The Weekly Town Crier (04/23/21)
All the week’s news that’s fit to cry about (04/23/21).
We’ll Miss You:
Read “R.I.P. Felix Silla, Actor Who Played Cousin Itt on The Addams Family Dead at 84” at Consequence of Sound.
Read “World reacts to death of Chad President Idriss Deby” at Al Jazeera.
Read ‘Ole Anthony, longtime critic of prosperity gospel televangelists and head of Trinity Foundation, dies at 82” at Religion News Service.
Read “Walter Mondale, former US vice-president and celebrated liberal, dies aged 93” at The Guardian.
Read “Jim Steinman, bombastic hitmaker for Meat Loaf and Celine Dion, dies at 73” at Los Angeles Times.
Read ‘Bay City Rollers frontman Les McKeown, dead at 65” at Brooklyn Vegan.
Read “Rapper Shock G Of Digital Underground Dies at 57” at WBLS.
Religion and Stuff:
Read “Liberty University Sues Jerry Falwell Jr. for $10 Million” at New York Times. “he lawsuit claims that Mr. Falwell, the university’s former president, withheld scandalous and potentially damaging information.”
Read “Apparently Jerry Falwell Jr.’s pool boy has a “cache of compromising photos” he’s willing to leak” at Queerty.
Read “The Greatest Christian Novel” at First Things.
Read “Meet Mercy Haub: The 16-year-old cancer survivor and preacher’s kid who inspired Ellen” at Religion News Service.
Read “Biden reverses course on refugee cap after faith groups express outrage” at Religion News Service.
Read “America Without God” at The Atlantic. “As religious faith has declined, ideological intensity has risen. Will the quest for redemption through politics doom the American idea?”
Read “D.C. Pastor Used $3.5 Million in Fraudulent PPP Loans to Buy Himself a Tesla, FBI Says” at Daily Beast.
Read “Dostoyevsky, Just After His Death Sentence Was Repealed, on the Meaning of Life” at Brain Pickings.
Read “Religious unaffiliation is growing in the US. Why isn’t it in Congress?” at Religion News Service.
Read “Sex discrimination suit against Florida church tests ‘ministerial exception’ rulings” at Religion News Service. “A woman’s lawsuit alleging gender discrimination may reconcile unanswered questions about the so-called ministerial exception.”
Read “The Splintering of the Evangelical Soul” at Christianity Today. “Why we’re coming apart, and how we might come together again.”
Read “Why Defining Gossip Matters in the Church’s Response to Abuse” at Christianity Today.
Read “Christian peacemaking and the role of forgiveness” at Christian Century. “Seeking justice is critical. Is it enough?”
Read “General Baptist pastor who criticized wives’ weight ‘deeply sorry’ for sermon” at Religion News Service. “‘In the sermon, I made insensitive remarks about women and made statements deemed unbiblical,’ said Pastor Stewart-Allen Clark in a statement.”
Read “Margie Zacharias Breaks Silence, Defends Ravi” at Roys Report.
Read “White Evangelical Racism: An Interview with Anthea Butler” at Religion and Politics.
Read “Remembering Prince: A Pop Music Priest in a Secular World” at Christianity Today.
Read “Religious Identities and the Race Against the Virus: Engaging Faith Communities on COVID-19 Vaccination” at PRRI.
Read “AI unlocks ancient Dead Sea Scrolls mystery” at BBC.
Read “Algerian scholar gets three years in jail for ‘offending Islam’” at Al Jazeera.
Read “Amy Coney Barrett was a “paid speaker 5 times, starting in 2011, at the Blackstone Legal Fellowship, a summer program established to inspire a ‘distinctly Christian worldview in every area of law...’ at Washington Post.
Legal/Justice and Social Justice and Race or Gender or Sexism-Related Stuff:
Read “Officer in George Floyd case found guilty of murder” at NME.
Read “Chauvin being held in solitary confinement for his own safety” at The Hill.
Read “Maybe America Is Racist” at The Root.
Read “Justice Dept. sues Trump ally Roger Stone for unpaid taxes” at The Hill.
Read “Ethics committee finds probable cause in sexual misconduct allegation against Idaho lawmaker” at The Hill.
Read “Freedom Caucus member condemns GOP group pushing 'Anglo-Saxon political traditions'“ at The Hill.
Read “Florida woman charged for allegedly threatening to kill Kamala Harris” at AZ Family.
Read “13 investigations, no court-martials: Here's how the US Navy and Marine Corps quietly discharged white supremacists” at Yahoo.
Read the opinion piece “GOP's new 'America First Caucus' follows in some blatantly white nationalist footsteps” at MSNBC. “The ‘America First Caucus’ continues the country’s long history of white nationalism.”
Read “Mass Shooting In Austin Leaves At Least Three Dead” at News and Guts.
Read “Most Americans want to end lifetime Supreme Court appointments for justices” at NBC News.
Read “A National Policy Blueprint To End White Supremacist Violence” at Center For American Progress.
Read “Indiana's Red Flag Law Was Designed To Prevent Mass Shootings Like The FedEx Facility Rampage. Prosecutors Never Tried To Use It” at Buzzfeed News.
Read “Virginia governor signs bill legalizing marijuana possession” at The Hill.
Read “Ben Carson defends op-ed arguing racial equity is 'another kind of racism'“ at The Hill.
Read “I’m Actually Glad Nancy Pelosi Thanked George Floyd for “Sacrificing” Himself” at Slate.
Read “Governments That Are Occupying Land Are Criminalizing Indigenous Peoples for Occupying Land” at Vice.
Read “Florida Supreme Court rules against effort to legalize recreational marijuana” at The Hill.
Read “US Supreme Court rejects limits on life sentences for juveniles” at The HIll.
Read “Brett Kavanaugh Rules Children Deserve Life In Prison With No Chance of Parole” at Vanity Fair. “Kavanaugh, who said it was absurd to judge him based on who he was in high school, thinks children convicted of crimes should die in prison.”
Read “Sotomayor blasts Kavanaugh's decision on juvenile life sentences” at The Hill.
Read “State Foster Care Agencies Take Millions Of Dollars Owed To Children In Their Care” at NPR.
This week in traitorous, white-supremacist Confederate monuments (and/or Columbus monuments // and/or other “American monuments” // Insurrectionists // and/or weird Confederacy stuff):
Read “Heavy metal guitarist with ties to Oath Keepers is first US Capitol rioter to plead guilty” at CNN.
Read “The Radicalization of Kevin Greeson” at Pro Publica. “How one man went from attending President Barack Obama’s inauguration to dying in the mob protesting Donald Trump’s election loss during the Capitol insurrection.”
Watch “American Insurrection” at PBS Frontline. “Over the last three years, FRONTLINE has collaborated with ProPublica to investigate the rise of extremism in America. In the aftermath of the Jan. 6 assault on the U.S. Capitol, FRONTLINE, ProPublica and Berkeley Journalism’s Investigative Reporting Program team up to examine how far-right extremist groups have evolved in the wake of the deadly 2017 Charlottesville rally — and the threat they pose today.”
Read “Marjorie Taylor Greene Calls Off America First Caucus Following Backlash” at Forbes.
Read “Oath Keepers: How a militia group mobilized in plain sight for the assault on the Capitol” at 60 Minutes.
Read “The Hybridity of Rural Fascism” at Society for Cultural Anthropology. “The community praised patriarchy as God-ordained, employing apocalyptic language to decry what they saw as the Marxist LGBTQ+ agenda disrupting traditional Christian family values in America.”
Read “Capitol Police officer allegedly told units to only monitor for 'anti-Trump' protesters on Jan. 6” at The Hill.
Read “Jan. 6 commission must focus only on insurrection” at The HIll.
Read “17 Requests for Backup in 78 Minutes” at Washington Post.
Read “Kevin McCarthy Says Capitol Riot Commission Should Look At Unrelated Riots’ at Huff Post. “The top House Republican doesn’t want too much focus on that time Donald Trump and his supporters tried to overturn the 2020 election.”
This Week In Protest-Related News:
Read “How the G.O.P. Is Creating Harsher Penalties for Protesters” at New York Times.
Read ‘GOP Lawmakers in Iowa and Oklahoma Pass Anti-Protest Bills” at Democracy Now.
This Week With The Police:
Read “US police and public officials donated to Kyle Rittenhouse, data breach reveals” at The Guardian. “That donation also carried a comment, reading: ‘God bless. Thank you for your courage. Keep your head up. You’ve done nothing wrong.’” “Officers and officials also donated to fundraisers for far-right activists and fellow officers accused of shooting black Americans.”
Read “The Fraternal Order of White Supremacy” at North Star. “Murderer Kyle Rittenhouse is being financially supported by various law enforcement agencies. It's the latest in several cases in which systemic racism protects boots-on-the-grounds supremacists.”
Read “A pair of 'pro-police' GOP bills in Missouri draw scrutiny from free speech advocates” at Yahoo.
Read “Detroit police restrained man and beat him for 2 minutes after he tried to help protesters, lawsuit claims” at Yahoo.
Read “Colorado police accused of injuring elderly woman with dementia during arrest” at NBC News.
Read “Man accused of throwing bleach in NYPD officer's face, hurling Molotov cocktail at others” at The Hill.
Read “Louisville officer punches protester during arrest” at Chron.
Read “Fear and Paranoia in American Policing” at Slate. “Everything around police officers tells them that they should be scared.”
Read “No convictions for St Louis officers who beat Black undercover colleague at protest” at Guardian. “Officer Luther Hall, who was recording criminal activity during protests, required multiple surgeries after the attack.”
Read “Chris Cuomo: Police reform won't happen until 'white people's kids start getting killed'“ at The Hill.
Read “Florida Sheriff Tells People Moving to State Not to 'Vote the Stupid Way You Did Up North'“ at Newsweek.
Read “‘Defund the Police’ Actually Means Defunding the Police” at Vice.
Read “The police officer who fatally shot 13-year-old Adam Toledo was listed as a victim on an incident report. One law-enforcement expert said it's 'an old cop trick meant to muddy the murky waters.'“ at Yahoo.
Read “'I'm also a police officer': Arizona deputy uses racial slur, pleads for release after being pulled over for DUI” at Yahoo.
Read “Bravery of witnesses made the difference in Chauvin trial” at MSNBC.
Read “Police across U.S. respond to Derek Chauvin trial: 'Our American way of policing is on trial'“ at NBC News. “While some officers see the trial as an example of a rogue officer being held accountable, others see it as a sign that the country has turned against them.”
Read “Columbus Police release body cam footage of officer shooting, killing girl, 16” at NBCi.
Read “Columbus cop shouts "blue lives matter" at the scene of deadly police shooting of Ohio teen” at Salon.
Read “Cops Killed a Black Man in North Carolina. Protesters Are Demanding Answers” at Vice.
Read “One of America's most popular police trainers is teaching officers how to kill” at Insider. (NOTE: Article from 2020 but highly relevant today).
Read “Most officers never fire their guns. But some kill multiple people — and are still on the job” at NBC News. “In Seattle, one officer's multiple deadly encounters offer a window into this little understood corner of American policing.”
Education and The Learnings // School Re-Openings
Read “Arizona Supreme Court hears case about legality of education tax” at KTAR. “Reformist initiatives like '8 Can't Wait' have already failed. Here's what you need to know about defunding and abolishing the police.”
Your Weekly Coronavirus Roundup:
Read “The Grief Crisis Is Coming” at New York Times.
Read “A Vaccine Is Not a Personality” at Slate. “The memes and merch inspired by Pfizer, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson are not helping the fight against COVID.”
Read “Pfizer Says COVID-19 Booster Vaccines Likely Needed Within a Year” at Democracy Now.
Read ‘India Reports Record 217,000 New Cases as Millions Gather for World’s Largest Pilgrimage” at Democracy Now.
Read “Coronavirus: 'Double mutant' Covid variant found in India” at BBC.
Read “Proud Boy charged in Capitol riot gets coronavirus while jailed” at The Hill.
Read “3 million COVID-19 deaths recorded around the world” at ABC News.
Read “The Pandemic Proved That Our Toilets Are Crap” at Wired.
Read “Has outdoor masking turned into 'meaningless political theater'?” at The Week.
Read “More Than Half Of U.S. Adults Have Gotten At Least One COVID-19 Vaccine Dose” at NPR.
Read “Ted Nugent tests positive for COVID-19 after claiming outbreak is 'not a real pandemic'“ at ABC 15.
Read “New Data Shows How Much COVID-19 Has Disrupted Life For The Youngest Americans” at Huff Post.
Miscellany Cultural Items (and some Technology):
Read “Apple reinstates Parler app, stands by initial ban” at NBC News.
Read “‘No One Was Driving’ Tesla in Crash That Killed Two People, Police Say” at Vice.
Read “The United States of Weed” at Rolling Stone. “Curious about the status of cannabis? Here’s where legalization stands, state by state.”
Read “Gretchen Carlson Says the 'Pain' of Being Body Shamed 'Stays with You for Life'“ at People.
Read “What Is Triller Fight Club, Snoop Dogg's Weird Celebrity Boxing League?” at Vice.
Read “Mike Lindell's new social platform crashes — and MyPillow guy didn't even notice” at Salon.
Read “Company Behind Krysten Sinema’s F*** Off’ Ring To Donate All Proceeds To Fight For Increased Minimum Wage” at Independent.
Read “Influencer Boxing Is the Circus-Sport America Deserves” at Vice.
Read “Right-Wing Trend of Buying or Not Buying Things to Own the Libs Reaches Nadir With Accidental Boycott of Semen” at Slate.
Internationalities:
Read “Raul Castro to Stand Down as Head of Cuba’s Communist Party” at Bloomberg.
Read ‘China posts record economic growth after plunge 12 months ago” at Al Jazeera.
Read “Harvard’s Digital Giza Project Lets You Access the Largest Online Archive on the Egyptian Pyramids (Including a 3D Giza Tour)” at Open Culture.
Read “At least 97 injured in Egypt as train derails” at CNN.
Read “Afghans who fled to Turkey are worried — and hopeful — about the prospect of peace at home” at The World.
Read “Biden Preparing to Declare That Atrocities Against Armenia Were Genocide” at New York Times.
Read “UK Parliament declares China's treatment of Uighurs a genocide” at The Hill.
Read “The Thrilling Collapse of the European Super League” at Slate.
Politics And Sucheries:
Read “Greta Thunberg will testify in Congress on Earth Day” at The Hill.
Read “GOP Reps. Lauren Boebert and Marjorie Taylor Greene were the only 'no' votes on a bill reauthorizing the National Marrow Donor Program” at Business Insider.
Read “Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert Invent Reasons to Vote Against Bone Marrow Bill” at Daily Beast.
Read “Marjorie Taylor Greene Calls Off America First Caucus Following Backlash” at Forbes.
Read “Kinzinger Says GOPers Who Join Nativist Caucus Should Be Stripped Of Committees” at Talking Points Memo.
Read “House rejects GOP resolution to censure Waters” at The Hill.
This Week In Political Corruption:
Read “How Josh Hawley and Marjorie Taylor Greene Juiced Their Fundraising Numbers” at Pro Publica.
Read “The Postal Service is running a 'covert operations program' that monitors Americans' social media posts” at Yahoo.
Music-Related News and Such:
Read “The world’s biggest music companies are scrambling to sign African artists” at Quartz Africa.
Read “Sun Ra’s musical poetry — and how it began in Chicago — captured in new gallery exhibit” at Chicago Tribune.
Read “Apple Music, in Contrast With Rival Spotify, Says It Pays a Penny-Per-Stream Average” at Pitchfork.
Read “This Youtube Channel Has Been Uploading J Dilla Rarities for Months” at Okay Player.
Read “Gillian Welch Talks Tom Jones, John Prine and John Steinbeck” at Relix.
Read “Van Morrison Confirms First-Ever Livestream Special” at Jambase.
Read “Man 'stalking' Taylor Swift arrested in New York” at BBC.
Read “Mt. Westmore (Snoop Dogg, Ice Cube, E-40, Too $hort) Deliver Debut Performance at Triller Fight Club” at Consequence of Sound.
Read “Star Songwriter Ali Tamposi Sells Catalog to New Female-Focused Music Fund” at Rolling Stone.
Read “The Mountain Goats Announce New Album Dark in Here, Share New Song “Mobile'“ at Pitchfork.
Read “Ryley Walker – ‘Course In Fable’” at Ears to Feed.
Read “Morrissey Says He’d Sue The Simpsons for Slander, But “It Requires More Funding Than I Could Possibly Muster” at Consequence of Sound. “I've had enough horror thrown at me that would kill off a herd of bison"
Read “The Simpsons Releases Morrissey Episode Music Video” at Den of Geek.
Read “South by Southwest Stake Is Sold to Owner of Rolling Stone in Effort to Keep Festival Alive” at Wall Street Journal.
Read “Frank “Poncho” Sampedro :: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview” at Aquarium Drunkard.
Read “Kurt Vile Signs With Legendary Jazz Label Verve Records” at Pitchfork.
Read “Igloo Launches Beatles Yellow Submarine-Inspired Collection of Coolers” at Rolling Stone.
Read “Don Cherry on creativity and “the mysticism of sound” at Vinyl Factory.
Read the story behind “Here Comes The Flood, by Robert Fripp and Peter Gabriel” at Music Afficianado.
Read “Louis Armstrong Plays Trumpet at the Egyptian Pyramids; Dizzy Gillespie Charms a Snake in Pakistan” at Open Culture. “During the Cold War, the United States made the case for the American way of life by sending its best ambassadors abroad — jazz musicians.”
Read “Eric Andre Says He Was Racially Profiled at Atlanta Airport” at Pitchfork.
Read “Chvrches share powerful video for new single ‘He Said She Said’” at NME.
Read “The Best and Most Misunderstood of Green Day, According to Billie Joe Armstrong” at Vulture.
Read “Yo La Tengo’s ‘I Can Hear The Heart Beating As One’ Set A Benchmark In Indie Rock” at Treble.
Read “Cardi B snaps back after GOP congressman blames her for “the moral decline of America" at Salon.
Read “I Get Around: The Oral History of 2Pac’s Digital Underground Years” at Rolling Stone.
Movies/TV/Video Games/Etc.:
Read “Sharon Osbourne gives Bill Maher first interview since leaving 'The Talk': 'I’m angry. I’m hurt.'“ at USA Today.
Read “‘Community’ Star Yvette Nicole Brown Says Reunion Movie ‘Is Coming’” at Variety.
Read “The MCU's Relationship With the Military, From Iron Man to Captain Marvel” at CBR.
Read “Tom Hopper Gives an Update on ‘The Umbrella Academy’ Season 3 Filming: “We've Got a Long Way to Go” at Collider.
Read “You may have to actually pay for Apple TV Plus to watch Ted Lasso’s second season” at The Verge.
Read “LeVar Burton Will Fly Twice As High As Jeopardy!’s Next Guest Host” at Vulture.
Read ‘Disney to Get Online, TV Access to Sony Films After Netflix” at Bloomberg.
Read “Major Update on 'Stranger Things' Season 4 Premiere Date” at Pop Culture.
Read ‘The CW Released The First Official Photo From The Live-Action "Powerpuff Girls" After Their Costumes Caused Controversy” at Buzzfeed News. “The cartoon-accurate dresses are nowhere in sight.”
Read “Jonah Hill was going to star in ‘Transformers’ but Seth Rogen made him turn it down” at NME.
Books/Reading/Authors
Browse “The Golden Guide to Hallucinogenic Plants: Discover the 1977 Illustrated Guide Created by Harvard’s Groundbreaking Ethnobotanist Richard Evan Schultes” at Open Culture.
Read “A Beautiful 1897 Illustrated Book Shows How Flowers Become Art Nouveau Designs” at Open Culture.
Read “Lawrence Ferlinghetti’s place in San Francisco literary history” at Datebook.
Read “The Faulty Lines in Voddie Baucham’s “Thought Line” at Bradley Mason.
Read “Tsundoku,” the Japanese Word for the New Books That Pile Up on Our Shelves, Should Enter the English Language” at Open Culture.
Science/Animals/Nature/Environment/Etc.:
Read “Pentagon confirms legitimacy of Navy pilot's unidentified aerial phenomena video” at The Hill.
Read “NASA selects SpaceX to land first woman, next man on Moon” at 12 News.
Read “How America’s most endangered cat could help save Florida” at National Geographic.
Read “A Song of Spider Silk” at The Scientist. “Scientists from MIT reveal the hidden music in spiderwebs.”
Read “Mars Perseverance rover successfully inhaled carbon dioxide and exhaled oxygen” at Boing Boing.
Misc. Oddities:
Read “Why a Vancouver Cemetery Is Planting Squash, Kale, and Corn” at Gastro Obscura.
Read “What about those flying pyramids?” at Mystery Wire. “Former Pentagon UFO investigator responds to questions about leaked images.”
Local:
Read “Governor signs tribal gaming compact, legalizes sports gambling in Arizona” at Cronkite News.
Read “SanTan Brewing closes its Phoenix taproom and restaurant” at ABC 15.
Read “Supporters Of Changes To AZ Voting Laws Pushing To Move Them Forward” at KJZZ.
Read ‘Ducey to station troops on the border” at AZ Capitol Times.
Read “Arizona Is Rolling Back Voting Rights, and Kyrsten Sinema Is Refusing to Stop It” at Mother Jones.
Read “Arizona governor vetoes strict sex education legislation” at NBC News.