Hitting the BooksLibrary Schnooks, Prisoner Swap, and School Carpool Lines"What we saw here was someone saying the quiet part out loud. The goal is to sexualize children — to provide minors with sexually explicit material ... and then hide this content from the parents." What organization is Utah Senator Mike Lee talking about? A adult entertainment company? A group of escaped child predators? Lauren Boebert at a family musical? No, Lee is attacking the controversial organization known as the American Library Association. This gives new meaning to owning the libs. And it isn't just a one-off political attack. This is a movement. "Over the summer, state libraries in Montana, Missouri and Texas announced that they were severing ties with the ALA, imperiling their libraries’ access to funding and training. The Texas decision was taken after state Rep. Brian Harrison (R) wrote to library leaders saying that 'the ALA works against parents by fighting to keep p-rnographic materials in public libraries.' Conservative legislators in at least nine additional states are urging their state libraries to follow suit and disaffiliate." WaPo (Gift Article): Red states quit nation’s oldest library group amid culture war over books. Beatles vs Stones is a culture war. This is a cult war. 2Foreign Exchange"As part of the deal, Iran gets access to nearly $6 billion of its oil revenues that have been frozen in a South Korean bank. That money was transferred to accounts in Qatar, and U.S. officials say it will be monitored to make sure it's used just for humanitarian needs — food, agricultural products, medicine and medical devises — that are not subject to U.S. sanctions." Iran frees Americans in a swap, gets access to oil money, release of Iranians in US. 3Hot in the City"Preventing climate change is out of Singapore’s control: The city-state emits less than 0.1% of global carbon emissions. But there is a surefire way to limit city temperatures, researchers say: Revive the natural processes that cooled the land before urbanization. Most cities do not have Singapore’s wealth and centralized political system, which allow it to move quickly to build new infrastructure. But while some of Singapore’s strategies to reduce excess heat are expensive, many of them are straightforward, and cheaper than planning for, say, floods or hurricanes." NYT (Gift Article) with an interesting interactive piece: How to Cool Down a City. "Singapore is rethinking its sweltering urban areas to dampen the effects of climate change. Can it be a model?" (Especially when the changes they're executing in Singapore are happening in about the amount of time it takes to get a bathroom remodel approved in America...) 4Everybody into the Pool"For parents across America, the school car line is a daily punishment. The stern, annoyed command from some poor teacher or volunteer to 'pull all the way forward, please!' The breakdown of the whole process when someone inevitably doesn’t. The long minutes spent idling, spewing exhaust. The cones, and walkie-talkies, and little signs hung from rearview mirrors that help deliver so many kids, individually, right to their school’s doorstep." The Atlantic (Gift Article): The Agony of the School Car Line. (When I was in elementary school, we walked to school. Even uphill, both ways, it beat carpool lines.) 5Extra, ExtraPress Box: "Last week, as Christiane Amanpour celebrated her 40 years at CNN, she issued a challenge to her fellow journalists in the US by describing how she would cover US politics as a foreign correspondent. 'We have to be truthful, not neutral ... I would make sure that you don’t just give a platform … to those who want to crash down the constitution and democracy.'" Margaret Sullivan: With democracy on the ballot, the mainstream press must change its ways. Meanwhile, Meet the Press kicked off the Kristen Welker era with a(nother) horrible Trump interview. Even NBC itself fact-checked the interview -- because so many people watch these interviews and then go back to do more research. Thank god the ghost of Tim Russert had Bills game to distract him on Sunday. 6Bottom of the News"The U.S. Marine Corps is asking for the public's help in locating an F-35B Lightning II jet after the pilot ejected during a 'mishap' over the weekend." Get a copy of my 📕, Please Scream Inside Your Heart, or grab a 👕 in the Store. |