Woke pronouns have drawn George Will's attention this week. The scandalous activity took place in Kiel, a town of 4,000 in central Wisconsin: In April, the district lodged a complaint against three eighth-grade boys for the offense of “mispronouning,” referring to a classmate using the biologically correct pronoun “her” instead of the classmate’s preferred “them.” ...continue reading "Right-wing pronoun cops win huge victory in Wisconsin"
Today is inflation day, and the BLS reports that the US inflation rate has basically plateaued at above 8%. March was 8.6%; April was 8.2%; and May has clocked in 8.6%. Core CPI has actually declined for the past few months. Note that these are the standard year-over-year figures, which compare May 2022 with May ...continue reading "Chart of the day: Inflation in May"
With my vacation officially over, it's time to put other things back into the daily photo rotation. This one is a picture of some guys playing a bit of beach volleyball in Laguna Beach a few weeks ago. I don't know who they were, but they were really, really good.
How polarized is America? A couple of Vanderbilt political scientists decided to find out: According to the prevailing national narrative, American unity is at or near an all-time low....Even so, we do not have good, systematic evidence about national unity — or, more important, about how it may have changed over time....To overcome this, we ...continue reading "Vanderbilt study says Americans are hopelessly at each other’s throats"
Here's an excerpt from a Vox piece about the upcoming congressional hearings on the January 6 insurrection. It's typical of dozens of others I've read: The committee is going to great lengths to make the primetime presentation compelling , including bringing in former ABC News president James Goldston as a consultant. They will gather Thursday ...continue reading "If you’re putting on a show, don’t brag about putting on a show"
While we wait for new inflation numbers to be released on Friday, here's a quick look at the inflationary pressure facing the economy right now: This is based on core PCE inflation, the Fed's preferred measure. However, instead of showing year-over-year inflation, it uses month-over-month in order to get a sense of how inflation is ...continue reading "Inflationary pressure seems to be easing"
This is an allegedly famous house in the town of Vernon, but I suspect "famous" should be taken in the same sense you'd take "World Famous Burgers" at your local diner. Maybe it's locally well known, but it probably ranks about 100,000th on the global list of famous things. Pretty, though.
Here in the western United States, everything is drying up. Just about everyone is familiar with time-lapse photographs of Lake Mead, the reservoir created by Hoover Dam, showing how its water level has been steadily falling for decades. It's down 160 feet since 2000, and if it drops another hundred feet the lake will no ...continue reading "The western US is parched and choking"
While I was away, Washington Post reporter Dave Weigel posted a joke on Twitter: This is a tasteless joke and I have no idea what prompted Dave to retweet it. A little too much to drink? A recent breakup? Beats me. I hope his editors tell him that this was inappropriate and he needs to ...continue reading "Dumb joke gets star reporter suspended for a month"
I couldn't help myself. I had to take a quick look at the headlines to see what had happened while Air France was flying me home. Imagine my surprise when I saw this one in the Washington Post: If we just give them another few days, they'll put together a deal for sure! Sure they ...continue reading "Gun deal is facing tough times"
This is the famous I.M. Pei pyramid, built as a new main entrance for the Louvre in 1988. You've seen it a thousand times before, so what makes my version different? First, there's the moon in the background. Second, I took the photo, not some other hack. Enjoy!
Because the Supreme Court is likely to overrule Roe v. Wade this summer, Josh Marshall says it makes sense for Democrats to turn the 2022 midterms into a referendum over abortion. But only if they can make it into a serious issue: You can’t make an election into a referendum on an issue if you ...continue reading "Democrats can’t promise to restore abortion rights this fall"
I've been yelling at CNN all evening, demanding that they stop building up fake suspense about Boris Johnson's no-confidence vote in Parliament. There was no way his party was going to chuck him out. Which they didn't. But I admit it was closer than I counted on—though this hardly matters to a guy like BoJo. ...continue reading "BoJo wins landslide leadership mandate"
CNN may be abandoning its BREAKING NEWS heritage, but this blog isn't. On Sunday I didn't have any plans and Marian was off doing some stuff I wasn't interested in, so I went out and puttered around semi-aimlessly. But after only five minutes, I reached Madeleine and discovered that thousands of runners had invaded my ...continue reading "Lunchtime Photo"
SCENE 1 ACTING UNDER AN ONEROUS TESTING MANDATE FROM THEIR TYRANNICAL LEFT-WING GOVERNMENT, KEVIN AND MARIAN ENTER PHARMACIE 217 IN THE 18TH ARRONDISSEMENT OF PARIS. ALL DIALOG IS BASED ON ACTUAL EVENTS. CLERK: Bonjour. KEVIN: Bonjour! Do you offer rapid COVID-19 tests for travel? CLERK: Yes indeed. Just scan this QCR code with your phone ...continue reading "A COVID-19 parable in three scenes"
A bipartisan group of senators is currently negotiating a possible response to the Uvalde massacre that would include: A slight enhancement of the federal instant background check to include juvenile records. "A system of incentives, grants and federal standards for states that create their own red-flag laws." Do you see why I'm so skeptical about ...continue reading "The Senate’s response to Uvalde is plodding along meaninglessly"
I have been diligently looking for cats in Paris but with no success. I haven't spotted even a cat in a window. But! This morning, while we were waiting for one of those one-hour Seine boat tours, I was watching a couple of dogs play with each other in the Square du Vert-Galant. The little ...continue reading "Friday Cat Blogging – 3 June 2022"
I understand if you're a little jaded about the January 6 insurrection. I mean, we've already seen more than enough evidence that Republicans were initially appalled by the whole thing and only later decided to pretend it was a big nothingburger that Democrats were ginning up for partisan reasons. But CNN has gotten hold of ...continue reading "On January 6, Trump’s chief of staff was overwhelmed with panicky text messages"
After spending literally decades trying to get access to Alaskan wilderness areas, it turns out that oil companies don't really want it after all. This is from the Anchorage Daily News on Thursday: Another oil company backs out of leases in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge . The only oil company that bought a single ...continue reading "So far, ANWR has been a bust"
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