There was only one problem with the very woke adoration of “Latinx.” Hispanics didn’t want it, and no matter how passionately white saviors insisted it was for their own good, and they were just not woke enough to appreciate its glory, they weren’t buying. But just because the “x” factor didn’t fly there doesn’t mean it’s dead and gone. Oh no. It’s found a new target.

Maddie Luebbert teaches 9th grade English in a Philadelphia public school and, according to a recent NBC News report, is much admired by the students. As in most public schools, the teachers use “Mr.” or “Ms.” (and sometimes, “Mrs.”) as their title when addressed by students. Luebbert, 25, prefers “Mx.” (pronounced “mix”), a gender-neutral alternative to the usual titles. Luebbert herself identifies as “nonbinary” — which is to say neither male nor female.

Say what? Mx.

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There was a reason it was called the “gig” economy. The industries it tapped weren’t new. There were taxis and hotel rooms long before Uber and Airbnb. But they saw an opportunity to tap into a new resource to feed into the industry that would allow these companies to bootstrap a digital platform to connect people who wanted a ride or a room to people who had a car and some free time, or a spare room or apartment, to connect, and they took a cut out of the middle for their service.

And if they didn’t feel like driving that day, or decided to sleep in the room that night themselves, they could, because they were free to do so. After all, it was just a “gig,” like a band doing a Friday night at the local pub. They didn’t have to show up and play again Saturday night. Continue reading →

It’s nothing new. We saw it when Trump denounced illegal aliens, and the Resistance discovered immigration. When they were reminded that this wasn’t a new thing, that President Obama was pretty big on deporting what were then known as illegal immigrants and none of them knew, no less gave a damn, the excuses gushed like blood from an artery. But that didn’t change the fact that this terrible thing had been happening all along and they never cared before.

The outrage of the moment is the United States Postal Service. I use it. I appreciate it. I remember when we got two deliveries a day, when stamps were cheap and when a first class letter was sent one day and arrived the next.

But over the course of the past decade, the USPS has suffered as people stopped writing letters, paying bills by snail mail, and suffered competition. Postal boxes were disappearing, Costs were being cut. Services increasingly sucked and the cost of a stamp (that’s a little square thing that goes on the corner of an envelope) skyrocketed. Continue reading →

This will surprise some people, but Derek Chauvin, the cop who has been widely deemed primarily responsible for the killing of George Floyd, has yet to be convicted of anything.  While Floyd has morphed from victim of police brutality to cultural icon, Chauvin awaits his fate, both as the putative killer of the icon, a fact that’s in significant medical doubt despite what people believe they saw, and as the embodiment of police racism.

Reason’s Robby Soave asked a question.

(Whispers): We still don’t actually know that racism was a motivating factor in the unjust killing of George Floyd.

Is it a bad question? An outrageous question? A, dare I say it, racist question? Jamelle Bouie of the New York Times explained. Continue reading →

For an old guy who had a heart attack, you have to give Bernie Sanders credit. He’s not just still standing, but he remains a player, along with his wild socialist ideas. As Bernie says, the ideas that would have been laughed out of the party a few years ago are not only being taken seriously, but are finding the cracks in the Democratic establishment as Biden recognizes that he needs the Bernie bros, the Warren identitarians, the youth vote, to beat back the Trump idiocracy.

Last night, Bernie got over 8 minutes of air time at the Democratic National (kinda) Convention.

He said the words, “we need Joe Biden.” But that’s only because the first step of the next election is to oust Darth Cheeto. But what about the second step? Continue reading →

The back story remains unclear. There is nothing to show that he tried to run any protesters down, although claims to that effect have been made. Others say he came to the aid of a transgender woman being beaten by protesters, for which there is video, although it’s unclear what was happening.

But what was clear was that he crashed his truck following his attempt to get away and then things got worse.

As the driver sat on the ground, a person wearing a vest with “SECURITY” written on the front and back ran from behind and kicked the driver in the face, apparently knocking him unconscious, according to witnesses and multiple videos. The driver remained still on the ground with his eyes closed.

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It wasn’t all that long ago that one of the gravest fears on campus was an active shooter. The fear was largely overblown, as the likelihood of its happening was minuscule, yet preparations and drills became all the rage. After all, if it did happen, there was no excuse for being unprepared to face it, to stop the shooter, to save the lives of students.

Now that’s forgotten in lieu of the priority du jour.

Portland State University is disarming its campus police. The university announced police will not carry firearms while on patrol but will be authorized to carry “less-than-lethal” weapons, including Tasers.

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There were at least two distinct problems faced by Georgia Gwinnett College student Chike Uzuegbunam, although he did everything he could to address the first, the Orwellian requirement to obtain permission to speak freely at a specific, tiny, spot on campus where free speech was allowed.

Mr. Uzuegbunam had tried to comply with the rules at his school, Georgia Gwinnett College, a public institution in Lawrenceville, Ga., that sprawls over 260 acres. The college had designated two small patches of concrete as “free speech expression areas.”

The free speech zones were available, moreover, only on weekdays and only for four hours on most days and two on Fridays. Students could reserve them once every 30 days.

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It’s hard for young people these days. Whether it’s harder than it was for young people of past generations is an unhelpful discussion; they live now, and comparisons do little to address the problems they face now. But when I saw that 25% of people aged 18 to 24 had seriously contemplated suicide in the past 30 days, I was shocked.

Sure, dumping COVID-19 atop a future where the promises made of a decent future was understandably depressing, but suicidal ideation is a huge step past “the blues” into mental illness. The reasons for this are no doubt complex, and there are a great many factors that produced this situation. This made me wonder why The Atlantic published lawyer cum social activist Jill Filipovic’s identification of what’s to blame for such a bleak outlook on life. Continue reading →

When I need my hair cut, I go to my local barber shop. My barber, Carol, is a lovely person and decent barber. She has better and worse days, but either way, my hair gets cut. She knows how I like my hair cut, and she doesn’t charge enough, so I always give her a generous tip. She doesn’t discriminate, and is more than happy to cut women’s hair for $14 too, but I can’t remember ever seeing a woman in her shop waiting her turn for a haircut.

In the back corner of her shop is a sink, one of those sinks with a cut out in the front to place the back of your neck so someone can wash you hair. I’ve never seen anyone use the sink. I’ve never seen anyone get their hair washed at the barber shop. I wash my hair before getting it cut. Carol doesn’t need to cut some guy’s dirty hair. Gross. Continue reading →