res publica

On this day in 1777 delegates from twenty-eight settlements convened in a town called Winsor to declare their independence from disputed and competing territorial claims by colonial Quebec and the breakaway states of New York and New Hampshire and established the Republic of Vermont.
Though it was eventually admitted into the Union in 1791 as the fourteenth state after the original thirteen colonies, in the intervening years, it was a fully-formed and constituted government with a postal system, a militia (Ethan Allen’s Green Mountain Boys—from les verts monts), flag, anthem, legal system (which abolished slavery), credentialed diplomats and currency, the coinage called Vermont coppers. Coins struck after the British surrender when it seemed more guaranteed that the US would be a stable political entity bore the motto on their observe Stella quarta decima—meaning the fourteenth star and signaling the republic’s aspiration to join them. It was not until 2015 that the state dictum officially became “Stella quarta decima fulgeat,” secondary after the “Freedom and Unity” of the state seal.

5x5

scorched earth: ornithologists in Australia have observed opportunistic birds that use the bush fires to flush out prey—via Kottke

midden mound: one beachcomber is sharing her found treasures

robertson head driver: an interesting look at the history of screws and other tools

the rich get richer and the poor get children: proletaneous defines one aspect of economic disparity

bucket-brigade: Sydney Opera House thanks the firefighters

klimahysterie

The Unword of the Year (Unwort des Jahres, see previously)—selected by a jury independent since 2011 Gesellschaft für deutsche Sprache—is the above term for climate-hysteria, a rhetorical ploy invoked by some businesses, news outlets and politicians to discredit and defame those who forward the discussion and urgency of the environmental emergency of our own making as having some sort of collective psychosis. The runner-up was “Umvolkung,” a Nazi-era term used to describe assimilation as a way for the Volk to shed their national identities and join the Reich, which is sadly being reinserted into common-parlance.

missioners

In a rather revolting display of presumption and trouncing the principal of separation of church and state, the freedom of religion and the freedom from religion that’s receiving deserved condemnation, the Episcopal bishop suffragan of the US Armed Forces accepted a Bible donated from the Museum of the Bible (I think this opportunity for self-promotion and the prayvaganza for Trump were the big take-aways for this ceremony) to sanctify as the official one for the newly constituted Space Force at the altar of the National Cathedral in Washington, DC.  Notwithstanding that the oath of office for any military branch is not sworn on any religious text, to privilege one narrative or worldview above another is completely antithetical to good order, discipline and cohesion. “Almighty God, who set the planets in their courses and the stars in space,” the chaplain beseeched, “look with favour, we pray you, upon the commander-in-chief, the forty-fifth president of this great nation, who looked to the heavens and dared to dream of a safer future for all mankind.”

ps-752

While the Iranian military committed an unforgivable act in its accidental downing of a passenger aircraft and the loss of one hundred and forty-seven individuals and neglecting to close its airspace, it certainly was provoked by Trump with his order to assassinate Major General Soleimani as a rash distraction from his own domestic problems, the throughline is not impeachment or even pulling out of the nuclear deal but the Trump administration’s racist and xenophobic policies that has severely restricted travel for people with an other than white ethnic-background and put fifty-seven Canadians on that particular flight-manifest, forcing them to take a circuitous route via Kyiv to avoid American border and customs checks. Iran’s admission of this grave error and realisation of the gravity of its actions are in stark contrast to the Trump administration’s lack of contriteness, candor and continued obfuscation.

whyy

Still catching up on my back-catalogue of podcasts from over the holidays, this new-to-me feature might be old news but I found it pretty keen that the radio interview show par excellence Fresh Air has made its forty-five years of archived material, some twenty-two thousand segments available and searchable by topic and by guest. Sort of like the Wikipedia feature that allows one to create a textbook or travel-guide, the website not only hosts the audio and transcripts of all the programmes, it also allows one to create a custom playlist for oneself or to share with others.

flexitarian or opportunistic omnivory

While we think it’s a case of moral panic on the part of the beef and dairy producers to try to outlaw calling an item almond milk or a meatless burger and no one will be duped or harmed by it, we agree with Cynical-C in finding something insidious and dishonest in the label plant-based itself.
Marketing machines are creating a false dichotomy and are on the verge of forcing consumers to choose between health and animal-welfare and the environment when we can indeed have and ought to demand both. Butter from plants is after all just a much-maligned margarine re-branded and such a diet that might have been called vegan—or aspiring in that direction, is shunted under that all-encompassing (and therefore empty) ægis to avoid past conceptions and associations. Not all food substitutes for a carnivorous entree and we shouldn’t let contentious marketers convince us otherwise.