Monthly Archives: February 2022

Bruce Lear| Guest columnist

Governor Reynolds wants to offer Iowa parents more choice in education

In her Condition of the State address, Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds proposes legislation that would allow parents more choice in their child's education.

Iowa PBS, Des Moines Register

After a freezing day roofing a house or barn, my dad would say, Theres a mean wind blowing today.Now, theres a mean wind blowing under Iowas Capitol dome, and its completely wiping out Iowa nice.

As has been well publicized, Iowa Senate President Jake Chapman last month sidestepped the tradition of syrupy-sweet addresses to begin each legislative session to instead attack teachers and the media for what he calleda sinister agenda" to "normalizesexually deviant behavior against our children including pedophilia and incest.

Even before the session, Chapman threatened to pass a law that would jail teachers and public-school librarians responsible for making books he considered pornographic available to children.

In her Condition of the State speech, Gov.Kim Reynolds doubled down on the Chapman rant by saying some public-school administrators werepushing their world view on students.She went on to say, There are books in the school libraries that if they were movies, theyd be X-rated."

More: Opinion: The 'sinister agenda' is the attack on our teachers and schools, Senator Chapman

More: Bringing felony charges for teachers over 'obscene' books is not 'a good idea,' Iowa Senate leader says

Not to be outdone by Chapman or Reynolds, Bobby Kaufmann, a state representative, and son of the Iowa Republican Party chairman, used two middle fingers to punctuate his speech to a group calling themselves The Convention of States Movement.

Kaufmann shouted, When it comes to these gun-grabbing, freedom-hating, over-regulating, civil liberty-violating tyrants, heres my message, and with a flourish he flashed the two middle finger salute. Kaufmann later told Newsweek magazine, Political correctness doesnt always solve" problems.

I didnt know political correctness included not using two middle fingers to end a speech.But I do know that the Capitol could sure use a strict playground monitor to blow the whistle on some of these outrageous antics, especially while Iowa is still deep in a public health crisis that hasnt occurred since cars came with a crank.

I also know that during an election year, lawmakers crave attention for campaign fundraising, but even by those standards, these accusations and behaviors are mean and over the top.

More: Opinion: Attacks on us teachers are false and frightening. I cannot stay silent.

More: Exhaustion, anger, courage and sorrow in an Iowa ICU fighting another COVID wave

For example, take the accusations about public schools corrupting the youth of Iowa.It smacks a little of the manufactured crisis con-man Harold Hill dreamed up in "The Music Man" to throw shade on pool playing so unsuspecting Iowans would be scared into buying musical instrumentsand uniforms to start a boy band.

Hill was conning Iowans then, and Chapman and Reynolds are doing it now, only without the catchy songs and the humor. Theyre distracting Iowans with bogus fears so we wont remember how theyve mishandled the pandemic, underfunded our schools for a decade, and plan to cut taxes enough so essential services will need ventilators to survive.

I certainly understand why Republicans would rather offer their opinions on public school library books instead of talking about the 8,500 Iowans whove died from COVID-19. I also understand why theyd would rather talk about simplistic tax cuts instead of the hard job of finally funding public schools to prevent classrooms from being packed with kids but empty of adults to teach and assist.

Finally, I understand its tempting to be a court jester for a friendly audience instead of answering the tough questions from real Iowans struggling to survive in this economy.

But lets not be conned into looking for solutions for problems that dont exist, and into tolerating mean behavior just so politicians can raise money and get attention.We need serious leaders for our serious Iowa problems.

Bruce Lear lives in Sioux City.He has been connected to public schools for 38 years. He taught for 11 years and represented educators as an Iowa State Education Association regional director for 27 years until retiring.

Read the original:

Opinion: A mean wind is blowing, aiming to distract in Iowa - Des Moines Register

On the wall of one of the rooms in Randall Olivers house are photos and posters of his acting and modeling career. After a brief break from the business, the Copperas Cove resident has gotten back in the business and has acted in three movies coming out this year.

Oliver will appear in Eating With the Enemy, a dramatic documentary about Judas betraying Jesus; MindReader, a movie about an up and coming mentalist; and Cream of the Crop, a story about a farmer trying to keep his farm.

Oliver, who is 62, is far from done with his acting career, however. He spoke about his look and some of the projects he is set to be involved with.

Right now, the actor sports a neatly kept full, white beard. and a full head of hair.

I have a Western to do next month in March, and the director wants me to look like this, Oliver said. And then also, Im going to be doing a film called Mary Magdelene.

Oliver explained that a few years ago, after recently moving back to Lampasas where he graduated from high school he began to get back into the Austin independent film market.

Ive been really lucky in the sense that Im getting some good roles now and later in my career, Oliver said. You know, Im no longer a pretty boy and a leading man. Im more of the character actor now and the father and the grandfather and so thats what Im getting cast as.

In the early part of his career, Oliver often sported long hair and a rugged-looking mustache or a goatee for roles in Western movies and TV shows.

Oliver explained that later in his career, he has ventured into faith-based movies.

Ive done a lot of film work and a lot of TV series and stuff and not a whole lot of stuff that my family was proud of, he said. And Ive been a conservative Christian all my life, and I had to pretty much put all that aside.

He said in the early part of his career, many people were not concerned about identity politics or political correctness, but from his perspective, that has changed of late.

You either stay strong in the faith-based, conservative Christian film industry and you do movies of value and no language and explicit scenes and stuff like that, Oliver said. Or you stay and you work in the studio market and continue to do $150 million-budget movies.

But Im no longer interested in the money and Im not going to be famous Im not going to be John Travolta or Tom Cruise. I just want to continue to pursue my craft while I live my life.

When he is not filming scenes for a movie, Oliver can be seen mowing lawns. He owns and operates a landscaping company out of his 4-acre ranch in the country.

Oliver is expected to begin filming scenes in Missouri and Oklahoma for a possible fourth release this year. That movie, Not Too Far From Here, is being directed by Kevin Sorbo, who is known for playing Hercules in the 90s and playing Professor Radisson in Gods Not Dead.

Oliver said that due to the nature of it being a movie about domestic violence awareness, Sorbo may try to film and edit quickly to release in October.

Its bringing awareness to some of the things that need to be brought to the surface, Oliver said.

Original post:

Cove actor discusses recent TV and movie work - The Killeen Daily Herald

Why Monterey County?

I track the COVID statistics for areas of interest to me, with the New York Times COVID tracker. It is much more user-friendly than our Monterey County Health Department website. As I look at these numbers I have to ask myself What is wrong with this picture? Why is it that Monterey County is so far behind, even nearby counties, in getting this pandemic under control? Of the surrounding counties that I track only Monterey and Kings County have rising case rates. Can Dr. Moreno provide some answers?

Helen Ogden, Pacific Grove

Its still a mystery among many in the entertainment media why Cheslie Kryst, a former Miss USA winner and successful journalist, suddenly decided to leap from the ninth floor of her New York apartment. Maybe she was lonely and depressed about growing old, having heard so many popular myths about the negative side of turning 30. Why would someone so attractive and successful do such a crazy thing?

Most of her time seems to have been spent entering beauty contests and studying for a law career. She was one of three black women who all won beauty pageants in the same year, and one of the oldest Miss USA winners. Perhaps too much political correctness has entered the judging of beauty contests and pressure to choose winners based on racial quotas or, forgive me mentioning this, tokenism.

It is truly ironic that this happened only a few days after Biden had announced his plan to appoint a black woman to the Supreme Court. Only two brain cells tell me we should always consider the best-qualified person to fill a crucial job in government or even a dishwasher at Dennys. I believe a man named King once said this was judging people by the content of our character, and not the color of our skin.

Too often, race and gender are being considered first instead of not at all. After all, selecting a judge for the Supreme Court shouldnt be like judging a beauty contest.

Bill Graham, Salinas

How many times has Biden been accused of a crime? Too many times to count. And yet, he has never been convicted. We have been told nobody is above the law in this country. Does anybody actually believe this?

Are Republicans, Attorney General Merrick Garland and Congress afraid of the truth about Bidens administration unmitigated, unconstitutional decrees requiring the Supreme Court to step in and admonish him. Then there is son Hunters admissions regarding Biden family collusion with Russia and China, and demand for payments for worldwide services provided for them. How is it that Biden and most of his cronies have so far escaped accountability for their transgressions? Republicans need to go on the offensive immediately!

There can be no doubt that Biden is guilty of financial crimes, political crimes by self-incrimination (fire Ukrainian Prosecutor or you wont get the money), assaults on women (all women should be believed), etc., but has never acknowledged any of these crimes. Most Americans understand that our justice system has always been flawed. Those who have power (47 years in office), money and the right skin color, have always gotten away with more than others.

But Biden and his woke Marxist accomplices keep chipping away at what remains of democracy (actually a Republic) in America, we just dont have time to wait. If we ever truly had a reasonably fair justice system, this is the time to prove it. Otherwise, we will continue living in an autocracy/plutocracy and governance by executive fiat (Bidens preferred method), but no longer a democracy. I dont want that to happen, but it very well could happen.

Eric Schultz, Spreckels

Will Russia invade Ukraine, and how will we respond if we do? All this belligerent posturing and brinkmanship, with poor Ukraine, caught in the middle, has me concerned. You might say that both sides are playing chicken Kiev with Ukraine, and its a sure recipe for disaster.

Glenn Nolte, Carmel Valley

Wealthy men with private space programs. Homelessness and poverty. A twice impeached ex-President attempts to destroy democracy. The coronavirus pandemic and Tom Brady retires.

Aint life grand!

Bob Hogue, Pacific Grove

Read more from the original source:

Letters to the Editor: Feb. 4, 2022 - Monterey Herald

But with a couple of notable exceptions, the recent flurry of resignations from Downing Street is better seen as the departure of the duds from the inner circle of Boris Johnson. His chief of staff, Dan Rosenfield, who was only in post for 13 months, has lacked the political antennae to succeed in such a crucial role. Meanwhile, the PM's outgoing principal private secretary Martin Reynolds organised the disastrous staff garden party of May 20, 2020, that has caused Johnson so much grief.

Jack Doyle, the disappearing press secretary, was alleged to have attended several Downing Street gatherings and was arguably personally compromised when devising some of the rather opaque "lines-totake" put out to journalists.

Munira Mirza, Johnson's newly-resigned head of policy, should by contrast be regarded as a bigger loss. Indeed, her leaving may actually indicate he has lost too few advisers.

For Mirza was believed to have become frustrated at the role of several "friends of Carrie Johnson" on the No 10 staff roster who thwarted her wish for the Prime Minister to take a stronger line on issues such as the woke onslaught against free speech and excessive political correctness in the public sector.

In the weeks before the current rash of departures, there had been two significant exits. One of them, Allegra Stratton, was hopelessly out of her depth as a putative No 10 spokeswoman - so obviously so that plans to make her the public face of the Government at daily televised press conferences had been aborted and she was scratching around for a new role.

But the resignation of Lord Frost as Brexit Secretary just before Christmas seems ever more telling. Like Mirza, he is a more substantial figure whose disenchantment was a sign of Downing Street having mislaid its overall sense of and direction. future of Boris Johnson as PM depends not much on who else he loses from a Downing Street team of advisers which still contains dead wood, but more on who he attracts as key replacements.

More grizzled veterans with understanding of the priorities of voters in the Red Wall seats that gave Johnson his majority would certainly not go amiss.

The arrival of a Willie Whitelaw figure who can prevent the Prime Minister from embarking on harebrained schemes like his bid to get Owen Paterson off the hook of a damning sleaze verdict would be a transformative event.

Though his rivals are circling in the Tory party, none has yet shown they have his ability to galvanise the nation as it faces difficult issues - from the Ukraine to the energy price crisis, from the impasse over the Northern Ireland Protocol to the crucial levelling-up agenda.

This time the Prime Minister needs to recruit the A-Team instead of a bunch of Yes Men to help him regain the initiative.

See the article here:

ANALYSIS: Chop the dead wood and call in grizzled veterans - Express

On Wednesday, ABC News announced the suspension of The View co-host Whoopi Goldberg following a set of ill-informed remarks she made (and later apologized for) about the Holocaust. During the shows Hot Topics segment on Monday, the panel criticized the recent banning of Pulitzer Prize-winning graphic novel Maus, which depicts the Holocaust, by a Tennessee school board supposedly due to its profanity and nudity. And the conversation ended up demonstrating in real time why the use of Art Spiegelmans book in academic institutions is so necessary when Goldberg argued that the Holocaust was not about race because it involved two groups of white people.

Whether Goldbergs comments were antisemitic, simply uneducated, dangerous, stupid, or all of the above is being widely debated across social media. Judging by her subsequent appearance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert where she essentially doubled down, Goldbergs ignorance seems to stem from a limited understanding of race solely as an American construct rather than a set of categories that white supremacists have defined and redefined for centuries and in other parts of the world to maintain power. No, Adolf Hitler did not establish the same color lines born out of the Atlantic slave trade that Goldberg alludes toalthough, plenty of Afro-Germans suffered and died under the Nazi regime, and Jim Crow inspired Germanys citizenships laws. But this dark period in history was unambiguously and fundamentally about race.

This sort of blunder isnt surprising, even from someone born just a decade after World War II ended. Like most historical flashpoints, our education system has done an insufficient (and willfully shitty) job of teaching students about antisemitism and contextualizing the Holocaust beyond a generally tragic event. Despite the visibility of white supremacists in the Trump era, I know a few people who would be surprised to know that Jews are their No. 1 enemy. Likewise, some viewers are arguing that Goldbergs comments shouldve been treated as a public teaching moment without a slap on the wrist. Additionally, the fact that the daytime talk show has entertained the asinine, racially ignorant views of Meghan McCain and other conservative commentators, while Goldberg is receiving public condemnation, is arguably suspect.

However, the EGOT-winning multi-hyphenate has a storied history of being loud and wrong that feels like its finally catching up to her. Specifically, many people are looking back on Goldbergs defense of her friend, actor and filmmaker Mel Gibson, on The View in 2010, following his racist and antisemitic comments about Black and Jewish peopleincluding an audio recording of the actor saying that he hoped his then-girlfriend, Oksana Grigorieva, was raped by a pack of n---ers.

I dont like what he did here, she said on the show. But I know Mel and I know hes not a racist. He may be a bonehead. I cant sit and say that hes a racist, having spent time with him in my house with my kids.

Goldbergs legacy as an important, trailblazing figure for women and Black people and a staple of the liberal commentariat has long been at odds with her various controversies. We all remember or have read about Goldbergs infamous 1993 roast held at the Friars Club where her boyfriend at the time, Ted Danson, performed in blackface and said a slew of N-words and racist jokes. Goldberg ardently defended the routine and admitted to writing some of it, telling the press that she has never been about political correctness. Shes proved as much throughout her almost 15-year tenure on The View, defending former Ravens football player Ray Rice after he was caught on video violently assaulting his then-girlfriend, saying director Roman Polanskis rape of a 13-year-old girl wasnt rape-rape, and refusing to condemn Bill Cosby during most of his sexual-assault allegations saga. Just like her most recent controversy, The View brought on an expert to speak with Goldberg about statute-of-limitation laws in rape cases.

Goldbergs legacy as an important, trailblazing figure for women and Black people and a staple of the liberal commentariat has long been at odds with her various controversies.

Additionally, she was accused of victim-blaming actress Bella Thorne in 2019 after she criticized her for taking nude photos of herself when a hacker threatened to release them.

In recent years, Goldberg has been celebrated for her ability to cut through the noise on The View. This role of the wise, morally authoritative figure is often unwillingly given to Black women, whether theyve earned it or not. Likewise, Goldbergs viral back-and-forths with former co-host Meghan McCain have earned her praise and seemingly made some of the internet forget about her past indiscretions. To be fair, Goldbergs quick-wittedness and assertiveness as a personality was amusing when confronted with McCains serious, ill-tempered attitude. But winning an argument against the former Fox News commentator is not a necessarily difficult task nor an accurate representation of how equipped someone is to moderate political discussions on national television.

But thats the thing about The View: You could make the same assertion about most of the panelists who have sat around that table and made misinformed, offensive remarks. This has seemingly made the decision to eliminate Goldberg from what has long been a burning trash can of opinions more complicated for certain viewers. On top of that, you now have bad-faith right-wing pundits, like McCain, turning Goldbergs ignorance into an opportunity to own the libs and claiming to be better allies to the Jewish community.

Still, no matter how performative these responses may be, theres never been a better time for the 66-year-old to understand the magnitude of her platform, and that her words matter. Its also a crucial reminder that, no matter how commanding and charismatic our favorite celebrities may be, theyre rarely experts on things outside of what they are paid to do.

Go here to read the rest:

Whoopi Goldberg's Long History of Appalling Takes, From Defending Cosby and Mel Gibson to the Holocaust - The Daily Beast

Isnt it tantalizing to think that the government could simply ban the worst ideas?

Six Republican legislators in South Carolina are co-sponsoring a utopian proposal of that sort. It is the intent of the General Assembly that educators, administrators, students, childcare providers, employers, and employees respect the dignity of individuals, its text begins, refrain from judging, stereotyping, or scapegoating others based on personal or group characteristics or political and religious beliefs; acknowledge the right of others to express differing opinions; and foster and defend intellectual honesty, freedom of inquiry, and instruction. Supporters of the bill, seductively named Freedom from ideological coercion and indoctrination, seem to think that South Carolinas teaching corps is full of left-wing ideologues bent on brainwashing studentsand that an act of the legislature would prevent that.

The GOP lawmakers are hardly alone in wanting to banish objectionable attitudes and ideas by fiat. At Princeton in 2020, 350 faculty members signed a letter demanding, among many other things, that the administration constitute a committee composed entirely of faculty that would oversee the investigation and discipline of racist behaviors, incidents, research, and publication on the part of faculty, adding that what counts as racist should be determined by the committee. My colleague Ibram X. Kendi, author of the best-selling 2019 book How to Be an Antiracist, has urged a constitutional amendment creating a Department of Anti-racism, whose staff of formally trained experts on racism would, among other duties, be tasked with preclearing all local, state and federal public policies to ensure they wont yield racial inequity.

Such proposals share an assumption that offenses such as ideological coercion or racist behaviors, incidents, research, and publication could be eliminated if relevant authorities had the power and the will. But within most institutions in a free, diverse, pluralistic society are earnest, intractable disputes about what constitutes racism or indoctrination. Any attempt to eliminate contested concepts as a matter of official policy will tend to invite abuses of power and chill free speech and inquiry.

Anne Applebaum: Democracies dont try to make everyone agree

When pondering whether university professors should investigate and discipline scholars for racism, Republicans understand the danger of empowering thought-policing micromanagers. Yet they sponsor statewide legislation thats similarly untenable in hopes of stymieing the bad ideas of leftists.

I share the concern that some public-school educators encourage indoctrination by activists. I acknowledge that legislatorsyes, even conservative legislatorshave a legitimate role in shaping public-school curricula. I have substantive criticisms of the 1619 Project and the racial essentialism embedded in the way progressive identitarians understand whiteness. I would cheer if more American educators embraced dialogue and viewpoint diversity. And I have no problem with bills that forbid compelled speech or beliefs or that mandate transparency in curriculum (so long as they dont create unreasonable administrative burdens).

Ibram X. Kendi: There is no debate about critical race theory

Yet even the most cautious GOP-sponsored legislation regulating history and civics instruction seems likely to do more harm than good. Far worse is the South Carolina billa calamity of legislative intrusion and excess whose effects would extend far beyond which history textbooks are in public schools. The bill would chill free speech and sow bureaucratic dysfunction within any state-funded entitya category that includes public and private schools; institutions of higher education; local government agencies; any business that gets tax exemptions; nonprofit organizations; state contractors, consultants, and vendors; and some labor unions.

The South Carolina bills crux is its ban on nine discriminatory concepts. If youre a state-funded entity you may not promote, engage, or treat individuals in accordance with any of them. You may not direct or compel individuals to affirm, accept, adopt, or adhere to them. You may not subject individuals to instruction, presentations, discussions, or counseling affirming or promoting them.

The first discriminatory concept is that one race or sex is inherently superior or inferior to another race or sex. Thats certainly wrongheaded, and perhaps the least worrisome prohibition of the lot, though even its censoriousness is problematic. Historically important material such as the Cornerstone Speech, delivered in 1861 by Confederate Vice President Alexander H. Stephens, and Mein Kampf, authored by Adolf Hitler, teach that one race is superior to another. One certainly wouldnt want South Carolina schools affirming such ideas. But this law states that a state-funded entity cannot engage the discriminatory concepts or subject individuals to material that affirms them, regardless of whether the instruction, presentation, discussion, or counseling is part of a lesson, assigned or suggested materials made available in any format or setting. How can you teach history without engaging or subjecting students to its most influential bad ideas?

The second verboten concept: a group or an individual, by virtue of his or her race, ethnicity, sex, sexual orientation, national origin, heritage, culture, religion, or political belief is inherently racist, sexist, bigoted, ignorant, biased, fragile, oppressive, or contributive to any oppression, whether consciously or unconsciously. The general thrust accords with most of our moral intuitions, yet this would seem to prohibit a history museum from asserting that Nazis, by virtue of their political beliefs, were inherently racist.

The seventh concept is that an individual should feel discomfort, guilt, anguish, or any other form of psychological distress because of his or her race, ethnicity, sex, sexual orientation, national origin, heritage, culture, religion, or political belief. I would object to a teacher affirming that misguided concept as truth in a public-school classroom. But a nonprofit shouldnt lose its tax-exempt status for promulgating the belief that Americans ought to feel discomfort about (say) their culture of keeping livestock in inhumane conditions or emitting so much carbon.

Read: The GOPs critical race theory obsession

Individuals and institutions who break the proposed law would be identified by way of callouts that trigger investigations: The bill establishes a public reporting hotline telephone number and email address for receiving reports of violations and compels the South Carolina attorney general to promptly investigate all reported violations, making large swaths of the state vulnerable to false allegations, harassment by way of investigation, and the targeting of institutions by their political enemies. (Imagine running a small business that is constantly under state investigation as competitors call in anonymous discrimination complaints that a state official must probe.)

Offenders would quite literally get canceled: Perpetrators of a single violation must lose their state funding, tax-exempt status, and any other state-provided accommodation until proving compliance to the Attorney General, and all funds lost in the meantime are forfeited and may not be repaid. That appears to give one state official extraordinary power over many kinds of institutions. For a college or university in South Carolinaeven a private onethis would be a death sentence, the academic and free-speech advocate Jeffrey Sachs wrote in his analysis of the legislation. Given such drastic consequences, the chilling effects could be grave, forcing teachers and professors to give any content that is even remotely risky a wide berth.

The bill goes on to further constrain entities it covers, declaring that they may not subject minors to instruction, presentations, discussions, counseling, or materials in any medium that involve a) sexual lifestyles, acts, or practices; b) gender identity or lifestyles; or (c) pornographic, lewd, explicit, profane, or similarly age-inappropriate materials. While a rule that porn has no place in public schools neednt worry us, this language seems to prohibit public and private schools alike from teaching standard sex ed and even certain pages in biology textbooks.

Indeed, the bill would seem to prevent educators from uttering even the most commonsense advice. If a high-school football coach learns that a rumor is spreading among his players that women cant get pregnant during a full moon, so thats the time to try sex without a condom, shouldnt he be allowed to tell them theyve been misinformed rather than biting his tongue? If a ninth grader goes to a school counselor and says, I think Im gay, and Im afraid my dad will try to kill me to spare the family shame if he finds out, should counseling be forbidden?

A final prohibition in the bill forbids instruction of students in any place of learning or preschool or childcare in a manner that:

Thats just an invitation to endless fights.

In theory, no one objects to the inclusion of all relevant and important context in instruction. In practice, whats relevant and important are subjective questions that everyone answers in different ways. Parents or students have every right to raise disagreements with a teacher or principal or school board, or with the officials who buy the textbooks. Whats absurdly unreasonable is compelling South Carolinas attorney general to launch an investigation anytime someone emails the state to complain that important context was left out of a teachers lesson. In many cases, resources will be wasted on frivolous complaints. And even the most diligent teacher would struggle to cover world, American, or South Carolina history without omitting anything important. To lose state funding over any such failure would signal a broken system.

If the South Carolina bill were an anomaly, perhaps it could be ignored unless it passed. But it is part of a trend. Since the beginning of 2021, dozens of bills that the free-expression advocacy group PEN America dubs educational gag orders have been introduced in the United States. Collectively, these bills are illiberal in their attempt to legislate that certain ideas and concepts be out of bounds, even, in many cases, in college classrooms among adults, the organization writes in a report on the bills. Their adoption demonstrates a disregard for academic freedom, liberal education, and the values of free speech and open inquiry that are enshrined in the First Amendment and that anchor a democratic society.

Conor Friedersdorf: Critical race theory is making both parties flip-flop

The bills do have staunch defenders. In a recent podcast conversation with Andrew Sullivan, the populist-right activist Christopher Rufo, best known for exposing instances of leftist excesses in American institutions and branding them as critical race theory, complained that the American center-left recognizes and dislikes woke politics but offers only a neutered or impotent response. Instead, Rufo argues for a firm conservative opposition driven by conservative states.

But in South Carolina (where, as in other solidly red states, public schools are not typically dominated or captured by wokeism) the conservative push for this bill is not a potent assertion of the values of open inquiry and educational freedom. It is a flagrant violation of those values.

As PEN warns, the vague and sweeping language of bills like the one in South Carolina means that they will be applied broadly and arbitrarily, threatening to effectively ban a wide swath of literature, curriculum, historical materials, and other media, and casting a chilling effect over how educators and educational institutions discharge their primary obligations. That the South Carolina law applies even to institutions of higher education puts its GOP sponsors in competition with the most illiberal campus administrators for the title of most blatant enforcer of political correctness. Its application to private businesses and charities is more big government run amok.

If youre a Republican who doubts those characterizations or cannot see any danger in this bill, ask yourself: Would you trust the attorney general of California to set up a phone hotline and email address; field complaints about allegedly discriminatory ideas uttered in schools, colleges, nonprofits, and businesses; and reach subjective judgments as to their merit, with severe penalties for those found guilty? Of course notany more than the Princeton faculty would entrust a GOP attorney general of South Carolina to make determinations about what laws or scholarly work is racist.

Read the rest here:

Banning Bad Ideas Won't Make Them Go Away - The Atlantic

The Worst Person in the World, 2021.

Directed by Joachim Trier.Starring Renate Reinsve, Anders Danielsen Lie, Herbert Nordrum, Maria Grazia Di Meo, Hans Olav Brenner, Marianne Krogh, Helene Bjrnebye, Vidar Sandem, Anna Dworak, Thea Stabell, Deniz Kaya, Lasse Gretland, Karen Rise Kielland, Karla Nitteberg Aspelin, Sofia Schandy Bloch, Savannah Marie Schei, Eia Skjnsberg, and Ruby Dagnall.

SYNOPSIS:

Chronicles four years in the life of Julie, a young woman who navigates the troubled waters of her love life and struggles to find her career path, leading her to take a realistic look at who she reallyis.

Its up for debate whether or not Julie (a stunningly empathetic complex revelatory turn from Renate Reinsve) is the worst person in the world, but she starts as one of the most indecisive, with a prologue depicting her going through numerous study and career changes within 10 minutes. Director Joachim Trier (co-writing alongside Eskil Vogt and finishing up his Oslo trilogy of independent films tackling similar themes) establishes some of Julies interests (psychology, photography, sex) with a sense of humor as she enters a relationship with workaholic comic book artist Aksel (Anders Danielsen Lie, a regular collaborator of the filmmaker delivering his best performance to date), in his early forties and roughly ten years her senior.

Aksel expresses that if they become more serious, it likely wont last because they are in different stages of their lives, but its not enough to stop the magnetism. From there, Julie finds herself happy in ways yet also leaving an unfulfilling life, with Aksel bringing up hopes of having children someday. Thats just a tiny sample of what The Worst Person in the World tackles in regards to relationships (the film is initially described as 12 chapters of Julies life with a prologue and epilogue, taking place over four years), as the script continuously peels away that Julie while exploring life, love, loss, family issues, gender roles, political correctness, eroticism, and perhaps one of the most human looks at the notion of cheating on ones partner (Im not saying anyone does or doesnt, but the option is there).

It shouldnt come as a surprise that due to Julies already mentioned indecisiveness and lack of career direction, not to mention Aksel seemingly unable to match her sex drive, not necessarily giving her enough emotional attention, and being busy in the spotlight (his comic is getting adapted into an animated feature, although its been stripped of its crudeness and edge which is not happy about, in turn, further hampering his focus on the relationship), and of course, the age gap, that she might second-guess being together. However, this is realized with a brilliant touch of magical realism, a beautiful sequence of a passenger taking over the drivers seat in the car of life. The script is sharp with rich performances that allow an engrossing lived-in feel, but the imaginative visual detours (including a drug trip where Julie somewhat confronts a strained relationship with her father and the effects pregnancy and aging could potentially have on her body, culminating in a moment both nasty and empowering) elevate intricacies of the drama.

Without getting too specific, Julie does befriend the already partnered Elvind (Herbert Nordrum, also giving a fantastic and delicate performance), who is more her age but lacks the ambition of Aksel. Julies life is a mess for pretty much every second of the 130-minute running time, but theres a line in the film about how sometimes the best is messy, which is a sentiment palpably felt here. Thats not to say every creative choice in The Worst Person in the World, as convenient events occasionally happen and Im not entirely sold on one aspect that is tossed into the mix during the third act.

Such decisions would probably sink other romantic dramedies, but again, Renate Reinsve is an absolute delight here. Every single actor gives such naturalistic and compelling turns that even when the story feels like its slipping away from Joachim Trier, its not. The messiness is simply enhancing the art. The Worst Person in the World is thoughtfully constructed, proud of its flawed characters with unquantifiable amounts of empathy, steamy, hilarious, and above all else, life-affirming.

Flickering Myth Rating Film: / Movie:

Robert Kojder is a member of the Chicago Film Critics Association and the Critics Choice Association. He is also the Flickering Myth Reviews Editor. Checkherefor new reviews, follow myTwitterorLetterboxd, or email me at MetalGearSolid719@gmail.com

Go here to see the original:

The Worst Person in the World (2021) - Movie Review - Flickering Myth