Morning Belz, March 24

Links.

A cargo ship run aground has blocked the Suez Canal — BBC
What happened with All Gas No Brakes — NYT
Tough San Fran grandma gives back GoFundMe $900k — Daily Mail
Why the U.S. is doing so well at vaccination — Bloomberg
Liquor Lyle’s, legendary Mpls bar, won’t reopen — Axios
On the media’s decline, and Substack, etc. — Freddie DeBoer
More on the media and its bias for negativity — NYT*
Sam Harris argues we have no free will — Making Sense

*Linked to this NBER paper in Morning Belz a couple months ago, but Leonhardt’s brief analysis is worth the click.

Interviews with Asian-Americans about anti-Asian racism in the U.S. have not happened as quickly as I’d hoped. I’ve gotten five interviews on camera, three of them substantive, but also a LOT of people politely declining to comment. Understandable. I’m just some random guy with a camera showing up asking about racism. I’ve been to 15 Asian-owned businesses, some of them twice. Had several good conversations off-camera, including one where an impressive woman who owned a nail salon told me some people won’t want to talk because they don’t want to offend anyone. I need at least five more interviews, and preferably 10, to make a video. Have to keep at it. 

Quote
“History does not relate any true revolution which came from power. All began with education and meant in essence a moral summons.” — Alija Izetbegović, The Islamic Declaration (1970)

About: I was a newspaper reporter for 14 years, most recently at the Minneapolis Star Tribune. I explained why my family left Minneapolis here. Now we live just outside Chattanooga and I work on Scuffed News, a project that either succeeds by July or will have to be abandoned. This is my newsletter. Please share it with anyone you think might enjoy it. And please consider supporting this work with your money on Patreon.