Political realignments take time
Josh Marshall, who studied history before he became a journalist, thinks the civic democratic vs. authoritarian contest in the US won't end with the next election—or the ones after it (sub. req.):We...
View ArticleEuropean cities mend car-centric streets
Paris, Barcelona, and Brussels have taken back streets for pedestrians, streets never designed for cars:Strategies vary, from congestion charges, parking restrictions and limited traffic zones to...
View ArticleThe tipping point
Frustrated with point-of-sale systems suggesting you tip the self-checkout machine 25%? You're not alone:[T]raditional tipping patterns are being disrupted in unpredictable ways, raising workers’...
View ArticleXPOTUS disqualified in Colorado; SCOTUS appeal imminent
The XPOTUS racked up another first-in-history court ruling yesterday that already has US Supreme Court law clerks cancelling their Christmas vacations:Colorado’s top court ruled on Tuesday that former...
View ArticleEvening round-up
I can't yet tell that sunsets have gotten any later in the past two weeks, though I can tell that sunrises are still getting later. But one day, about three weeks from now, I'll look out my office...
View ArticleThe tragedy and pathos of Rudy Giuliani
Back when I was growing up, Rudy Giuliani destroyed the Italian mob in New York City. Today he declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy to avoid paying a $148 million defamation verdict—the day after the people...
View ArticleIn other crimes...
May your solstice be more luminous than these stories would have it:Chicago politician Ed Burke, who ruled the city's Finance Committee from his 14th-Ward office for 50 years, got convicted of bribery...
View ArticleCartoon villainy from our "friends" in the Mid-East
Climate scientist Rollie Williams explains the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia's not-so-secret plan to get "every molecule" of hydrocarbons out of the ground:Seriously. You can almost hear them twiddling their...
View ArticleErev Christmas Eve evening roundup
As I wait for my rice to cook and my adobo to finish cooking, I'm plunging through an unusually large number of very small changes to a codebase recommended by one of my tools. And while waiting for...
View ArticleThe coolest thing I've seen this week
I'm just monkeying with code today, not waiting six years for the perfect alignment on a clear evening to take one photo. Seriously, Monday's NASA Astronomy Photo of the Day blew my mind.
View ArticleLast work day of the year
Due to an odd combination of holidays, a use-it-or-lose-it floating holiday, and travel, I'm just about done with my first of four short work-weeks in a row. Not that there's anything wrong with...
View ArticleIt was always about slavery
The "Lost Cause" mythology of certain good ol' boys in the Republican Party deliberately obfuscates the real causes of the US Civil War, as Brynn Tannehill describes in a well-written Twitter...
View ArticleSaturday morning miscellaneous reads
I don't usually do link round-ups on Saturday mornings, but I got stuff to do today:Josh Marshall is enjoying the "comical rake-stomp opera" of Nikki Haley's (R-SC) primary campaign.The Economist pokes...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Statistics: 2023
Last year continued the trend of getting back to normal after 2020, and with one nice exception came a lot closer to long-term bog standard normal than 2022.I posted 500 times on The Daily Parker, 13...
View ArticleAny news? No, not one single new
Wouldn't that be nice? Alas, people keep making them:Harvard University president Claudine Gray finally threw in the towel.Researchers at Rutgers University have identified clear patterns in TikTok...
View ArticleMid-week mid-day
Though my "to-be-read" bookshelf has over 100 volumes on it, at least two of which I've meant to read since the 1980s, the first book I started in 2024 turned out to be Cory Doctorow's The Lost Cause,...
View ArticleThe real cause of the Civil War
Paul Krugman succinctly puts to bed any obfuscation of Southern aggression:But it may be worth delving a bit deeper into the background here. Why did slavery exist in the first place? Why was it...
View ArticleParty like it's 1948
It was a busy day, so I didn't have a lot of time to write a substantial post. I did want to highlight Nate Cohn's comparison of President Biden's situation going into the 2024 election and another guy...
View ArticleI hope we're well shot of him
Facing a criminal trial for corruption that he will probably lose, National Rifle Association CEO Wayne LaPierre resigned earlier today:Mr. LaPierre, 74, has led the organization for more than three...
View ArticleNon-political news stories of the day
A small collection:The CTA's Yellow Line has resumed service seven weeks after a train hit a stopped snowplow near the Howard station.Europe needs more trains, so they're building them.Scholars...
View Article