Right v. Wrong #blogpost

World Monuments Fund selects 10 "irreplaceable" American places for USA 250: https://www.dezeen.com/2026/06/30/world-monuments-fund-irreplaceable-american-usa-250/

"and Kelce is a human Labrador who loves to get belly rubs from passing strangers."

Only a complete asshole would get married at Madison Square Garden: defector.com/only-a-compl...

A Fourth of July tradition is back! The 27th annual New England Muzzle Awards highlight outrages against freedom of speech and expression. dankennedy.net/2026/06/30/t...

Awesome 🤣🤣🤣🤣

Emergency puppy deployment

Defeat the Dark Lords of the Algorithm: Sign up today for Media Nation, a free source of news and commentary since 2005. New posts will be delivered to your inbox. dankennedy.net/media-nation...

My already high esteem for Mel Brooks was raised even higher when I read the following, about one of me and my late wife's very favorite films, Taika Waititi's "JoJo Rabbit":

Reupping this because it's so good.

Happy 100th, Mel Brooks. I interviewed you recently. I don’t think I have yet fully processed what that meant to me. You are probably the single most important cultural figure in my life. You were as curious about me as I was about you. I love you, Mel. www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie...

More than a decade ago, a group of young, internet-connected Belarusian dissidents launched a series of increasingly high-stakes, increasingly surreal confrontations with the corrupt, authoritarian government of Alexander Lukashenka, a man who is often called "the last Soviet dictator." 1/

Opening day of the Great American State Fair drew light crowds, long walks, and mixed reactions from visitors. Here's what it was like inside the America 250 event. washingtonian.com/2026/06/26/i...

Great interview with the authors on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart: www.youtube.com/watch?v=xdmd...

I wrote about JD Vance's strange comments about Watergate — and how it misunderstands the reality of modern presidential corruption. Come for the conspiracies, stay for the odd movement of "Nixonmaxxing." No, really. www.doomsdayscenario.co/p/jd-vance-a...

As a Watergate historian, this might be the dumbest and worst take we’ve seen from JD Vance in a long time. And it’s also a complete misunderstanding of Nixon and Watergate.

Worcester parents to demand money for books rather than iPads in schools

True in the short-term, sure, but as a historian: Dissents do often point the way toward a better future. If you write history, you often find yesterday’s dissents become tomorrow’s triumphs.

Thought it was important enough to do a rare post for the jackals. balloon-juice.com/2026/06/24/m...

As is appropriate

Hunter speaks! Dems need to listen. 🙌🔥

HAHAHAhaha! they're making the world's biggest synthetic scum pond!!! The coating is a polyurea used inside pipes. It gels in about 3 seconds, making it non self-leveling. The texture is like an orange peel, the perfect substrate for biofilms. www.nytimes.com/2026/05/19/u...

They're using Rhino Pipeliner 5000, which freezes as sprayed-on curds almost exactly as it hits the surface. Won't flow out, flatten, and self-level like standard epoxy or paint would. Under standing water, the orange peel texture is a perfect scaffolding for algae, bacteria, and general bio scum

Software company RealPage worked with corporate landlords to orchestrate an unlawful scheme to keep rent prices high. My office took RealPage and all the landlords to court. Now, we've reached a $7 million settlement with landlord Livcor. I won't sit by while bad actors worsen our housing crisis.

Good read on @doctorow.pluralistic.net’s latest AI analysis www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

George Smiley is coming to America... (Narratively, in 1965; commercially in November. B&N pre-order below :) www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-taper-...

The Last Contract of Isako by @fondalee.bsky.social features a too-old-for-this-shit ronin, great worldbuilding, and lots of very smart social commentary. And yet another entry on the list of "good authors I like but haven't read what they're famous for." Full ⭐⭐⭐⭐ review here: bit.ly/3QoGkt1

You can now be arrested for sticking your hand in Donald Trump's disgusting reflecting pool: defector.com/you-can-now-...

A little thread, some good stuff about my mom. My mom grew up in a tiny little one-gas-station kind of town in Mississippi, and she became a nurse in Houston. Blunt and practical, she married a doctor who loved opera, poetry, and dead languages. Somehow they made it work.

Someone has been projecting images all over D.C. “It’s swampier than ever.” The Kennedy Center one is pretty hilarious. 😂😂😂

It is time once again to discuss the Most Dad Things we have done in the past year. A couple of reminders: - gender is a social construct, anyone can do Dad Things - you need not be a parent to do a Dad Thing - the definition of a Dad Thing is entirely subjective and maybe made up I’ll go first:

Remember the good ‘ol days? Happy Father’s Day, Mark.

I discovered last night that my favorite adaptation of one of my favorite books is unabridged on YouTube. The acting and writing are exquisite. But get your mute button at the ready because there are annoying ads (but, honestly, are there any other kind?)

The American Library Association is auctioning off a bunch of the classic celebrity “READ” posters along with a bunch of other full sized literacy posters. This is going to fix so many of my problems, I just know it. movieposters.ha.com/c/search/res...

As noted in the episode, for viewers who tuned in to the final broadcast of the Monkees' TV show, the last thing they would have seen was this: Buckley performing an early version of "Song to the Siren"

important great pyrenees studies

Perhaps you've encountered the stories about Dialog, an extremely weird secret society associated with Peter "Antichrist" Thiel, whose membership data and details have leaked this week: www.wired.com/story/how-pe... 1/

You think you can rant? No, THIS dude can rant.

Some years ago, I was chatting with a Retropolis reader, a young history student, and I mentioned there were several dozen people enslaved in New Jersey up until the day the 13th Amendment kicked in in December 1865. Y’all. He identified every one of them. njs.libraries.rutgers.edu/index.php/nj...

What does it mean to be the world's oldest library? A BBC story about the lore behind the Merton College Library in Oxford with a few other notable mentions. 📚 www.bbc.com/culture/arti...

The belief that country music is not and has never been the purview of any one person is foundational to what we've tried to do for 22 years, and we strive to elevate the work of diverse artists around here every day. To recognize Juneteenth, a thread to highlight some essential black artists:

I've only read Daikon but now I need to read them all.

So true. #BookSky

In case you missed it earlier this week I went down into DC to inspect the Reflecting Pool and yep, they ruined it. www.sfgate.com/politics/art...

myshetland.co.uk/how-the-tabl... No one talking to me because of shearing. All mad. #myshetland #shearing #shetlandislands #shetland #shetlandsheep #shetlandwool

The *actual* dead economy risk is that our institutions and markets will continue to move capital from productive activity into memestocks, vibes, and bubbles. 19/

Here's a fun fact about Elon Musk: in 2020, his (nominal) net worth was $20b, and today it's $1t (nominally). But *that's* not the fun fact; *this* is: everything he's done since 2020 was a flop. 1/

The war on metaphor is over and we lost. defector.com/promises-mad...