A dispatch from Quaker flyover country. Let’s see now: I’ve been in North Carolina for twenty years. Twelve years ago, in 2010, the state government was taken over by a rightwing party that was a militant forerunner of today’s authoritarian MAGA movement. In the 12 years since then, Carolinians of more progressive views and values … Continue reading AN URGENT CALL FOR SOME PHILADELPHIA FRIENDS TO — “GET A CLUE”
New York Times: There’s More Than One Way To Ban a Book [COMMENT: I read Lolita some years ago. Creepy. Unsettling. Perverse, but hardly prurient. Not for kids; but ban it? Nope. I never read Darwin, but if anyone still doubts the nub of his argument, then don’t worry about the latest COVID variants; God … Continue reading Banning & Suppressing Books: Part of Our (Not Very) Brave New World
I’m not an expert, but I’ve been involved in raising several American Girls: daughters, granddaughters & now great granddaughters. And I hope I’ve learned a thing or two. Here’s one: several of the American Girl doll characters were very valuable for one of them, and me, at the turn of the millennium. I never bought any … Continue reading Raising American Girls?
Art of dissent: How Russians protest the war on Ukraine They risk jail, stigma and fines. But Russian protesters are finding creative ways to get their message out. Washington Post: By Robyn Dixon, Mary Ilyushina and Natalia Abbakumova — July 7, 2022 It was 4 a.m. on Moscow’s second ring road. Early light bathed the empty … Continue reading The Colors of Courage: Underground Russian War Protests:
Philip Bump in the Washington Post, from an article crunching the latest post-Roe polls: Now we come to enthusiasm about voting, that metric that many Democrats have seized on of late as an indicator of fury about [the] Dobbs [decision which threw out Roe]. Bump: As it turns out, Gallup has new data on that. … Continue reading Quotes of The Weekend: Midterm Election Keys — Enthusiasm, Turnout — and Hate