Some rules and observations for Christmas music, which I endorse.
“While Republicans in the political class will no doubt cite [Roy] Moore’s loss as proof that their party needs to nominate stronger, more mainstream candidates next year, it’s far from certain that primary voters on the ground will heed such pleas from the swamp.”
The science of Star Wars, or why you’re probably not getting a light saber for Christmas.
“Why Anakin Skywalker should’ve been removed from the Jedi Order for sexual harassment”.
“But what those critics don’t recognize is that the nationalistic, race-baiting, fear-mongering form of politics enthusiastically practiced by Mr. Trump and Roy Moore in Alabama is central to a new strain of American evangelicalism.”
How’s that War on Christmas going?
“In hindsight, the Climategate hack, clearly timed to disrupt the Copenhagen negotiations, looks like a precursor to the hack that helped shape the outcome of the 2016 election.”
Meet Kirsten Karbach, the only female baseball play-by-play person working for a professional affiliated club. For now, at least.
“So a bitcoin is just a share of this system. It’s like stock in a newer-and-not-improved PayPal. Although that might be selling it a bit short. It’s more like a time machine that exclusively takes you back to 1999, the peak of the dot-com mania.”
“So I think some of the white evangelical celebration following Trump’s Jerusalem is a sense of relief and of renewed hope that Rapture Christianity might stage a comeback. Rapture Christians have now been given a pretext for resetting the clock and restarting their perpetual countdown. Never mind 1948. The clock starts now — with God’s chosen people (America) officially recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. Trump just gave them a fresh set of downs — another 40 years in which to revive their message of an urgently imminent Rapture.”
RIP, Mamie “Peanut” Johnson, one of three women to play baseball in the old Negro League.
The Disney “Hall of Presidents” attraction will never be the same.
“The Trump presidency is a huge political fact. Donald Trump may not be the leader of American conservatism, but he is its most spectacular and vulnerable asset. The project of defending him against his coming political travails—or at least of assailing those who doubt and oppose him—is already changing what it means to be a conservative. The word conservative will of course continue in use. But its meaning is being rewritten each day by the actions of those who lay claim to the word. It is their commitment to Trump that etches Trumpism into them. And while Trump may indeed pass, that self-etching will not soon be effaced.”
“So stand up. Speak out. Our country needs all of us to raise our collective voices in support of our democratic ideals and institutions. That is what we stand for. That is who we are. And with a shared commitment to our founding principles, that is who we will remain.”
RIP, Heather North, longtime voice of Daphne in Scooby Doo cartoons.
“Young children believe aging is directly tied to celebration, and it is the act of attending your birthday party that makes you age another year. Without the cake and candles, according to a number of the study’s subjects, a kid could stay 3 forever.”
$1.5 trillion could buy a lot of truly useful things instead of lining the pockets of rich people.
RIP, Dick Enberg, Hall of Fame sportscaster.
RIP, Clifford Irving, author of the infamous hoax biography of Howard Hughes.
RIP, Bruce McCandless, first astronaut to float untethered in space.