Sunday Morning Reads 4/4/21
We’ve officially made it through March 2021, which means it has been a full year since the world came to a screeching halt. This March was certainly better than the last -- mass access to vaccines is ramping up, the economy is showing some glimmers of life, and there seems to be a general feeling that we are reaching the end of the pandemic here in the US.
Thursday is the big day for me -- I’ll be getting my first Pfizer jab. I’m excited but I’m also a little nervous about side effects, I’ve seen reactions ranging anywhere from nothing at all to insomnia and night sweats. Obviously I’ll let you guys know how it goes with me, I’m also thinking about doing a little informal research project on who got which vaccine and what side effects they had.
Next week, I’ll be writing about the two subjects currently sucking all the air out of The Discourse -- the Georgia election law changes and the fallout from it, and vaccine passports. Just some nice non-controversial topics that everyone is in total agreement with…
Until then, here is some Sunday reading material for you
In anticipation of the April 13th release of former House Speaker John Boehner’s memoir “On The House”, Politico released a portion of it and whoo boy he doesn’t hold back. I haven’t been this excited to read a book on recent politics since Tim Alberta’s “American Carnage”, and St. Martin’s Press tapping Boehner himself to do the audiobook is sheer perfection. This might be the one book where I actually listen to the audiobook over reading the dead tree version.
Nick Clegg, a member of Parliament and VP of Global Affairs for Facebook, wrote a long and nuanced post about The Algorithm, highlighting both the pro and cons of how social media serves you content.
A tiny glimmer of hope for everyone who thinks the current batch of youth is irredeemable, here is 20 year old Rav Arora speaking out against the trend of ruining lives over social media posts made when the person in question was a teen, specifically the firing of Alexi McCammond.
This one should have been part of last week’s batch of suggested reading (sorry!) -- Nellie Bowles, who is chronicling her conversion to Judaism, writes on how she was never taught much in school about the Soviet Union and especially how it treated Jews.
Erik Kain details the attempted cancelation campaign against the video game “Six Days In Fallujah”, another example of people going off about content they haven’t even had a chance to interact with yet.
I hope everyone had a happy Passover and a happy Easter, and I hope spring brings you good tidings!
Take care, and until next time