liberal japonicus

by liberal japonicus This Guardian long read is interesting. Such obstacles made the ship an off-putting proposition for insurers. No one would agree to cover them. “They wouldn’t even tell us why we weren’t insurable, they just kept saying no,” Romundt said. “It’s kind of hard to remedy something if you don’t know what the … Read more

by liberal japonicus Some may have noted that two threads were temporarily closed. This was done in part because of some private knowledge that GftNC was going through, and will be going through for the whole month of September, a particularly difficult time. She’s told me that she will almost certainly not be replying to … Read more

by liberal japonicus Not my best title, but whatever. Tons of things to link to out there, here are a few of them John Roberts has lost control of the Supreme Court The Scotus also has the relatively mild mannered Josh Marshall sounding like he wants to storm the Bastille SCOTUS Delenda Est Reminiscent of … Read more

by liberal japonicus A week or two ago, this article was posted by CharlesWT about the word that made the play MacBeth so creepy. Nous observed the following Brief response to CharlesWT’s Macbeth article, I think the reason why the number crunching quant side of literary analysis meets resistance is mostly because the data results … Read more

by liberal japonicus Tossing out another quasi open thread. My FB has a number of Canuck friends getting their ballots in the mail. Here’s the WaPo article on it. Anyone want to talk about this? I do have a joke that I heard that seems apropos. One Mexican was speaking to a compatriot and said … Read more

by liberal japonicus I don’t know what everyone saw of the Olympics. Here in Japan, it was very much contested, seemed very Japanese, as if the country put on a show for the rest of the world, but no one came。 This is a wonderful article about Yu Miri and the Olympics by Miles Osgood. … Read more

by liberal japonicus Since I’ve been found out, I figure I should just fly my hammer and sickle flag. Debout, les damnés de la terre!! But naturally, the Japanese flavor of Marxism tastes a bit different…. https://palladiummag.com/2021/08/20/the-school-that-built-asia/ But during its lifetime, the Japanese colony was a highly unusual exercise in the history of imperialism. The … Read more

by liberal japonicus This op-ed from the South China Morning Post might give something to talk about. The piece is actually quite interesting, contrasting the glee expressed by various Chinese sources and the nervousness of a potential flash point with the Uighurs that could arise. A lot of Western media have accused the outlet of … Read more

by liberal japonicus As I mentioned earlier in a comment, I was going to go back to posting a Friday open thread. I’m not sure why I stopped, but maybe it was just was too mechanical to post ‘This is an open thread’ without doing anything else. It was obviously too easy for me to … Read more

by wj It feels like we are overdue for another Open Thread. So here are a couple of totally unrelated items to kick it off. First, it appears that a Texas school district may have found a possible way around idiot governors who want to ban mask mandates: dress codes!!! https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2021/08/18/texas-masks-paris-dresscode-abbott/ Authority over these seems … Read more

by liberal japonicus A flurry of new discoveries at Göbekli Tepe https://www.archaeology.org/issues/422-2105/features/9591-turkey-gobekli-tepe-hunter-gatherers https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20210815-an-immense-mystery-older-than-stonehenge Amazing stuff

by liberal japonicus There are a ton of articles, so any list is going to suffer from selection bias. This 1-2 punch from LGM sums up my feelings Dan Nexon‘s take concludes with Events in Afghanistan do not necessarily provide retrospective justification for a continued presence there or buttress future arguments for U.S. intervention, military … Read more

by wj Here in California, we are having a recall election for our Governor. Why? After all, it’s not like the mess with Cuomo in New York. Well, today the official Voter Information Guide with Sample Ballot arrived in the mail. The official reason: Governor Newsom has implemented laws which are detrimental to the citizens … Read more

by liberal japonicus Lest it be felt that we are ganging up on one person, I post this for our favorite libertarian Jeffrey Clark, the highest-ranking DOJ official who tried to install Donald Trump as dictator, has been rewarded with a nice sinecure with a prominent libertarian litigation group The NCLA is not a fringe … Read more

by liberal japonicus The previous post was an invitation to talk about history and society. However, I found this article quite interesting and thought it might spark some interesting thoughts https://www.thelancet.com/journals/laninf/article/PIIS1473-3099(21)00333-9/fulltext Medicine could arguably be described as man’s greatest achievement beating out other fields of endeavor because it must have been a lot harder to … Read more

by liberal japonicus We are just starting back to face to face classes and still under social distancing so my teaching is still rather constrained, which, strangely enough, means that I’m much busier. So I think I would have been much more plugged into reading about and trying to transmit information to students about this … Read more

by liberal japonicus [The jury is going into deliberations, so am opening this now] Not sure about this, but via LGM, this link gives a detailed day by day description of the Chauvin trial https://www.startribune.com/what-happened-today-in-the-derek-chauvin-trial/600031856/ Some other reporting suggests that a lot of people are following the trial, which is being televised live. Perhaps people … Read more

by liberal japonicus Some questions about trans rights and existence came up. I approach this topic hesitantly. I sometimes deal with younger people who come to Japan and I have met a few who are gender-fluid. When my daughter had to return because of Covid, she did her classes for the last term on zoom … Read more

by liberal japonicus When I first arrived at my posting in France to be a teaching assistant at a lycée, I was put in a residence facility with several other assistants and after a week or so, one of the British assistants said after a long day ‘my god, I am knackered’. This Grauniad article … Read more

by liberal japonicus I played golf, but was never very good, but for a time, followed it. And I love reading about sports, especially as it intersects with society, so was pretty familiar with the story of Lee Elder. So this story was quite interesting to me. We have some golfers as well as some … Read more

by liberal japonicus I share a page from MIT peofessor’s website that I ended up at because 1) all of the academics in the crowd might enjoy it and 2)Hartmut can probably find something to add. After Reisig’s death, Ritschl was without a doctor father. But Meier took the high road and took him under … Read more

by liberal japonicus Well, the pushback against the restrictive voting laws in Georgia and Texas is happening. A couple of links, please add your own. Georgia https://www.npr.org/2021/04/01/983450176/based-on-a-lie-georgia-voting-law-faces-wave-of-corporate-backlash https://www.cbsnews.com/news/georgia-voting-law-coca-cola-ups-home-depot-voter-rights-ups-delta-for-the-people-act/ https://www.ajc.com/politics/georgia-state-legislature/election-laws-how-georgia-stacks-up/KYO7CBZFVFAC5HFUT4XHZURKWI/ Texas https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/texas-voting-rights https://www.cnbc.com/2021/04/03/georgia-texas-gop-election-laws-us-companies-face-pressure-to-oppose.html I enjoyed Josh Marshall’s take on it (normally behind a paywall, but the share is supposed to allow you to view it. In … Read more

by liberal japonicus Perhaps time to take a break from fevered dreams of libertarian heavens, one commenter suggested I put this article forward. https://www.americanpurpose.com/articles/the-tolling-bell/ While I agree with the notion of the exhausted center, I have to admit, the article doesn’t really grab me so much, though at this point, ‘centrism’ seems to be outmoded. … Read more

New pasta shapes https://kottke.org/21/03/the-invention-of-a-new-pasta-shape Otherwise, a food open thread. (via a friend on facebook)

by liberal japonicus I wanted to make a post about copyright, patent and IP, though there has already been some discussion. First, a copyright story. When I first came to Japan, I was based at a high school with a really good band. They are called brass bands here, but they are just like your … Read more

by liberal japonicus I’m grateful to Janie for the open thread, and I encourage you to keep posting there, but it seems that talk about revising the filibuster is increasing so a thread to discuss that. Here is the Vox article (I am appreciating their explainers more and more) and a TPM article that points … Read more

by liberal japonicus From that Marxist rag, the Atlantic. The researchers also found that the guaranteed income did not dissuade participants from working—adding to a large body of evidence showing that cash benefits do not dramatically shrink the labor force and in some cases help people work by giving them the stability they need to … Read more

by liberal japonicus Commentariat regular nous wrote New Mexican apple pie (with hatch chilis, piñon streusel, and cheese in the crust) is the pinnacle of apple pie as far as I’m concerned. Found some recipes, here’s one https://www.newmexico.org/nmmagazine/articles/post/an-official-new-mexico-state-pie/ Favorite dishes or ones you want to try, with or without recipes. My daughter is coming home … Read more

by liberal japonicus Thought I’d crack open a quasi open-thread with two links This one, from TPM, has some great info about the current energy systems crisis in Texas. And this one from lifehacker, entitled How to Take Time Off Without Screwing Over Your Coworkers, leads with a picture of Ted Cruz. Have at it!

by liberal japonicus This is a side story and it seems to have only been picked up by the San Francisco outlets, but to me, it says a lot. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) threatened Vice President Kamala Harris with a potential impeachment trial in an appearance on “Fox News Sunday.” The interview, conducted one day … Read more