New York attitudes
I think that the Times should know better than to typecast residents of the five boroughs as crude vulgarians. Let’s not equate a New York City state of mind with the likes of Trump and Scaramucci.
My 2¢, or $50
More nightmare. More money to the American Civil Liberties Union.
Being transgender and serving with honor
Jessie Armentrout, a Naval engineer, on serving in the military.
An Eagle Scout’s response
Jonathan Hillis, an Eagle Scout and a co-founder of Scouts for Equality, offers his thoughts about yesterday’s disgraceful performance by Donald Trump.
Saving Western civ
Charles McNamara, a lexicographer for the Latin dictionary Thesaurus Linguae Latinae, writing about what defunding the NEH will mean for his work.
An observation
From the Manchester-born novelist Howard Jacobson.
“Center of the World, Ohio”
An especially good episode of To the Best of Our Knowledge.
Baby’s First Resist-Story
Fresca and bink have created an alphabet book with wash-away illustrations: Baby’s First Resist-Story. A is for alternative facts.
The real reason for “no town halls”
Talking to constituents in ones and two means that there are, in effect, no witnesses, no one else listening and thinking and making up or changing her or his mind. No reporters either.
Life’s “we”
Life’s sense of an American.
Nationalism, patriotism, and possible futures
From the historian Timothy Snyder: “A nationalist will say that ‘it can’t happen here,’ which is the first step toward disaster. A patriot says that it could happen here, but that we will stop it.”
“The individual who investigates”
From the historian Timothy Snyder, writing about the importance of distinguishing between truth and falsehood.
If ever there was a need for misinflammation . . .
Anthony J. Blinken’s opinion piece in today’s New York Times cries out for use of the timely word misinflammation, coined in these pages last year.
“Believe in truth”
From the historian Timothy Snyder, the tenth of twenty lessons on tyranny.
Lucy, hygge
Nearly forty-seven years ago, Lucy appears to have anticipated the recent North American interest in the Danish idea of hygge.
Plagues
“Subjugation of science, learning, and human discourse,” and others.
“Maybellene,” General Tso’s chicken, and “cultural appropriation”
Jonathan Zimmerman on “the mostly left-wing quest for cultural purity.”
NEA, NEH, CPB funding
A visual representation of the combined budgets of the National Endowment for the Arts, National Endowment for the Humanities and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
Another text for the day
“We Irish are not Know Nothings.”
Cultural xenophobia
From Jane Jacobs.
Families planning for the worst
Listening to this NPR story made me wonder what country I’m living in.
International Women’s Day
Cooper Hewitt’s Object of the Day is a poster.
Frederick who?
Does Dunning K. Trump think Frederick Douglass is a living human being? Does he have any idea what Frederick Douglass is known for?
Then and now
“Nonetheless, through a combination of intentional propaganda and general paranoia, the perception gained traction that America was being swamped with exiles to the point where millions of jobs and democracy itself were at risk.”
10 Actions/100 Days
From the folks who gave us the Women’s March on Washington.
Dan Rather on these times
“Facts and the truth are not partisan. They are the bedrock of our democracy.”
E. B. White on America Firsters
Fascism, nationalism, and America Firsters.
Margaret Atwood’s “Letter to America”
“If you proceed much further down the slippery slope, people around the world will stop admiring the good things about you.”
Word of the day: tyrant
Our president-elect appears to possess the traits of both Platonic and theatrical tyrants.
Words for these times
From the American Heritage Dictionary, words for these times: “Minions, sycophants, toadies, and other creatures.”