Keith Burgess-Jackson, J.D., Ph.D.

Here.

Thoughts:

1. British coins and currency are strange. The bills (notes) are of different sizes. The 20-pound note is not quite as long as an American bill but is considerably taller. The five-pound note (to take just one of the others) is slightly taller than an American bill but considerably less long. Here in Scotland, British pounds are legal tender, but so are various Scottish notes. Someone told me that three Scottish banks are allowed to print currency. To an American, it all seems irregular, but the Scottish people seem to have no trouble with it. As for coinage, I've seen the following coins so far: two pounds (a bit larger and thicker than a quarter); one pound (the size of a penny, but much thicker and therefore heavier); 50 pence (the size and thickness of a quarter, but with seven sides); 20 pence (larger than a dime but smaller than a penny, with seven sides); 10 pence (slightly larger and about the same thickness as a nickel); five pence (smaller and a bit thicker than a dime); two pence (the size and thickness of an American quarter); and one penny (the size and thickness of an American penny). The one-penny and two-pence coins are copper in color; the rest, with one exception, are silver colored. The exception is the two-pound coin, which is silver in the middle and gold around the edge, like a doughnut with a large hole. I've enjoyed collecting and examining British coins and currency.
2. We're in Inverness as I write this. It's 9:18 AM. According to the Weather Channel on my iPhone, it's 51º and mostly cloudy. Sunrise is 4:30 and sunset 10:00, which makes for 17.5 hours of daylight and 6.5 hours of darkness

More later.

To the Editor:

Re “Facebook’s Troubling One-Way Mirror,” by Jim Rutenberg (Mediator column, Business Day, May 23):

It is well known that Facebook collects data on its users and sells it. We notice shopping website ads on our Facebook newsfeed minutes after visiting those sites. But I believe that is the trade-off in our modern, money-driven world to be able to use Facebook.

But I am not O.K. with Facebook’s human-controlled algorithm determining what news shows up on my newsfeed. Facebook has become a main source of news for me and many other Facebook users. How do we know that we are getting the most accurate account of the biggest news stories of the day? Journalists are supposed to be our nation’s news gatekeepers—not Facebook, a social media site.

So while we seem to be distraught over Facebook’s stealing our browser information, I think we need to be more concerned about Facebook’s playing gatekeeper.

MADDY GILDERSLEEVE

Vadnais Heights, Minn.

Note from KBJ: Or you can stop using Facebook, as I have. (I used it only briefly, to see what the hullabaloo was all about.)

Italian cyclist Vincenzo Nibali has won his second Giro d'Italia. Here is the story.

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Malice in Wonderland (1980). This is another great Scottish band. I saw Nazareth in concert (twice) many years ago. I own several of the band's albums. Here is the Wikipedia page for the band.

To the Editor:

Thanks to Frank Bruni for his column on the way Facebook warps our worldview. These days, given the near universal penetration of social media, I’m encouraged every time I see an article about the enormous effects (largely harmful, I’m afraid) that they are having on us.

As a professor of literature, I’m particularly concerned about the effect these media are having on the ability of students to process difficult, emotionally and intellectually complex texts. As Mr. Bruni notes, the preference engines of social media lead us away from opinions that are unfamiliar to us. I fear that the decline of complex reading ability means that even if students are able to access diverse opinion, they’re less able to understand it.

I think a connection can be made to the astounding success of Donald Trump. As a lover of textual ingenuity, I’m most struck, in Mr. Trump’s speeches, by the mind-numbing syntactic simplicity of his utterances, by the lack of logical coordination and subordination, and by the repetition of basic subject-verb-object sentences with little in the way of coherent connection.

Our social media, and now our politics, are leading away from the complex syntax that allows for full living and thinking.

NICK WILLIAMS

Poland, Ind.

Note from KBJ: Because we all know, especially after the past eight years, that talkin' good makes one a good president.

Nicholas Kristof is starting to grasp the totalitarian nature of progressivism. Progressives are goal-driven, not process-oriented. They want power over others so as to impose progressive views and values (egalitarianism, cosmopolitanism, atheism, pacifism) on society. Nothing matters to them except this end. Progressives will lie, cheat, steal, and even kill (if they think they can get away with it) to achieve their goals. Stifling speech on college campuses is a piece of cake to them. They don't even think it needs to be justified. Conservatives, in their view, are not to be reasoned with or even conversed with, for that takes time and energy. Conservatives are to be crushed, like cockroaches.

Progressives don't care about truth, the rule of law, individual rights (including the right to speak), civility, rational discourse, or the only inclusiveness that matters: intellectual inclusiveness. The end (viz., power) justifies the means. Progressivism is a cancerous outgrowth of liberalism, dating to the 1960s. It is heartening to see that at least one New York Times op-ed columnist (Kristof) understands the danger progressivism poses to society. Having blasphemed against the Church of Progressivism, he must prepare to be excommunicated, and then vilified. If you're not a useful idiot, the Left wants nothing to do with you. Indeed, it wants no you.

Here.