THE DAILY MAIL

Carl G.: “True, the COVID risk to kids is inflated; however, if it’s your kid and something bad happens, telling yourself the odds were a thousand to one isn’t going to make you feel better.”

→ No question.  But it’s way more than 1,000 to 1 — more like a quarter […]

Harvard’s first chaplain, the Reverend Michael Wigglesworth, was gay . . . as recounted in the 1998 Sundance Audience Award-winning documentary Out of the Past by Harvard’s then chaplain, the revered late Peter Gomes. (Also gay.  And black.  And Republican.)  Harvard’s newest chaplain, Greg Epstein, is an atheist:

. . . […]

AFGHANISTAN

Peter (who voted for Trump twice): “As you well know, Biden is under intense attack for the Afghan withdrawal, with many claiming he is no longer compos mentis. But the colloquy with FOX’s Doocy shows quite the opposite. He gives briefly a quite lucid and informed understanding of Afghan history, the reasons for […]

But first . . .

Is rational thinking useful — or allowed — when it comes to the pandemic?

Some will say no; some will say yes; some will say it’s already been applied.

For your consideration:  The Bizarre Refusal to Apply Cost-Benefit Analysis to COVID Debates.

And now . . .

Lonely?  Angry?  […]

MUST READ

Flynn, Stone, Bannon, Prince — and could we throw in Stephen Miller, Giuliani, Josh Hawley, and a few hundred others?

How about the Former Guy himself if it turns out he willfully stalled the defense of the Capitol and cheered the attackers on?

By Greg Olear. Must read.

You’ll laugh, you’ll cry […]

Afghanistan.

I blame Raph Nader, as you know.  (Gore might have gotten Bin Laden before 9/11* and would surely not have rejected the Taliban’s offer and gone to war with Iraq.)

Three perhaps more useful perspectives:

First: How presidents lie us into war by Thom Hartmann.

You could teach a whole college course around this […]

But first . . .

TWO VIEWS ON AFGHANISTAN

Tom Friedman: What will matter is the morning after the morning after.

Bret Stephens: We should never have left.  Trump and Biden both were wrong.

BOTH PARTIES ARE DYSFUNCTIONAL

One has become a cult, favoring the virus over the vaccine, Putin over the CIA […]

3 LIFE LESSONS FROM A PLANE CRASH

This five-minute TED talk is by an important entrepreneur “You’ve Never Heard Of” who was in seat 1D when Captain Sullenberger landed his plane on the Hudson River.

WHAT LESSONS FROM A LANDSLIDE? It is a measure of how unhinged things have become that Landslide: […]

But first . . .

THE TRAGEDY

Today’s post is long, so if time is short, just read Fareed Zakaria.

We Lost the War In Afghanistan Long Ago.

He concludes:

The United States had been watching the Taliban gain ground in Afghanistan for years now. It is rich and powerful enough to have been […]

THE WITHDRAWAL

John M.: “As a father of two wonderful intelligent self sufficient daughters, my heart bleeds for the millions of young women who will now face a life of brutal subjugation.  For all of our failures we can say, to paraphrase Walter Cronkite once again: ‘We were a good and decent people who tried […]