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In today’s edition:
- Take phones away from kids, but don’t get the government involved
- Religious fervor for Trump is filling a big American void
- The Great Medicaid Purge was even worse than expected
- What eclipses teach us about science and — sure, why not — God’s wrath
iPhone pinkie (and the brain)
Every so often a clip circulates on social media in which some dubiously credentialed internet doctor tells you to look at your hand and behold “iPhone finger,” a condition in which a divot forms at the spot where the heft of your phone rests during use.
Fret not, because the effect has been pretty thoroughly debunked. Smartphones aren’t changing our pinkies — just, thank God, our brains.
George Will, having read “The Anxious Generation,” Jonathan Haidt’s new book on how phones interfere in child development, concludes that “phone-based childhood displaced play-based childhood and its unsupervised conversing, touching and negotiating the small-scale frictions and setbacks that prepare children for adulthood.”
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What resulted, George contends, is a Gen Z much less hardy than its predecessors — a generation that is anxious, depressed, “timid” and “bewildered.”
Restricting phone use during childhood won’t be a panacea, George predicts, but Haidt’s recommendation for no access until high school is probably a good rule of iPhone-dented thumb. Just don’t, George warns, put phone restrictions in the government’s misshapen hands.
The new apostles
In Dana Milbank’s most recent dispatch from the Trump trail, he writes of how the former president’s followers are tuning in with near religious fervor. Donald Trump descends on a Green Bay, Wis., rally as the country’s “real president,” and his acolytes welcome him with rapturous applause, such is their “unshakable faith.”
Donald Trump tells them to invest in Trump Media, and so many of them trustingly do, only to watch the company’s stock lose 43 percent of its value over just three trading days — a transformation to rival Easter’s.
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Meanwhile, all through Dana’s chronicle of the week, Trump is taking these people not for believers, Dana concludes, but for what he’s always considered them: “suckers.”
Fareed Zakaria writes that as the United States rapidly secularizes, we can expect politics to increasingly occupy the void left by religion’s diminishment. People are looking for order, meaning and a cause greater than themselves, so it’s no wonder Trump’s events sometimes feel more like altar calls than political rallies.
All of modernity’s wealth, tech and independence simply “cannot fill the hole in the heart that God and faith once occupied,” Fareed observes. But he cautions: “To fill it with politics is dangerous.”
Chaser: Jen Rubin writes in her latest newsletter that not all of Trump’s transgressions are criminal. He’s done plenty of awful things that remain legal. Just see above.
From Catherine Rampell’s latest column on the Great Medicaid Purge, which has turned out even worse than expected; experts forecast that probably 15 million people would lose coverage, and this nearly 20 million figure comes before the process is even done. And mostly over paperwork!
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“In any other rich country, government failure at this scale would be scandalous,” Catherine writes. “Or at least a little bit embarrassing. Think about it: Government dysfunction has undermined a critical, half-century-old safety-net program.”
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Just as bad is that the government has pretty much lost track of the people who were purged and has no idea whether they have access to any sort of health care at all now.
Politicians aren’t raising this issue at all, Catherine writes. It’s terrible — but understandable, too: The bungling is just too embarrassing for everybody on every side.
Less politics
You have just the weekend left to hie you to the line of totality that Monday’s solar eclipse will chart across North America. Two members of the Today’s Opinions editors troika are decamping to the Lone Star State, leaving the third to wonder via Slack, “But what if a fireball comes out of the sun and smites Texas, will Drew and I be the only ones left?”
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Even without a fireball, the eclipse is omen enough, Alexandra Petri writes, channeling Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), who determined that the eclipse, combined with Friday’s earthquake outside Manhattan, are clear indications of God’s anger.
And more portents are all around, Alex writes: “Everywhere I look, big red ones saying ‘STOP,’ placed in the streets, almost as if coordinated. Sometimes, when I try to cross the road, a red hand flashes in the air, along with mysterious numbers. A countdown. But to what?”
In reality, the only thing the sun and moon’s fabulous cosmic coincidences presage is an increase in human knowledge. Planetary physicist Sabine Stanley surveys in an op-ed all of the exciting science we’ve learned by way of eclipses, including about solar flares, ocean tides, changes to Earth’s spin, “equatorial bulge” (which sounds like Earth had a few too many doughnuts) and even the goings-on deep inside the planet’s liquid core — the farthest possible terrestrial destination from the sun.
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By the way, don’t worry about the Today’s Opinions team. “Rest assured,” one of the eclipse-goers replied. “I’ll be wearing my ‘Don’t Mess With Texas’ eclipse glasses, so the sun won’t get any ideas.”
Smartest, fastest
- Republicans are down, and abortion is up, Jason Willick writes — so what did overturning Roe v. Wade even achieve?
- David Ignatius, writing from Kyiv, profiles how Ukraine’s tech army is taking the fight to Russia.
- North Korea sent arms to Russia, and now Vladimir Putin is paying back the favor to Kim Jong Un, the Editorial Board writes.
It’s a goodbye. It’s a haiku. It’s … The Bye-Ku.
God’s proclamation
Blotted wide across the sky:
Lay off the Dunkin’
Plus! A Friday bye-ku (Fri-ku!) from reader Sherrie K.:
Ominous shadows
Sounds emerge, submerge, then die
And the sun goes poof!
***
Have your own newsy haiku? Email it to me, along with any questions/comments/ambiguities. Have a great weekend! Enjoy the eclipse!
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You’re reading the Today’s Opinions newsletter. Sign up to get it in your inbox.
In today’s edition:
Every so often a clip circulates on social media in which some dubiously credentialed internet doctor tells you to look at your hand and behold “iPhone finger,” a condition in which a divot forms at the spot where the heft of your phone rests during use.
Fret not, because the effect has been pretty thoroughly debunked. Smartphones aren’t changing our pinkies — just, thank God, our brains.
George Will, having read “The Anxious Generation,” Jonathan Haidt’s new book on how phones interfere in child development, concludes that “phone-based childhood displaced play-based childhood and its unsupervised conversing, touching and negotiating the small-scale frictions and setbacks that prepare children for adulthood.”
What resulted, George contends, is a Gen Z much less hardy than its predecessors — a generation that is anxious, depressed, “timid” and “bewildered.”
Restricting phone use during childhood won’t be a panacea, George predicts, but Haidt’s recommendation for no access until high school is probably a good rule of iPhone-dented thumb. Just don’t, George warns, put phone restrictions in the government’s misshapen hands.
In Dana Milbank’s most recent dispatch from the Trump trail, he writes of how the former president’s followers are tuning in with near religious fervor. Donald Trump descends on a Green Bay, Wis., rally as the country’s “real president,” and his acolytes welcome him with rapturous applause, such is their “unshakable faith.”
Donald Trump tells them to invest in Trump Media, and so many of them trustingly do, only to watch the company’s stock lose 43 percent of its value over just three trading days — a transformation to rival Easter’s.
Meanwhile, all through Dana’s chronicle of the week, Trump is taking these people not for believers, Dana concludes, but for what he’s always considered them: “suckers.”
Fareed Zakaria writes that as the United States rapidly secularizes, we can expect politics to increasingly occupy the void left by religion’s diminishment. People are looking for order, meaning and a cause greater than themselves, so it’s no wonder Trump’s events sometimes feel more like altar calls than political rallies.
All of modernity’s wealth, tech and independence simply “cannot fill the hole in the heart that God and faith once occupied,” Fareed observes. But he cautions: “To fill it with politics is dangerous.”
Chaser: Jen Rubin writes in her latest newsletter that not all of Trump’s transgressions are criminal. He’s done plenty of awful things that remain legal. Just see above.
From Catherine Rampell’s latest column on the Great Medicaid Purge, which has turned out even worse than expected; experts forecast that probably 15 million people would lose coverage, and this nearly 20 million figure comes before the process is even done. And mostly over paperwork!
“In any other rich country, government failure at this scale would be scandalous,” Catherine writes. “Or at least a little bit embarrassing. Think about it: Government dysfunction has undermined a critical, half-century-old safety-net program.”
Just as bad is that the government has pretty much lost track of the people who were purged and has no idea whether they have access to any sort of health care at all now.
Politicians aren’t raising this issue at all, Catherine writes. It’s terrible — but understandable, too: The bungling is just too embarrassing for everybody on every side.
You have just the weekend left to hie you to the line of totality that Monday’s solar eclipse will chart across North America. Two members of the Today’s Opinions editors troika are decamping to the Lone Star State, leaving the third to wonder via Slack, “But what if a fireball comes out of the sun and smites Texas, will Drew and I be the only ones left?”
Even without a fireball, the eclipse is omen enough, Alexandra Petri writes, channeling Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), who determined that the eclipse, combined with Friday’s earthquake outside Manhattan, are clear indications of God’s anger.
And more portents are all around, Alex writes: “Everywhere I look, big red ones saying ‘STOP,’ placed in the streets, almost as if coordinated. Sometimes, when I try to cross the road, a red hand flashes in the air, along with mysterious numbers. A countdown. But to what?”
In reality, the only thing the sun and moon’s fabulous cosmic coincidences presage is an increase in human knowledge. Planetary physicist Sabine Stanley surveys in an op-ed all of the exciting science we’ve learned by way of eclipses, including about solar flares, ocean tides, changes to Earth’s spin, “equatorial bulge” (which sounds like Earth had a few too many doughnuts) and even the goings-on deep inside the planet’s liquid core — the farthest possible terrestrial destination from the sun.
By the way, don’t worry about the Today’s Opinions team. “Rest assured,” one of the eclipse-goers replied. “I’ll be wearing my ‘Don’t Mess With Texas’ eclipse glasses, so the sun won’t get any ideas.”
It’s a goodbye. It’s a haiku. It’s … The Bye-Ku.
God’s proclamation
Blotted wide across the sky:
Lay off the Dunkin’
Plus! A Friday bye-ku (Fri-ku!) from reader Sherrie K.:
Ominous shadows
Sounds emerge, submerge, then die
And the sun goes poof!
***
Have your own newsy haiku? Email it to me, along with any questions/comments/ambiguities. Have a great weekend! Enjoy the eclipse!
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