Volume 265 | No. 23

Mon, Aug 2

2003—George W.[MD] Bush says, “There are some who feel that the conditions are such that they can attack us [in Iraq]. My answer is, bring ’em on.” 1982—Vietnam veteran “Lawn Chair Larry” Walters, 33, ascends to 16,000 feet in a lawn chair buoyed by 45 helium-filled weather balloons. 1980—The Supreme Court rules that OSHA must consider corporate profits when protecting employees’ health. 1976—The Supreme Court rules it’s neither cruel nor unusual for the government to kill certain people. 1967—On their worst day in Vietnam, U.S. Marines suffer 84 KIA, 190 WIA, and nine MIA in Operation Buffalo near Con Thien. 1964—L.B.J. signs the Civil Rights …

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Sun, Aug 1

2020—“I think we are going to be very good with the coronavirus,” says the oaf in the Oval, “at some point, that’s going to sort of just disappear.” 1981—Irish Cardinal Tomás Ó Fiaich descends in a helicopter for a mass on London’s Clapham Common, bearing the head of Oliver Plunkett. 1973—The U.S. military draft ends. Henceforth, the ranks will be replenished by economic coercion. 1968—A DC-8 carrying 214 U.S. soldiers to Vietnam strays into Soviet airspace and lands in the USSR. 1956—On TV, Elvis sings “Hound Dog” to a basset hound in formal wear. 1942—Not knowing Aussie POWs are aboard, Sturgeon sinks the Montevideo Maru. …

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Sununu Signs Memory Hole Into Law

Dear Sir: There has been a great deal of debate and confusion regarding the prohibition of teaching of so-called “divisive concepts” by schools, state agencies and state contractors. The “divisive concepts” teaching prohibition was included in the budget trailer bill (HB 2) signed by Governor Sununu. In an attempt to clarify and provide guidance to educators, state agencies and contractors, Frank Edelblut, Commissioner Department of Education, Ahni Malachi, Executive Director Commission for Human Rights, and John Farnella, Attorney General, recently issued guidance on how to implement this new “Anti-discrimination” law. The guidance explains what schools, public employers and government programs are prohibited from teaching, training …

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Hope Lies in Our Entanglements

by Jean Stimmell For most of human evolution, the cosmic forces of the universe were magical, beyond our feeble understanding. We were humble and kept our heads down, acutely aware that we were the lowest denominator in a vast galactic mystery. Unfortunately, over the last few hundred years, we humans have become smug and arrogant, thinking we are lords and masters of Planet Earth, which will be our downfall because of the climate crisis we are causing. Today I want to write about four entanglements that give me hope about how we might regain that sense of awe while avoiding environmental doom. Entanglement #1: Last …

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It’s Time Capsule Time

Considering the circumstances, we have decided to craft this Rant as a time capsule, intended to give readers in the distant future  a fuller sense of how the world in which they live came to be created. That may seem an excessively hubristic undertaking, even for this boastful age. On the other hand, perhaps there is no need to apologize. We are, after all, the Nation’s Oldest Newspaper.™ That unique characteristic doesn’t just invite, it requires us to imagine the otherwise unlikely survival of this flimsy bit of newsprint. Let us travel, then, into the future: here we are, face to face with…dwindling bands of …

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