I think a big reason UD (and much of the country) is crying on Day Two over Dolly Parton is that her voice had the sun of America in it. Not just Tennessee; if it were just that, they’d only be crying in Nashville. Singers like Pavarotti and Parton – the great, rare, singers who make many of us cry – carry something spectacularly, miraculously, expressive in their voice.

Obviously both were technically perfect vocalists; as with Yuja Wang at the piano, you never have a moment’s anxiety about the slightest slip, the smallest dip in energy or sostenuto. The high notes were always there. Big powerful Pavarotti even did falsetto.

There are many wonderful vocalists who sing with these qualities. But I ask you: When did you last shiver listening to Renee Fleming? People like Parton had something more. Immenso giubilo, “the douceur, if that is the word,” the brilliancy of being in the world — somehow Dolly Parton had the heft to make this existential lift. In two notes I always knew Parton and no one else was singing because everyone else lacked this intense infusion of joy, conveyed with super-ringing tonal clarity. It took nothing from religion or romantic love or nature worship or whatever. It was itself, the thing itself, the human capacity for earthly delight. Motiveless mirth.

Her death ends, at least in real time, the pure dance she let us dance with her.

… there’s the dramatic rise of the far right in Germany.

If [Chancellor Friedrich] Merz briefly became a leading figure in optimistic media narratives about liberal democracy fighting back against extremism — alongside wounded-duck Emmanuel Macron in France and since-deposed Keir Starmer in Britain — that didn’t last long. After 15 months in power, Merz’s popularity has sunk to sub-Trump levels, while the AfD seems poised to become the largest party in upcoming state elections in Saxony-Anhalt…

[T]he failure to suppress the fascist uprising speaks to fundamental flaws in liberal democracy, and … the bitter lessons of the Trump/Biden/Trump era may prove instructive…

It may be necessary for Germany to go through its own period of far-right triumph, which will be especially painful for obvious historical reasons, in order to convince the public that fascism (whether old-style or new) offers no legitimate answers to inequality, alienation or global disruption. Those who stand up for their ideals and principles without compromise, and seek to communicate them clearly, certainly won’t win every election, and they may well suffer for their convictions. But they also have a better chance of turning the tide against tyranny than the professional prevaricators in business suits with bankers standing behind them. We’ve tried that, over and over. It has never worked.

Andrew O’Hehir, Salon

And no one took his guns away, cuz this is America.

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And. Uh. Fire hydrants aren’t required if you live outside Billings city limits?

“[D]etectives were able to identify the man seen in the video and determined that he was also behind other recent vehicle break-ins reported in the Reston [VA] Police District, which spans the northwest corner of the county.

The incidents identified by the FCPD, as of Aug. 20, include:

• Two burglaries from vehicles in the West Market condominium neighborhood (1900 block of Logan Manor Drive) on Aug. 6, one at 4 a.m. and another at 4:19 a.m.
• Theft from a vehicle in the Oak Park at Reston Town Center condos (12000 block of Taliesin Place) on Aug. 14 at 2:35 a.m.
• Burglary from a vehicle and an open garage in the West Market condos (1900 block of Crescent Park Drive) on Aug. 18 at 1 a.m.

The man was arrested by Reston patrol officers on Aug. 18 at around 2 a.m. after they found him behind a building in the 11900 block of Bowman Towne Drive, the FCPD says.

“During the arrest, officers recovered an AR-15-style rifle and magazines among [the man’s] belongings,” the FCPD said. “Detectives determined the firearm had been stolen approximately one hour earlier after [the suspect] entered a vehicle and an open garage in the 1900 block of Crescent Park Drive.”

The man is now facing 18 different charges in connection with the four alleged burglaries and thefts, including:

four counts of Vehicle Trespass, three counts of Burglary, three counts of Grand Larceny, two counts of Vehicle Tampering, two counts of Petit Larceny, two counts of Carrying a Concealed Weapon, Larceny from a Motor Vehicle, and Possession of a Schedule I/II Drug.

According to the FCPD, the man was also subject to five outstanding warrants from another jurisdiction that were served upon his arrest.

Online court records indicate that the man had previously been arrested on July 28 and charged with auto theft and misdemeanor eluding the police for an offense that took place that same day. However, he was released from jail on his own recognizance after an arraignment on July 29.”

Clearly no threat to the public. Let him go again.

Well, but you also have bars like Reign, specifically designed to, er, disinhibit Daewoo MAX-1 clubbers.

Reign lives and reigns in the unity of the Hogue Avenger and Glock, for ever and ever in Columbia MO… which state really…

Missouri experiences one of the highest rates of gun deaths, gun homicides, and household firearm ownership. Missouri not only has none of the foundational gun violence prevention laws, but in 2007 the state repealed an 80-year-old permit-to-purchase law—leading to an increase in the state’s gun homicide rate of up to 27%.

The state itself is a disinhibitor, eager to establish conditions of peak packing, and having no minimum age for gun purchase.

So then it’s just a matter of crowding trigger-finger tots into Reign and letting everything explode in a fusillade of fun.

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Party-pooper prez Mun Choi has issued a back-to-school announcement to U Missouri students beseeching them to stay away from the gunplay around Reign, and is he ever catching it from gung-ho gunnies!

Fascist nihilism.

… died.

Tender love is wise. It requires dedication.

Two unvaccinated residents of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania died from measles, marking the first measles fatalities in the state in 35 years …

C’mon. Admit you’re happy he and his trashy defense team are back.

This blog’s been making that argument for years (see categories CLICK-THROUGH U and CLICK-THRU U, as well as TECHNOLUST).

A public university in Texas now tells its professors they have to drag their actual bodies out of the house and teach in the classroom and oh! the humanity! Next thing you know they’ll tell them to knock it off with all the PowerPoint use. Jesus.

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It also wants them on campus 40 hours a week, five days a week, however, which is ridiculous.

America the beautiful.

Well, a high court in India has certainly shut that down. The judges, in denying a high school student the accommodation, note that none of the school’s other Muslim students wear hijabs.

“Wherever this issue has arisen, the high courts have been unanimous in opinion that wearing a headscarf is not an essential part of the Islamic faith for a woman to don in the absence of which faith would be jeopardised,”[said the judges].

The big fight against the hijab, of course, rages in Iran.

The gun biz is scummy, as we all know; more important, for the hapless citizens of Goleta CA, who only recently found out their town has no power to stop gun stores from moving next to day care centers, Goodland Guns now beetles o’er their babes.

Wyoming has the highest rate of suicides in the nation, but even when some local officials declare a Suicide Prevention month, the local press covers it like this.

Note the photograph. Ninety percent of the suicides are men. Why does the story feature an image of a woman?

And a young one! Average age of the suicides is 60 – 80.

Most of the suicides are with a gun. At least put a gun in her hand…

God has given this nation 500 million guns, and has scattered them abroad in such a way that every moment of every day one is found unattended.