Destroying the dreams of children.

Slate has an article today entitled "New Hampshire Legislators Kill Fourth Graders' Bill, Dreams In Front of Them."  The story concerns how fourth grade students from Hampton Falls, New Hampshire had proposed a bill making the Red Tail Hawk the "State Raptor" for New Hampshire.  The bill apparently sailed out of committee and last week the students attended a session of the New Hampshire House of Representatives where, I assume, the student thought their bill would pass, especially after the representatives gave the kids a round of applause.  But the bill didn't pass.  

More on Wisconsin's state symbols.

Yesterday, I posted the story of how Wisconsin named the American Water Spaniel its official state dog.  Mordecai Lee, one of the players in that story, subsequently emailed me with his thoughts on the post.  I asked Professor Lee for permission to post his email on the blog and he graciously said yes.  I stress that Professor Lee emailed me directly rather than post on the blog.  I don't believe that Professor Lee intended that the email get published here. I think he was just trying to give me some more background for the post. As such, and for reasons that should be obvious, I am sure that Professor Lee is not seeking to have a debate with our Reader(s)™ about something that happened almost 30 years ago.   

Wisconsin state legislators mock children.

For anyone who thinks that Wisconsin's propensity for unpleasant politics is a new thing that resulted from the GOP taking over all three branches of Wisconsin's government last year, I bring you the sad story of how Wisconsin got its official state dog.