I recently spent 3 weeks in Europe - Prague, Vienna, Munich, Strasbourg - and they were wonderful. But I got back to Philly and was immediately reminded why I love this place so much and wouldn't trade it for any place else. This article captures some of that. www.phillymag.com/news/2026/05...

Brief escape today to the NJ shore where temps on the beach are only in the 70s with a high around 80°F further ashore. Philly is currently 92.

Even after 26 years, it still bothers me every election that "blue" and "red" in US politics mean just about the opposite of what they mean in almost every other country, and - from what I understand - mostly because "Republican" and "red" begin with the same letter.

I dunno if the final results will align with the current returns, but, at the moment, in the Dem primary for the 3rd PA Congressional district, with 50% of the vote counted, the party-endorsed candidate (with support from the mayor and Cory Booker) is coming in 3rd.

There was a point at which Eric Metaxas's cozying up to MAGA may have been a ploy to advance his career, already built on spin and mendacity with regard to history. But habits of pious disinformation seem to have pulled him down into genuine madness.

I didn't realize there wasn't already a historical marker for the 1844 anti-Catholic anti-Irish riots. www.inquirer.com/news/philade...

this graduation speech moment is notable, and her amazed shock at having failed to read the room feels instructive. when you're inside the bubble, you think everybody else is. but everybody isn't.

Went to hear a band last night that I'd last seen in 1992. Wow. The two remaining original members of the band were delightful and energetic, even if the band as a whole wasn't as tight and polished as they were 30+ years ago. But, man. That made me feel so old.

As soon as we land back in Philly, I get a notification from Wawa about a Gritty Smoothie.

We've had nearly 3 weeks in Europe with hardly any rain and mostly clear blur skies, so I can't complain that today is cloudy and drizzly. Besides, it's still beautiful in the rain here in Alsace.

Stopping by an Aldi in France to buy a picnic lunch before driving back into Switzerland because food prices there are insane: easily $40 per person for mid quality food.

Stopped in a village in Switzerland where my dad's ancestors (originally Gerbers) came from, emigrating to Pennsylvania in 1744, escaping religious persecution as Anabaptists. A couple generations before that, they would have been members of the village Reformed church, which we visited.

We have a hybrid vehicle and budgeted a lot for gas, but spending $143 (€122) to fill the tank of our rental car is still a bit of a shock.

Seems like things in the US are even more absurd than usual. It's a good time to be traveling in Europe, where I can pretty much ignore most of it and enjoy the scenery instead.

I like German, Czech, and Austrian food. I really do. But the best two meals I've had so far in the past 10 days in central Europe have been Indian and Greek.

I visited the Seldec Ossuary just outside of Kutna Hora, Czechia, which reminded me of this conversation between @deandettloff.bsky.social and @mattbernico.bsky.social on the @themagnificast.bsky.social about a similar Capuchin ossuary in Rome that I've also visited: open.spotify.com/episode/3nBO...

The federal government took $4,049 from the average taxpayer to fund war and weapons in 2025. When you compare that to what went toward programs that actually help us… the gap gets hard to ignore: 🧵

LOL. Some MAGA folks on Truth Social are calling Dear Leader "the antichrist" now. I don't buy that theological paradigm, but dude's been checking all the boxes for quite some time. It's giving "folks who didn't realize until Season 4 of 'The Boys' that the Homelander character is mocking them."

Thaddeus Stevens was born on this day in 1792. A fierce, uncompromising opponent of slavery, he was a true American revolutionary.

Researchers at Stanford University modeled how many people could die or be disabled in 25 years if vaccines for polio, measles, rubella or diphtheria were no longer available. We decided to illustrate it.

I know it’s competing with an illegal war and 10,000 other major scandals but I feel like people should be making a bigger deal out of the DefSec systematically trying to resegregate the military

It's disgusting that such a racist, misogynist, religious bigot should be in charge of our national defense. Someone who is so insecure about themselves that they can't allow others to succeed has no business in a position of authority.

Okay. Two down. A good start. Now do Hegseth and Miller.

Since I've been on sabbatical this semester, I haven't been in much of a hurry to get anywhere, and the degree to which so many other drivers are in a hurry and aggressive has never been more apparent.

OPINION: (RNS) — Christian nationalists' preferred framing of American politics as 'secular left vs. Christian' is false.

Pete Hegseth just held a prayer service in which he appealed for God's help in killing our "enemies" with maximal violence and brutality. Hegseth's bloodlust and sadism are drawing sustenance from his particular brand of far-right Christianity. 1/ (new piece from me) newrepublic.com/article/2083...

We have a rapidly declining elder pet cat: blind with mobility & incontinence issues. We have travel plans coming up, out of the country for 3 weeks. We're trying to decide whether in-home pet euthanasia is our best option. He hates & panics riding in cars or going to the vet or being in a kennel...

Since the Oscars, we have watched: Frankenstein, The Girl Who Cried Pearls, K-Pop Demon Hunters, One Battle After Another, The Singers, and Sinners. Would recommend all of them. Each is an utterly unique, engaging, and profound work of art.

The other day I was driving through some towns outside of Philadelphia in southeast Pennsylvania, all of which were historically settled by English & Germans, with Irish & Italians joining in the late 19th & early 20th centuries. One area is now almost all stores & restaurants with Spanish names...

If Hegseth's surname was Hassan and he kept ending speeches with Allahu akbar or Allahumma barik or Inshallah, people would be losing their shit. This makes me think that people are not particularly concerned about killing in the name of God so long as they perceive it as *their* god.

Memory is such a weird thing. I saw a post about kids today not having phone numbers memorized & started thinking about all the phone numbers I know, even for high school friends who haven't had that number for 35 years. Or a college friend's for a house his late parents moved out of years ago...

Again, I'll ask: Do you need to be a sociopath to become a billionaire? Or does being a billionaire make you a sociopath? Or is it a bit of both in a self-reinforcing loop?

Do you need to be a sociopath to become a billionaire? Or does being a billionaire make you a sociopath? Or is it a bit of both in a self-reinforcing loop? (Also, Socrates, Buddha, St Paul, Seneca, and Augustine would like a word on introspection.)

The United States is contemplating threatening to kill people with HIV in another country as leverage to get that country's minerals. We have become a sick nation, just as depraved and disgusting as its leader.

Autumn Durald Arkapaw becomes the first woman ever to win Best Cinematography at the #Oscars

Haitian woman, 31, dies alone at Pittsburgh bus stop days after ICE released her to the streets far from home to perish. Rest in power, Daphy Michel: migrantinsider.com/p/the-loneso...

I suppose there's a certain sort of integrity in being a bigot and not sugar-coating your bigotry or wrapping it up in more acceptable political or academic language. That said, insofar as Ogles is trying express facts and not state an opinion or express an aspiration, he is simply incorrect...

Let's grant that campaign contributions are political speech (and even that corporations are people), our free speech laws allow for time, place, and manner restrictions if they serve important public interests, remain content neutral, are narrowly tailored... www.nytimes.com/2026/03/09/u...

I had a nice day planned: hike in a state park, lunch & beer at a brewing company, a movie (the new Peaky Blinders film). But I woke up in the night with a gout flare up - and I'm out of colchicine to stop it. I'll still take a handful of ibuprofen and go the movie, but the rest is off the agenda.

I've seen a bunch of GenZ TikToks about getting drafted w/ 1000s of comments, with maybe 40% of them about fragging & all the rest about how prison would be better than fighting for Trump, how to get a psych hold, ways to get dishonorably discharged, how to get to Canada, etc... GenZ, I tell you...

Was reading up on this Markwayne Mullin guy, and it really does sometimes seem like any white dude who can put his socks on by himself is seen as more qualified than any woman or person of color.

I filled my gas tank right after the attack on Iran, knowing gas prices were about to head up (and with a hybrid, that will last a while). I was able to get gas at $2.95/gallon here in the Philly area. That gas station is now at $3.46/gallon and there are others within a mile of here at $3.80.

This is beginning to seem like a pattern. @jamellebouie.net talks in a recent video about the "groyperization" of the Republican party as these younger sorts are making their way up through local orgs, local government, Congressional staffing, etc. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

In the midst of everything else going on, this seems to be getting scant attention: www.cnn.com/2026/03/03/p...

"No stupid rules of engagement," seems like flipping the bird at 2000 years of natural law and Christian ethical reflection (Aristotle, Cicero, Augustine, Isidore, Aquinas, Grotius, etc) on use of violence.

So many reasons I could never be a reporter. In this instance, I would have replied, "Well, we heard your remarks aimed at frat boys and incel alpha-wannabes. I was asking for remarks aimed at concerned parents and loved ones."

Banners also include Ben Franklin, MLK, Anne Sullivan. But why not Horace Mann? Or John Dewey? WEB DuBois? Elizabeth Palmer Peabody? Margaret Bancroft? But no. Instead a guy who dropped out of community college, used cheap debate tricks, and generally denigrated higher ed, calling college a "scam."

The Washington Post's description of the bodycam video of his arrest last year, and the translation of Mr. Shah Alam's comments, is gutting. Remember, he was entirely blind in one eye and could only see three feet in the other, and he spoke virtually no English. He spent a year in jail for this.

I suspect it might be easier if fact-checkers just told us to assume the whole SOTU was lies and then point out the handful of exceptions where truth, sometimes inadvertently, was expressed.