Don’t know much about [ObWi] history…

by liberal japonicus Archive work continues apace, and questions arise. Specifically, one of the founders, along with Moe Lane and von, was a Katherine R, however, it seems that second Katherine later started blogging. Some internal information point to two different Katherines, but I’m not really positive. The first Katherine [R] spent a good bit … Read more

IANAL, but…

by liberal japonicus In working on the archive, I was struck by how much lawyers and law talk has been a part of the blog. It had good points (lots of interesting issues) and bad points (lawyers arguing), but the law talk has faded a bit, not only because I Am Not A Lawyer, but … Read more

An experimental first post

by GftNC lj has asked for contributions from people with subscriptions (in my case the NYT and the Atlantic) of things that might interest the ObWi commentariat . It was hard for me to know what gift links to post that would appeal and that might provoke conversation, so this is an experimental first try. … Read more

We are all Usain Bolt now

by liberal japonicus From the Grauniad here. The 39-year-old Jamaican had not watched athletics at all since retiring in 2017 until seeing Melissa Jefferson-Wooden and Oblique Seville win gold. And, as he also admitted, he now spends his time streaming movies and building Lego – and even gets out of breath when he walks up … Read more

Precursors

by liberal japonicus (image information here) Hartmut mentioned Horst Wessel in connection with Charlie Kirk. First a little background on Horst Wessel and a Forward article about why people are connecting the two. This academic paper is worth a read, though I am getting sensitive to the criticism that being too academic is problematic. During … Read more

Notes about commenting

by liberal japonicus While the blog has a setting that says “Before a comment appears ☑️Comment author must have a previously approved comment”. Unfortunately, it seems that you have to make an account and be logged in. Otherwise, your comment will go into moderation. The urge is to think that this just a little backwater … Read more

L’esprit de l’époque

by liberal japonicus While what happens in the future is still unknown, to me, nothing gets at ‘the spirit of the age’ better than a 71 year old gay British politician being the first person to lose their job over Epstein. To really represent that spirit, he’d have to be the only one. Bets down, … Read more

Guestpost from Wonkie

by wonkie I’ve had thoughts rattling around in my head about hate speech, stochastic violence, and relationships with friends and neighbors. I haven’t come to a conclusion yet. Perhaps we can discuss this here. I’m interested in what you all think. I’ll start with a little story: I used to spar politically with a neighbor … Read more