Liberal and egalitarian values - Art - Music - Literature - Philosophy - Film - Politics - “ life can only be understood backwards, but it must be lived forwards “ ( Kierkegaard ) Miami Beach , Floridahttps://bsky.app/profile/bludrone.bsky.socialhttps://bsky.app/profile/bludrone.bsky.social/post/3mx7knawjes2a“Leaders in California have denounced Donald Trump as “reckless” and “deranged” after the US president suggested Iran could “take out” Los Angeles and San Diego – two liberal cities in the blue state that has been a frequent target of his administration. “ https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/oct/06/trump-suggests-let-iran-take-out-los-angeles-san-diego06 Oct 2026 13:41 +0000at://did:plc:fzsapig4il2wgikf72lrqgnh/app.bsky.feed.post/3mx7knawjes2ahttps://bsky.app/profile/bludrone.bsky.social/post/3mx7gce2pi22h“The evidence in favor of Shakespeare’s authorship is quantitatively slight. It rests positively, in the main, on the explicit statements in the First Folio of 1623”—the collection of Shakespeare’s plays, which turns 400 this year—”and on continuous tradition; “ https://lithub.com/doubting-shakespeares-identity-isnt-a-conspiracy-theory/06 Oct 2026 12:23 +0000at://did:plc:fzsapig4il2wgikf72lrqgnh/app.bsky.feed.post/3mx7gce2pi22hhttps://bsky.app/profile/bludrone.bsky.social/post/3mx7fyelivk2h“the WPA was the first target of the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), and Roosevelt’s people did little to defend it; by 1943, the WPA, and with it the Federal Writers’ Project, were dead, the remaining money diverted to the war effort. “ https://www.publicbooks.org/long-distance-talkers-the-great-depression-speaks/06 Oct 2026 12:17 +0000at://did:plc:fzsapig4il2wgikf72lrqgnh/app.bsky.feed.post/3mx7fyelivk2hhttps://bsky.app/profile/bludrone.bsky.social/post/3mx7fhzdvy22h“She will both employ failed pieces to make new pieces, cutting up old canvases or sketches of her own, and include fragments of her husband’s artworks, reimagining them, giving them curved or floral forms, so that they speak to her own fantasies. “ https://hyperallergic.com/the-mets-krasner-and-pollock-show-is-a-breathtaking-upending/06 Oct 2026 12:08 +0000at://did:plc:fzsapig4il2wgikf72lrqgnh/app.bsky.feed.post/3mx7fhzdvy22hhttps://bsky.app/profile/bludrone.bsky.social/post/3mx4xvpw5x223“This includes recognising abuse, putting together a safe plan for leaving, and custody of children. “I said all the wrong things to Nicole: ‘You’ve got to leave him. You’ve got to get out of this situation. What are you doing? “ https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2026/oct/05/denise-brown-sister-nicole-brown-simpson-murder-oj-simpson05 Oct 2026 13:00 +0000at://did:plc:fzsapig4il2wgikf72lrqgnh/app.bsky.feed.post/3mx4xvpw5x223https://bsky.app/profile/bludrone.bsky.social/post/3mx4uyd6l5k23“Brown’s centrality to constitutional discourse has warped constitutional law. The decision (mis)shapes general understandings of the Supreme Court, court’s power of judicial review, and the nature of the political,public outcry that may be directed at the court.” https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/supremacy-court-replaced-goverment-bowie-renan-judicial-review/05 Oct 2026 12:08 +0000at://did:plc:fzsapig4il2wgikf72lrqgnh/app.bsky.feed.post/3mx4uyd6l5k23https://bsky.app/profile/bludrone.bsky.social/post/3mx4urc5hm223“But the German dictator’s potential involvement in the mysterious death of his half-sister’s daughter, with whom he shared an oddly close relationship, has remained much more ambiguous for nearly a century.” https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/hitler-had-an-intense-mysterious-relationship-with-his-half-niece-new-research-suggests-his-alibi-for-her-murder-might-not-hold-up-180989572/05 Oct 2026 12:04 +0000at://did:plc:fzsapig4il2wgikf72lrqgnh/app.bsky.feed.post/3mx4urc5hm223https://bsky.app/profile/bludrone.bsky.social/post/3mx4ulpsenk23“twins are a phenomenon that has held cultural cachet throughout human history. Twins are seen as endlessly compelling — though they’re not always viewed in a positive light. “ https://hyperallergic.com/twinkind-what-makes-twins-so-fascinating-69233dbaf862227881f51f7f/05 Oct 2026 12:01 +0000at://did:plc:fzsapig4il2wgikf72lrqgnh/app.bsky.feed.post/3mx4ulpsenk23https://bsky.app/profile/bludrone.bsky.social/post/3mx2eq7ndik2n“There was a Dionysian cult in which participants known as maenads – mad women – would take part in wine-fuelled rites in which they would experience ‘enthusiasm’, literally to be filled with the god, and ‘ecstasy’, to stand outside oneself.” https://engelsbergideas.com/reviews/how-wine-conquered-the-globe/04 Oct 2026 12:12 +0000at://did:plc:fzsapig4il2wgikf72lrqgnh/app.bsky.feed.post/3mx2eq7ndik2nhttps://bsky.app/profile/bludrone.bsky.social/post/3mx2ebazmxc2n“In 2004, almost 30 percent of Americans read for pleasure; by 2023, that figure had fallen to just 16 percent. Books are getting shorter, comprehension of long words is in decline, and many young people now source their politics from TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram. “ https://jacobin.com/2026/09/review-marriott-literacy-culture-screens04 Oct 2026 12:03 +0000at://did:plc:fzsapig4il2wgikf72lrqgnh/app.bsky.feed.post/3mx2ebazmxc2nhttps://bsky.app/profile/bludrone.bsky.social/post/3mx2e2dqq3k2n“I’m not surprised that Don Quixote is hilarious and deranged. I’ve often found that the dusty classics that are supposed to be dreary chores to read are, in fact, far funnier and stranger than their reputations would suggest.” https://countercraft.substack.com/p/the-roots-of-the-novel-are-parody04 Oct 2026 11:59 +0000at://did:plc:fzsapig4il2wgikf72lrqgnh/app.bsky.feed.post/3mx2e2dqq3k2nhttps://bsky.app/profile/bludrone.bsky.social/post/3mwy2ogycuk2d“Gertrude Stein haunts the annals of literary history with a still more inscrutable piece of wordplay: “A rose is a rose is a rose.” Or rather, in its original phrasing—for she would tweak it over the years—“Rose is a rose is a rose is a rose.” https://lithub.com/what-gertrude-stein-t-s-eliot-and-joan-didion-really-meant-with-their-most-famous-aphorisms/03 Oct 2026 14:06 +0000at://did:plc:fzsapig4il2wgikf72lrqgnh/app.bsky.feed.post/3mwy2ogycuk2dhttps://bsky.app/profile/bludrone.bsky.social/post/3mwy2gfef7c2d“Ginsburg played a critical role before the Court that came to define her crusade for gender equality and secured greater scrutiny of laws that drew upon gender as a legal distinction. “ https://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/2026/09/how-ruth-bader-ginsburg-fought-gender-discrimination-for-both-men-and-women/03 Oct 2026 14:02 +0000at://did:plc:fzsapig4il2wgikf72lrqgnh/app.bsky.feed.post/3mwy2gfef7c2dhttps://bsky.app/profile/bludrone.bsky.social/post/3mwxws24si22d“We say we do not want this.We say we will slow down,we’ll set limits, we’ll cut back,we’ll get the situation under control.This far but no further. This is the drinker’s oath.This is smoker’s oath,sincere but powerless against our oldest and most durable of fantasies.” https://arcmag.org/we-want-ai-to-kill-us-all/03 Oct 2026 12:57 +0000at://did:plc:fzsapig4il2wgikf72lrqgnh/app.bsky.feed.post/3mwxws24si22dhttps://bsky.app/profile/bludrone.bsky.social/post/3mwxvmxx3yk2d“The book remains an entertaining polemic, blending attacks on religion with biology, cosmology and waspish turns of phrase: ‘We are all atheists about most of the gods that humanity has ever believed in. Some of us just go one god further.” https://engelsbergideas.com/notebook/losing-faith-in-new-atheism-the-god-delusion-20-years-on/03 Oct 2026 12:36 +0000at://did:plc:fzsapig4il2wgikf72lrqgnh/app.bsky.feed.post/3mwxvmxx3yk2dhttps://bsky.app/profile/bludrone.bsky.social/post/3mwvekpj2yc23“the second branch of originalism is its use by judges as a well-developed set of rhetorical tropes by which conservative judges justify their decisions, particularly those that overturn established precedent or further anti-democratic goal “ https://washingtonmonthly.com/2024/08/25/the-origin-of-specious-2/02 Oct 2026 12:25 +0000at://did:plc:fzsapig4il2wgikf72lrqgnh/app.bsky.feed.post/3mwvekpj2yc23https://bsky.app/profile/bludrone.bsky.social/post/3mwvedcykm223“he is continuing to score victories in another arena: Supreme Court’s so-called “shadow docket.” On Tuesday,the Court issued an emergency order allowing Trump to resume deporting people to “third countries” other than their own, temporarily lifting a lower court’s block.” https://time.com/article/2026/10/01/supreme-court-shadow-docket-emergency-rulings-trump/02 Oct 2026 12:21 +0000at://did:plc:fzsapig4il2wgikf72lrqgnh/app.bsky.feed.post/3mwvedcykm223https://bsky.app/profile/bludrone.bsky.social/post/3mwve4p6j5c23“Ukraine’s strategic strike campaign is accelerating and exerting increasing pressure on Russia’s air defence, military industry and oil production. Zelensky’s diplomatic efforts have been aided, too, by Kyiv’s air defence support to Middle East nations. “ https://engelsbergideas.com/essays/ukraine-is-mastering-21st-century-warfare/02 Oct 2026 12:17 +0000at://did:plc:fzsapig4il2wgikf72lrqgnh/app.bsky.feed.post/3mwve4p6j5c23https://bsky.app/profile/bludrone.bsky.social/post/3mwvdwwy6y223“Known for her intimate portraits from the 1920s to the 1980s, Neel painted subjects ranging from Andy Warhol, whom she depicted with his surgical scars on full display, to a pair of young girls in 1950s Spanish Harlem.” https://hyperallergic.com/alice-neels-mccarthy-era-trial-drawings-go-to-auction/02 Oct 2026 12:14 +0000at://did:plc:fzsapig4il2wgikf72lrqgnh/app.bsky.feed.post/3mwvdwwy6y223https://bsky.app/profile/bludrone.bsky.social/post/3mwsv726nwc2w“When Coluccio Salutati invented the parenthesis, nearly 200 years before Sidney perfected it, he rendered visible an age-old rhetorical practice of inserting a particle of a sentence into a greater whole. “ https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/philip-sidney-and-the-extreme-disgraces-of-the-parenthesis/?utm_source=newsletter01 Oct 2026 12:45 +0000at://did:plc:fzsapig4il2wgikf72lrqgnh/app.bsky.feed.post/3mwsv726nwc2whttps://bsky.app/profile/bludrone.bsky.social/post/3mwsuwwij4k2w“The problem had begun some six years earlier. He once claimed that it came upon him suddenly after he threw himself to the floor in a rage during a row with a troublesome tenor. ‘When I arose I found myself deaf’”he said. https://www.historytoday.com/archive/history-matters/beethovens-heiligenstadt-testament01 Oct 2026 12:40 +0000at://did:plc:fzsapig4il2wgikf72lrqgnh/app.bsky.feed.post/3mwsuwwij4k2whttps://bsky.app/profile/bludrone.bsky.social/post/3mwsutd2h5s2w“More than 270 Catholic clerics sexually abused nearly 1,000 children across three Massachusetts dioceses over several decades, according to a report released by the state’s attorney general’s office on Wednesday.” https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/sep/30/catholic-clergy-massachusetts-sexual-abuse-report01 Oct 2026 12:38 +0000at://did:plc:fzsapig4il2wgikf72lrqgnh/app.bsky.feed.post/3mwsutd2h5s2whttps://bsky.app/profile/bludrone.bsky.social/post/3mwsuq3riek2w‘Americans can “receive accurate answers” to all sorts of questions, providing answers that he will not want to hear. It stands ready to debunk his false claims on all sorts of things, including election fraud, inflation and the impact of wind turbines on whales.‘ https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/sep/30/trump-america-gov-ai-chatbot01 Oct 2026 12:37 +0000at://did:plc:fzsapig4il2wgikf72lrqgnh/app.bsky.feed.post/3mwsuq3riek2whttps://bsky.app/profile/bludrone.bsky.social/post/3mwsugkkfik2w“In her dextrous handling, Pharr’s many mediums yield an array of textures, patterns, and opacities: velvety, patchy, and leaflike, or gauzy and distorted, like the stretchy image on an ultrasound. “ https://hyperallergic.com/a-vision-of-rebirth-raw-and-sumptuous/01 Oct 2026 12:31 +0000at://did:plc:fzsapig4il2wgikf72lrqgnh/app.bsky.feed.post/3mwsugkkfik2whttps://bsky.app/profile/bludrone.bsky.social/post/3mwqfkaunqk2d“for many, the finding entails little to no threat to length or quality of life, except through the ill effects of treatments. However, patients labelled with the ‘C-word’ face substantial clinical, psychological, social and economic consequences.” https://aeon.co/essays/we-need-a-better-way-to-describe-what-is-often-called-cancer30 Sep 2026 12:59 +0000at://did:plc:fzsapig4il2wgikf72lrqgnh/app.bsky.feed.post/3mwqfkaunqk2dhttps://bsky.app/profile/bludrone.bsky.social/post/3mwqff6z2oc2d“For those I spoke to, however, reading romance is more than just entertainment. It offers a kind of liberation, allowing them to feel deeply, imagine being desired, and accept parts of themselves that conventional masculinity has little room for.” https://www.theguardian.com/books/2026/sep/30/secret-lives-of-men-who-read-romance-books30 Sep 2026 12:57 +0000at://did:plc:fzsapig4il2wgikf72lrqgnh/app.bsky.feed.post/3mwqff6z2oc2dhttps://bsky.app/profile/bludrone.bsky.social/post/3mwqevhecds2d“The upper part of the work draws from ancient fresco, with illusionistic architecture, including thin columns with elaborate capitals and Dionysian symbols that hold up platforms on two levels like an ancient stage” https://hyperallergic.com/the-breathtaking-sight-of-ancient-romes-largest-surviving-wall-mosaic/30 Sep 2026 12:48 +0000at://did:plc:fzsapig4il2wgikf72lrqgnh/app.bsky.feed.post/3mwqevhecds2dhttps://bsky.app/profile/bludrone.bsky.social/post/3mwntsh2jv22m“It probably should not be too much of a surprise that Stoicism, one of the most deviant and uncharacteristic branches of ancient philosophy (the Cynics notwithstanding), should attract the attention of late 20th-century intelligentsia. “ https://www.thecollector.com/post-modern-stoics-20th-century/29 Sep 2026 12:37 +0000at://did:plc:fzsapig4il2wgikf72lrqgnh/app.bsky.feed.post/3mwntsh2jv22mhttps://bsky.app/profile/bludrone.bsky.social/post/3mwntc5a6a22o“What’s amazing about the era is not the hope,cherished by so many Americans,that war might be avoided. It’s that the nation eventually rose up and dedicated the full force of its industrial,ideological,spiritual, and military might to banishing Fascism from earth.” https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2026/10/05/a-shadow-over-the-world-william-i-hitchcock-book-review29 Sep 2026 12:28 +0000at://did:plc:fzsapig4il2wgikf72lrqgnh/app.bsky.feed.post/3mwntc5a6a22ohttps://bsky.app/profile/bludrone.bsky.social/post/3mwnszqjjy22o“Harkness’s work, which comprises series of narrative paintings that blend history, humor, fantasy, and a kind of funhouse erotics and gender play with rich literary and art historical references, are very much something you want to spend time sitting with” https://hyperallergic.com/hilary-harkness-funhouse-erotics-meet-art-history/29 Sep 2026 12:23 +0000at://did:plc:fzsapig4il2wgikf72lrqgnh/app.bsky.feed.post/3mwnszqjjy22o