We are a commune of inquiring, skeptical, politically centrist, capitalist, anglophile, traditionalist New England Yankee humans, humanoids, and animals with many interests beyond and above politics. Each of us has had a high-school education (or GED), but all had ADD so didn't pay attention very well, especially the dogs. Each one of us does "try my best to be just like I am," and none of us enjoys working for others, including for Maggie, from whom we receive neither a nickel nor a dime. Freedom from nags, cranks, government, do-gooders, control-freaks and idiots is all that we ask for.
Consider Bellevue, Washington, home to Cherry Crest Elementary School. The school website indicates that students “will have explicit conversations about race, equity, and access” and “will identify culture and begin to recognize and identify white culture through storytelling, sharing, and conversation.” The school promises to hold monthly assemblies that focus on culture, identity, and race, and has created a group called SOAR (Students Organized Against Racism) for fourth- and fifth-graders. These children, who range from ages nine to 11, are tasked with “implementing learning and stratimplementation of school-wide learning and strategies for being anti-racist.” Left unclear is whether these students have been made aware that modern antiracism requires discrimination on the basis of race.
Or take Lexington, Massachusetts, where, in October 2019, fourth-graders were taught to “articulate what gender identity is and why it’s important to use nonbinary language in describing people we don’t know yet.” According to photos shared on Twitter by the district’s Director of Equity and Student Supports, students learned about “gender identity,” “gender expression,” “sexual orientation,” and “sex assigned at birth” by examining sticky notes on a “Gender Snowperson” who was drawn in magic marker on a large sheet of paper. The students were also taught that their pronouns had been “assigned at birth.”
Andrew Cuomo, Ron DeSantis Announce Major Rollbacks of Pandemic Restrictions. Two governors defined by their differing approaches to COVID-19 are both moving in the same direction.
Twenty retired French generals call for military rule in the country if President Macron cannot halt society's 'disintegration' caused by Islamists— sparking political uproar ahead of elections
Syracuse course questions whether academia should stop teaching Shakespeare. Syracuse University is offering a course in the English Department this Fall, entitled “Why Shakespeare? Race in the Academy.”
... too many Americans have developed an acute fear of speaking up about social and political issues, especially those involving race. According to a recent Gallup poll, 77 percent of conservatives are afraid to share their political beliefs publicly. Worried about getting mobbed on social media, fired from their jobs, or worse, they remain quiet, largely ceding the public debate to those pushing these anti-American ideologies. Consequently, the institutions themselves become monocultures: dogmatic, suspicious, and hostile to a diversity of opinion. Conservatives in both the federal government and public school systems have told me that their “equity and inclusion” departments serve as political offices, searching for and stamping out any dissent from the official orthodoxy.
YouTube, being so bold, fearless and brave, has awarded its CEO the "2021 Free Expression Award", which was then accepted by the CEO, Susan Wojcicki. Wojcicki, in her acceptance speech, detailed how she works to deny freedoms because "The freedoms we have, we really can't take for granted, we also need to make sure there are limits."
This is cutting-edge stuff here. Orwell would have a field day with this one. That is, assuming anyone reads, let alone understands, Orwell anymore. “Don’t you see that the whole aim of Newspeak is to narrow the range of thought? In the end we shall make thoughtcrime literally impossible, because there will be no words in which to express it.”
I suppose I'd be aghast at the irony, hypocrisy, and outlandishness of all this. But when the Committee of Public Safety arrives, a distinct lack of intelligence is the norm. To paraphrase Monty Python, "Nobody expects the French Revolution." Except we're reaching a point where if you don't expect it, you're just not paying attention, or you love the new-fangled guillotines these modern Jacobins utilize.
President Joe Biden took the occasion of the conviction to recycle his favorite “white supremacy” themes from his allegedly “unifying” inaugural speech and campaign rhetoric. Floyd’s murder “ripped the blinders off for the whole world to see the systemic racism . . . that is a stain our nation’s soul; the knee on the neck of justice for Black Americans; the profound fear and trauma, the pain, the exhaustion that Black and brown Americans experience every single day,” Biden said from the White House. The “summer of protest” had sent the message, according to Biden: “Enough. Enough. Enough of the senseless killings.”
Biden was not referring to the senseless killing of seven-year-old Jaslyn Adams, gunned down in a Chicago McDonald’s over the weekend. He was not referring to the four dozen black children who were killed last year in their beds, front porches, back porches, at barbecues and family birthday parties, and in their parents’ cars. He was not referring to the dozens of blacks killed every day in drive-by shootings—more than all white and Hispanic homicide victims combined—even though blacks are only 12 percent of the nation’s population...
Police shoot a lot more white people than black people. Who knew? It's not "news". Message to police officers is leave black people alone. However professional, they will tend to do that from now on.
I'd prefer a cocktail, but who knows? Only opiates I've had were after dental procedures, and they made me feel sick. Almost forgot - had fentanyl for a colonoscopy years ago. That did feel nice. Floaty, without a care.
The predicted COVID apocalypse in ‘Neanderthal’ Texas never happened
Mrs. BD and I have been fairly COVID-fearless during the past 12 months. Call us stupid if you want to.
Our Hadrian's Wall hike was cancelled last summer because the UK blocked foreigners (except immigrants - we blocked Europeans too). As Mrs. BD is getting ready for a long-weekend trip to Texas to get together with gardening friends, I decided to recall all of the places she, or we, have been during COVID Year (not including restaurants - we've done them all along):
Florida, Cape Cod (twice), Eastern Shore of Maryland for crab cakes and boats, NYC about 5 times, and Rhode Island. We tried to get a hiking week in Sedona for May, but every darn place was full. We have one of our group hikes in Upstate NY next week with great dining and beer at the bitter end. We want to get to Europe this fall.
Today, Mrs.BD is off to an architectural and historical hike around Staten Island with a pal. That is an Urban Hike. Carpe diem.
I think our running around has been about average for Americans in COVID Year.
What have our readers been doing for fun trips and adventures since last April?
Why Isn’t Anyone