By Duggan Flanakin ~

America, the long-popular term for the United States, can be spoken no longer. “America” therefore is – at least on campus – dead. Good riddance to that racist moniker!

We learn this from our friends at the Leland Stanford Junior University, named in honor of the son and namesake of 19^th Century Republican U.S. Senator Amasa Leland Stanford. The elder Stanford, who served as Governor of the Golden State in 1862-63, was also a railroad executive whose son lived only to the age of 15.

According to Stanford’s Elimination of Harmful Language Initiative [EHLI], the term “American” is a racist insinuation that the U.S. is the most important country of the 42 nations in the Western Hemisphere. [Q: How many people are crossing the borders of the other 41?]

“Harmful” terms on the EHLI website are grouped into these categories – ableist, ageism, culturally appropriative…

By Clay Waters ~

The front page of Tuesday’s New York Times tried to stir sympathy for the mask-forever obsessives among the paper’s fans: “For Holdouts In Masks, Life Turns Lonelier.”

It’s pretty gutsy for the mask-obsessed Timesto suggest the mask-forever bunch are feeling isolated, given the Times strongly supported lockdown measures that kept old, sick, vulnerable people isolated from their families.

Reporter Amy Harmon found a distinctly odd couple (who call themselves “Mx.” instead of Mr. or Ms., naturally) as their poster children for forever masking — and not just any masks, either.

Bitsy Cherry had been bracing for the question ever since most of the members of a board game group that had started meeting online during the pandemic began attending in-person meetings a few months ago.

Like many of the dwindling group of Americans still taking precautions like masking indoors and limiting face-to-face interactions,