Politics, RattleBag and Rhubarb, The Sex Wars

When DEI means Deny, Exclude, Intrude

The daily stroll last week took us down Claremont Avenue where large picture window affords a passing glimpse into a college classroom at Barnard.  A young teacher was talking while on the large screen was a slide headed “Principles of Democracy”. Only the top bullet had been revealed – “Inclusion”.  Perhaps I jumped to a wrong conclusion but that gave…

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Books, Poetry, Politics, RattleBag and Rhubarb, The Sex Wars

When Milton met Galileo

I chanced upon this painting of the meeting between Galileo and John Milton and had a flashback to undergraduate days and the anthology we were required to buy and lug around (and possibly read.) It was  American, very heavy, very expensive, and full of all kinds of interesting but rather dense texts. I remember the pages were flimsy thin, and…

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Title IX (Athletics): Current Proposed Law and Regulations Resources and Sample Text

This document contains, in the order given below, the following sample texts, information, and resources: HR 734 Sample Text for Democratic Congressmembers Who Voted No S.613 Sample Text for Senate Democrats Title IX Regulation re School Athletics Sample Text for Federal Register Submission Some Commentary on the Context Resources for Additional Information HR 734 Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act…

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Books, Poetry, Politics, RattleBag and Rhubarb, WW2

1940 and the #1940Club

Hope I’m not jumping the gun here but the #1940Club starts next week and I’ve been gearing up and getting ready.  The idea is simple. It’s a fun event with no pressure because you can choose anything from the year and read as much or as little as suits you. You can share on your blogs, Twitter, Instagram, Goodreads, in…

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Politics, RattleBag and Rhubarb, WW2

Our Flag Stays Red – Communists and Snore Detectives at the Savoy

In Our Flag Stays Red (1948) Phil Piratin – the Communist Party MP for Mile End – wrote an account of the 1940 occupation of the Savoy Hotel. This is just one of the many stories I came across in the research for the Marienbad – my post about Fritz Stingl and his escape from Czechoslovakia in 1939. Fritz was…

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Politics, RattleBag and Rhubarb, The Sex Wars

Reasons To Be Cheerful

So much gloom, doom, and disaster that it’s important to find counterbalances. Here are a few recent bright spots. Glasgow and Bristol and the USA By all accounts, the Standing For Women event in Glasgow went extremely well. The videos show that the turnout was strong and many women were able to tell their stories. The opposition to women speaking…

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Politics, RattleBag and Rhubarb, The Sex Wars

New York City and Free Speech Not Welcome

Yesterday I took my stickybeaking self downtown to City Hall Park where Standing for Women was holding an event. You can read more about it elsewhere, but the basic idea of these events is a public setup with loudspeakers and the opportunity for any woman who wants to say something about issues affecting women to take the mike. Because many…

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Politics, RattleBag and Rhubarb, The Sex Wars

The House of Cards

Coming out of the Irish government this week is a truly helpful definition of “gender”. So for all you folks out there who think gender is nonsense – educate yourselves and learn.  It’s from the CRIMINAL JUSTICE (INCITEMENT TO VIOLENCE OR HATRED AND HATE OFFENCES) BILL 2022. So now you know. Clear as a peat bog in an Irish mist. …

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Politics, RattleBag and Rhubarb, The Sex Wars

Put Out More Flags

My heart sinks down when I behold A rainbow in the street. With the end of June, in sight, I’m hoping for a break from the corporate waterboarding of the rainbow flag and its ever-morphing journey toward meaninglessness and cultural oblivion. With all this “pride”, eleven months of shame might be a relief. I realize that this is more than…

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Books, Politics, RattleBag and Rhubarb, The Sex Wars

Burning the Books and their Authors

This tweet about toasting marshmallows on a fire stoked with Harry Potters brought to mind an odd incident from my childhood. To the amusement of the world, my home town decided to ban a classic of medieval Italian literature as obscene and pornographic. The year was 1954 and book was Boccaccio’s Decameron. Until that point only three people in the…

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Politics, RattleBag and Rhubarb, The Sex Wars

What is a man?

Now that the odious Matt Walsh has given us the answer to “What is a Woman?” we must now turn to the male of the species and ask: What is a man? According to Walsh, by the way, a woman is someone who needs a man to open a pickle jar. This information comes right at the end of his…

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Art, Books, My Poetry, Poetry, Politics, RattleBag and Rhubarb

All Our Yesterdays with the #1936Club

There was a period in the early 1960s when my parents had a television (in those days you rented) and one of the programs I liked to watch was All Our Yesterdays produced by Granada Television. It was a look back in time based on the newsreel footage of that week twenty-five years ago –  a week-by-week journey through the…

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Politics, RattleBag and Rhubarb

A COVID Plea to County Government

A plea to County government for assistance to residents to keep us as safe as possible during the COVID vaccine roll-out Positive COVID cases are rising in Dutchess County at an alarming rate, and the threat of the UK, and perhaps other, more infectious variants are on the horizon if not already here. While the vaccine roll-out has begun, it…

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Politics, RattleBag and Rhubarb

Eat my leek!

As previously reported in Shakespeare has had enough, a random assortment of Shakespeare’s characters – disturbed and distressed by political leadership – got together to prepare for an intervention. I invited them over, which was probably a bit of a mistake as they were all eager to participate and the logistics of social distancing were a bit of a challenge.…

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Politics, RattleBag and Rhubarb

Shakespeare Has Had Enough

Disturbed and distressed by political leadership, a random assortment of Shakespeare’s characters got together to prepare for an intervention. And then they confronted the villain himself and gave him the what for. We’ll have to wait for the next act to see what happened next.