Tues Blogcast: Nashville Horror; Suing schools; Population problems

Just One Thing: Horror in Nashville

I realize that the big and horrific story of the past day is the senseless murder of 6 people, including three children ages 8 and 9, by a 28-year-old woman who now identified as a man at a Christian school in Nashville at which she, or he, or whatever, had once been a student. There are a lot of angles one could take on the story, and for the moment I’m not taking any of them. At the risk of making it look like I think this story is about anyone but the victims, I hope you’ll allow me a moment to tell you how unbelievably difficult it is to talk about mass shootings, especially school shootings, and especially as the parent of school-aged kids. I'm more than a thousand miles away and it has me nearly in tears and feeling like I don't want to move. I can barely imagine the pain of the families of the senselessly murdered children and adults. So VERY sorry for their incomprehensible loss.

One more stand-alone thought

I tend to be slightly on the optimistic side of neutral when it comes to humans generally and the United States specifically. Lately, I find myself more persistently on the pessimistic side of neutral. Maybe not quite all the way to "there's complete societal collapse all around us" but more accepting of that view than I used to be. Obviously, what happened in Nashville and the fortunately less-horrific events at East HS in Denver fit into that. But also this story from yesterday in Lakewood:

Today's Guest

Igor Raykin is a civil rights attorney based in Aurora. He's suing two Colorado school districts under the Claire Davis Act for claimed permissiveness around bullying, including bullying that would qualify as actual assault.

Aurora CO School And Education Law Attorney | Arapahoe County Family Law Firm (coloradolawteam.com)

In test of Colorado law, two lawsuits seek to hold school districts responsible for failing to stop bullying (Denver Post)

Other Stuff

A long-term story...one wonders if it's as shocking at it surely seems on the surface, or whether it represents something more temporary, like a reaction to Trump: Americans Pull Back From Values That Once Defined U.S., WSJ-NORC Poll Finds - WSJ

Actual poll questions and results

Some thoughts on the results by a Washington Post (liberal) reporter: That jarring new poll on ‘patriotism’ (msn.com)

--------

The more pushback against kids using social media, the healthier the country will be: https://www.axios.com/2023/03/27/pushback-grows-social-media

--------

I've talked about this with some frequency over the years: my view that the earth's population would NEVER reach 10 billion people, and my agreement more recently with Elon Musk that the serious population problem humanity will be facing is underpopulation, not overpopulation. Here's more research on the subject, and one hotel trying to do their part to solve the problem:

World ‘population bomb’ may never go off as feared, finds study (UK Guardian)

This resort in Costa Rica will give you 50% off if you get pregnant (nypost.com)

--------

I owe you this from yesterday:

https://newatlas.com/lifestyle/powdered-beer

Powdered beer could be alcohol's biggest innovation in decades | Fortune

—------

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is busy "putting points on the board": Florida Governor DeSantis Signs Universal School Choice Bill (National Review)

--------

Evil in MIchigan: In win for unions, Whitmer repeals Michigan's 'right-to-work' law, brings back prevailing wage (USA Today)

--------

Seriously, WHO is using this app? Vibrator maker paid out £2.4 million after being accused of tracking users’ sexual activity (ladbible.com)