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Created
Tue, 04/06/2024 - 00:30
It’s always about control Amanda Marcotte: A pair of Texas professors figured out that their female students have sex and, boy, they do not like it. So now the philosophy professor and finance professor are suing for the right to punish their students who, outside of class, have abortions. “Pregnancy is not a disease, and elective abortions are not ‘health care,'” University of Texas at Austin professor Daniel Bonevac sneers in a federal court filing with professor John Hatfield. Instead, Bonevac writes, because pregnancy is the result of “voluntary and consensual sexual intercourse,” students should not be allowed time off to get abortions. If the students disobey and miss class for abortion care, the filing continues, the professors should be allowed to flunk students.
Created
Mon, 03/06/2024 - 23:03

Richard King’s Travels Over Feeling is a lovingly researched and painstakingly detailed oral history of American composer and musician Arthur Russell, who made a prodigious amount of music under several names and across various genres — cello-led minimalism, dance music, pastoral folk, and countless home tape recordings that anticipate today’s bedroom pop. This was before […]

Created
Mon, 03/06/2024 - 23:00
When in Babylon…. “Jesus Is The Answer To All Your Problems,” read the billboard I passed on westbound I-40 on Sunday somewhere between Greensboro and Statesville, North Carolina. Southern Christians especially have a thing for — what is it Donald Trump calls lying? — thruthful hyperbole. Their extravagant promises, their religious puffery, may be well-intended but oversell the product, don’t you think? The larger and louder the claims, even billboard-sized, the more there is a hint that it’s not just you they are trying to convince, but themselves. A lot of places across the South claim the title “Buckle of the Bible Belt.” Back when Southern Baptists were the political equivalent of Boss Hogg in those towns, a Bible verse that tripped off many tongues came from the book Donald Trump famously referenced like a “walked into a bar” joke: Two Corinthians. 2 Corinthians 6:17 Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you. Be in the world but not of the world. That was then.
Created
Mon, 03/06/2024 - 23:00

A 2023 Column Contest grand-prize winner, Laurence Pevsner’s Sorry Not Sorry investigates why we’re sick of everyone apologizing all the time—and how the collapse of the public apology leaves little room for forgiveness and grace in our politics and culture.

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Last week, you probably got a New York Times alert saying that the pope had apologized. But Pope Francis didn’t really apologize—his spokesperson did.

The situation was a little odd. After a closed-door meeting of Italian Bishops, local papers reported that the pope had said gay men should not be allowed to train for the priesthood. Pope Francis supposedly argued that, while it was important to embrace everyone in the Church, it was too likely that a gay person might risk leading what he calls a double life—the idea of practicing both the priesthood and non-celibacy, including homosexuality.

Created
Mon, 03/06/2024 - 22:00

Mamenchisaurus: I know I shouldn’t, but I still find myself going through the picture books, looking at all the brachiosauruses and apatosauruses and brontosauruses—and knowing that I’ll never be in there. It’s hard to take. I mean, come on, my neck is huge. I’m basically all neck. When kids draw a diplodocus, they always go way too big on the neck, so nine times out of ten, what they end up with could be on my driver’s license. But when The Land Before Time was casting a “long-neck,” where was my phone call? It just makes me feel invisible, you know?

Utahraptor: I try to practice gratitude. When there’s an A-to-Z of dinosaurs needing to be done—for a song, maybe, or a bedspread—I’m pretty much nailed on for that. So people see me, sure… but I don’t feel seen. They clock the name and think they have me all figured out, but do they know the first thing about me? Hell no. For starters, I’m a Methodist.

Created
Mon, 03/06/2024 - 16:23
The UK Guardian published quite an odd article the other day (May 30, 2024) by Mr GFC Spreadsheet Fudge Man Kenneth Rogoff – Why policymakers are more likely to risk high inflation during periods of economic uncertainty – which essentially claims that economic policy has been conducted for several years by institutions that do not…
Created
Mon, 03/06/2024 - 11:44
Brad DeLong (in a recent post summarising a joint podcast with Noah Smith) walks back his previous suggestion that it was time for neoliberals, among whom he had numbered himself, to pass the baton to “the Left”. The political basis for this is that 20 or so Senate Republicans have been willing to pass legislation […]