The Bishop and the Butterfly: Murder, Politics, and the End of the Jazz Age

Blog Posts

Republican Lying About Pre-Existing Conditions

Today's GOP, as Krugman puts it, doesn't even bother with spin--they go straight to lying, as they are doing on pre-existing conditions: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/11/opinion/republicans-lies-medicare-pre...

Some Heresy on Immigration

Just thinking out loud here about possible legitimate avenues moving away from rather than further into the current mess.

Key elements of today's GOP and GOP constituencies act like an increasingly cornered endangered species.  They are reacting in desperation, now while they may believe they still have a chance to do something about it.  This seems to be a major reason why the immigration issue is such a flashpoint now.  Demographic, along with what they believe or assume to be inevitable cultural, dread.

Ted Kennedy's Eulogy for his brother Bobby

Fifty years ago today, Ted Kennedy delivered a eulogy for his brother Bobby considered by some to be the most profound speech of his career.  Katie Mettler at WaPo today offered an excellent writeup of that moment.  https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/retropolis/wp/2018/06/08/those-he-to...

Can anything effective be done to combat implicit racial bias?

Perhaps.

john a. powell (a black racial justice advocate who uses the lower case for the first letters of his first and last names) speaks to this, among other, issues in his book Racing to Justice (pp. 160-61):

Fortitude

As we seek to dig ourselves out of the moral and political abyss into which our country has sunk, it seems to me that two near-term projects are key.

These are to retake both chambers in Congress and to obtain the president's removal from office at the earliest possible time.

Reactions to The Golden Globes?

Overall, very cool, I thought, for the #metoo theme of the night.  IF we change our cultures--and our public policies--to make them far more just, safe, and supportive for women, last night may be viewed as an event of significance in fostering such change.

A few miscellaneous reactions:

Some History and Current Affairs Books I've Especially Appreciated

Being a slow reader, I have read 2 pages or more from a book on all but 7 days over the past 21 years, according to my reading log.  This is a habit I fell into, without making any point-in-time "decision" to do so that I can now recall.  It is the only way I can get books read.  

Following are some (mostly) history and current affairs titles, my primary genres, that have had enduring impact on my thinking.  I am grateful to their authors for believing that something they might wish to contribute might be welcomed by others, and for making the effort.  These are in no particular order of significance to me.

book rec: Doughnut Economics, by Kate Raworth

The quirkily-titled Doughnut Economics: Seven Ways to Think Like a 21st-Century Economist, was written by a heterodox British economist, Kate Raworth.  I'm giving it as a gift and otherwise promoting it to folks in my circles.  It's the best big picture book about economics I've read, taking the place of Robert Kuttner's Everything For Sale (the latter on the strengths and limitations of markets), in part because it is about so much more than this critical discipline, which is overdue to be reinvented for the 21st century.  This book has more helpful thoughts on that large topic than anythi

Moral Leadership

This 2008 documentary, "A Ripple of Hope", tells a moving story about the night of Martin Luther King's assassination in 1968. Robert F. Kennedy, then campaigning for the presidency, was scheduled to appear in a black area of Indianapolis. With rioting in cities throughout the country he was strongly advised to cancel his campaign appearance. He declined to do so and made the sort of speech that we desperately could use about now. Here is part of that not long speech:

Mindset

I am reading the book by that name, by Carol Dweck, and am recommending it to fellow denizens and others I know.  

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