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“Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump and his party are scrambling to contain the fallout from a conservative Alabama court ruling that prompted some state providers to suspend in vitro fertilization treatments.”
— Reuters

Life begins at conception. Therefore, we must force girls and women to give birth because an embryo is a person who deserves full personhood, just like corporations. So when the Alabama Supreme Court decided that all embryos should be considered children, I rejoiced wholeheartedly—right up until the moment I saw the results of the National Republican Senate Committee’s internal poll.

The GOP primaries are giving us some interesting information Of all the 2024 political events I believed were irrelevant, the GOP primary campaign has been at the top of the list. But I was wrong. As it turns out these primaries, which have commonly been touted in the media as decisive evidence of the Donald Trump juggernaut going into the fall election, are illustrating a major weakness in his coalition and its one that we have been seeing since the day after he won the 2016 election. There is a substantial faction of Republicans and Republican leaning voters who simply cannot stand him. Yes, he is overwhelmingly popular among his MAGA base which makes up about three quarters of the GOP and the majority of them are blindly devoted to the man no matter what he does. They are not just enthusiastic about voting for him they are ecstatic. The media sees this as a sign that he is virtually unbeatable even to the extent of pushing the narrative that he is the front runner for the general election and Joe Biden is on the ropes despite the polls saying that the race is very close. It’s not that he is in any danger of losing the nomination.

As Liz Truss joins Nigel Farage and Boris Johnson as the latest recruit to Steve Bannon’s dangerous and undemocratic internationalist ‘anti-globalism’ – more online information warfare and hate will be the result, writes Peter Jukes

The Scottish Green Party Co-Leader and Government minister says Islamophobia has been treated as less important than antisemitism, as he calls for media reform

Krisen i den svenska skolan har nått högskolan. I dagens Kaliber berättar universitets-lärare om studenter med låga förkunskaper, om krav som sänks och om ett ersättnings-system som ger mer pengar ju fler studenter som godkänns … Lars Pålsson Syll är professor i samhällskunskap och undervisar bland annat blivande lärare i statistik. Sedan han började undervisa […]

Don’t want to intrude on your personal decisions, but…. Note: The story below is not about new Missouri legislation to prevent divorce during pregnancy, but efforts by a Democrat to remove the existing state ban. The headline frames it badly, but in a clickbait way. X-user The Volatile Mermaid tweets, “Missouri law says pregnant women can’t get divorced, in case you were under the false impression that Republicans care about protecting life. It’s. All. About. Controlling. Women.” Freedom. It’s another case of Republicans and “You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.” WDAF-TV: JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – As it stands, Missouri judges cannot legally finalize a divorce if a woman is pregnant. Three other states have similar laws: Texas, Arizona, and Arkansas. While a couple can still file for divorce in Missouri, the court must wait until after a woman gives birth in order to finalize child custody and child support. When it comes to domestic violence, there’s no exceptions. “It just doesn’t make sense in 2024,” said State Rep.

Doctor Omega is a character created by French writer Arnould Galopin in his 1906 science fiction novel, Le Docteur Oméga.

Lee Anderson’s claims that the Muslim Mayor of London has handed the city to Islamists is another unsurprising example of the political culture the Conservative Party has normalised, writes Hardeep Matharu  

In this column, professional speechwriter Chandler Dean provides partly satirical, partly genuine “How To” advice focused on a hyper-specific subcategory of speeches—from graduation speeches to wedding toasts to eulogies, and all the rhetorical occasions in between.

So your best friend or sibling or child or cousin or a second-tier friend has asked you to give a toast at their wedding. In one sense, you should be honored—because you’ve been deemed one of the best people to put words to the exhilarating feelings associated with this unforgettable day. In another sense, you should be horrified—because you will be one of the last things standing between hundreds of travel-weary reception attendees and dinner.

But you can meet the moment and let the caterers mete out the meal, if you make these sacred vows:

Address the elephant in the room.

Former Democratic operative behind fake Biden robocall in N.H. From the What Were They Thinking Department. NBC News: Steve Kramer, a veteran political consultant working for a rival candidate, acknowledged Sunday that he commissioned the robocall that impersonated President Joe Biden using artificial intelligence, confirming an NBC News report that he was behind the call.  In a statement and interview with NBC News, Kramer expressed no remorse for creating the deepfake, in which an imitation of the president’s voice discouraged participation in New Hampshire’s Democratic presidential primary. The call launched several law enforcement investigations and provoked outcry from election officials and watchdogs. A former Dean Phillips consultant, Kramer claims he commissioned the call as an act of civil disobedience to protest the threat of artificial intelligence to political campaigns. He compares himself to Paul Revere and Thomas Paine. “This is a way for me to make a difference, and I have,” he said in the interview.

With apologies to the great Wendell Berry.

When despair for the world grows in me, and I wake in the night at the least sound, I sometimes go down to the local theater and check out the latest Marvel spectacle, preferably in 3D, because it’s more abundant in real pleasure.

Lately, though, the work of Marvel and its sort has been lacking in several kinds of sense. Here, then, are my humbly offered suggestions for improvement:

1. The villains have just not been believable. Why a squinting, purple monster looking to eliminate half of life in the universe when the strip mining industry is right there? Instead of sending a thermonuclear missile into space, the Avengers could handcuff themselves inside the Governor’s office as an act of nonviolent protest.

How medieval Christianity met humanist philosophy in Botticelli’s masterful Renaissance painting ‘The Birth of Venus’

- by Aeon Video

Watch at Aeon

Both folktales and formal philosophy unsettle us into thinking anew about our cherished values and views of the world

- by Abigail Tulenko

Read at Aeon

On stage as Mr Fruit Salad, I’ve seen how the bizarre and ridiculous can convey deep meaning in a way that resonates

- by Joz Norris

Read at Psyche

The wealth of U.S. millennials and older Gen Zers grew at an unusually fast pace from 2019 to 2022, with real estate gains driving overall asset growth.

Yours truly, of course, feels truly honoured to find himself on the list of the world’s 20 Best Econometrics Blogs and Websites. 1. The Stata Blog 3. Cambridge Econometrics Blog 9. How the (Econometric) Sausage is Made 14. Lars P Syll Pålsson Syll received a PhD in economic history in 1991 and a PhD in economics in 1997, […]

As efforts mount to finally tax private universities’ massive endowment funds, wealthy institutions are fighting back.