“This means the United States would be kept in the dark about a lot of things going on in the world.”
“McBride’s response is a masterclass in dealing with bullies.”
“Now, reproductive rights groups are preparing for legal and legislative battles in a new, less friendly environment. They are planning to embrace a multipronged approach: challenging anti-abortion policies in court, organizing political protests, and lobbying state and national lawmakers to oppose proposed bans.”
“It would be very beneficial for Democrats to create scorecards right now charting where inflation, unemployment and GDP were at the end of Biden’s term and regularly updating it with Trump’s latest numbers. One of the smaller benefits of this is these three numbers are currently pretty hard to beat. You can only get them slightly lower or higher, depending on which statistic you’re referring to and you can get them much further into bad territory.”
“Enjoy Your Air Travel This Thanksgiving. Next Year Will Likely Be Much, Much Worse.”
“Johnny Carson was a genius in the art of being liked, which is remarkable, considering he wasn’t, on paper, especially likable: A largely absent father, philandering husband, a sometimes mean drunk, a fiercely private figure even to many close to him. He was a talk-show host who didn’t always seem to enjoy talking to people.”
RIP, Alice Brock, the inspiration for the classic song “Alice’s Restaurant”.
“Sen. Dick Durbin plans to introduce the Fair Ball Act, a bill that would further protect minor league baseball players from previous legislation that exempted them from wage and hour laws”.
“It doesn’t read as a rebuke to Khelif’s harassers so much as a denial of their significance. The sense of power she projects makes them seem powerless by comparison: They’re preoccupied with imaginary tales about a 25-year-old Algerian they’ve never met. She’s winning gold and looking like a superstar.”
“The SS United States is a mid-20th century ocean liner that set the speed record for crossing the Atlantic. Now tied up at a Philadelphia pier, its paint peeling and faded after decades of inactivity, it’s bound for an ending that is, in reality, a new phase of its life: serving as an artificial reef that attracts divers and marine life in the waters off Florida.”
“You just don’t know who the crumbs you scatter behind you will feed. You never know where things will land, and who they will land with, and for what purpose. And you don’t have to. You just keep putting what’s in your heart and mind out there. And you keep doing the inner work to ensure your heart and mind are rooted in truth, love, humility, curiosity, knowledge, and wisdom. Never assume you can coast on your goodness. Keep interrogating yourself. And keep putting yourself out there.”
“Adultery is no longer a crime in New York.”
RIP, Jim Abrahams, writer and director who worked with the Zucker Brothers on Airplane!, The Naked Gun, Police Squad“Demure” is your Dictionary.com word of the year.
“Chinese state media is reportedly troubled by the latest exodus of X users flocking to Bluesky. State outlets, which put considerable resources into amassing millions of followers on Elon Musk’s social media platform — including by buying ads, deploying bots, and hiring influencers — have recently seen their growth plateau.”
“This might all look a certain way: Ah, a right-wing billionaire trying to make the public stupider to suit his own ends! No, Musk doesn’t mind controlling an information ecosystem. But I think what he’s really after is something more specifically self-interested.”
“Give thanks to undocumented immigrants for these items on your table”.
I don’t know if this story about orcas and salmon hats is real or a joke – the news sites carrying it are sketchy, to be sure – but it made me laugh, so what the hell.
RIP, Earl Holliman, actor who was in the very first Twilight Zone episode.
RIP, Madeleine Riffaud, journalist, war correspondent, poet, hero of the French resistance in WWII.
“After more than five years of frenetic, but sometimes interrupted, reconstruction work, Notre Dame Cathedral showed itself anew to the world Friday, with rebuilt soaring ceilings and creamy good-as-new stonework erasing somber memories of its devastating fire in 2019.”
“Hal Lindsey died in the year 2024 at the age of 95. According to everything Hal Lindsey spent his long life arguing, none of that should be true. According to Hal Lindsey, he should never have lived to be 95. According to Hal Lindsey, the year 2024 should never have arrived. And according to Hal Lindsey, he should never have died.”
RIP, Lou Carnesecca, Hall of Fame basketball coach mostly at St. John’s University, New York City legend.