Truthy fiction
The USDA shut down a small-town library's "seed library," citing concerns about corruption of the nation's precious bodily food supply. The library would be permitted to keep a seed library (from which residents could withdraw seeds at the beginning of the planting season, and replace them with new seeds at the conclusion) only if it tested each sample for germination. Which brings to mind Jim Gerraghty's well-reviewed new humorous novel, "The Weed Agency."
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12 comments:
Once again, no good deed goes unpunished. Or unregulated.
And once again, I stand by my belief that folks who say "there oughta be a law" deserve to be slapped with a wet noodle.
Among them, this lady who wants teens to have to get a state-issued license to date.
The revealing moment for me is when the interviewer asks her what would happen if the state issued the license and the teens came up pregnant. What then? Would the parents get fined?
"Oh, wouldn't that be wonderful?" asks the lady.
Well, no, actually. It wouldn't be wonderful. Also, maybe it's not the wisest goal of public policy to ensure that no teens ever get pregnant. Sometimes that's a reasonable time to bear children, when your parents (and quite possibly grandparents) are still around and young enough to help you with the children. (As well as to enjoy their grand/great-grandchildren!) Maybe some teens will be better off attending college a little later in life, with a little more maturity and life experience. Maybe babies are a gift, rather than a punishment. At least sometimes!
No, let's set up the state agency to license us to date each other. We can't be trusted with that much responsibility.
I stand by my belief that folks who say "there oughta be a law" deserve to be slapped with a wet noodle.
Nah, they just need a license from the state in order to be allowed to be stupid in public. Or at least be required to get, from the local community, a publicly posted Bad Taste Waiver.
Eric Hines
Maybe some teens will be better off attending college a little later in life, with a little more maturity and life experience.
Or skipping it altogether, as completely unmatched to their abilities, interests, and temperament...and I don't mean "maybe."
(When I taught at the college level, for sure some of my best students had spent a few years, or even a decade or two, at work first. Come to that, ditto for some of my own classmates.)
When I taught in junior college, a scattering of my students were high school grads who were there because, essentially, they had no place else to be, other than the street. They knew that wasn't for them, but they didn't know what else to do.
So they went to junior college and learned some stuff while they figured out more about what they wanted to do. Including trade school, skills without which a society would be hard pressed to function.
Most of my students, though, were working adults. They knew what they needed, and they worked hard at it--including my classes, which they were taking because the classes were required electives (for this major, you must take some electives from this area) or square-filler electives. These adults didn't take anything as square-filler, though.
They also were the type to thumb their noses at the USDA and start their own, privately run (no local government need apply) seed bank, if the idea attracted them.
Eric Hines
I visited the "dating license" woman's website...datersed.com...unsurprising, I suppose, that she's marketing a product that would make her a millionaire if the states adopted her proposal.
But I think I have to give her a few points for effort. There is a problem right now with a lack of common culture, including a common dating culture...and she's trying to do something about it. I skimmed the basic advice she gives teens and it would be great advice...if almost everyone was doing it.
Otherwise a boy who treats his date with respect and gives her lots of room will indeed make lots of room...for other kinds of boys. And a girl whose #1 rule is "don't touch the merchandise" will indeed not get it touched...since the boys she wants will be "shopping" somewhere else.
A state license is worse than useless, and putting a program like that in the care of public schools beholden to PC is a recipe for failure. But still...a product like hers is an effort and deserves some credit.
I suppose building a road block of burning tires in the middle of a popular road is also a significant effort, but I must say I'm not generally inclined to issue credit so much as blame. :)
I was referring to her counselling services...not her proposal for a license.
The people are too weak and stupid to regulate their own conduct. That's why a centralized bureaucracy is needed to coordinate, regulate, and proselytize (by fire if need be).
Unfortunately (for us), ancient bureaucracies had merit tests. All we got in the US are fictitious blood, caste, and class tests. If you got the wrong accent or went to the wrong school, good bye. If you have 1% black blood and are Republican, you're an Uncle Tom and race traitor, not the Pride of the Black (or Human) Race and certainly not a legal scholar.
Since the US is built upon purity tests, strangely enough, those tests aren't applied to certain people exempt (as if from a draft).
That's an interesting insight, Ymar. It does seem that school plays a much greater role than it reasonably should, given that the objective quality of a graduate of one of the flagship state universities is not much less (and often in fact greater) than that of the Ivy Leagues.
I suspect it's about networking more than purity tests -- they know each other by name, and know also by name those currently in power. There's a huge advantage to not being a stranger, even if you disagree about something.
But you are quite right that the race thing is intimately tied to the politics thing.
Grim -- by reputation, that is extremely true of law schools. The students are strongly selected by cognitive ability (and to a much lesser extent wealth)...but the basic material everyone must learn is the same, and each course has only a couple of textbooks used throughout the country.
Mrs. W. just got through an LL.M. at the University of Virginia...which U.S. News ranks #8 in the country. My alma mater ranks #135. For quality of teaching...I got the better deal; but UVA grads get connections I don't have.
"(When I taught at the college level, for sure some of my best students had spent a few years, or even a decade or two, at work first. Come to that, ditto for some of my own classmates.)"
I concur, and for that matter, I was one who needed a few years of maturation prior to making the most of college.
I think I shall encourage my children to work a year or two, and maybe mix in some travel, before going to college.
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