What We Have Heyah

… is failyuah to communicate.

• One great big honkin' link sausage on nepotism in politics includes ingredients ranging from insufficiently incentivized former Georgia Senators to fathers to sons to doubled-up nephews. And here I thought part of the point of being a "republic" and having a "republican form of government" was to do away with this nepotistic crap… but it's Monday morning, so I might be wrong.
• Although I despise golf, I'm sorry to hear about Tiger Woods's crash. At least there don't appear to be intoxicants involved; it's interesting that no one has said anything about those cell-phone records yet, though. One wonders if one of the incessant robocalls to California cell-phone numbers from outright crooks (on multiple levels — the sales tactics, the particular "deals," and the entire class of products are all fraudulent, and not just in their pricing; go ahead, sue me for "business disparagement," I need the business) might have been a distraction…
• If it's Monday — hell, if it's a day ending in "y" in English — there must be significant noncommunication going on. Shockingly, that includes [anti]social-media insults (that aren't nearly as original as they might seem… or, marginally possible, some old-school science-fiction fan was aware of the most-likely progenitor — "superchimps" elided, in the story, to "simps" — and the reporter wasn't). New Zealand treats it with all the respect it deserves, which is to say all the respect I give middle-school lunch cliques. It also includes book-"marketing" devices rejected over half a century ago (paywall) by the most-likely possible audience: Heavy readers.
• Then there are the related problems of serious-minded fiction (and authors' tunnel vision) and seriously-considered fiction (and educators' tunnel vision), both all too often arising from politics of the worst kind. That is, narcissism writ on others. Nope: No real communication here, either.
• If you're reading this, BigAI hasn't won. Yet.
• Yes, student journalists need less censorship by the high and mighty, the adults concerned with their "reputations" (in which case, Coach, I suggest not taking the check for the new football helmets down to a local car dealer for a down payment on a new Corvette). But there's also something subtly wrong with this piece: It presumes that there can never be, or should be, a retrospective price or penalty for speaking truth to power. During my misspent youth, we did it via underground newspapers, paid for out of our own pockets (which has its own issues, but at least they're different ones). Now, you can do it with [anti]social media… until you get caught by the administration doing that. Next thing we know, how we decorate airplanes will be regulated, too. All leading to less communication, except when an errand boya judge puts himself into that film in explaining why he left the bench: Because, in part due to a history of misuse of discretion, we respond by taking away all discretion.