This COULD be a lengthy post. But, I'll try to winnow it down to a reasonable length.
The CA Parent Bribery 'Scandal' - the 1st parent is sentenced - Felicity Huffman. Some people are FauxTraged that she "only" got 14 days incarceration. Keep in mind that the money was - for a Beverly Hills type - small ($15K). The sentence is being used to fuel more "Blacks are sentenced more harshly for less" memes. The truth is more nuanced, and undercuts the 'racism' shouts.
Immigrants should NOT get a "Three Strikes (or more)" until they are deported. The FIRST crime should have them getting the Boot. There is NO evidence that a misogynistic asshole will renounce a lifetime of demeaning and abusing women, if he is an immigrant.
At least, that's the lesson I learned from listening to the MANY immigrants of the 50s through 90s that had experienced Leftist government eager to squash them into conformity.
Frankly, the Leftists in academia seem dedicated to reducing their students to soulless automatons of Leftism.
One of the most powerful mechanisms for encouraging and promoting Freedom of Thought is the public library. Unfortunately, librarians have become radicalized from those sweet old ladies we remember from our own younger days. They no longer work to open the minds of the borrowers; their new mission is to shut down thought.
They don't have to do a Fahrenheit 451-type burning - instead, they just cull "old books" - those books that don't have the Correct Thinking on the New World Order.
No flames, just a book sale. With the unsold books going to recycling. No nasty photos reminiscent of the 1930s Nazi book burnings. Just a clean, behind-the-scenes disposal of those Nasty, non-approved Not-Leftist Thoughts.
It's not just 'bad books' that are going - it's ALL physical books. Many libraries are moving to a mostly online model. Think of it as a 1984 scenario - how much easier the allies of Big Brother would have managed, if only the books weren't a physical artifact that had to move through re-writing to re-publication. Instead, Winston would have been able to quickly move a few electrons around, and the Old History would have been no more!
I happened to find a site that creates a map of all the places you've visited. I did the states, because I've only been in two other countries, so far.
Here's my map:
The blue areas are the ones that I've visited, so far.
It's life issues. Yes, my ankle healed (although I'm still somewhat impaired by stiffness and knee pain).
My son-in-law also had a cancer recurrence - quite treatable, although it required a skin graft, and will need rehab.
My sister was ill; my husband had things for me to do. We needed to watch the teens in Cleveland for a week.
It all adds up; over time, it gets harder and harder to keep a schedule for writing. It's easier for blogs, as they tend to be short and topical.
But, the book writing is just slow - or, at times, nonexistent. I'm beginning to feel discouraged. I'm losing focus, and I begin to doubt that I will ever manage to complete my work.
I've done ONE good thing - I've started getting back to the gym. Yes, I know that a gym is not a necessity; I could easily do most of what I do at home (except for the swimming).
But, the momentum that builds up when I grab my bag and head out to the gym, carries over throughout the day.
Small steps. Taken daily. MIGHT lead to progress - eventually - on the book.
Not just Utopian, but Comprehensive. That's one of the Left's favorite terms. It's the idea that you can - FINALLY - fix the problems of those aggravating "Little People", with a solution that is imposed, top-down, by the Smart People (trademark pending).
Then, the Elites can go back to ignoring those Peons.
There is a major difference between the thinking of those with post-high school education, the Elite, and those whose children will be affected. In K-12, in the past (much less now), the emphasis was on the acquisition of useful skills. Such skills were:
Basic ability to read and write - generally not dense and deliberately difficult literature. The students might read Hemingway short stories, or Old Man and the Sea. Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby. But, not Marquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude. Even the often-assigned Moby Dick was generally reserved to upper-level Honors classes, not the guys that would be heading to a manufacturing job.
Basic math, what has been called numeracy. Facility with operations, some Algebra, Trig, Geometry for the college-bound. The others concentrated in the practical math used in real life, augmented with hands-on application in Shop class or Home Ec.
Citizenship - this was primarily American History, Civics, and Geography. In high school, European and/or World History. It wasn't watered down, as it is today. Students could explain their Constitutional Rights, along with using maps to get around (well, at that time, this was a terribly useful skill - still may be, if EMP ever gets us). They could place major events in correct time periods, as well as identify major historical figures.
Few of these skills are taught today. When the same subjects are available, few of those educated "back in the day" would recognize them. They have been watered down, made deliberately different from what their parents and grandparents had been taught, and generally designed to force students to completely trust their teachers' authority on those subjects.
In college, the knowledge is generally theoretical; a funny segment from Rodney Dangerfield's Back to School will demonstrate the distinction between the content taught and the real world.
That professor assumed that the kind of business that is worthy of study is that which is Large, Directed from On-High, run by the Smart People, and using the Lesser People only as unthinking grunts.
When, in fact, many of the more successful businesses are started by those with experience in that field, often as a start-from-the-bottom worker. Their hard-earned expertise enabled them to design a business that was both efficient and profitable.
You see that on Shark Tank. Those that start a business without having worked in a field related to it (preferably on the shop floor) have the WORST ideas. Many of them have not thought through how to get that business from early days to a reasonable profit. MANY of those run by women are set up to work (kind of), only with cash infusions from their husbands.
Educational solutions are often run the same way. Few of those involved have worked as a teacher, or only for a few short years. They won't scale up (work outside of the committed few teachers). They expect that teachers will gladly give up every other aspect of their lives, outside of a classroom. That's not a reasonable model.
Gibson's is a bakery in Oberlin, OH. It is a small town, with a large Gown (Oberlin College). To lose the business of the college brings a destructive drop in sales.
Which is what happened after a Black underage student tried to shoplift some wine. He was confronted by one of the family, and subsequently - along with 2 female friends - arrested.
Oberlin got involved, in great part because the Dean of Students, Dean Raimondo, got personally involved in revving up the protest activity. She did this, not as an individual, but as part of her administrative role. I think it's fair to say that, without her butting into the dispute, it might have burned out quickly.
BTW, the students involved in that incident admitted their guilt (one quite reluctantly - saying that Gibson's "MIGHT" not be racist). That reluctant students was corrected by her attorney to the agreed-upon statement, to which she assented, that released Gibson's from culpability.
I'd urge you to read the many-part coverage of the trial. It highlights the poor showing that the SJWs make when confronted with the malicious actions that they blithely took, in the heat of righteousness.
As more and more judges get appointed in the Appeals Courts by Trump, expect that this, and similar verdicts, will be upheld. We may be nearing the time when, as in the Book of Amos:
It can be quite expensive, and that's where online assistance can help. GoFundMe and other crowd-sourcing apps can provide some of that money.
