The Weekly Town Crier (07/23/21)
All the week’s news that’s fit to cry about (07/23/21).
We’ll Miss You:
Read “Rapper Biz Markie dies” at The Hill.
Read “Byron Berline, Master of the Bluegrass Fiddle, Dies at 77” at New York Times.
Religion and Stuff:Human Rights/Legal/Justice and Social Justice and Race or Gender or Sexism-Related Stuff:
Read “Sikhs, finding religious freedom on the road, take outsize role in American trucking” at Religious News Service.
Read “John Piper’s Successor Latest to Resign as Allegations of Abusive Leadership Mount at Bethlehem Baptist” at Roys Report.
Read “Why God is still the best scientific theory to explain our life on Earth” at New York Post.
Read “Despite white Christianity’s role in Capitol assault, some signs of hope and change” at Religion News Service.
Read “Is evangelical Christianity a religious movement, or is it something else?” at Current.
Read “The Six Way Fracturing of Evangelicalism” at Mere Orthodoxy.
Read “House panel rejects SBC-backed Hyde Amendment” at Baptist Press.
Read “Women’s Search for Women Leaders in the Early Church” at Daily JSTOR. “Some nineteenth-century women writers argued that the first Christians included women who were close to Paul—and maybe apostles themselves.”
Read “David Platt’s dreams for McLean Bible Church sour as members file lawsuit over elder vote” at Religion News Service. “Platt, the best-selling author of ‘Radical’ and beloved Bible preacher, finds his church facing controversy over critical race theory.”
Read “12 Women File Lawsuit vs Liberty U for Unsafe Environment, “Enabling On-Campus Rapes”” at Roys Report.
Read “Florida Youth Pastor Arrested 3rd Time for Video Voyeurism” at Roys Report.
Read “Among Mormon Women, Frank Talk About Sacred Underclothes” at New York Times. ““People are scared to be brutally honest, to say: ‘This isn’t working for me. It isn’t bringing me closer to Christ, it’s giving me U.T.I.s.’” Interesting story on Mormon women pushing for changes to their (often itchy, non breathable) holy undergarments:”
Read “Sanctifying the Status Quo: A Response to Reverend Kevin DeYoung” at Front Porch.
Read “Distinctively Christian? An Additional Response to Reverend Kevin DeYoung” at Front Porch.
Read “White Christian America built a faith-based safety net. What happens when it’s gone?” at Religion News Service.
Read “Evangelical' Prof’s ‘Biblical Comma’ Tweet Exposes Paradox of ‘Respectable’ Evangelical Anti-Intellectualism” at Religion Dispatches.
Read “UMC edges toward historic split over LGBTQ inclusion. This church showed the way.” at Religion News Service. “Community of Hope was founded in 1993 as an outreach to ‘people on the margin,’ including LGBTQ people and people living with HIV/AIDS, according to its former pastor.”
Read “Catholic priest who wants to prevent Biden from receiving communion resigns in sex scandal” at Boing Boing.
Read “In-Laws of Mark Driscoll’s Children & Key Pastor: ‘Cultic’ Church Is Dividing Families” at Roys Report.
Read “Postcards from Phoenix: When Church Divides a Family” at Warren Throckmorton.
Read “Former Pastor at Florida Megachurch Charged with Grooming & Sexually Molesting Young Girl” at Roys Report.
Human Rights/Legal/Justice and Social Justice and Race or Gender or Sexism-Related Stuff:
Read “Federal judge declares DACA program illegal, but halts only new applications” at NBC News.
Read “Biden administration invites UN experts on racism to visit U.S. in bid to combat racial injustice”
Read “Voting Rights Activists Are Planning a Selma-Style March in Texas” at Vice.
Read “Alabama city leader won't quit after using racial slur” at Yahoo.
Read “Harvey Weinstein, Convicted Rapist, Claims He Didn't Rape Anyone in LA’” at Vice. “On Wednesday, Weinstein pleaded not guilty to 11 sexual assault charges.”
Read “Texas Starts Jailing Immigrants on State Charges After Crossing U.S. Border” at Democracy Now.
Read “U.S. Won’t Seek Death Penalty in 7 Cases, Signaling a Shift Under Biden” at New York Times.
Read “Mississippi's attorney general asks Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade” at The Hill.
Read “Giuliani being investigated over Turkish lobbying” at ABC News.
This week in traitorous, white-supremacist Confederate monuments (and/or Columbus monuments // and/or other “American monuments” // Insurrectionists // and/or weird Confederacy stuff):
Read “Two men charged in alleged scheme to attack Democratic headquarters in Sacramento inspired by Trump defeat, DOJ says” at CNN.
Read “Father and son police officers charged with joining Proud Boys at Capitol riot” at The Hill.
Read “Garland bars prosecutors from seizing reporters' records” at Yahoo.
Read “Anti-Jewish manifesto found on California man arrested with ammo, high-powered weapons” at Forward.
Read “Men accused of Whitmer kidnapping plot say FBI set them up” at The Hill.
Read “Prosecutors say 'incel' planned mass shooting of sorority members on Ohio college campus” at The Hill.
Read “Pelosi Says Jan. 6 Panel To Move Ahead Without GOP’s Choices” at Huff Post.
Read “In Trump’s Jan. 6 recast, attackers become martyrs, heroes” at Associated Press.
This Week In Protest-Related News:
Read “Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio pleads guilty in Black Lives Matter banner burning” at AZ Central.
This Week With The Police:
Read “Police officers treat Black and white men differently. You can hear it in their tone of voice” at Los Angeles Times.
Read “The case of the mugshot with the missing tattoos concludes on hopeful note: ‘It’s like hitting the lottery’” at Oregon Live.
Read “Rapid City Police Officer Let Go After Racially Profiling Native Americans” at SDBP.
Read “NYC's Non-Police Mental Health Pilot Increasing Rate of Those Getting Aid, Data Show” at NBC New York.
Education and The Learnings // School Re-Openings
Read “What the Author of the Poem “White Privilege” Thinks of a Teacher Getting Fired for Showing It to His Class” at Slate. “I know that it was just a terrible excuse for their discomfort,” said Kyla Jenee Lacey.
Read “Texas “critical race theory” bill limiting teaching of current events signed into law” at Texas Tribune. “Texas is one of a handful of states that have approved legislation that prescribes how teachers discuss current events and prohibits students from receiving credit for participating in civic activities.”
Read “Texas Senate Bill Drops Teaching Requirement That Ku Klux Klan Is ‘Morally Wrong’” at Huff Post. “Eliminated requirements also include the writings of Martin Luther King Jr., United Farm Workers leader Cesar Chavez and suffragist Susan B. Anthony.”
Read “California to provide free school meals for all students” at The Hill.
Your Weekly Coronavirus Roundup:
Read “Delta Is Driving a Wedge Through Missouri” at The Atlantic. “For America as a whole, the pandemic might be fading. For some communities, this year will be worse than last.”
Read “Biden says platforms like Facebook are ‘killing people’ with COVID-19 misinformation” at The Verge.
Read “High-Profile COVID-19 Cases Are Disrupting Olympic Rosters And MLB Games” at NPR.
Read “World-renowned St. Jude children's hospital tells employees: Get vaccinated or get fired” at The Blaze.
Read “Music festival in the Netherlands leads to over 1,000 Covid infections” at CNBC.
Read “L.A. residents torn as mask mandate takes effect” at Yahoo.
Read “Federal judge will not block Indiana University's vaccine mandate” at The Hill.
Read “Federal appeals court to consider whether Michigan students can be required to wear masks” at Michigan Radio.
Read “Prisoners Keep Dying of COVID While ‘Compassionate Releases’ Stall in Court” at Vice.
Read “Unvaccinated Trump supporter who spread coronavirus conspiracy theories dies of COVID-19” at Raw Story.
Read the opinion piece: “Fox News' Covid vaccine denials can't go unpunished.”
Read “‘I’m sorry, but it’s too late’ Alabama doctor on treating unvaccinated, dying COVID patients” at AL.com. “One of the last things they do before they’re intubated is beg me for the vaccine. I hold their hand and tell them that I’m sorry, but it’s too late.”
Read “Tokyo hits six-month high in COVID-19 cases one day before Olympics begin” at The Hill.
Read “Guinea withdraws from Olympics, citing COVID-19” at The Hill.
Read “More Variants Are Coming, and the U.S. Isn’t Ready to Track Them” at Bloomberg.
Read “Klobuchar Takes Aim at Online Covid Lies With Section 230 Bill” at Bloomberg. “Senator Amy Klobuchar introduces a bill to make online platforms like Facebook and Twitter legally liable for misinformation about health issues such as Covid-19.”
Read “COVID-19 is surging again in Arizona, ASU disease expert says” at AZ Central.
Read “The New COVID Panic” at Slate. “What vaccinated people should really know about their risk from the delta variant.”
Read “NFL warns teams that COVID-19 outbreaks could lead to forfeits in 2021” at ABC 15.
Read “Under HIPAA Rules, Can Businesses Ask If You Have Been Vaccinated Against COVID-19?” at Snopes. “Where does HIPAA's privacy rule apply?”
Read “More than 1.5 million children lost a primary or secondary caregiver due to the COVID-19 pandemic” at NIH.
Miscellany Cultural Items (and some Technology):
Read “Dr. Anthony Fauci named 2021 Humanist of the Year” at Religion News Service. “The American Humanist Association awarded the honor to Fauci for embodying humanist values in the global fight against COVID-19.”
Read “Twitter Suspends Marjorie Taylor Greene For COVID Misinformation” at News and Guts.
Read “Deion Sanders Scolds Reporter For Calling Him ‘Deion’ And Walks Away” at Huff Post. “The Jackson State football coach, a Hall of Fame retired pro, griped that the journalist was being “cute.”
Read “The Inevitable Weaponization of App Data Is Here” at Vice.
Read “Mercedes-Benz going all-electric by 2025” at The Hill.
Read “Controversial USPS Plan To Slow The Mail Slammed By Postal Regulator” at Forbes.
Read “Hundreds Demonstrated Against Poverty at Apollo 11 Moon Launch” at Space.
Read “Surprise Jump in Unemployment Claims Shows U.S. Labor Market Churn” at Time.
Read “Female Soldiers Are Getting New Body Armor Designed Just For Them” at NPR.
Read “A Defunct Video Hosting Site Is Flooding Normal Websites With Hardcore Porn” at Vice. “Stories on major news sites like ‘The Washington Post,’ and ‘New York Magazine’ currently have porn embedded in them.”
Internationalities:
Read “U.S. blames China for Microsoft hack” at World.
Read “‘Mom, I Don’t Think I Can Make It’: Inside the Subway Train Flooded by Extreme Rainfall” at Vice. “At least 12 people died in the subway system as a record-breaking rainstorm hit central China.”
Read “US House passes bill to provide 8,000 special visas for Afghans” at Al Jazeera.
Read “Room for 10,000: Inside China’s largest detention center” at Religion News Service. “This site suggests that China still holds and plans to hold vast numbers of Uyghurs and other minorities in detention.”
Politics And Sucheries:
Read “Matt Gaetz’s ‘America First’ Rally Dumped By Third California Venue Hours Before Event” at Huff Post. “In last-ditch attempt, Gaetz asked supporters to join him outside Riverside City Hall to “protest against communism.”
Read “Biden's silence on filibuster strains Democrats' patience” at The Hill.
Read “Tech executives increased political donations amid lobbying push” at The Hill.
Read “American Dental Association Bares Teeth, Extracts Funding for Paul Gosar” at Vice.
Read “Senate Democrats propose requiring women to register for military draft” at Politico.
Read “Senate panel votes to make women register for draft” at The Hill.
Read “Sparse Voter-Fraud Cases Undercut Claims of Widespread Abuses” at Bloomberg.
Read “Democrats criticize FBI's handling of tip line in Kavanaugh investigation” at The Hill.
Read “Kyrsten Sinema’s Strategy of Refusing to Do Anything About Anything Is Not Impressing Voters, Poll Says” at Slate. “Arizona offers a natural experiment in whether people would rather see a Democrat hold out for Republican cooperation or just pass stuff they like.”
This Week In Political Corruption:
Read “A false narrative of 74K extra votes in Arizona” at Associated Press.
Read “Elements of Trump's Big Lie sound alarms for students of history” at MSNBC.
Read “Republicans renege on deal with Democrats, strip funding for IRS in gift to rich tax cheats” at Salon.
Read “Trump campaign really did pay fake supporters to attend 2015 campaign launch, aide admits” at MSNBC.
Read “Trump still says the election was rigged (it wasn't)” at MSNBC.
Read “GOP Rep. Cawthorn Claims House Republicans Will ‘Prosecute’ Fauci For Doing His Job” at Huff Post. “We want to prosecute this guy to the full ability of the law,” the North Carolina congressman told a right-wing website.”
Music-Related News and Such:
Read “Britney Spears Posts Fiery, Brutally Honest Response to Critics on Social Media” at Pop Culture.
Read “Yasmin Williams: A New Voice in Fingerstyle Guitar” at Premier Guitar.
Read “Johnny Rotten sued by ex-Sex Pistols members over upcoming miniseries” at Brooklyn Vegan.
Read “John Lydon likens contract at heart of Sex Pistols legal dispute to “slavery”” at NME. “Lydon is being sued by his former bandmates after refusing to grant permission for Sex Pistols music to be used in Danny Boyle's 'Pistol'.
Read “Faces are recording their first new music in four decades” at NME.
Read “Def Jam appears to confirm rumours of new Kanye West album after Las Vegas listening event” at NME.
Read “Olympics Opening Ceremony Composer Steps Down And Apologizes For Bullying” at NPR. “Japanese musician Keigo Oyamada, who performs under the name Cornelius, has resigned from the Tokyo Olympics after being criticized on social media for having bullied children with disabilities while he was himself a student.”
Read “Music Was Key Coping Tool During Lockdown, Says Survey” at The Quietus.
Read “‘Woodstock 99’ Documentary Clip: That ‘Mud’? It’s Shit” at Rolling Stone. “HBO’s Woodstock 99: Peace, Love, and Rage focuses on infamous music festival.”
Browse Vice’s picks for “16 Essential Albums You May Have Missed in 2021.”
Read “What Will Happen to My Music Library When Spotify Dies?” at Atlantic.
Read “Farm Aid Announces 2021 Lineup With Willie Nelson, Neil Young, & More” at Stereogum.
Read “Remembering the Phoenix rockabilly star behind 'the most important record ever cut here'“ at Arizona Central.
Browse “A Brief History of Philly Psych” at Bandcamp.
Read “Inside Sun Ra’s 1971 trip to Egypt” at Vinyl Factory.
Read “When a loudmouthed DJ tried to kill disco, the homophobic and racist implications were impossible to ignore’ at Timeline.
Read “The Sounds of Struggle” at Boston Review. “Sixty years ago, a pathbreaking jazz album from Max Roach, Abbey Lincoln, and Oscar Brown, Jr., fused politics and art in the fight for Black liberation. Today many Black artists—women at the forefront—are taking similar strides.”
Read “Are You Relivin’ the Years?: How Steely Dan Became a Cult Favorite for Millennials” at The Ringer.
Read “Don Cherry on creativity and “the mysticism of sound” at Vinyl Factory.
Read “Hiss Golden Messenger :: Quietly Blowing It” at Aquarium Drunkard.
Read “From Soldier to Jazz Giant: The Life of Billy Bang” at Bandcamp.
Read “WILLOW's New Pop-Punk Album Comes From Her Mom's Wicked Wisdom” at NPR.
Read “Hyundai Mercury Prize 2021: Full Nominations Announced” at Clash Music.
Read “Yasiin Bey Steps Back From Thelonious Monk Biopic After Estate’s Disapproval” at Rolling Stone. ““I was given every indication by the production company that the family was on board,” rapper-actor says. “I took them at their word, and clearly that wasn’t the case.”
Read “Hall and Oates’ ‘Diddy Woo Wop (I Hear The Voices)’ Is The Most Sinister Kind of Earworm” at Treble.
Read “Eric Clapton Says He Won't Play Venues That Require COVID Vaccines” at NPR.
Read “Whitney Houston’s Hologram Is Coming to Las Vegas” at Rolling Stone.
Read “David Crosby On His New Album 'For Free' & Why His Twitter Account Is Actually Joyful” at Grammy.
Read “Buckcherry’s Josh Todd Wants To Front A Minor Threat Reunion” at Stereogum.
Browse JazzTimes’ picks for “JazzTimes 10: Great Albums of the Loft-Jazz Era.”
Read “Live Nation Offering $20 All-In Tickets to 1,000 Concerts As Part of Return to Live Promotion” at Consequence.
Read “The Roadrunner Director Made a Playlist Full of Anthony Bourdain's Favorite Music” at Esquire.
Read “Disc-go: Should you get rid of your CDs?” at The Guardian. “They’re ugly and they clog up your cupboards. But just like vinyl spun back into fashion, the compact disc could too.”
Movies/TV/Video Games/Etc.:
Read “HBO apparently gave James Gandolfini $3 million to not do The Office” at AV Club. “The legacy of The Sopranos was apparently worth a lot of money to HBO.”
Read “Nicolas Cage on acting with a pig: "She was very, like many of us, payment-oriented"“ at AV Club. “The actor discusses the upcoming Pig and his love of animals in new interview.”
Read “The Anthony Bourdain documentary gets his #MeToo devotion all wrong” at The Week.
Read “Anthony Bourdain documentary sparks backlash for using AI to fake voice” at The Guardian.
Read “Why Roadrunner Director Morgan Neville Skipped Interviewing Asia Argento” at Vulture.
Read “Carl Sagan Tells Johnny Carson What’s Wrong with Star Wars: “They’re All White” & There’s a “Large Amount of Human Chauvinism in It” (1978)” at Open Culture.
Read “Dan Harmon still believes in a Community movie, despite the looming philosophical questions it poses” at AV Club. “The sitcom's creator says the "the gears are turning.”
Watch “15 Hours of The Pink Panther for Free” at Open Culture.
Read “When David Bowie Played Andy Warhol in Julian Schnabel’s Film, Basquiat” at Open Culture.
Books/Reading/Authors
Read “Spike Jonze’s Stop Motion Film Hauntingly Animates Paris’ Famed Shakespeare and Company Bookstore” at Open Culture.
Design/Artsy Things:
Read “Jerry Garcia Family Partners With Yellowheart For NFT Collection” at American Songwriter.
Science/Health/Animals/Nature/Environment/Etc.:
Read “Two Rods and a ‘Sixth Sense’: In Drought, Water Witches are Swamped” at New York Times.
Read “Clinical Trial: Cannabis Extracts Effective for Refractory Chemotherapy-Induced Nausea” at NORML.
Read “UFOs over Northeast Michigan skies” at The Alpena News.
Read “No, You Beg Adopting used to be a good thing that good people could do. These days, you’re probably not good enough” at The Cut.
Read “Photo shared of acid-squirting 'land lobster from hell' found in US National Park” at The Hill.
Read “A powerful jet emerges from a black hole in unprecedented detail in new images” at Space.
Read “Bezos: Trip to space 'reinforces my commitment to climate change'“ at The Hill.
Read “US border agents seize 15 giant snails” at BBC.
Read “DeSantis dismisses calls for a red tide state of emergency” at Sun-Sentinel.
Read “Bin There, Done That: Scientists Learn How Cockatoos Learn To Lift Trash Lids” at Huff Post.
Read “Rare and beautiful blanket octopus caught on camera” at The Hill.
Read “Scientists discover 15,000-year-old viruses frozen in glacier ice” at CNET.
Read “Enactment of Adult-Use Marijuana Legalization Associated with Immediate, But Temporary Reductions in Opioid-Related Emergency Room Visits” at NORML.
Food And Drink Cultures:
Read “Meet the Italian Brothers Who Grew the World’s Biggest Cherry” at Gastro Obscura.
Misc. Oddities:
Read ‘The Hilarious History of 'OK'“ at Merriam Webster.
Local:
Read “Few Arizona voter fraud cases undercut Trump's claims” at ABC 15.
Read “Advocates Call For Arizona To Give Federal Funds To Former Foster Care Youth” at KJZZ.
Read “Desert in distress? New study ranks Arizona as worst place to live in 2021” ABC 15.
Read “AZDHS Director Says Arizona School Quarantine Policies Are Appropriate In Some Cases” at KJZZ.