Latest Posts
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Thursday Links: All Panthers Are Black
* For Black History Month, Black superheroes talk about their struggles.
* Jimmy Fallon's "Downton Sixbey."
* Yolo: An oral history of an awful phrase.
* U.S. females need to step up the science.
* Schoolhouse Rock sings about ungrammatical stuff.
* This Sacramento Bee editorial is seriously messing with Texas.
* Twitter has a new hashtag game: #ReplaceSongTitlesWithDrone.
* Conan O'Brien's heckler Eddie Pepitone has Post Office questions.
* A map of all the vaguely or explicitly rude-sounding place names in the world.
* The Post Office's potential for "clandestine communication" was a scary prospect, at one time.
Tags: Black History Month, California, Daily Links, Drones, Education, Geography, Post Office, Racism, Rick Perry, Science & Technology, Taxes, Texas, Women's Rights -
If You Can Read This, You Might Live in America's Most Literate City
Also, you're probably not from Bakersfield, California. That city placed last in an annual study of 75 large American cities aimed at ranking "America's Most Literate Cities."
The study, by Central Connecticut State University president John Miller, is based on data that includes the number of bookstores, library resources, newspaper circulation, Internet access and educational attainment.
To the top 10:
Tags: Books, Education, Washington DC -
Tennessee's "Don't Say Gay" Bill Gets Worse
Ever since Tennessee's widely-mocked "Don't Say Gay" bill died in the State House of Representatives, bill sponsor Senator Stacey Campfield has been busy drafting a new version that is "completely different" and "gets rid of some of the old perceptions" about the legislation.Among the "old perceptions" that have been completely debunked by the new draft is the idea that Campfield couldn't possibly come up with anything dumber than his original proposal. How wrong we were to doubt.
Tags: Education, LGBT, Sex, Tennessee -
Tennessee May Starve Children Until Their Grades Improve
When we last caught up with Tennessee state senator Stacey Campfield, he was giving unsolicited medical advice by blaming AIDS on a gay airline pilot having sex with a monkey and calling the disease "virtually impossible" to contract via heterosexual intercourse.There's just one problem with acting like a cartoon arch-villain: each of your evil schemes must be grander than the last. The AIDS thing came after Campfield demanded the word "gay" be banned from Tennessee classrooms, so how has he topped himself now?
Tags: Children, Education, Poverty, State Legislature, Tennessee, Welfare -
Arizona Legislators Propose Loyalty Oath for High School Graduation
Not satisfied with being number one in the United States in high school education (correction: number one in high school dropouts), Arizona lawmakers have come up with two hot new proposals to make it harder for students to get their diplomas.
One proposed bill requires students to say the Pledge of Allegiance — current law tells schools to make time for the pledge recitation for "for those students who wish" — unless they're excused "at the request of a parent" who can explain why their son or daughter hates America.
Tags: Arizona, Education, Immigration, State Legislature
