I gotta go to my first wedding in as long as I can remember this weekend in Cambridge. (Sorry to the last couple of the last wedding I attended; I’m sure it was a lovely evening.) I actually like weddings, but I’m already steeling myself to hear my 1,000th rendition of that “love is humble” Corinthians verse that makes it into every ceremony.
But what am I going to do as a +1? I have as much power in that court as a medieval serf. I’ll sit there and eat my dry, lukewarm chicken breast and iceberg lettuce before drinking $500 worth of Vodka-Waters at the open bar and then Electric Sliding my way right into bed at 10 p.m.
Romance in America, baby! It’s a beautiful industry.
The right to make your child a socially stunted weirdo.
Fine. I’ll say it. Every home-schooled kid I’ve ever met in my life was a fucking weirdo. Homeschooling (and private school), would be illegal in a functioning society.
In this one, however, business executives and people who sell crystals on Facebook can commandeer their children’s education from local professionals and turn them into the next culture warrior of tomorrow.
Unfortunately the pandemic increased their population.
From Clancy Burke of wkrc.com:
CINCINNATI (WKRC) - More parents than ever are choosing to homeschool their kids after the pandemic forced them to test the waters.
“The last year taught them to see, ‘You know what. I can be really successful at this, and not only can I do it, my children can thrive and have an education that’s even beyond their expectations that they even thought they could,” president of Ohio Homeschooling Parents Debby Gerth said.
Ohio Homeschooling Parents is a non-profit that helps guide parents through the process.
Right before the pandemic, about 10,000 parents were part of the organization and now there are more than 17,000.
Can’t wait for the anti-vax movement to become more mainstream and small pox to make a comeback. Just wait on it; it’s only a matter of time.
Former Dublin dad only needs six months at new job to get federally subpoenaed.
Urban Meyer got an NFL job and couldn’t even hire a coaching staff without enduring a stupid, 100% avoidable scandal.
Ohio State football is a Fortune 500 enterprise, but it’s still small enough that Meyer could have gotten away with hiring a racist strength coach. He would have issued a press statement that amounted to, “Eat my ass, you disgusting little piggies” and the limited outrage would have evaporated after 72 hours.
His time enthroned in Columbus deluded him into thinking that playbook could work in the NFL. His shit got returned to sender with alacrity, and now, six months later, Meyer’s dumb-ass decision is still ensnaring the franchise in bad headlines.
From Tyler Sullivan of cbssports.com:
Jaguars head coach Urban Meyer and general manager Trent Baalke were subpoenaed as part of a lawsuit surrounding former Iowa strength coach Chris Doyle, the team said Wednesday. The suit is being filed by lawyers of Black players who are suing Doyle for discrimination while working for the Hawkeyes. Jacksonville said that both Meyer and Baalke submitted a written response to the subpoena, which centers around the Jaguars deciding to hire and quickly fire Doyle earlier this offseason.
"We respect and will cooperate with the legal process as required," the team said, via the Associated Press. "However, the Jaguars have no information that would be relevant to the lawsuit between student-athletes and the University of Iowa."
The federal lawsuit accuses Doyle of using racial slurs against Black players, forcing them to abandon Black hairstyles along with fashion and culture to instead fit the "Iowa Way." Doyle, who has denied the allegations put against him, was paid $1.1 million in a resignation agreement with the school back in June of 2020 after a number of former players took to social media and accused him of discrimination.
What’s funny is that Doyle wasn’t even a good strength coach. Science has come a long way since the days that coaches thought hospitalizing your players was good, actually.
So Urban not only tried to hire a racist to oversee a predominantly black locker room; he tried to hire one that wasn’t even good at the one job for which he’d been hired.
I’m almost equally excited for the Jaguars season as I am in the Browns season.
Run it like a business, they said.
We are conditioned from a young age to believe in the power of private business, so it makes a lot of sense that Toledo wants to turn over an effective public works project over to criminal profiteers.
From Joe Kohler of propublica.org:
For five years, economic development officials in Toledo, Ohio, have operated a pilot program that allows residents to borrow money for energy-saving home renovations without paying exorbitant interest rates. The program has been widely seen as a success, with only one of 61 borrowers currently delinquent on their repayments.
But now officials at the Toledo-Lucas County Port Authority are preparing to expand the program to other parts of Ohio in a way that has led to trouble for some homeowners in other states — by turning over the program to a private, for-profit lender.
…
A ProPublica investigation in April found, for example, that Missouri’s PACE programs have charged high interest and fees, then enforced borrowers’ debts through liens, leaving more than 100 homes across the state at risk of being auctioned at public tax sales. Local and state officials exercised little oversight over the two companies that have run the programs, Renovate America and Ygrene.
The loans made to Missouri homeowners have carried a median annual percentage rate of 10%. The terms have stretched as long as 20 years, burdening some borrowers with total interest and fees that exceeded the cost of the project — or even the entire value of their home. Last month, Missouri Gov. Mike Parson signed into law a measure that added consumer protections and oversight to the state’s PACE programs.
Toledo officials say this time will be different and the privatization is needed to increase the scale of the program. They’re hoping they’re right… but they ain’t.
THOSE WMDs. Texas Democrats beg Congress to save voting rights they can’t… The Yankee Comandante… Finding my father among the astronauts… For him, the delight is in digging… Ex-Nissan boss: How I escaped Japan in a box… Welcome to billionaire justice.