Trickle-Down Jerkonomics and Anti-Woke Revolution
Plus: Preserving Homer’s Magic
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BILL LUEDERS: Wisconsin’s Trickle-Down Jerkonomics.
IN 2006 AND 2007, I served on a Wisconsin Legislative Council Special Committee chaired by Rep. Robin Vos. Its purpose was to study whether to change the state’s rules regarding the expungement of criminal convictions. I was there in my role as president of the Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council, a group that advocates for government transparency, including for criminal records. Among the dozen other “stakeholders” were lawmakers, privacy advocates, criminal defense attorneys, and prosecutors.
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DANIEL WALDEN: Preserving Homer’s Magic.
THE TRANSLATOR OF HOMER faces a major difficulty: How does one convey the content and experience of oral poetry to a public that has probably not heard poetry read aloud since grade school? Recently, translators have tended to respond to this challenge by abandoning serious efforts at meter, rendering the poem either in prose or in a free verse that amounts to prose with line breaks. Such choices have their virtues: Robert Fagles’s editions from the 1990s remain some of the most popular on the English-language market, and they are justly admired for preserving both the formulaic diction and the swift, easy readability of the Iliad and Odyssey. But the people who composed and were taken up by the poems of Homer’s epoch did not experience them in a context of silent and interior reading, which such translations suit best.
CATHY YOUNG: Chris Rufo’s Dreams of an Anti-Woke Revolution.
IF THERE IS ONE PERSON whose name is most strongly associated with the Republican crusade against “wokeness”—be it race and gender studies at public universities, antiracism education in public schools, or “Diversity, Equity and Inclusion” (DEI) efforts at both public and private institutions—it is 39-year-old filmmaker-turned-activist Christopher Rufo. Three years ago, Rufo’s exposés of apparently anti-white and anti-American sensitivity programs at federal agencies, which he discussed on Tucker Carlson’s Fox News show, prompted then-President Donald Trump’s September 2020 executive order directing federal agencies to halt such training. Rufo—at the time affiliated with the Discovery Institute and the Heritage Foundation—went on Twitter to celebrate his victory and promise more…
🚨OVERTIME🚨
Happy Tuesday! It’s a gloomy day in Washington, but nothing can light up a dreary day like Taco night.
🎵On the Jukebox…🎵 Bleachers - Modern Girl.
Podium Pandemonium… in Arkansas. (It’s a Lectern!)
A Conversation… with the late, great Terry Eastland from 1986. Maybe we can convince the boss to adopt that awesome 1980s Conversations title sequence?
Bye bye Trump Org? Looks like a new business entity for branding purposes is going to have to be created after Trump was found liable for fraud. The Trump Organization on New York is likely on its way to dissolution.
Confirming what we all know… A judge ruled that Trump committed fraud. (Partial summary.)
The Kremlin Has Entered the Chat… Russian antiwar activists placed their faith in Telegram, a supposedly secure messaging app. How does Putin’s regime seem to know their every move?
Chip Roy knows who is responsible for the impending shutdown… It’s Democrats, of course. 🫤
“Clay Travis is a racist conspiracy theorist…” and his “credo” is “all women are sluts.”
RIP Brooks Robinson… The Human Vacuum goes to the diamond in the sky. Here’s Jim Palmer on his legacy.
The FTC is going to seek to break up… Amazon?
Texas Anti-Drag ruled law unconstitutional… by a Reagan-appointed judge who had a message for lower court judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, a favorite of the Federalist Society.
No respect… Matt Labash: “when weak men disgrace themselves by pretending to be strong ones, plus, a deep dive with Mortuary Affairs.”
Biden joins the picket line… Making history by throwing in his lot with a union that… kinda supports him? Here’s what he had to say.
Meanwhile, the “Free State of Florida™”… Leads the nation in book bans.
And in my neck of the woods… My House district was the most expensive contest in 2022, with Abigail Spanberger defeating Yesli Vega pretty convincingly. With rumors that Spanberger is going to seek the Governor’s mansion, Republicans are salivating over the seat. But one thing is dogging the seemingly-perfect candidate: Where does he live? Because all evidence points to Alexandria, which isn’t close to the district.
The Cain Mutiny… Capt. Queeg is coming to Showtime.
These 183,000 books… Are fueling the biggest fight in publishing and tech.
A Quarter of Americans Can’t Decide Who to Vote For…. What Do We Know About Them?
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