@gmcgath
Freelance writer. Lover of liberty, music, and cats. Author of The Magic Battery, Spells of War, Files that Last, and Tomorrow's Songs Today. On Bluesky I post a lot about classical music and silent film. https://garymcgath.com
brisbane in 2028 logo
worldcon bid nuremberg 2028 with bird figure standing on a shield
LACon V is happy to announce that the following bids have completed the required filing to qualify to appear on the Worldcon Site Selection Ballot for 2028:
Brisbane in 2028
Nuremberg 2028
www.lacon.org/siteselection
My latest quiz on FunTrivia: "Jokes in Classical Music." This may be one of my tougher ones, but I'm sure several of my followers can ace it.
www.funtrivia.com/quiz/music/j...
The world "liberal" is starting to return to its non-statist roots. We can largely thank the Trump gang for this, as they use "liberal" to insult anyone who advocates due process and justice under law. www.liberalism.org
I know there are parts of Bluesky that hate the term, but I think liberalism is grand, and not just worth defending, but worth viewing at the best way to a better future for everyone. That’s why my team and I at @theihs.org have launched @liberalism.org. And here’s what I mean by “liberalism”:
It sounds like pointless trouble for small-town libraries even in its revised form.
"The Constitution itself is notably light on the question of what happens if the president can no longer serve."
From me, Nov. 1, 2017: www.buzzfeednews.com/article/chri...
Viking campfires
Viking campfires
Sinclair Lewis's _It Can't Happen Here_ has a Best Sellers Rank of #8,203 on Amazon. Not bad for a book that was published 90 years ago! It would be interesting to see what its rank was in, say, 2023.
VICTORY: Last night, the residents of Gorham and Hampton passed warrant articles opposing 287(g) agreements from existing in their communities.
These agreements, which are major tools for the Trump administration's deportation machine, deputize certain law enforcement officers to act as ICE agents.
If opera companies would set the works appropriately to the story, instead of showing off how clever they can be changing them to unrelated places and eras, people might start coming back.
That would explain a lot of politicians.
There was the rock and roll classic, "Bye Bye Love."
In New Hampshire, too, it used to be the case that something like half the restaurants were owned by Greek immigrants or second-generation Greek Americans. I'm third-generation myself, and I love Greek food!
"they were not bona fide journalists because they are participants in the political arena." That sounds ominous. If you express opinions, you're disqualified as a journalist?
This may help to explain a confusing reply I got to a post about calling bomb-throwers "counterprotesters." reason.com/2026/03/10/c...
NH Governor Ayotte's senior advisor John Corbett mocked the protesters who opposed the ICE human warehouse in Merrimack.
granitepostnews.com/2026/02/25/a...
#Ayotte #NewHampshire #ICE
Storefront of the Time Travel Mart
Buck Rogers went to the 25th Century, and all I got was this lousy T-Shirt. Want some souvenirs from other eras? Los Angeles' Time Travel Mart offers that, and supports literacy-based charity.
timetravelmart.com
The idea that people should be punished for saying any life matters is so vile that the plaintiff should have been thrown out with a rude admonition.
TIRED: a $640 toilet seat
WIRED: "an astronomical amount of shellfish, including $2 million for Alaskan king crab and $6.9 million worth of lobster tail"
A lot of people don't know the term FICO and just think of the score as their "credit rating." That's not really so alarming.
It's always "except for us." Just like telemarketing rules.
Beautiful warm day today, with snow all around. After reading a few grim chapters of _It Can't Happen Here_, I switched to _Toscanini: Musician of Conscience_ for lighter reading. But I'm at 1930, when Toscanini hadn't made a full break with Italy. It feels like a continuation of the same book.
"The Wedding of the Pale Count" sounds like a vampire movie.
It's distressing that the margin of opposition to so senseless a war is so small.
Most Americans today didn't live through the last war that took a major toll of American lives. If we remind people of it, they say, "OK, boomer."
It's the same basic thinking, but the action in Methuen has more of a left flavor. The statement favorably cites the Australian ban and claims to be grounded in science.
The #freedomToRead movement needs to pay attention to what we might call "bitbanning" as well as bookbanning: restrictions on library computer access by censorware and usage monitoring.
It's a familiar story: Politicians wanting to "protect" children's minds by restricting what they can read.
garymcgath.com/gagging-soci...
#Massachusetts #freedomToRead #Libraries
"We will take out easily destroyable targets that will make it virtually impossible for Iran to ever be built back, as a Nation, again." Trump's war is about ruining as many lives as possible.
www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-n...
#Iran
A bill in the NH legislature imposing complicated requirements on social media services has been marked Inexpedient to Legislate (i.e., killed in committee). It raised 1st Amendment concerns, as well as imposing state rules on interstate commerce.
gc.nh.gov/bill_status/...
#NewHampshire
