{"version":"https://jsonfeed.org/version/1","title":"Micro.blog - Roger Wm. Bennett","home_page_url":"https://micro.blog","feed_url":"https://micro.blog/posts/ReaderJohn","_microblog":{"about":"https://micro.blog/about/api","id":"10256","username":"ReaderJohn","bio":"Retired lawyer, homo adorans (as an Orthodox Christian).\nFor better or worse, autodidact in much of what really matters in life (despite ample formal schooling).\nMy posts are pretty eclectic, but tend toward religion and cynicism about politics.","pronouns":"","is_following":false,"is_you":false,"following_count":210,"discover_count":0},"author":{"name":"Roger Wm. Bennett","url":"http://intellectualoid.com","avatar":"https://micro.blog/ReaderJohn/avatar.jpg"},"items":[{"id":"94912380","content_html":"
\n

The problem today is we value what’s countable rather than what’s important.

\n
\n

(David Brooks)

\n

Wise voices like David Brooks are being lost as the AI Gee-Whiz crowd and the AI Luddites shout at each other. When last did you hear anyone point out that AI often produces “eloquence without content,” sounding smart without saying anything substantive?

\n

The Russell Moore Show is hit-or-miss. His interview with Brooks was a very solid hit.

\n","summary":"","url":"https://microblog.intellectualoid.com/2026/07/30/the-problem-today-is-we.html","date_published":"2026-07-30T13:29:37+00:00","author":{"name":"Roger Wm. Bennett","url":"http://intellectualoid.com","avatar":"https://cdn.micro.blog/photos/96/https%3A%2F%2Fmicro.blog%2FReaderJohn%2Favatar.jpg","_microblog":{"username":"ReaderJohn"}},"_microblog":{"date_relative":"13:29","date_timestamp":1785418177,"is_favorite":false,"is_bookmark":false,"is_deletable":false,"is_conversation":false,"is_linkpost":false,"is_mention":false,"is_podcast":false,"note":"","syndication":[]}},{"id":"94910598","content_html":"

@numericcitizen That seems like a pretty good description of wrestling with the Substack app, which is why I read my (non-Nazi) Substack subscriptions in Firefox, just as I would read any blog.

\n

Is that not feasible with Substack posts on hand-held devices (I read on my Mac)?

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@frjonjordan You’re not the only one. I loved David Brooks, too, and he’s gone as well. BTW: Russell Moore of Christianity Today interviewed Brooks, and it sounded as if Brooks’ conversion has taken pretty deep root.

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Stunned that Ross Douthat is leaving the New York Times to join CBS 60 Minutes. He is a great interviewer, though I don’t know how well he does “gotcha.” I’ll miss his regular appearance in print.

\n","summary":"","url":"https://microblog.intellectualoid.com/2026/07/29/stunned-that-ross-douthat-is.html","date_published":"2026-07-29T18:38:41+00:00","author":{"name":"Roger Wm. Bennett","url":"http://intellectualoid.com","avatar":"https://cdn.micro.blog/photos/96/https%3A%2F%2Fmicro.blog%2FReaderJohn%2Favatar.jpg","_microblog":{"username":"ReaderJohn"}},"_microblog":{"date_relative":"2026-07-29 18:38","date_timestamp":1785350321,"is_favorite":false,"is_bookmark":false,"is_deletable":false,"is_conversation":true,"is_linkpost":false,"is_mention":false,"is_podcast":false,"note":"","syndication":[]}},{"id":"94867467","content_html":"

@Miraz Not as dramatic as your screenshot, but within the last week the map showed winds coming into my fair city from the north and exiting to the east. Really weird.

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@apoorplayer That would make me a heavyweight lightweight, as I’m pushing 250 pounds start getting sleepy as the first drink takes hold.

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@JohnBrady The one and only time my mother tried to make lamb (or maybe it was mutton) in the late 1950s, I greeted it with “it smells like the monkey house at the zoo.” (It did.) And reportedly I greeted a parsely garnish, never before seen, with “is it a tree or a weed?” (Too young to remember.)

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It’s getting to the point that I need to have Chrome open to run things my Firefox configuration doesn’t want to run. Only on Chrome, for instance, could I actually unsubscribe from the Bose marketing emails; only on Chrome could I select buying options other than Amazon on Goodreads.

\n","summary":"","url":"https://microblog.intellectualoid.com/2026/07/28/its-getting-to-the-point.html","date_published":"2026-07-28T12:58:32+00:00","author":{"name":"Roger Wm. Bennett","url":"http://intellectualoid.com","avatar":"https://cdn.micro.blog/photos/96/https%3A%2F%2Fmicro.blog%2FReaderJohn%2Favatar.jpg","_microblog":{"username":"ReaderJohn"}},"_microblog":{"date_relative":"2026-07-28 12:58","date_timestamp":1785243512,"is_favorite":false,"is_bookmark":false,"is_deletable":false,"is_conversation":false,"is_linkpost":false,"is_mention":false,"is_podcast":false,"note":"","syndication":[]}},{"id":"94756309","content_html":"

Occasionally, Ted Gioia publishes something of so little interest to me that I am forcibly reminded that he’s a polymath and I’m not. F’rinstance, The 50 Essential Western Films (Part 2) - by Ted Gioia

\n","summary":"","url":"https://microblog.intellectualoid.com/2026/07/27/occasionally-ted-gioia-publishes-something.html","date_published":"2026-07-27T21:29:35+00:00","author":{"name":"Roger Wm. Bennett","url":"http://intellectualoid.com","avatar":"https://cdn.micro.blog/photos/96/https%3A%2F%2Fmicro.blog%2FReaderJohn%2Favatar.jpg","_microblog":{"username":"ReaderJohn"}},"_microblog":{"date_relative":"2026-07-27 21:29","date_timestamp":1785187775,"is_favorite":false,"is_bookmark":false,"is_deletable":false,"is_conversation":false,"is_linkpost":false,"is_mention":false,"is_podcast":false,"note":"","syndication":[]}},{"id":"94755924","content_html":"

As someone who sees inquirers arriving at my small parish every week these days (14 catechumens currently), and with scuttlebutt about Orthodoxy being part of the manosphere or something, I really appreciated Eve Tushnet’s Nobody Converts Right.

\n

(It could apply to Paul Kingsnorth’s conversion, too)

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@jabel,

\n

Thanks.

\n

The Dumpee (who had never heard of zero day options)

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Somehow waiting for Something – Tipsy Teetotaler ن

\n","summary":"","url":"https://microblog.intellectualoid.com/2026/07/27/somehow-waiting-for-something-tipsy.html","date_published":"2026-07-27T11:34:24+00:00","author":{"name":"Roger Wm. Bennett","url":"http://intellectualoid.com","avatar":"https://cdn.micro.blog/photos/96/https%3A%2F%2Fmicro.blog%2FReaderJohn%2Favatar.jpg","_microblog":{"username":"ReaderJohn"}},"_microblog":{"date_relative":"2026-07-27 11:34","date_timestamp":1785152064,"is_favorite":false,"is_bookmark":false,"is_deletable":false,"is_conversation":true,"is_linkpost":false,"is_mention":false,"is_podcast":false,"note":"","syndication":[]}},{"id":"94679409","content_html":"

@JohnBrady Had I stumbled across the world’s oldest tattoo parlor in Jerusalem, I was thinking of doing exactly that, too. I didn’t stumble across it, and lacked the deep conviction that a tattoo would so complement my “baptismal cross” (as a reminder of who I am) that I should make it a quest.

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@ReaderJohn 180 degree turn: I forgot the podcasts. When his interview with Robert P. George cut off after an hour, Andrew Sullivan got another year’s subscription out of me so I could hear the rest (and probably 20 or so more over the next year).

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@JohnBrady We’ve had a lot of tattooed young people enter the Church, but it surprised me when a youngish man came into the Church and then got a full sleeve, and I mean full - his arm almost looks purple now.

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Watched A Man for All Seasons 🍿, which I take as fortification every 10-15 years or so.

\n\n

The main difference between Robert Bolt’s Thomas More and me is that I can’t keep my mouth shut nearly as well as he. They wouldn’t have to look hard to find my opinion expressed.

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@rogerscrafford It’s hard to get me to look at anything but IAWriter, but this looks interesting.

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I’ve read Andrew Sullivan for years, but what he writes just doesn’t seem to fit who and where I am today. So tomorrow, the subscription ends.

\n

There’s only 24 hours in a day, 7 days in a week, and too many smart people writing things to fit it all in.

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@JohnBrady I have a great nephew who was diagnosed as a Type 1 diabetic at 10 months. He ended up not using it, but they trained a service dog to wake him up at college if his serum glucose got seriously off in the night (a task his mother, my niece, had done at home, as he slept through alarms).

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@dswanson Nice ride. Before my balance got too wonky, I did that, too. (But I’d rather do Empire to Glen Arbor, lunch at Art’s, then back to Empire.)

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@KyleEssary Thanks for the refresher course.

\n

One of the reasons I left the Protestant world is that it has been unable through its “sola” authority to sort out these secondary issues, though it’s clear that Christ wanted unity for His Church. I concluded “scriptura, si, sola no!”

\n

Also, I doubt they’d have sorted even the first-tier issues with scripture alone. Arius was pretty good with scripture, after all.

\n

As we sang last Sunday, “The Apostles’ preaching and the Fathers’ doctrines have established one Faith for the Church.”

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Even as I use AI, I continue reading the cautions from people I respect. Brad Littlejohn, One Tool to Rule Them All, distinguishes tools from machines and brings Middle Earth into it.

\n

The more opaque new things are, the more we resort to myths and stories to explain them, I guess.

\n

OK by me.

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@dswanson Do you do the Pierce Stocking Trail on a bike? Man, that’s hilly!

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@canneddragons It’s really just the fullness of the Christian faith. Why would any Christian not want that?

\n

IOW, “What’s the least I have to believe to be a Christian?” feels like a profoundly wrong question.

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> The point of “mere Christianity” for Lewis was not to minimize ecclesial distinctives … It is not really possible for a Roman Catholic or Eastern Orthodox Christian to separate belief in “mere Christianity” from membership in and submission to the ecclesial life of Rome or Constantinople. To imagine that there is a set of cardinal doctrines that transcends ecclesial divisions and unites all people as “Christian” is inherently to speak and think as a Protestant.

\n

@canneddragons Weightiest line

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As different as different can be:

\n\n","summary":"","url":"https://microblog.intellectualoid.com/2026/07/21/as-different-as-different-can.html","date_published":"2026-07-22T01:30:44+00:00","author":{"name":"Roger Wm. Bennett","url":"http://intellectualoid.com","avatar":"https://cdn.micro.blog/photos/96/https%3A%2F%2Fmicro.blog%2FReaderJohn%2Favatar.jpg","_microblog":{"username":"ReaderJohn"}},"_microblog":{"date_relative":"2026-07-22 01:30","date_timestamp":1784683844,"is_favorite":false,"is_bookmark":false,"is_deletable":false,"is_conversation":false,"is_linkpost":false,"is_mention":false,"is_podcast":false,"note":"","syndication":[]}},{"id":"94409692","content_html":"

@JohnBrady With our current feckless House and Senate, I’m not sure there’s anything.

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@ayjay I still get a fleeting oxymoron alarm at the phrase “Christian Humanism.” It’s a kind of Moral Majority PTSD, I guess.

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@joshuapsteele The length is daunting - which, ironically, confirms the thesis that we’re wimps when it comes to sustained reading.

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\n

Trump Plans to Impose New Illegal Tariffs on Canada

\n
\n\n

I’ve come to presume illegality of almost anything Trump does, even if I’m not familiar with the area of law. My presumption has been right oftener than it has been wrong, though I have been surprised a few times at what the law actually does allow a President to do. (It allows him to do too much, but nowhere near everything, without Congress.)

\n","summary":"","url":"https://microblog.intellectualoid.com/2026/07/21/trump-plans-to-impose-new.html","date_published":"2026-07-21T12:17:45+00:00","author":{"name":"Roger Wm. Bennett","url":"http://intellectualoid.com","avatar":"https://cdn.micro.blog/photos/96/https%3A%2F%2Fmicro.blog%2FReaderJohn%2Favatar.jpg","_microblog":{"username":"ReaderJohn"}},"_microblog":{"date_relative":"2026-07-21 12:17","date_timestamp":1784636265,"is_favorite":false,"is_bookmark":false,"is_deletable":false,"is_conversation":true,"is_linkpost":false,"is_mention":false,"is_podcast":false,"note":"","syndication":[]}},{"id":"94361945","content_html":"

@ReaderJohn Oddly, I’m not all that enthusiastic about the space program, but I like the Purdue nexus.

\n","url":"https://micro.blog/ReaderJohn/94361945","date_published":"2026-07-20T22:20:06+00:00","author":{"name":"Roger Wm. Bennett","url":"http://intellectualoid.com","avatar":"https://cdn.micro.blog/photos/96/https%3A%2F%2Fmicro.blog%2FReaderJohn%2Favatar.jpg","_microblog":{"username":"ReaderJohn"}},"_microblog":{"date_relative":"2026-07-20 22:20","date_timestamp":1784586006,"is_favorite":false,"is_bookmark":false,"is_deletable":false,"is_conversation":true,"is_linkpost":false,"is_mention":true}},{"id":"94361911","content_html":"

57 years to the day since the first man, a Purdue Boilermaker, set foot on the moon. Soon, there will be a space mission with 5 Boilermakers.

\n\n

We’ve called it “the cradle of astronauts” for years.

\n\n

I sing in a chorale with a Purdue prof who’s behind the Mars Rover and jockeys it around.

\n","summary":"","url":"https://microblog.intellectualoid.com/2026/07/20/years-to-the-day-since.html","date_published":"2026-07-20T22:19:39+00:00","author":{"name":"Roger Wm. Bennett","url":"http://intellectualoid.com","avatar":"https://cdn.micro.blog/photos/96/https%3A%2F%2Fmicro.blog%2FReaderJohn%2Favatar.jpg","_microblog":{"username":"ReaderJohn"}},"_microblog":{"date_relative":"2026-07-20 22:19","date_timestamp":1784585979,"is_favorite":false,"is_bookmark":false,"is_deletable":false,"is_conversation":true,"is_linkpost":false,"is_mention":false,"is_podcast":false,"note":"","syndication":[]}},{"id":"94354514","content_html":"

@ablerism That’s great! One of my favorite artists has done linocut works.

\n","url":"https://micro.blog/ReaderJohn/94354514","date_published":"2026-07-20T19:12:48+00:00","author":{"name":"Roger Wm. Bennett","url":"http://intellectualoid.com","avatar":"https://cdn.micro.blog/photos/96/https%3A%2F%2Fmicro.blog%2FReaderJohn%2Favatar.jpg","_microblog":{"username":"ReaderJohn"}},"_microblog":{"date_relative":"2026-07-20 19:12","date_timestamp":1784574768,"is_favorite":false,"is_bookmark":false,"is_deletable":false,"is_conversation":true,"is_linkpost":false,"is_mention":true}},{"id":"94353355","content_html":"

Have I mentioned yet today how much I love Becket?

\n","summary":"","url":"https://microblog.intellectualoid.com/2026/07/20/have-i-mentioned-yet-today.html","date_published":"2026-07-20T19:06:28+00:00","author":{"name":"Roger Wm. Bennett","url":"http://intellectualoid.com","avatar":"https://cdn.micro.blog/photos/96/https%3A%2F%2Fmicro.blog%2FReaderJohn%2Favatar.jpg","_microblog":{"username":"ReaderJohn"}},"_microblog":{"date_relative":"2026-07-20 19:06","date_timestamp":1784574388,"is_favorite":false,"is_bookmark":false,"is_deletable":false,"is_conversation":true,"is_linkpost":false,"is_mention":false,"is_podcast":false,"note":"","syndication":[]}},{"id":"94323157","content_html":"

Probably my last World Cup comment.

\n\n

A foreign color commentator was asked before the final “What are we going when this is over?” His answer: “Laundry. It’s hard being on the road for a month.”

\n","summary":"","url":"https://microblog.intellectualoid.com/2026/07/20/probably-my-last-world-cup.html","date_published":"2026-07-20T11:26:33+00:00","author":{"name":"Roger Wm. Bennett","url":"http://intellectualoid.com","avatar":"https://cdn.micro.blog/photos/96/https%3A%2F%2Fmicro.blog%2FReaderJohn%2Favatar.jpg","_microblog":{"username":"ReaderJohn"}},"_microblog":{"date_relative":"2026-07-20 11:26","date_timestamp":1784546793,"is_favorite":false,"is_bookmark":false,"is_deletable":false,"is_conversation":false,"is_linkpost":false,"is_mention":false,"is_podcast":false,"note":"","syndication":[]}},{"id":"94272544","content_html":"

@ayjay Do you think Messi can be that selfish? I’m impressed by his assists.

\n","url":"https://micro.blog/ReaderJohn/94272544","date_published":"2026-07-19T11:26:50+00:00","author":{"name":"Roger Wm. Bennett","url":"http://intellectualoid.com","avatar":"https://cdn.micro.blog/photos/96/https%3A%2F%2Fmicro.blog%2FReaderJohn%2Favatar.jpg","_microblog":{"username":"ReaderJohn"}},"_microblog":{"date_relative":"2026-07-19 11:26","date_timestamp":1784460410,"is_favorite":false,"is_bookmark":false,"is_deletable":false,"is_conversation":true,"is_linkpost":false,"is_mention":true}},{"id":"94272534","content_html":"

Am I the only one wondering about how the World Cup final is going to work in an open stadium full of wildfire particulates? ⚽

\n","summary":"","url":"https://microblog.intellectualoid.com/2026/07/19/am-i-the-only-one.html","date_published":"2026-07-19T11:26:16+00:00","author":{"name":"Roger Wm. Bennett","url":"http://intellectualoid.com","avatar":"https://cdn.micro.blog/photos/96/https%3A%2F%2Fmicro.blog%2FReaderJohn%2Favatar.jpg","_microblog":{"username":"ReaderJohn"}},"_microblog":{"date_relative":"2026-07-19 11:26","date_timestamp":1784460376,"is_favorite":false,"is_bookmark":false,"is_deletable":false,"is_conversation":false,"is_linkpost":false,"is_mention":false,"is_podcast":false,"note":"","syndication":[]}},{"id":"94272355","content_html":"

@bbowman He seems to have a pretty light touch and isn’t aiming at an academic treatment. (But if he were, I’m not immune to the trends away from literacy as deep reading of dense texts, so it could do me some good.)

\n","url":"https://micro.blog/ReaderJohn/94272355","date_published":"2026-07-19T11:20:13+00:00","author":{"name":"Roger Wm. Bennett","url":"http://intellectualoid.com","avatar":"https://cdn.micro.blog/photos/96/https%3A%2F%2Fmicro.blog%2FReaderJohn%2Favatar.jpg","_microblog":{"username":"ReaderJohn"}},"_microblog":{"date_relative":"2026-07-19 11:20","date_timestamp":1784460013,"is_favorite":false,"is_bookmark":false,"is_deletable":false,"is_conversation":true,"is_linkpost":false,"is_mention":true}},{"id":"94271956","content_html":"

“Kylian Mbappé broke the all-time scoring record for the tournament with his 22nd goal.”

\n\n

Talk about a record that needs an asterisk next to it!

\n","summary":"","url":"https://microblog.intellectualoid.com/2026/07/19/kylian-mbapp-broke-the-alltime.html","date_published":"2026-07-19T10:58:04+00:00","author":{"name":"Roger Wm. Bennett","url":"http://intellectualoid.com","avatar":"https://cdn.micro.blog/photos/96/https%3A%2F%2Fmicro.blog%2FReaderJohn%2Favatar.jpg","_microblog":{"username":"ReaderJohn"}},"_microblog":{"date_relative":"2026-07-19 10:58","date_timestamp":1784458684,"is_favorite":false,"is_bookmark":false,"is_deletable":false,"is_conversation":false,"is_linkpost":false,"is_mention":false,"is_podcast":false,"note":"","syndication":[]}},{"id":"94271157","content_html":"

@bethanyh I’m still reading the issue, but I haven’t found anything better yet.

\n","url":"https://micro.blog/ReaderJohn/94271157","date_published":"2026-07-19T10:46:44+00:00","author":{"name":"Roger Wm. Bennett","url":"http://intellectualoid.com","avatar":"https://cdn.micro.blog/photos/96/https%3A%2F%2Fmicro.blog%2FReaderJohn%2Favatar.jpg","_microblog":{"username":"ReaderJohn"}},"_microblog":{"date_relative":"2026-07-19 10:46","date_timestamp":1784458004,"is_favorite":false,"is_bookmark":false,"is_deletable":false,"is_conversation":true,"is_linkpost":false,"is_mention":true}},{"id":"94271003","content_html":"

@jaheppler “Sticky chili-lime tofu” jumps out as worth noting for someone who fasts from meat a lot. Is that a recipe you found, or did you make it up?

\n","url":"https://micro.blog/ReaderJohn/94271003","date_published":"2026-07-19T10:43:02+00:00","author":{"name":"Roger Wm. Bennett","url":"http://intellectualoid.com","avatar":"https://cdn.micro.blog/photos/96/https%3A%2F%2Fmicro.blog%2FReaderJohn%2Favatar.jpg","_microblog":{"username":"ReaderJohn"}},"_microblog":{"date_relative":"2026-07-19 10:43","date_timestamp":1784457782,"is_favorite":false,"is_bookmark":false,"is_deletable":false,"is_conversation":true,"is_linkpost":false,"is_mention":true}},{"id":"94243249","content_html":"

Reading Carlos M.N. Eire, Reformations: The Early Modern World, 1450-1650 📚

\n","summary":"","url":"https://microblog.intellectualoid.com/2026/07/18/reading-carlos-mn-eire-reformations.html","date_published":"2026-07-18T19:35:20+00:00","author":{"name":"Roger Wm. Bennett","url":"http://intellectualoid.com","avatar":"https://cdn.micro.blog/photos/96/https%3A%2F%2Fmicro.blog%2FReaderJohn%2Favatar.jpg","_microblog":{"username":"ReaderJohn"}},"_microblog":{"date_relative":"2026-07-18 19:35","date_timestamp":1784403320,"is_favorite":false,"is_bookmark":false,"is_deletable":false,"is_conversation":true,"is_linkpost":false,"is_mention":false,"is_podcast":false,"note":"","syndication":[]}},{"id":"94242701","content_html":"

Finished reading: Galahad and the Grail by Malcolm Guite 📚Will buy the other three volumes if Guite completes them and I’m still conscious.

\n","summary":"","url":"https://microblog.intellectualoid.com/2026/07/18/finished-reading-galahad-and-the.html","date_published":"2026-07-18T19:16:51+00:00","author":{"name":"Roger Wm. Bennett","url":"http://intellectualoid.com","avatar":"https://cdn.micro.blog/photos/96/https%3A%2F%2Fmicro.blog%2FReaderJohn%2Favatar.jpg","_microblog":{"username":"ReaderJohn"}},"_microblog":{"date_relative":"2026-07-18 19:16","date_timestamp":1784402211,"is_favorite":false,"is_bookmark":false,"is_deletable":false,"is_conversation":true,"is_linkpost":false,"is_mention":false,"is_podcast":false,"note":"","syndication":[]}},{"id":"94169800","content_html":"

It’s morning in America: Trump only stretched his pack of paranoid delusions to 25 minutes of prime time last night.

\n","summary":"","url":"https://microblog.intellectualoid.com/2026/07/17/its-morning-in-america-trump.html","date_published":"2026-07-17T13:31:10+00:00","author":{"name":"Roger Wm. Bennett","url":"http://intellectualoid.com","avatar":"https://cdn.micro.blog/photos/96/https%3A%2F%2Fmicro.blog%2FReaderJohn%2Favatar.jpg","_microblog":{"username":"ReaderJohn"}},"_microblog":{"date_relative":"2026-07-17 13:31","date_timestamp":1784295070,"is_favorite":false,"is_bookmark":false,"is_deletable":false,"is_conversation":true,"is_linkpost":false,"is_mention":false,"is_podcast":false,"note":"","syndication":[]}},{"id":"94101125","content_html":"

Who knew? French haikus on war, translated into English.

\n","summary":"","url":"https://microblog.intellectualoid.com/2026/07/16/who-knew-french-haikus-on.html","date_published":"2026-07-16T11:29:36+00:00","author":{"name":"Roger Wm. Bennett","url":"http://intellectualoid.com","avatar":"https://cdn.micro.blog/photos/96/https%3A%2F%2Fmicro.blog%2FReaderJohn%2Favatar.jpg","_microblog":{"username":"ReaderJohn"}},"_microblog":{"date_relative":"2026-07-16 11:29","date_timestamp":1784201376,"is_favorite":false,"is_bookmark":false,"is_deletable":false,"is_conversation":true,"is_linkpost":false,"is_mention":false,"is_podcast":false,"note":"","syndication":[]}},{"id":"94079227","content_html":"

I just discovered that my 1982 Law Journal Note is freely available online. I thought of downloading it and reading it for the first time in decades, but I don’t think I could bear it. Much water under the bridge since then.

\n","summary":"","url":"https://microblog.intellectualoid.com/2026/07/15/i-just-discovered-that-my.html","date_published":"2026-07-16T01:22:53+00:00","author":{"name":"Roger Wm. Bennett","url":"http://intellectualoid.com","avatar":"https://cdn.micro.blog/photos/96/https%3A%2F%2Fmicro.blog%2FReaderJohn%2Favatar.jpg","_microblog":{"username":"ReaderJohn"}},"_microblog":{"date_relative":"2026-07-16 01:22","date_timestamp":1784164973,"is_favorite":false,"is_bookmark":false,"is_deletable":false,"is_conversation":false,"is_linkpost":false,"is_mention":false,"is_podcast":false,"note":"","syndication":[]}},{"id":"94039248","content_html":"

I was rooting for France, but I think Spain is going to be hard for anyone to beat. No big-name superstars, but a bunch of guys playing with intense discipline as a team. Very impressed, especially with that second goal. ⚽️

\n","summary":"","url":"https://microblog.intellectualoid.com/2026/07/15/i-was-rooting-for-france.html","date_published":"2026-07-15T11:31:03+00:00","author":{"name":"Roger Wm. Bennett","url":"http://intellectualoid.com","avatar":"https://cdn.micro.blog/photos/96/https%3A%2F%2Fmicro.blog%2FReaderJohn%2Favatar.jpg","_microblog":{"username":"ReaderJohn"}},"_microblog":{"date_relative":"2026-07-15 11:31","date_timestamp":1784115063,"is_favorite":false,"is_bookmark":false,"is_deletable":false,"is_conversation":false,"is_linkpost":false,"is_mention":false,"is_podcast":false,"note":"","syndication":[]}},{"id":"93921659","content_html":"

I started to write about Lindsey Graham and Mitch McConnell. Then I remembered how unlikely it is that they will be remembered as important by anyone other than historians in even ten years.

\n\n

I suspect that AI is the real, enduring story of our era. And who is the Avatar of AI?

\n","summary":"","url":"https://microblog.intellectualoid.com/2026/07/13/i-started-to-write-about.html","date_published":"2026-07-13T11:35:15+00:00","author":{"name":"Roger Wm. Bennett","url":"http://intellectualoid.com","avatar":"https://cdn.micro.blog/photos/96/https%3A%2F%2Fmicro.blog%2FReaderJohn%2Favatar.jpg","_microblog":{"username":"ReaderJohn"}},"_microblog":{"date_relative":"2026-07-13 11:35","date_timestamp":1783942515,"is_favorite":false,"is_bookmark":false,"is_deletable":false,"is_conversation":true,"is_linkpost":false,"is_mention":false,"is_podcast":false,"note":"","syndication":[]}},{"id":"93921267","content_html":"

My wife just read me a news item about Martha Lillard, the last polio survivor still using an iron lung.

\n\n

How terrifying had to be it for my parents’ generation to watch the advance of polio! I had one classmate who survived it. The Salk Vaccine is one of the great achievements in public health.

\n","summary":"","url":"https://microblog.intellectualoid.com/2026/07/13/my-wife-just-read-me.html","date_published":"2026-07-13T11:25:47+00:00","author":{"name":"Roger Wm. Bennett","url":"http://intellectualoid.com","avatar":"https://cdn.micro.blog/photos/96/https%3A%2F%2Fmicro.blog%2FReaderJohn%2Favatar.jpg","_microblog":{"username":"ReaderJohn"}},"_microblog":{"date_relative":"2026-07-13 11:25","date_timestamp":1783941947,"is_favorite":false,"is_bookmark":false,"is_deletable":false,"is_conversation":true,"is_linkpost":false,"is_mention":false,"is_podcast":false,"note":"","syndication":[]}},{"id":"93869671","content_html":"

Lindsey Graham being the next Senator to die was not on my Bingo card.

\n","summary":"","url":"https://microblog.intellectualoid.com/2026/07/12/lindsey-graham-being-the-next.html","date_published":"2026-07-12T10:12:00+00:00","author":{"name":"Roger Wm. Bennett","url":"http://intellectualoid.com","avatar":"https://cdn.micro.blog/photos/96/https%3A%2F%2Fmicro.blog%2FReaderJohn%2Favatar.jpg","_microblog":{"username":"ReaderJohn"}},"_microblog":{"date_relative":"2026-07-12 10:12","date_timestamp":1783851120,"is_favorite":false,"is_bookmark":false,"is_deletable":false,"is_conversation":false,"is_linkpost":false,"is_mention":false,"is_podcast":false,"note":"","syndication":[]}}]}