The Weekly Town Crier (05/28/21)
All the week’s news that’s fit to cry about (05/28/21).
We’ll Miss You:
Read “R.I.P. School Of Rock star Kevin Clark” at AV Club.
Read “Eric Carle, Author Of ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar,’ Dies At 91” at Huff Post.
Religion and Stuff:
Read “Why Complementarianism Can’t Be a “Gospel” Issue” at Heidel Blog.
Read “More Churches Closed than Opened in 2019. Then Came the Pandemic.” at Christianity Today.
Read “Southern Baptist decline continues, denomination has lost more than 2 million members since 2006” at Religion News Service.
Read “QAnon is spreading in churches. These pastors are trying to stop it” at CNN.
Read “Can America Be America When Jews Are Beaten in the Streets?” at David French. “George Washington’s promise to American Jews helped define this nation. Breaking that promise would define us again.”
Read “From DNA to NDA” at Christianity Today. “Can you separate Ravi Zacharias International Ministries from Ravi Zacharias?”
Read “15 percent of Americans believe central QAnon theory” at The HIll.
Read “Gun Church That Worships With AR-15s Bought a 40-Acre Compound in Texas for Its ‘Patriots’” at Vice. “The Rod of Iron Ministries has become more militant since leader Hyung Jin “Sean” Moon attended the riot at the U.S. Capitol on January 6.”
Read “Understanding QAnon’s Connection to American Politics, Religion, and Media Consumption” at PRRI.
Legal/Justice and Social Justice and Race or Gender or Sexism-Related Stuff:
Read “Poor People’s Campaign, lawmakers unveil sweeping resolution to tackle poverty” at Religion News Service.
Read “Why Conservatives Want to Cancel the 1619 Project” at The Atlantic.
Read “The War on Critical Race Theory” at Boston Review. “Turning a blind eye to the realities of racial injustice, the highly orchestrated right-wing attacks cast a body of scholarship about race in the law as a great threat to American society.’
Read “Greenwood, 1921: One of the worst race massacres in American history” at CBS News.
Read “U.S. revises policy that denied citizenship to children of gay couples” at NBC News.
Read “Black Lives Matter activist in critical condition after being shot in head in London” at CNN.
Read “Joe Biden, Kamala Harris Condemn Jewish Hate Crimes in Stance Against Antisemitism” at Variety.
Read “TV stars Chip and Joanna Gaines donate to campaign against critical race theory in schools” at The Hill.
Read “Secretly recorded audio of Dave Ramsey reveals question of double standards in company” at WSMV.
Read “Texas Gets Ready To Allow Unlicensed Carrying Of Handguns” at NPR.
Read “Jewish Groups Call for Federal Action Amid Rise in Antisemitic Attacks” at Democracy Now.
Read “In historic first, climate activists are now on Exxon's board” at The Hill.
Read “Biden to visit Tulsa to commemorate 100th anniversary of Tulsa Race Massacre” at NBC News.
Read “Amy Cooper's "racial discrimination" lawsuit and the scourge of white whining” at Salon.
Read “America’s unique gun violence problem, explained in 16 maps and charts” at Vox.
This week in traitorous, white-supremacist Confederate monuments (and/or Columbus monuments // and/or other “American monuments” // Insurrectionists // and/or weird Confederacy stuff):
Read “Baked Alaska of Capitol riot notoriety, out on bail, is now a hostile bully to store employees” at Boing Boing.
Read “Live From The Sahara Clermont Music” at The Hill.
Read “Largest US shrine to the Confederacy getting new exhibit describing KKK history” at The Hill.
This Week With The Police:
Read “How to use the Siri 'I'm Getting Pulled Over' shortcut to record police encounters during traffic stops with your iPhone” at Business Insider.
Read “Legalization of marijuana forcing some police K9s in Virginia to retire” at Fox5DC. (EDITOR’S NOTE: Please stop making dogs be cops.)
Read “Former Montana Police Chief Charged With Distributing Child Porn” at Huff Post.
Education and The Learnings // School Re-Openings
Read “Howard University Announces Chadwick A. Boseman College of Fine Arts” at Pitchfork.
Your Weekly Coronavirus Roundup:
Read “Houston doctor trying to figure out why some COVID-19 patients develop massively enlarged tongues” at 12 News.
Read “US issues Japan travel warning weeks before Olympics” at BBC.
Read “Indiana AG says university mandating vaccines violates new state law” at The Hill.
Read “Tennessee anti-vaxxer arrested after deliberately plowing car through vaccination site” at Raw Story.
Read “California to pay $116.5 million in gifts, cash to those who get COVID vaccinations” at Los Angeles Times.
Read ‘Flight attendants: Spike in unruly passengers who refuse to wear a mask a safety issue” at Boston 25 News.
Miscellany Cultural Items (and some Technology):
Read “Target bans Pokémon and sports trading cards after fights between speculators” at Boing Boing.
Read “10 Questions About Empathy In America, A Year After George Floyd's Death” at NPR.
Read “Seth Rogen on cancel culture: 'If you've made a joke that's aged terribly, accept it'“ at The Hill.
Read “The Many Identity Crises of Sonic the Hedgehog” at Wired. “Sega's beloved speedster arrived on the scene 30 years ago. Since then, he's gone through numerous transformations—not all for the better.”
Read “Kellogg's robot vending machine lets you mix your favorite cereals” at CNet.
Read “K-Pop Group BTS And McDonald's Launch Exclusive Meal And Clothing Line” at NPR.
Read “‘Ax’ vs. ‘Axe’: Which is correct?” at Merriam Webster.
Internationalities:
Read “Kim Jong-un bans mullets, skinny jeans in North Korea” at New York Post.
Read ‘Eurovision winners under investigation for partying suspiciously hard” at AV Club.
Politics And Sucheries:
Read “Trump Is Marching Down the Road to Political Violence” at The Atlantic. “The Republican Party must counteract lies rather than indulge them.”
Read “Biden: 'Simply wrong' for Trump DOJ to seek journalists' phone records” at The Hill.
Read “Americans See Broad Responsibilities for Government; Little Change Since 2019” at Pew Research. “Share of adults ‘basically content’ with federal government rises to highest point since 2004, driven by Democrats.”
Read “88% of children covered by monthly payments starting in July” at ABC 13.
Read “It happened there: how democracy died in Hungary” at Vox.
Read “Democrats to introduce bill to prevent default recurring political donations” at The Hill.
Read “Democratic leaders discussed restraining order for Ocasio-Cortez against Greene” at The Hill.
Read ‘Americans Are Fine With a Broad Definition of ‘Infrastructure” at Slate. “Voters want bridges and roads, but they want child care, long-term care, and clean energy too.”
Read “66 percent of GOP want Trump to run for reelection” at The HIll.
Read “Sen. Tammy Duckworth: Republicans would rather ‘spread lies than defend our democracy’” at MSNBC.
Read “Senate confirms Wormuth as first female Army secretary — for real this time” at News and Guts.
This Week In Political Corruption:
Read “Trump's election "audit" should be treated as a trojan horse, Arizona secretary of state warns” at Salon.
Read “Trump Has Charged Secret Service $40,000 For Mar-a-Lago Room Since Leaving White House” at Huff Post.
Read “Cheney primary challenger says he impregnated 14-year-old when he was 18” at NBC News. "She was a little younger than me, so it's like the Romeo and Juliet story," state Sen. Anthony Bouchard said of the girl he later married and divorced.”
Read “Emails show DEA’s “covert surveillance” of racial justice protesters in Philadelphia, Chicago, Albuquerque” at Citizens for Ethics.
Read “Trump supporter's nonprofit will help decide who counts ballots as election audit resumes” at AZ Central. “This is why it matters who’s paying for the audit. They outsourced the funding to election fraud conspiracy theorists, and now they’re calling the shots on important decisions.”
Read “Gaetz, Greene cheer election audit in Arizona rally” at KTAR.
Read “Florida, in a First, Will Fine Social Media Companies That Bar Candidates” at New York Times.
Read “They tried to overturn the 2020 election. Now they want to run the next one.” at Politico. “Trump supporters who back his claim that the 2020 vote was rigged are running to become the top election officials in key states.”
Read ‘Kansas Republican charged with battery allegedly kicked high school student in the crotch” at The Hill.
Read “Long After Trump's Loss, a Push to Inspect Ballots Persists” at Yahoo.
Music-Related News and Such:
Read “Guitarist Yasmin Williams’ Techniques Are Second Only To Her Songs” at Bluegrass Situation.
Read “Now That We Know Diddy Once Scrapped With J. Cole, Who Will the Mogul Fight Next?” at Pitchfork.
Read “Megadeth part ways with bassist David Ellefson following allegations” at Brooklyn Vegan.
Read “The Linda Lindas Sign With Epitaph Records” at Variety.
Read “Lil Nas X Has Wardrobe Malfunction in Middle of ‘Call Me By Your Name’ Performance on ‘SNL’ Finale” at Pop Culture.
Read “A Brief History of Talking Heads: How the Band Went from Scrappy CBGB’s Punks to New Wave Superstars” at Open Culture.
Read “Sunday Reading: Bob Dylan at Eighty” at New Yorker.
Read “Mdou Moctar on the Recording and Meaning of "Afrique Victime" at Reverb.
Read ‘The The announces ‘Comeback Special’ live album and film” at Slicing Up Eyeballs.
Read “Willie Nelson announces 2021 Outlaw Music Fest tour w/ Sturgill Simpson, Lucinda Williams & more” at Brooklyn Vegan.
Read “80 Artists Pick Their Favorite Bob Dylan Song For Bob Dylan’s 80th Birthday” at Stereogum.
Read “Just in time for the long weekend: Tragically Hip Road Apples cider”at A Journal of Musical Things.
Read “An oral history of The Tragically Hip’s Saskadelphia album” at A Journal of Musical Things.
Read “Renaissance Knives Had Music Engraved on the Blades; Now Hear the Songs Performed by Modern Singers” at Open Culture.
Read ‘Primavera Sound Barcelona Announces 2022 Lineup: Tame Impala, The Strokes, Khruangbin, The National and More” at Relix.
Read ‘Marilyn Manson Wanted In New Hampshire For Spitting On A Videographer” at Stereogum.
Read “How Eddie Van Halen, Homemade Hot Pepper, and a Simple Fuzz Pedal Inspired Mdou Moctar’s New Album” at Pitchfork.
Read “The Eden of Kraut Rock: The Sounds and Stories of the Zodiak Free Arts Lab” at In Sheep’s Clothing Hi Fi.'
Read “How the Rembrandts’ ‘Friends’ Song Became the Most Iconic TV Theme of the ’90s… and Beyond” at Variety.
Read “The Beat Behind Afrobeat: A Guide to the Music of Tony Allen” at Bandcamp.
Read “Robert Plant Asks for His Songwriting Archive To Be Released “Free of Charge” When He Dies” at Relix.
Movies/TV/Video Games/Etc.:
Read “Tom Waits to Voice “The Narrator” in New AMC+ Animated Show Ultra City Smiths” at Pitchfork.
Read “Flavortown mayor Guy Fieri is now the highest-paid chef on cable” at AV Club.
Read “Danny McBride Developing Garbage Pail Kids Animated Series for HBO Max” at Consequence.
Books/Reading/Authors
Read “Read 12 Stories By Haruki Murakami Free Online” at Open Culture.
Read “John Steinbeck wrote a violent werewolf mystery novel and no one will let us read it” at AV Club.
Science/Animals/Nature/Environment/Etc.:
Read “CDC urges against kissing, snuggling poultry in salmonella warning” at The Hill.
Read “I Look for Aliens for a Living, and No, I Don’t Study UFOs” at Slate.
Read “Extinct giant bird claw with the flesh still on it resurfaces online” at The Hill. “The claw belonged to a moa, an extinct flightless bird from New Zealand.”
Read “I Just Learned Why Olympic Divers Take Showers After Each Dive, and It Makes a Lot of Sense” at Yahoo.
Food And Drink Cultures:
Read “Craft beer industry undergoing a #MeToo-style reckoning” at ABC 15. “Women sharing stories of misogyny in the workplace.”
Read “The Lost Art of Growing Blueberries With Fire” at Atlas Obscura.
Browse “The 9 Best Spiked Cold Brews for Satisfying Your Alcohol and Coffee Cravings” at The Manual.
Misc. Oddities:
Read “The Collectors Who Hunt Down Radioactive Glassware” at Atlas Obscura.
Local:
Read “Why Arizona Cities Oppose Governor’s Flat Tax Proposal” at KJZZ.
Read “New law says Arizona bars, restaurants, liquor stores can sell to-go cocktails” at 12 News.
Read “Pre-lawsuit letter: Maricopa County doubling down that it did not delete election data” at ABC 15.
Read ‘How national news is covering the Arizona audit: 'I've never seen one this mismanaged'“ at ABC 15.