British Political Humor and Commentary

 

Yes, he's still out there.

Our Times: Universalists versus Particularists

The Universalists say that it is improper for teachers to take elementary and high school students out of class to participate in a political protest that is neither favored by many of the parents and students nor by the local school board. 

The Universalists also would not approve such activities for causes in which they believe because they support the equal application of the standards.

The Particularists say that exceptions are proper if the cause is one which the teachers and many others deem to be just.

The Particularists would not favor similar conduct if the cause were one that they opposed.

[Photo by Pixel Shot at Unsplash]

First Paragraph

The Raphaëls leave in the middle of the night, and they leave everything behind.

- From 33 Place Brugman by Alice Austen

Theme from "The Pacific"

 

The Decline of Unifying Events

Remember the ancient days of pre-cable television?

Those days when there were special programs that everyone watched for free? 

Ones that everyone talked about because everyone had seen them?

These were the big ones:

- The Olympics from the Opening Ceremony all the way through to the Closing Ceremony. We were immersed in stories about the serious contenders and the very long shots. ABC Sports coverage was legendary.

- The World Series. All the games or, at least, most of them in the days when the games were played during the day. I recall a television being wheeled into elementary school classes for some brief viewing during the school day.

- The Super Bowl. I recently tried in vain to find the game without paying for a subscription.

- Political Conventions once had gavel-to-gavel coverage. You got to know the famous, the infamous, and the fairly obscure political figures. For those of us who are political junkies, that was a Golden Age. 

It was great to see personalities such as Everett Dirksen, Edward W. Brooke, Jacob Javits, Margaret Chase Smith, Harold Washington, Sam Yorty, and Richard Daley in a less-formal setting.

This may seem like a minor complaint, but when you take away (or make it difficult to find) that "free" coverage, you've removed some major unifying events.

The national community is diminished.

Civilization

 

10 Books for High School (and College) Students

 

These books can be life-changers.

I wish they had been around when I was in high school.

[Photo by Eric Vo at Unsplash]

In the Pipeline

 

But It Was a Dry Heat

Tucson became the head-quarters of vice, dissipation, and crime. It was probably the nearest approach to Pandemonium on the North American Continent. Murderers, thieves, cutthroats, and gamblers formed the mass of the population. Every man went armed to the teeth, and scenes of bloodshed were of every-day occurrence in the public streets. There was neither government, law, nor military protection. The garrison at Tucson confined itself to its legitimate business of getting drunk or doing nothing. Arizona was perhaps the only part of the world under the protecting aegis of a civilized government in which every man administered justice to suit himself, and where all assumed the right to gratify the basest passions of their nature without restraint. It was literally a paradise of devils.

- From Adventures in the Apache Country: A Tour Through Arizona and Sonora with Notes on the Silver Regions of Nevada by John Ross Browne [New York: Harper & Brothers, Publishers, 1871.]

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