The Banned Books Scam

“Banned Book Week” is September 18-24, and my local public library (the Morse Institute Library) has let its freak flag fly and got out ahead of the curve by starting its promotion early. The display was promptly praised on a local Facepalm™ group, where it received an overwhelmingly (though not entirely) positive response. I had to admit to finding it rather embarrassing. “Freedom is reading a banned book” sounds like the philosophical musings of an over-indulged 14-year old planning a coup out at the vacation house to overthrow the patriarc...

The Calm Before the Storm?

The President Donald Trump era appears to be circling the drain. What an utterly unglued five years this has been in American political and popular society. Trump’s enemies, at least in the press, seem to think that his apparent impending departure from public office will mark his removal from the public scene, or at least from public influence. I do not think they could be more wrong (as usual). Setting aside the increasingly far-fetched possibility that Trump may yet pull out a victory via legal challenges to Democrat Party election shenanigans, the fa...

It is hard to imagine zero-tolerance bullying prevention without schools becoming mini-bureaucratic-police states

Quote of the Day for Wednesday, September 14th, 2011: Mary Rose Somarriba, writing yesterday at Public Discourse, on the recent anti-bullying legislation recently enacted in New Jersey (hewing closely to Obama administration policies), in an article called “A Bully-Free World?”: Why, one might ask, would the president lead a conference on preventing something like bullying, which is ultimately impossible to prevent? It could be, perhaps, because bullying is something that everyone agrees is wrong, and it is something that everyone can relate to, because ...

Out, Off, End… Goodbye

Quote of the Day: West Virginia Democrat Senator John (Jay) Rockefeller IV: I hunger for quality news. I’m tired of the Right and the Left. There’s a little bug inside of me which wants to get the FCC to say to FOX, and to, to MSNBC: “Out, off, end… Goodbye.”  [It would] be a big favor to political discourse, our ability to do our work here in Congress — and to the American people to be able to talk with each other and have some faith in their government, and in their  – more importantly – in their future. (U.S. ...