Blogaround

1. The 1611 Project (posted December 3) "There’s been a great deal written about how the presence of those Bibles shaped those English-speaking Christians’ attitudes toward slavery, but far less about how the practice of enslaving others shaped the way those English-speaking Christians taught themselves to read, study, and interpret those Bibles."

2. So I have some things to say about China. First of all, these links:
The Wuhan files: Leaked documents reveal China's mishandling of the early stages of Covid-19 (posted November 30) 
No ‘Negative’ News: How China Censored the Coronavirus (posted December 19)

I am in China, and I have written on this blog about how I believe China has done a good job controlling the pandemic. Way way better than the US, pfft, no question, it's not even close. We are basically "back to normal" here- we go out, we do stuff, we don't social-distance- but we wear masks and people don't travel as much.

This has changed me, politically. I now see that it's SO NOT TRUE that the US is "the greatest country in the world" or whatever. I am safe from COVID in China. I would not be safe from COVID if I was in the US.

Okay, but look, here are 2 articles about the Chinese government mishandling the pandemic. About news being censored and numbers underreported. And yes, that absolutely should be brought to light. There's no excuse for it. It's very much not okay that China did that.

Let's bring it to light, and let's do the US next.

3. 7 awe-inspiring photos show Jupiter and Saturn as 'double planet' in Great Conjunction (posted December 23)