A Variety of Exciting Updates

First:

Back on March 11, I wrote about the announcement that the American military would be establishing a floating pier on the Gaza coast. What an…interesting idea, I said. In several updates, I warned that the thing wasn’t trending toward success.

So. The New York Times actually nailed the headline yesterday:

Aid trucks are being hijacked and emptied, and a servicemember involved in the project is in critical condition after being flown to a hospital in Israel with noncombat injuries that the military hasn’t described.

Still, grading on a curve, I take the developments so far as good news, given the absence of violent deaths. Hoping for more of that. But a quite predictably troubled project is troubled.

Second:

The remarkably pedo-friendly California legislature remains remarkably pedo-friendly this week, but some very modest signs suggest that even Democrats are beginning to have doubts about that choice.

On the negative side of the balance sheet, Republican Assemblyman Bill Essayli introduced legislation to remove sanctuary state protections from illegal immigrants who rape children, subjecting them to an increased likelihood of deportation. Democrats haven’t just stalled the measure — they also turned off Bill Essayli’s microphone when he tried to discuss the bill on the floor.

On the other side of the balance sheet, Republican Senator Shannon Grove’s SB 1414, a bill that in its original form would have made it a felony to try to buy sex with a child, has cleared the Senate with unanimous support. However: The bill advanced in its aggressively amended form, heavily loaded with conditions and limits. See my earlier discussion of the amendments for details.

Remarkably, some Democrats expressed a desire to return the bill to its original form, or something close to it:

In 2024, saying that you’re progressive but opposed to people who buy children is a brave departure from the established standards. SB 1414 heads to the Assembly, now, where legislators aggressively resisted Grove’s last bill to punish child sex trafficking until the publicity became too embarrassing.

And finally, AB 1955, a “gut and amend” Frankenstein bill that changed meaning after initial consideration, is an effort to codify sexual secrecy in schools, making sure that mommy and daddy don’t find out about the very special sexy discussions that children have with their teachers and counselors:

This bill would prohibit school districts, county offices of education, charter schools, and the state special schools, and a member of the governing board or body of those educational entities, from enacting or enforcing any policy, rule, or administrative regulation that requires an employee or a contractor to disclose any information related to a pupil’s sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression to any other person without the pupil’s consent unless otherwise required by law, as provided.

This one can still be stopped, and Californians should call their state legislators to object. See the detailed opposition letter from the California Policy Center here. Should teachers be having secret sexual discussions with young children behind the backs of the parents? California legislators are leaning toward hell yeah, because that’s very progressive.

If you’re keeping score at home, California is battling over at least three hotly contested bills on the sexualization of childhood. The 21st century isn’t turning out the way I expected.

On the other side of the country, Tell Me How This Ends reader Chad Williams recently caught his local school district having secret sexy discussions with 14 year-olds. You can read that story here.

Third:

A reminder that we’re now one month away from a camping trip in Oregon, organized by reader Scott Cochran. See details at that link, with an email address to RSVP if you’d like to join us. We’ll be camping by a river, June 24 to June 27, at Indian Mary Campground in southern Oregon.

Still room for more people to join. I’m looking forward to it.