Word of the day. Schismogenesis is the process of social differentiation and the creation of divisions through cumulative, antagonistic interaction. It describes how groups or individuals define themselves against others, leading to escalating conflict or polarized roles, such as cultural divides.

I'm concerned that discusions of the SAVE act seem to be focusing on the poll tax, which is extremely problematic but easily solved. What is not easily solved is tying the right to vote to a document that the government can at any time or for any reason, invalidate.

A great linktree with places to learn about the situation in Minnesota and donate www.samantharei.com/minnesota

We have a house guest - Bonsai the kitty

They'll need to ask future Presidents for a damage deposit

Ok, MN snowplows, you know where masked men are staging for action today. Just plow them in hard. I'm looking at you "Hot to Snow!" and "Chilly Eilish".

"There are many parts of my youth that I'm not proud of. There were -- loose threads; untidy parts of me that I would like to remove. But when I -- pulled on one of those threads; it unraveled the tapestry of my life." - Jean-Luc Picard (“Tapestry”, Star Trek: The Next Generation)

DUCK auto-correct. Duck it, duck it, duck it!

Years back I had some conservative colleagues come to town and I put them up in Minneapolis east bank. I asked them how they liked it. "Great" they replied. I said "Welcome to Little Mogadishu that Fox News keeps dumping on as some kind of war zone". I hoped they would wake up.

I'll miss TikTok but am more troubled the Supreme Court didn't overturn the Bill of Attainder used to attack TikTok since the path is now paved for the government to take down other forums for expression and entities. The Supreme Court has this effectively granted judicial power to other branches.

Pufferfish in Love by @msfledermaus.bsky.social msfledermaus.com

Morgan, my trainer 😁

I may wait a bit to go to the gym this morning

Chanukah beginning to end.

Story up at the gym

Gothmas setup

Happy Friday!

A photo I took when traveling in NYC a few years ago - "church and state"

Michelle likes to paint cozy places you would want to retreat to in stressful times

My wife Michelle creates all kinds of art. More at msfledermaus.com

In The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco, after hearing about a massive & deadly scapegoating, the narrator asks why the peasants didn't attack the landlords, their true enemies, & is told, "When your real enemies are too strong, you get weaker enemies," & every day I think about this & also see it

My friend AK created this beautiful Medusa artwork with the names of 1821 people who experienced sexual violence and the ages at which it occurred. More information at futiledevice.com

Graffiti mural near my home

We have entered the season of cholent though tonjiru won't be far behind! www.wsj.com/recipes/sylv... www.justonecookbook.com/tonjiru/

Snow Crash: One of my favorite science fiction books. Hacking, linguistics, religion, music, pizza... It's got everything.

As Adam says in "Only Lovers Left Alive": "When you separate an entwined particle and you move both parts away from the other, even at opposite ends of the universe, if you alter or affect one, the other will be identically altered or affected." As I sit here, I know you sit there.

Today I'm making a small variation on French garlic soup. Baking some nice bread to go along with it.

Today in MN a homeless man piggybacked into the gym and collapsed. The police called the behavioral crisis unit. After evaluating the guy (quietly, with dignity) the unit helped him into their car. I assume they took him to get help. Maybe we've advanced from the days of George Floyd?