Weekend link dump for June 28

“The real test is whether Francis can convince conservative politicians of the reality, and urgency, of climate change. The reaction so far, at least in the United States, suggests he can’t. John Boehner, Paul Ryan, Jeb Bush, and Marco Rubio—all Catholic—have all dismissed Francis at some point.”

Now this is a casting call.

“Mainly, though, the historical roots of white evangelical antipathy to environmentalism and of white evangelical climate denialism comes down to two things: Shirley MacLaine and Al Gore. That’s it.”

“Artist Julia Wytrazek has perfectly imagined what Velma, Daphne, Shaggy, and Fred would have worn from 1910 through to the ’90s.”

Playing the stadium game with the NFL is for suckers. Your best bet is to not get involved.

The so-called “dark web” is a lot smaller than you think.

Some charter school teachers are starting to unionize. That sound you hear is Dan Patrick’s head exploding.

Three words: Donald Trump pinata. You’re welcome.

RIP, Gunther Schuller, jazz and classical musician and composer.

Our Nutella problem, which is something neither my wife nor my daughters will want to hear.

A photographer’s response to Taylor Swift in re: paying artists for their work.

“At noon on Sunday afternoon, a 16-year-old French girl made Major League Baseball history. Melissa Mayeux, a shortstop on the French U-18 junior national team, became the first known female baseball player to be added to MLB’s international registration list, which means she will be eligible to be signed by a Major League club on July 2.”

Here’s a roundtable discussion by several female sportswriters on the topic of Melissa Mayeux.

“It seems to me, if you are comfortably insulated from risk, you ought to be very, very careful about supporting policies that put other, more vulnerable people at greater risk. You ought to be damn sure you have good reasons, that you haven’t just fallen for a self-justifying fairy tale.”

Doing without Adobe Flash Player and its myriad security problems.

RIP, Daniel Villanueva, co-founder of Univision.

RIP, Dick Van Patten, ubiquitous actor.

“The Informed Consent materials explicitly communicate items of religious opinion that directly contradict the deeply-held beliefs of women within The Satanic Temple. […] As we reject the informed consent materials entirely, the waiting period justification is moot, acting as nothing more than an obstacle against acting upon a decision made with deference to deeply-held religious beliefs. In this way, abortion waiting-periods, too, violate our rights to free exercise.”

We’re not monsters because we say or do the wrong thing. We’re monsters when, later, we refuse to learn.”

“The VA is still paying benefits to 16 widows and children of veterans from the 1898 Spanish-American War.”

“Since Sept. 11, 2001, nearly twice as many people have been killed by white supremacists, antigovernment fanatics and other non-Muslim extremists than by radical Muslims”.

Jiggery-pokery is the new argle-bargle.

RIP, Froggy Williams, All-American football player from Rice University.

“The creature was so strange that it took fourteen years for scientists to work out which way up it stood. And now, nearly four decades after its original discovery, we finally know—clearly and conclusively—which end is the head.”

“In the aggregate, there’s a case to be made that the Roberts Court, in general, is coming to liberal decisions more often than was expected. See the New York Times for the full details. But in this case, even if liberals are happy with the Obamacare decision and conservatives are upset about it, deferring to Congress’s clear intent is supposed to be the way conservative judges rule.”

“In practice, extending full citizenship and human rights to all regardless of sexual orientation and identity is actually not all that controversial — at least not after the fact.”

“So now Obamacare is finally safe, right? You’d think so, wouldn’t you? But Republicans are obsessed with Obamacare like no other law that’s been passed in decades. It’s kind of scary, the same way it was scary watching the unhinged Captain Ahab stumping around the Pequod. So no, Obamacare is still not safe. Not unless Democrats win at least the White House, and maybe both the White House and the Senate, in 2016.”

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