"This was the voice of moderation until 13 Sept, 2025"
by Doctor Science The struggle continues! Again, based on my Goodreads ratings. Best Novella 5 ☆: All Systems Red by Martha Wells | The Black Tides of Heaven by J.Y. Yang. Deciding which of these to rank higher is the purest form of torture. It’s possible I love All Systems Red more (because ♥Murderbot♥), but … Read more
Part Three of a Series by JanieM Today I went to the 2018 Maine Artisan Bread Fair at the Skowhegan Fairgrounds. I fulfilled my main goal, which was to buy some heritage wheat flours from Maine Grains. Their “Sirvinta” variety won’t be available until after this year’s harvest, but I got a bag of Red … Read more
by Doctor Science It’s getting down to the wire (again) for Hugo Awards voting, so I’m going to finalize my ballot by writing about it for you. This year I’ve made things easier on myself by using goodreads to keep track of what I’ve read and what I thought about it at the time. I … Read more
Awfully quiet around here. In case you’re bored and you feel like going on a treasure hunt, some dictionary has lost its definition of sanctimony. It was last seen roaming around the countryside in the guise of a tall guy with a self-satisfied smile on his face. Geez, what an asshole. [Hat tip to Anne … Read more
by Doctor Science Yesterday was Amazon “Prime Day”, and workers for Amazon in Spain and other European countries were on strike (I don’t know if this had anything to do with the site’s technical problems). Amazon is a notoriously terrible employer, but when I look at how CEO Jeff Bezos is running the company and … Read more
by JanieM Three headings: a memoir, a novel, and a panel discussion. 1. The memoir: Call Me American, by Abdi Nor Iftin Abdi Nor Iftin is an immigrant from Somalia, a young man in his early thirties who settled in Maine a few years ago. As a boy in war-torn Mogadishu, he was so enthralled … Read more
by russell In the SCOTUS post, Sebastian raised the problem of the Supreme Court making rulings that result in laws and policies that do not reflect the will of the people, i.e., do not align with what the majority of people want. Which is something to be concerned about. If governance drifts too far from … Read more
by Ugh As many (some?) of you know, I was "lucky" enough to take Constitutional Law from Prof. John "Torture? Hell yeah!" Yoo at Berkeley, back before his tenure at OLC in the Bush Administration. This was Con Law I, which mainly focused on things like separation of powers, the rights and duties of the … Read more
by liberal japonicus Ok, that’s probably overstating it. But I realize that not everyone is a football fan or even a sports fan here. But even if you aren’t, read this LGM post and the attached links and get back over here to chat. Fascinating stuff.
by liberal japonicus Wanted to riff a bit off of something that has come up in Sebastian’s thread on court packing, which is Russell saying “Win elections. There is no substitute.” Which had me think about this Jamelle Bouie piece (via LGM), where something the Count mentioned stood out: Under the Trump administration, even naturalized … Read more