Kevin J Moriarity

 I head out Saturday mornings to a coffee shop here in town. I usually bring my camera just in case I run across something interesting.  This is one of my favorite views. It's looking northwest from a park near my home. The cornfield belongs to Mooseheart. I like the spacing of the five trees. The same view in December of 2022. Engstrom park. The five trees are to my left. I like the shadows and the dappled sunlight early in the morning. The farmers market in Batavia is pretty busy. These people are crossing what I call the "Peace Bridge" from the west. Still no good looking tomatoes today though -- too dry early in the summer? The Peace Bridge (probably not its official name) from the Wilson Street bridge over the Fox River.

Years ago I attended the local March for Science in 2017. It was a lovely day and I had a great time. What I didn't get was an opportunity for further involvement. At the end of the march we ended up in a beautiful park. A guy tried to speak, but there was no stage, no sound equipment. There was no one there collecting email addresses or asking anyone if they wanted to get more involved than a nice walk on a nice day. I'm convinced that if a right-wing organization had planned this it would have been very different. Money would have been raised; email addresses would have been collected to further spread propaganda. You really must give the right credit. They are far better organized than the left. They play the long game and have recently scored some wins via Supreme Court decisions. But the right is not done. One of their tactics that they continually hammer away at is "fake news". The campaign to sow distrust in the press is part of the fascist playbook. The Nazis...

 

Recently one of the Moms For Liberty chapters included this quote in one of their newsletters:  "He alone, who owns the youth, gains the future." The quote is attributed to Adolph Hitler. Oops. The Moms say they deeply regretted including that quote, but they did not go so far as saying they disagreed with it.  Another one attributed to good old Adolph: "Let me control the textbooks, and I will control the state." Adolph was correct on both ideas. If you control what kids learn (or what adults can see in the press - another post), you can control the future direction of society. The Moms claim to be promoting parents' rights. That's a no-brainer, right? Who could be against parents raising their kids they way they want? Of course, that's not really what the Moms want. They want YOU, and everyone else, to raise their kids the way THE MOMS want! Hence: book bans, legislating what can be taught and what can't, and packing school boards so only the right...

 The Supreme Court was busy last week. First, they ruled against affirmative action based on the 14th amendment: "No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws." The court cited the equal protection part of the amendment as a reason to invalidate affirmative action, claiming it denied white people the same rights as non-white people. But, they also ruled in favor of a website designer in Colorado who didn't want to make websites for gay people. It seems the 14th amendment did not apply here. The court has set up two classes of people. Religious people get to ignore laws that offend their religious sensibilities. Those of us who are not religious have to follow those laws. That seems wrong and hardly seems like equal protec...