YouTube video by MephistoZork Colonel Joshua Chamberlain Speech

youtu.be/-ZpQ5W1AV0g?...

They played this speech in my MBA class. He is speaking to a group of deserters. Rather than abusing them, he inspires them. My understanding is that almost all of them fought, turning back Pickets Charge, winning Gettysburg and the Civil War. Worth a watch

10 Years of Marriage Equality: ‘With the Stroke of a Pen, Our Lives Changed Completely’

this is nice

www.nytimes.com/2025/06/26/s...

Opinion | Trump Tried to Derail Our Work. We Banded Together and Moved Forward. (Gift Article) When knowledge is threatened, don’t just mourn it. Build around it.

“Whether it’s pollinators on a Midwestern farm, an urban forest casting shade over a city sidewalk or a vast stretch of wilderness that takes your breath away, nature is not just a scenic backdrop. It’s infrastructure. It’s safety, medicine and memory.” www.nytimes.com/2025/04/22/o...

These female apes found a way to limit male aggression For decades it had been a mystery how female Bonobos, cousins to humans, claim higher positions than males in their troop hierarchy.

"For decades, it has been a mystery why females in this species of great apes … are perched so high in the hierarchy. Now, scientists say they’ve found the secret to this paradox: Female bonobos maintain power by forming alliances to suppress male aggression." wapo.st/3GpLYWd

Red winged black bird and eastern bluebird of NH

Maine Governor, Staring Down Trump, Says She Is Unfazed by ‘Loud Men’ Observers of her political rise — and some who have sparred with her — say Gov. Janet Mills’s refusal to bow to President Trump is right in character.

“I have spent the better part of my career listening to loud men talk tough to disguise their weakness,” www.nytimes.com/2025/04/10/u...

The Good News About Trump’s Tariffs Authoritarian leaders are most dangerous when they’re popular. Wrecking the economy is unlikely to broaden Trump’s support.

“The Republican Party’s descent into an authoritarian personality cult poses a mortal threat to American democracy. But it is also the thing that might save it.”

www.theatlantic.com/politics/arc...

Americans are spending less as they brace for new tariffs Even the wealthiest households are cutting back on extras like plastic surgery, restaurant meals and travel.

www.washingtonpost.com/business/202...

What does it say about our society when the top 10% account for 49.7 OF ALL US Spending?

Opinion | What is a trans woman, really? “Scooby-Doo” offers a lesson about the riddle of gender identity.

The greatest obstacle for us is a lack of imagination…Only a person without imagination could think that a butterfly is “really” a caterpillar. Or that a trans woman is “really” a man. Without imagination, it is easy to believe in things that are simple, and superficial, and wrong. wapo.st/4iUFdtN

It Was an Ambush Today marked one of the grimmest days in the history of American diplomacy.

“The president of the United States ambushed a loyal ally, presumably so that he can soon make a deal with the dictator of Russia to sell out a European nation fighting for its very existence.” www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...

The more you know

First for visually impaired. The graph is a scatter plot of data for 50 states showing the deaths per 100,000 people aged 45 through 64. I picked this age group because they are the ones most likely to experience life threatening diseases and injuries that health care can most effectively treat. Since 93 percent of Evangelicals believe in divine healing, this age group would most likely show increased death rates if their religion causes early deaths. The dots on the graph and statistics present in graph title clearly show show a substantial increase in death rates when the percent Evangelical increases.

Here is a scatter plot of the percent Evangelical in 2004 and the state's population aged 45-64 death rate from 2001 thru 2010. The scatter plot and regression statistics summarized in the title show that Evangelicalism substantially increases death rates in the United States. 🧪☠️

More mergansers more of the time!

Elon Musk’s Demolition Crew Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, has been unleashed on federal agencies. ProPublica is attempting to document who is working with him and what they are doing.

projects.propublica.org/elon-musk-do...
FYI

Hip-hop is 'fight the power' but also advertises for the power : Code Switch Critics point out the apparent hypocrisy of a pro-Black rapper like Kendrick Lamar headlining the Super Bowl halftime show, since the NFL isn't exactly an institution that's known for its support of B...

www.npr.org/2025/02/05/1...
Word!

YouTube video by The Daily Show Jon on Trump’s Trade War, The War on DEI & Myth of “Meritocracy” | The Daily Show

youtu.be/TLOuiApOnbw?...
Funny not funny

Have We Been Partying Like It’s 1999? This bubble may end with a tech-bro bailout

“In 1999 the price-earnings ratio for the S&P 500 hit 33, which looked, and was, crazy. As I work on this post, the PE ratio is about 30.” paulkrugman.substack.com/p/have-we-be...

Opinion | Don’t Believe Him Look closely at the first two weeks of Donald Trump’s second term and you’ll see something very different than what he wants you to see.

"Focus is the fundamental substance of democracy. If you overwhelm the media — if you give it too many places it needs to look, all at once, if you keep it moving from one thing to the next — no coherent opposition can emerge. It is hard to even think coherently." www.nytimes.com/2025/02/02/o...

Oppose, Oppose, Oppose — and Do It Loudly Opponents of MAGA: Don’t despair and don’t appease

paulkrugman.substack.com/p/oppose-opp...
This person speaks my mind

A Reverence for Dead Wood Reimagining a "messy" forest

Why is an abundance of standing dead trees and dead wood on the ground a critical component of a healthy forest? Audubon Vermont helps us see the value of dead wood for birds and the places they live. bit.ly/3Wl1dVH

Why Bishop Mariann Budde Wanted to Speak to Donald Trump “If you know what people are thinking about when they’re coming into church on Sunday morning, it’s very important to acknowledge that,” Budde says.

"I think I first heard this phrase from Tim Shriver: the culture of contempt. We are living in a time when we are being socialized to respond to those who disagree with us on anything as if it were the worst possible thing that anyone could possibly think or feel."
www.newyorker.com/news/the-new...

YouTube video by TODAY This pharmacy prescribes poetry to help people through hard times

youtu.be/aGxuk1Bvk6Y?...
Using poetry to heal the soul <3

is impressed to be reminded that Charles Wesley wrote the lyrics of 23 of hymns currently in use in the modern Episcopal hymnal. Yes, that is only 3% of the total but the guy died in 1788. What a legacy.

Mergansers of NH

Departing the New York Times I left to stay true to my byline

contrarian.substack.com/p/departing-...

Paul Krugman on why he left

Goodbye, ‘Resistance.’ The Era of Hyperpolitics Is Over. Where has the anti-Trump energy gone?

"It’s remarkable, in fact, that despite all its fervor, the era of hyperpolitics did not leave behind much that was durable. Many of its leaders have fallen out of public view; there is no equivalent of a 1960s “civil rights generation” to carry the work forward.”

www.nytimes.com/2025/01/25/m...

Bishop Who Called On Trump To Show 'Mercy' Says She's Not Apologizing To Him "I don’t hate the president, and I pray for him," the Right Rev. Mariann Edgar Budde told NPR's "All Things Considered."

“I don’t feel that there is a need to apologize to speak to the unity of this country that includes people that were not at all referenced in the unity that he spoke of the day before in his inaugural address,” Budde said.

www.huffpost.com/entry/bishop...

Opinion | Trump Barely Won the Election. Why Doesn’t It Feel That Way? The president-elect’s cultural victory has lapped his political victory.

www.nytimes.com/2025/01/19/o...
“Trump’s campaign in 2024 was gaudily masculine... It connected to a larger anger building among men — a sense that there was no recognized masculinity aside from toxic masculinity, that there wasn’t much room for them in that female future.”

Common mergansers of NH

Hooded mergansers of NH