The Ledes

Monday, June 30, 2025

It's summer in our hemisphere, and people across Guns America have nothing to do but shoot other people.

New York Times: “A gunman deliberately started a wildfire in a rugged mountain area of Idaho and then shot at the firefighters who responded, killing two and injuring another on Sunday afternoon in what the local sheriff described as a 'total ambush.' Law enforcement officers exchanged fire with the gunman while the wildfire burned, and officials later found the body of the male suspect on the mountain with a firearm nearby, Sheriff Robert Norris of Kootenai County said at a news conference on Sunday night. The authorities said they believed the suspect had acted alone but did not release any information about his identity or motives.” A KHQ-TV (Spokane) report is here.

New York Times: “The New York City police were investigating a shooting in Manhattan on Sunday night that left two people injured steps from the Stonewall Inn, an icon of the L.G.B.T.Q. rights movement. The shooting occurred outside a nearby building in Greenwich Village at 10:15 p.m., Sgt. Matthew Forsythe of the New York Police Department said. The New York City Pride March had been held in Manhattan earlier on Sunday, and Mayor Eric Adams said on social media that the shooting happened as Pride celebrations were ending. One victim who was shot in the head was in critical condition on Monday morning, a spokeswoman for the Police Department said. A second victim was in stable condition after being shot in the leg, she said. No suspect had been identified. The police said it was unclear if the shooting was connected to the Pride march.”

New York Times: “A dangerous heat wave is gripping large swaths of Europe, driving temperatures far above seasonal norms and prompting widespread health and fire alerts. The extreme heat is forecast to persist into next week, with minimal relief expected overnight. France, Spain, Portugal, Italy and Greece are among the nations experiencing the most severe conditions, as meteorologists warn that Europe can expect more and hotter heat waves in the future because of climate change.”

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To keep the Conversation going, please help me by linking news articles, opinion pieces and other political content in today's Comments section.

Link Code:   <a href="URL">text</a>

OR here's a link generator. The one I had posted died, then Akhilleus found one, but it too bit the dust. He found yet another, which I've linked here, and as of September 23, 2024, it's working.

OR you can always just block, copy and paste to your comment the URL (Web address) of the page you want to link.

Note for Readers. It is not possible for commenters to "throw" their highlighted links to another window. But you can do that yourself. Right-click on the link and a drop-down box will give you choices as to where you want to open the link: in a new tab, new window or new private window.

Thank you to everyone who has been contributing links to articles & other content in the Comments section of each day's "Conversation." If you're missing the comments, you're missing some vital links.

Marie: Sorry, my countdown clock was unreliable; then it became completely unreliable. I can't keep up with it. Maybe I'll try another one later.

 

Commencement ceremonies are joyous occasions, and Steve Carell made sure that was true this past weekend (mid-June) at Northwestern's commencement:

~~~ Carell's entire commencement speech was hilarious. The audio and video here isn't great, but I laughed till I cried.

CNN did a live telecast Saturday night (June 7) of the Broadway play "Good Night, and Good Luck," written by George Clooney and Grant Heslov, about legendary newsman Edward R. Murrow's effort to hold to account Sen. Joe McCarthy, "the junior senator from Wisconsin." Clooney plays Murrow. Here's Murrow himself with his famous take on McCarthy & McCarthyism, brief remarks that especially resonate today: ~~~

     ~~~ This article lists ways you still can watch the play. 

New York Times: “The New York Times Company has agreed to license its editorial content to Amazon for use in the tech giant’s artificial intelligence platforms, the company said on Thursday. The multiyear agreement 'will bring Times editorial content to a variety of Amazon customer experiences,' the news organization said in a statement. Besides news articles, the agreement encompasses material from NYT Cooking, The Times’s food and recipe site, and The Athletic, which focuses on sports. This is The Times’s first licensing arrangement with a focus on generative A.I. technology. In 2023, The Times sued OpenAI and its partner, Microsoft, for copyright infringement, accusing the tech companies of using millions of articles published by The Times to train automated chatbots without any kind of compensation. OpenAI and Microsoft have rejected those accusations.” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I have no idea what this means for "the Amazon customer experience." Does it mean that if I don't have a NYT subscription but do have Amazon Prime I can read NYT content? And where, exactly, would I find that content? I don't know. I don't know.

Washington Post reporters asked three AI image generators what a beautiful woman looks like. "The Post found that they steer users toward a startlingly narrow vision of attractiveness. Prompted to show a 'beautiful woman,' all three tools generated thin women, without exception.... Her body looks like Barbie — slim hips, impossible waist, round breasts.... Just 2 percent of the images showed visible signs of aging. More than a third of the images had medium skin tones. But only nine percent had dark skin tones. Asked to show 'normal women,' the tools produced images that remained overwhelmingly thin.... However bias originates, The Post’s analysis found that popular image tools struggle to render realistic images of women outside the Western ideal." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: The reporters seem to think they are calling out the AI programs for being unrealistic. But there's a lot about the "beautiful women" images they miss. I find these omissions remarkably sexist. For one thing, the reporters seem to think AI is a magical "thing" that self-generates. It isn't. It's programmed. It's programmed by boys, many of them incels who have little or no experience or insights beyond comic books and Internet porn of how to gauge female "beauty." As a result, the AI-generated women look like cartoons; that is, a lot like an air-brushed photo of Kristi Noem: globs of every kind of dark eye makeup, Scandinavian nose, Botox lips, slathered-on skin concealer/toner/etc. makeup, long dark hair and the aforementioned impossible Barbie body shape, including huge, round plastic breasts. 

New York Times: “George Clooney’s Broadway debut, 'Good Night, and Good Luck,' has been one of the sensations of the 2024-25 theater season, breaking box office records and drawing packed houses of audiences eager to see the popular movie star in a timely drama about the importance of an independent press. Now the play will become much more widely available: CNN is planning a live broadcast of the penultimate performance, on June 7 at 7 p.m. Eastern. The performance will be preceded and followed by coverage of, and discussion about, the show and the state of journalism.”

No free man shall be seized or imprisoned, or stripped of his rights or possessions, or outlawed or exiled, or deprived of his standing in any other way, nor will we proceed with force against him, or send others to do so, except by the lawful judgment of his equals or by the law of the land. -- Magna Carta ~~~

~~~ New York Times: “Bought for $27.50 after World War II, the faint, water stained manuscript in the library of Harvard Law School had attracted relatively little attention since it arrived there in 1946. That is about to change. Two British academics, one of whom happened on the manuscript by chance, have discovered that it is an original 1300 version — not a copy, as long thought — of Magna Carta, the medieval document that helped establish some of the world’s most cherished liberties. It is one of just seven such documents from that date still in existence.... A 710-year-old version of Magna Carta was sold in 2007 for $21.3 million.... First issued in 1215, it put into writing a set of concessions won by rebellious barons from a recalcitrant King John of England — or Bad King John, as he became known in folklore. He later revoked the charter, but his son, Henry III, issued amended versions, the last one in 1225, and Henry’s son, Edward I, in turn confirmed the 1225 version in 1297 and again in 1300.”

NPR lists all of the 2025 Pulitzer Prize winners. Poynter lists the prizes awarded in journalism as well as the finalists in these categories.

 

Contact Marie

Email Marie at constantweader@gmail.com

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Friday
Jan012016

Happy New Year

Following is a comment contributor MAG wrote in Thursday's thread. I heartily agree with MAG's sentiments, although I've omitted her Plaudit No. 1 because my mother told me it was bad form to toot my own horn. That doesn't mean I'm not ever-so-pleased when someone else does the tooting. I would add that I always look forward to reading MAG's comments: thoughtful, smart & succinct -- and often expressing a point-of-view I overlooked but am happy to adopt once MAG raises the point. -- Constant Weader

 

Whew! It’s almost over and I can stop seeing those detestable top 10 end-of-the-year lists. 2015’s 10 Best Law & Order ReRuns, 10 Best Restaurants off the Beaten Path, 10 Best Bratwurst Joints, et al. But, if you can’t fight’em, join’em…OK, I caved.

Here’s my 2015’s Top 10 Reality Chex-ers —in no particular sorta order:

2. @ Akheilleus, whose brilliant interpretations and witty insights continually astound and provoke—often sending me off on a Google-search for the definition of some obscure word that (of course) he uses correctly! A Greek & Latin scholar who knows rock bands from eons ago! Wow!…yet, what blew me away most recently…is the awareness of his fashionista side and how wonderfully he wordsmithed “pret-a-porter” into one of his best lines of the year: On December 21: “…with Trumpy's blowhardiness. He is a prêt–à–porter propaganda warehouse.”

3. @ Marwin  S & Ken W…well-thought out analysis, obviously well read readers, checkers & researchers of the first rank.

4. @ PD Pepe feisty and given to wry phrasings. Think of her as the Madame DeFarge of RC. Surely, knitting is among her many skills, as well!

5. @ Diane… sharp input, to the point & never ever brooking nonsense!

6. @ Ophelia M. among RC’s newest…(imagine you in floating in an ethereal mist over Manhattan with iPad close at hand for ever sage observations!)

7. @ D.C. Clark always knowledgeable, besides he’s the one who has the biggest one anywhere. For Star-gazing, that is!

8. @ Kate Madison RC’s ‘in-house’ psychoanalyst who cuts through the bull—and never lets us forget the importance of the Supremes (not talking Diana, Flo & Mary)!

9. @ Barbarossa, Unwashed, Citizen625, Owen Whyte, Nisky Guy, and the Victorias (with & without the D) add their smart POVs and great links to follow! Thanks!

10. @ and to one & all who have been UNINTENTIONALLY left unmentioned, you’re still the greatest, best-est, too! (Disclaimer: this list is still incomplete) And to everyone thanks for the terrific daily reads!

HAPPY NEW YEAR one and all … said the Tiny Mag!

Comments Off

Reader Comments (6)

I thank MAG for her lovely acknowledgment of all the contributors here on R.C. and especially to the lady at the helm that makes it all happen. I think often about how fortunate we are to have such a perfect place to express our views, exercise our voices and learn from one another. And modest though she may be, Marie needs to hear –-often–- how much we value all she does to make this work

I think in the past there wasn't much adulation heaped on children. Marie's mother's "you don't toot your own horn" business is exactly how I was raised. You don't praise too much cuz you might give the kid a swelled head. Nowadays everyone is a winner––everyone gets a prize whether they earn it or not –––because equality–-and you can see how well that works.

Anyway––thank you, MAG, and by the way––I do not knit, (only metaphorically) but if and when I take up the needles and the yard you can visit me in the Home for the Bewildered where I will be making that comforter of many colors and counting the tiles in the john.

January 1, 2016 | Unregistered CommenterPD Pepe

@Mag. How thoughtful. Thanks and may the New Year be a dandy for you and yours.

January 1, 2016 | Unregistered CommenterDiane

My two part New Year's wish for the RC cohort:

May you all stay well, and may your feisty, sensible and indomitable spirits endure into 2016 when I suspect they will be repeatedly tested once again.

You are a smart, funny bunch and I very much appreciate the chance to enjoy your company. Particularly in a Presidential election year (tho' in our now perpetual election cycle when is a year not?), rational discourse will be in predictably short supply, rendering RC and its commenters dearer to me by the day.

Thanks and Happy New Year to all!

And, Marie, it's OK to accept the trophy when you have earned the prize.

January 1, 2016 | Unregistered CommenterKen Winkes

Happy 2016 to all from S.E. Asia, at the moment.

January 1, 2016 | Unregistered CommenterGloria

As per Ken, "it's OK to accept the trophy when you have earned the prize." Cheers Marie and all have a super-fine 2016!

January 1, 2016 | Unregistered CommenterCitizen625

@Marie

Aw shucks, now I'm the one ablush and moshing my sneakered foot into the pavement! But, truly...appreciate everything you do—and your legion of commenters!

@PD Love, love, love your response!

January 2, 2016 | Unregistered CommenterMAG
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