2023 archive
“They Paved Over Paradise and Put Up a Parking Lot”* 0
Emma talks with Henry Grabar about how the fixation on providing room for automobiles distracts from providing room for persons. An excerpt:
You’re not thinking about room for people. You’re thinking about room for cars.
_________________
*With apologies to Joni Mitchell.
Still Rising Again after All These Years 0
They just can’t seem to stop themselves from showing us what they are.
Still Rising Again after All These Years 0
At the Tampa Bay Times, historian Charles B. Dew takes Florida Governor DeSantis to task for perpetuating America’s first big lie. He cites an example from early in DeSantis’s career, when DeSantis taught history (or, at least, his version of history). A nugget:
How does this interpretation hold up?
Not very well, the overwhelming majority of American historians working in this field today would say, and I am among them.
(“Not very well” is–er–a bit of an understatement.)
Follow the link to see what the Secesh themselves said to explain why they took up arms.
The Evidence of Exceptionalism 0
Michael in Norfolk takes exception (emphasis added):
Follow the link for the numbers.
The Lake Effect, the Grift of Grab Dept. 0
David takes several calls. The first one is about Kari Lake and David’s response is, in my opinion, quite en pointe.
Aside:
I’ve visited Denmark. It is a very nice place.
The Master Plan 0
In his commentary, the artist points out, regarding Kevin McCarthy, that
. . . it’s not up to McCarthy. He has to keep the Freedom Caucus and the fringe weirdos on board if he wants to keep his gavel. You’re not exactly negotiating from a position of power when you can’t afford to lose George Santos.
This New Gilded Age 0
Ian Millhiser looks at Clarence Thomas’s concurring opinion in Sackett v. EPA, the case which just gutted the EPA’s authority to protect against water pollution and finds it–er–concerning. A snippet:
Geeking Out 0
I do likes me my purty pictures.
Mageia v. 8 with the Fluxbox window manager. The wallpaper is from my collection.
A Now for a Moment of Curiosity 0
This poem by Alastair Reid served as the introduction to a small book on genetics that I read in high school. For some reason, it’s stuck in my mind for all these years.
may have killed the cat, more likely
the cat was just unlucky, or else curious
to see what death was like, having no cause
to go on licking paws, or fathering
litter on litter of kittens, predictably.Nevertheless, to be curious
is dangerous enough. To distrust
what is always said, what seems
to ask odd questions, interfere in dreams,
leave home, smell rats, have hunches
do not endear cats to those doggy circles
where well-smelt baskets, suitable wives, good lunches
are the order of things, and where prevails
much wagging of incurious heads and tails.Face it. Curiosity
will not cause us to die –
only lack of it will.
Never to want to see
the other side of the hill
or that improbable country
where living is an idyll
(although a probable hell)
would kill us all.
