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Try to remember that kind of December when you shopped for gifts in a store, not on a computer. Try to remember when you wrapped those gifts after you got home and dashed back to the mall for something you forgot.

Try to remember that kind of December when your house was full of visitors and their houses were, too. The glittery Christmas party invitations on the hall table shone like stars in a winter sky. Church services featured the old familiar Christmas carols. Children dressed up to walk down the aisle as Nike-wearing shepherds or gauzy-winged angels or cardboard-crowned kings, bumping into each other and waving wildly to their parents in the pews.

Try to remember the cool of the eggnog sliding down your throat and the heat of the fireplace warming your back. Its not so hard. It was only last year, before the coronavirus shut down the usual way we celebrate the holidays. Try to remember the kind of December when nobody politicized the way people celebrate the holiday.

But there are some people politicians and news anchors and a few tv preachers who declare that Christmas is being stolen, as though you could harness a spirit, a tradition, a belief and celebration that goes back thousands of years and haul it out the door like so much used up wrapping paper and ribbon.

They started whining about the war on Christmas five years ago when someone attacked Starbucks for serving hot coffee in plain red cups instead of Christmas-themed ones. My grandson and I went there for an after school treat while this skirmish was going on. While he sipped his hot chocolate and I drank my latte, I looked around for signs of war, but I didnt see any. There were college students loading up on caffeine so they could ace their upcoming mid-term exams.

There were hospital workers just off their shift or maybe just starting. Their uniforms were crisp and clean. Nobody in the coffee line groused to the barista about the color of the cups bright red or yelled that they wanted a cup with angels or stars or Christmas trees on it. They just drank their coffee.

This years War on Christmas complaint comes at a time when families want to be together, but cant. When flying is probably a bad idea, even though airlines are trying to keep the virus from infecting passengers. Nobodys stealing the Christmas spirit by suggesting that families visit grandmother next year, whether she lives across the country or across the street.

Grandmother will still love you if you stand on her back porch, a smile behind your mask, and give her an elbow bump instead of a full-body hug. Family ties arent broken just because we cant be together physically. Theyre stronger than that.

The other complaint in the Christmas culture wars is the one about saying Merry Christmas when youre out and about if youre still going out and about. Go ahead and say it if thats what you want to do. If a store clerk answers back, Happy holidays, you can chose to be offended or not. Its up to you.

Christmas comes at the same time each year, just like Hanukkah and New Years Eve and the 4th of July. You cant stop it by declaring theres a war. The real wars being fought in hospital wards and emergency rooms, and the soldiers are the medical workers trying to save lives. By all accounts, theyre battle-fatigued by now. Maybe we should all buy them a cup of coffee at the drive thru and thank them for their service.

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The war on COVID doesnt mean theres a war on Christmas - al.com

Just after eight oclock on Thursday night, with the Hobart sky powder blue above the lights, umpire Paul Wilson began to whirl his right arm in the familiar PowerPlay gesture, before abruptly switching to three full rotations of his left, stern-faced but still jaunty, like a policeman forced to dance at the Notting Hill carnival.

In that moment history was made. This was crickets first Power Surge.

The surge is one of three much-trailed innovations in this years Big Bash tournament. It was an OK surge, as it happened. Tim David clumped some boundaries off Steve OKeefes left-arm spin, bowled from such a low trajectory these days he runs to the wicket like a man hailing a late-night taxi. Jordan Silk produced the most astoundingly brilliant piece of fielding youll ever see, a one-handed full-levitation over-the-rope grab plus high-precision Superman flick-back.

And yet for all the build-up, the talk of brash and punkish changes, nothing much really happened. Without the crunchy logo you might have missed it, or mistaken the Power Surge for just a normal surge. In fact, watching all this red-hot innovation from a rain-shadowed London, there was time to think about the fact you dont hear much about Shingy these days.

Shingy was a well-known figure a few years back, a modern-day seer, media guru, and really annoying guy. His job title at AOL was literally digital prophet, a role that involved reading the tea-leaves of the internet, thought-facing the tides of the global techno-verse, and appearing on TV panel shows looking like a malfunctioning cyborg pretending to be a witch.

Shingys real skill was talking seductive tech babble to middle-aged executives who have begun to feel the world had become new and strange; but that a slice of this pie could still be grabbed if you only listen to Shingy enough. This is how things work with prophets and rainmakers. Guru-ism feeds on insecurity, on a sense of needing to catch up, a search for shortcuts and magic spells.

Perhaps this is also a good way of thinking about those rather overhyped new rules, products of a flourishing guru-culture in Big T20, and the work in this case of Trent Woodhill, coach-slash-6-D strategist to the stars.

Woodhill holds, or has held, similar roles in both the Hundred and the Big Bash. He coached Steve Smith, Virat Kohli and Kane Williamson, whom he refers to, excitingly, not as batsmen but as problem-solvers. He is, from an oblique starting point, one of the more influential people in world cricket right now.

But influential how, and to what end? Certainly the Big Bash rules seem disappointingly un-sensational in action. The Surge is a two-over spell of fielding restrictions. The X-Factor means you can make a substitution. The Bash Boost is an extra point awarded in the second innings, a sensational innovation so boring its impossible to even remember what it is for more than five seconds at a time (youve already forgotten it).

And yet the response to this has been angrily polarised of course, because nobody, no inanimate regulation tweak, is a civilian in the culture wars. Woodhill is convinced his changes will blow up the dominant paradigm. Various other people seem angry about it. You cant just tinker with T20 cricket, was Brad Hoggs verdict, a funny thing to say of something that is, essentially, a massive tinker.

There are some points worth making. First, its genuinely reassuring how quickly we can become attached to things, to the extent a rule change in a competition where people wear gold helmets and banter microphones is suddenly two steps from physically defiling the baggy green. Without this protective affection cricket would have faded away decades ago.

Second, Woodhill himself is fascinating, and someone English cricket fans need to get to know. His hand will be felt across the centrepiece of the English summer when the game returns. And yes, he is a bit Shingy.

Woodhill has been around all the major T20 leagues, doing bits. Hes a bespoke high-end batting strategist. Hes into analytics and data mining. He likes the decimalisation of the hundred balls, and cares nothing for the sanctity of overs. Balls is the language of T20, he has said, which is probably true on several levels.

I like him because he comes from the outside, isnt a former great, exists on his own talent alone and has upset Proper Cricket Men with his grooviness. Also because he talks about energy and hope and so on.

What is startling is how much trust both Cricket Australia and the England and Wales Cricket Board are willing to place in some largely untried ideas, how much money, energy and eyeball-time is being coloured by one quite convincing bloke.

But then, guru-ism flourishes in times of uncertainty. The one clear shift in the months of lockdown is how honest cricket has had to be about the power of T20 and the financial pull of franchise leagues.

The fact the Indian Premier League final was able to pull in 200 million viewers at a time when, without it, the sport would have been totally invisible will be seen as a crowning moment in the location of power in the Indian subcontinent. Little wonder there is anxiety elsewhere, a search for a magic spell, a way of altering that gravity.

Back in Hobart the summer game seemed in pretty good health. James Vince played some beautiful, futile shots in a losing cause. The terrifying Riley Meredith bowled throat-ripping 95.5mph bouncers, then laughed about it. Nobody used an X Factor sub. The surge-power seemed more or less regulation.

Woodhill may or may not be the Shingy we need right now. But watching that cheerful flush of green (they even have fans now), it was hard to avoid the feeling the Hundred, whatever its final form, might also turn out to be a much-needed blast.

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Gurus, Power Surges and problem-solvers: Big Bash bids to be T20's biggest hitter - The Guardian

Barnaby Joyce, for one, is delighted that alt-right commentator Lauren Southern has joined Sky News Australia as a regular contributor. I dont know who that person is but Ive economically and politically fallen in love with her, Joyce gushed when Southern finished talking about how Australia and the west is capitulating at every turn to China. They have people within our government making decisions for us, the new Australian resident told host Paul Murray.

Murray was equally effusive about his guest: A sheila comes from Canada and shes a straight talker and shes welcome amongst us at all times and every time.

The former far-right influencers views are more than welcome on Sky After Dark, which cant get enough of her rhetoric about the mainstream media (media lies are not working) and Facebook and Twitters fact-checking campaign (the majority of people are opposed to censorship tactics by big tech).

Youll have this CNN reporter standing there with a city literally on fire burning behind him, but hes got the earpiece in and theyre saying, stick to the narrative, so he says peaceful protest going on here, Southern told Sky News. Its madness, and I think people are starting to realise the level of gaslighting going on.

But what doesnt get discussed is Southerns past as a popular YouTuber where she promoted the idea that white people were subject to an orchestrated Great Replacement by means of non-white immigration.

Southerns former employer, Rebel News, was one of the rightwing sources linked to the Christchurch shooter this week by the royal commission.

As reported by the New York Times tech columnist Kevin Roose, the Christchurch shooter watched tons and tons of far-right videos. He sent money to Stefan Molyneux and Richard Spencer. He also donated to Rebel News.

In 2017, Southern was among a group of far-right activists attempting to obstruct humanitarian vessels running refugee rescue operations in the Mediterranean.

Another new face on Sky After Dark is former senator Cory Bernardi. Bernardi has been given his own show in 2021, and has big plans to be the next Andrew Bolt or Alan Jones.

It seems hell fit right in with his narrative about Donald Trump being a victim of the media: The media have manufactured negative Trump tales and theyve failed to cover the failings of Joe Biden, Bernardi said recently.

Northern Territory health minister Natasha Fyles claimed several times in an interview that the town of Katherine does not have a newspaper, it was reported by the NTs Katherine Times.

Speaking about liquor advertising, Fyles mistakenly said Katherine does not have a newspaper multiple times.

The paper she often speaks to ran her apology on Friday. Yesterday, in my portfolio budget estimate hearings, I incorrectly stated Katherine doesnt have a newspaper, she said.

I unreservedly apologise to the Katherine Times for this error made under pressure in the heat of the moment.

Australias longest running commercial television program, Mass For You At Home, announced on its Facebook page that it had been axed and the final episode would air on 3 January.

We, the people who have worked on the program for many, many years, are deeply saddened that this day has come, the producer said. A history of the program is currently being written by the priests, readers, signers, technicians and producers of the program and will be available for viewers to keep as a memento in late January.

But then a miracle. The show was back albeit in a different form.

The sting in the tail is that the Catholic hierarchy decided to save money by cutting out the producer and the studio and film the program in the churches instead, and the producer was the last to know.

I was astonished to read on Facebook that the Archdiocese has terminated the 50-year-old program without advising the producers, producer of 13 years John Rowland told TV Tonight. We had no idea that proposed change and cant believe it was done this way. Ive written to the Archbishop but has so far had no response.

Mass For You At Home is designed to be an intimate service for people in their homes as opposed to a large church space. This together with his high production values makes it unique.

Journalists are territorial creatures. If a story is an exclusive they like some acknowledgement from media who follow up. Thats why executive editor for the Sydney Morning Herald and the Age James Chessell tweeted an ABC screenshot with the word #sourcing on Friday morning.

Reporter Rob Harris had written: A billion-dollar deal for the Morrison government to buy more than 50 million doses of the University of Queenslands potential coronavirus vaccine has been abruptly terminated after several trial participants returned false positive HIV test results.

Chessell took issue with an ABC online story which reported the news without reference to Nine newspapers and added the ABC understands to the lead par. The Ages chief reporter, Chip Le Grand, called it yarn theft. Europe correspondent Bevan Shields went even further saying the ABC had actually stolen this scoop from Rob Harris and claimed it as its own. This is theft from the public broadcaster on par with serial offender the Daily Mail.

But the snafu was not yarn theft, rather it was poorly sourced online copy done in a rush. The ABC did source the information to Nine newspapers in its live cross on AM on Radio National at 7.10am but then independently advanced on the Nine story, adding new information. The line about ABC understands should have read ABC has confirmed and has now been removed from the online version. To compare the ABC to the Daily Mail which commonly does rip and reads is absurd.

There is no keeping Kevin Rudd down. The former prime ministers royal commission didnt get political support but he has a new campaign against the Murdoch media, which has already gained traction.

Rudd has asked supporters to sign a pledge that they will boycott News Corps property portal realestate.com.au to buy, sell or lease property. The website is hugely profitable for News Corp and Rudd hopes to hit the company where it hurts.

He has accused the company of acting as a platform for denial of the peer-reviewed science of climate change; undermining efforts by Australians to take substantive action to address climate change; and spreading false and misleading claims about the climate crisis.

There is one News Corp property that has been killed off without any help from Rudd. The Australians vehicle for attacking its enemies, the infamous Cut & Paste column, has been quietly put to sleep by editor-in-chief Christopher Dore. We think.

The final column was published on 28 November without a note about its demise. We asked Dore why it had disappeared and received no reply.

The column was used by editors to highlight what the papers targets in the culture wars said and point out apparent contradictions, using just a list of quotes. It was oftentimes unintelligible. One frequent target was Yassmin Abdel-Magied, a young Australian whose every move and utterance was documented by Cut & Paste.

The great Australian political journalist Mungo MacCallum died aged 78, a week after writing his final column for Pearl and Irritations.

I never thought Id say it, but I can no longer go on working, the greatly admired commentator wrote in a short farewell post.

It takes all my effort to breathe and Im not managing that too well. And now my mind is getting wobbly hard to think, let alone concentrate.

MacCallum, who spent decades covering politics for the Australian, the Sydney Morning Herald and the ABC, was the fourth man in his family to be named Mungo MacCallum and his father was a pioneer of ABC television who once led its news division.

MacCallum Sr joined the ABC in 1952 and helped produce the first night of television in Australia in 1956.

Despite several serious health challenges MacCallum was prolific in recent years, telling Guardian Australia of his hope for true reconciliation with Indigenous Australia.

The book Im desperate to see is the true history of Indigenous Australia culminating in recognition, reconciliation and treaty Voice, Treaty, Truth as the Uluru Statement from the Heart puts it but I fear I will be waiting a long time.

But his final words in the column for were Scott Morrison, who he didnt rate.

Christmas is coming and Australia is flat

Kindly tell us ScoMo where the bloody hell were at.

And when were certain that you know that you dont havent got a clue

Then join in our Yuletide chorus as we sing: FUCK YOU!

Thank you and good night.

Cheers, Mungo.

The leader of the opposition, Anthony Albanese, had a special Christmas message for the media in parliamentary farewells on Thursday.

To the press gallery, I thank most of you, Albo said wryly. I would like to make a special mention of everyone at AAP. Even by the standards of 2020, its been pretty tough for you, not knowing whether you would still have a job or continue to exist. I am confident I hope that when we get back in 2021 well have a public gallery as well.

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Barnaby Joyce finds 'love' with alt-right commentator Lauren Southern - The Guardian

As the nations oldest business school, the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania has had an outsize influence on shaping the culture of corporate America. For more than a century, Wharton has taught aspiring capitalists how to break into new markets, trounce the competition and mint profits.

Today, while the foundational skills needed to run a business are still important, companies are also grappling with concerns that go well beyond the balance sheet. Diversity and inclusion, inequality, climate change, immigration and, more broadly, the role of business in society are all part of the conversation, in the boardroom and the classroom. And earlier this year, to take the school in a new direction, Wharton hired Erika James as its new dean.

Ms. James, who studied at Pomona College before receiving her Ph.D in organizational psychology at the University of Michigan, is uniquely suited for the role. Her research included work on diversity in the workplace, as well as managing through a crisis, which led her to do consulting work with large companies confronting major challenges.

Before joining Wharton, she was dean at Emory Universitys Goizueta Business School, and a professor at the Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia.

This interview was condensed and edited for clarity.

Who were your professional role models when you were growing up?

I knew the life I wanted to have, but I didnt know the career that I would foster in order to create that life. Ive always been very attracted to being comfortable, if you will, even though we were really salt of the earth, middle-class people. My mother was a teacher. So my first role model was really the fact that I had a working mother, and most of the friends that I had did not. I just assumed I would work as well, though I never wanted to be a teacher. My stepfather had his own practice as a clinical psychologist, but he never really cared about money. He was just really interested in the work that he did. I was really intrigued by the work that he did, and I doubt I would have learned about psychology had it not been for my stepfather. So I think that I was most influenced by his career.

How did you wind up getting involved in business education?

When I was at Michigan, I realized I really enjoyed research, and I really had interesting questions that I wanted to answer, and those questions were largely around what happens in organizations. What happens in businesses? Why do companies operate and behave the way that they do?

I graduated quickly because I was ready to start working. I was eager to move out into the world and have a paycheck. I was looking more at sort of traditional corporate roles. My dissertation adviser said: Youll always be able to do that, but at this moment, Im asking you to take one year and pursue something in a university setting. If you dont like it, you can easily jump to McKinsey or American Express or Pfizer. I really respected her opinion. And so I went and applied for one academic job. I expected to leave after one year, and 20 years later, Im still in academia.

Its a surer path to a comfortable life working at Pfizer or American Express than it is entering academia. What made you comfortable with that decision?

There was a lot of heartache in thinking about that decision. I had an offer from Pfizer, and this was when Viagra had just come out, and I was looking at the stock option package that they were offering. In hindsight, silly me for not for not taking that opportunity. But what I realized is I felt so much better about the work I was doing in higher education. I felt that the impact that I could have with my research and with the students was a deeper calling than whatever work I would be doing in human resources for Pfizer.

With your consulting work you were clearly looking at business, warts and all. How has that impacted your work today?

Ive spent the past 20 years looking at the dark side of the business. There is never a shortage of case studies to study or to write about. What I realized once I started to have an opportunity to engage in leadership roles in business education was that I now have a platform to change the narrative around business. Business for many years had such a bad, negative reputation that I think it was inhibiting people who were quite talented from wanting to pursue business as a career possibility.

How is the Wharton curriculum being reshaped to address the increased focus on environmental, social and governance concerns, and diversity and inclusion?

Its a twofold process. The conversations in the classrooms are changing because the students are asking for it. Their expectation is that thats in our syllabus. Were going to have coursework and reading material and discussions on corporate social responsibility. We have to. If we want to continue to be an attractive choice for business school students, then our curriculum has to reflect what theyre asking for as a part of their business school experience. So that is starting to happen.

I would also say theres a generation of faculty thats now coming into significant leadership roles as department chairs, for example, who have much more influence in preparing the curriculum and setting the agenda, and those faculty are increasingly aligned with where the students are coming from.

How is politics finding its way into the classroom?

Its no secret that academic institutions in general are typically perceived to be more liberal or progressive brands, rather than conservative. But a business school is potentially a bit more balanced. We are a microcosm of whats happening in the world. And for a period of time now it has become out of favor to not be consistently aligned with the progressive movement. So I think that some of our students, and some of our faculty, have felt that theyve been pushed underground because their views and ideologies are different from the perceived ideologies of a more progressive movement. And thats a difficult place. We dont all necessarily need to agree on everything, but we do need to understand how to engage with and respect the views and opinions and beliefs of all of our community members. I think business schools are struggling with that, as are companies.

Does the M.B.A. still matter?

Im the dean of the business school, so yes, the M.B.A. still matters.

Do you believe there has been progress when it comes to real meaningful diversity and inclusion and opportunities for Black men and women over the last many years at corporate America?

The data speaks for themselves. There hasnt been a lot of progress if you look at the sheer number of Black C.E.O.s or Blacks within one or two reporting relationships of the C.E.O. Why is that the case? I think its the case that we havent fully prioritized it as much as we have talked about it. And the two are very, very different.

In 2020 following the killing of George Floyd, the galvanizing efforts of C.E.O.s and executives is unlike anything that I had ever seen before. The question is how much of what we saw this summer was a reaction to his killing, versus how much of that will be a sustained effort to really think about the ways in which organizations recruit and attract and develop and promote and compensate Black professionals. Time will tell.

Do you ever feel like youve had to work twice as hard, or that there have been obstacles as a result of your gender or race?

Of course. But one of the interesting things that Ive been grappling with is how much of that is pressure that I put on myself, versus how much of that is pressure that I actually have felt from other people. I dont have the answers, but I certainly put a lot of pressure on myself with the belief that I had to be that much better, that there was no room for error or mistake. It sort of drives me in ways that has obviously led to opportunities that are quite extraordinary.

How do you expect Wharton will change during your tenure?

I dont think we can just assume that because were Wharton we can just rest on our laurels and say, well always be safe. We have to be mindful that our competition is not just other business schools. Our competition is complacency, and when youre the best, it is very easy to become complacent. So one of the things that I hope that my tenure as dean will do is to motivate us to think about how do we want to define business education in the future, and not only rely on what weve done in the past.

I think the fact that Im Whartons first female dean means there are likely going to be differences in how I engage with our alumni and with our students and with our faculty that are reflective of who I am as a woman at this level in business education. There just arent a lot of us.

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At Wharton, a New Leader Confronts the Culture Wars - The New York Times

The defeat of Donald Trump will not help

by Jon Fasman: Washington correspondent, The Economist

WASHINGTON, DC

BERNIE SANDERS and Elizabeth Warren had more passionate fans. Kamala Harris and Pete Buttigieg were more poised speakers. But Joe Biden had something other Democratic candidates lacked: faith that he could bring Democrats and Republicans together. Many considered this naive and unrealistic. But it appealed to enough voters to propel him past his more strident challengers in the primary, and then to defeat the most divisive president in modern history.

It is not hard to see why. The past four yearsand to a lesser extent, the eight before that, under Barack Obamahave been a period of intense cultural and political polarisation in America. Increasingly, Democrats and Republicans do not just hold different views on, say, gay marriage and tax rates. They inhabit different universes and increasingly distrust each other.

Two months before the 2020 election, a poll showed that over 40% of Americans of both parties believed violence would be justified if the other sides candidate won the election. Most presidents, including Mr Obama, saw such deep antipathy as damaging, both to national unity and to their political prospects. At least rhetorically, virtually all presidents have tried to broaden their appeal once in office.

Mr Trump never did. He exploited and inflamed division, like the reality-television star he was before entering office, rather than trying to heal it. Small wonder that over 75m Americans rallied to Mr Bidens plea for unity. Ordinarily such appeals would be routine for an American politician. But these were not ordinary times. With Mr Trump appealing to his base, and the woke left appealing to theirs, the vast American middle found its tribune in Mr Biden, an ageing career politician who ably met his moment.

Even so, he will be unable to deliver the unity he promised. That is not his fault: nobody could. Partisanship and division sell. Rush Limbaugh and The Daily Show are not going away just because Mr Trump lost and Mr Biden prefers unity. Social media lets Americans have their political views constantly confirmed rather than challenged.

Gone are the days of conservative Democrats and liberal Republicans regularly crossing the aisle. Today political parties are almost wholly aligned along cultural and ideological fault-lines. Most senators and representatives hold safe seats where they have more to fear from a more radical primary challenger within their own party than an opposition candidate.

Even if Mr Biden had won the landslide that the left hoped for, America would have remained deeply divided; he might just have had an easier time getting legislation through Congress. Soon after taking office on January 20th, he will urge all Americans to wear masks; adherence to that suggestion will almost certainly be greater in Democratic- than Republican-leaning areas. Several cases in the Supreme Courts pipeline may severely restrict abortion rights without directly outlawing it. The battles over those cases will be no less intense just because Mr Biden sits in the White House. No politician can force Americans to end their countrys culture wars. They must decide to do that themselves.

Jon Fasman: Washington correspondent, The Economist

This article appeared in the United States section of the print edition of The World in 2021 under the headline Long division

More here:
Americas culture wars will intensify - The Economist