Mitch's Blog

How should we remember Trump once he leaves the White House? Medieval Venice offers one answer for what to do with Trump’s image and name that he’s plastered everywhere. “There are certainly odd historical parallels between an 80-year-old leader attempting to take over a republic because he felt personally insulted and our current political situation.” By David M. Perry at the Minneapolis Star Tribune.

Was the Declaration of Independence Better Before the Edits? Not a great headline on this excellent article; it’s actually a history of the writing of the Declaration and subsequent generations' interpretation of the document, up to and including Abraham Lincoln (whom a college literature professor of mine said was the only American President who was also one of the greatest writers in the English language.)

By Jill Lepore, who is always worth reading and listening to on podcasts, on the New Yorker.

County With 37 Data Centers Asks Schools to ‘Conserve Electricity’

I recently rewatched “Animal House,” a movie I absolutely adore, and was talking to a friend about it and how The Young People don’t get that movie. “It’s stupid and offensive!” they say, and I respond, “Yes! And it was stupid and offensive then too! And it was great!”

My friend said, “Yes, back then we liked being offended.” And I said, “Yes! That’s exactly right!”

I never really thought of it that way before. Being offended can be hilarious, if you’re of the right mindset. Many of us love offensive comedy the way many love horror movies — nobody actually loves being chased around by a guy in a leather mask in a chainsaw but make a movie out of that and it becomes a cult classic.

And speaking of offensive: I rewatched “Animal House” in 5- and 10-minute bursts on my iPhone over the course of a week or two, which will be highly offensive to cinephiles.

A woman belts out “Bohemian Rhapsody” in Minionese at the premier of “Minions & Monsters.” Freddie Mercury would have loved this, according to folks in the replies.

Selecting text on the iPhone is both easy AND enjoyable.

— Nobody, never

Every so often I think it is a good idea to roll my linkposts into a single daily digest and give it a clever name like “Mitchipedia.”

MORGAN FREEMAN VOICE: It is not a good idea.

When I was a kid, I loved the Stainless Steel Rat series by Harry Harrison.

The main character of the series is James Bolivar “Slippery Jim” di Griz, a master thief turned elite police agent in an interstellar civilization in the distant future.

The first several books of the series were among my favorites. I reread them recently and found them enjoyable. Much of the appeal for me is, and was, the author’s voice. The books are narrated in the first person and Slippery Jim is a wisecracking insouciant anti-hero.

James Nicoll reviews the first book in the series, “The Stainless Steel Rat.” He doesn’t care for it. He compares it to another series of books that I love, Donald E. Westlake’s Dortmunder series.

“Dortmunder’s adventures are just as implausible as Jim’s, but they work for me,” Nicoll says. “I think it comes down to how Jim and Dortmunder’s plots fail, when they do fail: Jim seems confident that he really only ever needs one plan, whereas Dortmunder is gloomily aware he needs at least one more plan than he has, even when he takes into account needing at least one more plan than he has.”

The books do PhilipKDickian things with reality. In the first novel, Slippery Jim takes a cocktail of mind-altering drugs to turn himself into a psychopath so he can catch a psychopath, then tricks his psychopathic self into reverting back.

The galactic culture of the Harrison books is a benevolent technocracy. Government has absolute authority to brainwash people or do anything else it wants and it all works out because it’s scientific and only for the good.

Harrison did another series of novels I loved, Deathworld, about a professional gambler who visits a planet where everything is out to kill you all the time. Children are trained in kindergarten to carry guns and use them instantly and lethally.

SDN pioneers return with $15M GPU networking bet. A16z leads a $15M Series A to upstart Netris, funding a platform automating GPU networking and multi-tenancy for AI cloud operators. By me on Fierce Network.

A homeowners association in San Marcos, a suburb of San Diego, is threatening to fine one of its residents for flying an American flag.

The HOA is (and should be) in violation of specific laws, according to attorneys quoted in the article.

The HOA says it isn’t singling out Old Glory — the policy started when a resident started flying a San Diego Padres flag. The HOA said if they allowed Padres flags or American flags then there would be flags proliferating all over the community, which would be bad …. how, exactly?

The HOA’s decisions here are so wrong that they’re not even offensive. They’re just dumb.

Cory Doctorow: “The ‘Third Way’ in liberal politics involves saying things that working people love, but doing things that sociopathic plutocrats love. It works …right up until voters notice that you’re not doing the things. That realization breeds cynicism and fury and paves the way for fascist strongmen. It’s really ugly, and no one does it uglier than Canada’s Liberal Party.”

As an American, I am insulted by Cory’s giving number one status to the Canadian Liberal Party. The Democrats here in the U.S. excel at giving lip service to working people while serving plutocrats.

I had forgotten that the theme for “Hogan’s Heroes” goes hard. youtu.be/onZm-1GjY…

Arielle Duhaime-Ross: “My fitness tracker is a secret weapon against my chronic illness." Disabled folks are successfully using their devices to manage long Covid, POTS, and more. Extremely interesting and encouraging!

I feel like this question is in the wrong subreddit.

Minnie is on medication now and I’m getting good at giving it to her without it being too stressful.

Not stressful for me. It was never stressful for her. She finds receiving the liquid annoying but she likes the tasty pill pocket and doesn’t notice its cargo.