Author's archive
Chris Quixote 0
Aside:
It says something about today’s Republican Party that it makes Chris Christie look, as my old doctor would say about test results, “within normal limits.”
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
And another child is sacrificed to the NRA’s leaden idol.
Thought Police 0
The Fredericksburg, Va., Free Lance-Star reports on efforts to censor books in the Spotsylvania County public schools. You can follow the link for the story, but this sentence leapt out at me (emphasis added):
The county continues to field book challenges, most of them initiated by one parent.
Welcome to the unfree marketplace of ideas.
Artificial? Yes. Intelligent? Not So Much. 0
At Psychology Today Blogs, Peter Gärdenfors points out that (emphasis added)
Follow the link for his explanation of how he came to that conclusion and why he considers it important.
(Broken link fixed.)
This New Gilded Age 0
LZ Granderson wonders whether Republicans have ever read any of the works of Charles Dickens.
Here’s how his article starts:
High school freshman girls should not double as cocktail waitresses at night.
That’s not a sentence I thought needed to be said, but here we are in 2023, and conservative lawmakers in more than 10 states are making efforts to roll back child labor laws. Cocktail waitress is just one of the disturbing occupations floated as appropriate work for children.
Iowa enacted a law last month allowing more kids to work more dangerous jobs. In Arkansas, a 14-year-old would no longer need to show an employer proof of parental approval.
Now the arguments against this movement are painfully obvious, but the so-called case for child labor requires unpacking.
Follow the link for the unpacking.
Afterthought:
As Republicans reintroduce child labor while barring immigrants who are willing to work, I am again reminded of Professor Shade’s mantra, “History is irony.”
American Taliban 0
The writer of a letter to the editor of the Portland Press-Herald sees a parallel.
