Happy Daylight Savings Time Day, or as I call it, The Day I Lose An Hour Of Sleep For No Good Reason. On the bright side, spring is right around the corner and there is a growing sense of optimism that soon we’ll be back to licking doorknobs with abandon. At the very least, it seems that people are increasingly ready to come out of COVID hibernation and slowly start to return to normal activities. I’ve been thinking a lot about this seemingly sudden shift, at least it seems sudden here in Atlanta, maybe I’ll write more extensively on that in the upcoming week.
On the topic of writing, I know I keep promising you guys two posts a week and next week I will make that happen; I had a project that sucked up a lot of my time last week, ya girl still has to make money to pay the bills. In the next few weeks, if everything works as planned I will be going to my one free post, one paid post per week plan but I will let you know before that happens.
I plan to start playing with the discussion thread feature on Substack next week too, hopefully, you guys will participate in and enjoy that. If you do like it I can make that a regular thing here -- you know I love Twitter but that platform isn’t really optimized for discussion threads.
Now, for the reading
I could take this opportunity to dunk on Michael Brendan Dougherty for finding his inner libertarian the moment he discovered “common good” political ideologies aren’t compatible with individual liberty but instead I’ll be nice and congratulate him for figuring that out
The COVID pandemic has caused a run on the housing market -- all of a sudden everyone wants a backyard -- which has led to rapidly rising home prices and a call for the government to Do Something
For Vice, Anna Merlan gets the real story behind Operation Underground Railroad, an outfit that claims to rescue child sex slaves. Turns out, they’re really more about gathering donations and making self-aggrandizing videos; who could have guessed!
Chesa Boudin shares what it was like growing up with both of his parents incarcerated and how our prison system doesn’t much concern itself with keeping parents connected with their children
Alec MacGillis visited Hobbs, New Mexico, to document the harrowing effect school shutdowns have had on teenagers
Christian Britschgi traveled to Paso Robles, CA, a city where businesses decided to defy Newsom’s lockdown orders. The good news -- he had a great time. The bad news -- he caught COVID.
I hope this dispatch doesn’t find you too groggy from losing an hour of precious sleep, and that you too are feeling good about the upcoming spring season.
Take care, and until next time
I think we may have donated to OUR before, haha, but that's not why I'm conflicted about the VICE article. On the one hand, it all has the ring of truth to it. On the other hand, I have read stuff from VICE that I knew was not super accurate because I know people from the area from which they were reporting. One thing that doesn't add up is the way they paint OUR vs the high esteem their informants still seem to hold OUR in. What I know is that VICE is controlled by progressives and progressives lie with zeal if they feel it perpetuates their religion.
Which is the second thing I am conflicted about is it a surprise they are on the side of "sex work"? Prostitution should not be illegal, but it should not be lauded. It is often desperate people selling to sex addicts, all in terrible conditions. I can believe casinos and liquor stores have the right to operate, but be unhappy that they're moving to the neighborhood. Something can be legal and exploitative.