Yes, we know that at midnight tonight you’ll be dressed up and in a theatre seeing Star Wars. (We’re waiting to see it with our nephews and niece after Christmas.) But, this is some of the stuff that we’re reading right now. We think you should be reading it too.
Tag: politics
“Sir Ernie of Fall River”, or how a Portuguese MIT professor helped bring about the Iran deal
There are so few Americans of Portuguese descent that are seen on the national stage, much less the international stage, and Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz has managed to do both. He is one of the few people in politics and policy circles that I would totally go all fanboy over if I ever had the chance to meet him.
Why? you might ask. After all, this guy is probably more famous for his hair in American culture than for anything else about him.
Well, let me tell you a bit about him.
Charleston, the Confederate flag, and the Civil War
It has taken a while for me to process everything that has happened in the past couple of weeks. And truthfully, I am still processing it.
Never, in my life, would I have predicted that the discussion to get rid of the Confederate flag once and for all would begin in Charleston, South Carolina.
The same place where the Civil War began, all those years ago.
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I’m not a workaholic, I swear
After the post I wrote most recently and some discussions I’ve had with people in various parts of my life, I’ve run across a fair number of people who seem to think that this schedule I’ve been living, this logging of 60-70 hours of work a week, minimum, is fun. That I do it because I like it and that somehow I’m not aware that it is inherently bad for me.
They are so, SO very wrong. But they refuse to understand that this has been a matter of survival. This has been the way that I’ve adapted to keep us afloat and alive and not living on the streets. So few people truly understand that our economy here in the US has fundamentally changed. Geoff and I are living proof that the old way, each having one job, having some security in that job, buying a house, and then eventually retiring just isn’t the way things work anymore.
The two different kinds of apocalyptic fiction
The first is the kind that I read and/or watch. Stuff like The Walking Dead comics, or Mira Grant’s awesome Newsflesh trilogy of novels, or movies like Deep Impact, and even video games like Left4Dead 2 and Fallout 3. I guess the thing I find most interesting is seeing how people adapt. It’s compelling drama. And while I find it entertaining, it does have a certain amount of practical value if it makes emergency preparedness a little less dull, as even the CDC has discovered.
Then there’s the other kind. The kind that makes seemingly ordinary people lose their minds, because they think it’s real.
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Net Neutrality and why the FCC’s new rules matter
I was overjoyed to hear that the FCC voted 3-2 to adopt new rules that treat broadband internet as a utility, much like telephones. The basic purpose of this would be to guarantee that internet service providers are neutral in terms of treating all customers and web content equally, and not favoring those who can pay more money or slowing down those that pay less. It means that a cable company can’t slow down the traffic to their competitors’ websites. It assures that the Internet remains a generally level playing field, so small businesses and start-ups don’t get squashed by huge corporate competitors who can afford to pay more to have their own service prioritized. And critically for people like me who have complained incessantly about being at the mercy of a few big telecoms when it comes to broadband service, it also means that it will become easier to get more choices, especially if those choices mean expanding municipal broadband service where they were previously banned by state laws favoring those big telecom companies.
And yet, there are those who are still opposed to it and will fight this tooth and nail. Needless to say, I am not a fan of those people. But I am encouraged by the fact that so many people thought net neutrality would fail, and they turned out to be wrong.
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Happy Birthday Frederick Douglass aka give the people what they want
Much of the world seems to be celebrating Valentines Day today. Regular readers of this blog will know that I usually celebrate the anniversary of the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre aka the Mob war in Chicago. I have also been known to wear all black and express my affection to my Spirit Animal, St. Grumpy Cat.
Today I’ve chosen a different tack.
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The Pats, our Mini, and absurdity taken to new heights
Anyone who knows me well knows that when it comes to football, I am decidedly… meh. I just never got into the sport the way that so many other people (like Kelly) have. Baseball is another story. I love it. Even hockey and soccer are sports I care WAY more about than football. But still, I look forward to whenever the Pats go the Superbowl, because that inevitably means people I know will be throwing great parties with lots of beer, wings, and general awesomeness.
So this year the upcoming wingstravaganza Superbowl party seems to be dominated by talk about this mess regarding the slight under-inflation of footballs. And frankly, I am a bit puzzled by the whole thing.
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MLK and cultural appropriation
As a historian, and as someone who grew up in the South, I can’t help but shake my head at how a generation after the tumult of the 1950s and 1960s, we as a society are still struggling with virtually all of the issues that Dr. King fought against. Don’t get me wrong, we have come a long way, even in my lifetime, but that progress still doesn’t mean that we live in a “post-racial” society.
#BlackLivesMatter & #NoBoston2024 – The intersection of money, race & power
Anyone who isn’t a moneyed plutocrat in the very tiny ruling elite here in Boston – Marty Walsh, John Fish, Charlie Baker, and Shirley Leung, I’m looking at you – likely understands that yesterday’s announcement that Boston “won” the USOC nomination for the 2024 olympics is a Very Bad Thing. The Boston 2024 group has existed for about a year and, chaired by Fish, has been trying to essentially shame the populace into believing that if we do not do this thing, invite the world to come here for a 3 week-long party 9 years from now, we’re provincial losers and that Boston isn’t fit for the world stage.
To put it bluntly, the people at Boston2024 are liars.
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The Books are Taking Over... 