[T]he Constitution is not by itself an insuperable barrier against the authoritarian temptation… A President can at least try to constrain freedoms, issue racist decrees, intimidate, coerce. And, if that becomes the case, it will be on us, resolute citizens, to protect the republic—to demand, as [Benjamin] Franklin said, that we keep it.
After reading Houston’s The Book, I went back to read his previous Shady Characters with a much deeper appreciation. The backstory of the typographical marks including the pilcrow (¶), the interrobang (‽), the octothorpe (#), the ampersand (&), the @ symbol, the asterisk (*), the dagger (†), and the manicule (☞) is informing, enlightening, and inspiring. The beautiful hardcover, which is highly readable in Hoefler Text, reserves a place on my bookshelf to remind me these characters whenever I work on my typographic design.
In the past six months, I had been working on creating a network of websites for Scalia Law School. The goal for this project is to provide the law school community an online presence that is consistent with the Scalia Law branding. The experience was challenging and rewarding at the same time.
In the initial development, I was tasked with moving existing WordPress sites from our GoDaddy dedicated server to our in-house server. Instead of moving each individual installation of WordPress, I wanted to take advantage of WordPress MultiSite. In addition, I wanted to create a network of websites that looks and feels like the Scalia Law branding.
Rather than creating a theme from scratch, I relied on WordPress’s Twenty Sixteen as a starter. Other than the thick border around the edge of the browser, the simple and clean design of Twenty Sixteen allowed me to create a child theme for customization. The theme for SLS is fairly straightforward.
The challenging part was to convinced stakeholders to be part of this network. I am glad that twenty six websites has been on board and only one rejected the design. I expected the resistance to be higher, but one out of twenty six is not bad.
Steve Harvey’s insensitive joke about Asian men didn’t offend me. I heard worst as a kid. I just find it ironic for a Black man to be dismissive about race. He should understand the pain of racism unless he has forgotten about Black history. Even if he’s not a racist, being ignorant about another smaller minority group makes him a racial bully. Chinese is not the only Asian population. Think before you joke.
During his eight years in the White House — in a noisy era of information overload, extreme partisanship and knee-jerk reactions — books were a sustaining source of ideas and inspiration, and gave him a renewed appreciation for the complexities and ambiguities of the human condition.
I can’t wait to read his memoirs in the near future.
Wasted two hours this morning in court and ended up losing the case for the speeding ticket. Even though I presented my evidence and made the case, the judge took the cop’s position over me. What more can I do? He did reduce to a $40 fine plus court fees. It was a learning experience and will help me prepare for the next time.
I hope I won’t get another ticket in my life, but how can I avoid it if the cops are out there to get me? I also find that some cops are hypocrites too. They have no problem stopping you for small mistakes even though they don’t follow the law themselves. I have seen several times when the cops flashed their lights to get pass the red light and turned them off like nothing happened. They made u-turns when the sign indicates no u-turn. They don’t stop at the stop sign and yet they would have no problem stopping us for stopping at a stop sign a second too fast.
As long as I am on the road, this is what I have to deal with. I am not going to let them get to me. I have earned the maximum of 5 safe driving points in Virginia so my record is still pretty good.
Jokes were a superior way to tell the truth—that meant freedom for everyone.
But by 2016 the wheel had spun hard the other way: now it was the neo-fascist strongman who held the microphone and an army of anonymous dirty-joke dispensers who helped put him in office. Online, jokes were powerful accelerants for lies—a tweet was the size of a one-liner, a “dank meme” carried farther than any op-ed, and the distinction between a Nazi and someone pretending to be a Nazi for “lulz” had become a blur. Ads looked like news and so did propaganda and so did actual comedy, on both the right and the left—and every combination of the four was labelled “satire.”
David Remnick on John Lewis:
The sacrifices that Lewis has made for his country and for the cause of justice are manifest in the scars on his skull. It is a safe bet that he will not be wounded by any tweet. And there are those who know well what he has done to advance the cause of justice and human rights.
Take that! You ignorant piece of shit.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.:
I say to you today, my friends, that in spite of the difficulties and frustrations of the moment, I still have a dream.
Einstein’s book clears the muddying of advertising and editorial content. She delves into native advertising and provides real case studies to help us differentiate sponsored messages and actual content. With the increase of fake news and online tracking, we are being advertised and manipulated to death. This book is an informing and important read even if you are not in the ad industry.