Musings on life, the theatre, technology, culture and the occasional emu sighting
I wrote a little something that I’ll share a link to here. It’s a little something about race in my hometown, growing up, and reunions in a mountain top restaurant sitting astride a country line.
You can find the piece called There You Go on Ellemeno, a publication on Medium. There’s an excellent collection of writers there.
Thanks to David Todd McCarty for letting me put my words down there.
That damn Constitution and those damn amendments. Always an obstacle. Especially depending on whether you use the paper it’s printed on as a shield, a weapon, a distraction, or a promotional tool.
Section 3 of the 14th Amendment is the hot topic these days. Here it is below:
Did I say hot topic? Tepid is probably more like it. Well, let’s put it this way. Legal scholars and TV talking heads are debating whether or not it’s self-enforcing and rules out a presidential run by you know who.
Let me say this about that:
If folks are fighting mad over whether or not the orange buffoon is either the saddest excuse of criminal humanity currently on the planet or some sort of divinely anointed martyr-to-be then I don’t think this debate is going to self-ennunicate a solution.
As long as Supreme Court Justices can wine and dine their vacations away on other folks’ dimes there’s no such thing as self-enforcing. Self-enriching for lawyers. But that’s about it.
Summer is heading towards Fall and we’re on lake time this weekend. So a shorter list of things to share. As usual it’s a potpourri of topics and great writing. Enjoy!
Mug shots were the talk of all the towns this week. David Todd McCarty takes a look at a bit of of mug shot shooting history in The Lost Art of Shooting Criminals.
Always fun to look back on the history of old school Chicago politics. Edward Robert McClelland takes just such a look back as he looks ahead in The Machine Has Given Way to Organizing.
This piece is a real pleasure from Natasha MH. Worth lingering over for more than two minutes. Check out A Two-Minute Pleasure.
In this world where the reliance on facts keeps diminishing Jonathan Taplin takes a look at How Musk, Thiel, Zuckerberg and Andresseen-Four Billionaire Techno-Oligarchs- Are Creating an Autocratic Reality.
And if Autumn is approaching so too is football. David. K. Li takes a look back at the Supreme Court case that changed the game (or rather the money behind the game), in Meet The Man Who Thinks He’s Screwed Up College Football With A Supreme Court Win.
An another harbinger of Fall is the build up and anticipation of new Apple gear. Jason Snell takes yet another look at the never ending debate surrounding the purpose of the iPad in Giving Up The iPad-only Travel Dream.
If you’re interested in just what the heck Sunday Morning Reading is all about you can read more about the origins of Sunday Morning Reading here.
Here’s some Sunday Morning Reading to share. It’s an interesting mix of topics that caught my eye (and prompts a bit of editorializing). Hope something catches yours.
With this being the 25th year anniversary of the iMac, Jason Snell writing for the Verge tells us How The iMac Saved Apple. Well worth your time if, like me, you have any interest in Apple and its hardware.
Work From Home is probably going to be a topic of interest for quite some time as we try to grapple with how we’ve changed since the pandemic began. (Hint: We haven’t come close to understanding how we’ve changed.) Jessica Grose has an intriguing NYTimes piece that takes the discussion a step deeper beyond just where we work but also how long we work in Leaving the Office at 5 Is Not a Moral Failing.
Chris Jones in the Chicago Tribune has an excellent piece called What Happened to Theater in Chicago. Looking at the doldrums we seem to be in following the pandemic, the piece hits many of the issues head on. Except one. High ticket prices. It’s not just Chicago. It’s nationwide.
A great piece of writing from Dorothy Gallagher called My Father’s House reminds us that a house is more than just a home.
And back to Apple stuff for a second, M.G. Siegler takes a look at StandBy for iOS 17, which is looking like one (if not the one) tent pole feature of the new release. If you ask me, if this type of feature, no matter how cool, is where we are with smartphone evolution, we’ve more than reached the end of the curve.
Artificial Intelligence is still the topic of the moment and probably will be for the rest of our lifetimes. Charles Jennings takes a look in a very good article with a title meant to provoke, There’s Only One Way to Control AI: Nationalization. If you ask me, it’s time to provoke and heat up the discussion.
Lisa Weatherby in the NYTimes takes a look at the eye-popping cuts now happening at West Virginia University. If projected decling enrollments suggest cutting programs in the liberal arts and humanities, it sounds like the game to make the world a bit dumber is succeeding.
If you’re interested in just what the heck Sunday Morning Reading is all about you can read more about the origins of Sunday Morning Reading here.
Don’t make promises you can’t keep. I can’t imagine anyone who hasn’t heard that at some point in their life. I also can’t imagine anyone who hasn’t made one of those “can’t keep” promises only to have it come back to bite then. Also can’t imagine anyone having not broken one.
That’s apparently where we are. We make promises, take oaths, utter vows, and swear on bibles stacked with meaning and historical symbolism. We enter into contracts and agreements. We teach our children not to lie. But when push comes to shove does it really matter?
As far as the US legal system is concerned Special Counsel Jack Smith has essentially told us it doesn’t. The First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution gives anyone the right to lie. Lying is protected political speech. if you can avoid slandering or libeling someone, or your target doesn’t have the resources to defend themselves, our much cherished freedom of speech gives you the right to lie your ass off. Legally.
That being the case, here’s the question: Shouldn’t we then dispense with the ritual and the formality of swearing oaths? What’s the point? Why do we need the symbolism for something most know is a public pageant and a sham?
We all know the oath that elected leaders, members of the military and other government services swear. Our founding fathers didn’t want to see us swearing fealty to any king or church, so we take an oath to support and defend the US Constitution. Many who have never taken that oath can recite it by heart. I’m not suggesting some don’t take it to heart and live it. But if enough don’t, it makes a mockery of those who do.
I can remember a small right wing media dustup when Obama and the Chief Justice muffed a few words during the swearing in ceremony. That dustup caused enough of a ruckus they later re-created the swearing in. Just to be sure.
We also all know the oath that folks swear on a witness stand or legal proceeding. That one includes the “tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth” part. We all know how flimsy that is. Heck, the entire legal profession is built on finding ways to keep clients avoid and keep them from divulging the truth when confronted.
So why keep up the charade? What is it about us that when things get dicey we’ll forswear oaths and vows?
In my opinion we all want to believe in something larger, that bolsters and binds our position beyond question. It’s supposedly an enobling act that raises the oath-taker to another plain, above it all, embuing the moment with a deeper unquestioned signficance. Or at times it’s a desperate plea for shelter when caught in the act. We swear to God and heaven. We swear on the lives and souls of our mothers and fathers. We swear on our children’s lives. And some even swear on a stack of bibles.
Oh. About those bibles. In rituals when hands are placed on bibles, there’s often personal and historical symbolism attached to the actual bible used in the act to deepen the signficance. Paradoxically, it’s intriguing that many Christian religions believe that the bible tells us in Matthew 5:34 to essentially forswear swearing on anything in Heaven or on Earth.
If you continue reading the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew you’ll find Jesus saying simply, “But let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes’ and your ‘No,’ ‘No.’ For whatever is more than these is from the evil one.” Interpretations of this range from a biblical forbidding of all oaths to it being allowed for ceremonial oath taking. It’s a debatable theological question. Ask the Calvinists and the Quakers. Some hold it tighter than others, which has resulted in affirmations replacing oaths in some situations. Some have simply rationalized it into the ether of meaningless.
Debatable or not, it calls into question the familiar customs and rituals around swearing in, taking vows, and taking oaths. We bind ourselves to these rituals for their significance and some sense of continuity. But in reality most see through the pageantry even while recognizing the holes in the plot. It’s like agreeing to support a couple’s wedding vows when everyone knows they aren’t going to make it.
Dropping out of the theological realm, I prefer to keep my own tussles with the truth grounded in that old saying “my word is my bond.” I’ve stumbled on that ground at times. But while it’s easy to take some comfort in the fact that I’m not stumbling alone, it’s still troubling. I don’t have answers, but it does make me wonder if we shouldn’t bring an end to the pageantry of public oath taking. There’s enough paradox already built in to call the entire thing into question. Why stand on ceremony when we can’t and aren’t expected to stand by our word?
We might have already reached that point without recognizing it as we see large portions of the population living in a fantasy world exposed by an orange madman who never uttered a word he couldn’t break in the next breath.
The willing suspension of disbelief is enough to make one swear.
On the road spending time with the grandson this weekend. So I’ll be brief. But these writers and articles are worth spending some time with this Sunday morning. A few of them writing about, well, writing.
I’ll kick off with a controversial piece by Adam Thirlwell in The Guardian who takes a look back to the French Revolution to perhaps find clues into why we’re writing and expressing ourselves quite so much today. Too much writing? Too much self-examination? Depends on what you call writing if you ask me. Anyhow, check out ‘We’re Gripped by graphomania’: why writing beame an online contagion and how we can contain it. I’m not one for containing any of this. The terrific examples below I think illustrate why.
Baldur Bjarnson is one of the thinkers I’m following when it comes to the topic of AI. He’s written a terrific piece called Authorship, in which he explores what happens when creative work, in this instance he’s using film to illustrate, becomes less about the author and more about the aggregator.
One of my most recent discoveries NatashaMH has written two excellent pieces that I recommend. The first is The Need To Write And The Will to Heal From Our Traumatic Experiences.It’s quite a journey. The second is A Portrait of A Woman and is also more than worth your time. Great stuff.
Natasha tells us this piece by David Todd McCarty, I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For inspired her to sketch A Portrait of A Woman. I’ll take her word for it. It damn sure stands on it’s own and sorta makes me hope he never does find it.
Talking at The Texaco is another McCarty piece worth your time. As you read it and you think you know where it’s headed, hang on. You don’t.
So much, too much, of our energy is being taken up with all of the news surrounding the orange buffoon and the shit he’s dragged us all into. It’s worth remembering we’ve been here before. While I’m not a fan of Rich Lowry, this look back at Huey Long is a good reminder. We’ve been here before. Damn shame we’re so good at burying those memories.
And to close this out and look ahead, the Farmer’s Almanac is out with it’s predictions for the winter. If they’re correct, many of us might be bundling up this winter.
If you’re interested in just what the heck Sunday Morning Reading is all about you can read more about the origins of Sunday Morning Reading here.
Back home after a two-week road trip supporting my wife teaching her summer acting camp. Needless to say we’re pooped. The kids were amazing. Regardless, here’s some Sunday Morning Reading to share.
Movies are big news this summer because of a couple of big original ones (Barbie and Oppenheimer), but also because the unions for writers and actors are on strike. James Surowiecki in The Atlantic lands a take on the strike and says Netflix opened the door for this upheaval in A Strike Scripted by Netflix.
One of my favorite writers I’ve recentlly discovered, Natasha MH, pens an incredible review of Barbie entitled The One About Barbie.
And while I’m raving about Natasha MH, take a look at this incredible piece of hers, The Need to Write and The Will to Heal From Our Traumatic Experiences. Excellent.
And since it’s Sunday, I think this piece by Jake Meador called The Misunderstood Reason Millions of Americans Stopped Going to Church is a worthy read. I’m not so sure it’s so misunderstood.
George Dillard in Rome Magazine tackles the orange guy racking up indictments like bowling pins in Trump’s Defense: I’m a Stupid Liar.
I rarely link to pieces I find ridiculous in Sunday Morning Reading. But this one is rarely ridiculous in how the logic turns in on itself and defeats the entire point. David Brooks takes on the what’s happening in American politics and wonders What If We’re The Bad Guys Here? Think of it as comedy.
And to close out this week, here’s an excellent piece by Elizabeth Lopatto in The Verge, What Would The Internet Of People Look Like Now? Hits to how we got to where we are today in this crazy thing called “online.”
If you’re interested in just what the heck Sunday Morning Reading is all about you can read more about the origins of Sunday Morning Reading here.
The casualty list is growing in the wake of Trumpty Dumpty’s pants on fire attempts to save himself. The latest is Freedom of Speech, so called, and enshrined in the First Amendment. Apparently that’s the current defense the billowing buffoon is going to wield. Most buffoons would know better.
Much of the American Catechism has already been rendered obsolete. Apparently Trump and his defenders think there’s no holy of holies too holy to not poke holes in. The gutter has never had so much flowing through it as they snipe and snip at whatever they can in desperation. Desperation has never worn well.
Sure, Jack Smith headed that off in the early parts of the latest indcitment. Sure, most thinking humans understand what’s going on. Though, there’s apparently not enough Immodium in the world to plug this free flowing Freedom of Speech diarrhea from spewing from what used to look like mouths.
These knuckleheds surely don’t seem to understand that they’re soiling themselves with humilating stains that aren’t going to come out in the wash. Their ignoble profession of politics is becoming more ignoble by the moment. By the time we’re done with this shitshow there’s not going to be enough mouths worth talking out of both sides with. Frankly it stinks.
It would be comical if the stakes weren’t so high. But they are.
And they’ve got company on the casualty list. The Gray Lady apparently thinks there’s a “both sides” argument that can be made between lies and free speech. Take this headline and article: Trump Election Charges Set Up Clash of Lies Versus Free Speech. Set aside the ridiculous headline. Set aside the both-siding. Focus instead on this:
Throughout his careers in business and politics, he has sought to bend reality to his own needs, with lies ranging from relatively small ones, like claiming he was of Swedish and not German descent when trying to rent to Jewish tenants in New York City, to proclaiming that President Barack Obama was not born in the United States.
If you repeat something enough, he has told confidants over time, people will believe it.
By and large, this trait has served him well, helping him bluster and bluff his way through bankruptcies and then to the White House and through crises once he was there: personal scandals, two impeachments and a special counsel’s investigation when he was in office.
For the few folks reading this who might claim to be in the uninitiated, think for a moment which newspaper of record in which big city that prints all the news that’s supposedly fit to print is now essentially admitting that they’ve been content and willing to print lies masquerading as news. That’s a lot of newsprint to hoist on any petard.
Remember this is a journalism outfit that argued over and over that they couldn’t use the word “lie” to describe the decaying orange turd’s behavior because they couldn’t be inside someone’s head. But, hey, Jack Smith has said it in an indictment. So we can too!
Look, when you’re in the middle of a car wreck, an avalanche, or running from a tsunami, it’s tough to understand what’s happening moment to moment. I get it. But folks, we’ve seen whatever you want to call this cataclysmic moment coming for quite some time. Knee-jerking cultists aside, the fact that you’d expect better reactions from elected officials and journalists defies that expectation.
Self-immolation has never burned so bright.
Forget all of the somber, obligatory admonitons that Trump’s third indictment is a sad day for America. Forget all the “innocent until proven guilty” catechisms. Yes, both are true. But set them aside. They would be worth holding dear if these were ordinary times. These times they are not ordinary.
Trump has backed himself into a corner and taken the United States, all its systems, institutions, and people with him. After all the posturing, all the lying, and all the bullshit, there’s only one way out for the Donald and that’s straight ahead like the wounded beast he is. Otherwise the walls defining the corner will slam shut on him like a book. And us with him. Either way we’re the collateral damage.
This moment Trump has brought us to is consuming our body poliitc like a flesh-eating bacteria. Necrotizing tissue as it goes, it has already left wounds and scars that will never heal. It will gobble up more. Our political and judicial systems have been rendered to the point of irrelevancy. The media has been over exposed as the leeching parasite it always was, content to slurp up any crumbs and drippings the host leaves in its wake. Churches and religious denominations have been cannibalized from within. Family and friendship bonds have been gnawed down to the marrow.
And yet we keep hoping, praying, and, dare I say, pretending that Special Prosecutor Jack Smith is going to bring this despicable criminal to justice so we can turn a corner and find our way back.
There’s no back to find our way to, regardless of the legal outcomes. Frankly there’s no back to find our way to even if somehow this monster suddenly disappeared from the planet. The damage has been done. And I don’t think we collectively have what it takes to bridge the gaping wounds, much less comprehend them. Our political systems are incapable of stopping the slaughter of children with guns. Our spiritual institutions keep remaking foundational tenets into something unreconcilable with their founding. And we’re going to fix this?
The wounds are fresh. The pain is real. There’s a monster in our midst and it’s going to take extraordinary measures to defeat it. Nothing will be the same if we do. Nothing should be the same as we try. And if there’s any healing to come it’s not going to happen without amputations that alter the way we navigate the world.
Tom Nichols defines the situation many of us will face as we battle through these months ahead in his excellent article “This Is The Case.” This is the key paragraph:
“But after today, every American citizen who cares about the Constitution should affirm, without hesitation, that any form of association with Trump is reprehensible, that each of us will draw moral conclusions about anyone who continues to support him, and that these conclusions will guide both our political and our personal choices.”
Tough? You bet. Dangerous? Yup. But this is the moment this pitiful excuse of a man has brought us to. If you’re not ready to face the moment, the challenge, and the stakes I’m sorry for you. Know that those who’ve abandoned their senses and their place in the real world for this monster sure are. Know they’re coming. Each of us needs to be ready to stand in their way.
How the hell did it get to be August?
Life on the Wicked Stage: Act 3 