Category Archives: politics

Let Kids Be Kids, FFS

politics, rhetoric, teaching, weather Leave a comment

No more snow days: School district replaces wintry days with off with online classes (fox59.com) Back in 2014, when France made it illegal for companies to contact their employees about work-related business after six in the evening, a lot of pundits here in America used the opportunity to point out how the Internet, and the growing availability of powerful smartphones and tablets, were changing the fundamental nature of work and jobs. Plenty had already been written about how new technology was eating up people’s free…

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Cudgeled

glbt, politics, rhetoric, sex Leave a comment

Stormy Daniels’ Arrest Is A Good Reminder Of The Disturbing Way Cops Often Arrest Sex Workers (Huffington Post) ‘Unmasking Antifa Act’ includes 15-year prison term proposal (The Hill via msn.com) As the United States was racing towards marriage equality a few years ago, one of the news stories that was going on at the same time, that didn’t get nearly as much attention as it deserved, was the growing tide of open violence on the part of Russians against LGBT+/SAGA people. A recently-passed “anti-propaganda” law…

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Truthiness and Lack of Consequences

politics, rhetoric Leave a comment

Mexico blasts U.S. family separation policy as ‘violation of human rights’ (Los Angeles Times) Is Trump’s ‘Space Force’ Against Space Law? (The Daily Beast) When John Bolton’s name surfaced as a likely replacement for H.R. McMaster as President Trump’s National Security Advisor, there was a fair deal of shock across the political spectrum. Not only was Bolton, a neoconservative’s neoconservative, one of the most visible and strident faces of the “stupid wars” that Trump had campaigned against while running for president, but there was also…

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Post-Pyrrhic and Punch-Drunk

arts, books, politics, sex, work, writing Leave a comment

Five weeks ago, I blogged about a very problematic turn of events for me. On the one hand, the leading book review organization Kirkus Reviews had posted an incredibly positive review of my first novel, The Prostitutes of Lake Wiishkoban. For many authors, getting this kind of a review can be career-making , and it was coming as I headed into a summer where I didn’t have any teaching work. Getting this review in front of as many people as possible became a top priority for me,…

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Careering Into Catastrophe

politics, rhetoric, teaching, work Leave a comment

Trump Plan To Merge Labor, Education Departments Could Undermine Them Both (Huffington Post via MSN) As the Fred Rogers documentary Won’t You Be My Neighbor? opens in theatres, it’s important to revisit one of Mister Rogers’ most famous quotes, and my personal favourite of his: “Play is often talked about as if it were a relief from serious learning. But for children, play is serious learning. Play is really the work of childhood.” You’ve probably seen this quote in meme form on your social media feeds…

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