Non-theist Christian and elder in Community of Christ. I have Mormon roots and aspirations to do better with justice and peacemaking—especially in the digital sphere but also in Lexington, Kentucky, the U.S., and the world more broadly.
You can subscribe to this content through this RSS feed or this Mastodon account. You can also subscribe to all of the content on this website through this RSS feed, this Bluesky account, or this newsletter.
I sometimes write in French! To only see the French content (which is also available below, alongside English content), please click on [fr] in the site header.
🔗 linkblog: Racist and Violent Ideas Jump From Web’s Fringes to Mainstream Sites - The New York Times'
Content moderation is a good thing, and ‘free speech’ should not be our primary concern when it comes to social media platforms.
🔗 linkblog: A Reporter Reflects on Covering Seven Mass Shootings — ProPublica'
This is difficult but important to read. As gut wrenching as these shootings are, I am still distant enough from them that they don’t always stick with me. It’s helpful if depressing to read about what sticks with others who are closer to them.
🔗 linkblog: McConnell mum on guns as U.S. Senate recesses for a week – 89.3 WFPL News Louisville'
Disappointing but unsurprising. I wish McConnell would show as much willingness to call out Republicans on guns as he does for Ukraine.
🔗 linkblog: Richard Scarry's 21st Century Classroom | Boing Boing'
Tom the Dancing Bug is usually just the right level of dark.
📚 bookblog: Command and Control (❤️❤️❤️❤️🖤)
This book me far too long to read. I started (and finished) a lot of books while supposedly reading this one, and it’s just a massive book with a lot to get through.
I’m also unclear on how much I’ll take from the book in particular. I got a lot from the overall arc of the story, but given the timeframe of my reading it and the sheer amount of material—not to mention Schlosser’s interweaving of a particular nuclear accident and other historical details—it was hard to keep track of who was who and what had happened.
🔗 linkblog: ‘It Was the Wrong Decision’: Uvalde Cops Waited in Hallway as Kids Called 911 Begging to Be Saved From Gunman'
It makes me sick and angry to read all of this. We have so badly failed the children of this country.
🔗 linkblog: Ted Cruz walks away after reporter asks him why mass shootings keep happening : NPR'
Imagine thinking that this is the price we pay for American exceptionalism. Imagine thinking that mourning these children and wanting to do something about it is a partisan agenda.
🔗 linkblog: 'Under the Banner of Heaven' raises the question: Are Mormons dangerous?'
I suspect that there is nothing as damning in Mormon history as Mormons’ failure to own up to that history, and Jana’s writing here captures that nicely.
🔗 linkblog: 'The Onion' has reused this satire after more than 20 mass shootings since 2014 : NPR'
This is one of the best things The Onion has ever done.
🔗 linkblog: The election system shuddered in 2020. Now, there are fears of an attack within : NPR'
Fascinating (if worrying) article on just how important the basic mechanics of an election are.
🔗 linkblog: Why we need a public internet and how to get one - The Verge'
Lots of interesting ideas in this interview. I particularly like libraries running Mastodon instances.
🔗 linkblog: Clearview AI ordered to delete facial recognition data belonging to UK residents - The Verge'
Let’s do the same in the U.S., please.
🔗 linkblog: Pence, Tiptoeing Away From Trump, Lays Groundwork for ’24 Run - The New York Times'
I don’t think I want a Pence presidency any more than another Trump one, but I do want to see the GOP wrestle with what it’s going to be going forward.
🔗 linkblog: How Trump’s 2020 Election Lies Have Gripped State Legislatures - The New York Times'
Glad that there hasn’t been much conversation about this in Kentucky, but it’s still really worrying stuff.
Book of Mormon dependence on the King James Version
It’s a bit of a truism to say that the Book of Mormon is dependent on Biblical language, but one thing that’s been on my mind for the past few years (especially since reading Thomas Wayment’s excellent The New Testament: A Translation for Latter-day Saints) is how specifically dependent it is on the particular language of the King James Version of the Bible.
Over the past year or so, as a personal project, I’ve been toying around with what a modern-language version of the Book of Mormon would look like. In short, I found a document complaining the complete text of the Book of Mormon, and chapter by chapter, I’ve been tweaking the language. I’m currently working on Mosiah 8 (as measured by the original chapter breaks; also, I should specify that I started with Mosiah 1—a story for another time).
🔗 linkblog: Beshear, KDP will not back Democratic candidate for U.S. House seat'
Pretty upset about these results from the primary. I voted for the other candidate and was shocked to find Young won. At least I have a few months to figure out who to write in.
🔗 linkblog: Madison Cawthorn is beaten in North Carolina's GOP primary : NPR'
Last night, I had a bizarre dream that I was telling Ted Cruz that he was a jerk but that I didn’t mind when it was directed at Madison Cawthorn. Don’t know if that fully reflects my waking views, and don’t know anything about the victor here, but I am glad to see Cawthorn lose.
🔗 linkblog: How the Buffalo shooting livestream went viral - The Verge'
Content moderation is (sometimes) a good thing.
🔗 linkblog: We're Suing Kentucky Prisons for Violating the First Amendment | ACLU of Kentucky'
Religious freedom isn’t worth anything if it’s only a shield for conservative Christianity.
🔗 linkblog: Elon Musk Says Twitter Deal ‘Cannot Move Forward’ in Current State - The New York Times'
What a troll. Even if the deal falls through, the way in which a sole rich dude can mess around with Twitter is souring me on the platform.
📚 bookblog: La présidente, Tome 3 (❤️❤️❤️🖤🖤)
Like its predecessors, this volume was interesting, and I appreciated what it had to say, but there was just too much that was weird about it for me to really love it. I don’t regret reading it, but I have no plans to buy the physical versions like I thought I might in the past.
The story seemed to get more and more speculative over time, and while I appreciated the intent, it just felt like more and more of a stretch, which felt like it weakened the goals of the author. The art was still weird, and things came off as overly didactic. The main characters lost more and more of the spotlight and their personalities, simply becoming vehicles for ideas.
🔗 linkblog: QAnon Thinks Elon Musk Is Going to Let Them Back On Twitter'
If QAnon is excited, the rest of us should be worried—though I think there is a possibility that Musk realizes just how bad his ideas re: limiting moderation are and fails to deliver.