DePape blogged about meditating, playing video games at the library, and buying "a fantasy miniature salamander" on Etsy.

He blogged about not buying "a fairy house on Etsy" because — as WaPo puts it in "Alleged assailant filled blog with delusional thoughts in days before Pelosi attack" — he "was frustrated that the doors were painted and so could not be used by a fairy."

In DePape's words: “They have lots of fairy houses but NONE of them are MADE for fairies,” he wrote. 

WaPo casually defames Jordan Peterson:

In late August, DePape became engrossed in the decision by Twitter to ban Jordan Peterson for his posts about transgender people. The Canadian psychologist turned conservative podcaster had once said that being transgender was comparable to “satanic ritual abuse.”

Jordan Peterson did NOT say that "being transgender was comparable to 'satanic ritual abuse.'" Peterson  compared the belief that one is transgender to the belief that one has been a victim of satanic ritual abuse. He did not suggest that transgender people are like satanic abusers! He was discussing the phenomenon of "social contagion."

Back to WaPo:

DePape published six posts in support of Peterson and then continued with his own caustic takes on transgender people, saying they should not be a protected group. “They were not BORN a freak. They are not INHERENTLY a freak threw no fault of their own. … They are CHOOSING to be FREAKS,” he wrote in one post.

DePape also misunderstood Peterson, but not as badly as The Washington Post misunderstood Peterson.

"I love that Etsy gives a platform to someone who can crochet these shorts and sell them to men who love pants made of yarn."

"I’m probably going to buy this glowing owl necklace right after I publish this story. I need this coffee mug. I like Etsy just the way it is. And that’s why I’m taking time to soak in the company as it exists today, before Wall Street forces it to change."

"It pains me to admit it, but apparently, I have passed away."

"Everyone told me it would happen one day but that's simply not something I wanted to hear, much less experience. Once again I didn't get things my way! That's been the story of my life all my life... I apologize for making sweet Bonnie wear No Frills jeans when she was little and for 'red-shirting' Scott in kindergarten. Apparently each of these things was humiliating to them but both were able to rise above their shame and become very successful adults. I'd also like to apologize to Mary Ann for tearing up her paper dolls and to Betsy for dating a guy she had a crush on.... So… I was born; I blinked; and it was over...."

From the obituary of Emily Phillips, written by Emily Phillips, who died at the age of 69, 29 days after learning that she had pancreatic cancer.

ADDED: The obituary made Neo-Neocon think of the play "Our Town" — "It goes so fast. We don’t have time to look at one another" — and a couple other literary things.

The biggest idea in Scott Walker's 2015 State Budget Address: expanding the school choice program.

MacIver Institute — "The Free Market Voice for Wisconsin" — describes it:

[A] new statewide school choice program... would allow students throughout Wisconsin to attend the private school of their choice through a state-funded voucher. It will run alongside — and prospectively sunset - the Wisconsin Parental Choice Program, (WPCP) which was created in 2013 but limited to only 1,000 students per year. However, the new, as-of-yet-unnamed voucher program would have one major difference from the current statewide system.

These new vouchers will only be made available to students who are currently attending public schools — a caveat that allays concerns that the majority of WPCP students had previously attended private schools before accepting state funds. These students must come from families that earn less than 185 percent of the federal poverty limit - $44,122.50 for a family of four last year. Any private school wishing to accept voucher students would also have to consent to the state's school accountability program and receive grades through the Department of Public Instruction's (DPI) School Report Card formula.

Erin Richards — Milwaukee Journal Sentinel education columnist — writes:

Walker's plans to expand and change the funding mechanism of the statewide private voucher school program... would cause major waves in the state's public school systems, which have faced an onslaught of reforms in recent years, both financially and academically....

State Superintendent Tony Evers noted the governor's budget offered no increase in the revenue limit for public schools, which is the total amount districts can raise per pupil in state aid and property taxes.

"That's huge," he said. "Schools are at the breaking point."

Betsy Kippers, president of the Wisconsin Education Association Council, called unbridled expansion of the statewide private school voucher program "egregious."

Richards also notes Walker's plan to "make it easier for anyone with a bachelor's degree and real-world experience to get a license to become a middle or high school teacher" and quotes Bob Peterson, president of the Milwaukee Teachers' Education Association, accusing Walker of "gutting licensure requirements."

We watched Walker's budget address on TV (using the DVR to simultaneously watch the Badgers beat the Hoosiers). I asked Meade what he thought of the budget address, and he said: "I liked it. It was nice and short." I asked him about the basketball game and he said more things than I could transcribe and I can't remember a single one.

"In an elegant stroke of free-market irony, self-proclaimed enemy of feminism Ayn Rand has become a girl-power commodity several decades after her death."

"Etsy offers the 'unstoppable' quote on pendant necklaces and inspirational posters decorated with flowers adorned in curlicues. Yoga retailer Lululemon once distributed a 'Who Is John Galt?' tote bag. Pinterest boards dedicated to affirmations are littered with Rand.... Initially, I was surprised to discover Rand had become a leitmotif of modern mass-market feminism. 'I’m a male chauvinist,' she told an interviewer who asked her about women’s liberation. 'I am profoundly anti-feminist because it’s a phony movement,' she told another. The prospect of a female president disgusted her: 'She would become the most unfeminine, sexless, metaphysically inappropriate, and rationally revolting figure of all: a matriarch.' Nevertheless... [t]he slogans of rational self-interest are indistinguishable from affirmations designed for women with low self-esteem: 'To say "I love you," one must first be able to say the "I,"' reads a Pinterest-popular Fountainhead quote... Of course, whereas Objectivism promotes selfishness in the name of a brutally ruthless worldview, female-centric media encourages self-indulgence as a palliative to cultural forces encouraging meekness...."

From "Ayn Rand, Girl-Power Icon" at New York Magazine.

Mashable may be thinking "Thoughts That Etsy Models Are Having Right Now."

See if you can caption that better than Mashable did.

But what I'm thinking is: Time to revisit Randy Normal:



ADDED: Sorry the old "Randy Normal Jeans" video has gone private. I wouldn't have even put this post up if I'd known that would happen. I've swapped in a poorly filmed live version, and I can't even find a good screen shot of Randy Normal. Not only am I off to a terrible start on the first day of the work week, I realize that at least 7 old posts are now wrecked.

"Incredibly, the loud-mouthed bragging, insulting youngster had been telling the truth all along."

Wrote the NYT, describing the fight that took place 50 years ago today:

Cassius Clay won the world heavyweight title tonight when a bleeding Sonny Liston, his left shoulder injured, was unable to answer the bell for the seventh round.

Immediately after he had been announced as the new heavyweight champion of the world, Clay yelled to the newsmen covering the fight: "Eat your words." Only three of 46 sports writers covering the fight had picked him to win....

The fight was Clay's from the start. The tall, swift youngster, his hands carelessly low, backed away from Liston's jabs, circled around Liston's dangerous left hook and opened a nasty gash under Liston's left eye....

But the kid hadn't lied. All those interminable refrains of "float like a butterfly, sting like a bee," had been more than foolish songs....

The youngster... the kid....

"New mutualism" at the Freelancers Union.

"[N]ew mutualism is based on a simple premise: freelancers should band together to set up social-purpose institutions to serve their mutual needs."

The Freelancers Union, with its oxymoronic name, is a motley collection of workers in the fast-evolving freelance economy — whether lawyers, software developers, graphic artists, accountants, consultants, nannies, writers, editors, Web site designers or sellers on Etsy....

The Freelancers Union... doesn’t bargain with employers, but it does address what is by far these workers’ No. 1 concern, by providing them with affordable health insurance.

"And after the miracle birth, Joseph and Mary rejoiced by eating the giant Cheeto."

Regretsy... making fun of Etsy, which I was just reading about here ("Etsy Crafts A Strategy For Staying Handmade And Profitable").

"We thought if we started calling it the 'Owlpath,' that would help remind people that it gets dark here at night, and that's special...."

Ha ha. You've got to hit these lefties where they feel it.

Oh, owls! l looove owls!

ADDED: Owls were a favorite motif of 1970s females. If you want to revisit that aesthetic, check out this collection of crap at Etsy.

Meade just asked me: "What is it about women and owls?" I blabbered something about:

1. Eyes in front... like a baby... unleashes maternal instinct.

2. It's the bird of prey that — unlike hawks and eagles — doesn't say "bird of prey" to women. (Men like hawks and eagles, which wear their aggressive instinct on the surface. Women, like men, have their aggressive instincts, but they're less out and proud about it.)

AND: Don't forget the decoupage!

"She said her cat died after getting entangled in piles of Etsy fabrics..."

"... boxes of paperwork, trash and other possessions, while a dog died allegedly after swallowing a pile of Love’s pills."