More than 41,000 People Think It's a Good Idea to Let Everyone Carry Guns at the GOP Convention →

Tara Golshan, writing for Vox:

But to thousands of Americans, the Republican National Convention, sponsored by a party that is known for its gun rights advocacy, should not be held in a venue that goes against those very beliefs.

"This is a direct affront to the Second Amendment and puts all attendees at risk," the petition, authored by user the Hyperationalist, says.

Make that 41,001.

(I went back and forth between the above joke and The irony, of course, is that this situation would be described as a Mexican Standoff.)

In Hindsight, an ‘American Psycho’ Looks a Lot Like Us →

Dwight Garner, writing for The New York Times:

I read “American Psycho” for the first time recently, and this is certain: This novel was ahead of its time.

I've thought this for a while. Swap out all of the pop culture references for more recent stuff and you would think it had been written 6 months ago.

God Is a Question, Not an Answer →

William Irwin, writing for The New York Times:

Anyone who does not occasionally worry that he may be a fraud almost certainly is. Nor does the worry absolve one from the charge; one may still be a fraud, just one who rightly worries about it on occasion. Likewise, anyone who does not occasionally worry that she is wrong about the existence or nonexistence of God most likely has a fraudulent belief. Worry can make the belief or unbelief genuine, but it cannot make it correct.

This type of humility regarding your beliefs is exactly what is missing from our public discourse.

In Syria and Iraq, the Islamic State Is in Retreat on Multiple Fronts →

Liz Sly, writing for The Washington Post:

Front-line commanders no longer speak of a scarily formidable foe but of Islamic State defenses that crumble within days and fighters who flee at the first sign they are under attack.

Since everyone else seems content to write about which line from Snaps: The Original Yo' Mama Joke Book Trump and Cruz are using on each other's wives, I thought I'd put this out there for the adults to read.

Microsoft Created a Twitter Bot to Learn From Users. It Quickly Became a Racist Jerk. →

Daniel Victor, writing for The New York Times:

Microsoft set out to learn about “conversational understanding” by creating a bot designed to have automated discussions with Twitter users, mimicking the language they use.

What could go wrong?

How does that saying go? Every nation gets the Twitter bot it deserves?

The Green Room with Paul Provenza, ft. Garry Shandling →

There's obviously a lot of sadness over Garry Shandling's death (although, I have to be honest—am I the only one who watched his recent episode of Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee and thought: Jesus, Garry Shandling looks awful.) and there have been a ton of pieces and clips and tributes going around, but this has been the one I enjoyed the most.

My favorite is how empathetic he is towards Bo Burnham, which stands out in a group of guys who are otherwise doing the normal you're-younger-than-me-therefore-eat-my-shit routine.

/via somebody Marc Maron retweeted

N.F.L.’s Flawed Concussion Research and Ties to Tobacco Industry

Alan Schwarz, Walt Bogdanich, and Jacqueline Williams, writing for The New York Times:

The National Football League was on the clock.

With several of its marquee players retiring early after a cascade of frightening concussions, the league formed a committee in 1994 that would ultimately issue a succession of research papers playing down the danger of head injuries. Amid criticism of the committee’s work, physicians brought in later to continue the research said the papers had relied on faulty analysis.

Now, an investigation by The New York Times has found that the N.F.L.’s concussion research was far more flawed than previously known.

This is such a damning report that the NFL had a point-by-point statement ready to go to try and limit the damage, which The New York Times has already responded to. It seems impossible, but at some point in the next decade, I think we're going to see a paradigm shift in the American sports landscape. Football will eventually go away if it doesn't adapt.

The Mind-Boggling Story Of Our Arcane And Convoluted 'Primary Politics' →

Fresh Air:

Author Elaine Kamarck explains superdelegates, the difference between caucuses and primaries, what happens in a brokered convention and how the rules of primaries can sometimes change.

As of late, I've seen a lot of people questioning the primary process. That's good. The first step is admitting that you have a problem. Now take the next step, and inform yourself. Spend the forty minutes or whatever it is (less if you listen at 1.25x on your favorite podcast app) and you'll learn something here, I guarantee it.

'3's company, Appetite for Destruction tee, Chunky Monkey, Funyuns, I can feel the cat judging me' →

Is Aesop Rock—back?

Sidenote: you'd be a fool not to check the lyrics for this as well.

MLB Gives Young Latin-American Players a Voice →

Mark Feinsand, writing for The New York Daily News:

“That was a really tough night,” Pineda said. “I’m a little sensitive and I was sad. I wanted to explain everything. I forgot English, Spanish, everything that night.”

Beltran looked around the room and saw Masahiro Tanaka, Hiroki Kuroda and Ichiro Suzuki standing by their lockers with their own personal translators, ready to interpret their words at a moment’s notice.

“They all had their own guys, but when Pineda had the situation with the pine tar, it would have been great for him to have someone next to him so he could have expressed himself the way he wanted to express himself,” Beltran said. “There would have been no misinterpretation of how he was able to handle the media that day.”

I love sports, but I really love when sports provides us with something to aspire to, a map for how we can make the real world a better place. Imagine if we approached even half of the world's problems with the humility and care that this piece outlines?