"This was the voice of moderation until 13 Sept, 2025"
by liberal japonicus It’s probably a sign of my liberal optimism, but when I think of what has just gone down, I’m thinking of Pyrrus quote of ‘another victory like this and we are undone’. Or maybe Robert Duvall’s speech in Apocalypse Now. Smell that? You smell that? Napalm, son. Nothing else in the world … Read more
by liberal japonicus While we watch the shitstorm that is the Kavanaugh nomination wind down, the tag-team of the Count, cleek and nous (if I missed anyone, let me know) share the next. The Big Hack: How China Used a Tiny Chip to Infiltrate U.S. Companies the title comes from this Nested on the servers’ … Read more
by liberal japonicus Something a little closer to home. You may have read about Yuka Ogata, who was elected as a city councillor in Kumamoto, Japan and, after numerous attempts to arrange for child care, brought her infant into a city council meeting. After I discovered I was pregnant, I asked the assembly to support … Read more
by liberal japonicus This post is a ‘fresh sheet of paper’ for Kavanaugh discussions. My original title was Kavanaugh: where we stand, but I didn’t want someone to interpret that as making a claim that the post represents an opinion about Kavanaugh. As it stands, there will be an investigation by the FBI. This CNN … Read more
a russell joint The original is behind the WaPo paywall, so here is a summary from good old Charlie Pierce. tl;dr: The Trump administration now says yeah, the planet actually is heating up, and yeah, it actually is due in no small part from human activity. Projections are 4C increase over pre-industrial temps by 2100. OK, … Read more
by wj I recall that one of the lines Trump used in denouncing his predecessor was “the world is laughing at us.” And now, finally, it has come true. Today at the UN, Trump got a novel reaction. Nobody applauded him. But there were chuckles, and some outright laughter, when he tried telling everyone that … Read more
by liberal japonicus
Like a military history buff who spends an inordinate amount of time looking at some skirmish down the road from Waterloo or Gettysburg, I’m pretty fascinated by not so much the main event, but the little wins and losses on the periphery. At for this post, Amy Chua. Background below the fold.
by liberal japonicus Like the salt and meat diet, only the truly strong can subsist on a reading diet of only he said, we aren’t going to believe what she said, and wimps like me need our swiss chard and salads. So for us wimps, an interesting article about China’s new social credit system. Leave … Read more
by wj I see that things with Brexit are looking increasingly problematic: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/theresa-may-just-warned-of-a-no-deal-brexit-here-are-some-of-the-doomsday-scenarios/2018/09/17/3507ab2c-943b-11e8-818b-e9b7348cd87d_story.html https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2018/09/14/britains-housing-market-could-be-headed-for-disaster Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab is encouraging drug companies to stockpile extra medicine in case supplies cannot get onto the island after a no-deal Brexit. All of which is to say, the UK is heading for a dire mess. Thanks, in part, … Read more
by liberal japonicus This seems interesting Sheldon Whitehouse Asks Brett Kavanaugh If He Has A Gambling Problem I usually don’t post breaking stuff (I think this is) but Whitehouse was a US attorney and a State Attorney General and the last political thread is quite full. Interesting times…
by Ugh This whole Florence thing has the 9YO freaked out. Living just outside DC on the MD side makes me think he might be overly worried but that's his mojo. In other news, I can't really say Serena was robbed (if anyone it was Osaka who was clearly outplaying the legend up to that … Read more
by wj I notice that we’ve got politics sneaking into the TWA thread, so clearly we need a new open thread. Here goes. I’ve seen a variety of discussions about a possible impeachment next year. The general argument seems to start with the assumption that the Democrats take the House, so they can hold hearings, … Read more
The recent posts have underlined to me that we don’t have enough non political posts. So here is the start (he says optimistically) of a series. TWA stands for Time Wasting Activity, and I define a TWA as some hobby or pursuit that, well, wastes a lot of time. If regulars have a TWA they want to talk about, feel free to contact me at the kitty’s address.
And below the fold, billiards!
by liberal japonicus
I had, I suppose a bit morbidly, had an idea of posting this before the fact, but I waited and then it was (perhaps fortunately) too late. More below
by liberal japonicus
As the last post goes merrily off the rails, I thought I’d post this, which functions as my observation on where that thread went. Placed below the fold so as to soften the blow a bit…
Hi, this is lj and I’ve been quite intrigued by Michael Cain’s comments about the possible partition of the US and asked him to write a guest post. Any blame for the layout lies with me and my tenuous knowledge of CSS. Enjoy!
by Michael Cain
I was invited to write something for the front page about my view that the American West could become different enough from the rest of the country that an eventual partition is possible. Some preliminaries:
All that and more after the break
by russell we focus too much on the antics of donald trump, we are told. we should talk about something else. we are told. fine with me. delendo donald j trump. here's something else. the senior senator from my state, Elizabeth Warren, has proposed legislation that would fundamentally change the relationship of corporations to the … Read more
by JanieM Last night John Cole at BJ quoted at length from this Bloomberg article: Amazon Web Services, the company’s cloud computing business, is its fastest-growing and most profitable division, but it comes with a lot of upfront infrastructure costs and ongoing expenses, the biggest of which is electricity. Over the past two years, Amazon … Read more
by JanieM My first front-page post here at ObWi was about cemeteries. In it I mentioned my dilemma: do I want to be buried? (If so, how and where?) Cremated? I wasn’t sure then and I’m not sure now, but I will soon have an option that wasn’t available in February of 2017. Today was … Read more
by wj Because we are way overdue for a new open thread. And this https://deadspin.com/minor-league-baseball-team-wins-on-a-three-run-walk-off-1828308390 is just way too good not to share!
by liberal japonicus Perhaps red-meat liberalism talking here, but I have to wonder if the whole Trump presidency is a way for Darwinian selection to operate. Case in point: Chris Collins. here They’ve got video of him making the call to his son. whoops Here’s some background that I thought was interesting. Another example (hopefully) … Read more
by JanieM Since lj closed comments on the “Epitome” thread, I thought we should have a place to continue the discussion about the other big topic. And I don’t mean Intellectual Property.
by liberal japonicus A little worried that Typepad is going to get cranky with all the comments in the Epitome thread, so picking it up and maybe trying to do a restart、taking Janie’s question and asking one of my own. A list of my people and my nations… -Right handed, so much so that I’ve … Read more
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
by liberal japonicus We have one open thread, but I thought one unpolluted by American issues might be nice and, since the World Cup has no US team, well, there you go. I won’t explain much, cause if you like soccer/football, you probably know, if you don’t, you probably aren’t interested. I like soccer, but … Read more
by JanieM One of my favorite signs from the Augusta event: Open thread, with an emphasis on reporting in from here there and everywhere. The Augusta event was well attended, if on nowhere near the scale of the women’s march. Of the people I might have gone with, several were away and one was in … Read more