Friday, February 23, 2018

Weekend Reading: The Some Depressing Things and a Yummy Looking Recipe Edition

I'm back! Sorry for the lack of links last week. We were Disney-ing until bedtime.

I don't want to dwell on the events in Florida or gun control. I find that I am better able to keep working to improve the situation with respect to guns in this country if I don't let myself focus too much on any one event.

Still, I am encouraged to see this op-ed from a Republican member of Congress, but I wonder if this position, which would have been a welcome response after the Sandy Hook shooting, is now not enough? I tweeted that I don't think gun enthusiasts really understand how angry a lot of non-gun owners are right now. I am seeing more and more calls for mandatory buy back programs for assault rifles. I am seeing less and less concern about whether or not we can really accurately define an "assault rifle" or whatnot. Basically, I wonder if we have hit a breaking point. Certainly, the energy and tone of discussion is quite different than what I saw after the Sandy Hook shooting. If I had to guess, I'd guess that a lot of non-gun owners (and actually also gun owners who aren't full on enthusiasts) have come to the conclusion that there is no change small enough to get the enthusiasts and the NRA on board, so they gearing up to just try to out vote them.

But who knows what will happen. I'll keep working to change our Congress, for this and many other reasons.

If you are still on the fence about whether AR-15s should be allowed in civilian hands, maybe read this article from a radiologist who was at the hospital that received victims last week, on the difference between a "regular" gunshot wound and one from an AR-15.
I won't even dignify the idea of arming teachers (which the NRA has been pushing since Sandy Hook, if not before) with a response. All I'll say is that is one of the lines that I won't cross. If my kids' district starts letting teachers bring guns to school, I'm moving to New Zealand.

Moving on....

If you're trying to figure out why the Manafort and Gates news is such a big deal, Josh Marshall does a nice job explaining. That link is for Prime subscribers only, but Tom Nichols' tweet thread also lays it out (click through for the whole thread):




Moving on again....

This article about the middle aged women in the suburbs of America "rebooting" democracy is one of  the more encouraging things I've read lately. I'm not really in the demographic it describes: I'm definitely middle aged, but not really suburban, and I'm lumped in with the "coastal elites" instead of "middle America." But it still resonated with me, and I'm cheering for the "retired librarians" it mentions. I'll be here in my coastal elite enclave, writing postcards to support them!

I found Sean Illing's article about taking ayahuasca fascinating. I have zero desire to try this experience. For one thing, I hate vomiting. But more fundamentally, I don't think I would want a "shortcut" to the sort of insight he was seeking. Maybe I don't think that such a shortcut would really work for me? I don't know. I may write more about this at some point.

I noticed this recipe because Roxane Gay tweeted she made it, and oh my goodness it looks delicious.

In important bunny news: They've been domesticated for quite awhile.

In podcasts this week: I found Ezra Klein's conversation with Tristan Harris really interesting. They were talking about the addictive nature of services like Facebook, how technology brings out the worst in us sometimes, and related topics. I'd like to write more about this at some point, too.

I love this artwork:




And here's your bunny for the week:


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