And I watched until I had to get ready for my hot dinner date. 37th anniversary and all.
Just now cued up the DVR and watched the second half.
And here’s most of what I was thinking. If I communicated like the President, my students would stop coming to class.
The Paris Olympics are the distraction we need. ESPN has a groovy interactive feature that allows you to pick Team (d)USA’s men’s hoops starting five. After assembling your team, you get immediate feedback on how they would likely fare.
ESPN’s computer did not like my vet-heavy choices.
Stop stressing about the weather, the Presidential Election, Project 2025, and the possible end of democracy, and pick your starting five. No doubt you will assemble a younger, better team, maybe even a gold medal winning one.
Postscript. My do-over.
This is how the story starts:
“NEW YORK (AP) — Columbia University said Monday that it has removed three administrators from their positions and will keep them on leave indefinitely after finding that text messages they exchanged during a campus discussion about Jewish life ‘disturbingly touched on ancient antisemitic tropes.'”
Do not mistake what I’m about to write as exonerating the admins. I am not shedding any tears over their dismissals. Be prejudiced and stupid at your own risk.
That said, there’s a troubling story within the larger troubling story. I’ll leave it to you to decide which is more troubling.
The story is that none of the reporting I’ve seen raises a single question about the method used to bust the admins. Someone sitting behind them used their phone to take pics of one of the dismissed admins’ phone on which a group text was running amok.
You may have seen the recent story of some guy on an airplane wearing a wedding ring who allegedly hit on and hooked up with a fellow passenger. A nearby busy body passenger filmed the whole shady thing and then uploaded it to her socials. It went viral, people found his wife, and I don’t know how it turned out. I don’t even know if the vid was edited with the hope of going viral.
Way more interesting than the actual case study was the difference in how the story was told. Specifically, there was lots of conversation about what might be referred to as “electronic etiquette”. More to the point, whose actions were more egregious, the alleged philander or the budding movie maker? That’s an issue upon which reasonable people can disagree, but the point is her total ignoring of his privacy was a part of how the story was written up.
But not in the case of the Columbia grouptexters.
The larger question is whether we want to live in a world where everything we think and write—whether in public, semi-private, or private even—is subject to public approval or disapproval or not?
I can’t help but conclude, based on the complete non-questioning of the surreptitious phone texting photographer’s methods, that few people are sweating the end of privacy.
Maybe all that’s left of the privacy crowd is a sad sack Boomer with a humble blog.
Somehow, I’ve stumbled into a Stranger Things episode. And thanks to Biden, Trump, and the Lakers, I can’t get out.
Democratic Party leaders and Biden officials say I shouldn’t trust what I’m seeing and hearing. They know what I, a certified bed-wetter, don’t. The President is not aging. The debate was a one-off. His voice, energy levels, and communication skills are all fine. And will continue to be throughout a second term. He continues to be the exact right person for the job at the exact right time.
Following the debate, the Serial Liar said, “As I walked off the stage on Thursday night, at the end of the highly anticipated ‘Debate,’ anchors, political reporters and all screamed that I had had the greatest debate performance in the long and storied history of North Korea Presidential Debates. They all said, effectively, ‘Trump was fantastic!'”
Cue JJ Redick, the Los Angeles Lakers’ new head coach who today said, with a remarkably straight face, “Rob (Pelinka) and I did not give Bronny anything. Bronny has earned this. … Bronny has earned this through hard work.”
Bronny, who is shorter than me, averaged 4.8 points on 36.6% shooting (26.7% from 3), 2.8 rebounds and 2.1 assists in 19.3 minutes per game at some loathsome college. But the Lakers are saying I shouldn’t trust that sample set and that they would’ve picked Bronny even if the team wasn’t desperate to make his dad happy and resign him.
Biden’s Reelection Team, The North Korean, and the Los Angeles Lakers all think we’re too stupid to think for ourselves. So they’ll do it for us.
Our eyes, ears, and brains be damned.
Pressing Pause 