Here we are once again with another hour-and-change about this silly, silly world we share. Specifically, this week we’re on about the multi-faceted disaster in Texas and the indefinite suspension of Slate podcaster Mike Pesca for wanting to talk about what can or cannot be talked about by whom without actually saying—or typing—the thing itself. It’s all absurdia, all the time, here in 2021.

Rundown

2:22 — Texas mayor’s bad Facebook post and Ted Cruz’s quick jaunt to Mexico

23:33 — Grid failures and political failures in Texas

52:58 — When is it ok to talk about whether or not it’s ok to talk about who should be sometimes allowed to say bad words that we all agree shouldn’t ever be said derogatorily by basically anyone?

Texas

Here’s the Facebook post from the now-former Mayor of Colorado City, Texas, in all of its exclamatory glory.

You know it’s serious when a post has two “bottom line” statements in it—you thought you were at the bottom, but ol’ Tim found a way to get just a little bit deeper.

The New York Times explains why nobody likes Ted Cruz.

Average cost of electricity for every state in the country.

A lot of what happened in Texas was unavoidable, but there was plenty that could have been done over the last many years to prevent and mitigate the worst effects:

https://www.wfaa.com/article/news/local/investigates/30-years-of-warnings-to-winterize-texas-power-plants-yet-they-still-froze-will-austin-finally-require-it/287-20540908-dbce-4e17-90a3-19aa4f4f4690

https://www.texastribune.org/2021/02/22/texas-power-grid-extreme-weather/

https://apnews.com/article/why-texas-power-grid-failed-2eaa659d2ac29ff87eb9220875f23b34

Abe was a fan of this guy’s camerawork:

Here’s what’s going on with the Boeing 777, which seems to have no impact on the perceived value of the company.

Mike Pesca Suspended

Here’s the Defector article about Pesca being suspended from Slate. They paywall’d it after all, but I copied it over to here before then, in case you are interested in the full context. I have a whole lot to say about this topic, obviously, but I’m working on a blog post about it, so I’ll save it for there.

Assorted Mentions

Check out the blog for my recent take about a bad television show.

We also watched HBO’s new documentary-ish film “There is no ‘I’ in Threesome,” which is worth checking out. Here’s the NYT review.

Do you think Steve Schmidt is Good? Here’s an opportunity to challenge that idea.