Weekend link dump for July 9

So is there a limit to human lifespans or not?

A long and thoughtful story on lip synching and our changing attitudes towards it. I fall into the camp of those who prefer actual singing and playing of instruments by people, but I’m old.

The Nuns on the Bus are back on the bus.

Sweet dreams are not made of these.

Is it time to retire the CAN-SPAM Act?

“One of the stupidest aspects of Republican healthcare rhetoric is the idea that consumers want to take charge of their own care by paying routine expenses from special, tax-advantaged accounts.”

All that takeout food we are eating these days has very bad consequences for the environment.

“Trump takes such glee in conflict, and cares so little for standards of decency or compassion, that his assailants often diminish themselves by betraying their own values out of desperation. But this isn’t just true of Trump’s assailants. It is true of all of us. To consistently engage with Trump is to be diminished by him. And we have all been diminished by his presidency.”

“You might flip on the TV in February and see a damn Plumlee in the All-Star Game. Don’t let this happen.”

Star Trek: Discovery is taking this one step further by not restricting death sentences to Red Shirts. And it’s all thanks to one phrase: Valar morghulis.”

“The point Jones needs to communicate is not that he, Alex Jones, believes in the existence of a secret pedophilia-and-human-sacrifice cult operating in pizza shops and on Mars. The point he needs to communicate is that he, Alex Jones, believes that the secret pedophilia-and-human-sacrifice cult operating in pizza shops and on Mars is bad.”

Make sure that’s a certified craft beer that you’re drinking.

Sony Music is pressing vinyl records again, which they last did in 1989.

Support for same-sex marriage continues its steady rise in America. Even among Republicans.

“Americans, therefore, celebrate the Fourth of July under false pretenses. The standard narrative of the Declaration of Independence goes something like this: Colonists could no longer tolerate the British government’s unjust laws or taxation without representation, so the Second Continental Congress voted to compose a document that explained the need for independence and justified the reasons for the revolt. Nothing could be further from the truth.”

“After NPR tweeted the Declaration line by line, Donald Trump backers, seemingly unaware of the source document, accused the media organization of playing partisan politics.”

Mighty big rubber duck you’ve got there, Canada.

“The right to speak and remain private clearly has some place. But I would argue that speech without accountability – which is what anonymity frequently enables – creates a basic breakdown in the economy of speech and civic discourse. To put it in market terms, it is the moral hazard of the public square.”

A simple three-step plan to shore up Obamacare.

Hey, Hobby Lobby: Thou shalt not steal. I’m pretty sure that’s a commandment. And stop possibly financing terrorists by your criminally negligent activities.

“How long should a widow sit in isolation before YOU are comfortable enough to release them from their solitary confinement?”

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