The silence of the grave
A photograph taken on Saturday afternoon in the beautiful old churchyard where my beloved Sue lies buried. Her death from cancer in August 2002 left me and our two young children devastated. We’ve recovered as best we can, but for us, August is still a sombre month.
Quote of the Day
“There is absolutely no inevitability as long as there is a willingness to contemplate what is happening.”
- Marshall McLuhan
Musical alternative to the morning’s radio news
The Wailin’ Jennys | Bird Song
Long Read of the Day
Think before you post
An interesting blog post by Ed West, which makes for uncomfortable reading, not least because it highlights the inconsistency (and possible injustices) of sentencing policy in the British justice system, and partly because of the way that stupid or naive users of Twitter/X get fingered and punished while the Great Enabler of toxic misinformation, Elon Musk, goes scot free (and is fawned upon by a former British Prime Minister).
Julie Sweeney had spent a ‘quiet, sheltered life in Cheshire’ for most of her 53 years, living in the village of Church Lawton caring for her sick husband the past decade.
She had never been in trouble with the law before, but reading the news on July 31 about the clear-up at Southport mosque, Sweeney posted on Facebook: ‘It’s absolutely ridiculous. Don’t protect the mosque. Blow the mosque up with the adults in it.’
For this she will spend 15 months in HMP Styal, a prison notorious for its menace, violence and self-harm. She cried as she was taken down, saying only ‘thank you, your honour’.
As he jailed Sweeney, Judge Stephen Everett said: ‘You should have looked at the news with horror, like right minded people. Instead, you chose to take part in stirring up hatred. It was a truly terrible threat.’ Although she had no intention of taking part in violence, ‘so called keyboard warriors like her, have to learn to take responsibility for their inflammatory and disgusting language’. A letter from her husband did not sway the judge’s heart.
You get the drift. Read on.
Books, etc.
The Best Books on the Politics of Information
Transcript of a fabulous interview by Sophie Roell of the political scientist Henry Farrell on the five key books he would choose for building a curriculum for a course on ‘the politics of information’. In the case of each, Henry explains its significance — and outlines the main thrust of its argument — with insight and conceptual clarity.
The books are:
- Red Plenty by Francis Spufford
- The Market System by Charles Lindblom
- The Sciences of the Artificial by Herbert Simon
- Radical Markets: Uprooting Capitalism and Democracy for a Just Society by Wehl and Posner
- Uncanny Valley: A Memoir by Anna Wiener
Of these, I’ve read only #1 and #3.
It’s worth reading the transcript just to why Henry thinks each book is significant. For me, the most surprising thing was that he puts Uncanny Valley in the same league as Red Plenty. Which means that now I have to read the latter!
If Google’s monopoly is broken, it will be good for consumers – and the company too
Yesterday’s Observer column:
Earlier this month, a district court in Washington DC handed down a judgment in an antitrust case that has shaken up the tech industry. In a 286-page opinion, Judge Amit Mehta announced his conclusion. “After having carefully considered and weighed the witness testimony and evidence, the court reaches the following conclusion: Google is a monopolist, and it has acted as one to maintain its monopoly. It has violated Section 2 of the Sherman Act.”
Now I know that for normal, well-adjusted people, antitrust cases are an excellent antidote to insomnia, but stay tuned for a moment because this is a really big deal. Apart from anything else, it shows that an ancient legal warhorse, the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890, still has teeth. And to see it successfully deployed to bring an overbearing tech company to heel is a delight. After all, it was the statute that in 1911 broke up John D Rockefeller’s Standard Oil as well as American Tobacco, and AT&T in 1982. It was also used to prosecute Microsoft in 1998…
Do read the whole piece
Linkblog
OK, I know you’re busy. But if you have a spare 35 minutes and need cheering up, then can I respectfully suggest you make a coffee and watch this edition of the Daily Show on how Donald Trump can’t get over the fact that he’s not now campaigning against Joe Biden.
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