Weekend link dump for October 20

“Quiet places have been on the road to extinction at a rate that far exceeds the extinction of species.”

When you’ve lost Matt Drudge

“For young people who have absorbed similar messages in Christian spaces, the redemption of Bathsheba matters very much indeed.”

The 25 worst Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Inductees ever. I’m sure no one will find any of that the least bit controversial.

“But it’s not necessary. We’re not talking about a broad speech issue. We’re talking about political ads. Facebook doesn’t have to run political ads if the inherent problems are too hard to solve. They’ve even said themselves the money is not significant.”

“How Rudy Giuliani’s epic slide, from crime buster to conspirator, reveals America’s broken windows”.

“The Ironies of Columbus Day”.

“Though the president would later tweet out his support for Giuliani over the weekend, Trump has a long track record for being loyal to and supportive of a longtime associate, friend, or staffer—up until the moment he’s not.”

“I am not part of whatever drug deal Sondland and Mulvaney are cooking up.”

“But for a percentage of them that is greater than zero, a video about Trump killing politicians and celebrities and journalists they don’t like isn’t a regrettable side-effect of Trump’s presidency. It’s the entire point of Trump’s presidency.”

“Is USA Today’s print edition headed for the sunset as GateHouse and Gannett merge? Signs point to yes.”

“The Trump administration is seeking to denaturalize and deport longtime U.S. citizens, seizing on tiny mistakes in the process and putting the status of every naturalized citizen at potential risk.”

“Jury awards Sandy Hook father $450,000 for defamation by local conspiracy theorist”.

“Has someone ever asked you to refer to them as they instead of he or she? Or, are you hedging because you can’t possibly refer to one single person as they? What if we told you that they has been used to refer to just one person since at least the 1300s?”

President Obama Was Right and Justice Alito Was Wrong“.

“Crude language resists the sanctimony that has degraded and diminished most of our language about morality, turning it into little more than a series of Orwellian euphemisms in service of bullying power-grabs.”

RIP, Rep. Elijah Cummings, chairman of the House Oversight and Reform Committee and longtime civil rights leader.

“Apple has a multibillion-dollar business in China, makes its phones there, and, like other corporations, generally doesn’t want to piss off the country’s leaders. But coming from a company that has fought for civil liberties at home—remember Apple’s stand for user privacy in the face of the FBI’s demand that it unlock the San Bernardino shooter’s iPhone?—its actions in Hong Kong are jarring.”

“The report found that injury rates at the Amazon Staten Island distribution center are nearly 3 times the national rate for warehouse workers. Eighteen percent of workers said they’ve been injured on the job. The majority of those injuries were the result of getting caught in, hit by, or otherwise injured by machinery. The second highest cause of injury were cuts, lacerations, and other wounds.”

“One of the many lies of the Trump presidency is the idea that the president is so rich, he can’t be tempted by the conflicts of interests and penny-ante corruption other mere mortals couldn’t resist. This has almost certainly turned out to be the opposite of the truth, never mind Mulvaney’s claim that Trump has never profited from the presidency.”

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7 Responses to Weekend link dump for October 20

  1. SocraticGadfly says:

    Kind of related to No. 1, noise pollution, re the recent studies about the decline of insects, I wrote anecdotally about that issue here in Texas. https://socraticgadfly.blogspot.com/2019/10/where-have-all-bugs-gone.html

  2. Jason Hochman says:

    I am glad to see the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame article mentions, several times, that the Shangri Las, one of my favorite bands, should be in the Hall. Of course, the entire “hall of fame” concept is subjective, as the article points out. What should be the criteria? Popularity, sales, innovation, virtuosity, longevity, creativity, and other factors. And how to weight these criteria.

    The Columbus Day piece exemplifies one of the last prejudices allowed in the US today: Anti-Italian and perhaps anti Catholic.

    Using they to refer to one person hasn’t really been done since the 1300s. It has always been commonplace to say something like, “they tore down that house,” referring to an unknown but often collective entity, such as the government, a company or corporation, a family, etc. I try not to speak that way because “they” and “them” get a lot of undeserved credit and blame. The English language only has the gender neutral pronoun “it” which implies an object, but sometimes an animal, which does have a gender. The use of “they” for an individual still requires a plural verb, which conjures up a multiple personality when one person is referred to as “they are here for lunch,” and it is confusing. Gender is real, and it is not something created by the patriarchy.

  3. Bill Daniels says:

    “The Trump administration is seeking to denaturalize and deport longtime U.S. citizens, seizing on tiny mistakes in the process and putting the status of every naturalized citizen at potential risk.”

    Hopefully Ilhan Said el Nursi will be denaturalized and sent packing, for lying about who she actually is on her initial refugee application, then for the marriage to her own brother to get the brother into the country. There’s definitely enough self provided evidence from Ilhan herself to investigate…..DNA testing should confirm things.

  4. robert says:

    About Obama being right and Alito wrong…..How I miss having a president that speaks in entire comprehensible sentences, teleprompter or not….and yes, he was right.

  5. blank says:

    But you know who else made at least one indelible pop song? Duran Duran, Whitney Houston, the Go-Go’s and INXS, each not in the Rock Hall despite having more influence on today’s music landscape than Journey.

    I’m less convinced about the Go-Go’s and INXS, but Duran Duran, Whitney Houston, and Journey all belong in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

  6. mollusk says:

    Proposed modification to the overplayed song title: Don’t Stop Stairway to Free Bird.

  7. Jason Hochman says:

    @Blank–I have always thought of Journey as music that was designed for drunken karaoke and for classic rock radio to play in between more substantive bands, like the Kinks, the Stones, the Beatles, the Who, Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix, even the Doors, Alice Cooper, Slade–but of course classic rock radio only plays a small handful of those better artists…I guess Journey never stopped believing and Neal Schon is a good guitar player.

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