Patrick John Gillam

@patrickgillam.bsky.social

427

Posts

I’m not Christian in any conventional sense, but I love this thought in John 9:3:

“Neither this man nor his parents sinned; he was born blind so that God’s works might be revealed in him.”

A good thought whenever I behold something needing fixing.

Posts Replies Media

Reply to

shel

Good setting for good picture of a good dog! Our poodle matches her surroundings almost too well.

Reply to

Joe Sudbay

Pair this piece with Lulu García-Navarro’s interview of James Langford, who isn’t worried. We’ll only orphan kids who chose the wrong parents!

As Kamala Harris opponents flail with “She’s a DEI hire,” this Toni Morrison wisdom may be good to keep in mind.

The Obama interregnum relieved some anxiety for a while, but mostly this century has felt like I’m riding a train whose tracks are headed off a cliff. So I’ve been bingeing Strauss and Howe’s work on historical cycles. Howe says we’re in a crisis cycle, which’ll get worse before it gets better.

Neighbors recycled their Trump yard sign from 2020. All it took was some black tape over irrelevant information. I checked the back of the sign, facing away from the road, and sure enough, there he is. It’s tempting to write “Hang Mike“ in matching letters and flip the sign around.

Reply to

Peter Sagal

You know how 1850s apologists for enslavement framed slavery as a “positive good”? Here we have a similar framing for conservatism’s insider/outsider orientation:

If u see this post a wolf

if u see this post a wolf

Show a picture from your phone that has your energy that’s not a selfie.

show me a picture on your phone that has your energy that's not a selfie

I need to start tracking the segues that life hands me. The latest has been to finish watching a series about a Russian count the Soviet state deemed a “former person” to almost immediately listen to a podcast that just happens to talk about other categories of suspect people.

The Supreme Court is corrupt and the FBI tells us most political violence comes from the right. But we in the center and left need to anticipate our reaction to a stolen election and minority rule. We know even peaceful demonstrations get ugly, and fast. Will we be too furious to remain peaceful?

Reply to

Seth Cotlar

Added context in screenshot. Link to podcast: slateprivate.supportingcast.fm/content/eyJ0...

Question for @jayrosen.bsky.social and others of the professor’s ilk: Do we know much about people’s use of screens as information sources versus playing a cable station because they’re alone and want company? www.nbcnews.com/politics/202...

Reply to

Robert Reich

He sure as hell doesn’t want to be president the way he was before, surrounded by people telling him he can’t do this and can’t do that. But he loves loves loves power, which he loves to exercise by making people do what they don’t want to do. He seeks grift, power and impunity.

Reply to

Eric

Eric, if I may jump in, Barr frames the existential threat in terms of religious people versus unbelievers. Conservative are religious, hence good and worthy; liberals are Godless and perforce unfit for self-government.

Reply to

Peter Sagal

Aaand here’s the Wilhoit’s Law demonstration of who’s inside and who’s outside: Religious people are inside, and thus entitled. Liberals—secular and godless as they are–are outside. What saddens me is that the Bill Barrs of the world, yearning for God as they do, don’t innately know His immanence.

I want so much to believe the neighbor’s Trump 2020 flag is a metaphor for the man. It’s the Flag of Dorian Gray.

I recall an old child-rearing book with a title like “Raising a Son.” It said every boy had three questions: 1. What are the rules? 2. What happens when I break the rules? 3. Are you going to enforce the rules? Funny how often Donald Trump brings those questions to mind.

Today's reminder that the reason all of the awful & illegal things keep happening in American politics & society is because there are never any personal, professional, or legal consequences for all of the awful & illegal things happening in American politics & society.

Reply to

throat goat, md

It gave us this excellent meme, for which I am grateful.

Reply to

Elizabeth Spiers

Events have given me many opportunities to reflect on this observation by Bertrand Russell:

Reply to

Will Wilkinson 🏳️‍🌈 🌴🥥

Brings to mind the Bertrand Russell observation that “Since power over human beings is shown in making them do what they would rather not do, the man who is actuated by love of power is more apt to inflict pain than to permit pleasure.“

Reply to

Jacob Bacharach

I appreciate the Wilhoit’s Law callout. crookedtimber.org/2018/03/21/l...

Reply to

Erin Dwyer aka Ginger Is A Construct

Thanks for the book recommendation.

Reply to

Seth Cotlar

I want to see the pulp paperback book cover for “Gay Race Communists and the Globo-Homo Agenda.”

Reply to

Richard Kadrey

Reminds me of how Goya’s first painting of an ingenuously naked reclining woman was deemed too racy, so he painted her clothed but with a definite come-hither expression. The naked woman has a guileless and innocent look; the clothed woman’s face and body language say “Do me.”

Reply to

Mark Copelovitch

When I ran across this meme years ago I saved it for future sharing. I get to share it a lot.

Reply to

John Pfaff

Nine years of seeking explanations for all this have revealed nothing more insightful and trenchant than Wilhoit’s Law. crookedtimber.org/2018/03/21/l...

I’ve spent the last eight years wrestling with my attitude toward fellow human beings whose positions disgust me. I’ve decided political and moral reasoning are subject to different levels of development, just as some people are better at language than at math. Thus can evil be banal.

These stories about Trump and his popularity among voters. Look, in 2016, you can be like, "Okay, not all of his voters are bad people, obviously." And even in 2020, you can make that argument. But in 2024, if you're a Donald Trump supporter, you're just a shit human being. NYT should say that.

New Hampshire here. Ten-month-old Ginger Poodle sees her first snow. Yes, it’s kind of nice.

I have practically zero Bluesky participation yet I’ve somehow managed to get blocked. How does that work?

Particularly in this instance for something that we all watched happen live. It's like denying that the towers fell. My dude, we watched it happen. This is not something reasonably up for debate.

Here’s your proof: a clever meme!