The case of Darlene May Clifton and the sentencing of Kwentel Moultrie, The World of Musicals at Flagler Auditorium, the Library of America’s 2023 offerings, Don DeLillo on the power of the dead.
Florida & Beyond, and All Opinions
Combating Antisemitism in the Era of Twitter and TikTok
Antisemitism and Holocaust denial are no longer hidden in the margins, spewed by fringe hate groups. From Ye – formerly known as Kanye West – and NBA player Kyrie Irving to members of Congress on both sides of the aisle, well-recognized personalities have echoed antisemitic ideas, often online.
DeSantis’s War on Academic Freedom Is Systematically Subordinating Education to Ideology
DeSantis’s edicts include stifling testimony from professors in federal court cases, creating new “evaluations” for tenured professors, surveying students and faculty on campuses to measure political leanings, investigating expenses related to Critical Race Theory, and rejecting an Advanced Placement course on African-American studies that has reached national criticism.
If Georgia GOP Thinks Life Starts at Conception, Why Allow ‘Murder’ for Six Weeks?
Under current Georgia law, adopted in 2019, a human embryo is a legally recognized, legally protected person, with all the rights and protections that implies. Yet, under that same state law, a human embryo/person in Georgia can legally be aborted before six weeks’ gestation time.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Tuesday, January 24, 2023
A cool day with highs in the 60s, Joseph Carroll pleads out a murder charge, the mosquito control board meets, those bland new apartment blocks and William Maxwell’s memory of a brownstone on Murray Hill.
Are Special Counsels Handling Trump and Biden Documents Inquiries Independent? Not Really.
While special counsels are intended to be independent, in practice they are aren’t entirely. Ensuring impartiality in the Department of Justice can be difficult, as the attorney general is appointed by – and answerable to – a partisan president.
DeSantis Wants Partisan School Board Races and 8-Year Term Limits, Not 12
Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis pushed to further politicize local school board elections — a way to get more conservatives on those boards that oversee Florida’s massive public education system.
Leaders Pledge to Fight DeSantis Administration Suppression of African-American Studies Course
Saying that an African-American studies course “lacks educational value,” Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration is defending its rejection of the curriculum, while Black religious leaders and elected officials are pledging to “fight like hell” against the decision.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Monday, January 23, 2023
Book censorship’s ravages in Florida schools, the Bunnell City Commission and the county’s Land Acquisition Committee meet.
Philip Roth: the Best Post-War American Writer, Period
Although the style and content of Roth’s fiction is extraordinarily diverse, there is always audible a distinctive voice: irreverent yet earnest, questioning yet authoritative, subtle and nuanced yet powerful and passionate.
Kamala Harris in Tallahassee Mocks DeSantis’s Version of ‘Freedom’ Over Abortion and Women’s Rights
During a roughly 20-minute address in Tallahassee marking what would have been the 50th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, Harris mocked DeSantis’ self-described “freedom” agenda as anathema to the struggles of generations of Americans to expand upon the basic rights guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Sunday, January 22, 2023
The Flagler Film Festival wraps up, Honky Tonk Angel at CRT, Valerie Snead-Roy & Jim Rice concert at the Methodist church, Rent at the Playhouse, art for life’s sake, a Bach fugue.
How Edgar Allan Poe Became The Darling of the Maligned and Misunderstood
The degenerate characters whose perspectives Poe invites readers to inhabit don’t exactly align with a cultural moment characterized by the #MeToo movement, safe spaces and trigger warnings.
Covid Vaccines and Sudden Death: Separating Fact from Fiction
Vaccine rumors continue to swirl, and distrust in vaccines remains. The latest onslaught comes from blogs and social media around heart problems and sudden deaths following COVID-19 vaccination, particularly among young adults. Here are the facts.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Saturday, January 21, 2023
The Flagler Film Festival returns, Golf Cart Inspection Saturday in Flagler Beach, ‘Unbossed and Unbowed,’ at AACS, “Rent” at Flagler Playhouse, ‘Honky Tonk Angels’ at City Repertory Theatre, the Concorde’s first and last flights.
South Carolina’s Barbaric One-Up: Execution by Firing Squad
South Carolina decided in 2021 to allow its inmates on death row the option of execution by firing squad. With that move, South Carolina has elected to deploy a form of capital punishment not used in the state since the Civil War.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Friday, January 20, 2023
‘Unbossed and Unbowed,’ a One-Woman Show About Shirley Chisholm at AACS, ‘Honky Tonk Angels’ at City Repertory Theatre, The Bronx Wanderers, at Flagler Auditorium, “Rent” at Flagler Playhouse, Mario Vargas Llosa on books.
The Dispirited End of Jacinda Arden
Jacinda Ardern, New Zealand’s liberal prime minister who just announced her resignation, faced a constant barrage of online and in-person abuse – from anti-vaxxers, misogynists and sundry others who simply don’t like her.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Thursday, January 19, 2023
A patchy, foggy morning, Drug court, Albert W. Ketèlbey’s “In a Persian Market,” threatened species on the rise, Don DeLillo on being a tourist.
Ron DeSantis, ‘Injustice Denier’
DeSantis has explicitly denied that systemic racism exists – characterizing the notion as “a bunch of horse manure.” That makes him an “injustice denier.” Akin to climate change, there is no legitimate academic debate about the reality of systemic racism.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Wednesday, January 18, 2023
The Palm Coast Planning and Land Development Board considers yet another self-storage facility, Jack Lemmon at length, George Wallace.
Israel’s Ben-Gvir Is Celebrating a Convicted Terrorist and Justifying Violence Against Palestinians
Israel’s national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, hailed the late Rabbi Meir Kahane, a convicted terrorist, and is trying to make his anti-Palestinian movement seem less extremist and more appealing to Jews and the international community. A rewrite of American history could help him do it.
DeSantis Wants Freedom of Medical Disinformation and Bans on Safety Requirements
Gov. Ron DeSantis on Tuesday, flanked by Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo, unveiled an initiative to permanently ban mask requirements across Florida, permanently block Covid-19 vaccine requirements at schools and businesses, and provide protection of “medical freedom of speech”–that is, physicians who disagree with Covid science.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Tuesday, January 17, 2023
The Flagler County School Board talks Narcan, social studies and arming civilians, the Flagler County Commission talks ambulance costs, the Palm Coast City Council takes on the proposed and controversial Harborside development, Muhammad Ali on drawing a crowd, Patrick Modiano on the moral function of books.
The Divisive Distortions of Martin Luther King Jr.’s Words
The consequences of the misuse of Martin Luther King Jr.’s words are playing out everywhere from the halls of Congress to corporate diversity training sessions to local school board meetings.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Monday, January 16, 2023
County Judge Joan Anthony is the keynote speaker at a celebration of the life and legacy of Martin Luther King Jr., declawing cats, Ta-Nehisi Coates, James Baldwin.
How Basquiat Denounced Violence Against Blacks
At the time of the Black Lives Matter movement, Jean-Michel Basquiat’s work is more relevant than ever. It highlights racial inequalities and the lack of representation of racialized people in the media, but also the violence suffered by African Americans.
DeSantis’ Attack on New College Is Latest Poisoning of Public Education
The governor has just appointed six new ultra-conservative trustees to the board of New College of Florida in Sarasota. They want to trash its tradition of intellectual freedom and transform it into an institution DeSantis’ base would love, a Bob Jones-style religious school funded with taxpayer money.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Sunday, January 15, 2023
The Sounds of Soul at Flagler Auditorium, ‘Honky Tonk Angels’ at City Repertory Theatre, Flagler County’s Cold-Weather Shelter opens tonight, the fragility of democracies.
Canada’s Answer to Affordable Home Crisis: Ban Foreign Homebuyers
As of Jan. 1, 2023, foreign buyers are banned from buying homes in Canada for two years under the Prohibition on the Purchase of Residential Property by Non-Canadians Act. The ban is part of the federal government’s effort to ease Canadians’ struggle to afford homes.
Trump Is No Longer the Villain at the Border. Now It’s Biden.
Title 42 mixed with new White House immigration policy creates potentially illegal asylum restrictions. It’s time to treat this president, Joe Biden, as the same level of threat that Trump was to the rights of migrants.
Child Vaccination Rates, Already Down Because of Pandemic, Fall Again
Instead of recovering after schools reopened in 2021, historically low rates of child vaccination worsened, according to new data from the CDC. Experts fear that the skepticism of science and distrust of government that flared up during the pandemic are contributing to the decrease.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Saturday, January 14, 2023
‘Honky Tonk Angels’ at City Repertory Theatre, The Lviv National Philharmonic Orchestra of Ukraine in Daytona Beach, Flagler County’s Cold-Weather Shelter Opens, Silver Lake Park Clean-Up, in your elements.
Sitting All Day Is Terrible for Your Health. Here’s a Remedy.
A five-minute light walk every half-hour was the only strategy that reduced blood sugar levels substantially compared with sitting all day. In particular, five-minute walks every half-hour reduced the blood sugar spike after eating by almost 60%.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Friday, January 13, 2023
The year in review on WNZF, “Honky Tonk Angels” at City Repertory Theatre, Stormy Daniels and the second anniversary of Trump’s impeachment, Anthony Burgess on Americans.
The Inflation Report’s Mixed Bag
The overall cost of goods and services decelerated to an annual pace of 6.5% in December, the slowest in over a year and down from 7.1% in November. But there’s bad news too, especially if you are an egg-munching renter fond of frequent regular haircuts. In quite a few categories, the cost of living rose at an even faster pace.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Thursday, January 12, 2023
The Flagler Beach City Commission talks communications, the Gerard Abate hearing is cancelled, Evenings at Whitney Lecture Series, a Bauhaus World Heritage site, Letterman v. Carson.
Florida Is Accused of Violating Federal Court Order and Restricting Race Education Anyway
Plaintiffs challenging a state law restricting how race-related concepts can be taught in higher education accused Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration Wednesday of violating a federal judge’s order that blocked parts of the law from being enforced.
Climate Change Helped Make 2022 the 3rd Most Expensive Year on Record
U.S. weather disasters are getting costlier as more people move into vulnerable areas and climate change raises the risks of extreme heat and rainfall. Even with an average hurricane season, 2022 had the third-highest number of billion-dollar disasters in the U.S. since 1980.
Moms for Liberty Want ‘Don’t Say LGBTQ’ Law Expanded to Cover K-8
The Florida chapter of Moms for Liberty, the conservative nonprofit that advocates for parental rights in schools, would like state lawmakers to expand the state law that restricts classroom instruction about gender identity and sexual orientation for children from kindergarten through the third grade.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Wednesday, January 11, 2023
Chess at the library, a night in the 40s, plate tectonics, volunteers needed for a clean-up in Flagler Beach Saturday.
Autofiction and Its Discontents
Autofiction is contentious. Some authors renounce the label, including Annie Ernaux, who views her first-person “I” as a collective self. Some disagree that it is a genre at all. Instead, they view autofiction as a “mode” of writing – or as a “strategy” or “lens”. Some go so far as to argue that all works of literature necessarily stem from personal experience.
On Rosewood Massacre Anniversary, Sad to See DeSantis Embrace Florida’s Old South Legacy
It’s sad to see Ron DeSantis embrace our Old South legacy rather than trying to lead us to a more inclusive New South future. Instead of demanding equal treatment under the law, open-eyed education and zero-tolerance for anti-Semitism and racism, he runs the other way.
Florida Supreme Court Asked to Interpret DeSantis’ 2021 Law Restricting Demonstrations
A federal appeals court wants guidance about how Florida cops would enforce a restrictive demonstration law, asking the state’s highest court, which has the last word on interpreting state law, to render an opinion. The federal appeals court would still get to decide whether the law violates the U.S. Constitution.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Tuesday, January 10, 2023
The Palm Coast City Council, the Flagler County Planning Board and the Community Traffic Safety Team all meet, end of the Arab Spring, Richard Ford.
Islamic Paintings of Prophet Muhammad Are Teachable History, Not Fireable Offenses
While many Muslims believe it is inappropriate to depict Muhammad, the recent labeling of such paintings as “hate speech” and “blasphemy” not only inaccurate but inflammatory. Such condemnations can pose a threat to individuals and works of art.
Arkansas Takes Stock of Jacob Oliva, Its New Education Chief: Goal-Driven, Ambitious, Puzzling
The Arkansas Advocate reports on the varied reactions and impressions of former Flagler Superintendent and Florida Education Chancellor Jacob Oliva, who is Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders’s nominee to head the state’s Department of Education.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Monday, January 9, 2023
Library board meets, Bunnell City Commission meets, waiting for Matlock’s noise to subside, a few words from the now late Russell Banks.
Here’s How Your Cup of Coffee Contributes to Climate Change
The pollution resulting from the preparation of coffee at home is just the tip of the iceberg. Before you can enjoy a cup of coffee, it goes through several steps, starting from the agricultural production of the coffee beans, their transport, the roasting and grinding of the beans, right up to the heating of the water for the coffee and the washing of the cups it is poured in.
Maria Facchini, Obituary
Maria Facchini passed away Monday January 2, 2023 in her home at the age of 88.