Recently, in a discussion of school-related issues, a conservative said this: “The children and their proper education are our national treasure and we need to preserve this treasure.”
Ian Underwood
Agreeing on Divisive Concepts
As things heat up at school board meetings — with the new prospect that people expressing displeasure with their local boards may be treated as ‘terrorists’ — it’s worth revisiting the idea of removing ‘divisive concepts’ from schools since they are what so much of the fuss is about.
The Debt Sky
Thanks to Republicans in the Senate, the federal debt ceiling is about to rise by $480 billion. That ceiling always gets reached eventually, which means that $480 billion is going to be borrowed, to be paid back later with interest.
Unsurrectionist?
As the term ‘insurrection’ is normally used — think about the Whiskey Rebellion, or for that matter, the Battles of Lexington and Concord — it’s laughable to call the events of January 6 an insurrection.
No one needs…
During his recent address to Congress, Joe Biden said that ‘there’s no possible justification for having 100 rounds’ when you have a firearm with you. How does he know this? From talking to ‘responsible gun owners’ and ‘hunters’?
Virtue (Mixed) Signaling
This year, the Academy Awards will not require attendees to wear masks… except when the cameras are not rolling, e.g., during commercial breaks.
Last Chance — Support ‘Grok by Supporting RKBA
Having failed at his attempt to undermine voting rights, and throw money at ‘infrastructure’, President* Biden is now taking aim at guns, so to speak. Lacking support in Congress, he’s likely to be limited to issuing executive orders making it illegal for ‘rogue gun dealers’ to do things that are already against the law. But … Read more
Covo Codes
It would be nice to have some kind of published list of businesses that aren’t COVID-crazy — businesses that now welcome customers who aren’t wearing masks, and later will welcome those who don’t carry ‘vaccine passports.’
The best way to defend gun rights may be to attack religious freedom
President* Biden claimed today that ‘no amendment to the Constitution is absolute’. The idea that no rights are absolute is demonstrably wrong, as is the dumb example that he relied on to illustrate it. But we can ignore that for the moment. I say we take him at his word — not because he’s right, … Read more
Bidenomics
President* Biden appears bent on pumping untold amounts of money into the economy, and predictably people are raising concerns that this will cause significant inflation, and even hyper-inflation. But those worriers are thinking about money in the old, ‘economic’ sense, because they haven’t read the fine print. (With the size of modern bills, who has … Read more
If This Is ‘Passive Racism’, We Need More of It
The latest victim in the ongoing Carnival of Cancellation is the book The Adventures of Ook and Gluk, Kung-Fu Cavemen from the Future, by Dav Pilkey. When I heard how awful it was, I figured I should read it. After all, how can I avoid engaging in ‘passive racism’ unless I know what it is? … Read more
They Don’t Even Have to Pretend Anymore
It’s one thing to hear outsiders making claims about conspiracies among political insiders to use the COVID panic to implement power grabs in areas having nothing to do with public health.
They’re just conspiracy nuts, right?
You Can’t Unionize Jobs That Don’t Exist
Remember when Amazon pulled out of Seattle in part because of the city was planning to target its largest employers with a ‘head tax’? Remember when Amazon scuttled its plans to open a center in New York City, because AOC and other progressives organized opposition to the move? Clearly this is a company that is … Read more
If you Build it, They Will Come (and take it over)
Apparently, there are some bills being considered in Concord that would place limits on the ideas that teachers at publicly-funded institutions can endorse during work hours.
Let’s not confuse ‘best’ with ‘good’
Here’s a graph of NAEP (the National Assessment of Educational Progress) results, by state: This is for 4th grade reading, but the graphs for every grade and subject tell a similar story. It looks like there’s some real variation there, right? Some states are doing better. (They are ‘among the best’, as people in those … Read more
Those Who Can’t Do, Teach. Those Who Can’t Teach, Legislate.
Recently, someone forwarded me a letter to the editor, submitted by one of my ‘representatives‘ (Linda Tanner) in Concord, regarding school choice. She asked for my thoughts on it, which you can find (point by point) below.
The War on Drugs Made the War on COVID Possible
Imagine a ‘public health’ crisis, in which: The media, and both major political parties, cooperate to weave an ‘official narrative’ about how the crisis was caused and what needs to be done about it. People who wish to share facts, or express opinions, that are not aligned with this narrative are defunded, defamed, and deplatformed. … Read more
Problem or Consequence?
Here are a couple of examples of ‘problem-based thinking’: If people have access to guns, some small number of them will misuse those guns. That’s a ‘problem’, and the ‘solution’ is to take guns away from everyone. If people have access to drugs, some small number of them will misuse those drugs. That’s a ‘problem’, … Read more
Image of the Day
The image above is the ‘splash screen’ for software used by some towns to track assessments of real property, so that the property can be taxed — or more accurately, ransomed back to its ‘owners’ each year. I apologize for the blurriness of the image, but it just appears for 1-2 seconds when the software … Read more
Quote of the Day
This is from Carl Hart, a professor of neuroscience and psychology at Columbia University, quoted in the May 2021 issue of Reason: The first thing we have to recognize is that science and scientists are not the same. (In much the same way, America and Americans are not the same.) When a government official says … Read more