I was today years old when I discovered that in 1944 the Franco regime issued a decree that made it mandatory for university departments of Romance Philology to teach a course on Catalan philology and literature for at least 3 hours a week.

Euskera, the Basque language, was promoted even more dramatically by the dictatorship.

An acquaintance has a little daughter who recently turned eight. For her birthday, the parents gave the girl a little budgie parrot because it was her dream pet.

Sadly, nine days later the budgie died. The child was grief-stricken.

“Oh, how terrible!” I said to the mother. “I’m so sorry!”

“No, it’s fine,” the mother reassured me. “They had a 14-day return policy, so we got our money back.”

I was asked in the comments if I have any recommendations on books on American history, and yes, I do. I ploughed through a lot of stuff and finally found a really good volume. It is the perfect nation-state history book. I strongly believe it should be the school textbook everywhere instead of the horrible drivel by Howard Zinn.

The book I’m talking about is Land of Hope by Wilfred McClay. Here’s a quote I really like:

One of the worst sins of the present – not just ours but any present – is its tendency to condescend toward the past, which is much easier to do when one doesn’t trouble to know the full context of that past or try to grasp the nature of its challenges as they presented themselves at the time. This small book is an effort to counteract that condescension and remind us of how remarkable were the achievements of those who came before us, how much we are indebted to them.

Indentured servitude was recently mentioned here on the blog, and here’s a quote regarding it:

Indentured servitude was so common that some historians have estimated more than half of the white immigrants to the American colonies up to the time of the Revolution had come to the New World under indentures, and even the first black Africans to appear in North America, dropped off at Jamestown, Virginia, in 1619 by a Dutch ship, may well have been indentured servants rather than slaves.

Indentured servitude is often written out of history because because it’s inconvenient to the reigninig narrative of race relations.

In short, a wonderful book that I highly recommend. There’s also a version for middle schoolers which I’m planning to buy for my own kid.

Children’s author Mac Barnett issued a formal apology after sparking intense backlash for claiming that 94.7% of children’s literature is “crud”.

Critics noted that this belief is often used as a dog whistle against books by BIPOC, queer, and trans authors who are sharing necessary lived experiences. A letter signed by hundreds of authors demanded that the Library of Congress and Every Child a Reader address the harm caused by his official.

I don’t know what will finally teach people to stop apologizing to the mobs of ego-driven fools but this guy is right. Most children’s books published today are garbage. And that’s not surprising, given that they are often written by people who use expressions like “necessary lived experiences” and say that somebody’s opinion “causes harm” to them. These are illiterate, stupid people who sell their bouts of pouting because they have nothing else to offer.

Teachers should not agree to this. Changing a 5-year-old’s diaper opens them to accusations of inappropriate touching. A stranger should not be touching a child’s genital area. If these kids aren’t ready for school, they shouldn’t be in school, that’s all there is to it.

Like all kids in my country, I went to school at 7. Not because I couldn’t use the toilet, which I, of course, could, but because it’s how it was done. Clearly, this in no way prevented me from achieving way more than normal academically. There’s too much school as it is. Inflicting this on teachers and on kids who clearly don’t need school is ridiculous.

After Roe was repealed, the yearly number of abortions grew from around 930,000 to 1,12-1,13 million. These are only the abortions that are officially counted. Self-administered abortions don’t even enter the calculations.

As I said right when Roe was repealed, the only reason it was repealed is because it changes absolutely nothing any more. Medical science made abortion impossible to ban.

The number of abortions didn’t increase because of Roe being repealed. And it should have been repealed no matter what because it’s bad law, poor legal thinking, and unconstitutional drivel.

This is not a legal issue. It’s an issue of a very broken understanding of the self. I don’t think even the most fanatical pro-abortionist will say that a million abortions a year are a great sign.

The tour guides at Lincoln’s hut village, the tomb and his family house were great. The stories they told were not at all political, and I appreciated that. For instance, we found out that Lincoln bought his small sons a toy that, adjusted for inflation and cost of living, would cost $900 today. A 19th-century iPad of sorts! It was a contraption to project images, so the analogy works.

Also, Lincoln’s wife Mary cooked on an open fire for years. Only a year before Lincoln became president did they get a stove. I have no idea what you can cook on an open fire beyond soup.

The only tour guide I didn’t like was at the Old State Capitol. She was obsessed with slavery. Didn’t want to talk about anything else, boring everybody to tears. We also had slavery where I’m from, and nobody cares on the least. I don’t see the gain from turning it into a sacred cult object.

Lincoln had 3 great-grandchildren. And none of them had children of their own. I’m shocked by this. All these people had to do was continue the famous bloodline but they let it die. How can people be so dumb?

All three lived to old age. So it’s not like they died before they could procreate. Useless, wasted lives of utter uselessness. Unbelievable.

We are visiting Lincoln’s New Salem State Historic Site with Klara’s class. I’ve gone on a lot of these field trips with my mother’s class back in the USSR, and, yes, cultural differences are very real. The capacity for calmness and attention among American fourth-graders is vastly superior. Everybody is polite, kind, and helpful. People who can focus and control themselves like this at 10 will do great things.

This is an extraordinary country, people. Let’s not piss it away.

Klara is in bed, singing a song she composed:

I love Mommy and Dada

And God

And Jesus, our redeemer

I love the world

And animals who play in the fields

We are going on a class trip to the Lincoln Museum tomorrow.