News Weakly - 7/7/18

Little House on the Prairie Fire
Did you hear about this? Since 1954 there has been a "Laura Ingalls Wilder Medal" awarded by the American Library Association to those who made a significant achievement in children's literature. Recently they jettisoned it. "This decision was made in consideration of the fact that Wilder's legacy, as represented by her body of work, includes expressions of stereotypical attitudes inconsistent with ALSC's core values of inclusiveness, integrity and respect, and responsiveness."

What was her "sin"? Primarily it was a statement in Little House on the Prairie that read, "There the wild animals wandered and fed as though they were in a pasture that stretched much farther than a man could see, and there were no people. Only Indians lived there." When someone mentioned it to Wilder (in 1952), she responded, "You are perfectly right about the fault in Little House on the Prairie and have my permission to make the correction as you suggest. It was a stupid blunder of mine. Of course Indians are people and I did not intend to imply they were not." The sentence was changed to read "... there were no settlers." That doesn't matter. Once again "inclusiveness, integrity and respect" are defended by exclusiveness, dishonesty, and disrespect.

The Sin of Capitalism
The media is outraged (and, therefore, expects us to be also) that First Lady Melania Trump earned $100,000 in 2017 for use of images under a licensing agreement. Now, the photos were taken back in 2010, 2011, and 2016, and the agreement required that they be used only in "positive coverage", so clearly it's evil. She was a model, so obviously she shouldn't be paid for pictures taken.

All that, of course, is nonsense. What did she really do wrong? She is a Trump. End of story.

Married with Children
If you're a parent with kids at home -- just about any age, it seems -- you might want to read this story. You're over-matched, mom and dad. You might want to think about limiting access to the "weapon of choice" -- modern technology. Enough said.

(As a side question, the story quotes one consultant as saying, "There is no such thing as privacy for children." Do you agree or disagree? Should children be afforded the same privacy rights as adults? Just idly wondering.)

This is what insanity looks like
In Somalia a jihadist terror group known as Al-Shabaab, in a social-justice sensitive move, banned plastic bags because they are "bad for animals and the environment." With ties to Al Qaeda, the group also suggested "plans to introduce an immediate ban on the logging of native trees." Save the environment; kill the infidels. Insanity.

Trump is at it again
The evil Despot Trump appears to be at it again. Apparently the federal government is trying to reunify those children with their illegal immigrant parents by doing DNA testing. They make the obviously stupid claim, "The safety and security is paramount and that it is not uncommon for children to be trafficked or smuggled by those claiming to be parents." Clearly a dodge. What they really want, according to RAICES, a nonprofit in Texas that offers free and low-cost legal services to immigrants and refugees, is to be able to conduct surveillance on these children for the rest of their lives. Dirty, rotten, evil Trump. Just hand those kids back to whoever they came with and be done with it. Child traffickers, smugglers, people with malicious intent? Doesn't matter. No one is that kind of evil. That's the government's job. So the government, in an effort to right the wrong of "ripping children from their mothers' arms," are asking personal questions like "Who are your children?" and "Are there distinguishing marks?" and "Where were they born?" ostensibly to try to ascertain who their children are. Dirty, rotten government. Let the attorney's handle it. They always know what's best. Or maybe social media, the justice dispenser of the world.

It Could Really Cost You
An apparently racist fellow in Winston-Salem asked a black woman for ID to verify she was allowed to be using the private community pool. Bad move, man; really bad move. He was, as it turned out, the pool's chairman and board member. But the kicker is that after she posted her complaint on Facebook, the company for which he worked received "hundreds of messages" and fired him. That's right. The man lost his job. He wasn't on duty or at work. The company had no connection to the pool. The man was identified by the HOA where they lived, tThe Internet got ahold of his personal information (like where he worked), and he now has no income. Not welcome at his house anymore, either. (He had to leave with his family because of the death threats.)

The message is clear. Say or do something of which social media disapproves and expect retribution. Serious retribution. What will social media disapprove? Who knows? Today it was the pool chairman verifying that the people there were supposed to be. Tomorrow it might be your shirt color. The police didn't bring any charges, but social media has produced "justice" ... without, you know, any sort of due process or legal right. Don't cross the masses. It could really cost you.