September 21

 Still early here but hoping for a nice sunny day with a moderate temperature. It is a bit later than when I put up that first sentence and we have daylight now. It looks cloudy so I may not get much sun. Another day without any errands so we are thinking about some housework. I had planned to vacuum downstairs yesterday but put that off to enjoy a binge watching of Forged In Fire. They are getting ready for the new season which will start on October 4. So vacuuming today. We don't sweep every day--not even every week. Basically we do it when we really notice the carpets need sweeping, and then remembering a week or two later that they need sweeping. I don't have the energy or stamina to push even our light weight vacuum around on both floors on the same day so it is a two day operation.

I have seen an ad dripping with pathos from some group that is bemoaning how little our do-nothing Federal legislature isn't doing anything to protect children from the evils of social media. They claim to be speaking for "mothers who have lost our children." They fall flat with me. First, at 74, I have seen all too many efforts at censorship and all of them were centered around the supposed welfare of children. None of them really protected kids from anything. The Comstock Act of the 1870s was not only aimed at prohibiting the shipment by mail of information on birth control which was deemed pornographic but also the "dime novels" which corrupted children by glorifying violence and outlaws. I remember checking out Nancy Drew, Tom Swift, The Shadow, and Doc Savage series books from the library and being admonished by the librarian for wasting my time on trash instead of reading real literature. Prudish attitudes lasted a long time. Does anyone remember the Comics Code which infantilized the comics genre until the 1970s when Marvel bucked the censors by publishing a Spiderman issue which dealt with drug addiction? I did read that issue though I was in my twenties at the time and noticed that the message was very much in line with the medical and political messages that drugs were dangerous. But the censors hoped to "protect" kids by keeping any information about any controversial topic out of their reach. Why they thought that would work when it never has in human history I don't know. Does anyone remember the Motion Picture Production Code (a.k.a., the Hays Code)? Look it up. It didn't really work for long although it did infantilize the movie industry for decades. It was eventually replaced by the ratings system which didn't censor the content directly.

I watched an interview with Mary Berra, CEO of General Motors and this cartoon encapsulates what I saw of her attitude:

I have wondered why economists have always attributed inflation to workers spending too much money thanks to all of those generous raises they have gotten over the last thirty years when none of it every kept up with inflation. But those minuscule increases in compensation over the years somehow didn't have any such effect.

And here is another very appropriate cartoon:

And I would add: don't take medical advice from DeSantis' Surgeon General.

Both cartoons found here.