Do NOT view the solar eclipse tomorrow without the special glasses.

Guys, please do not view the solar eclipse tomorrow without the ISO-certified eclipse-viewing glasses.  You could go blind.

Do not allow any children to view the eclipse without the special glasses.  (Wouldn’t a lot of kids just ignore adults’ advice and watch an eclipse unprotected anyway, especially if their eyes don’t hurt when they first look at it?  I was that kind of kid.)

Sunglasses are not a substitute.  I’m a little confused by what I’ve read so far online about taking pictures, but I understand you should not be looking at the eclipse through a camera or a smartphone camera either.

I don’t know why this whole thing has me acting like such a mother hen on the Internet, seriously.  But here we are.

If your eyes aren’t protected, MARION, DON’T LOOK AT IT.

 

A plague of locusts today, a total eclipse tomorrow.

If it doesn’t start raining frogs on Tuesday, I’m going to be very disappointed.

And the apocalypse will be especially depressing given how happy and unified our country is today.

Who invented pumpkin spice latte?  Gonna tear that mother****er’s statue down.

 

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The Powers that Bee.

If you haven’t visited the The Bees Are Dead recently, then why not stop by this weekend?  There is some terrific poetry from Wren TuathaAllison Grayhurst and Randall Rogers, as well as some truly amazing “Masters of the Universe” fan art by celebrated film art concept designer Paul Gerrard.  (80’s kids will love it.)

The newest item featured over at B.A.D. is an official response by Beth Fukumoto, who is a member of the Hawaii House of Representatives, to a racist hate letter that she recently received.  Fukumoto, who switched her party affiliation earlier this year from Republican to Democrat, has been a target of racially motivated antipathy since then.  (Fukumoto was actually interviewed by B.A.D.’s own Dennis Villelmi in April.)

 

 

 

“Hate in America” Cover to TIME Magazine, Edel Rodriguez, August 28, 2017

The upcoming issue of TIME:

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Summer thunderstorm, Salem, Virginia, 2017 (2)

These were taken from a moving car — my friends and I were headed for dinner in Salem.  As I’ve explained before, I have a weird thing about blurry pictures taken from a moving vehicle.  And the foreboding and colorless quality of these shots makes them extra trippy.

The disembodied black blurs that you see are actually trees close to the roadway; I thought the effect was pretty damned cool — especially in that last shot.  The second-to-last shot would be great to accompany a haunted house story.

 

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A response to Red Pill Black’s “I Don’t Care About Charlottesville, the KKK, or White Supremacy”

I DO care about the nazis and the KKK in Charlottesville.

Pointing out that most violence is intraracial is an example of “whataboutism.” I’ve heard this argument made by conservatives before, and it is based on a logical fallacy known as the “false dilemma.” The incidence of intraracial crime has no bearing on whether we should be outraged about neo-nazis and white supremacy. We can easily be outraged by both; it isn’t a choice between one or the other. I can be concerned about the murder rate in Chicago, and also outraged about the Nazis killing a woman in nearby Charlottesville a town that I have adored since I discovered it as a student in my youth.

Red Pill Black’s references to others decrying a “race war,” in my case at least, is a straw man argument. I have not seen evidence of a broader “race war,” nor am I concerned about it. Nobody I know is saying that. I am concerned about the potential rise of a fascist political movement that has historically demonstrated that it has tremendous appeal to certain whites — nazism.

Nazism is a genocidal political ideology, with proven potential for overtaking a nation, if the economic and social conditions are right. Again, history has shown that it is potentially powerful stuff for gaining traction and propelling its leaders to power. Consider the rise of neo-nazism in Russia, for example, after the fall of the Berlin Wall, which I understand has been underreported in the western press. (Human rights activists claim that its power there is derived largely from right-wing leaders who condone it.) Nazis aren’t a street gang like “the bloods” or “the crips.” Nor are they just another white hate group. They wield a far more dangerous weapon — an ideology with a terrifying track record for seizing power in western nations.

If this woman is thinking critically about how media coverage can engender or increase the likelihood of violence, then I totally understand the questions that she is asking. But … what is the alternative? Less coverage? No coverage? After the nazis marched on Charlottesville, right through the UVA campus in a blatant attempt to intimidate students, I would be furious if the media failed to cover that extensively.

 

DOWN WITH WIGHT SUPREMACY.

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“Happy Ending,” by. W. H. Auden

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Cover to “The New Yorker,” David Plunkert, August 28, 2017

This is the cover for the upcoming issue; the title of Plunkert’s piece is “Blowhard.”

 

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Nurse Your Favorite Heresies in Whispers