Translators work hard to make sure that the translated words, sentences, paragraphs, chapters, etc, not only convey the author's meaning, but also the author's *style.* Translators are alchemists. They are artists, and poets, and researchers, and editors. They are magicians and wizards.

free speech, bedrock of the right-based liberal order in the global north, amirite

ladies it’s a red flag when your man has this in his room

you hear so much about serial killers, but almost nothing about parallel killers

One piece of writing that’s stayed with me this year is this @himself.bsky.social post on social media and how publics are shaped, not merely reflected (I think it’s got broad applicability to shaping by elites and institutions, not just tech platforms) www.programmablemutter.com/p/were-getti...

Sinatra’s 1991 op-ed on anti-immigrant bigotry (when Stephen Miller was 5)

being a rich tech guy in the 90s must have been so sick. every morning you start a web page that sells ring tones, sell it at lunch for 2 million dollars, get dinner at a “sushi” restaurant and go to a night club wearing a cologne called Apartheid Sapphire

A day after part of a missile fired by the United States hit their village, landing just meters from its only medical facility, the villagers of Jabo in northwest Nigeria are in a state of shock and confusion.

there’s plausible slop and then there’s this

something to keep in mind today

Spiritualized’s Ladies & Gentlemen We Are Making a Salad

tough to instantly become a member of the most reviled class on xmas eve

So I have the cover story in next month's TNR. I interviewed the heads of police groups; immigration defense attorneys, ex-judges and ex-prosecutors; former DOJ and DHS officials, and the former head of Border Patrol. They're all horrified at what we've seen, and they all fear what's coming.

That peanut worm is a little too exciting for me you got anything else?

Trump telling kids that he’s subjecting Santa to The Alien Enemies Act of 1978 replaces “at 7, it’s marginal, right?” as the canonical Trump christmas moment

jesus guys

A trans friend held an HRT-mas party, which is apparently what happens “when you take the cis out of Christmas”

Another new a16z idea: giving letters of medical necessity to anybody so they can commit tax fraud Between funding social media bot farms, crypto, and prediction markets, this company represents the new era where tech is mostly just for fraud

“Chilling and unconstitutional” — @attorneynora.bsky.social @freepress.bsky.social

Had the same experience trying to repair my coffee grinder

I always discover a bunch of great stuff on the @boomkat.com end of year recommendation charts

have to admit it took all my willpower to not buy this keyring yesterday

I've posted the full video and an analysis of Bari Weiss's memo.— www.unpopularfront.news/p/60-minutes...

I have to wonder: at this point, what would count as new and shocking evidence against Trump? Video recordings?

Ok. Now had a chance to check and, well, at least some docs do appear to be straight up classic redaction fail. And there are some *interesting* bits here. www.justice.gov/multimedia/C...

reminds me of @lioneltrolling.bsky.social on the Paleocon understanding and use of historical memory in projecting American might

Fun fact: the voice of Barbie in the Norwegian dub of Toy Story 3 was Lene Nystrøm, who was the vocalist on 1990s bubblegum pop song 'Barbie Girl'

Would be a bit one-sided to run a piece on conditions in the concentration camp without getting Goebbels’s perspective

Would be a bit one-sided to run a piece on conditions in the concentration camp without getting Goebbels’s perspective

as we all know, the point of colouring books is to complete the colouring of all the images in the shortest amount of time and using the minimum effort

Is this the same Bari Weiss who routinely greenlit Free Press pieces with glaring errors, misstatements and deliberate omission of context (most recently on hunger in Gaza)?

Per NY Times’s Michael Grynbaum on X, this is Sharyn Alfonsi’s email to her “60 Minutes” colleagues in full:

The political question of our time is whether the GOP can go so openly white nationalist that they blunt the trend of increasing support among minority voters

Things are happening in RepublicanLand (courtesy @laurajedeed.bsky.social)

At the in-laws, loving this inflatable

Somebody make me a 4 hour loop of Zohran making latkes with Mandy Patinkin

When Candace Owens said in 2019 that Hitler was good until he started foreign wars because he was just trying to Make Germany Great Again, she perfectly predicted the trajectory of young stupid conservative thought on the subject.

New A.V. Undercover season!

"Has feminism failed women brought to you by bank of america" is my MKULTRA sleeper agent activation phrase

I love my two blackout drunk Minnesota sons

if Starmer was doing anything at all left wing, pundits would be screaming to 1) get rid of him and 2) completely change course

“They’re denying that any of her birth certificates, which are from Laurel, Maryland, her records of immunization, medical records — they’re denying the authenticity of them. It is something I’ve never encountered.” www.huffpost.com/entry/us-cit...

made a best of 2025 playlist (all included tracks come from great albums) organized it into rough categories of indie pop/rock, art pop, spanish-language avant-orchestral, home listening electronics, high BPM dancefloor stuff, then ambient/experimental/drone open.spotify.com/playlist/5EW...

The winner gets a fourth pencil or doll

so it’s a crime now for giving an innocent keynote at the Annual Edgelord Billionaire Above The Law Dinner

whatever happened to wax stag

Wondering now about whether the person with “a high school degree” that David Brooks took to an Italian deli was actually a student