Poetry – Life on the Wicked Stage: Act 3

Sunday Morning Reading

Hands on with playwrights, movies, smart toilets, and a discomforting rooster

Another Sunday. More snow overnight. More shoveling later. The holidays creep closer or perhaps they’re already here, given that grandpa mode has kicked into high gear. Started writing a new play out of the blue yesterday. I have no idea why, but it just tumbled out of my brain on to the screen via the keyboard. Time to share some Sunday Morning Reading. Read as you will, even if it’s on a smart toilet.

I often save the softer pieces for later in this column, but I’ll lead today with David Todd McCarty’s Christmas Means Comfort. Tell that to the rooster.

The world lost a treasure this week with the passing of architect Frank Gehry. Lee Bray writes a nice obituary and tribute. Check out Architect Frank Gehry Who Designed Millennium Park’s Pritzker Pavillion and Foot Bridge Dies at 96.

Samuel Beckett’s Hands is a terrific piece by Rob Tomlinson about, well it’s about Samuel Beckett’s hands and how Dupuytren’s contracture may have influenced not just how, but what he wrote, given that Beckett always begin his writing with pen and paper.

While I’m sharing stories about playwrights, the movie Hamnet is garnering lots of attention and accolades. (I haven’t seen it yet.) Based on Maggie O’Farrell’s excellent novel of the same name, Hamnet mostly follows accepted scholarship that William Shakespeare wrote Hamlet while grieving the death of his son, Hamnet. (At the time, the two names were practically interchangeable.) As with most things Shakespeare, there’s generally accepted knowledge and there are always those who challenge it. James Shapiro takes a look at The Long History of the Hamnet Myth.

And while I’m sharing stories about movies, take a look at Susan Morrison’s piece on How Noah Baumbach Fell (Back) In Love With The Movies.

I linked earlier this week to a piece by Phillip Bump called There Are Limits to the Hitler-Trump Comparison. Just Ask These Historians. I don’t disagree with the thesis. I just think it stops short in the way most history usually does.

Rory Rowan and Tristan Sturm write that Peter Thiel’s Apocalyptic Worldview Is A Dangerous Fantasy. Here’s hoping this first draft of our current history proves lasting.

There’s been much talk about all things military recently given how the current administration is tossing away most of what we believe the military stands for as easy as my grandson tosses away toy soldiers. Carrie Lee says The Soldier In The Illiberal State Is A Professional Dead End. I concur. Sadly.

In the wake of the cataclysm that was Twitter, social media is essentially a messy muddle these days with users continuing to migrate from one platform to another seeking some sort of place that feels comfortable enough to share and often discomfort others. Ian Dunt writes what he calls a love letter to one platform with Thank God for Bluesky.

Smart toilets were in the news this week. I actually got to see and use one at a Christmas party last night. All I could think about while doing my business was this piece by Victoria Song called Welcome To The Wellness Surveillance State.

And to conclude this week, Amogh Dimri informs us that the Oxford University Press has chosen Rage Bait as 2025’s Word of the Year. Dimiri thinks it’s a brilliant choice. I guess it begs the question, if we’re angry enough to rage, is it really baiting?

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. If you’d like more click on the Sunday Morning Reading link in the category column to check out what’s been shared on Sunday’s past. You can also find more of my writings on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome.

Sunday Morning Reading

Balancing on the edge of a coin

Regardless of the many problems with the Internet, there’s no denying its benefits. One of those is the pleasure of reading stuff I probably would never be aware of without it. In many ways that’s what this Sunday Morning Reading column is about (as well as my life in general on the Internet.) When you read and live life enough, you discover that the trick is always balancing on the edge of the coin that separates the two sides.

There’s comfort perhaps landing on one side or the other, but life is actually in the fragile middle of the muddle somewhere, even if it’s a fine, and increasingly thinner line, often hard to discern.

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First up this Sunday is a piece by Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memo called Fear, Greed, Civic Virtue and the Fall of the Elites. Pay attention to that word “virtue.” As Marshall points out it originally meant “manliness.” The word’s evolution is as tricky as the concept itself.

Follow that up with Ian Betteridge’s The Politics of the Missing Middle.

Ian Betteridge’s law of headlines that says any headline that ends in a question mark can be answered with the word “no.” Steven Levy falls into Betteridge’s trap in his piece, Can AI Avoid The Enshittification Trap? Cory Doctorow’s theory of Enshittification has been a popular topic in this column and Betteridge’s law certainly applies here. For those looking for a primer on enshittification Greg Rosalsky has a a quick primer on the topic in A Theory Why The Internet Is Going Down The Toilet.

While technically not falling under the umbrella of enshittification, some of the ways folks are using AI sure sound shitty. Check out Alexandra Jones’s I Realized I’d Been ChatGPT-ed Into Bed: ‘Chatfishing’ Made Finding Love On Dating Apps Even Weirder.

Things are getting weird indeed. Adi Robertson tells us that The Next Legal Frontier Is Your Face and AI.

Several pieces on the arts and creativity stood out to me this week. David Sparks’ The Inherent Value Of The Creative Act reflects on his creative life and his resistance to using AI for the work of creating, but it helps with his administrative tasks. There’s that edge of the coin again.

Authoritarians always target art and artists first. You don’t need an Internet to discover that history, or perhaps we might if the current forces in charge have their way. Andrew Weinstein discusses Trump’s Campaign To Defund The Arts—and Rewrite History.

Speaking of creativity or rather the other side of that coin, Joe Rosenthal takes on Creative Neglect: What About The Apps In Apple? I mentioned some of this in a piece I wrote this past week.

Speaking of that edge and to close out this week, here’s an image of a Mastodon post by friend David Todd McCarty from this morning.

CleanShot 2025-10-26 at 07.29.46@2x.

(Coin Image above from ABARONS on Shutterstock)

Sunday Morning Reading

Winter is coming. Or is it here?

It’s a Sunday and that means it’s time for Sunday Morning Reading. Fall is beginning its march towards Winter, but the chill in the unusually warm Chicago temperatures this weekend aren’t weather related. Some of that is reflected in today’s selections as well as other topics, some that feed the soul, while others fuel the fires.

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It’s tough to watch what’s going on in the streets of some of our cities and towns, and there’s no denying what Ian F. Blair points out That The United Police State of America Has Arrived.

Another Ian, this time Ian Dunt, discusses The Politics of Drawing a Moral Line, sketching a parallel between events in Britain and the Ezra Klein interview with Ta-Nehisi Coates. By the way, I encourage you to listen to that interview. It’s not easy, but nothing is these days.

Chicago’s Neil Steinberg comments that Next, Dyeing the River Green Will Be Cast As A Terrorist Act. I don’t think he’s far off.

On the Artificial Intelligence front, what was bound to happen happened when OpenAI released Sora, its tool for creating short movies, or better yet (worse yet?) putting yourself into one. That followed quickly on the heels of the uproar over the creation of Tilly Norwood, an AI actress created out of bits and bytes, and her creator seeking talent agent representation. Hollywood producers and bean counters are thirsting over better bottom lines ahead. Maureen Dowd has an interesting look at When A.I. Came For Hollywood.

Meanwhile one of the tech overlords, Peter Thiel, is obsessed with the antichrist and thinks tech is the only way to keep whatever that is from destroying us all. Laura Bullard takes a look at what’s behind Thiel’s obsession. Don’t be surprised at where Thiel drew some of his inspiration in The Real States, and Real Story, of Peter Thiel’s Antichrist Obsession.

Continuing on the Artificial Intelligence beat, Bullsh*t Warning from John Warner, examines how to think about writing in the age of AI.

Mathew Ingram asks So What’s So Great About Reading Books?

And to wrap things up this week, take a look at Christopher Michael Hefner’s On Letting Go Of The Idea Of The Tortured Artist.

I included the image above from Fotgraf Petrova Olga on Shutterstock of an empty playground because I noticed this week that Chicago’s parks and playgrounds are empty of the laughter and life we usually experience due to ICE activity throughout the city before Winter begins to set in. There’s a different chill in the air this Fall.

Sunday Morning Reading

Traveling through the crazy paying attention along the way

It’s been a fortnight since I’ve published one of these columns due to travel. So much has happened. The travel adventures to London and Memphis were great. The way the world continues to pull itself apart continues to not be, as witnessed by protests and a madman’s threats of troops in the streets followed me from Chicago to London to Memphis. You can shut off and shut down to enjoy new places and visit dear friends, but the insanity keeps getting more insane. So, Sunday Morning Reading is back at it this week, with a mix of politics, culture and a bit of tech. (Oh, yeah, Apple released new iPhones during all of that.) If you can’t feel the currents flowing together, you’re not paying attention.

On my travels my wife and I caught some theatre. Two plays by Shakespeare and the contemporary play Stereophonic. The two Shakespeares were one of his worst, Merry Wives of Windsor, and one of the best, Hamlet. We’re theatre rats and know the importance of the medium and certainly recognize the role writers in all mediums play in our lives, history, and culture. So too does a favorite writer of mine, David Todd McCarty. Check out his important piece The Reason You Need To Be Making Art Right Now. And if I may be so bold, the other Sunday Morning Reading links below demonstrate that to a tee.

NatashaMH reflects on free speech, punk rebellion and British satire in When Satire Was Safe. Great piece. I dare say, satire has never been safe even when tolerated. Plenty of fools can attest to that. Ask Yorick.

I mentioned there’d be politics and here’s a few links to some excellent context on just how damn familiar all of what we’re living through is. For those who bother to pay attention. First up is Mark Hertling’s Beware Today’s ‘Fire-Eaters’. If you don’t know that term, read the piece. You’ll recognize today’s fire-eaters in a second.

On a broader scale, take a look at Nikki McCann Ramirez’s interview with Mike Duncan in Are We Witnessing The Fall Of The American Empire? My short answer is yes. Here’s the money quote that should terrify us all:

So if we go this route, we’re going to have congresses, we’re going to have Supreme Courts, we’re going to have a President of the United States, there will be governors, there will be elections, it’s just what’s happening underneath that facade. The facade is never going to go away, it’s how tissue-thin the facade is.

Follow that up with George Packer’s America’s Zombie Democracy.

For a bit of recent history and context, check out The Story of DOGE, As Told By Federal Workers from a team of Wired writers led by Zoe Schiffer.

As I mentioned Apple released new iPhones last week. Om Malik seems quite taken with the new iPhone Air, although he has some concerns in Go Out & Get Some Air.

In this column and other posts I’ve been following Denny Henke’s journey to de-Apple himself in his tech life with a keen interest. I greatly admire his drive and his sharing of his efforts. Check out My Ongoing Effort To de-Apple the iPad.

And to bring this all back around, take a look at Neely’s Tucker’s sharing of a guest post by Patrick Hastings, Nobody Would Edit Shakespeare, Right? Right? They have and they do. David Garrick wasn’t the first or the last. Throughout history we always look for the ways to make it easier to swallow tragic moments and unhappy endings. In the theatre and on the stages of our lives.

(The image above is of David Garrick’s monument in Westminster Abbey, taken by me on my recent travels.

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. If you’d like more click on the Sunday Morning Reading link in the category column to check out what’s been shared on Sunday’s past. You can also find more of my writings on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome.

Sunday Morning Reading

The lazy days of Summer

We’re technically out of the Dog Days of Summer, but it doesn’t feel much like it. It’s the kind of hot Summer I remember as a kid when the dogs would spend the hot part of the day lazing under the porch. I’m spending mine traveling (too much traveling) and sharing what I can here and there. Find some shade and check out this week’s Sunday Morning Reading.

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Peter Wehner thinks the only way out of the wreckage we’re in is to rewrite the cultural script. Tall task. He spells it out in The Virtue of Integrity.

Knowing is half the battle. What you do with knowledge is an altogether different story as knowing and knowledge are two different things. Check out Jim Stewartson’s piece The War on Knowing.

Somehow in all of the wreckage we’re sorting through, empathy became a bad thing for those doing the wrecking. NatashaMH thinks this crazy Artificial Intelligence race we’re in is taking the human out of being human. If you ask me it’s all a bit too human as we look to foist off responsibility for the choices we make. The Risks of Synthetic Empathy is a great piece. Give it a read.

Then take a look at Mathew Ingram’s piece, People Fall In Love With All Kinds of Things Including AI Chatbots. When chatbots start filing for divorce I think we might have created Artificial Generative Intelligence.

Kyle Chayka is exploring The Revenge of Millennial Cringe. Home may be where the heart is, but it was a terrible song.

Stephen Marche is talking about Profound and Abiding Rage: Canada’s Answer to America’s Abandonment. Abandonment is a good way to describe what we’re all feeling these days.

Apple’s about to unleash new operating systems for its devices in a few weeks and the one that has my interest is for iPads. From what I’ve seen (I don’t run the betas) the changes to the multi-tasking capabilities will be a positive step forward. Craig Grannell takes a look at how long it took for Apple to finally make these changes in Apple Finally Destroyed Steve Jobs’ Vision of the iPad. Good.

Chicago’s Uptown Theatre celebrated 100 years this week. Robert Loerzel takes a look in Uptown Theatre: 100 Years of Glory and Decay.

When you think you’re the center of the universe it can rock your world when you find out you’re not. Kids learn this. Republicans in the current administration have not. Eric Berger writes about NASA’s Acting Chief Calls For the End of Earth Science at the Space Agency.

(Image from Machekhin Evgenii on Shutterstock.)

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. If you’d like more click on the Sunday Morning Reading link in the category column to check out what’s been shared on Sunday’s past. You can also find more of my writings on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome.

Sunday Morning Reading

With aging comes awareness. Or at least it should.

We’re on Lake Time this weekend, but there’s still time to share some Sunday Morning Reading.

Two weeks ago I shared a piece from youngster David Todd McCarty titled When I Was Old. I’m resharing it this week since I celebrated a birthday on Friday, getting one year closer to marking seven decades on this rock. Also sharing another great piece from David, called I Was Told There’d Be More.

“Scented memories.” I like those two words put together by NatashaMH in her piece, The Fragile Geometry of Becoming.

I’ve been an Elmore Leonard fan for as long as I can remember. Anthony Lane’s Elmore Leonard’s Perfect Pitch may not be perfect, but it is damned close enough.

David Struett delivers a terrific ode to Chicago bike messengers, their culture and their jobs in Meet Chicago’s Last Bike Messengers. Here’s How They Survive.

You might notice a touch of sentimentality and reminiscing in the pieces above. Comes with the thoughts during a birthday weekend. Fair warning though that most of the links shared below are a bit darker, and yes, more political than those above. With aging comes awareness. Or at least it should.

Mathew Ingram wonders What Do We Do When The Facts Don’t Matter? I think we’re not liking what we’re finding out.

Mike Masnick’s piece Facism for First Time Founders offers the next generation a clue or two, assuming the current generation doesn’t crash it all before they get a chance to discover them.

I’ve written about the concept of enshittification in tech quite a bit. Mostly as regards the Internet. Henry Farrell and Abraham L. Newman take a look at The Enshittifcation of American Power.

Another big contributor to enshittification is the media who increasingly seem more and more clueless and devoid of any self awareness. Charlotte Kim takes a look Inside The Media’s Traffic Apocalypse.

Speaking of things toxic and shitty, Adam Aleksic explores How Incel Language Infected The Mainstream Internet — and Brought It’s Toxicity With It. I’ve spent almost 70 years on this planet. I have no idea why guys turned into such misanthropic, self-loathing idiots.

In a world seemingly more and more intent on criminality, there are very few surprises, but there are legacies. Jessica Winter’s What I Inherited From My Criminal Great-Grandparents. Great story.

To conclude this week I’m sharing a film review by Sonny Bunch. This one of the new film Eddington. I haven’t seen the film. I plan to. Rarely does a review encourage or discourage me from seeing a film. If it’s anything like Bunch describes one way or the other I’m sure it will be worth it as it sounds like a fun, yet conflicted, summary of lots of things we’ve all been living through since 2020, and continue to do so. I’ll leave it with this quote:

The feed never stops, the algorithm never tires. There’s always more. It never ends. Just a few more videos. You can sleep later. You can never sleep, if that’s what you’d prefer. Who knows what you’ll miss when you’re asleep?

And we wonder why everyone has gone a little nuts.

Sunday Morning Reading

Do we need Superman or just a Speakeasy?

I’m not sure about how you’re viewing all the things swirling around us these days and maybe it’s just the prism I’m seeing the world through, but most of the writing that attracts me all seems to relate. The common denominator is human arrogance, (perhaps it’s arrogant for me to say that). On the other hand is the push back against it, whether it be in global or national affairs, technology, or simply finding a new way to connect in what seems like old ways. Anyway, that’s a thread running through my mind as I share this week’s Sunday Morning Reading.

Freedom of Speech and Disinformation are two sides of the same worn coin that I’m afraid is on the verge of losing any of the value it once represented. Ian Dunt says that Progressives Are Rediscovering Freedom of Speech after the populists essentially used it as a cleaver to butcher it.

On the other side of that coin, Mathew Ingram says that Disinformation Isn’t A Supply Problem It’s a Demand Problem, asking how do you correct a belief?

In a world were some want to remake it in an image that excludes those it deems undesirable, it turns out some Far-Right Influencers Are Hosting a $10K—Person Matchmaking Weekend To Repopulate The Earth. Manisha Krishnan tells the story in Wired.

Speaking of humanity, Thom Hartmann thinks, Even Mice Have More Humanity Than Trump, Musk and the GOP. He’s right.

Timothy Snyder has one of the best pieces I’ve seen on SignalGate called SignalGate: Violating National Security. It doesn’t get more simple than that title, and yet, we’re in a world where we let it get stupid, silly, and so much more complicated than it needed to be.

Greenlanders seem to be pushing back with a bit more tenacity than most Americans want to muster at the moment. Sarah Ditum offers A Tip For JD Vance: Greenland Doesn’t Care About Your Frail Human Ego.

On the technology front, Artificial Intelligence keeps dominating most discussions. Steven Levy takes a look inside Anthropic and its version with Anthropic’s Claude Is Good At Poetry-And Bullshitting. Here’s the thing that always makes me laugh about AI fluffing and fulminating. We keep playing circular games with these things, creating them, we’re told, to be better than our falliable selves at reasoning and to be more efficient to free our minds from drudgery. We are good at the creating part yet seemingly not smart enough to recognize the fallibility in all of our arrogant bullshitting. We’re obviously not smart enough to recognize that, so what makes anyone think anything artificial we create will do any better?

Apple continues stewing in juices of its own making as it heads into its next cycle of OS releases, leaving many aching for the days of Snow Leopard, a release which supposedly was aimed at bug fixes more than new features. Matt Birchler reminds us that this was one of those bullshit marketing myths too many fell for in The Snow Leopard We’ve Built Up In Our Heads and links to a terrific rundown of why that was indeed a myth from Jeff Johnson in The Myth And Reality of Mac OS X Snow Leopard.

As for the pushing back part of today’s introduction, take a look back, or listen back in cultural history at this piece in OpenCulture. Turns out after World War II, as the KKK was once again gaining some momentum, Superman stepped in to help slow things down. Check out Superman Vs. The KKK: Hear The 1946 Superman Radio Show That Weakened The Klan.

Watering holes are great places for connecting with other humans whether it be for refreshment, survival, or merely just a human connection. David Todd McCarty publishing on LinkedIn takes a look at The Return of The Speakeasy, reminding us that nothing was or is easy.

Image from Michael Constantine on Unsplash

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. You can also find more of my writings on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome.

Sunday Morning Reading

Tough reads for tough times with a nod to the Commodore 64.

The rapid decay of all things continues. I’m not even sure if “decay” is the right word. “Collapse” might be a better choice. Regardless, there’s no “decay” or “collapse” in my sharing articles and writing every week in Sunday Morning Reading. Enjoy.

Russell Shorto tells us that the fracture we’re facing shouldn’t surprise in America’s Fatal Division Is Nothing New: It Was Baked In From The Beginning. He’s right and that’s also nothing new. We just have a propensity for ignoring what we shouldn’t.

Marc Elias says We Can’t Give In To Fear. He’s right. But with those we mistakenly counted on having already done so, it makes it tougher for the rest of us.

Brian Barrett of Wired (which continues to do excellent reporting) gives us a rundown on The United States of Elon Musk. Good piece with good context. I don’t disagree with his premise that it’s unsustainable. The larger concern is what’s left in its wake.

NatashaMH opens up a personal tale of exploring justice, relationships, and personal power in The Price of Guns And Butter.

Things aren’t just decaying on political and social fronts, technology is marching right alongside, if not leading the charge. John Gruber lays out a mea culpa of sorts in discussing Apple’s less than intelligent move into Artificial Intelligence in Something Is Rotten In The State of Cupertino. Om Malik also weighs in with Apple Intelligence, Fud, Dud or Both. I’ll have more to say on this later this week. I wrote a bit about it last week also.

Will Knight, (again in Wired) tells us that Under Trump, AI Scientists Are Told To Remove ‘Ideological Bias’ From Powerful Models. Tell me. Who didn’t see this kind of thing happening?

Cory Doctorow in Pluralistic lays out how Amazon Annihilates Alexa Privacy Settings, Turns On Continuous Nonconsensual Audio Uploading. One way user agreements flow only one way. Again, who didn’t see this coming?

In times of uncertain futures it’s always somewhat uncomfortably comforting to reminisce about simpler times. When it comes to technology there was perhaps no simpler or more innocent time than during the age of the Commodore 64, which was my first home computer. We’ve come a long way. Gareth Edwards takes a look at Jack Tramiel’s success in How Commodore Invented The Mass Market Computer.

(Image from Ashni on Unsplash)

The Farce of Ritual

The ritual games cowards play.

We’re a bunch of cowards. Mostly. And we take cover behind rituals, ceremonies, and traditions.

I’m sure at some point in your life you’ve attended or participated in a wedding which you knew was doomed. Yet, when the officiant asked if you were willing to support this union you went along and agreed. I’m guessing you never spoke up when given the opportunity to do so either. You later danced with the bride or the groom, wished them well, went back to your beverage and whispered into the ear of your plus one that there was no way the marriage would last.

Their choice. Their life. Their bad.

Perhaps at some point you’ve participated in a meeting of the PTA, or some other local body, or a social organization with an elected structure. Or perhaps you’ve been both lucky or unlucky enough to perform public service in a government organization of some sort.

Regardless of the situation, the mission, or the efforts of those involved, if you’ve done any of the above or similar, you know just how much of a farce the rituals we hide behind in these circumstances don’t really offer much cover, because if those you’re working with don’t see through the thin veneer of the farce and the roles they play, eventually someone watching catches on.

Yet we perpetuate them. We don’t rock the boat out of some misguided quest for comity, community, or conviviality.

We’re doing that on a national and global scale these days as the U.S prepares to descend into a maelstrom that everyone sees coming, and like that moment in a wedding ceremony when the rolling waves make us a bit queasy, there’s no stomach for stopping the proceedings.

Certainly there are folks sounding the alarms about what’s to come politically, socially, and economically in the coming days. Those voices unfortunately are drowned out by a chorus of congratulations, traditions, and a fear of sticking necks out.

When a marriage ends in the failure you knew would happen and did nothing to try and stop it’s easy to take comfort in the knowledge you were right all along. Smug self-righteousness and reliance on traditions isn’t going to be worth much when this shotgun wedding comes to an end.

Watching the ritual confirmation hearings that accompany the change of administrations confirm my view that we prefer farce even when it presages a tragedy we can all see coming. Better to just surf along with the current and not make waves large enough to capsize the ship of state. Eventually those waves crash home and nature’s rituals wash away those we’ve built.

For the record, nobody ever says bad things in public about the deceased at a funeral either.

You can find more of my writings on a variety of topics on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome. I can also be found on social media under my name as above.

Sunday Morning Reading

The world gets meaner, uglier, and stupider, but Sunday mornings are still for reading.

The world continues to spin off its axis. And yet, it is another Sunday. So, here’s some Sunday Morning Reading to share.

One of my theatre professors used to say that we weren’t really doing theatre “unless someone with guns showed up at the box office to stop you from selling tickets.” Given how things are going these days those words keep coming back to me. Especially after reading this article about Svetlana Petriychuk and Yegenia Berkovich, who were put on trial by a Russian military court and found guilty of “justifying terrorism.” Check out Valarie Hopkins’ article Russian Playwright and Theater Director Are Convicted of ;Justifying Terrorism.’

Steve Radlauer and Ellis Weiner continue their excellent serialized tale, The Split, with Chapter Thirty-Six at The Wonkette. I highly recommend you check out the entire thing.

You might want to prick up your ears at this one. David Rothkopf discusses America’s Death Wish.

Scammers and Con Artists are in vogue these days. To some it’s the American Way. Check out Priscila, Queen of the Rideshare Mafia by Lauren Smiley. It’s a wild ride.

NatashaMH and David Todd McCarty each recently took a dip into the technology and design pool and how it splashes all over our culture. Natasha took a trip to the what she calls ‘Planet Apple’ via the new Apple Store in Kuala Lumpur and not only marvels at the design of the store but might have lost her Android religion in the process. Check out Taking a Bite of the Apple. Meanwhile McCarty thinks that the further technology allows us to advance the dumber we become in Better Than Ever But Worse Than Before.

Returning to the sentiment that opened this week’s edition, check out White Supremacy With a Law Degree: How Do We Escape ‘The Originalism Trap”? By Paul Rosenberg.

George Dillard says We’re All Hostages of Ego as he discusses the fate of our country and how it relies on the psychology of two elderly men.