It took Dr. SJ and me three tries to make it through the first episode of the new “phenomenon” Netflix series “Squid Games.” We found it repugnant. We found nothing likeable about the characters. We were repulsed by the violence. We were not, to be clear, fans of the show.

I mentioned this on the twitters and was told by a follower I respect that it went on to be inspirational, an exploration of human motivations and growth, greed v. fear v. life situations for people who had never been exposed to inhumanity. I wasn’t persuaded, but I told him I hoped it had a less nihilist message than appeared. Continue reading →

When asked by a senator who gave her the authority to make up her own rules, Catherine Lhamon smugly responded that the Senate did when it confirmed her. She had a point, that they knew who they were confirming and did so anyway. The Senate did so knowing that the administrative apparatus of the Department of Education had gone rogue, pushing Title IX to places it was never meant to go for reasons that had become sacred to a certain virulent strain of neo-feminists for whom neither fairness nor innocence mattered.

Women, the rationalization went, were sexually oppressed and they were going to end it, no matter how many innocent men were lost in the war. They didn’t care about the collateral damage. And the Senate, knowing this, confirmed Catherine Lhamon anyway. Who gave her the authority to reinvent Title IX? Continue reading →

There probably aren’t many people left who aren’t online in one way or another, making internet access something of a universal necessity. The issue of access was elevated to woke status during the early days of the pandemic, when schools went virtual and pretended it  actually served to teach students so we didn’t feel badly about denying students an education as we went into lockdown.

But two things became clear. Many poor students lacked internet access at home, making it difficult if not impossible for them to attend virtual school. And when schools acted to provide emergency access to students, they either didn’t bother to take advantage of it or didn’t bother to zoom in anyway. Continue reading →

There wasn’t much to say about the outrage over Netflix airing Dave Chappelle’s special, The Closer, until I saw it and found out what all the outrage was about. Now I have, and I get it. It was Chappelle being Chappelle, as he’s always been and still was, and that’s the problem Netflix Co-CEO Ted Sarandos faced.

Netflix Inc. Co-Chief Executive Ted Sarandos said he “screwed up” in his efforts to communicate with employees who were upset over “The Closer,” a recent comedy special by Dave Chappelle in which he made remarks that some viewed as offensive to the transgender community. Continue reading →

John F.  Kennedy thought well enough of him to tell a collection of the “best and the brightest”:

I think this is the most extraordinary collection of talent, of human knowledge, that has ever been gathered at the White House – with the possible exception of when Thomas Jefferson dined alone.

And he did write words upon which we dearly cling. Continue reading →

A 21-year-old woman used meth while she was pregnant. That this was a monumentally bad thing to do isn’t the question. There’s no really good time to use meth, and people who use meth tend to make monumentally bad choices, a minor detail often ignored by those who want to legalize drugs. But using meth while pregnant is worse than just being your everyday meth user. Does that make it manslaughter?

Brittney Poolaw, 21, was sentenced to four years in prison after the jury returned a guilty verdict earlier this month, according to ABC affiliate KSWO. An autopsy on Poolaw’s unborn child revealed it had died at 17 weeks.

Prosecutors alleged that Poolaw caused her child to be stillborn due to intravenous methamphetamine use.

Continue reading →

There you were, wearing your tightest Jordache jeans and a flammable Huckapoo shirt, and still you were on line praying the doorman would open the velvet ropes like he did as Halston walked past the bridge and tunnel crowd without breaking step. It was the age of disco and Studio 54 was queen, filled with the beautiful and famous, and not you.

And that was why you tried so very hard to get in. That was why you wanted to get in. Because it was a club that wouldn’t have you. Continue reading →

Its Virginia local proudly announced that it filed an amicus brief in a case involving teachers in Loudoun County.

The ACLU of Virginia filed an amicus brief in the Loudoun County Circuit Court on behalf of ACLU Virginia, ACLU, Equality Virginia, Equality Loudoun, Side By Side, and He She Ze and We. The brief, filed on October 13, 2021, is in opposition to an emergency petition and preliminary injunction request filed by the Alliance Defending Freedom on behalf Mr. Cross and his fellow plaintiffs.

Continue reading →

Assuming we can get past the cognitive dissonance of how the same government that’s so massively incompetent, if not venal, in the performance of functions you don’t like will miraculously perform sufficiently, if not spectacularly, when it comes to the execution of Biden’s “Build Back Better” reconciliation bill, the contents of which remain largely a mystery because, as Bernie Sanders contends, the media has done a crappy job of selling to the public as the bros expected it to do, the next question is “why?”

Some proponents of President Biden’s plans are inclined to grant Mr. Manchin’s point and then argue for programs like the child benefit on the grounds that it is a worthy kind of charity. Continue reading →

Protests in Portland caused substantial property damage and Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still dead. But this time, the Portland police stood down.

A crowd of 100 people wreaked havoc in downtown Portland, Oregon, this week – smashing storefront windows, lighting dumpsters on fire and causing at least $500,000 in damage – but police officers didn’t stop them.

Portland Police Bureau officials say that’s because of legislation passed by Oregon lawmakers this year, which restricts the tools they can use to confront people vandalizing buildings and causing mayhem. Continue reading →