… there was no Heather Cox Richardson this AM so i will start with my other favorite woman purveyor of good information and inspiration, Maria Popova… i have been reading Brain Pickings and now The Marginalian for a long time and have encountered her list of life learnings from time to time and have been struck by them… this morning, this Sunday morning i sat down to read the latest edition (she adds one life learning every year) and was moved to tears, so profoundly good it is…
16 Life-Learnings from 16 Years of the Marginalian
… and here is a sweet tradition that, but for the pandemic, i might try to emmulate myself… maybe in the spring, when we can gather outdoors…
A waffle Maker Seemed Unnecessary–Until I shared It With Others
… because i am deeply into the feminine, and all aspects of being woman, even though i myself am a man, and a heterosexual one at that… this article on feminist books got my attention…
Top 10 experimental feminist books
… on to the daily seriousness of life in the world…
An Appeals Court Has Temporarily Paused Biden’s Student Debt Relief Plan
Republicans have turned the student loan relief program into a flashpoint ahead of the midterms. Celebrating the Eighth Circuit ruling, Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge tweeted that “hardworking Americans who did not take on this debt should not be forced to shoulder this burden.” And on Friday, President Biden called out GOP lawmakers including Sen. Ted Cruz from Texas and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) on their “hypocritical’ outrage over the program. “Who the hell do they think they are?” he said during remarks at Delaware State. “I don’t want to hear it from MAGA Republican officials who had hundreds of thousands of dollars of debts, even millions of dollars, in pandemic relief loans forgiven, who now are attacking me for helping working- and middle-class Americans.”
… and here is the same story told through a libertarian lens…
Federal Court Temporarily Halts Biden’s Student Loan Forgiveness Plan
But the Biden student loan forgiveness scheme is going to cost taxpayers an estimated $400 billion in order to transfer a staggering amount of wealth to people who in most cases are already quite well off. The whole thing is based on a legally dubious reading of a post-9/11 law that allowed the president to forgive student loans for first responders—and rest on Biden’s pandemic emergency powers, despite his own admission that the pandemic is over. Surely, someone must have standing to sue over this.
… i tend to support the position of the Biden Administration on this but have to confess that i don’t have a complete grasp of the issues…
… this article on sustaining determination in Ukraine seems important…
The Words About Ukraine That Americans Need to Hear
A good speech on Ukraine will not invoke the phrase “rules-based international order,” which might resonate in a freshman introduction to international relations, but not with an audience of normal people. Rather, Americans and Europeans need to hear about the consequences if Russia were to crush Ukraine; about the invasions and depredations that would surely come next in the Baltic states, and quite likely beyond; about the conclusions a no less ruthless Chinese government would draw; and about how a failure to take a stand here would mean something much bigger and more dangerous in a few years’ time. They need to hear how staunchness now, even in the face of nuclear threats, is infinitely better than a large-scale, possibly global war in a decade. They need to hear that world war is not just the stuff of history books or their grandparents’ or great-grandparents’ lives, but a possibility for us if we are not prudent now.
… this piece in The Bulwark about patriotism, what it is, what it isn’t, is a preaching to the choir sort of piece, but i thought a good reminder for the choir of what is important…
Minority Leader and would-be House speaker Kevin McCarthy is saying that a Republican-majority Congress would not “write a blank check” to Ukraine. That’s a red herring, of course, because Ukraine is not asking for a blank check, nor has it ever asked for a single American to risk his life for Ukraine’s freedom. They are merely asking for the means to defend themselves. But more than that, with their courage and sacrifice they are redeeming the idea of liberty at a time when many around the world were losing faith in democracy. Ukrainians are demonstrating that contrary to the propaganda of autocrats everywhere, democracies are actually stronger than dictatorships. And they are showing that some things, like the right to live free—to think what you want, read what you want, worship as you wish, and say what you think—are worth fighting and dying for.