Category Archives: another perspective

Matty’s Baby Bouncer

The Consumer Products Saftety Commission has issued a final rule, but it does not address what might happen when a “large” baby (more than 20 lbs) is set upon by a rambunctious older brother so his head is crashed into the floor. The “concerns” are all about maybe the baby falling out of the bouncer or the seat falling off a table, chest or bed.
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Montana AG challenge of state supreme court

An interesting issue. The Florida Supreme Court routinrly issues advisory opinions on pending legislative or executive action. That is how the Bush/Gore thing got started into the judicial system. Since that would not work in all the contested states, Republicans tried to suborn the legislative role (designation of electors) in 2020. The authoritarian interest is to negate the influence of the public. They want a top-down, not a bottom-up governmental structure. They call their antithesis populism. “Trickle down” relied on the currency maintaining the desired structure. It eventually failed because the trickle turned into a drip because of a dam and then the dam burst.
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Contemplating Josiah T. Walls, Republican of Florida

When I first read the speeches of Gongressman Josiah T. Walls, I was impressed by his elegant speech and paid less attention to the content. Also, while I knew him to be a Republican, that seemed to be sort of incidental to the historical reality that the Republican party had promoted emancipation. I had not realized how male-centered the agenda was. Now all the references to men and the supremacy of the Republic are rather upsetting. I have excerpted a few quotes that seem quite telling.
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Rosanne

In about 1982, I was appointed Guardian ad Litem for an eight year old child whose mother had surrendered custody to the state because she found the child unmanageable. For the next nine years, I was an observer and sometime participant as various juvenile treatment programs relying on drug therapy, counseling and talk managed to demonstrate that the mother had got it right. So, the last stop was the state mental hospital in McClenny, which had a small juvenile program in association with the University Medical School.
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Follow the Leader by Phil Specht

Follow The Leader
I touch your faded face again
this anniversary of your birth.
More times the photo
than when arm’s length,
I could have touched, hugged.
Said “I love you”. So I miss you.
Happy Birthday Nate.
Snow on my face today
reminding me of the party
we had to cancel, slippery roads.
But then, too, the “Indian Cave Party”,
you and your friends deep in the woods
that warm afternoon.
The spot where you found arrowheads.
Or the younger you, the game jumping
round bale to bale, follow the leader.
Your friends now fathers themselves.
A tear on my cheek stinging
today in the cold wind.
A smile too, memories, not all bad,
as once again I pass an image
and touch your face, write,
….still here.. with you.
Phil Specht 10-30-21