You didn’t see people in masks standing in the rain risking their lives to vote. Not in America. You didn’t see the leader of the free world push an unproven miracle drug like a late-night infomercial salesman. That was a crisis update. You didn’t see homeless people dead on the street. You didn’t see inequality. You didn’t see indifference. You didn’t see utter failure of leadership and systems.
Jen found this article and read it aloud a couple of days ago, and it really struck home. In Prepare for the Ultimate Gaslighting, Julio Vincent Gambuto makes the case that this strange reality is the best opportunity we’ve ever had to stop, look, and evaluate our lives, our country, and our future, and prepare to make changes for the better right now before we are lulled back to sleep.
Interesting...
- April 12
Last week there were a flurry of stories of police taking arrests way too far; an Army lieutenant was pepper-sprayed and handcuffed while Virginia cops searched his car with no probable cause. An Ohio man had snow forcibly shoved in his mouth during a February arrest.
Here in Maryland, a police Bill of Rights was enacted in 1974, ensuring police had extra protections unavailable to ordinary citizens, including time limits on alleging brutality complaints, allowing only other law enforcement officers to investigate misconduct, and allowing a delay before questioning an officer. Last week this was struck down by our state legislature over the objections of our Governor, ensuring that police will need to begin to rein in their worst impulses and be held accountable for their actions. I'm proud of our legislature this morning.
April 7
Wow, I'd forgotten about this excellent site: The Internet K-Hole, which is basically just posts of old pictures from the 70's through the early 90's. I am guilty of several of the fashion disasters here, as are most of my peers; I'm just glad I haven't found pictures of myself yet.
March 24
Thanks to Seth Godin, this is the is the first reasonable explanation of NFTs that I've read so far; all of the mainstream coverage I've seen has been the confused dad/clickbait headline variety, much like coverage of Bitcoin continues to be. Yet another scam, made by people trying to sell scarcity.
March 9
Aw, man. Norton Juster, the author of the Phantom Tollbooth, died Tuesday at age 91. The Phantom Tollbooth was a seminal book for me; this was the first young adult book I read that didn't just tell a story. Instead, Juster made me stop and think about what I was reading and what it meant and go back and marvel at how he'd written it and how clever it was. And the fact that it featured Jules Pfeiffer illustrations was the icing on the cake. I'm going to go pull my hardback copy off the shelf and re-read it tonight. And then maybe leave it on Finn's desk and chain her to the chair so that she reads it too. (previously)
March 5
I just listened to a great podcast: Radiolab interviewed John Scott, a NHL player who skated for 10 seasons as a goon and was, improbably, voted by fans to be the captain of the All-Star team for his division. The story gets better from there:
You don't have to like hockey, or even give a shit about sports to like this story.
