Category Archives: Cross-Generational Issues

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Finding Love (& Living In Sin) In the Library

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I never fell in love in a library.

But several times I fell in love with a library, and the experience repeatedly changed my life.

The first time came flooding back yesterday, when I saw this news report from AP:

Hegseth, AGAIN?? Sheesh, every time I turn around, he’s messing with me: this time with important memories.

“Army and Air Force libraries have been told to go through their stacks to find books related to diversity, equity and inclusion, according to new memos obtained by The Associated Press.

The orders from service leaders come about two weeks after the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, removed nearly 400 books from its library after being told by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s office to get rid of those that promote DEI.”

Continue reading Finding Love (& Living In Sin) In the Library →

47, Activism, Arts: Cartoons, Arts: Preaching, Bible Study, Books & Book Reviews, Coup, Cross-Generational Issues, Crusade, LGBTQ & Gender, Minority Rule, Project 2025, Religious Issues & Conflicts, Republicans, Signs of the Times, Trans, Women & Girls

Trans & The Bible: Is God On Their Side? I Say —

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Transphobia: The Bible Is Better Than That

2025 is becoming a crucible year for trans people and those who would be their allies: the Pete Hegseth-Trump Defense Department is after them; Iowa’s legislature just deleted them from its anti-discrimination statutes; other states may follow. And don’t even get me started on the Supreme Court.

But this post is not aiming for a comprehensive summary of ongoing transphobic crusades. Instead, I want to retrace my search for what’s at the root of the support for them. I have some idea of the politics, and a few of the major personalities; but what’s the nub, the “bottom line”?

It isn’t the “science” cited on behalf of anti-trans laws — much of it a curdled combination of cant and charlatanry. Or the panic over predators stalking “little girls” in public restrooms, which is almost all trumped up, and such assaults have long been illegal anyway.

Then there’s the huge public panic over a vanishingly few trans women competing (and not always) winning in girls’ sports. From all this and more we already know the cultural right has big issues over a gender binary (and male dominance), and that riling up its base about sex reliably works to boost its voter turnout.

But what is its basic justification? Continue reading Trans & The Bible: Is God On Their Side? I Say — →

"New Normal"?, 47, Arts: Cartoons, Congress, Constitutional Crisis, Coup, Cross-Generational Issues, Eggs, Federal workers, Future, Limericks, Medicare, Newspapers, Project 2025, Pushback, Russia, Signs of the Times, SNAP, Social Security, Ukraine, Unions/Labor, Zelenskyy

Welcome to a Showdown Week: Musk vs Fed workers + AFGE (But What About CONGRESS??)

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I’m


A free Bonus from the gang at “What Goes Around Comes Around” Media: this first cartoon is from 2017, when Trump tried to KILL Obamacare, but was stopped by nationwide constituent pushback. Can Congress WAKE UP again??

PS. To Constituents: KEEP UP the pressure!

Now some blasts from the cartoon past …

A Sunday Doonesbury strip from 2019. The record of Congress today is lagging; but Trudeau gives us a reminder of what can be possible if a party recovers its mojo and goes for it.

 

Below: Sorry, fella — the Big Guy says the giving season ended on January 20. And yeah, it may be permanent. You could try down the street at the Post Office,  I think they’re hiring — Oh, wait—

Here’s a sneak preview of another coming congressional attraction . . .

Now “breaking” news: this photo was taken Feb. 23 in a busy & otherwise very well-stocked market in North Carolina. As one can see, the limit wasn’t necessary, because the only eggs in the whole place, at any price, were a stack of gleaming eggplants.

Stopping inflation? Prices dropping? More “efficiency”???

I don’t think so.


Finally, a bow and hat-tip to the beleaguered federal workers who are the unwilling but increasingly assertive and courageous front-line troops in this struggle. Stay strong and push back! You’re not only to save your careers — you’re fighting to save your/our country!

 

From The Guardian

47, Censorship, Colleges & Education, Cross-Generational Issues, Current Affairs, Families, Libraries & Archives, Military Matters, Project 2025, Pushback, Schools/Education, Signs of the Times, Trans, Trump

Military Schoolkids: Kiss These Books Goodbye! – Hegseth /Trump Censorship Starts

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The DOD “guidance” memo was blunt:

”Identity Months Dead at DOD.” 

Besides banning Black History Month observances in the military, Hegseth/Trump is now pressing their anti-DEI extermination mission by purging the shelves of Defense Department schools, which  67, 000 elementary & secondary students attend at 160 locations worldwide. (One of them was me, a long time ago.) The goal is, in the words of a presidential executive order (EO): “Ending Radical Indoctrination in K-12 Schooling.” Continue reading Military Schoolkids: Kiss These Books Goodbye! – Hegseth /Trump Censorship Starts →

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New Issue of “Types & Shadows” – Quaker Arts Journal-Online NOW (Free)

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You can read and browse it here free:  

Types & Shadows is the quarterly journal of the Fellowship of Quakers in the Arts. (FQA) It first appeared in 1996, and has been produced ever since by dedicated and creative volunteers.

The Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) were strongly against the arts for their first two centuries, regarding them as “vain” and hazardous distractions from plainness and more serious and “spiritual” things.

Their evolution away from this prohibition is traced in an FQA Booklet, Beyond Uneasy Tolerance, which is also available free on the FQA website.

Continue reading New Issue of “Types & Shadows” – Quaker Arts Journal-Online NOW (Free) →