Daily Archives: March 9, 2021

It is ironic that conservatives have come to Dr. Seuss rescue. It is unlikely that he would have wanted to sit down and have a beer with any of the right-wingers who are out there defending the bigotry depicted in some of his childrens books.

Theodor Seuss Geisel, or Dr. Seuss as we know him, was a staunch liberal. He once worked as a political cartoonist for a left-leaning New York newspaper, called PM. By todays conservative standards, the publication would be called "fake news."

He was so progressive in his day that Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez could have been his proteges. He was a zealous anti-war advocate, who supported Democratic President Franklin Roosevelt and the New Deal. Many of his cartoons were critical of Congress and the Republican Party, in particular.

If the author were alive today, he likely would think the idea of "cancel culture" was bunk. Most liberals consider the catchphrase to be nothing more than an excuse to hang on to antiquated ideas that have no place in todays society.

Perhaps he would not have cared that his books soared to the top of Amazons bestseller list shortly after Dr. Seuss Enterprises, which controls the authors books and characters, announced that it would no longer publish six of his books because of the "hurtful and wrong" way they portrayed people of color.

The books "And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street," "If I Ran the Zoo," "McElligots Pool," "On Beyond Zebra!," "Scrambled Eggs Super!" and "The Cats Quizzer" quickly sold out from online sellers such as Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

Maybe collectors snapped them up. Maybe some folks were lured to forbidden fruit. But maybe the anti-cancel culture coalition bought them all to show liberals just how tough they could fight back.

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To stretch the political divide, Republican House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy went onto the House floor last week and accused Democrats of "outlawing Dr. Seuss." He later posted a video on Twitter of himself reading "Green Eggs and Ham," though it is not among those being discontinued. McCarthy said he did it because "I still like Dr. Seuss."

If that was an attempt to enrage liberals, he failed. Lots of us still like Dr. Seuss. "Green Eggs and Ham" remains one of my personal favorite childrens books, along with Margaret Wise Browns "Goodnight Moon."

No one is telling anyone to suddenly start hating Dr. Seuss. Without a doubt, some of Dr. Seuss earliest work was bigoted. Some readers have struggled for decades with the racially charged caricatures that seemed to undermine his brilliant work.

It was hard to understand how someone so socially conscious could be so insensitive.

His first book, "And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street," published in 1937, encourages children to use their imagination. Consider the impression they might have gotten from the Chinese man with two lines for eyes, wearing a pointed hat and carrying chopsticks and a bowl of rice.

Perhaps Dr. Seuss intent was to add diversity to the story, but he promoted a stereotype. Maybe he never considered that the depiction would paint a picture in the minds of children of all races that Asian Americans are different from everyone else, even strange.

In "If I Ran the Zoo," two African characters resemble monkeys without shirts and shoes. It is puzzling how an anti-racism advocate such as Dr. Seuss couldnt see a problem with this.

The book was published in 1950, a few years after he drew political cartoons for PM opposing World War II. He deplored anti-Semitism and racism, and used his cartoons to bring attention to the horrible conditions Blacks were experiencing at home in America.

In an interview with the BBC, cartoonist Art Spiegelman said Dr. Seuss wartime political cartoons were drawn "with the fire of honest indignation and anger."

They "rail against isolationism, racism, and anti-Semitism with a conviction and fervor lacking in most other American editorial pages of the period virtually the only editorial cartoons outside the communist and black press that decried the militarys Jim Crow policies and Charles Lindberghs anti-Semitism," he said.

But Dr. Seuss was also a man of many contradictions. His political cartoons also included incendiary depictions of Japanese leaders and portrayed Japanese Americans as disloyal.

Some have tried to blame his bigoted material on the times, saying that such things were acceptable during that era. But there never has been a time in history where bigotry was OK. Dr. Seuss was smart enough to know that.

We will never know why Dr. Seuss drew such hurtful pictures. Maybe he suffered from unconscious bias, in which he held social stereotypes about certain groups of people without realizing it. Maybe he created a "woke" public image to cover up his bigotry.

All we know for sure is that, like everyone, he was flawed.

Still, there is much to admire about him if you are a liberal. But if you are a far right-wing conservative, Dr. Seuss wasnt your kind of guy.

Dahleen Glanton wrote this piece for the Chicago Tribune.

More here:

Dr. Seuss probably would have thought 'cancel culture' was bunk - Newsday

The great tragedy of our time is that liberals vote left.

Virtually every value liberals have held for a century is now held by conservatives and scorned by leftists. Therefore, America, in serious jeopardy of being lost, will be saved when people convince the liberals in their life that the left, not the conservative, is their enemy.

This process begins by establishing whether a friend or relative is a liberal or a leftist. If it turns out that he or she is a liberal, it is worth engaging in respectful dialogue on the issues of the day. If the friend or relative is a leftist, you can probably only talk about innocuous subjects such as the weather (though not about global warming) or sports (though not about players taking a knee during the national anthem). If you talk about the great issues of the day with a left-wing friend or relative, that could be the last time you talk to each other. He or she is likely to unfriend you not only on social media but also in life. Leftists generally do not dialogue; they dismiss.

Here are questions you might want to pose to friends/relatives to determine as much for them as for you whether they are liberal or left.

1. Many universities now have all-black dormitories, and some have all-black graduation exercises. Do you support these developments?

2. The University of California has declared this statement racist: There is only one race the human race. Do you agree with the University of California, or do you agree with the statement?

3. Is the goal of being colorblind doing ones best to ignore a persons color and concentrating only on the persons character and personality a noble goal or a racist one?

4. Do you believe the color of a persons skin tells you anything of importance about that person?

5. Do you agree that all white Americans are racist?

6. If your answer is yes, would you tell the millions of blacks in Africa and the Caribbean who wish to emigrate to America that they would be making a poor decision? If not, why not?

7. Is it possible for a black person to be a racist?

8. Is it racist to claim that Johann Sebastian Bach, Ludwig van Beethoven and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart composed the greatest music ever composed?

9. Is the national anthem racist?

10. If your answer is yes, what would you like to put in its place?

11. The English department at the University of Pennsylvania removed its painting of William Shakespeare because he was a white European male. Do you agree with that decision?

12. Do you agree with The New York Times 1619 Project that America was not founded in 1776 but in 1619 with the first arrival of black slaves in North America, and that the Revolutionary War was fought in order to preserve slavery?

13. Should statues of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln be taken down?

14. Has the United States, overall, made the world a better place?

15. Would America be better, worse or the same as now if all Americans dropped their religion and became secular?

16. Has capitalism been a net-plus for America and the world?

17. Everyone would like to improve America. Some would like to, in their words, fundamentally transform it. Would you?

18. Could a good person have voted for Donald Trump in 2020?

19. Do you believe that CNN, The Washington Post, The New York Times and the rest of the mainstream media are biased toward the left or try to present the news as accurately as possible?

20. Should America have full control over its borders to prevent illegal immigration?

21. There are between 11 and 30 million people in America who entered the country illegally. Should they all be put on a path to citizenship?

22. Should those who enter America illegally be called undocumented immigrants or illegal immigrants?

23. Do you believe police departments should be defunded, or at least have their budgets severely cut?

24. Should the government provide vouchers to enable parents to choose what school their child attends?

25. Which school do you believe is more likely to be attacked by a gunman: one that has a sign in front that reads, Gun-Free Zone or one that reads, This School Has Armed Personnel?

26. Should it be legal for a teenage girl to have her breasts surgically removed because she identifies as a male or should there be a minimum age of 18 or 21?

27. Schoolteachers have been told to stop calling students boys and girls because a student might not identify as either male or female. Do you agree with this policy?

28. Should biological males who identify as females be allowed to compete against biological females in sports?

29. Is the statement, Men give birth science-based?

30. Do you agree with the practice of inviting a drag queen into public libraries and elementary school classrooms to conduct a Drag Queen Story Hour?

31. Do you believe that free speech allows for hate speech, or should hate speech be banned?

32. If you believe hate speech should be banned, who do you believe should determine what is hate speech?

You might want to send these questions to the people in your life whose views are to the left of your own. At best, you (and they) will realize that you have more in common than either of you previously thought. At the very least, their answers will bring you both clarity. And at worst, they will explain why there is a rift between you and why you might want to restrict communication to weather, sports, recipes and warm memories.

Dennis Prager is a nationally syndicated radio talk-show host and columnist.

Original post:

Question to determine whether a friend or relative is a liberal or a leftist - Johnson City Press (subscription)

To the Editor:

Re The Secrets of Winning Over People Who Are Wrong, by Nicholas Kristof (column, March 4):

I have never read or heard an anti-liberal (Ill just categorize Mr. Kristofs unnamed opponents as that) say that they must find a way to listen better to liberals/progressives. If that were a principle they ever recognized, I might be convinced to play along. But no.

And Ive seen too many liberals with the same lament as Mr. Kristof, as if we should bear some guilt or shame for being on the right side of a long history. Would Mr. Kristof have written a similar piece encouraging Lincoln and the North to listen more closely to Southern slave interests?

We have listened long enough, if not far too long. Progress, justice and reason have too long been subverted by anti-liberals using nothing more than lies and obstruction. Certainly there are times and places for talk and persuasion. But there are also critical mass moments when there are not.

As Stacey Abrams showed in Georgia, since we can no longer persuade our opponents, we must simply organize and outvote them, and deny them their minority power.

Lyndon DoddsSan Antonio

To the Editor:

I perceive a clear contradiction in the premise of the column.

A psychologist is quoted saying that humility is often a more effective persuasive tool, but Id point out that Trump supporters have been persuaded to believe absurdities to the point of deep conviction by a man who is the antithesis of humility.

He is about as strident, cocksure and baselessly smug as a human being can get, and yet those qualities do not seem to hinder his capacity to persuade at all. In fact, they seem to be a crucial component of that capacity.

James McPhersonKitchener, Ontario

To the Editor:

Thanks much for the important reminder that the best way to persuade is to listen. I teach caregivers how to work with clients who dont want to admit that they can no longer do their own daily care safely. The first principle I give them is that telling someone they are wrong triggers an automatic response of marshaling arguments why they are right.

Only after we understand, from listening, why the other person believes as they do can we creatively show them how their basic values can be respected within a changed behavior or policy.

Would that the woke voices could hear how their stridency offends as much as does that of the conspiracy-shouting deniers of election legitimacy.

Niki SebastianSapello, N.M.

To the Editor:

Nicholas Kristof has a formula for winning over people who are wrong. Its called pandering, and its the main reason Democrats still lose elections to inferior Republican foes.

Al Gores humility in the 2000 race regarding his role in the establishment of the internet did not help him at all in the face of Republican mockery. Four years later, John Kerrys humility about his military record likewise backfired in the face of swift-boating, leaving him to look weak.

Sorry, Mr. Kristof. Democrats cant keep taking weasel words to a gunfight.

Christopher BaileySeattle

To the Editor:

What a refreshing breath of complicated air! In my corner of the world (Baltimore), I host Purple Parties. Half far right, half far left. We dont compromise or convert; we look for where we already agree. Theres lots of room for that, and just trying, talking and listening changes everything.

People say the red team wont talk to the blue team, but they will if we listen. They will explain happily and sincerely, and some of what they say makes excellent sense and reminds me of values I learned growing up on a central New York State farm.

Purple Parties have been very successful, partly because any topic that has been in the news in the past two weeks is off the table. Its fun!

Polly BartBaltimore

To the Editor:

The headline of Nicholas Kristofs opinion piece on the need for humility in order to persuade shows no humility.

Linda RossMaplewood, N.J.

More here:

Opinion | Is Humility, Not Righteousness, the Key to Persuasion? - The New York Times

Both major political parties have been criticised for running online advertisements which direct users to websites to find out where they can vote early in the WA election, without disclosing their links to either site.

An ad for the website VoteWA.com.au appears as the first or second result under a number of Google searches, including "vote early Perth".

A similar ad for WhereCanIVote.org.au appears on some searches, including "vote early Liberal WA".

VoteWA.com.au is run by WA Labor and WhereCanIVote.org.au was setup by the Liberals.

In some cases, the websites appear above links to official pages run by the WA Electoral Commission (WAEC).

In both instances, it is not until users are on the websites that they are presented with a small disclosure at the bottom of the pages revealing the sites' owners.

Supplied

WhereCanIVote.org.au also contains the Liberal Party's logo as the site's icon.

It comes as a record number of Western Australians vote early, with the WAEC reporting yesterday that about one in five electors, or 343,796, had already cast their ballot.

VoteWA website

That is compared to the 214,242 people who voted early in the 2017 state election.

It is not suggested that either party is breaking WA's electoral laws or regulations.

Once on the VoteWA.com.au site, users are asked to enter their home address, which the site uses to display a page showing their nearest early voting centre and a photo of Mark McGowan with their electorate's Labor candidate.

Further down the page, alongside how to vote cards, are options for users to have "free directions" sent to their mobile phone or email address.

The politics, the policies and the people. We've collected all our coverage on the election campaign here.

Both require the user to enter their first and last names to receive the instructions.

A link to WA Labor's privacy policy, which was until last week only accessible from the site after entering an address, states any information provided to the party "will only be used for the purpose for which it was provided".

WA Labor did not directly answer questions from the ABC about how the website collected data, or about its failure to disclose the ownership of the site in Google ads.

"The VoteWA.com.au website is an easy way for people to access how to vote material for WA Labor candidates, and to find their nearest early voting centre," a party spokesperson said.

Similarly, the WhereCanIVote.org.au website asks users to enter their postcode, which it uses to display their Liberal candidate, as well as polling places open before and on election day.

There is also an option to download a how-to-vote card, which is the first time the Liberal Party logo clearly appears in any of the site's content.

Supplied

In response to questions from the ABC, a Liberal Party campaign spokesperson said the site did not track the postcodes entered by users.

"The website WhereCanIVote.org.au is provided as a service to electors to assist them in finding local polling places and Liberal candidates," they said.

"It is authorised in accordance with electoral laws."

The websites have raised the eyebrows of internet and political experts, who said their links to their respective parties should be made more clear.

Supplied

"These purport to show how-to-vote sites, which look like public utilities, but they're actually effectively advertising websites for the state political parties," professor of internet studies Tama Leaver said.

"It really wouldn't be difficult to make it clearer on either page that this is a website designed and run by a political party.

"I think it would do a great deal for peoples' trust in political parties if they were more upfront with what they were doing."

Mr Leaver said the situation was another example of why WA needed to better regulate internet advertising during elections.

ABC News: Gian De Poloni

"I think both parties are being as transparent as currently required by law and not a single step further," he said.

"We've got incredibly clear rules around when you can and can't advertise in print and on television, we've got quite clear rules about what you can and can't say and how much you need to disclose.

"Tightening up political advertising regulations so that it clearly applies online and clearly applies to social media would certainly make it a more transparent, and a more democratic system."

Political analyst Peter Kennedy agreed that while the websites appeared to comply with WA's Electoral Act, their affiliations could have been more obvious.

Google

He said the parties would not have created the websites unless they believed they could affect how individual voters might cast their ballot.

"They might be influenced by a party's how-to-vote card, or they could ignore it," he said.

"The political parties do it because they think their might be an advantage in it, and there may well be some political advantage.

"I don't think it would be a very marked advantage though."

If you're still having trouble picking who to vote for, check out our quick 5-minute guide to what all the parties in the WA election actually stand for.

Data from Google reveals the WA Liberals have spent $33,450 on political advertising since the middle of November last year, making them the highest-spending organisation in the nation among those listed.

That accounts for more than half of the total amount spent on political advertising through Google and its other services, including YouTube, over that period.

Most of it has been spent on ads since February 7 around $20,000.

The WA Greens spent the second highest amount, forking out $23,700 for their ads.

WA Labor does not appear in the data.

Go here to read the rest:

Labor and Liberal parties criticised for running WA election online ads without disclosing links - ABC News

Article content

Manitoba Liberal Leader Dougald Lamont cites a case of the Mondays for breaking dress code requirements in the legislature on Monday.

The St. Boniface MLA rose at the start of the sitting on a matter of contempt, but Speaker of the Legislative Assembly Myrna Driedger refused to recognize Lamont as he was not wearing a tie a requirement as part of the dress code.

He left the chambers and returned a few minutes later with a red tie.

Maybe Ill have a word with speaker or maybe Ill put forward a motion to see if this place can run a little more like a restaurant so when youre coming in and you dont have the right tie or jacket theyll give you a clip on or maybe I just have to screw my head on properly and make sure I have my tie on before I walk in, he said while breaking down into a strange emotional laugh when questioned about it in a scrum after question period.

After returning to sitting, he rose once again to raise the matter of contempt, but was shut down by the Speaker again as she is already considering the issue on a point of order and Lamont was bringing in evidence she said she could not consider. Driedger stopped a similar motion last week by the Liberal leader on the grounds she was already considering the matter.

Lamont was protesting the use of placeholder bills by the government during the fall sitting to meet a deadline.

This is the second time he has been called out for being in breach of the dress code. In 2018 he was sent out of the house after wearing jeans.

The province tables three of their previously undisclosed 19 bills on Monday.

Bill 51, the Limitations Act, will set a consistent statute of limitations on all civil claims. Current legislation has a range of times from two to 10 years while the new act puts it at two years which begins to run from the day the claim is discovered, even if a claim has not been discovered within 15 years of the event, the clock will run out. The new act also lists a number of proceedings for which there are no limitations, including sexual assault.

Bill 46, the Court Practice and Administration Act makes a number of regulatory changes, including the eligibility of jurors. A person charged or convicted of a criminal act will no longer be barred from being a juror, as well a provision that prevented jurors from being paid for the first 10 days of jury duty is being repealed.

Bill 52, the Minor Amendments and Corrections Act, makes adjustments to 35 different pieces of legislation.

jaldrich@postmedia.com

Twitter: @JoshAldrich03

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Liberal leader fit to be tied after breaking Leg dress code - Winnipeg Sun

There is one conversation that I have heard often, especially at NC State, and it is one that I would like to address now: the humanities and social sciences versus STEM rivalry. I am not the first to broach this topic, and I will surely not be the last, but at a university that places a strong emphasis on the study of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), particularly engineering, its one that I like to have, even if I am often left feeling chastised for my life choices.

This time around, however, I found myself wondering how my supposed opposition perceived the College of Humanities and Social Sciences (CHASS). When I asked Sahil Karuturi, a third-year studying computer science, about his general opinions on this discourse, he reflected on what measurement we consider professions and degrees.

I think that every occupation and major has a role in society, Karuturi said. Some roles are definitely less valuable than others in terms of utility, but that doesnt mean that it has to be the only metric that you have to judge things by.

As a CHASS student, I couldnt help but question this argument. The concept of utility has the pretense of being tangible and, therefore, STEM-related, when this is simply the modern day connotation of the word. One of Merriam-Websters definitions of utility is fitness for some purpose or worth to some end, and this truth can be found in any area of study. The value of how certain studies are utilized is another question altogether and subjective in itself, inherently making my opinion of certain societal roles different from Karuturis.

When I directly asked about the divide between CHASS and STEM, he had to consider it more thoughtfully.

If [CHASS students] ever talk about how hard their classes are, it's like Really?, but I dont think its really that serious, Karuturi said. Its not really a competition on whos having a harder time at life right now. Certainly not, but if you were to start a competition, engineering students would get very defensive.

This is amusing as this is an accurate reflection of my personal experience when conversing with engineering students, though, in truth, I know its not a competition. Perhaps Ive known that for a great deal of my life, but how could I not try to compete, especially with the world putting anything STEM-related on a pedestal? Its not about rivalry so much as it is about simply recognizing that liberal arts have an essential place in society too.

I found that, in my conversation with Sara Thornton, a fourth-year studying electrical engineering, that recognition was present.

Its nice to have that diverse community with people who take similar classes to me and then with people who have that different perspective being in humanities and social sciences, Thornton said. They always bring a different perspective to things. Weve been able to have conversations that dont normally come up in engineering.

As we continued to discuss her background and experiences, Thornton mentioned the value of being intentional in who you become involved with.

The point of college is not just to surround yourself with people in your major, Thornton said. Once I go into an engineering job, Im not just going to be surrounded by engineering majors. Im going to be working with marketing people or policy people.

Thornton addresses a fundamental aspect of why I find this conversation so meaningful. In college, taunts at these opposing studies may be thrown behind closed doors or only amongst close groups, but real life doesnt look like this. We are surrounded by people with different educational backgrounds every day, and to only pretend to respect them and the work they put into receiving their degree or the work they do is not enough.

There are different values that people from these different backgrounds can offer, and Dhuru Patel, a fourth-year studying human biology, touches on this.

A STEM degree is going to give you a different skill set and mindset than a humanities degree, Patel said. A STEM education is very analytical and product-oriented, whereas a liberal arts education is more applicable to things that dont necessarily have an end product.

When I asked him about the divide between CHASS and STEM, his response is a callback to the idea of intentionality.

If you have just one group of friends, if I had all pre-med friends, it would be an echo chamber for anything medical; anything else would pale in comparison, Patel said. I think everyone is a product of their environment and their experiences.

It is essential that each of us pursue the seemingly radical idea of engaging with others who study contrasting subjects compared to our own, not only to broaden our environments and ways of thinking but to become better students and, hopefully, better people. In this pursuit, we will become more thoughtful in how we benefit from the contributions of varying individuals and more genuine in our connections with one another, whether it be a person with a background in history or one in mechanical engineering, inevitably instilling the value of our collective work.

Go here to see the original:

OPINION: The divide between liberal arts and STEM doesn't have to exist if we don't want it to - N.C. State University Technician Online