Maggie's Farm

An author sent me this note received from the CEO of the (US) Author's Guild:

Dear all,

I am disheartened and deeply troubled by the insensitivities and refusal to listen that I saw in some of the comments that were posted in the thread titled "When is discrimination against authors by race not discrimination by authors about race?" 

This forum is open to all members, and all need to feel welcome and respected. Going forward, posts that are insensitive to the historical and current hardships experienced by BIPOC and LGBTQ+ authors will be removed under our current terms of service: (https://authorsguild.org/terms-of-use/), and the person posting it will receive a strike.

A reminder that the AG Council adopted a resolution to try to address the imbalances and lack of equity in publishing, and that it is current AG policy to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion, both internally and in the organizations' respective programmatic work.

See https://authorsguild.org/about/principles/our-commitment-to-diversity-equity-inclusion-and-accessibility/

The Guild will offer DEIA training to all members, and I encourage all to take it, especially if you are not familiar with the inequality and bias that BIPOC authors continue to experience today. You might find it mind-opening. We like to believe that we live in a country where all are treated equally and have equal opportunity, but we are still so far from that ideal. As writers, you have the power to change minds and so to change the world for the better. I behoove you to use your gifts to help lift us reach the American ideal of equality. 

Authors today have so many challenges in front of us. We must support one another and unite to face them. Intentional divisiveness has no place in the AG, and should not be tolerated. 

Thank you,

Mary Rasenberger, CEO

Her Beet Soup turned blue 

TGIF 

WSJ: There's no substitute for meeting in person 

VDH:  The Price of Eliminating Consequences - Magnanimity demonstrated to those harming us at home and abroad is interpreted as American weakness, if not decadence to be further exploited.

No good deed goes unpunished 

 Revenge of the Patriarchy: White House Gives Women’s Day Award to a Dude in a Dress

Very advanced 

 A glimmer of hope for free speech at Yale Law School

 Harvard students demand Winthrop House be renamed, call name ‘harmful’

What? 

Critical race theory is teaching kids to hate each other

 Stop Lying To People. They're Not Perfect Just As They Are

As my wife frequently reminds me 

 The Rise of Father Absence and Its Attendant Social Ills - Fatherless children are at higher risk of delinquency that undermines their own prospects and disrupts the communities in which they reside.

Correlation is not causation 

Feeling good about your fat bod is reserved for Black women

 ‘Indigenous Studies’ lecturer denies historical brutality of Native American tribes, blames ‘white people’

DeSantis is simply avoiding the backbiting of the national media who have made it their goal to destroy him by lying about him.

DeSantis is Hitler + Stalin + Pol Pot. Trump is just Hitler. 

Chronicle:  Diversity Statements Are Under Fire. Here’s What They Are and How They’re Used.

WSJ:  Employees Terrorize Their Bosses Into Going Woke. A new study confirms that power-seeking workers play an ‘outsized’ role in politicizing businesses.

MacDonald:  in Loco Masculi - The feminization of the American university is all but complete

 The American Way Versus the Politicians’ Way

Chuck Schumer has Big Mad about Tucker and the tapes

 TUCKER CARLSON’S EXPOSE BLEW A RATHER LARGE HOLE IN DEMS ‘DEADLY INSURRECTION’ STORY

 Mitch McConnell Slams Tucker Carlson and Fox News Over J6 Video Release. Denying the truth of what the videos show makes McConnell as complicit as those who participated in the sham J6 committee.

 'Bring Nation To Standstill': France Hit By Massive Strikes Over Pension Reform

 Are EVs evil?

 Are There More Than Two Sexes?

 The Sad Spectacle of ‘Drag Queen Story Hour’

 At the New York Times, a tale of two headlines

 Hide the Ball: Columbia U Becomes First Ivy League School To Permanently Eliminate Required Standardized Admissions Testing

How ‘woke’ ideologies are upending American childhood

 The Humanities: Another Example Of Leftism Ruining Everything It Touches

 West Coast, Welcome to the Dumb Idea Factory!

 LGBTQ slurs found at MIT done by students protesting school’s new pro-free speech efforts

 BLM Rioters Get $6M Because Cops Didn’t Wear Face Masks

Thousands of Belgian Farmers Join Protest Against Globalist Reset Plans

 After adjusting for biases in BMI, a study found people carrying excess weight had far worse mortality outcomes than previously known.

Even The Nation:  Let Kids Read Roald Dahl’s Books the Way He Wrote Them. The beloved author’s books are being edited by their publisher to suit contemporary sensibilities. That robs us of the author’s vision—and any sense of history.

CUNY announced in a January press release that it completed its elimination of “outdated traditional remedial math and English courses” and is replacing them with “more equitable ‘corerequisite’ courses,” or for-credit classes that provide the foundational skills that students should have obtained in high school.

 PBS Denounces Monopoly and Capitalism

Is Poker ok? 

 TGIF: Crime & Punishment - Murdaugh’s a murderer. Lightfoot’s a loser. Ghislaine goes hungry. Plus, the latest scary TikTok trend.

 SCAM OF THE CENTURY? Canada's Trans Teacher with the Enormous Fake Boobs Put on Paid Leave

Guy has a good sense of fun 

 UNITED AIRLINES TOUTS ALL-LGBTQ FLIGHT CREW; CUSTOMERS NOT AMUSED

 Trent College Minister Fired as Threat to Students After Criticizing LGBTQ Values

 Exercise More Effective Than Counseling or Medication for Depression

That is overstatement 

 Several months into “15 days to flatten the curve,” actual experts, like the Great Barrington Declaration scientists, began screaming from the rooftops about natural immunity. They argued — correctly, as it turns out — that we should protect the vulnerable while allowing those not at risk to go about their lives, get COVID and acquire immunity.

  It would be very hard for Chicago’s next Mayor to be worse than Lightfoot.

 NBC Reporter Goes To Crimea, Shocks Viewers By Telling The Truth

 NY Times on rising illegal immigration... in Canada

 Sorry Russia and Ukraine, China Would Like Its Stuff Now

 Biden Admin Upset Over You Pesky Citizens Losing Faith In Arming Ukraine

Citizens are so annoying to governments 

 The Rise of the Right-Wing Peacenik - ‘I realized that my own side was led by a bunch of incompetents and ideologues who had taken our country down a path of destruction. And for what?’

Dangerous reptilians

Talking baseball 

Ohio "battling" overweight 

 Elon Musk: Media, Education System Are “Racist Against Whites And Asians”…

 More than half of college professors bite their tongues over cancel culture fears

 Protesters set fire to Matt Walsh flyers ahead of Stanford speech, Eventbrite cancels ticket sales

 Syracuse University implements 5-year DEI plan. 'We will demonstrate our commitment to being an inclusive campus that supports... underrepresented minorities, international students and faculty, the disabled, the LGBTQ+ community.'

The New Yorker: The End of the English Major 

 Dishonor Code: What Happens When Cheating Becomes the Norm? Students say they are getting ‘screwed over’ for sticking to the rules. Professors say students are acting like ‘tyrants.’ Then came ChatGPT .

 US Energy Department assesses Covid-19 likely resulted from lab leak, furthering US intel divide over virus origin

 10 myths told by COVID experts — and now debunked

Whale deaths and windfarms 

The question is whether the sonar ships used to build the windmills are blinding sea mammals' sonar 

Exercise and depression 

WSJ:  Why We Should Keep Reading Freud - Today’s psychologists find him embarrassing, but the founder of psychoanalysis had powerful insights into the way our minds work.

 'Health at Every Size' Group Razes the 'Racism and Healthism' of Physicians Fighting Obesity

 Pediatric cancer fundraiser not diverse enough, Penn State students say

Spectator: Are the adults back in charge at the New York Times? Newsroom leadership chastised staff for aligning with activist groups

Microaggressions can "kill you," criminalize speech against "oppressed groups"

 Major Association Of US Doctors Makes Official Statement On Transgender Procedures For Minors

 DeSantis worse than murderer

Some high profile writers at the NY Times are pushing back against the mob

 College censors art exhibit with content warning, curtains following Muslim students’ complaint

 What the Hell Is Going on With That Trump Grand Jury Foreman?

 Morning Joe Declares Free Speech to Be 'Out of Date'

 Rolling Stone: Cancel Culture Is Good For Democracy Or Something

 Heidegger’s Downfall - Richard Wolin’s reappraisal of Martin Heidegger offers both original contributions and a synthesis of critical scholarship. The result is a timely work of enduring importance.

Who is "indiginous"? 

 America is running out of oppressed classes in need of saviors, so apparently, we must expend every more effort to find people to save. 

 Victor Davis Hanson: The Ukraine War's Prelude To What?

 There is no evidence for a Universe before the Big Bang.Nobel Laureate Roger Penrose, famed for his work on black holes, claims we've seen evidence from a prior Universe. Only, we haven't.

 ROALD DAHL CAN NEVER BE MADE NICE. Rewriting his novels is about corporate safetyism, not social justice.

 Rank Innumeracy On The Cost Of Electricity From Renewables

 Yale sacred music center launches climate change art initiative

 Drucker on Education, 1969

 Charters succeed at teaching — that’s why their enemies hate them

 Names, pronouns & the law

Unease Over Biden's Proxy Quagmire in Ukraine Is Growing

 Racism in reporting: when they don't tell you the race...

 World’s Superpowers Threw Their Cards on the Table This Week and Every One of Them Came Up in Favor of WWIII

Masks no longer required at NY healthcare facilities

NYT: Masks did nothing 

 Fight the Anti-Trans Backlash With Accountability, Not Silence

Re Dahl:  Rewriting Children’s Books to be Politically Correct - "We regularly review the language to ensure that it can continue to be enjoyed by all.”

 Report: In a Staggering Number of Chicago Schools, Zero Students Are Proficient in Reading or Math

 Media censorship of Hunter Biden laptop story was horrible and then it got even worse. Hunter Biden laptop coverage went from guilt and fear to revisionist history

 New York City Mayor Eric Adams Takes a Shot at Ron DeSantis. Hits Himself Instead.

 TRUMP’S APPEAL BECOMING MORE SELECTIVE

 The campaign against Musk reflects a degree of desperation as the control of social media collapsed with his purchase. 

 US joins Security Council condemnation of Israeli settlements, violence from ‘all parties’

 The Fall of Nicola Sturgeon

 Polish High Court Rules National Sovereignty Supersedes EU Authority, EU Sues

 Mood In Washington Shifting In Favor Of Jets For Ukraine

Escalating the US vs Russia war. Really? 

 Biden Went to Kyiv Because There’s No Going Back

Blueberries in New Hampshire 

MacDonald: Barometer of Hate - A major Metropolitan Museum of Art exhibit rejects beauty and cultivates racial resentment.

 Irish Man Died After Being Attacked by Chicken

 Business professors are wrong about the future of work

 When Stuff Happens – Blame it on Climate Change!

 DEI And The Reality Of Failing Democrat-Run Unionized Public Schools

 Pro-BLM teacher forced out of South Carolina school for claiming it was 'white supremacy' to call theft a crime is now accused of concealing student's gender issues from parents at new Maryland school

 UK Counter-Terrorism Program Flags Shakespeare and ‘1984’ for ‘Encouraging Far-Right Sympathies’

 Joe Biden might be the White House’s best communicator. Have you heard the rest of them try to speak?

Chicago:  What’s truly notable isn’t DeSantis’s visit. It’s the terrified reaction to it. It’s almost as if a serial killer was coming to town. DeSantis should carefully note the hysteria by Democrats. It should serve him well when his campaign for president begins in earnest.

TGIF: Let’s start with water turning the frogs gay.

 How to turn America into communist Russia: the board game

 To Increase Equity, School Districts Eliminate Honors Classes

 From Reform to Freedom - Advocates of a new education system change their tune.

Brit police arrest her for praying 

 You Won't Believe How Many People Have Fled California

 Illinois Hobby Club Believes Pentagon Shot Down Their $12 Pico Balloon

 Anti-Racism Fatigue? DEI Educators Complain They're Not Getting Work Anymore

Flying commercial is safer than crossing a street. What impresses me are the investigators of the rare accidents that happen.

Or without an ID?

Quick video: Osprey snares barricuda 

Glenn Reynolds: The Power of Old Men - Teaching in an age-old fashion

 Past the crime and grime, there’s still no place as wondrous as NYC

 “Do You Believe in the Tooth Fairy?” – Sen. John Kennedy Slices Up Delusional Climate Alarmist So Badly He’s Left Without Answers And Grinning Like an Idiot

Sheesh 

 UFO shot down by $400K US missile may have been a $12 hobby balloon

Related:  I’m sexually attracted to objects — and in a committed relationship with balloons

 Landmark Study Vindicates Everyone Who Touted Natural Immunity to COVID-19