Category Archives: Current Affairs

Two Trans Fights: One-Woman Nebraska Filibuster Against Anti-Trans Bill Is In Its 3rd Week — While Arkansas Guv Signs Similar Bill

AP News: Nebraska lawmaker 3 weeks into filibuster to stop anti-trans bill BY MARGERY A. BECK — March 14, 2023 LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — It was a mundane, unanimously supported bill on liquor taxation that saw state Sen. Machaela Cavanaugh take to the mic on the Nebraska Legislature floor last week. She offered her support, then … Continue reading Two Trans Fights: One-Woman Nebraska Filibuster Against Anti-Trans Bill Is In Its 3rd Week — While Arkansas Guv Signs Similar Bill →

Exclusive: Chatbot Names Top Quaker Issues; Makes Blog Obsolete?

March 14, 2023 It had to happen, right? Someone was sure to try to find out if/when Chatbot will make Quaker blogs, journals, and all other pre-AI communication as outmoded and unnecessary as, you know, Wiliam Penn, or Philadelphia. And now it’s happened. The results are here, in full, and unexpurgated. Well, not quite in … Continue reading Exclusive: Chatbot Names Top Quaker Issues; Makes Blog Obsolete? →

Women’s Stories: New Harriet Tubman Memorial in Newark NJ! (Repost from 2023)

Harriet Tubman monument unveiled, replacing Columbus statue in Newark, New Jersey By Liam Reilly and Kia Fatahi, CNN (CNN) — A monument honoring famed abolitionist Harriet Tubman was unveiled in Newark, New Jersey, this week, replacing a statue of Christopher Columbus removed in 2020 amid social injustice protests, officials said. The 25-foot-tall monument, titled “Shadow … Continue reading Women’s Stories: New Harriet Tubman Memorial in Newark NJ! (Repost from 2023) →

Sweden, Finland, NATO, Neutrals & Nukes: A Concise Analysis

[NOTE: These two short columns offer an admirable review of two key moments in the impact of Putin’s Ukraine invasion on my own thinking. When I imagined these countries as actual places (which, I admit, wasn’t often), my speculation was that they held to a “plague-on-both-your-houses” stance vis-a-vis the USSR/Russia on one side, and the West, … Continue reading Sweden, Finland, NATO, Neutrals & Nukes: A Concise Analysis →

Cartoons for an “Unfunny” Time

It doesn’t seem there’s any way around it: so far, 2023 is a Big Bust as far as editorial cartoons go. We now have proof of that, at least in the form that counts for the educated classes, a statement by an elite college professor,