Do as adversaries do in law, strive mightily, but eat and drink as friends. William Shakespeare, The Taming of the Shrew, Act I, sc. 2

“For more than fifty years, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) never ordered a broadcaster to apply for a license renewal early. This past April, it ordered all eight ABC-owned and -operated stations to do so, the day after President Trump demanded that ABC fire Jimmy Kimmel. The order escalated a long-running feud between the broadcaster and FCC Chairman Brendan Carr, one that Justice Neil Gorsuch cited as an example of agency power run amok, and follows years of presidential demands that ABC lose its licenses because of various editorial decisions.” Continue reading @ProfDanielLyons' latest piece here: aei.org/domestic-policy/tech…

I had not realised before that the Bronze Age Collapse was literally *caused* by iron. Bronze age powers like the Egyptians, Hittites and Babylonians used bronze weapons, made by combining copper and tin. Tin was so scarce that only the richest and most powerful groups could access it and the bronze weapons it allowed. (Tin was so rare that it was being transported from Cornwall to the Middle East more than 1000 years BC.) The scarcity of tin gave these empires a near-monopoly on violence. Iron weapons are not actually any better than bronze ones – they're not stronger or easier to work with, as I'd assumed. They're just much, much easier to mass produce once you have bloomeries, which are the first furnaces that were hot enough to melt iron in a way that made them useable for weapons. Bloomeries meant that iron ore, which was widespread, could be used to make weapons anywhere. That led to warlords, bandits and city-states rising in a massive decentralization of military power, which the Bronze Age empires were unable to resist. After the invention of the bloomery, skeletons show a measurable increase in weapon-inflicted injuries. 'Destruction layers' with bones and signs of burning have been found from this time at archaeological sites including Troy. Ancient writers – including Herodotus, Ovid, and the writers of the Old Testament – believed the invention of iron had unleashed a new age of violence. New at Works in Progress, WEAPONS OF MASS DECENTRALIZATION: how iron itself brought about the Bronze Age Collapse. And what technologies could do the same today? worksinprogress.co/issue/wea…

“ABC Lawsuit Prompts First Amendment Showdown with FCC.” @ProfDanielLyons writes for @AEI: aei.org/domestic-policy/tech…

Geologists when they get fired and have to clean out their office

I'm very excited that Justice Alito will be awarded the Irving Kristol prize at this year's @AEI annual dinner!

Just a guy with 39 successful combat flight missions on his resume about to dig in with a guy who was a machine gunner at Omaha Beach on D-Day behind the plate. Two men.

Wut

Tariffs create opportinities for graft and special pleading. That's part of why the US turned away from them.

An interesting signatory to a brief asking the Court to bury (as it should) Locke v. Davey =-)

We all make mistakes but what does he do? No takedown of offensive post, no apology. Just doubles down and raises $ using it. The Republican Party is better than this. We should all condemn this bigotry directed at our fellow Texans or we will soon find ourselves a minority party.

This was me at Kentucky in 1996. Only back then I was by myself. This picture makes me happy. A group of Indian kids hooking horns, pounding beers and cheering on an amazing comeback is the most American thing ever.

A group of non-white American kids cheering on a football team in their college colors and stetsons is more American than those who look at the picture and hate what they see.

Lady...

I don't think a consequence of doing your civic duty should be to have every misdeed of your life dredged up and blasted out to the public. Shame on NBC for running this and shame on us for having an appetite for it.

John Abruzzo was already at his desk on the 69th floor of the North Tower when the first plane hit. He was a Port Authority accountant and a C5-6 quadriplegic. His power wheelchair was how he moved through the world. Most of his floor emptied fast. Ten coworkers did not. They lifted him out of his custom chair and into a lightweight evacuation chair the agency had bought after the 1993 bombing - the same attack that had already trapped Abruzzo in this building once before. That first time it took six hours to get him down. This time they took turns: two at the front, two at the back, sliding him down flight after flight, pivoting on every landing. One person scouted ahead. When they hit smoke they changed stairwells. They even stopped at a Snapple machine. Firefighters they passed offered to take him. The group said no. They would not leave him. It took about 90 minutes to descend 69 floors. They carried him over debris in the lobby and out through a broken window. They were on the sidewalk roughly ten minutes before the North Tower fell. The chair that brought him down is in the 9/11 Memorial Museum now. The names of the people who stayed with him are not as widely known as they should be. There was no speech. No vote. Just a group of office workers who looked at a man who could not take the stairs and decided his life was not someone else’s problem. That is the story.

This and his throwing a strike as the first pitch at Game 1 of the World Series…I have my problems with him and his choices, but this is my president

Today's #MapTap includes a reminder about Operator Yellow Ribbon, @Canada's Herculean effort to care for and house the 33,000 passengers diverted to that country on 9/11. On brand for this kindest of peoples. Thank you. Sorry for our present squabbles which I hope end soon.

Still hits the same

The first victim of 9/11 was Danny Lewin. Born in Denver, raised in Jerusalem. Captain in Sayeret Matkal. Mathematician. Co-founder of Akamai - the company that still carries a huge share of the internet. On the morning of September 11, 2001 he boarded American Airlines Flight 11 from Boston to Los Angeles and sat in seat 9B. Directly in front of him: Mohamed Atta and Abdulaziz al-Omari. Directly behind him: Satam al-Suqami. When the hijackers rose and moved toward the cockpit, Lewin - 31 years old, elite IDF officer - stood up to stop them. Al-Suqami slit his throat from behind. Flight attendants Betty Ong and Amy Sweeney radioed that a passenger in 9B had been stabbed and appeared dead. The 9/11 Commission later concluded he was almost certainly the first person murdered that day. Twenty-five minutes later Flight 11 hit the North Tower. He left a wife and two young sons. Israel is the only country outside the United States with a 9/11 memorial that lists every victim by name, built from Ground Zero steel. Danny Lewin’s name is on it. May his memory be a blessing. 🇺🇸🇮🇱