Watching a Government Shutdown. What a Shit-show!

For a fill list of the 35 Republicans
who voted against the Trump-favored
CR bill, follow this link. 

by Rod Williams, Dec. 20, 2024- I have been carefully watching the drama in Washington concerning the effort to avoid a government shutdown. What a shit-show! I don't usually resort to vulgarity in these post on my blog but that is the term that comes to mind and expresses my disgust. 

Also, I am amazed at the ignorance of so many in discussing this issue. I saw one to the chicks on The View rail against this "omnibus spending bill." I had to turn it off. This is not that. What is before congress is a continuing resolution to keep the government running for a short time. If one does not know what they are talking about, one shouldn't be so indignant and outraged in expressing one's view. Also, there were others who I watched who were opinionated but equally uninformed or were purposely misleading. And it wasn't one-sided. The Fox News host totally avoided explaining how we got to this point. He pointed out how bad the CR was, but did not explain how we got such a bad deal. 

These are facts that are hard to dispute. Republicans have a majority. If Republicans would stick together, they could pass a clean continuing resolution without Democrat support. By "clean" I mean not loaded down with a lot of new spending and policy stuff.  However, there are about a dozen to fifteen Republicans who will not vote for any continuing resolution. They also will never vote to raise the debt limit. They want to return to regular order and pass appropriation bills on time the way it supposed to be done, and they oppose increased deficits. One could say they are principled. However, they are letting the perfect be the enemy of the good. These dozen to fifteen members as a group, call themselves the "Freedom Caucus." 

So, since the speaker cannot count on all of his members to stick together and since he only has a seven-vote margin, he must get Dems to support the bill in sufficient number to make up for the Republicans he cannot get to support the bill. That comes with a price. The Dems want something for their support, so they load the bill with wasteful spending bobbles like a pay hike for members of Congress. The reason the bill was not a clean CR is because the leader had no choice but to deal with Democrats.  Nancy Pelosi never had this problem. Getting Republicans on the same page is like herding cats.

The first CR was a bad bill and was derailed by Elon Musk who said of those voting for the bill, "Any Republican that would be so stupid as to do this should, and will, be Primaried."  Well, that is dumb. The people who should be primaried are the 15 or so Republicans who left leadership with no choice but to negotiate with Democrats.

Musk and Trump further complicated matters by insisting that there be a provision in the bill to raise the debt limit now. I am Okay with that really, as it is going to be raised later anyway. However, this complicated the process because the Freedom Caucus oppose increasing the debt limit. 

When a second CR was presented without all of the Dems wasteful spending in it but with the extended debt limit (the bill Trump wanted) it failed 174-235. Included in voting against the Trump supported version of the CR were 35 Republicans! To make it even weirder, the Republicans who voted against Trump's wishes are the most Trumpy of Republicans. This is nuts! 

I don't know how this will play out. It looks like we will have a shut down and more than that it looks like the new congress will come in with a weakened speaker who will lose his job. Crazy! Maybe Trump and Musk can pull this off. Maybe, behind the scenes, Trump, Musk, and JD are working to get the Freedom Caucus to get in line. I hope so. I will be impressed if we avoid a shutdown, then on the other hand, maybe Trump and Musk want a shutdown. None of this makes any sense. I think it signifies the chaos we will see for the next four years. 

Republicans are going to prove they can't govern, and Trump hasn't even taken office. Maybe, they don't want to govern. Maybe they want chaos. 

Guess which of our Tennessee delegation voted against the Trump-favored CR? 

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'A Light in The Attic' by Shel Silverstein Removed from Knox County Public School Libraries. This is a Shame.

by Rod Williams, Dec. 18, 2024 - Last week, the Williamson County School Board voted to remove three books from the school's libraries and restrict one to high school students and one to 11th and 12th grade students. One of the books removed was Where the Crawdads Sing. That book has sold over 18 million copies making it one of the best-selling books of all time. It spent over 150 weeks on The New York Times bestsellers list. I have read the book and last week I posted on this site my view of the work and why I thought it did not deserve to be removed. 

Where the Crawdads Sing is one of some 1100 books removed from school libraries in Tennessee recently.  In July 2022, a state law went into effect dubbed the “Age Appropriate Materials Act of 2022” which mandated that all materials in school libraries had to be “suitable for age and maturity levels of the students who may access the materials and must be suitable for, and consistent with, the educational mission of the school.” The law also provided a mechanism for removing books that were not deemed age appropriate. Since that law went into effect in Tennessee, over 1100 books have been removed from school libraries. Maybe a few of them were inappropriate, I don't know, but I suspect most did not deserve to be removed. 

One of the books removed from the Knox County School Library was the book Light in the Attic by Shel Silverstein. I am well acquainted with that book. That book and another by the same author, Where the Sidewalk Ends, were books beloved by my daughter when she was a child. From about the age of 5 to about 8, I read to her from these two books a lot. They are clever, funny, and insightful. They are illustrated poetry books for children, but they are so clever that adults can enjoy them too.  

Both the text and the illustration of these two books are by Silverstein. Silverstein is a multitalented American writer, cartoonist, musician and grammy-winning song writer. You may know him as the writer of the Johnny Cash hit song, A Boy Named Sue. He also wrote a bunch of other country songs, several for Bobby Bare. 

I have such fond memories of reading those books to my daughter and so does she. Now, my five-year-old grandson enjoys the books. It is a shame that other children will be denied the joy of discovering these delightful books. 

Among other books removed from the Knox County Schools libraries is Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut. I read the book as a young adult. I don't remember much about it, but I remember it was a powerful book. The book is a serious anti-war novel. It deals with adult topics, but high school seniors are almost adults. While they can't buy alcohol, at age 18 they can vote, get married, drive a car, enter into contracts, must register for the draft, and can voluntarily join the military and die in real wars. We don't need to protect high school students from the complexity and reality of the world. They are not that fragile. We can't keep them kids. Let them read!

While I agree in theory that a school library should strive to stock its shelves with age-appropriate materials, I am concerned that we have set up a process for allowing the most puritanical and vocal to determine what books are in the library.

When I think back about my own childhood and education, I ask myself it I would have wanted by dad to have the power to determine what books were in the school library. The answer is a resounding "No."  I loved my father and he was a good man, but he thought all alcohol consumption was a sin and would have opposed any book that mentioned anyone having a mug of beer or a glass of wine. If dad would have been picking library books, any book in which a couple danced would have been banned. He believed the earth to be no more the 6,000 years old and he would have banned any book that denied the biblical creation story. If he would have gotten to pick the school library books, we would have had a small library. 

Moms for Liberty is the organization leading the effort to purge what they consider inappropriate books from school libraries. I have known some Moms members and have attended a couple of their meetings. I agree with them on some things. I agree when they resist normalizing and celebrating transgenderism and when they push back against critical race theory indoctrination. However, they are working to remove books from school libraries that do not deserve to be removed, and I do not trust their judgment. There needs to be pushback.

The most puritanical and vocal should not get to determine what books are in our public school libraries. 

A partial list of books removed from the Knox County Public School library system. 

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Who's Afraid of 'Where the Crawdads Sing'

Click to see the Amazon info. 

by Rod Williams, Dec. 13, 2024- On Monday of this week the Williamson County school board met in a special session to vote on five books in the library system to determine whether the five books were “appropriate for the age and maturity levels of the students who may access to books in WCS libraries." Also, the Board was to determine if each book was “consistent with the educational mission of WCS.” The Board was then to vote to remove the book or restrict access. 

The five book in question, and the decisions on them, were:

• “Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close” by Jonathan Safran Foer, which was removed from schools
• “Field Guide to the American Teenager” by Ben Philippe, which was restricted to 11th- and 12th-grade students only
• “Speak” by Laurie Halse Anderson, which was restricted to high school students only
• “Perks of Being a Wallflower” by Stephen Chbosky, which was removed from schools
• “Where the Crawdads Sing” by Della Owens, which was removed from schools

The removal is made possible by the Age Appropriate Act which makes it mandatory for “school libraries and classrooms to maintain a list of materials in the library collection, to have a policy to screen reading materials for ‘age appropriateness’ and to remove materials that do not meet the criteria established.

Moms for Liberty organized the effort to remove books

I am only familiar with one of the five books in question and that is Where the Crawdads Sing. I read the book a couple years ago or so. Actually, I was not impressed. If was a pleasurable enough leisure time read, but I did not think it was a great piece of literature. I found it kind of contrived and forced. But, what do I know? The book has sold over 18 million copies making it one of the best-selling books of all time. It spent over 150 weeks on The New York Times bestsellers list. While I didn't love the book, I certainly do not remember it as a dirty or erotic or a sexually arousing book. Yes, it delt with real life circumstances but it was not lascivious. 

No child is going to seek the book out for sexual arousal. They are not going to pass it around and giggle about it.  If I had a child that read this book, I would be glad they loved reading. If they have the reading level to read the book, they have the maturity level to read it.  If you have a child who does not live under a rock or under lock and key or who is not prohibiting from associating with other kids, they are going to be exposed to mush worse on TV, or rap lyrics, or TikTok, or from their peers. This is just not that bad. 

By removing the book from school libraries, it prohibits every child in the county school system from having access to the book. Rather than banning books for everyone, maybe schools should maintain of list of children that are prohibited from accessing certain books and parents be allowed to add their child's name to the list.

I am not sure that inappropriate books in school libraries was ever a serious problem. This looks more like a solution in search of a problem. There might have been a librarian somewhere who did not use proper judgement in which books they selected for the library. However, it seems there should be another way of dealing with this than allowing the most vocal and puritanical of parents to pressure school boards to remove books. 

Moms for Liberty turned out parents to advocate for removal of the books in question. Maybe the solution to this problem is for a Moms for Literacy group to form to show up and speak up for books like Where the Crawdads Sing to counter the Mons for Liberty which wants to remove the book. Moms for Liberty organizes to defeat school board members who are not responsive to their demands. There needs to be pushback. 

This was distributed by Moms for Liberty highlighting the bad parts. This is all they could find in the first 133 pages.  To see more, follow this link.

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Tip # 18 from The Rod Williams School of Drunk Driving: Avoid Sobriety Checkpoints.

by Rod Williams, Dec 9, 2024 - The Nashville.gov website today posted a notice that there would be a sobriety checkpoint on 8th Ave on the night of December 18. I live right off of 8th Ave and at this point have no plans for that date but if I were going to go out and if I was going to have more than one drink, I would play it safe and avoid 8th Ave. Avoiding sobriety checkpoints is tip number 18 from the Tips from the Rod Williams School For Drunk Driving.

Tips from The Rod Williams School of Drunk Driving

(1) Don't Drive drunk. That is the number one tip: don't do it. Getting arrested for drunk driving is only one reason not to drive drunk.  The most important reason is you could kill yourself or someone else.  If you are lucky and don't kill someone else or yourself, getting arrested for drunk driving could cost you your job, your election, your social standing, custody of your children or visitation rights, a lot of money, and maybe your marriage.

If you overindulge, there are alternatives to driving drunk. If you do get drunk, Uber or Lyft or get a hotel room or call a friend or family member and ask them to come get you. If at a friend's house and you have had too much to drink, stay the night.  

Lyft and Uber are affordable, fast, and convenient.  By now, most people who live an active life have probably used one of these services. If you have not used one of the services however, the way they work is that you page a ride using your phone. To do that you must first download an app. Don't wait until you're drunk to try to download the app. Here is a link to the Uber app.

(2) Pick the designated driver before you start drinking.  If you are not going to rely on a commercial service such as a cab or Uber, and you know you are going to be drinking and you are going with other people, then have a designated driver. I prefer being the designated drinker, but someone needs to be the designated driver.
 
Despite the above advice, I know there will be times when a person will have had too much to drink and not think they are too drunk to drive but will have had a sufficient amount of adult beverage that they could register drunk even though they don’t think they are drunk. I myself have probably driven many times when I would have registered drunk had I been stopped. I am not by any means advocating driving drunk, but if you are possibly driving impaired, I am providing these below tips to help you increase your chances of getting home safely without getting arrested.

(3) Know that you don’t have to be “drunk” to register DUI. You do not have to be sloppy, falling down drunk to register as DUI. If you think you should not drive, then by all means don’t. See the above tips. Often you will not know if you are drunk or not, so unless you know exactly how much you have had to drink and whether or not that would constitute drunk driving, then assume you are technically drunk. You do not have to appear intoxicated or have any of the symptoms that we think of as “drunk” to have a Blood Alcohol Content that legally makes you guilty of Driving Under the Influence. If you drink and you drive, you have probably driven “drunk.”

(4) Track your consumption and don’t have “one for the road.” That is what often happens. If during the evening you are having dinner with friends and you have a pre-dinner cocktail and wine with dinner and an after-dinner liquor with coffee, and a champagne toast, you might register drunk. Try to keep your alcohol consumption to a level that falls below the BAC limit.

On occasion, but not as often as I would like and certainly not as often as when I younger, I like to go to Lower Broadway to listen to live music and party. If I have 8, 12-ounce beers in a four-hour period I should have a BAC of about .068, however, if I have 9 beers in four hours that means I have a BAC of .085 and am legally drunk. “One for the road” could put me over the limit. Actually, I almost never have eight drinks in a four-hour period, but it has happened. 

A female can drink less than a male and a slender person can drink less than a heavy person. For a 115-pound female, three glasses of wine in two hours is drunk. Don’t try to keep up with the other people in your party. Know your limit. Skip a round. Drink slower. Some people assume that wine is less inebriating than tequila shots. That is not so. A 12-ounce beer, 5 ounces of wine, or 1 ounce of 100-proof distilled spirits have the same impact on an individual's BAC level.

Here is a calculator that will give you guidance on how much alcohol you can consume and an estimate of BAC. Please be aware that this is only a guide. If you are drinking on an empty stomach, your BAC may be higher than indicated in the calculator.

(5) You'r not a kid anymore. As you age, your reaction times can slow down, and you can lose the ability to effectively divide your attention between multiple activities. Aging tends to result in a reduction of strength, coordination, and flexibility. Face it, there are some things you cannot do as well when you are old as you could when you were young, drinking is one of them.  You may not be safely able to drink as much and drive as you could when you were younger.

(6)  Point your car in the direction of home.  Plan your trip. A good car should be able to find its way home, with a little help.  Avoid places where the police might see you. Plan your trip home so you do not have to circle a block and be concerned about traffic lights and stop signs. The less exposed one is to the police the less chance one has of getting caught. It is worth parking four or five blocks away from where you are going to reduce your exposure.

(7) Be aware that you are impaired. If you didn’t keep track of how much you drank then assume you are may have had enough to register drunk and use your best drunk-driving skills. "Thinking" skills, like perceiving and evaluating risks, or processing information are not easily visible to outside observers, but they are the first skills to be adversely affected by alcohol. Be aware of this.

(8) Stop the Party. You are having a good time. You are joking and singing and laughing. You hate to end the party, but if there is any chance that you are driving with an elevated BAC, then stop the party. 

Say, “OK folks, we need to straighten up. I need your help in getting us home.” Don’t sing or engage in distracting conversation. Turn off the radio. Don’t talk on the cell phone. Give driving your undivided attention. 

Don’t let anyone in the car have an open container. You may be perfectly capable of driving, but if a drunk passenger is yelling out the window, the police may stop the car and give you a drunk driving test. The moment you get in the car the party is over.

(9) Check the checklist. Have a mental checklist. You don’t want to get stopped because you failed to use your turn signal. I was once stopped by the police on lower Broadway and forced to take a Breathalyzer. I knew I had only had two beers in a two-hour period, so I was not concerned. The reason they stopped me is that I had not turned on my headlights as I pulled out into the street. This was in a previous car, years ago when headlights did not turn on automatically. The downtown area is well lit and this was just an oversight. The police are looking for excuses to stop you; don’t give them one. Seat belts? Check. Adjust the mirror? Check. Turn off the radio? Check. Turn on the headlights? Check.

(10)  One crime at a time! Do not commit other crimes while driving drunk. If stopped for suspicion of drunk driving, don't compound your problems by being arrested for drunk driving and something else.  Don't smoke dope while driving drunk. Don't get arrested for drunk driving and for speeding, or possession of a controlled substance, or contributing to the delinquency of a minor, or soliciting prostitution.

(11) Concentrate; pay attention. Be aware of your driving. Don’t relax. Keep both hands on the wheel. Don’t be distracted. Don't answer the phone. If you feel you must answer the phone, safely pull off the road. Don't even engage in conversation.  Make sure you do not weave. Are you staying within the lines? Drive just below the speed limit. Don’t tailgate. Pay attention to the car in front of you. If they put on their brakes, notice it. If you are approaching an intersection with a traffic light, pay close attention. Plan that traffic light stop. Don’t run a yellow light.


(12) Use your co-pilot. Ask the person in the passenger's seat to help you drive. Ask them to tell you if you weave or tailgate or go too fast. Make them pay attention to your driving.

(13) If you may be drunk, refuse the Breathalyzer test. Unless you are certain that you have had less than the number of drinks it would take to raise your BAC level to the .08 level, then common wisdom holds that it is a good idea to refuse the breathalyzer test. It generally is more difficult to convict a driver of drunk driving if no chemical tests are taken.

(14) Don't sleep it off in the car.  Should you find yourself drunk and think a nap will revive you or that you may just spend the night in your car, don't do it. Even if you are not driving, if you are in your car drunk, you can be charged with DUI.  See the guidelines above about alternatives to driving drunk. If you can't take a ride-share or call a friend, and you do end up drunk, it would be better to sleep it off in a doorway or park bench than in your car. 

(15) Tell the officer you have foot drop. If in doubt as to whether or not you can walk a straight line, don't do it. Some people can't walk a straight line even sober. Tell the officer you have foot drop, or a bad hip or have other conditions that keeps you from walking a straight line. It might work.

Rep. Bill Beck

(16) Use your influence to get the charge thrown out. Be a State Representative or other person (link) with important friends in high places who can get a judge to throw out the charge based on lack of probable cause for making the stop. Despite the police seeing you drive with wheels over the lane line and observing the smell of alcohol, slurred speech, and inability to walk straight and despite the arresting officer saying you were "absolutely hammered," the judge may rule the arresting officer did not have probable cause for making the stop.

(17) Avoid Sobriety Checkpoints. The city post where they will be conducting sobriety checkpoints, and the news media often reports it. If you know you will be drinking and driving, find out if there will be a sobriety check point where you will be traveling and avoid that route. To check where the sobriety checkpoints will be follow this link and look for announcements. 

(18) Pray. It can't hurt.

This is a tip suggested by one of the students of the Rod Williams School for Drunk Driving and I am incorporating it into the curriculum.

(19) If you are seeing double, close one eye. 

From now through January 1, 2025 there will be more parties and more excuses to drink and more drunk drivers on the road. Drive careful, don't drive drunk and stay safe. 

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