I always felt so sorry for the deluded folks who believed they were living in the endtimes. Now I have a feeling they might be right. So, as the planet spins toward God knows what fate, I calm myself by deciding that what feels like the endtimes is just one more stage […]
Protestant services this morning at the Hilton Anatole marked the end of CPAC (the Conservative Political Action Conference ) Texas 2022, which was held in Dallas. The conference itself appeared to be meticulously planned, technologically adept, and smoothly run. Nearly everyone who spoke at the general sessions thanked Matt and Mercedes Schlapp, hosts […]
Move among the wolf hunters, and you will find bumper stickers emblazoned with a wolf’s image and the suggestion to “Smoke a Pack a Day.” Protest signs that call wolves “Illegal Immigrants” or “terrorists on the order of Osama bin Laden.” Photographs of men posing, proud, holding up bloodied wolves whose lifeless […]
The Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Dallas, “the largest and most influential gathering of conservatives in the world,” finished its second day on Friday. There were no breakout sessions, as there were the day before; all speakers appeared for an average of no more than 10-15 minutes at the tightly-run general session […]
The Hilton Anatole in Dallas, named for the developer’s favorite Copenhagen restaurant, was the Reagan-Bush campaign headquarters during the Republican National Convention in 1984. In 2021, and now in 2022, it was/is the site of the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC). The conference hotel has a “Zen…and vacay” theme, according to an electronic […]
China is developing artificial intelligence programs that “extract and integrate facial expressions, EEG readings and skin conductivity” in order to measure someone’s “mastery of ideological and political education.” A loyalty test, in other words. The announcement came from the Heifei Comprehensive National Science Center, which posted it this summer on the Weibo […]
Driving west through Missouri today, I saw a billboard for lawyer Mark McCloskey’s Missouri Senate campaign. NEVER BACK DOWN! it said, under a photo of McCloskey and his wife, Patricia, during the now-infamous incident in St. Louis where they brandished guns at a group passing their house on the way to a protest. […]
“[A]ll I can say is that y’all can all go to hell, and I’m goin’ back to Texas,” said Nicole Reffit after the sentencing of her husband, Guy, yesterday, for his role in the January 6th insurrection. Mrs. Reffit called her husband’s sentence, the longest so far at more than seven years, “political […]
Usually I need coffee, pastry, and an uninterrupted hour to properly read one of L.M. Sacasas’s essays in The Convivial Society, a newsletter about technology, culture, and morality. They are dense, brilliant, and provocative, and they refuse to be skimmed. But recently Sacasas sent a piece so short and strong, it punched […]
Nichelle Nichols, who died on July 30 at age 89, exemplified two things for me. One involves acting, and to discuss that, it is necessary to say a little about Star Trek, the TV series on which she played Lieutenant Nyota Uhura—her best-known role. Star Trek may be unique in its mix of […]
