Working from home vs. commuting, a slow social trend we thought might be temporary, but which may be inevitable, and for the good.
I have a laptop connected to two big monitors, but otherwise this photo is apt. My cat Potsticker — not unlike this cat, but with more orange — lies on my computer table as I work. Usually in the late afternoons when he’s expecting his dinner.
Scientific American is a magazine I’ve read intermittently for 50 years.
First, a follow up to my Media Literacy post three days ago. Stop the Presses! Something amazing has happened!
Salon, Amanda Marcotte, 23 May 2023: Fox News falls for another hoax, as the Dominion defamation settlement pays off, subtitled “The most surprising part of the “homeless veterans” hoax? Fox News admitted they were wrong”
Apparently the Dominion defamation settlement had consequences, lest Fox News keeps getting sued for lying. The photo here… with her expression…. seems appropriate.
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Items today:
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More and more it seems clear that MAGA is about reasserting the dominance in America of straight white Christians, which seems to entail going back to the eras of Jim Crow, of homosexuality being illegal and gays worrying their careers would be ruined if they were found out, and abortions being performed in back alleys. The 1950s, or even before.
NY Times, 21 May 2023: N.A.A.C.P. Issues Florida Travel Advisory, Joining Latino and L.G.B.T.Q. Groups, subtitled “The N.A.A.C.P. urged people to consider Florida’s policies on diversity and race under Gov. Ron DeSantis when thinking of traveling there.” Continue reading
Items today about
This item goes with the theme of yesterday’s post.
NY Times, Paul Krugman, 15 May 2023: Why Are Americans So Negative About the Economy?
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NY Times, Megan K. Stack, 20 May 2023: If You’re Hearing About the Border, Someone Is Trying to Scare You
Items today:
Heather Cox Richardson, Letters from an American, May 18, 2023
Several items today.
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Another simplistic talking point is making the rounds again.
Politifact, 17 May 2023: A family budget is often invoked in U.S. debt fights. Just how similar is it to a federal budget?
Answer: not very. Continue reading
Two themes today.
NY Times, 16 May 2023: How a Few Stories of Regret Fuel the Push to Restrict Gender Transition Care, subtitled “In the campaign to ban gender therapies for minors, Republicans have amplified a group of activists who no longer identify as transgender, overriding objections from transgender people and medical experts.”
Familiar topics, but worth another look, especially since if they were broadly understood it would make so many of America’s partisan controversies go away. (But conservatives will never allow concepts like skeptical thinking to be taught in schools, for precisely such reasons.)
Big Think, Jonny Thomson, 15 May 2023: Skepticism: Why critical thinking makes you smarter, subtitled: “‘In order to seek truth,’ Rene Descartes once wrote, ‘it is necessary once in the course of our life to doubt, as far as possible, all things.'”
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