First Looks category archive

Stanford’s Sam Wineburg and Nadav Ziv point out that the clock is TikToking.

One more time, “social” media isn’t.

As Mark Twain once pointed out, “History does not repeat itself, but it often rhymes.”

A long-time Idaho Republican is less than optimistic about the direction his state party has taken.

Politeness takes practice.

Once again, we see that “responsible gun owner” is an oxymoron.

Kimberley A, Johnson’s interview of Keri Blakinger, particularly the second half, in which Blakinger describes her experiences in prison.

Mark Hermann wonders why the Wall Street Journal and the New York Post, both owned by Rupert Murdoch, decided to pirouette about Donald Trump almost simultaneously. A snippet:

So I knew that Trump did nothing to stop the violence during his three hours of silence on January 6. And Mitch McConnell knew it. And Kevin McCarthy knew it. And any sentient human being knew it.

But the editors at the Wall Street Journal and Washington Post somehow didn’t know it?

Why did it take the Journal and the Post 18 months to be shocked — shocked! — to learn that the Capitol Building was ransacked on January 6 and that the president did nothing for three hours to stop it?

Aside:

I suspect it’s to give Murdoch some cover as his primary outlet, Fox News, continues to shamelessly pimp for Trump and Trumpettes in prime time. But I’ve always been a touch on the cynical side.

David discusses the disassociation between Republican talking points and reality, focusing on Florida Senator Rick Scott’s claim that “we need to get Americans back to work” when unemployment is at the lowest level in four decades.

No, not that eagle. This eagle.

Off to drink liberally.

At the Tuscon Daily Star, Paul McCreary sees similarities. A snippet:

(Indiana University basketball coach Bobby–ed.) Knight was often physically and verbally aggressive. His behaviors were praised by many on his side. They considered Knight a hero because he won games. He was a bully, but he was their bully. It is that way with Donald Trump.

(Warning: Short commercial at the end.)

Maurice T. Cunningham looks at the “grass roots’ of the right-wing “Moms for Liberty” and finds that those roots are anything but what they are claimed to be. A snippet:

I pay attention when a new “parents” or “moms” group bursts upon the education/politics scene. I exposed the millions in dark money behind Families for Excellent Schools during a 2016 charter schools ballot question campaign in Massachusetts. New groups like Moms for Liberty are just as transparently Astroturf — a group that claims to be grassroots but is actually artificial turf.

Follow the link for the evidence.

Field is not sanguine.

At the Idaho State Journal, Leonard Hitchcock examines Republicans’ war against truth in learning. A snippet (emphasis added):

They (students–ed.) also need to learn about American history. America is a country that, like other countries, has made mistakes — sometimes very egregious mistakes — but has also (however belatedly), tried to learn from those mistakes and atone for them. Loyalty to country — a moral virtue highly prized by conservatives — should not be the result of teachers’ lying about a country’s history. Whitewashing America’s past does no service to anyone.

Warning: Mild language.

Mangy comments at the Youtube page:

Well, so much for the undiscerning idiots who believe Trump brought dignity back to The White House. The latest REPUBLICAN to testify to the January 6th Committee, Cassidy Hutchinson, told of Trump’s temper tantrums, his breaking dishes, throwing plates at the wall, screaming fits, his attempt to strangle one of his security detail, and so on. (As if normal people didn’t know from the start that he was totally unfit to hold any office.) Turns out “tough-guy Trump” is nothing but a spoiled, petulant baby, diaper and all.

If you are a mystery buff, as I am, you might want to check these out:

The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes, Vol. 1

The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes, Vol. 2

The American Rivals of Sherlock Holmes.

They are anthologies of short stories, mostly from the late Victorian and Edwardian eras, by authors contemporaneous with Arthur Conan Doyle. Some of the stories are, shall we say, better than others. Also, do not be surprised when some of the stories perpetuate the prejudices of their times (I’m thinking specifically of “The Affair of the Tortoise,” chapter 17 of The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes, Vol. 1).

Me, I’m currently (re-)reading the first Ellery Queen novel, The Roman Hat Mystery. I realize on rereading it what I did not remember from my first reading lo! those many years ago! It’s actually rather slow-moving and pedantic (but, then, so am I). I think the secret of its success, beyond the well-crafted mystery (and it is a well-crafted mystery) is the characterization, particularly the relationship between Ellery and his father, Inspector Queen.

In a way, that fits a theory of mine. I’ve long thought that the secret of a successful television series is the characters and their relationship. If the series pulls that off, fans will overlook the occasional lousy episode, because they like the characters. But I digress.

I am not sanguine.

At the San Francisco Chronicle, Erwin Chemerinsky and Dennis Aftergut argue that the new-fangled notion of Consititutional Originalism as its being applied applied to the Second Amendment* is killing us. A snippet:

In Jones (Jones v. Bonta–ed.), the fact that assault weapons have been used multiple times by individuals under the age of 21 to kill school children didn’t merit a mention in the majority opinion.

Simply put, there is no constitutional basis for saying that the original meaning of the Second Amendment was to protect the right of 18-to-20- year-olds to purchase a weapon of mass killing that didn’t exist when the amendment was adopted in 1791.

Nor is there the slightest indication that the Second Amendment was meant to invalidate age restrictions on purchasing firearms. This is important because, according to the nonprofit Everytown for Gun Safety, 18-to-20 year olds are responsible for homicides at three times the rate of adults 21 and older. The human brain does take time to mature.

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*Said application is a bunch of mealy-mouthed double-talk. If the persons promoting it were true orginalists, they’d outlaw everything that wasn’t a flintlock musket, but that’s another post.