In the News

"One of the most revolutionary things you can do is just have joy"

I’m going to ignore the horrors of our government right now, instead choosing to highlight this set by Josh Johnson, who is rapidly becoming my favorite new comic. The core of this set, which you can watch for free on YouTube, covers Kendrick Lamar’s Super Bowl Halftime Show, which remains one of the more profound halftime shows I’ve ever seen. Even with my basic familiarity of black history in this country, the layers and depth of the performance were obvious.

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Monday links moving to another site

Hi folks - hope you're having a good Friday! I've decided to consolidate the tech things I'm doing onto my other site, UsefulClever, which is where I was putting some of the fun projects I'm working on. There's a little more to this move that I'll share later, but if you're a long time reader of this site, add UsefulClever to your RSS reader or wherever you get the blog. Ping me on Twitter if you have any questions or concerns.

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We hold these truths to be self-evident...

Like many of you who vehemently opposed a Trump presidency, I've been walking around in a bit of a stunned stupor these last few days. I'm gathering my thoughts on what I want to do next, and how I can do the most I can to help bring about a more respectful world. There has to be a better way for us to talk to each other, and a better way to be humans to each other.

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Barack Obama And Doris Kearns Goodwin: The Ultimate Exit Interview

But I tell you what, though. [Long pause.] I’m named Barack Hussein Obama. I’m African-American. And I’ve been elected twice to this office with the majorities of the American people. So something is working. Vanity Fair Wonderful interview with President Obama. Such a decent man with a deep appreciation for America and its history. We're going to miss him, even the folks that hate him right now.

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A jumble of thoughts

On a normal Friday of a normal December, a bunch of families said goodbye to their kids and sent them off to school. Announcements. Meetings for the Principal. A normal Friday. Then the abnormal sound of gunfire. Of violence. Of death. And now, the sound of tears, of sadness, of remembering and loss... of fears and nightmares past and future. I keep imagining what it must be like for the parents of the victims today, especially of the young children.

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What we have here is a failure to communicate

(I should point out, coincidently, and in testament to how obvious the headline choice is, the Courant chose a similar headline. I started writing this before I saw the Courant article, for the record. :-) ) I had a rather animated conversation with a friend today about CL&P's performance during this most recent storm. I won't bore you with the whole thing, but there are a few things I wanted to open up to a broader conversation.

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Following up on my @ctforum tweet

I wanted to briefly expand on a few tweets I made during last night's Connecticut Forum. The topic was "The End of Civility?" and the panel featured David Gergen, Stephen Carter, Christopher Buckley, and Gina Barreca. It was a good discussion, and what I'll address was only one aspect of it. The rise of the political blogs is as much about a shift of power as it is about technology. Having a panel of elites decry the rise of blogs is a bit one-sided.

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