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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 […]
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.
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.
On May 29 New Delhi was 52.9 degrees Celsius (127.2 F), only 1.5 degrees less than the world record from Death Valley.
Records are being set all over the world:
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.
In today's BCTV Daily Dispatch: Interview with the Vampire, TikTok/Trump, Arcane, Doctor Who, Travis Kelce/Taylor Swift, Reacher, Lost & more!
Knowingly or otherwise, all workers who strike in Britain today — including the hundreds of thousands of nurses, teachers, doctors, civil servants, train drivers, and others who have taken industrial action in the past twenty months to defend their livelihoods — are following in the giant footsteps of the miners, who fought arguably the most […]
Young people leaving care in England are losing their right to local authority housing - because they're trying to better themselves at university
With conflicts simmering across the globe, NATO should help Ukraine more and introduce special operations forces and intelligence assets in preparation for future wars
- by Aeon Video
- by Steven Mithen
- by Roger Luckhurst
While blaming inflation for rising prices, the country’s biggest food and restaurant companies are raking in billions and showering shareholders with payouts.
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June 3rd, 2024: All of these numbers came unbidden from my brain! PROBABLY it's fine!! – Ryan | ||
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…
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 […]
He doesn’t know what he’s talking about. The story was taken down for one day on twitter and put back up the next day. He’s full of shit like all Trump sycophants. Not to mention the fact that Hunter Biden was not running for president in 2020 or now. It is interesting that he couldn’t really answer the question, though. Why is this case ok (whether you buy the silly election interference argument or not) while the Trump case is totally unjustified? MAGA voters don’t require logic or consistency or it’s meaningless for them. But if there are any independents out there who really are on the fence about the Trump charges, the hypocrisy among the Trump henchment might make them wonder just a little bit. The Hunter trial begins this week and it’s a little bit heartbreaking. He’s a screwed up guy who had a drug problem. Who among us doesn’t know someone or have a family member who’s been through something like this? And unlike Trump he really is being treated differently than anyone else would be treated having been accused of the same crime.
Not many, but a few The New York Times went out into the wild to see if voters care about the fact that the Republicans are voting for a wealthy, white, hugely powerful convicted felon for president. They found that the Maga cult still loves him and the normal people still hate him but there are a few undecided/independent voters who might be swayed: [O]n the margins, with the remaining undecided voters, having a felon as the Republican Party’s standard-bearer could make the decision to pick Mr. Trump harder, maybe a lot harder. Oscar Cisneros, 50, who described himself as an independent voter, said that while he supported Mr. Biden in 2020, he had been put off more recently by the president’s age and apparent slip-ups, and that he was undecided about whom to vote for in the fall. But now, he said, Mr. Trump had added to his baggage. “It gives you a different point of view: How can you be a president if you’re being found guilty of hush money?” asked Mr. Cisneros, who works for the City of Phoenix. “OK, dude, you’re guilty. I don’t know if I want you up there.” The conviction could only help shore up Mr.
We need to talk about what bombs do in war. Bombs shred flesh. Bombs shatter bones. Bombs dismember. Bombs cause brains, lungs, and other organs to shake so violently they bleed, rupture, and cease functioning. Bombs injure. Bombs kill. Bombs destroy. Bombs also make people rich. When a bomb explodes, someone profits. And when someone profits, bombs claim more unseen victims. Every dollar spent on a bomb is a dollar not spent saving a life from a preventable death, a dollar not spent curing cancer, a dollar not spent educating children. That’s why, so long ago, retired five-star general and President Dwight D. Eisenhower rightly called spending on bombs and all things military a “theft.” The perpetrator of that theft... Read more