Today's Liberal News

How Hobbies Infiltrated American Life

Grocery-store scallions repotted on windowsills. Sourdough starters in the fridge. Cooking, knitting, jigsaw puzzles. Hobbies could not cure the coronavirus, but for a moment it seemed like they could cure the anxious stagnation of pandemic life. Time had become unsettlingly abundant, but we tried our best to avoid falling into idleness and despair.

France and U.K. Sued for Manslaughter After 27 Migrants Seeking Help Drowned in English Channel

The French humanitarian group Utopia 56 has filed a manslaughter lawsuit against British and French officials for failing to help 27 migrants who drowned to death in the English Channel in November. The only two survivors say they were ignored when they made distress calls and told their location to French and English rescue services after their boat capsized and started sinking in the freezing waters off the French port city of Calais.

What We Get Wrong About Emotions

Paul Dirac was one of the greatest physicists of the 20th century. A pioneer in quantum theory, which shaped our modern world, Dirac was a genius when it came to analytical thinking. But when his colleagues asked him for advice, his secret to success had nothing to do with the traditional scientific method: Be guided, Dirac told them, “by your emotions.”
This article was adapted from Mlodinow’s forthcoming book, Emotional: How Feelings Shape Our Thinking.

America’s Favorite Flimsy Pretext for Limiting Free Speech

Even people who know about the First Amendment still have trouble believing that someone can make false, irresponsible, even dangerous statements without paying any penalty. For instance, when Francis Collins, the director of the National Institutes of Health, spoke with National Public Radio to promote COVID vaccinations and boosters just before Thanksgiving, he sharply criticized people who intentionally spread misinformation about the vaccine’s safety.

NBC and ABC both tackled the Trump threat in their Sunday morning shows. They need to keep it up

With the one-year anniversary of Donald Trump’s attempted coup fast approaching, NBC’s and ABC’s Sunday morning news shows both devoted significant time to the Big Lie, Donald Trump’s ongoing efforts to subvert Western democracy, and the Republican Party’s shameful support of his dangerous, anti-democratic delusions.

In fact, NBC’s Meet the Press devoted its entire broadcast to Trump’s continuing threat to our republic.

New York City announces street name changes honoring Frances Perkins, Eric Garner, and others

The City Council for New York City cast its final vote in 2021 in favor of renaming and co-naming 199 streets in honor of prominent New Yorkers from the past, including Frances Perkins and Eric Garner. Some groups like Avenues for Justice, which provides services to at-risk youth who may be facing incarceration, were also honored. The block named Avenues for Justice Way on Avenue B includes the organization’s Robert Siegal Community Center.

Stop Wasting COVID Tests, People

Move over mimosas, because America has a fresh New Year’s tradition: struggling to get tested for COVID before returning to school or work. The line for brunch was replaced, last weekend, with line after line after line of weary citizens waiting to receive their viral clearance. Testing backlogs are only going to get worse from here, as case numbers continue their ascent.

How Bad Are Plastics, Really?

This is hardly the time to talk about plastics is what I think when Dad, hovering over the waste bin at a post-funeral potluck, waves me over, his gesture discrete but emphatic. He has retrieved from the trash a crystalline plastic cup, with fluted, rigid sides. “Polystyrene,” he grins, inverting the cup to reveal its resin code (a 6 stamped inside the recycling symbol). “But not my kind.

The U.S. Is Naive About Russia. Ukraine Can’t Afford to Be.

Children twirled around a skating rink just outside the president’s office in central Kyiv last week, while tourists took pictures of themselves in front of onion-domed, snow-dusted churches. The stores were full of people shopping for the New Year’s holiday and Orthodox Christmas, just as they always are at this time of year. The airports were crowded.