05/19/23

Good morning! It’s Friday, May 19th. National Pizza Party Day!

How fun is that! A whole day for pizza parties! Does anyone know if Dominos is doing anything to celebrate? Dominos – would you like to give me some free pizza for doing this promo?

Oh, you don’t think Dominos listens to this show? You’re outside your mind, my friend. Dominos. Pizza Hut. Little Caesars. They all listen!

(…Papa Johns does not listen)

And now, the news.

Maybe Don’t Ban Books?

-via NPR

Claiming it’s a violation of the Constitutional right to free speech, the Writers’ advocacy group PEN America has joined with Penguin Random House in a lawsuit against Florida’s Escambia County for banning more than a dozen books.

The group and publishing house have joined with five authors and two parents to challenge the banning of 197 books.

197 books! In America! In 2023!

Un-fun fact: According to the American Library Association, the number of reported challenges to books doubled in 2022, and the number of unique titles facing challenges jumped 40% from 2021.

South Carolina Passes 6-Week Abortion Ban

-via The Hill

On an 82-33 vote, South Carolina has passed a bill that would ban abortions at 6 weeks. It’s a heartbeat bill.

It passed late Wednesday night after the governor called the legislature back for a special session, and now heads to the Senate.

South Carolina… South Carolina really sneaks up on you. We stay focused on Florida and Texas but uh… yeah, don’t forget about South Carolina. Their elected are also… bad.

SCOTUS Sides with Twitter

-via NPR

Here’s something… the Supreme Court sided with Twitter in a case where the plaintiffs said that the Bird app aided and abetted terrorism. It sent a related Google case back down to lower courts on that opinion.

The act of terror in the case was the 2015 Paris attack by ISIS that left 130 people dead and 400 others injured.

It all comes down to the 1996 Communications Decency Act, which treats social media companies the way it treats the telephone. Which… is… probably something that made sense in 1996 but mayhaps social media has changed in the last 27 years?

Sounds like it’s time for a new social media decency act. And, if someone’s writing it, perhaps can they add to stop making my Twitter feed just a whole bunch of people I never followed? It’s very annoying. The app is terrible now.

Disney v DeSantis

-via AP News

The hilarious simply because we all know how it’s going to end, except for Ron DeSantis because he is an absolute dinkus, story of Disney v DeSantis continues.

On Thursday, Disney announced that it is scrapping plans to build a new Disney campus in Florida. The new campus would have also relocated 2000 California employees out to Florida. But then DeSantis was like “I’m a big boy! I make big decisions. They’re bad and mean and not good.” And now Disney is uh… not… going to make this change which the chair of the Disney parks division says will be a $17 BILLION investment, creating 13,000 jobs, over the next ten years.

But, for now, those plans remain on hold because silly Ronny D… exists.

Even Republican State Senator Joe Gruters says this has gone to far. “I hope we can put this conflict behind us and get back to a more normal working relationship with a company that’s been one of our best business and tourism partners that we’ve had over the last 50 years.”

But perhaps it’s House Democrat Anna Eskamani how has best summed this DeSantis: “Governor Ron DeSantis is a job killing moron who cares more about his own political ambitions and culture wars than Florida and our future. According to him, ‘woke makes you go broke’ but this is another example of how it’s actually the complete opposite. DeSantis is not who you want for President — ever.”

We stan.

And that’s it. That’s the news!

Slow news day. Just how we like it!

I’m proud of anyone who stands up to book bans and Ron DeSantis. Both are bad.

I’m proud of pizza. Pizza is good! It’s Friday! Go have a pizza!

But more than that – more than a delicious margarita pizza, but like a real good one with the basil leaves and thick slices of fresh mozzarella… because you are also fresh and a party… I’m proud of you.