Over the past few weeks, I’ve had occasion to watch Robert F. Kennedy Jr. give testimony before Congress. Most recently, he was trying to explain why a hearing on censorship should not itself be subject to censorship.
Ian Underwood
The Process is the Punishment
So, what happens if the Trump verdict in New York is overturned or if the fine is reduced to a more reasonable value? (Which — given that normal procedures were followed, and no one was harmed — would be around $10 at most.)
The Fair Share Surcharge
I recently saw a receipt from a restaurant in Los Angeles, which included a 4% surcharge labeled ‘Healthy LA’. Presumably, it is supposed to pay for health care and other benefits for restaurant workers.
Public Service Announcement: Make Your Vote Count
Taylor Swift recently blurted out on Instagram: Today, March 5, is the presidential primary in Tennessee and 16 other states and territories. I wanted to remind you guys to vote the people who most represent YOU into power. If you haven’t already, make a plan to vote today. In a similar vein, I’d like to … Read more
Crime and [No] Punishment
Recently, I was having a conversation in which I had occasion to bring up RSA 193-H:2, which says:
Schools shall ensure that all pupils are performing at the proficient level or above on the statewide assessment as established in RSA 193-C.
The Public School Double Standard (Part 2)
Years ago, I wrote about how traditional public schools are to be judged by their ideals and intentions — their best possible outcomes — rather than by their actual performance; while the alternatives (e.g., charter schools, private schools, Extended Learning Opportunities, the Children’s Scholarship Fund, Learn Everywhere, and now EFAs and even home education) are … Read more
Fewer Students + Business as Usual = More Dollars
Well, Jay Eshelman and I have finally found something we can agree on, so it’s probably worth reproducing here instead of leaving it buried in the comments section of his recent post. Here it is, in response to someone claiming that if we could just get 25% of kids to leave public schools, the system would collapse.
The Rangel Principle: If Schools Don’t Have To Teach Kids To Read, You Don’t Have To Give Them Your Money
For years, House Ways and Means Chairman Charlie Rangel (D-NY) didn’t pay taxes on significant parts of his income. When the IRS discovered this, it allowed him to pay the missing taxes without any of the normal penalties.
It’s Not the Books That Need To Be Removed…
Here’s something that blows my mind.
On the one hand, conservative parents continue to fight over the issue of pornographic books in school libraries.
But on the other hand, they continue to send their children to a political institution controlled by woke progressives.
Bruen: We May be Going About This Wrong
The Virginia state senate just passed a bill essentially outlawing the AR-15 and similar firearms.
Now, anyone who’s familiar with the Bruen ruling and its two-part test knows that this bill simply ignores that ruling.
Texas: The Art of the Loophole
I’ve been telling stories to my grandkids since they were born. They’re always the main characters in the stories. In one story, they captured a ghost, which they were exploiting for money (e.g., by putting it on television shows). They kept the ghost in a Ziplock bag. The group PETS (People for the Ethical Treatment … Read more
Quote of the Day
This is from a Substack article by Chris Bray, writing about progressives who are upset that Texas is defending its border. It has my irony meter pegged at 10:
Primaries: My ‘not’ is better than your ‘not’
RSA 654:34, which governs how voters may change party registration, makes a bizarre distinction. In one section (I), it says that if you decide to change from one party to another party on the day of a primary, you can’t vote in the primary of your new party.
Is That a Gun in Your Pocket, or…?
Apparently, a man in St. Paul, Minnesota, was playing basketball in the gym of his local school on Family Night when his gun ‘went off,’ shooting him in the leg. As those of you who have been following the adventures of Alec Baldwin know, a gun doesn’t just ‘go off’. Someone has to pull the trigger.
Closing the GOP Primary
If the GOP wants to have a closed primary, it doesn’t need permission from the Secretary of State to do that. It doesn’t have to alter what happens at polling places run by the state.
Reframing Majority Rule
There’s a therapeutic technique called reframing, which is a fancy name for changing your behavior by finding a new way to look at an old situation. Often, it consists of simply replacing a habitual question with a more insightful one.
Our Courts Should Learn From Our Sports
Ambidextrous by birth, professional baseball player Pat Venditte was able to pitch about equally well with either hand.
And he had a special six-fingered glove that he could use to catch with using either hand.
This gave him an advantage in that he could switch his pitching hand depending on the handedness of whatever hitter he was facing.
Article 83 – It’s Not about ‘cherish’, It’s about ‘and’
A proposed constitutional amendment (CACR 12) has been put forward, which would amend Article 83 of the state constitution by replacing the word ‘cherish’ with the word ‘cherish.’
Night Cap: You Like Gun Control? Push for Speech Control.
There are a lot of reasons why Claudine Gay should never have been running Harvard, but her testimony before Congress isn’t one of them. I went back and watched as much of the hearing as I could stomach, and what I heard all three university presidents saying was: Anti-semitism is bad, but speech is different from action.