One-time presidential aspirant, military veteran, and Democratic congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard thought she and her husband were taking a trip to Rome. And they did, and they returned. But along the way they discovered that she had been placed on a terrorist watch list (“Open Skies”) by the U.S. Transportation Safety Administration, so extra security measures were applied. The TSA did respond, and apparently, without saying so, admitted it was true. Matt Taibbi at Racket News suggests it’s perhaps time to dismantle the Department of Homeland Security.
We’ve been to London (as tourists) seven times. I’m not sure about our trip in 1983, but for all the other trips, there was at least one protest if not more going on. Sometimes it was PETA protesting at London Fashion Week or Stop Oil protestors blocking traffic at Trafalgar Square. In 2012, we were warned to avoid Parliament Square and Grosvenor Square (old U.S. Embassy) after President Obama made some incorrect comments about Benghazi (our hotel concierge explained that Americans were being targeted at protests). Last year, we were in the thick of it for three days, when the prime minister of Bangladesh stayed at our hotel (the same one who fled her country earlier this week), and both her proponents and opponents squared off (when they weren’t marching down Whitehall).
But nothing we’ve seen or experienced comes close to what’s been happening in Britain lately, including and well beyond London. Here are just a few stories.
How Britain ignored its ethnic conflict – Aris Roussinos at UnHerd.
Fears for tiers – Ben Sixsmith at The Critic Magazine.
The British Establishment Refused to Talk About Migration. Now We’re Paying the Price – Nadhim Zahawi at The Free Press.
The Hollow Kingdom – Christopher Rufo.
The riots and the social media blame game – Fred Skulthorp at The Critic Magazine.
Summer of Violence: Why the UK Has Been Overwhelmed by Anti-Muslim Violence – Clemente Lisi at Religion Unplugged.
More Good Reads
Writing and Literature
Hardness in Hard Times – Adam Roberts at Adam’s Notebook.
Can fiction be successful on Substack? – Henry Oliver at The Common Reader.
Beowulf’s Scandinavia of the Mind – Matthew Lyons at Engelsberg Ideas.
Accursed Questions: Why Russian Lit Matters – Joel Miller at Miller’s Book Review.
Protecting Authors’ Privacy: The Cost of Marketing Our Own Books – Rea Frey at Writer’s Digest.
J.R.R. Tolkien’s Vision of the Just War – Jay Wesley Richards at The Imaginative Conservative.
News Media
The Media Thought Misleaders – Mike Pesca at Pesca Profundities.
American Stuff
Untenable Risk – Part 1: The Secret Service and the Protection of the President – The Memory Hole.
Faith
Christians Are Temporarily Strange People – Michael Kelley at Forward Progress.
Should You Send Your Kids to Catholic School? – Chris Castaldo at The Gospel Coalition.
Independent Power – Seth Lewis.
One church, two astronauts: How a Texas congregation is supporting its members on the space station – Holly Meyer at Associated Press.
Poetry
“War is Kind,” poem by Stephen Crane – Joseph Bottum at Poems Ancient and Modern.
“In Three Days,” poem by Robert Browning – Adam Roberts at Adam’s Notebook.
The Faltering – Ed Ahern at Society of Classical Poets.
“Over the Way,” poem by Mary Mapes Dodge – Sally Thomas at Poems Ancient and Modern.
Life and Culture
Early Music and the Conservation of Culture – Michael De Sapio at The Imaginative Conservative.
How Did Planned Parenthood Become One of the Country’s Largest Suppliers of Testosterone? – Jennifer Block at The Free Press.
Israel
Washington’s Wavering Support for Israel – Michael Oren at Clarity.
Art
Recent Drawings from the Diary of a Tree Standing on Its Head – Jack Baumgartner at The School for the Transfer of Energy.
The Red Rises, The Tide Falls – Ted Jacobs and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Painting: A Young Woman Reading, oil on canvas (1880) by Marie Bashkirtseff (1858-1884).
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