Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by John Howl Boo

Natee (they/them) @himmapaan.bsky.social · 9h

I would have liked to have filmed the inking of this tiny wren and the shrub's very fine branches with this brush, but I needed to get especially close to the piece for this and it would have been too awkward.

1/2

Detail from a silhouette drawing in black ink of a tiny bird perched on a small, leafless shrub. The head of a hen just makes it into the crop, opposite the bird. The drawing is very fine and intricate. The detail shown is roughly comparable in size to two postage stamps, and is photographed with a penny and the traditional Chinese brush the piece was drawn with.

7 41 310

John Howl Boo @jholbo.bsky.social · 6h

When you are famous, they let you do it. Quantum fact!

1

John Howl Boo @jholbo.bsky.social · 6h

Taine on the contrast between the drawing room philosophes and Rousseau! www.gutenberg.org/files/2577/2...

Away with these dikes, the work of tyranny and routine! An emancipated nature will at once resume a direct and healthy course and man, without effort, will find himself not only happy but virtuous as well.3332 On this principle the attack begins: there is none that is pushed further, nor conducted with more bitter hostility. Thus far existing institutions are described simply as oppressive and unreasonable; but now they are now they are accused of being unjust and corrupting as well. Reason and the natural desires were the only insurgents; conscience and pride are now in rebellion. With Voltaire and Montesquieu all I might hope for is that fewer evils might be anticipated. With Diderot and d'Holbach the horizon discloses only a glowing El Dorado or a comfortable Cythera. With Rousseau I behold within reach an Eden where I shall immediately recover a nobility inseparable from my happiness. It is my right; nature and Providence summon me to it; it is my heritage. One arbitrary institution alone keeps me away from it, the creator of my vices as of my misery. With what rage and fury I will overthrow this ancient barrier!—We detect this in the vehement tone, in the embittered style, and in the sombre eloquence of the new doctrine. Fun and games are no longer in vogue, a serious tone is maintained; people become exasperated, while the powerful voice now heard penetrates beyond the drawing-room, to the rude and suffering crowd to which no word had yet been spoken, whose mute resentment for the first time finds an interpreter, and whose destructive instincts are soon to be set in motion at the summons of its herald.—Rousseau is a man of the people, and not a man of high society. He feels awkward in a drawing-room.3333 He is not capable of conversing and of appearing amiable; the nice expressions only come into his head too late, on the staircase as he leaves the house; he keeps silent with a sulky air or utters stupidities, redeeming his awkwardness with the sallies of a cl…

John Howl Boo @jholbo.bsky.social · 6h

... wholly disproportionate to the ordinary ways of society, hitting, wounding and soiling himself against every hindrance on his way;" (Of possible amusement value to @jacobtlevy.bsky.social.)

"VI. The Abolition Of Society. Rousseau.

Rousseau and the spiritualists.—The original goodness of
man.—The mistake committed by civilization.—The injustice
of property and of society.
A return to nature, meaning by this the abolition of society, is the war-cry of the whole encyclopedic battalion. The same shout is heard in another quarter, coming the battalion of Rousseau and the socialists who, in their turn, march up to the assault of the established régime. The mining and the sapping of the walls practiced by the latter seems less extensive, but are nevertheless more effective, and the destructive machinery it employs consists of a new conception of human nature. This Rousseau has drawn exclusively from the spectacle in his own heart: 3328 Rousseau, a strange, original and superior man, who, from his infancy, harbored within him a germ of insanity, and who finally became wholly insane; a wonderful, ill-balanced mind in which sensations, emotions and images are too powerful: at once blind and perspicacious, a veritable poet and a morbid poet, who, instead of things and events beheld reveries, living in a romance and dying in a nightmare of his own creation; incapable of controlling and of behaving himself, confounding resolution with action, vague desire with resolution, and the role he assumed with the character he thought he possessed; wholly disproportionate to the ordinary ways of society, hitting, wounding and soiling himself against every hindrance on his way; at times extravagant, mean and criminal, yet preserving up to the end a delicate and profound sensibility, a humanity, pity, the gift of tears, the faculty of living, the passion for justice, the sentiment of religion and of enthusiasm, like so many vigorous roots in which generous sap is always fermenting, whilst the stem and the branches prove abortive and become deformed or wither under the inclemency of the atmosphere. How explain such a contrast? How did Rousseau himself account fo…

1 1

John Howl Boo @jholbo.bsky.social · 6h

Taine on Rousseau. "Incapable of controlling and of behaving himself, confounding resolution with action, vague desire with resolution, and the role he assumed with the character he thought he possessed; ..."

1

John Howl Boo @jholbo.bsky.social · 6h

Honestly, Trump has a better claim to the Physics Nobel. He's experimentally demonstrated all sorts of quantum phenomena on a macro scale: all sorts of contradictions are true, so long as no one looks and sees what's actually going on, collapsing your superposition.

James Fallows @jfallows.bsky.social · 11h

A columnist still at WaPo.

Headline: "Yes, Trump deserves the Nobel Peace Prize."

3 5

John Howl Boo @jholbo.bsky.social · 7h

To be fair, you could say Dole got it together as late as 1996. But I defy you to find any Republican proposal post-1996. www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/st...

Statement by Senator Bob Dole on Clinton Signing Health Insurance Bill Advanced by Republicans | The American Presidency Project

www.presidency.ucsb.edu

1

John Howl Boo @jholbo.bsky.social · 7h

Republicans haven't put forward a health care reform proposal since Bob Dole - 1993. But sure - two weeks. This time it's gonna happen.

Catherine Rampell @crampell.bsky.social · 15h

Republicans have had 15 years to come up with an Obamacare replacement plan. They still haven’t

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 23h

Thune: "The president would like to overhaul Obamacare and give people health insurance that is higher quality and more affordable."

1 6

Reposted by John Howl Boo

James Fallows @jfallows.bsky.social · 9h

Adventures in framing:

Headline presenting this as a real-world question. Rather than as another sign of deepening vortex of narcissistic delusion and detachment from reality.

Headline: Trump Has His Eyes on Nobel Prize. Will He Get It?

110 390 2K

Reposted by John Howl Boo

Lindsay Beyerstein @beyerstein.bsky.social · 11h

Of all the clerics they could have popped, those ICE idiots had to hit Hot Priest.

Presbyterian minister David Black on CNN, who was shot with pepper balls while praying outside an ICE facility.

220 1.7K 9K

Reposted by John Howl Boo

Adam Gurri @adamgurri.liberalcurrents.com · 1d

Read @aselrod.bsky.social today on how there’s no amount of real crime fighting that will win a political battle over fake crime

Liberal Currents @liberalcurrents.com · 1d

“There is no degree of acquiescence to Trumpism that will satisfy this administration or MAGA at large. All there is is a choice between offering a faint echo of the false reality they’re selling and creating dissonance by speaking the reality of the situation to the public.”

All In Our Heads: On Losing Our Democracy and Life Beyond Our Imaginations

Our language has to meet the moment, and we have to be relentless about dispelling the fiction MAGA is selling.

www.liberalcurrents.com

2 44 140

Reposted by John Howl Boo

Lawprofblawg @lawprofblawg.bsky.social · 10h

Look, this isn't LEGAL scholarship.

#Satire

2 7 25

Reposted by John Howl Boo

Jon Seidel @jonseidel.bsky.social · 14h

U.S. District Judge April Perry says it comes down to a "credibility determination."

"I simply cannot credit [the Trump administration's] declarations to the extent they contradict state and local law enforcement. … DHS' perception of events are simply unreliable."

Jon Seidel @jonseidel.bsky.social · 14h

#BREAKING A federal judge say she will grant "in part" a request by the state of Illinois for a temporary restraining order against the deployment of National Guard troops into the state.

U.S. District Judge April Perry is still ruling and has not outlined the details of her order.

Jon Seidel @jonseidel.bsky.social · 14h

Perry: "I'm going to issue an oral ruling."

55 810 2.7K

Reposted by John Howl Boo

Quinta Jurecic @qjurecic.bsky.social · 14h

and that's why we don't trust private equity

Jacob Shamsian @jayshams.bsky.social · 16h

I've been wondering why Dominion Voting Systems suddenly reached settlements with Rudy Giuliani, Sidney Powell, and One America News.

Turns out, it's been purchased by a Republican-owned election tech firm that insisted on it, per Axios.

www.axios.com/2025/10/09/d...

19 200 910

John Howl Boo @jholbo.bsky.social · 12h

This is nuts.

Heather Cherone @heathercherone.bsky.social · 18h

Perry: DOJ's definition of rebellion would mean that
"literally all nonviolent protest” could be considered evidence of rebellion. Is that your argument?
Hamilton: The president has determined there is a danger of a rebellion, and you must defer to that finding

1 4

John Howl Boo @jholbo.bsky.social · 1d

Clever!

1

John Howl Boo @jholbo.bsky.social · 1d

Paul McCartnAI.

1

Reposted by John Howl Boo

Corey @coreysoper.bsky.social · 1d

We had years of debate about whether Trump's movement was a fascist one - I never expected them to openly identify themselves with historical fascism.

Prem Thakker ツ @premthakker.bsky.social · 1d

From Donald Trump's Roundtable on Antifa just now —
"Antifa has been around in various iterations for almost 100 years in some instances, going back to the Weimar Republic in Germany."
— special guest Jack Posobiec

1 20 66

Reposted by John Howl Boo

Philip Bump @pbump.com · 1d

I spent more than a decade at The Post. It was good to me and I was proud to work there. I’ve largely refrained from being critical since I left. But this framing of the special counsel probe is embarrassing and flatly wrong. Stunning, but not. www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/202...

Opinion | Jack Smith’s lawfare and James Comey’s arraignment on pathetically weak charges

Good people will be deterred from public service if they see a meaningful risk of winding up in jail afterward.

www.washingtonpost.com

160 1.2K 5.2K

John Howl Boo @jholbo.bsky.social · 1d

Philosophy of the uncanny.

1

John Howl Boo @jholbo.bsky.social · 1d

I have such difficulty.

'There's the same picture' meme:
Heidegger: death is ‘the ownmost, nonrelational, certain, and, as such, indefinite and insuperable possibility of Dasein’.

Lovecraft: 'That is not dead which can eternal lie, And with strange aeons even death may die'.

1 1 9

John Howl Boo @jholbo.bsky.social · 1d

Big 'we're still hoping for an insurrection so we'll probably only invoke the Insurrection Act if we absolutely can't manage to provoke an insurrection' energy. www.nbcnews.com/politics/nat...

Trump administration officials seriously discussing invoking Insurrection Act, sources say

A decision isn't expected to be imminent, one source said, but debate within the administration has shifted recently to more deeply exploring how and when the act might be invoked.

www.nbcnews.com

3

Reposted by John Howl Boo

Stephen Totilo @stephentotilo.bsky.social · 1d

SCOOP: Last year, Ubisoft cancelled an Assassin's Creed game set during Reconstruction. Was to feature a Black Assassin who, among other things, fought the rise of the Klan

Sources: Leadership nixed it over concerns re: U.S. political climate, backlash to Yasuke

www.gamefile.news/p/scoop-ubis...

Scoop: Ubisoft cancelled a post-Civil War Assassin’s Creed last year

Company leadership deemed the project too controversial for the moment, sources tell Game File

www.gamefile.news

200 990 3.5K

John Howl Boo @jholbo.bsky.social · 1d

Unfortunately yes.

Sharon @sharonk.bsky.social · 1d

that being said i'm not exactly sure why they think SCOTUS would rule against an Insurrection Act deployment given that the law itself is fairly permissive in deference to the president

Quinta Jurecic @qjurecic.bsky.social · 1d

when you are worried that THIS supreme court will rule against you on invoking the insurrection act, a statute that famously gives enormous deference to the president ... maybe that's a sign that your military deployments are pretty baseless

2 2

John Howl Boo @jholbo.bsky.social · 1d

It's mostly just a dress code. Would YOU want to sit next to this guy all the way to Central City?

Weather Wizard-related panels from old "Flash" comic. "It dod not take Mardon long to work out a suitable costume ..."

"Ah! It's perfect!"

1 2