Category Archives: News
Worst Quotes of the Week – June 4, 2022
“Unfortunately, they’re trying to blame inanimate objects for all of these tragedies. When I was growing up in Springfield, you had one or two murders a year. Now we have two, three, four a week in Springfield, Missouri, so something has happened to our society and I go back to abortion. When we decided it was okay to murder kids in their mother’s wombs, life has no value to a lot of these folks.”
Rep. Billy Long, on what he thinks is one cause of the scourge of mass shootings in the U.S.
“Salvador Ramos, who is Hispanic, clearly had a lot of mental issues going on, as was shown with him wearing eyeliner, cross-dressing. I think some of the most dangerous people in America are trans-terrorists because these are the people who want to groom your children and talk them into changing you gender.”
Rep. Marjorie Taylor-Greene, opining about the Uvalde shooter
There is no evidence Ramos was transgender or had engaged in cross-dressing.
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Best Quotes of the Week – June 4, 2022
“This bullshit you get from this guy about mental health and evil. The only evil that exists is when the leader of this state has a problem and is a problem of epic proportions.”
Texas State Sen. Roland Gutierrez, criticizing Texas Gov. Greg Abbott for citing mental illness as a key factor in mass shootings, but thwarting funding for mental health care
“How many children have to die before you start to care?”
Jamiee Roeschke, in a statement to the National Rifle Association
Jaimee and her sister survived a shooting at Saugus High School in Santa Clarita, California, in 2019, in which two students died after a gunman opened fire on the school’s quad.
“No online platform, website, or newspaper should be directed by government officials to carry certain speech. This has been a key tenet of our democracy for more than 200 years and the Supreme Court has upheld that.”
Matt Schruers, President of Computer & Communications Industry Association, after the U.S. Supreme Court issued an emergency ruling temporarily blocking the State of Texas House Bill 20 from being enforced
A lower court will resolve a preliminary First Amendment challenge to the statute, also known as Texas’ “social media law”.
“No online platform, website, or newspaper should be directed by government officials to carry certain speech. This has been a key tenet of our democracy for more than 200 years and the Supreme Court has upheld that.”
Matt Schruers, President of Computer & Communications Industry Association, after the U.S. Supreme Court issued an emergency ruling temporarily blocking Texas’ HB 20 from being enforced
A lower court will resolve a preliminary First Amendment challenge to the statute, also known as Texas’ “social media law”.
Schruers added, “We are encouraged that this attack on First Amendment rights has been halted until a court can fully evaluate the repercussions of Texas’s ill-conceived statute. This ruling means that private American companies will have an opportunity to be heard in court before they are forced to disseminate vile, abusive or extremist content under this Texas law. We appreciate the Supreme Court ensuring First Amendment protections, including the right not to be compelled to speak, will be upheld during the legal challenge to Texas’s social media law.”
Schruers added, “We are encouraged that this attack on First Amendment rights has been halted until a court can fully evaluate the repercussions of Texas’s ill-conceived statute. This ruling means that private American companies will have an opportunity to be heard in court before they are forced to disseminate vile, abusive or extremist content under this Texas law. We appreciate the Supreme Court ensuring First Amendment protections, including the right not to be compelled to speak, will be upheld during the legal challenge to Texas’s social media law.”
“This is not an academic conversation. This is a very real conversation where people’s lives could be destroyed by these criminal prosecutions. In Texas, you’re an adult at 17. We are looking at the prospect of a 17-year-old girl who has an unplanned pregnancy and is seeking an abortion [being] subjected to first-degree felony charges — up to 99 years in jail — and that’s just absolutely unacceptable.”
Austin City Councilman José Vela, on how the city will attempt to shield its residents from prosecution under a Texas law that will criminalize abortion, if Roe vs. Wade is overturned
Vela is proposing a resolution that would direct the city’s police department to make criminal enforcement, arrest and investigation of abortions its lowest priority and restrict city funds and city staff from being used to investigate, catalogue or report suspected abortions.
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June 2022 Literary Calendar
Events in the month of June for writers and readers
Audiobook Appreciation Month
GLBT Book Month
- June 1 – Global Day of Parents; Global Running Day; National Pen Pal Day; National Say Something Nice Day; World Reef Awareness Day
- June 3 – National Egg Day
- June 4 – National Cheese Day; National Hug Your Cat Day
- June 5 – National Cancer Survivor’s Day; National Donut Day; National Gingerbread Day; World Environment Day
- June 8 – National Best Friend’s Day; World Oceans Day
- June 10 – Ball Point Pen Day
- June 11 – Global Wellness Day
- June 12 – Anne Frank’s Birthday
- June 14 – Bourbon Day; World Blood Donor Day
- June 15 – National Photography Day; World Elder Abuse Awareness Day
- June 16 – Bloomsday (celebration of Irish writer James Joyce’s life); National Fudge Day
- June 17 – World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought
- June 19 – Father’s Day (U.S.)
- June 20 – World Refugee Day
- June 21 – Summer Solstice (Northern Hemisphere); Winter Solstice (Southern Hemisphere)
- June 22 – Octavia Butler’s Birthday; World Rainforest Day
- June 23 – National Hydration Day; Typewriter patent awarded (1868)
- June 25 – Eric Carle’s Birthday
- June 27 – Helen Keller’s Birthday; National PTSD Awareness Day
- June 29 – Hug Holiday; National Camera Day
- June 30 – National Handshake Day; National Work from Home Day; World Social Media Day
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Memorial Day 2022
“Courage is not having the strength to go on; it is going on when you don’t have the strength.”
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Word of the Week – May 28, 2022
Habile
[HA-bəl]
Adjective
Latin, 15th century
Deft; skillful.
In Latin, “habilis” means something is easily handled. The French word habile means skillful, and we kept that definition in Middle English as well. Able is the more common word today, but habile remains a particularly skillful word. In today’s parlance, you’re more likely to use the word able rather than habile. The pronunciations are somewhat similar, and the meanings are close. Able implies you have at least the basic ability to do something. But to be habile is to be quite talented.
Example: I had to explain my habile approach to composing documentation for software development to the project manager.
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Videos of the Week – May 28, 2022
Texas Sen. Ted Cruz doesn’t want to contend with the brutal honesty of a Sky News reporter, so he reacts how cowards always do – he walks away.
Steve Kerr is the head coach of the Golden State Warriors professional basketball team. In this video, he delivers a personal message following the Uvalde school shooting.
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Tweets of the Week – May 28, 2022
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Most Hypocritical Quote of the Week – May 28, 2022
“What happened in Uvalde is a horrific tragedy that cannot be tolerated in the state of Texas.”
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, about the shooting in Uvalde, Texas
In 2019, Abbott signed into law a bill allowing gun purchases without a license. Two years later he signed another bill into law lowering the age requirement for a firearms purchase from 21 to 18.
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Chief Writing Wolf 