In light of the New York Times’ “1619 Project” push to make it part of the public school curriculum, despite the extremely dubious proposition that the “primary” purpose of the American revolution was to maintain the institution of slavery, it raises the question of who makes the decision to teach public school children history, and what history they are taught. As Ilya Somin notes, that’s a matter of local concern.

Dana Goldstein of New York Times has an interesting article describing how state governments in both liberal California and conservative Texas work to skew school textbooks in favor of their preferred ideologies. Despite their differences, both seek to indoctrinate students rather than present facts in any sort of evenhanded way.

Despite the “sense” that education should be left to the brain trust of the federal government, it’s very much a matter of what local school boards decide it is, although the content of texts requires a bigger bludgeon and so state education departments get involved to dictate to book publishers what their texts should say. Continue reading →

The guard found out not because of his diligent investigatory skills, but because Willie Nash asked him for “juice.” It dawned on the guard that he wasn’t talking orange as Nash handed him his cellphone, having been taken into the Newton County jail on some unspecified misdemeanor. For that, Nash was sentenced to 12 years.

The statute Nash was convicted of violating, Mississippi Code Section 47-5-193, prohibits inmates from possessing “any weapon, deadly weapon, unauthorized electronic device, contraband item, or cell phone or any of its components or accessories to include, but not limited to, Subscriber Information Module (SIM) cards or chargers.”

Deadly weapons and SIM cards are pretty much the same thing, and certainly worthy of the same punishment. Hey, the sharp edge of a SIM card could take an eye out if thrown with precision, right? Continue reading →

A gentleman never hits a woman, which apparently puts him at a significant disadvantage in some relationships.

Whitaker discovered, of the 24 percent of relationships that had been violent, half had been reciprocal and half had not. Although more men than women (53 percent versus 49 percent) had experienced nonreciprocal violent relationships, more women than men (52 percent versus 47 percent) had taken part in ones involving reciprocal violence.

Regarding perpetration of violence, more women than men (25 percent versus 11 percent) were responsible. In fact, 71 percent of the instigators in nonreciprocal partner violence were women.

Continue reading →

Before I left high school, I read most of what was then deemed “great” literature. One teacher, whose name eludes me but he was very animated, taught an English class on Shakespeare where we read a dozen of his plays, more than a dozen sonnets, and engaged in lengthy discussions of whether there really was a person named Shakespeare and, if not, who wrote the works under this name.

In the process, there were lessons in critical thinking, but make no mistake, this was about Shakespeare’s content, his words, themes and ideas. It was never said aloud, but a well-educated person read Shakespeare. As I went off to college, I never considered a future in the humanities, but whatever I did, wherever I ended up, I would have a working knowledge of Shakespeare, as well as a list of great English and American writers from Twain to Austen.

These writers are now considered anathema, remnants of our colonialist history of promoting “dead white men,” even if some were women, in the European fashion, at the expense of “others,” whether from darker continents or more relevant to the world occupied by students shut out from elite education. Continue reading →

In the ever-shifting sands of trying to sanitize the interwebs for the same of the children, an interesting argument has arisen to eviscerate the Section 230 Safe Harbor of the Communications Decency Act: Mexican drug cartels.

Much like Hollywood celebrities, Mexican cartels have vast social media followings. The notorious Sinaloa Cartel has more than 88,000 followers on Twitter, for example, while Los Zetas, an uber-violent Mexican cartel that has broadcast murders on YouTube, has a Facebook universe with approximately 47,000 connected accounts like these.

To some extent, young, net-savvy criminals are using social media the same way as young people everywhere: to document and brag about their lives. Instagram and Twitter posts featuring cash, gold plated guns, luxury cars and even pet tigers are a powerful lure for jobless young men who see the gangster life as a path out of drudgery.

Continue reading →

One of the two UConn students who was arrested for saying the “n-word” in a parking lot at night has cut a deal.

A judge on Tuesday accepted Jarred Karal’s application for accelerated rehabilitation. Karal, 21, of Plainville, was placed on six months of probation and ordered to complete 20 hours of community service and undergo diversity and bias training, the Hartford Courant reported.

Accelerated rehabilitation is generally for first-time offenders charged with nonviolent offenses. A charge of ridicule on account of creed, religion, color, denomination, nationality or race will be dismissed after a successful probation period.

Continue reading →

It’s understandable that Prince Harry is less than thrilled with his future at the Firm, given that his job was to be a spare, and even that job is no longer needed. So he, with his Duchess of Sussex, decided to take their own path of progressive manifest destiny. Whatevs.

True to the intense attention the Duke and Duchess of Sussex have attracted since their marriage in May 2018, the press was quickly filled with stories about their finances and prospects, and about how the queen, the prince’s grandmother, would handle the defection. A few articles actually showed sympathy for a couple trapped in a gilded cage that exposed them to constant scrutiny — and, in the duchess’s case, virulent racism.

On the one hand, there are a few benefits to being royals, like money, title, adoration. But the gilded cage analogy is a good one, particularly for Princess Di’s second boy, who’s struggled with where exactly he fits into the scheme of monarchical stability in a former empire in turmoil. Continue reading →

In a world where idiocy is given as kind an explanation as possible, Trump’s twitted threat might be described as the sort of outrageous hyperbolic nonsense one would expect of an impulsive ignoramus.

Let this serve as a WARNING that if Iran strikes any Americans, or American assets, we have…..

….targeted 52 Iranian sites (representing the 52 American hostages taken by Iran many years ago), some at a very high level & important to Iran & the Iranian culture, and those targets, and Iran itself, WILL BE HIT VERY FAST AND VERY HARD. The USA wants no more threats!

Continue reading →

Changes have been proposed to Virginia’s Human Rights Law’s definition of sexual harassment that give rise to an interesting, and growing, constitutional conundrum. From HB 1418:

“Unlawful discrimination on the basis of sex” includes harassment on the basis of sex. Conduct amounts to harassment on the basis of sex when (i) submission to unwelcomed sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, or other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature is made either explicitly or implicitly a term or condition of a person’s employment; (ii) submission to or rejection of such conduct by a person is used as the basis for employment decisions affecting such person; or (iii) such conduct has the purpose or effect of unreasonably interfering with a person’s work performance or creating an intimidating, hostile, or offensive working environment.

Continue reading →

The image that came to mind is Capt. Obvious, mostly because the military title for Attorney General, and how he’s called “general” as if he’s about to lead a brigade of lawyers into battle, always made me chuckle. But prawfs Dan Epps and William Ortman have proposed that if the government gets one, why not the defense?

The United States needs a Defender General—a public official charged with representing the collective interests of criminal defendants before the Supreme Court of the United States. The Supreme Court is effectively our nation’s chief regulator of criminal justice.

But in the battle to influence the Court’s rulemaking, government interests have substantial structural advantages. As compared to counsel for defendants, government lawyers—and particularly those from the U.S. Solicitor General’s office—tend to be more experienced advocates who have more credibility with the Court. Continue reading →