Europeans

The end is coming. Logen Ninefingers might only have one more fight in him but its going to be a big one. Battle rages across the North, the King of the Northmen still stands firm, and theres only one man who can stop him. His oldest friend, and his oldest enemy. Its past time for the Bloody-Nine to come home. With too many masters and too little time, Superior Glokta is fighting a different kind of war. A secret struggle in which no-one is safe, and no-one can be trusted. His days with a sword are far behind him. Its a good thing blackmail, threats and torture still work well enough. Jezal dan Luthar has decided that winning glory is far too painful, and turned his back on soldiering for a simple life with the woman he loves. But love can be painful too, and glory has a nasty habit of creeping up on a man when he least expects it. While the King of the Union lies on his deathbead, the peasants revolt and the nobles scramble to steal his...

Senate passes 'license to bully' legislation

Advocates for a law to prohibit bullying and provide school districts with the tools to address the problem were dealt a stinging rebuke Wednesday morning in the Republican-controlled Michigan Senate.

The GOP pushed through an amended bill, SB 137, which does nothing advocates have pushed for — including reporting requirements and enumeration, or listing, of protected classes. In addition, the legislation provides an exception which allows bullying based on “moral convictions.”

The full language of the insert is: “This section does not prohibit a statement of a sincerely held religious belief or moral conviction of a school employee, school volunteer, pupil, or a pupil and parent or guardian.”

In a floor speech Minority Leader in the Senate Gretchen Whitmer (D-East Lansing) slammed the Republicans over the amended language.

“Here today you claim to be protecting kids and you’re actually putting them in more danger,” Whitmer said. “But bullying is not OK. We should be protecting public policy that protects kids — all kids, from bullies — all bullies. But instead you have set us back further by creating a blueprint for bullying.

Source: Michigan Messenger

Why is William Ian Miller Losing It? | Yale Press Log

by Yale University Press

, new from Yale University Press this fall, explores the timeless dilemma of aging, offering a historical, scientific, and literary perspective on the various consequences of old age. As Miller himself puts it in a lengthy subtitle which showcases the author’s self-described “gallows humor,” the work is, “A plaint, tragic-comical, historical, vengeful, sometimes satirical and thankful in six parts, if his Memory does yet serve.”

In a piece for the Chronicle of Higher Education earlier this week, Miller explores his theme in brief, tracing his concerns about his own age, and its bearing on his status as a scholar. “There is no small amount of self-flattery in a lament of losing it,” he writes, “It claims, I once had it to lose....