It's amazing to consider just how quickly the world changed in early 2020. One day, we were all just casually going along, living our lives. And then the next day, everything was different. If you were to have told someone in February of 2020 that the entire country would soon go on some form of lockdown, nearly everyone would be wearing a mask, and half a million people were going to die due to a virus, no one would have believed you.Yet, it happened. And in addition to changing the world as we know it, it also sparked a sharp political and cultural divide here in the United States.Leah Holland got one of the most poorly-timed tattoos everPPE masks were the last thing on Leah Holland of Georgetown, Kentucky's, mind on March 4, 2020, when she got a tattoo inspired by the words of a close friend."We were just talking about things we admire about each other and he said, 'You courageously and radically refuse to wear a mask,' like meaning that I'm undeniably myself. I thought that was a really poetic way of saying that," Holland told Fox 13.So, she had "courageously & radically refuse to wear a mask" tattooed on her left forearm.It's a beautiful sentiment about Leah's dedication to being her true self. It's also a reminder for Holland to remain true to herself throughout her life.However, the tattoo would take on a very different meaning just two days later, when the first case of COVID-19 was reported in Kentucky. Almost immediately, everyone in the country was advised to wear masks whenever they left the house. Some refused, citing their own personal freedom to do with their body as they wish. Holland had, completely inadvertently, taken sides in a massive culture war with some simple black ink on her forearm. - YouTube www.youtube.com "It basically looked like I'm totally, you know, anti-mask or whatever, which is not the case," said Holland.Now, she was embarrassed to be seen with the tattoo for fear she'd be associated with the anti-maskers who either deny the existence of the virus or refuse to wear a mask to protect others. Either way, it's a bad look.So Leah started wearing long-sleeve shirts and cardigan sweaters whenever in public to cover up the tattoo.TikTok users asked each other to share their 'dumbest tattoo' @wakaflockafloccar #stitch with @hannanicbic I could NOT have had worse timing. #fyp #foryoupage #tattoo #worsttattoo #winner P.S. I’m not anti-mask I promise ??‍♀️ In her video response, she talks about how her tattoo was about "not pretending to be something you're not," but then revealed it to show how — in an incredibly ironic twist — it made her out to be someone she isn't. "I just kind of wanted people to laugh with me because I think it's funny now, too," said Holland. At least the tatoo was able to spark a little levity in some dark times. Plenty of people on TikTok laughed along with her with one user suggesting she update the tattoo with the phrase: "Hindsight is 2020." Another playfully accused her of "jinxing" the world and causing the virus outbreak. Another suggested adding an asterisk and "except during COVID" to the tattoo.Some commenters tried to make her feel better about her poorly-timed body art. "Maybe tattoo a pair of theatre masks (one smiling, the other crying) on top, but for now, wear a hoodie," one user wrote. "Don't worry, in 15 years it will have its original meaning again!" another added. "I was dying laughing. I'm like, I'm glad there are people that find this as funny as I think it is," said Holland."It will be a funny story to tell years from now," she said. "I don't think it will ever not be a funny story." A group of friends chatting wearing masks.via Canva/Photos As the pandemic abated, Holland still had to explain her tattoo. The risks associated with COVID have decreased, but a fierce debate still raged over personal freedom versus responsibility to the greater good. Should you wear a mask in public when you're sick? Should you ever be required to wear a mask? How do you balance individual rights with our need to live in a cooperative society? Most won't soon forget the COVID-19 era in America, and there's no doubt that many will still feel passionate about those who refused to wear masks. Just don't lump Holland in with that group because of a poorly timed, but quite beautiful, sentiment. She'd never wear a mask, unless it were to protect herself and others from a deadly virus. This article originally appeared four years ago.

Each year that I teach the book "1984," I turn my classroom into a totalitarian regime under the guise of the "common good." I run a simulation in which I become a dictator. I tell my students that in order to battle "Senioritis," the teachers and admin have adapted an evidence-based strategy, a strategy that has "been implemented in many schools throughout the country and has had immense success." I hang posters with motivational quotes and falsified statistics, and provide a false narrative for the problem that is "Senioritis.""1984" is a book by George Orwell, written in 1949, about a fictional future where a totalitarian regime watches over everyone, rewrites history, and controls what people think. The book's protagonist, Winston Smith, quietly rebels against the regime in an attempt to regain hope, freedom, and truth. It has become essential reading for students worldwide as a blueprint for recognizing the tactics used by authoritarians. 1984 GIF Giphy I tell the students that in order to help them succeed, I must implement strict classroom rules. They must raise their hand before doing anything at all, even when asking another student for a pencil. They lose points each time they don't behave as expected. They gain points by reporting other students. If someone breaks the rule and I don't see it, it's the responsibility of the other students to let me know. Those students earn bonus points. I tell students that in order for this plan to work they must "trust the process and not question their teachers." This becomes a school-wide effort. The other teachers and admin join in. Senioritis is dangerous for everyone.Photo by Diana Leygerman used with permission I've done this experiment numerous times, and each year I have similar results. This year, however, was different.This year, a handful of students did fall in line as always. The majority of students, however, rebelled.By day two of the simulation, the students were contacting members of administration, writing letters, and creating protest posters. They were organizing against me and against the admin. They were stomping the hallways, refusing to do as they were told.The president of the Student Government Association, whom I don't even teach, wrote an email demanding an end to this "program." He wrote that this program is "simply fascism at its worst. Statements such as these are the base of a dictatorship rule, this school, as well as this country cannot and will not fall prey to these totalitarian behaviors."I did everything in my power to fight their rebellion. If you see something, say something.Photo by Diana Leygerman used with permission I "bribed" the president of the SGA. I "forced" him to publicly "resign." And, yet, the students did not back down. They fought even harder. They were more vigilant. They became more organized. They found a new leader. They were more than ready to fight. They knew they would win in numbers.I ended the experiment two days earlier than I had planned because their rebellion was so strong and overwhelming. For the first time since I've done this experiment, the students "won."What I learned is this: Teenagers will be the ones to save us. Young person reading George Orwell's '1984'Canva Photos Just like Emma Gonzalez, the teen activist from Marjory Stoneman Douglas, my students did not back down nor conform. They fought for their rights. They won.Adults can learn a lot from the teens of this generation. Adults are complacent, jaded, and disparaged. Teenagers are ignited, spirited, and take no prisoners. Do not squander their fight. They really are our future. Do not call them entitled. That entitlement is their drive and their passion. Do not get in their way. They will crush you.Foster their rebellion. They are our best allies.This story originally appeared on Medium and is reprinted here with permission. It was originally published seven years ago.

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The culture wars, not content with bending and blocking the words we read, apparently come for the typeface in which authors write those words, too. Three years ago, President Joe Biden’s Secretary of State Anthony Blinken announced, loudly and to great fanfare, a switch from Plantin typeface to the Sans Serif family within his department’s official documents. Not since President Dwight Eisenhower appointed African American Foreign Service Officer Clifton R. Wharton Sr. as the U.S. minister to Romania has the State Department celebrated such a win for progress as the order to use the Calibri font. “The new font change will make the Department’s written products and communications more accessible,” a Blinken flunky told the press. “It demonstrates Secretary Blinken’s allyship to those with disabilities and underscores his support for employees with disabilities. Moreover, this change underscores that the values and message of disability inclusion are not restricted to any given month or period, but something that should be pursued all year round.” Would not a switch to Braille have more fully demonstrated allyship and inclusivity to the disabled than did Calibri? Curvy and not sharp, warm and not cold, and modern and not old-fashioned, Calibri appears as the typographic equivalent of a hug from Barney the Purple Dinosaur to the soundtrack of the “I Love You” song (this is Helvetica, but close enough to Calibri for government work). At least the Calibrians and their enemies see it that way. Everyone else does not think about fonts all that much. One can think of Sans Serif in relation to letters what brutalism is to architecture. Sans Serif, as its name explains, encompasses fonts that lack a serif, i.e., extended lines or strokes. One can think of Sans Serif in relation to letters what brutalism is to architecture. It lacks flair and instead relies on utilitarianism. Serif-type fonts, on the other hand, embrace letters as art — with calligraphy acting as an extreme example of this. (RELATED: Bauhaus and the Cult of Ugliness) U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced Wednesday a return to tradition in an eponymous memo. He conceded that Calibri stood “not among the Department’s most illegal, immoral, radical, or wasteful instances of DEIA” (I cannot keep up with the evolving acronyms to tell you what the “A” means). But he explained that replacing it with what it replaced — Times New Roman — “reflect[s] the same dignity, consistency, and formality expected in official government correspondence.” Really, Times New Roman reflects our humanity. Nobody, save for C3PO or Data, writes in Sans Serif. Everybody, in cursive and even in print, writes in a Serif style to one degree or another. In other words, one is human and the other machine. Times New Roman, designed nearly a century ago for the Times of London, works so well for newspapers because of its tall letters, large counters (i.e., the enclosed area on a “P” or a “D”), and the reluctance of the lowercase “g,” “q,” and “y” to dip too far beneath the line. Yours truly relies on it for Spectator A.M. and Coca-Cola used it for its “It’s the Real Thing” campaign, but, alas, the Times of London has long since ditched it. It contains style, if a muted one, but really strikes less beautiful than familiar to the eyes. It turns out Times New Roman, the restored font, deposed an earlier, even less woke font at the State Department. In 2004, Secretary of State Colin Powell replaced Courier New with it during the George W. Bush Administration. Courier New, a Joe Friday, just-the-facts-ma’am style, looks like the typesetting used in any pitched movie script, especially, one imagines, for Double Indemnity, The Big Sleep, and Dial M for Murder. If Courier New were any more hardboiled, it would be Courier. Possibly the choice of Courier New over Courier represented a curtsy toward the sensitivities of that age, which makes one wonder if some yet undiscovered font — Crayola Kiss? — replaces Calibri when it screams “get off my lawn” to 22nd Century eyes. Letters amount to symbols. So, it keeps with that theme that politicians further use them as symbols of their agenda. Times New Roman over Calibri feels very Gulf of America, “Richard Levine” over “Rachel Levine” even. Like Skittles, it pleases the palate but ultimately leaves the stomach empty. When the substance of an agenda (e.g., abolition of Obamacare and the Legal Services Corporation, building a wall across the Mexican border, compelling other NATO member states to contribute more to their defense, etc.) proves too difficult to implement, then the symbols increasingly appeal. Still, the Times New Roman symbols appeal more than the Calibri representation of the alphabet. The same (correct) Trump administration mentality that emphasizes classical architecture for government buildings over box-store chic governs this preference for letters with (a slight bit of) panache over artless ones. READ MORE from Daniel J. Flynn: The Filibuster Must Be Protected Now Billboard’s Affirmative Action Greatest Rock Bands List Epstein Files Law Passed During Week of JFK Assassination Anniversary Seems Like a Sign

The entire “net-zero” edifice is built on the claim that CO₂ is a pollutant that is causing a climate crisis. This is the greatest deception of our time. Yet based on this […] The post People who drive electric cars to “save the planet” are hypocrites first appeared on The Expose.

Alex Jones was right again!

by Paul Dragu, The New American: Representative Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) doesn’t trust the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). On Tuesday he introduced a bill to get the United States out of NATO. And although it has a steep and slippery cliff to ascend, the bill provides hope for an idea whose time will, hopefully — […]