Category Archives: Culture

Murdoch, Azarian, Reich, and Scientists

Items today: The retirement of Rupert Murdoch, who became wealthy by degrading American politics and appealing to many Americans’ worst instincts; Republican hypocrisy example: John Fetterman vs. Lauren Boebert; with a classic definition: “Conservatism consists of exactly one proposition, to … Continue reading

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Today’s Items about Politics and Culture

Is the attempt to impeach Biden an example of tit for tat, or something else?; How attendees at the Dreamforce conference this week didn’t recognize the right-wing media depictions of San Francisco, and other cities, as ‘hellholes’. Here’s a piece … Continue reading

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Morality and Corruption

How society is becoming more moral, not less; How the press covers politics; Quick takes on the Republican Party as a racket, and the laughable impeachment of the Biden family as “corrupt” by supporters of Trump and his family. OnlySky, … Continue reading

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Odds and Ends from Recent Weeks

Today I’m catching up on numerous items from recent weeks that I want to note even though I haven’t had time to thoroughly read or comment about them. A couple of them, at least, I will revisit, because I need … Continue reading

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Community, Conservatives, and Cynics

A round of assorted links from the past couple weeks. The yearning for community, and how the churches are failing that yearning; Adam Lee on the Supreme Court and how conservatism is focused on privileging wealthy, white, male Christians; Thom … Continue reading

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A Crisis in Cosmology?

NY Times, Adam Frank and Marcelo Gleiser, 2 Sep 2023: The Story of Our Universe May Be Starting to Unravel This is a piece about some of the fall-out of the photos from the James Webb Space Telescope, and the … Continue reading

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Vivek Ramaswamy as Prototypical Republican Candidate

Vox’s Andrew Prokop on how Vivek would “simply just solve American’s tough problems”; NYT’s Michelle Goldeberg on why that some people find Vivek insufferable is exactly why his fans are drawn to him; WaPo’s Paul Waldman on how Republicans are … Continue reading

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The Outsized Perception of the Danger of Minority Cults

Two pieces for today. A Salon essay that suggests that the “mainstream media” has a far wider effect on the US population than the fringe, Trump/Fox-supporting media, than most of us realize (and how that’s a good thing); and how … Continue reading

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The Obsolete Ideal of the Nuclear Family?

Two pieces about how the idealistic nuclear family beloved by conservatives has been an aberration in human history and is perhaps no longer suited for the modern world; Pondering the hunter-gatherer lifestyle, and Cain and Abel; Items about Trump and … Continue reading

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Insecurity and Inequality

A long NYT piece about the US economy, feeling bad, inequality, and insecurity; Shorter items about hearing dialogue in movies; the latest anti-woke tantrum; and that “First they came for…” poem. Here’s a big piece in NY Times, that could … Continue reading

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