Journalist – Historian – Speaker
There’s a new super fancy gene-therapy that can cure a certain kind of blindness. It’s super cool science. It’s also going to cost a million dollars or so. It’s part of what I call “Our GATTACA future,” in which many kinds of disability code even more intensely for poverty and lack of access to modern …
I just heard the sad news that Sr. Clemente Davlin, OP, my friend and former colleague, died today. She was not a young woman and the news is not unexpected, but it’s hitting me hard. I met Clem in 2007 when I started teaching at Dominican. She was technically retired, but so Present in the …
I wrote about Facebook, Twitter, Google, and ISPs for Pacific Standard. Hate proliferates and they claim they can do nothing. There’s a @facebook group that claims Jews ritually murder Christian babies. We’ve been reporting it for years. Nothing happens. NEW @PacificStand (1)https://t.co/OpMs0QQ68n — David M. Perry (@Lollardfish) December 16, 2017 But they can do something. …
I am tired of powerful men worrying about “due process” by comparing great historical iniquities such as lynching, witch hunts, the Inquisition, Internment, and the death penalty to the social scorn and professional consequences of men being outed as bigots and abusers. It happens constantly and I’m going to start blogging them. Here’s todays. One: …
St. Paul finally has implemented the ability to text 911. The disability accessibility implications here are enormous, of course, but like most systems that improve accessibility, everyone will benefit. One example, people in a dangerous domestic situation who can’t make a phone call, but who need to call for help.
Two posts on medievalism, apocalypticism, and the Jerusalem decision. By Matt Gabriele: As Trump “spiritual adviser” Paula White said, “Evangelicals are ecstatic, for Israel is to us a sacred place and the Jewish people are our dearest friends.” John Hagee, the founder of Christians United for Israel, responded to Trump’s announcement by noting its precise …
Worth re-reading: How to talk about police reform (by Marianne Kaba): Ultimately, the only way that we will address oppressive policing is to abolish the police. Therefore all of the ‘reforms’ that focus on strengthening the police or “morphing” policing into something more invisible but still as deadly should be opposed. All reforms involving MORE, …
From the great s.e. smith, a new piece at Tonic (VICE) on disability and arrest rates: As conversations about disparities in police killings and incarceration rates hit the news, one researcher wanted to answer a simple question: What’s the demographic profile of people being arrested? “I was looking for data and I was unable to find …
ICYMI, I wrote this about my soon to be former senator. https://t.co/CRvLe9T8kg — David M. Perry (@Lollardfish) December 8, 2017 It’s time to shift to the politics. The next piece I am writing is about the need to start repeatedly calling for Donald Trump to resign, explicitly, on account of the credible allegations of serial …
On the myth of the “English major Starbucks barista.” From 2016, but in my feed last night and I missed this the first time around. What are we to make of this new old joke about the English major? Why did barista replace fast food worker? The fact is that English majors are not particularly …