It's nice to know they aren't ALL completely useless, isn't it?

Meanwhile, I was surprised to read this:

Count me as another member of Team "Don't humiliate your kids."

This thing made me cringe, and the comments defending it as all in good fun are making me cringe even more. I'm just glad to see that there are quite a few people who see this the way I do.

This was NOT how you make happy family memories that your kids will laugh about in years to come. This is how you send them a message that "Dad is a mean-spirited bully who thinks it's fun to make me miserable." And this is not okay.

Neither my husband or I ever did anything to intentionally embarrass our daughter. It wasn't something we made a big point of avoiding or even consciously thought about. It just never occurred to either of us to do such a thing, much less that it would be funny or entertaining. Maybe because neither of us had parents who did that, either.

That dad wasn't having fun WITH his kids. He was having fun AT THEIR EXPENSE. That's not a cool thing to do to anybody, and it's a terrible thing to do with your own vulnerable, defenseless children who can't stand up for themselves or fight back. He's teaching those kids that making fun of people IS cool, and that it's okay to use it as a means to exert power over others. I wouldn't be surprised if they turn out to be "mean girls" who make themselves feel important by bullying anyone who's different from them in school. I hope they don't, but if they did, they'd just be acting out what their dad taught them.

So yeah, I found this disturbing, not funny. And before anyone posts to accuse me of lacking a sense of humor, this is not about having a sense of humor. It's about empathy, which Merriam-Webster* defines as "understanding, being aware of, being sensitive to, and vicariously experiencing the feelings, thoughts, and experience of another." When I look at that video, my vicarious experience of the feelings of those kids crowds out everything else, and the last thing I feel like doing is laughing.

*https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/empathy

WOOHOOHOO!!!

With apologies to Sam Cooke:

Ain't that good news!
Man, ain't that news!

I finally saw one of those black flags in the wild. 😱

I first heard of them here at DU a while back and had to ask what they were, because the whole thing was new to me. For anyone unfamiliar with them, they look like this:



And here's an article explaining their ominous significance: https://www.salon.com/2021/10/12/black-flag-understanding-the-trumpists-latest-threatening-symbol/

The one I saw in my area the other day was a first for me. I know there are plenty of hard core Repugs around here, based in the number of people who voted for you know who in 2020, but they don't tend to advertise their presence, as I understand they do in some localities. This is a purple county in a blue state, and it's in the Chicago area, where the blue tends to be concentrated (especially in the city, but there's lots of blue suburbs, too.) So I had heard of these flags but had never seen one for myself, outside of tiktok videos and such.

The way it happened was, I was driving through a parking lot, heading for the exit out to the street, when I noticed something flapping in the breeze off the back of the vehicle in front of me. As I drew closer, I saw that the flapping item was a flag, or rather 3 flags, and the one on the right looked like a black and grey American flag. I wasn't sure that's what it was at first, but then I realized that the flag on the left had a large GOP elephant logo on it. (The one in the middle was a standard red, white, and blue U.S. flag.) Here's a pic I managed to snap while the beflagged vehicle was waiting for a chance to pull out into the traffic:



As you can see, the black flag is partially wrapped around its pole, making it hard to identify at a glance, but this pic doesn't leave any doubt. And I just thought dang, they really are everywhere, and I'll admit it kind of creeped me out to see one of those things right in front of me. It's one thing to know they exist, and quite another to see one in my own backyard.

Great cat cartoons!

These are some of the funniest cat cartoons I've seen in quite a while. This guy really GETS cats!

First, a few of my favorites:




The cat on the right reminds me of my Willow. She just LOVES to follow me into the bathroom and watch everything I do in there very intently!



That's just a small sampling. To see lots more, go here:
https://www.boredpanda.com/cat-comics-scott-metzger/
More here, too: https://www.boredpanda.com/funny-cat-comics-scott-metzger-cartoons/
And here's the artist's website: https://www.metzgercartoons.com/

No, they don't.

Having spent some time in NYC (albeit a while back), I can tell you that it's very easy to feel like one is in the center of the universe of everything that matters. And New York really IS the center of the universe for a lot of things, and has been for quite a while, and I don't think it's likely to change.

After my time in New York, I went back to Illinois and attended a state university that was jam-packed with kids from Chicago and its suburbs. Virtually everyone I met there acted like Chicago was the center of the universe. Being from a different part of the state that was nowhere near Chicago, I was appalled by how many of them didn't seem to be aware there was ANYTHING outside of Chicagoland. I didn't expect them to recognize the name of the one horse town where my parents lived, but they didn't act like they'd ever heard of any of the cities I mentioned to give them an idea where it was, either, even one that was the 3rd largest city in Illinois at that time. They didn't even grasp what the phrase "western Illinois" meant. It was...exasperating at times.

But if any of those kids had gone to school in New York, I guarantee you they would have gotten the same blank stares I got from them whenever they told anyone where they were from (other than people being vaguely aware of the existence of a city named Chicago).

I've lived most of my adult life in Illinois at this point, the last 30 years of it in the Chicago area, and by now, my personal frame of reference is a lot more Chicago-centric than it used to be. But I also know that this whole state (including big, culturally and ethnically diverse, exciting, and vibrant Chicago), along with all the other "midwestern" states, is nothing but "flyover" country to a lot of people on the east and west coasts, including New Yorkers. That's just the way it is, I've gotten used to it, and I don't take it personally. I'm not crazy about it, but I know there's nothing I can do to change it, and I don't take it as a direct insult to Chicago, Illinois, or the midwest.

I don't think the coverage of the Brooklyn subway shooter should be seen as a direct insult to Sacramento, either. I honestly don't.

Never heard of this guy, but I can tell he's a moran.

Has he ever even walked among the skyscrapers of a big city? Because I tell you what, there's nothing like being surrounded by giant towering buildings to make a person feel tiny. At least that's how it makes me feel: tiny, but in the best possible way. It makes me aware that I'm not the center of the universe, but just one small part of something much bigger than myself.

Come to think of it, you could say that being aware of and concerned about a wider array of issues than just those that affect oneself personally, at a particular moment in time, is one of the definitions of being liberal. So maybe the moran is on to something after all!

I'm in kitty jail!

I really need to go out and do some errands, but Willow is sound asleep on my shoulder. How can I possibly disturb her? Ack.

Oh, wait, she's waking up. Better make my move while I can.......

LGBTQ educators fear fallout from new school law