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To live freely in writing...
Judi Dench was on Graham Norton last night to push her new book about her life and work with Shakespeare. After making the point we quote Shakespeare daily without knowing it, this happened: pic.twitter.com/CIhP39b4Bs
— Justin Sherin (@wychstreet) October 27, 2023
I'm sure Peckham is doing humor. Right?
Didn't we boomers all have back-to-the-land fantasies (and experiences!) back in the day? And didn't the NYT covered our madness too?
I'm reading the New York Times version of the story of the melting down of the Charlottesville Robert E. Lee statue.
Metafilter discusses this event, saying things like: "The bride and groom are 31 and 30 respectively. You cannot fathom how old this headline makes me feel in my bones" and "My 46-year-old self, realizing that Frances is four years older than her father was when he died, is going to be sitting in the semi-dark this evening, listening to old albums and thinking about things."
Mr. Bowman will plead guilty to the single false fire alarm charge, and has agreed to pay the maximum fine of $1,000.... Mr. Bowman was accused of intentionally pulling the alarm to cause a delay, but he claimed it was accidental....
“I am embarrassed to admit that I activated the fire alarm, mistakenly thinking it would open the door. I regret this and sincerely apologize for any confusion this caused,” Mr. Bowman said at the time. “But I want to be very clear: This was not me, in any way, trying to delay any vote. It was the exact opposite — I was trying urgently to get to a vote.”
I see the blog has a theme today: transparent lying.
[U.S. district judge Tanya] Chutkan’s gag order, which is currently paused, bars Trump and his attorneys from speech that would “target” foreseeable witnesses, prosecutors in the case and court personnel....
The ACLU said the order is vague enough to violate Trump’s due process rights, contending he “cannot possibly know” what he is permitted to say.
“The entire order hinges on the meaning of the word ‘target,’” the ACLU wrote in its brief. “But that meaning is ambiguous, and fails to provide the fair warning that the Constitution demands, especially when, as here, it concerns a prior restraint on speech.”
The civil liberties group also contended the order is overly broad in violation of Trump’s First Amendment rights, saying it could prevent him from speaking about key points in the campaign, including the results of the 2020 presidential election and the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot.
Boldface added (to highlight First Amendment doctrine).
This is the D.C. federal court case, but there's also a gag order in the civil fraud trial in state court in New York. Trump has been fined twice for violating the state court gag order, and Trump took the stand in in that case yesterday.
The state court judge, Arthur Engoron, questioned Trump about his saying there is a “very partisan judge with a person who is very partisan sitting alongside him, perhaps even more partisan than he is.” Was he talking about the judge's law clerk? Trump testified that he was talking about Michael Cohen! How was Michael Cohen, a witness, "sitting alongside" the judge?
Did Trump lie under oath? That's a separate matter, of course, with no bearing on the question whether the gag orders violate Trump's free-speech rights.
ADDED: If you're trying to picture the seating arrangement: "The judge's clerk, Allison Greenfield, typically sits right next to the judge, and during pretrial hearings often questioned attorneys for the two sides herself."
Hmm. Okay. Mike Johnson.
"Rep. Mike Johnson elected speaker, breaking weeks-long stalemate" (WaPo): "He is antiabortion, voted against Ukraine aid and supports LGBTQ restrictions.... Johnson received votes from all 220 Republicans present."
From the NYT: "Who Is Mike Johnson? One of the House’s Staunchest Conservatives. A lawyer and former chairman of the conservative Republican Study Committee, he played a pivotal role in congressional efforts to overturn the 2020 election.": "Mr. Johnson’s hallmark in Congress has been combining his hard-line views with a gentle style. He emerged at a moment when members of the conference were worn down and ready to accept someone who they did not view as an obvious choice. Instead, he passed a lowered bar: They view him as someone sufficiently conservative and who they do not personally despise."
Wow...seeing #HurricaneOtis rapidly strengthen from a Tropical Storm yesterday at noon to a Category 5 Hurricane at midnight is astounding...almost mind boggling. #Acapulco #Hurricane pic.twitter.com/9jgOu1F8Bg
— Meteorologist Zach Maloch (@ZachMalochWX) October 25, 2023
... Emerson told police officers that he thought he might’ve been having a “nervous breakdown” and disclosed that he hadn’t slept in more than 40 hours and had consumed psychedelic mushrooms for the first time....
One more reason to adhere to your ethics even when you are having a lucid dream.
Even as... restrictions reduced the legal abortion rate to near zero in some states, there were large increases in places where abortions remained legal. Researchers said they were driven by the expansion of telemedicine for mail-order abortion pills, increased options and assistance for women who traveled, and a surge of publicity about ways to get abortions. The response by abortion providers and activists to the end of Roe v. Wade, it seems, has resulted in more access to abortion in states where it’s still legal — not just for women traveling from states with bans but also for women living there.... In the 12 months after the Dobbs decision in June 2022, there were on average 82,298 abortions a month, compared with 82,115 in the two months before Dobbs....
I'd like to see more detailed information. I had to look up how late into pregnancy an abortion pill works. The answer is 10 weeks. What if Dobbs hasn't reduced the number of abortions, but it has motivated women to seek early abortions? Has there been a decrease in mid- and late-term abortions?
This anti-Israel protest is mostly comprised of white far-left extremists in masks… pic.twitter.com/XxDlmjkHGn
— Eli Klein (@TheEliKlein) October 23, 2023
If the idea is to stir up interest in a big new movie when a strike is depriving the press of access to actors, this is not the way to do it. I'd consider going out to see "Killers of the Flower Moon" just because it's a Martin Scorsese movie that reviewers have praised. I'm hesitant though, because I know the thing is 3 hours and 26 minutes long, so I need to believe it's not boring. And then I see this:
In his interviews with prosecutors [in the classified documents case), Mr. Pratt recounted how Mr. Trump once revealed to him sensitive information about American nuclear submarines, an episode that Mr. Trump denies....
The Failing New York Times story, leaked by Deranged Jack Smith and the Biden “Political Opponent Abuser” DOJ, about a red haired weirdo from Australia, named Anthony Pratt, is Fake News. I never spoke to him about Submarines, but I did speak to him about creating jobs in Ohio and Pennsylvania, because that’s what I’m all about.... Maggie Hagerman and the Misfits never called me for a comment. Why would they, they just write anything they want. Whether it’s correct or not is of ZERO importance to them. “All the News That’s Unfit To Print.” That’s why we call it the Fake News!
Should Trump be calling a man "a red haired weirdo"?
But here's a whole paragraph from "What’s in Your ‘Spend the Night’ Bag? A toothbrush, sure, but some people bring everything they need to feel comfortable (and a whole lot more) for a romantic overnight" (NYT):
Jordan Character is a natural health specialist in Los Angeles, so when he’s staying at a woman’s home, he brings a change of underwear, socks and an assortment of natural hygiene products that include fluoride-free toothpaste, shea butter and natural soap (“I’m definitely not washing my body with Dove”). He usually carries psychedelic mushrooms and essential oils on him, so that’s coming, too. “I bring my own water as well,” he said, adding that it’s alkaline. “I’m not trying to get caught up drinking tap water, bro.” He also brings all-natural lube and non-latex condoms: “I just bring one because I don’t want to seem like I’m there just for that.”
That's the subheadline to the Atlantic article "Too Many People Own Dogs" by Rose Horowitz.
I feel like I know what this article says and I agree with it... all before reading it. Do you?
Let's see.... "American humans" these days are more anxious than ever, and it's no coincidence that dogs are anxious too... or anxious humans are just interpreting their dogs as anxiety ridden. Lots of dogs these days are getting dosed with Prozac. Therefore, we're told, getting a dog is "ethically murky."
People who adopt "rescue" dogs may feel proud of their ethics, but they're more likely to begin with a dog that is already anxious. And the way people live today, they may plan to keep the dog indoors nearly all the time. Then they are going to worry about this dog of theirs that seems to be mentally ill.
Israelis do not forgive failures to secure their safety. Golda Meir left politics after the debacle of the 1973 Yom Kippur War, in which Israel lost nearly 3,000 soldiers following a surprise Egyptian and Syrian attack. Her name is reviled by some in the country to this day. But what happened on October 7, 2023, was worse than what happened on October 6, 1973. Meir lost soldiers—people who had purposely put their lives on the line. Netanyahu lost civilians—the people the state and its soldiers were supposed to protect.... In the end, the man known as “Mr. Security” failed by his own standard, and he failed to fulfill the fundamental expectation of his fellow citizens.....