GUNSMOKE
What happened to crime rates when details of gun owners’ addresses were made public? The founder of the SAS in the UK was a fraud and a liar who was also hopelessly incompetent. The great Ferdinand Mount looks at the terrorism scare of the 1810s, how a government engineered it and exploited it for its own political advantages, and the draconian laws it imposed under its cover (how strange that the idea that governments do this should have been in any way controversial during the modern war on terror two centuries later). And in India, the contrast between the rapid response to Islamist terrorism and the relaxed attitude to Hindu fundamentalist terrorism directed at Muslims.
THE WAR ON WOMEN
Just how extreme is the Texas Republican Party? It wants to ban most of government, legalise discrimination, prohibit sex education and, of course, abolish abortion. These are people determined to create a nightmare state. Speaking of which, here are the Tories who want to ban abortion in the UK. Misogynist violence in the Middle East and the victimhood narrative of Islamophobia. The overturning of Roe v Wade set back the anti-abortion cause years in blue states, Christians lament. And think tanks are becoming churches to enjoy tax and secrecy advantages.
POLARISATION’S PROGRESS
How middle-income neighbourhoods are disappearing in the United States — making way for much more polarised communities. Coming soon: ads on your phone you can’t turn off (when will we get really creative with advertising? Let’s have lifts you can’t leave until you’ve watched an ad. Skip to the head of the phone hold queue by listening to these 10 important promotions! T2/3 lanes equipped with ad broadcasts to your car screen. A petrol bowser that doesn’t start until you’ve watched some commercials. I mean, there are billions of hours a year going begging in Australia in which people are not being advertised to!) Plus: taking low-paid jobs in order to drive unionisation. And Robert De Niro and Al Pacino versus Karl Marx: when the Frankfurt School ditched Marxism for the Scorsese-like thesis of the racket society.
SIGH-ENCE
How is pain relief formed? A look inside how your body feels pain and what stops it. Entanglement comes closer and closer to practical reality. Ideal architecture for low-gravity environments. Cilia are amazing, and the machines that are trying to mimic them are pretty impressive too. America’s robocall hell is the result of relentless industry lobbying, rotten courts and weak regulators. Another great reason to ban autonomous vehicles: they’re breaking down and blocking traffic in San Francisco.
MISC
On the virtues of unplanned holidays. What role, if any, has Russian literature played in the development of Russian aggression? Writing about xenophobia in South Africa can be an unnerving business. How China lost favour with Nordic countries. America is happy to hunt Russian war criminals — but American ones get a free pass. Divorce — Dakota Style — the divorce colony in early 20th century Dakota for wealthy women.
FINALLY
How elegant are cats? How to be cool and shocked simultaneously. And Townsville personality Nathan the Swimming Cat. Plus some bonus canine content to show dogs are the kinder breed.
Thanks for that link to the article about the Racket Society! I’ve long thought that the goal of the right was some sort of reversion to feudalism, but calling out racketeering (and it’s more genteel brother guilds) is a great re-framing. Puts the party donations in exchange for “government for mates” into a different light.