Thanksgiving Day (US) 2019

Just seeing this article from 2017 for the first time: How Many Death Row Prisoners are Disabled?

Opening:

When Kenneth Williams was a child, his father beat him regularly with a belt. One time, he threw Williams against a wall, injuring his brain. Besides the trauma stemming from this abuse, Williams was also forced to witness similar violence against his mother and siblings. In school, Williams was diagnosed with severe learning disabilities, perhaps related to the brain injury, or from exposure to toxic chemicals and drugs. Although three experts examined Williams and determined that he met the criteria for the definition of intellectual disability, which should have protected him, the Supreme Court declined to stop his execution. He died on April 27th.

Found here.

A Conversation About Climate Change, and Climate Science

Dude: My car's broken.

Me: What's it doing?

D: It won't shift out of first gear.

Me: Dang. Sounds like a transmission problem. Better take it to a mechanic.

D: A mechanic?! I'm not taking my car to some witch doctor!

Me: Witch doctor? WTF?

D: You can't diagnose what's wrong with a car! It's a mystery!

Me: Dude. Mechanics study cars, learn how they work, and learn how to fix them when they stop working.

D: Yeah, right! Like mechanics aren't part of a global scheme to make us all think there's something unnatural about cars breaking down!

Me: Dude. Mechanics fix cars all the time.

D: Mechanics just say they know how to fix cars because they want money!

Me: Mechanics have to eat, pay rent...

D: George Soros wants us all to give our cars to they government and become slaves to the big government highway!

Me: So, you just going to keep driving around in your broken car?

D: I'll adjust! Pretty soon we'll be able to drive all the way across Antarctica in the winter time!

Me: Uh, don't leave the metaphor, man...

D: WARMER WEATHER MEANS BIGGER TOMATOES!!!

Pollenlegged Bee (Sydney, 8-19)

When it was All Together

Bigger than Soviet Union

Formerly

Remember the Soviet Union?

When it was all together?

The Soviet Union

When it was all together

Before they decided

We gotta call ourselves “Russia”

When it was all together

They wanted to be that

Was always their dream to be

The biggest in the world

Then it became “Russia”

And you know what?

They’ve done a good job with energy

And so has Saudi Arabia

Done a good job with energy

But we’re now bigger than Russia

[actual transcript]

The Dowdening of America, Again

For no special reason, here's a new blog post, inspired by this tweet, posted yesterday by noted American news person Howard Fineman:



When that tweet was derided by lots of smart people, Howard deleted it, and this morning posted this:

Tonight I tweeted a pic of a Georgetown party hosted by @maureendowd, attended by @SpeakerPelosi, @SenSchumer and DC journos. In the old days it would’ve been a benign big-shot brag. No more. It was viciously ratio’d by left and right. I deleted it. All establishments are hated.

— Howard Fineman (@howardfineman) July 25, 2019

Chaser:

And that, my child, is why America collapsed. Because the ones tasked with holding truth to power were dazzled by the glitter, intoxicated by the proximity to something they’ll never have. To Howard Fineman, and all the other fluffer-stenographers of the ruling class, eat shit. pic.twitter.com/bi5i6Jg3by

— Xeni (@xeni) July 25, 2019

Random Oliver Sacks Nugget

Second volume of posthumous Oliver Sacks, Everything in It's Place: First Loves and Last Tales, reviewed at NY Review of Books.

His childhood nickname was “Inky”; he started writing in journals from his teens and never stopped. He wrote in cafés, in bars, on his bike, even at concerts. He almost never read the journals; they were sketchpads he used to work out his themes, to find his form, to articulate his story. 

"To find his mind" might have been just as fitting.