Loose Ends (223)

I forget who first made the joke back in the Reagan era that we should actually encourage the public schools to teach sex education, because then no one would know how to do it. This comes back to mind with this news:

National test scores released on Wednesday showed a marked drop in students’ knowledge of U.S. history and a modest decline in civics, a sign of the pandemic’s alarming reach, damaging student performance in nearly every academic area. . .

A growing number of students are falling below even the basic standards set out on the National Assessment of Educational Progress, a rigorous national exam administered by the Department of Education. About 40 percent of eighth graders scored “below basic” in U.S. history last year, compared with 34 percent in 2018 and 29 percent in 2014.

Just 13 percent of eighth graders were considered proficient — demonstrating competency over challenging subject matter — down from 18 percent nearly a decade ago.

But given the ideological garbage that the public school history curricula are imposing on our kids, it is hard to see this as bad news.

Can Democrats survive without lying?

So Hollywood writers are on strike again. How can you tell? A lot of people remarked that a lot of shows would likely get better. Others suggested that Hollywood writers could soon be replaced with AI scriptwriters and ChatGPT. Well guess what? The writer’s union has thought of this. From the contract demand sheet:

I never ever in a million years thought I’d think this, let alone say it, but I just might be warming up to Robert F. Kennedy Jr (though if we are going to have another President Kennedy, I’d much prefer it to be Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana):

This could get interesting. Longer analysis to come.

Bring back plastic straws? This turnabout was as predictable as the sunrise:

‘Paper can’t be a solution to plastic waste’: Canadian environmentalists warn about the rise in single-use paper products

The prohibition of single-use plastic products is crucial to Canada’s plan of achieving zero plastic waste by 2030, but with the ban, environmentalists are growing increasingly concerned about the amount of paper packaging being used in its place.

“We absolutely need to shift away from using plastics as much as we do, but trading in plastic pollution for deforestation and forest degradation is not the answer,” Canopy founder and executive director Nicole Rycroft told CTV News. “We really need to make sure we do not create another environmental disaster.”

She estimates more than three billion trees—many of which are old-growth and endangered—are logged every year to make paper-based products like bags, straws and food containers.

Just ban all the things. It’s the only way to be safe.

Chaser:

Notice: All comments are subject to moderation. Our comments are intended to be a forum for civil discourse bearing on the subject under discussion. Commenters who stray beyond the bounds of civility or employ what we deem gratuitous vulgarity in a comment — including, but not limited to, “s***,” “f***,” “a*******,” or one of their many variants — will be banned without further notice in the sole discretion of the site moderator.

Responses