Our renewed Blogging Council of Wisdom speaks: Missed during my respite for court prep: SilverAppleQueen is not unhappy bidding goodbye to 2024, and is not discouraged about 2025. Amid Trump, California conflagration, and Middle East war, death, and peace possibilities, we are reminded of the significance of one: Max’s Dad provides a solid summary of…

I will be traveling to Maryland tomorrow ahead of a court appearance. I was assaulted last year on a parking lot by a stranger. Part of one arm is now made of metal. Sentencing for the troubled teenager is scheduled for January 10. I will be meeting with authorities and preparing a Victim Impact Statement. I…

From Jason Robinson on Mastodon: The seasonal Truth is not seasonal: More from this week’s internet elves: Professor PZ Myers is handicapped in keeping his published studies of arachnological sex practices interesting because spiders have a more boring level of morality than Matt Gaetz. In Letters from an American, historian Heather Cox Richardson reviews the…

From James Capener: Let’s spend a bit of the season with internet companions: In Happiness Between Tails da-AL lists some of what she has learned this year about things like reading preferences, super powers, and Vicuñas. Shamelessly stolen from Happiness Between Tails: Key invitation: What did you learn this year? Author John Scalzi notices a…

From Jesse Gamboa on TikTok: Let’s hike up Wisdom Mountain to our internet gurus: Journalist Brian Beutler is interviewed in podcast by Greg Sargent for The New Republic. Brian reviews reports of Trump’s dark rage toward those he regards as “traitors”, his darker plans for 2025, and suggests that Democrats still can do more than…

Important Contact Information: Wisdom from our internet heroes: driftglass examines reasons Democrats often lose unexpectedly: too soft, too willing to compromise, not ruthless enough. Key middling: Breaking off bigger and bigger pieces of the promises you made to the people who actually support you, and feeding those pieces to the ghouls who hate you. At…

Trump gets a reminder: Obey Putin or stay away from tall buildings. Holy sh*t. In a speech, Putin suggests Trump might not finish his term alive: “Trump is not even safe now, but I hope he is a smart and cautious person,” — Putin In Putin’s doublespeak, this could be a threat. [image or embed]…

Click for Radio Podcast: Seven Silent Football Games (5:04) The concussive violence of football, the long term damage to players, was never in the national consciousness in those days. Back when I was a kid, such thoughts never intruded. We had no idea. There is something about football crowds. I’m not sure exactly what it…

The New Zealand parliament was about to pass a new law diminishing the rights of indigenous Māori people. Then this: For the moment, the bill is no more. Just in case, by some cosmic miracle, we ever meet and I accidentally do something of which she disapproves, I'd like, right now, to apologize in advance.…

Many of us can relate to personal mourning from personal experience: @whiskeywhistle98 gets serious, wondering how even God will explain the loss of a loved one: Wisdom from our usual internet gurus: As many of us honored Veterans this week, libertarian Michael A. LaFerrara explains who the real heroes are: Not those who put themselves in the…