Like Button

Saturday, April 09, 2022

News Weakly - 4/9/2022

Book Bans
A report from the American Library Association (ALA) says that attempts to ban books reached a 20 year high this last year. The 729 challenges were requests largely from parents (39%) and patrons (24%). When I read the report, I was disheartened. We are a nation premised on such things as freedom of the press. But then I realized that "book bans" refers to attempts on the part of parents to keep material out of the hands of children as well, and, as we all know, no one should be keeping any type of reading material out of the hands of small children, right? Not all "book bans" are created equal, and if some are seeking to keep porn in the hands of 8-year-olds (for instance), I'm disheartened for a different reason.

Against Women and Children
Colorado's governor signed the bill into law that assures women they'll always be able to kill their pre-born babies in Colorado. The story says they "joined a handful of other states" in doing so. Interesting. When we read about states trying to limit abortions, the stories always include "Republican" or "GOP" leadership. When the Oklahoma House passes a pro-life bill only allowing killing a baby in the womb if the mother's life is at risk, the story is anxious to point out that it's a Republican governor with Republicans in favor of saving lives joining "Republican states" in these "restrictive abortion laws" (which the Republicans call "pro-life legislation," a term not to be used in public). Apparently, killing babies is in the Democrats' purview, but apparently they're not proud of it since the Colorado story includes nothing about that.

Social Media to the Rescue
Pinterest is an image sharing and social media service. They've got rules, you know. Porn is okay, but they block exploitation of minors. You can't post hate-based conspiracy theories and now you can't question human-caused climate change. Does science question the particulars of human-caused climate change? Sure. Just not on Pinterest. Pinterest is just doing their part to save the world.

Women's Sports
Kentucky Governor Beshear vetoed a bill passed easily by state house and senate that would insure that only biological women would compete in women's sports. "We need to insure that women of all sexes be allowed to compete in women's sports ... but I'm not a biologist." Does anyone know why we have men's and women's sports? It's not because women dress differently than men. And if there is no difference, then stop offering men and women sports and have people sports. I dare you.

Gender Affirming
Alabama lawmakers have approved a bill that would criminalize doctors who prescribe "gender affirming" medical treatment for youth who identify as transgender. This is based on the silly notion that children lack the maturity and responsibility for making informed decisions and parents are supposed to take care of that. Personally, I'd be in favor of "gender affirming treatments" if those treatments were aimed at encouraging the child to align with the gender God assigned at birth, but, hey, that's just because I think God doesn't make mistakes. What do I know?

Around the Bee
You read that Elon Musk joined Twitter's board and Twitter employees are scared. What if Musk turns their free speech platform into a platform that allows free speech??!

A massive rat colony has fled Washington D.C. after finding the city is infested with politicians.

Just a fun headline. Canadians are outraged over a new "Don't Say Eh" bill.

After having been banned from Twitter for listing Rachel Levine as their "Man of the Year," the Bee has issued an apology. In part,
So we invite our readers to say it with us, loudly and proudly, and with all the strength and goodness of 1000 kindergarten teachers in Florida trying to teach 5-year-olds about sex:

Rachel Levine is a powerful, beautiful woman.

Whatever that is.
An Afterthought
Since "I identify" has become the standard by which we're all required to treat people, I wish to come out here and now. I identify as young, handsome, and brilliant. Now, I know you'll all do the right thing and see me and treat me in accordance with my chosen adjectives. Thank you for the kind affirmation that differs from my "assigned" adjectives.

1 comment:

Craig said...

Update. It appears as though the offer on of a seat on Twitter's board was more of an attempt to limit the amount of shares Musk could buy, as a way of controlling him. In any event Musk did not accept the board seat, and is free to purchase as much of Twitter as he can. It's funny to watch the loony leftist Twitter employees who "quit" with much fanfare because of Musk.