Which grass? Witchgrass

Steve Schwartzman

Aug 29

Here for the first time in these pages is a dried-out seed head of Panicum capillare, known as witchgrass. What do witches have to do with this grass? Apparently nothing other than the sound of the word: Merriam-Webster notes that the witch seems to have arisen as an alteration of quitch (grass), also called couch grass, which is a native of Eurasia. People have used the similar names twitch grass, quack grass, and scutch grass, all of which seem to be formed from whatever the original word was.

This picture is from August 27th in Pflugerville.

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FAIR and FIRE

FAIR and FIRE are two similar-sounding American organizations that support people's right to speak their minds. Both organizations therefore oppose compelled speech. FAIR is an acronym for Foundation Against Intolerance and Racism; FIRE is the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression. A newsletter from FAIR a few days ago alerted me to a lawsuit FIRE recently brought against California Community Colleges:

FRESNO, Aug. 17, 2023 — Today, the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression filed a lawsuit on behalf of six California community college professors to halt new, systemwide regulations forcing professors to espouse and teach politicized conceptions of "diversity, equity, and inclusion."

Each of the professors teach at one of three Fresno-area community colleges within the State Center Community College District. Under the new regulations, all of the more-than-54,000 professors who teach in the California Community Colleges system must incorporate "anti-racist" viewpoints into classroom teaching.

The regulations explicitly require professors to pledge allegiance to contested ideological viewpoints. Professors must "acknowledge" that "cultural and social identities are diverse, fluid, and intersectional," and they must develop "knowledge of the intersectionality of social identities and the multiple axes of oppression that people from different racial, ethnic, and other minoritized groups face." Faculty performance and tenure will be evaluated based on professors' commitment to and promotion of the government's viewpoints.

"I'm a professor of chemistry. How am I supposed to incorporate DEI into my classroom instruction?" asked Reedley College professor Bill Blanken. "What's the 'anti-racist' perspective on the atomic mass of boron?"

Good question.

What a sorry state my country is in, with its educational system quickly devolving into a totalitarianism that allows for no dissent and insists everyone promote the tenets of a delusional, racist secular religion. I call it that because the new religion makes "Whiteness" its Devil.

You can read the full FIRE article.