(Permanent Musical Accompaniment To The Last Post Of The Week From The Blog's Favourite Living Canadian)

The Atlantic Monthly was founded in Boston in 1857. Among its other historical achievements was the fact that it was the first place a lot of abolitionists published their work. Given that, you can imagine that The Atlantic Monthly was not overjoyed with the ascension of Andrew Johnson to the presidency upon the murder of Abraham Lincoln. Thanks to a tweet from Yoni Applebaum, who writes for the modern manifestation, we are reminded of E.P. Whipple's 1866 assessment of Johnson. I can't imagine why Applebaum would exhume this now.

Insincere as well as stubborn, cunning as well as unreasonable, vain as well as ill-tempered, greedy of popularity as well as arbitrary in disposition, veering in his mind as well as fixed in his will, he unites in his character the seemingly opposite qualities of demagogue and autocrat, and converts the Presidential chair into a stump or a throne, according as the impulse seizes him to cajole or to command. Doubtless much of the evil developed in him is due to his misfortune in having been lifted by events to a position which he lacked the elevation and breadth of intelligence adequately to fill. He was cursed with the possession of a power and authority which no man of narrow mind, bitter prejudices, and inordinate self-estimation can exercise without depraving himself as well as injuring the nation. Egotistic to the point of mental disease, he resented the direct and manly opposition of statesmen to his opinions and moods as a personal affront, and descended to the last degree of littleness in a political leader, — that of betraying his party, in order to gratify his spite. He of course became the prey of intriguers and sycophants, — of persons who understand the art of managing minds which are at once arbitrary and weak, by allowing them to retain unity of will amid the most palpable inconsistencies of opinion, so that inconstancy to principle shall not weaken force of purpose, nor the emphasis be at all abated with which they may bless to-day what yesterday they cursed. Thus the abhorrer of traitors has now become their tool. Thus the denouncer of Copperheads has now sunk into dependence on their support. Thus the imposer of conditions of reconstruction has now become the fore- most friend of the unconditioned return of the Rebel States. Thus the furious Union Republican, whose harangues against his political opponents almost scared his political friends by their violence, has now become the shameless betrayer of the people who trusted him. And in all these changes of base he has appeared supremely conscious, in his own mind, of playing an independent, a consistent, and especially a conscientious part.

First, that is one heroic paragraph right there. (Mister, we could use a man like R.P. Whipple again.) Second, bold-face that sucker anywhere you want. You'll find something you can hang on the current state of the nation. Plus ca change…

The long prosecution of the leaders of the institutional Roman Catholic Church for having conducted a decades-long international conspiracy to obstruct justice took another leap forward this week. The Aussies, it appears, are not fooling around. From The Guardian:

"Cardinal Pell is facing multiple charges … and there are multiple complainants," Victoria police's deputy commissioner Shane Patton said. The charges were "historical sexual assault offences".

In a statement released by the Catholic archdiocese of Sydney 90 minutes after the charges were announced, Pell announced he would "return to Australia, as soon as possible, to clear his name". Pell is the highest-ranking Vatican official to be charged in the Catholic church's long-running sexual abuse scandal. Pell's statement, issued at 4.30am Rome time, said: "Although it is still in the early hours of the morning in Rome, Cardinal George Pell has been informed of the decision and action of Victoria police. He has again strenuously denied all allegations. "Cardinal Pell will return to Australia, as soon as possible, to clear his name following advice and approval by his doctors who will also advise on his travel arrangements. "He said he is looking forward to his day in court and will defend the charges vigorously."

The Aussies are hauling this guy's ermined hindquarters all the way back from Rome. Yet, Bernard Cardinal Law is enjoying his afternoon Campari at a café not far from the Basilica of Our Lady of the Clean Getaway, where he now works.

Weekly WWOZ Pick To Click: "Ghost Ship" (Ben Allison): Yeah, I pretty much still love New Orleans.

Weekly Visit To The Pathe Archives: Here are some American troops in London during World War I, trying not to gloat over the ass-kicking we gave the Brits at Yorktown. History is so cool.

Holy hell, now they've added Hans von Spakovsky to the voter-suppression commission? This is like Frankenstein Meets The Wolf Man. Also, the folks out in the states don't seem too cool with sharing their data. This is encouraging.

Update: So I guess this guy's a "no."

Is it a good day for dinosaur news, phys.org? It's always a good day for dinosaur news!

University of Southampton graduate Chris Barker, who was studying for his Masters degree in Vertebrate Palaeontology when he carried out the research, said: "The 3-D picture we built up of the inside of Neovenator's skull was more detailed than any of us could have hoped for, revealing the most complete dinosaur neurovascular canal that we know of. "The canal is highly branched nearest the tip of the snout. This would have housed branches of the large trigeminal nerve – which is responsible for sensation in the face – and associated blood vessels. This suggests that Neovenator had an extremely sensitive snout – a very useful adaptation, as dinosaurs used their heads for most activities." As well as being sensitive to touch, Neovenator might also have been able to receive information relating to stimuli such as pressure and temperature, which would have come in useful for many activities – from stroking each other's faces during courtship rituals to precision feeding. Images of the wear pattern on the dinosaur's teeth appear to show that it actively avoided bone while removing flesh from bones.Chris added: "Some modern-day species, such as crocodilians and megapode birds, use their snout to measure nest temperature, and in the case of crocodiles even pick up their young with extreme care, despite their huge mouths. Neovenator might well have done the same.

Did dinosaurs rub noses to express affection? That would be no surprise because dinosaurs lived then to make us happy now.

As the Committee predicted, this week's Top Commenter of the Week indeed did indeed come from the post about getting your books inspected at the airport security line. The prize goes to Top Commenter Bob Hirst, who provided us with a nostalgic look at days gone by.

Charles P. Pierce Charles P Pierce is the author of four books, most recently Idiot America, and has been a working journalist since 1976.

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