Or, Much Ado About Nothing!
I got exactly one complaint about a story in last week’s issue, and the basis of the complaint, by a Baptist Youth Pastor, is so eye-rolling in its cluelessness, you’ll understand why some kids are so screwed up.
Rant
One Brave Girl
or… Welcome to the 21st Century
Editorial comments from This is True for the week of 16 February 2003:
ZT: Legislative Action
I ran more “zero tolerance” stories last week, and I’m noticing a new trend: when I run the stories, I get mail from readers asking what they can do about this trend, since it obviously is a trend and not just an isolated happening. The new trend: many ask if I would please provide the mail/email address of the schools involved so you can give the administrators a piece of your mind.
Airline Insecurity — a Symptom of a Worse Disease
Some weeks after terrorists turned several of our airliners into guided missiles, I flew — and got to experience our greatly “improved” security. My experiences were recorded here earlier.
Airline Insecurity — a Symptom of a Worse Disease
Author’s Note: This is the original version of my “Airline Insecurity” essay, published shortly after 9/11, originally found at this URL, which now has a 2002 version with a different slant. As I’m putting this version back online in 2026, I actually no longer remember why I replaced and re-dated that page: it’s been too long ago now. But for various reasons I think it is a good idea to put this version online again, in pretty much the same layout as I wrote it back then. [Offsite links have been repointed to the Internet Archive.]
Fundamentally Wrong
Written 21 September 2001. Also see the 2005 Update
ZT Madness is Spreading!
You might think “Zero Tolerance” is a playground issue — just a way for school administrators to deal with violent kids. If you did, you would be wrong.
Grasp Of The Obvious
Email makes it easy to complain. Too easy. I find people will literally complain about anything they see online.
Religious Freedom in the USA
It’s not a big controversy like some This is True stories have generated, but there has been considerable confusion generated by two stories from the 13 August 2000 issue.
Unclear on the Concept
One of my pet peeves is Public Relations Flacks. These are not to be confused with Public Relations Professionals — PR people who do a good job getting The Word out about their clients. They hate the word “flack,” but when they make their clients look bad — well, they’re inviting the derision.
Losing my Tolerance for “Zero Tolerance”
The ‘Fornigate’ Response
Anytime This is True runs stories with (shall we say) controversial subjects, it generates letters. But nothing brings more letters than the division between left- and right-wing politics!
Don’t Say I Didn’t Tell You So
I had spoken about spam here and there in True, but in this issue I published the first installment of what would become my Spam Primer — a warning that unsolicited email advertising was now officially a serious problem on the net.