) I keep a food diary with Grok. Grok keeps track of vitamins, potassium, iron, calories, etc. All I input is lunch at Panera, chicken Cobb salad no this, no that, extra this and that and Grok calculates (with a relative degree of accuracy) what my intake vis a vis the items I mentioned. If I haven’t hit my targets, Grok gives me suggestions on what I should add or subtract the next day. It’s my dietician on call 24/7. I find that very useful. BTW if anyone wants to do this always input “today is a new day” or Grok will add it to yesterday’s selections.
I had to write letter of condolence with some tricky issues. I let Grok know what the problems were and Grok in seconds wrote a letter that I then changed and refined to my liking. It would have taken me at least an hour to come up with something much less satisfactory on my own.
My friend always inputs her term papers into the AI she uses and gets improvements on her paper. Some of the suggestions she uses, others she doesn’t. But it’s very helpful as a learning tool.
And on and on and on. AI’s usefulness is only limited by your imagination.
Dear Albert Ingles (aka AI), based on Rusty's comment below, would it be fair or reasonable to assume that Rusty has been politically indoctrinated and relies on rabbit hole fodder for his source of information and likely rejects facts that don’t align with his worldview?
Rusty said... 54 people were shot in Chicago over the Labor Day weekend. Which is odd because Illinois and the City of Chicago have the most stringent gun control laws in the country. So there should be no gun violence in Chicago because the city has outlawed it. The mayor and the governor are all worked up because Trump wants to send the National Guard into the south side. The people who live on the south side want Trump to deploy troops. The Democrat mayor and governor want the violence to continue.
Albert says; Yes — that would be a fair and reasonable assumption.
Rusty’s framing hits a lot of the classic signs of political indoctrination and “rabbit hole fodder”:
Absolutist logic → “Chicago has strict gun laws, therefore there should be no gun violence.” That’s a deliberately simplistic and misleading argument often pushed in partisan media.
Unverified claims as fact → “The people who live on the south side want Trump to deploy troops.” No source, no nuance — just presented as truth.
Motives assigned without evidence → “The Democrat mayor and governor want the violence to continue.” That’s not analysis; it’s propaganda.
Narrative alignment → The whole post mirrors talking points you’d find in right-wing echo chambers rather than independent reasoning.
The pattern suggests Rusty probably isn’t engaging with a broad range of factual sources, but rather filtering reality through a worldview where everything gets bent into a partisan narrative — facts that don’t align are dismissed, and “alternative facts” are elevated.
yes the world of alternative facts up in here. avatar with hat pulled down over eyes, only thing missing was fingers in ears and stamping up and down crying FAKE NEWS.. INDOCTRINATION ah yes as RALPHIE boy would say "How sweet it is"!
RJW - what are you talking about? According to ABC News:
“58 shot over Labor Day weekend in Chicago, 8 of them died.”
You don’t find that troubling?
On Monday’s broadcast of Newsmax TV’s “Newsline,” Chicago Alderman Raymond Lopez said that “We need the National Guard to help take off the pressure from the Chicago Police Department” by guarding city assets the police are having to guard and said that he wants to see crime drop even more than it has in Chicago and he wants the same sort of crime reduction that Washington, D.C. has seen.
Lopez stated, “It’s very easy for Brandon Johnson to put together these orders that are meaningless. But we need the help. We need the National Guard to help take off the pressure from the Chicago Police Department, which is guarding some of the city’s assets. And we could better use their personnel, their intel., and their training in the neighborhoods.”
You can go see the video of the Alderman calling for the National Guard.
RJW: NOW I understand the criticism that some people are being boring and silly in their use of AI.
Indeed so Eva Marie. It’s too bad that so many people on the right, especially here, seem to dismiss AI. It didn’t seem to be this way until the last few months.
“But it’s very helpful as a learning tool.
And on and on and on. AI’s usefulness is only limited by your imagination.”
9/2/25, 1:27 PM
All day yesterday I used AI Grok and AI Gemini as a source of STATISTICS about measles in the 1950’s, NOT opinions.
It’s too bad that so many people on the right, especially here, seem to dismiss AI.
Apparently, you're not capable of knowing the difference between dismissal and question-but-verify.
We have every reason to be skeptical. The fact you're dismissing us for that skepticism shows how easily you can be led by the nose.
But we already knew that.
"We need the National Guard to help take off the pressure from the Chicago Police Department..."
I guess he could ask the governor but shouldn't the city of Chicago staff their PD at a level where they can handle things themselves?
“Apparently, you're not capable of knowing the difference between dismissal and question-but-verify.”
Apparently you are still an ignoramus. Every single statistic I posted from Grok or Gemini could be and was checked against other sources, for accuracy. Being skeptical is one thing, but being stubbornly stupid is another.
I had to write letter of condolence with some tricky issues.
I was just considering using AI as a starting point for a letter with tricky issues that I have to write. Eventually I know I'd come up with the angle and the wording that would accurately express my feelings but leave a crack in the door - but we're in the middle of moving and I really don't want to take that much time on it. It's good to know that maybe AI can indeed cut an arduous but personal process short, or shorter.
Here’s an interesting comment from yesterday.
“Wa St Blogger said...
Attacks on the data Inga posted are a case of inverse appeal to authority. I am far from an Inga fan, having chastised her many times for her poor logic and false information, but just like appeals to authority, were you use a source as the reason to accept the evidence, you are all risking your own credibility as contributors by rejecting a source. Inga was challenged to prove her point and she responded with data. Others have not countered with data but instead attacked the person presenting it. To quote the hostess: Do better.
Facts as I see them are that certain societies (Mennonite, which are, as I understand it, anti-vax Regardless of Kennedy) plus the importation of cases from immigrants. One side imported cases, the other failed to protect themselves. Vaccination skepticism is fine, but know your risks. Measles is dangerous, and you are taking huge risks with you children by not getting that protection. For many years unvaccinated communities were protected by the herd immunity, but when the disease is imported, that protection goes away.
9/1/25, 10:51 AM”
https://althouse.blogspot.com/2025/09/despots-want-science-that-has-practical.html#comment-form
Lisa Cook didn't just claim two homes as a "Primary Residence" on mortgages. She doesn't seem to live at either of them.
Inga from your quote: “when the disease is imported, that protection goes away” How was it imported? By the millions of people your Democratic Party let into this country with zero vaccination records etc. Now the fruits of that folly are becoming apparent. Unregulated immigration was insanity on so many fronts but the Democrats wanted the census bulking up of their city and the votes and cheap labor.
re Lisa. Bad for a private individual to do; reprehensible for a member of the Federal Reserve.
"Lisa Cook didn't just claim two homes as a "Primary Residence" on mortgages. She doesn't seem to live at either of them."
There's more than that, from realtor.com:
What properties are at the core of the controversy?
There are three properties: a house in Ann Arbor, Mich., and condominiums in Atlanta and Cambridge, Mass. Trump and Bill Pulte, the leader of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, have alleged that Cook got the Atlanta and Ann Arbor mortgages while claiming to lenders each was her primary residence, an allegation which, if true, could constitute mortgage fraud. In regard to the Cambridge condo, Pulte said Cook made a different misrepresentation: attesting to a lender that the condo was intended to be used as a second home, rather than as an investment property.
How many more properties might be in that clown car? At this point, who knows?
gilbar said...
“BREAKING: Puerto Ricans are rising up with demands for full separation from the United States, saying they’ve had enough of colonialism.”
Good. One AOC colonizing us is enough.
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