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by Ugh Yes I'm rooting for the Patriots. For some reason I like to see records pushed as high as they can go.  Thus, Brady wining a 6th ring in his 8th Super Bowl appeals to me.  As does Federer continuing to win grand slams (do we really have to wait until Wimbledon to see … Read more

by Ugh One of the selling points of the "tax reform" legislation, now commonly known as the Tax Cuts & Jobs Act, or TCJA (or the Corporate Tax Lawyer Full Employment Act), is that it would in time increase wages by a certain amount.  The economists' view of how this would happen is by decreasing … Read more

Bailey Holt and Preston Cope The 11th school shooting since 1 Jan, and the 50th this academic year.

by Doctor Science Ursula K. LeGuin has died. The SFF community knew she was fading, but we hoped, illogically, that there would be a reprieve, time for more encores. For so many of us, she was our mother, our teacher, our grandmother. An icon of what we might do, and even more of what we … Read more

by wj We’re way overdue for a new open thread. So here it is. To kick-start things, I noticed something interesting this morning. A bunch of items in the Washington Post on the general theme of how things played out over the weekend regarding the shutdown. For example, this one entitled White House Strategy: Keep … Read more

by JanieM I’ve just started making and eating bread again after about twenty years of (mostly; it’s hard) avoiding wheat. I was going to write a post about these adventures, but the more I thought about it the bigger the topic got, until it was far too long for a single post. So I’m going … Read more

by wj Yesterday, in Wisconsin, there was a special election. Governor Walker had nominated a prominent state senator to be his agriculture secretary, so this was to fill his (safe) seat. It wasn’t a big deal . . . except it was. The previous (Republican, obviously) state senator was a popular guy. And the Republican … Read more

by russell One of his last speeches, an address to the Conference on New Politics, entitled The Three Evils of Society.  King's three evils were war, racism, and poverty.  It's pretty long, about 45 minutes, but worth a listen IMO. This speech represents some of King's later thinking, when he had broadened the scope of … Read more

by liberal japonicus It is another example of ObWi synchronicity that Sebastian writes about fears just before I went under the knife (that’s a phrase) If you really want to crank those fears up to 11, aim for a long convalescence in a hospital. I suppose you can become accustomed to it, but getting old … Read more

by Ugh More Trump because why not? Eh. I've seen responses to the latest sharted eruption from POTUS saying that it "does not represent American values," to which my response of late is "Are you sure?" Almost 63 million people voted for this waste. There is a long history of American racism in immigration (and … Read more

–Sebastian In this time of Trump, it seems almost indulgent to worry about personal fears of unverifiable things, but we can't let Trump be our only source of misery now can we?  My paternal grandmother had a particularly nasty descent into Alzheimer's disease about 10 years before her death.  The signs started earlier, but she … Read more

by liberal japonicus Scrolling thru facebook, was reminded that it has been 9 years.  

by liberal japonicus New Year's is a big holiday in Japan, but it snuck up on me (if that is possible) and I wasn't prepared for so many things to be closed. Still, it is a lot better than my first New Year's in Japan, when there were no convenience stores and everything was closed … Read more

by Doctor Science Mister Doctor Science had the peroneus tendons on his left foot reconstructed on Friday. He’d managed to completely rupture the brevis tendon, and longus was in pretty bad shape. The surgeon was able to reconstruct them into a single useful tendon that is predicted to make it possible for Mr Dr to … Read more

–by Sebastian I wonder if some of the reason we are talking past each other on sexual harassment in employment is colored by true experiences that people we personally know have had with companies that dealt with things very differently. I used to work in employment law in California (an employee friendly state). I’ve thankfully … Read more

by Doctor Science I just engulfed & devoured the new book in “James S. A. Corey” (Daniel Abraham & Ty Franck)’s Expanse series, Persepolis Rising. This work begins the final three volumes of the series, and may possibly be self-contained enough to read if you haven’t read the previous volumes; I’m a poor judge. The … Read more

by wj I was intending to put up a thread like this Monday evening, on the thought that we might have something to say as events unfolded in Alabama Tuesday. But today brought something worth starting early. The election in Alabama seems to be very close, with the result hinging on (primarily) turnout, and (secondarily) … Read more

by Doctor Science Trying to get back into the swing of Wednesday book reviewing, here are some books I’ve read recently that are *enjoyable*, that made me happy and not like I’m living in a satiric dystopia. I heard about Harry Connolly’s A Key, an Egg, an Unfortunate Remark on File770, but by the time … Read more

-by Sebastian This last week was the Bridge Nationals in San Diego.  So of course I went.  I won a few side events (yay!) but the best moment was from an event I didn't win.  Bridge is one of the few games where if you want to you can enter to compete with the very … Read more

by Doctor Science I’ve been reading a lot of books about slavery and antebellum America over the past few years, and I keep noticing how many current “conservative”, Republican economic principles were already held by Southern enslavers and their politicians. “Low taxes” was always their watchword. They were doubtful about infrastructure spending (then called “improvements”) … Read more

by Ugh Two weeks from today (or maybe yesterday, depending), The Last Jedi opens, yay! Is there anything else in the news today? Twitter seems to think so. The tax bill is horrible. Flynn is prepared to testify against Trump, Trump's family members, and other WH officials. Some say Trump ordered Flynn to contact, some … Read more

by JanieM How about a different topic to argue about? Gender is nice and juicy, but in case that doesn’t suit, let’s just say that if we can start with Turkey Day and get to an unhappy debate about the Civil War, it would be superfluous to declare this an open thread. ***** In March … Read more

by Doctor Science   This video of wild turkeys circling a dead cat went viral in March, but I feel it summarizes Thanksgiving 2017 perfectly. We’re up at my parents’ house in northeastern Connecticut, preparing to go out to dinner at a restaurant. I think I’m going to have the salmon, because I *know* the … Read more

by liberal japonicus [ed. the first two names which were left off and have been added] With the Count's comment here, all of the people killed in the Las Vegas shooting have been listed. I have found no lists of all the wounded, just stories like this Caster, 41, plans to leave Sunrise Hospital and … Read more

by liberal japonicus A bit of a frivolous post, but there was a Month Python sketch about the killer joke, a joke that was so funny that when people heard it, they would die. While this didn’t reach those heights, it seems that Kiwi AI researchers have inherited that outlook. I look forward to the … Read more

by russell today I remember my uncle Cecil, who died somewhere in France in WWII. I remember my father, who spent 4+ years below decks in the Caribbean and Pacific.  I remember my step-father, who was instantly made a sergeant in a tank division when the war broke out, because he knew how to operate … Read more

by Doctor Science I’ve always loved maps for real or unreal places: there was one Christmas back in the 80s where my mother and I gave each other assortments of atlases, because we like looking at maps so much. Two books I recently read made me realize that I don’t just like maps, they’re part … Read more

by Doctor Science The first Ballot Question NJ will vote on tomorrow[1] is the NJ Library Construction Bond Act, authorizing $125M for public library construction projects (including ADA compliance) and technology upgrades. I urge my fellow NJans to vote YES on this question. I would probably be saying this anyway, because I’ve always loved libraries. … Read more

by Doctor Science The rest of New Jersey is going to the polls on Tuesday for state and local elections: Governor (& Lieutenant Gov. running mate), legislature (one state Senator and two Assemblypeople per district), county Board of Chosen Freeholders and Sheriff, and township Committee. There are also School Board elections, which are explicitly non-partisan, … Read more

by liberal japonicus Something new that doesn't have math in it. Ta-Nehisi Coates’ new book, We were Eight Years in Power: An American Tragedy is reviewed here by Kevin Young, the Poetry editor of the New Yorker and a poet of great power himself.  Young makes an observation that I find interesting, which is If there’s anything to … Read more

by liberal japonicus From this link The young Trump campaign aide has been described as a “proactive cooperator” by investigators, a sign he’s being used by Mueller’s team to form a case against other aides — including former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, who was indicted on Monday.  Don't know why, but 'proactive cooperator' struck … Read more

by Ugh Just when the GOP is getting ready to drop their huge (yuuuuge!) plans for tax reform on Wednesday, Mueller drops his first indictment: of Paul Manafort for….tax fraud! Or at least failing to file FBAR reports. You can't make this sh1t up.  Perhaps the GOP proposal can be labeled tax fraud, instead of … Read more