• Good for Hillary. Good for Bernie. Let’s keep pursuing both of these goals, regardless of who gets the nomination (and regardless of who wins in November).
Re: Hillary’s plan to get the lead out, see Kevin Drum — my go to guy for all things Pb-related — on the difficulty and necessity of getting toxic lead out of soil. One approach may involve fish bones.
• “Massachusetts Seeks Incarceration Alternatives for Parents.” When parents are imprisoned, their kids get punished too. Sentencing a single parent to prison often means sentencing their children to the foster system. Kudos to Massachusetts lawmakers for trying to find a better approach, at least for non-violent offenders.
This seems like something that “pro-family” religious conservatives ought to support — at least those among them for whom “pro-family” was ever anything more than a cynical attempt to rebrand anti-feminism.
• “They bring us their culture, their world, their colors and their knowledge.” This could have been yet another story about a small town fading away. Or it could have been another story about inhospitality and resentment. But it’s neither of those things. (via Steve Buchheit, esteemed curator of linkage)
• “Big-budget films are getting worse — and we can prove it,” Zachary Crockett writes for Vox in a post that’s a bit too confident in quantifying quality. It’s an amusing piece, in that it’s usually fun to poke at the Hollywood studios that expect us to pay to see some of these awful movies. What spoiled it for me, though, was the graphic listing “The worst-rated, highest-grossing movies of all time,” which includes Coming to America.
Who didn’t like Coming to America? How is this included in a list of 50 all-time stinkers? It’s not even one of Eddie Murphy’s 50 worst movies.
• “Retained garden fork is a rare complication of penetrating cranial trauma. Retained knife blade is the most commonly reported presentation. … The patient recovered well and was discharged home.” (via Ed Yong)
Pitchfork-sticking-out-of-your-head is a difficult complication to treat, but at least it’s usually pretty easy to diagnose.
• At 60 years old, Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury, learned that his biological father was someone other than the man he had always believed him to be. His candid, eloquent discussion of this news is a beautiful thing — a vulnerable pastoral response that exhibits a generous empathy toward all involved.
His identity, Welby says, is based on the words he spoke at his installation as archbishop. “‘I am Justin, a servant of Jesus Christ, and I come as one seeking the grace of God to travel with you in His service together.’ What has changed? Nothing!”
Here’s hoping Welby and his fellow church officials will extend this understanding of identity to others whom their churches have long excluded. Those knocking on the door like Cornelius, as “one seeking the grace of God to travel with you in God’s service together” should never be turned away because of their lineage, or gender, or sexuality.
“What is to prevent me from being baptized?” Nothing.
• Did somebody say Fishbone?
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