Anti-government people are rescued by a government

Amazing. I don’t have any current news to write about. Today I didn’t open any browser tabs for articles to save until I could write about them. And I don’t have any left over from earlier this week. So I’m delving into articles I saved a while back, starting with this one from January. Kio Herrera of Prism Reports, posted on Daily Kos, discussed the lingering effects of busing in Boston to address educational inequity. Busing was implemented in 1974 and the effect are still felt nearly 50 years later. Kim Janey is Boston’s first black woman to be mayor. Back in the early 1970s she attended a community school established by black people because the Boston Public Schools for children of color were underfunded and crumbling. That community school gave Janey a solid foundation. When the integration order came many of the black students went to schools serving mostly working class families, so the schools weren’t much better. There was a big change at the black schools that now had white students – they were renovated and now had enough teaching materials. The big effect of the ruling was white flight. Yeah, we’re used to hearing about that. But there was also black flight. They may not have fled to the suburbs, but they left Boston Public Schools. White families went to parochial schools, black families to charter schools. That left the public schools worse off and just as segregated. The forced busing ended in 1988 and it hadn’t ended the racial divide in the public schools. Looking back 50 years later, some consider what might have been done differently. Instead of busing students, the schools with mostly black students could have been renovated and given budgets equal to the white schools. Also they could have gotten rid of the notion that black students need white students to succeed. Back in February Kos of Kos wrote about Rio Verde Foothills, a community of rugged libertarians northeast of Scottsdale, Arizona. They avoided creating a town government (and associated taxes) through loopholes in the law. This is desert. People who live in a desert need a source of water. For a while Scottsdale offered a tap at the edge of town and trucks took water from the tap to tanks buried in their yards. Scottsdale said this can’t be a permanent solution. Rio Verde Foothills ignored the problem – until Scottsdale cut them off. And the residents complained that Scottsdale was being unpatriotic. They don’t want to have their own government but they do want some other government to cater to their needs. There is a solution. Incorporate into a town and form a government. That gives them more options in getting water. It also mandates paved roads, street lights, taxation, and rules. Scottsdale agreed to a three year extension of the deal, provided Scottsdale can get more water from other sources. Yeah, those anti-government people are rescued by a government. Kos also included a summary of the book A Libertarian Walks Into a Bear. Libertarians took over Grafton, New Hampshire. The fire department, schools, and library withered away. The new residents didn’t follow regulations on food disposal. And that attracted bears. Strange that lawlessness has consequences. In April Hunter of Kos discussed a book that seems to be a hard right response to Drag Queen Story Hour and the inclusive books shared there. This book is The Island of Free Ice Cream by Jack Posobiec (and probably written by someone else) released in 2021. Posobiec is known for spreading far right hoaxes and probably worse. The lead character is Asher, a fox who – as Hunter frequently reminds us – doesn’t wear pants. No explanation is given. Asher is a whiz at making things, including ice cream, for the town of Rushington (no, the book isn’t subtle with names). Then wolves (communists) come to town and give ice cream away for free. Asher tried to convince the town this isn’t good, but the town voted and Asher was sent away. Yeah, a post-vote purge. And an attempted murder. After a few more adventures Asher does battle with the wolves. And Hunter gets to the point of the book, to which Hunter added photos of the Capitol attack.

The animals of Rushington had an election! But bad people won! And now the bad people will be in charge forever unless the good, kind, and strictly free-market devoted animals of Rushington start murdering their enemies! There we go. There's the "lesson" of Posobiec's book for young tots. Sometimes elections are bad, kids, and your only recourse is to grab some metal poles and start beating people to death.

Hunter concludes:

Seriously, we’re in the middle of a nationwide conservative "grooming" freakout over a book about a real-life same-sex penguin couple raising a chick. A book in which a pants-hating titan of the free market commits genocide, though, is what conservatives are now presenting as the wholesome alternative? No, and ick. If conservative parents want to teach their kids such things then they should do it in the privacy of their own homes, not in schools or library book rooms. Keep this violent furry filth away from the rest of us.