I think this also extends further down the line - it doesn’t seem like other countries’ secondary schools have teams that serve as both drivers of loyalty to the school and part of the pro athlete pipeline. It’s something unique about US culture.

I liked this not because I like that you had to hear that, but because I respect a dad trying to do the best for his kids when the world makes that harder than it should be and there's no way to do all the good you want to do.

The fact that this is where John Dewey’s papers and such reside makes this doubly depressing to me.

If Comcast winds up buying Warner Bros and thus DC, this one is going to get even more amusing.

I want to like the Paradox games but I don't have time for the six month immersive course I feel like I would need to understand the mechanics enough to feel like I know what I'm doing.

And now we get to go home!

That would require him to listen to his loved ones, and there's a pretty good chance that he's not doing that.

All of this is great. I think you could go all the way back to Iron Man if you wanted to show that the MCU has never had a consistent idea of what SHIELD is supposed to be, and how that connects to the MCU deciding relatively early to ditch the Nolan-esque “realistic” approach.

I still buy digitally and download in part to have fewer things in my house and in part because my computer no longer has an internal CD drive to rip MP3s. But I recognize that I am an oddball who should not be used to identify trends in music.

Unless we can get more music I like that way.

We have had about 30 years now of the Internet changing the way we read and interact with text.

In the US we have had at least 20 years of high stakes standardized tests that assess reading skills in ways that encourage people to skim short passages quickly.

I teach 12th graders about civics and economics and the crisis in reading skills is very real. At the same time I am concerned that this story is overemphasizing one teaching method as a cause of the problem.

Other countries are also seeing literacy problems, and not just in young readers.

Definitely different but it seems like the shutdown and the end of ACA subsidies are things that are both causing suffering and damaging the GOP politically, and Dems are stuck trying to figure out which pain to stop and which to allow in pursuit of things they think are long term needs.

Your point about the credit Pelosi deserves for working to improve conditions during dire emergencies under Republican presidents even though it would help the Republican party politically is worth thinking about now even more than it was when I read it this morning.

My Apple station is currently playing Summertime and yep, it is that good. :)

I currently think all the hardship is on the GOP because they could end this at any time by nuking the filibuster and they haven’t because they like the filibuster. So I agree that the filibuster getting nuked would mean that the Dems got something out of the shutdown.

Not to disagree with your larger point but there is one scenario in which Senate Dems don’t have to vote for something, right? If the Senate GOP nukes the filibuster the Senate Dems wouldn’t need to vote on anything. I know the Senate GOP doesn’t want to do that, but it is an option they have.