Is it just me, or has it been an even crazier summer, news-wise, than we’ve seen before? So much for the dog days and boredom and lazy-hazy-crazy. Between the shenanigans in Washington and everywhere else, it seems like half the durn country has gone nuts. It’s hard to keep up, but we try.

I keep a list of books read throughout the year, and after noting how appallingly short it was this year, I resolved to double down. I normally read fiction, but found that nothing mid-list would satisfy; I abandoned a Andrea Barrett short-story collection before finding Jordan Harper’s “A Violent Masterpiece,” everything about the book summed up in the title. It’s as noir-y as noir gets, and my only problem now is, I have to find another one.

But never mind that! On to the day’s — not even the week’s — craziness. All links gift unless otherwise noted.

Here in the Macomb County exurb of Romeo, the school board’s gone buck-wild

When teachers in a southeastern Michigan school district decorate their classroom walls this fall, they will be limited to 32 preapproved phrases, part of an effort to “keep non-curricular ideologies and partisan politics out of the classroom,” officials said.

Classrooms can display messages including: “Everyone is welcome,” “You matter,” and “Choose kindness,” according to the list of acceptable statements. They must be printed in red or black ink, the school district’s colors, according to an internal memo obtained by The Washington Post.

Yes, it’s Moms for Liberty on the march up there in Romeo. A similar movement was active for a while in my own school district, but seems to have been soundly defeated in the last board election. However, a Pride parade got them up in their feelings again, and so I’m sure they’ll be back.

The near-death of Mitch McConnell — I’m not 100 percent sure he isn’t lying in a vat of green goo somewhere, illuminated by an eerie light accompanied by disturbing gurgling and hissing sounds — calls for some pre-obituary summing up of a truly smelly legacy:

The first key moment came when Barack Obama was elected in 2008. Though Obama had won a sweeping victory and the country was in the midst of a catastrophic economic crisis, McConnell told his caucus they had a path back to power: Obstruct everything Obama tried to do, regardless of whether Republicans had any substantive objections to it. Only if they forced Obama to fail could they retake power.

If it seemed like the parties were working together, he explained, Obama would get the credit; if all the public saw was gridlock and nasty infighting, the president would get the blame.

“If [Obama] was for it,” said former Ohio Sen. George Voinovich about McConnell’s strategy, “we had to be against it.” Every procedural tactic would be deployed, including turning the filibuster from an occasional tool used to stop major legislation to a weapon fired at almost any legislation the majority party proposed.

Ah yes, I remember it well. And eventually, Obama got tired of banging his head against the wall and started writing executive orders. Oh, how they howled about that. The president isn’t a king or a dictator! Times have changed.

Finally, a short essay getting lots of the wrong kind of attention, in my alma mater, the Columbus Dispatch. Behold, the miseries of the MAGA man:

I recently entered the online dating scene and have met nice women for Columbus-area lunches or dinners in the process. After I thanked one, I got a thanks back with an additional note:

“I never asked you about your political views. I have no problem with Republicans, but if you are a MAGA Republican, it would be difficult for us to develop a friendship.”

Wow. That comment threw me for a loop, but it made me reflect on the bitter divisions within the country. It is literally a civil war.

No, it is not. You’d think a writer identified as a “former college professor” would know what literally means, but I guess not. More:

…I guess I could ask a return question.

“I have no problem with Democrats, but would be difficult for me to develop a friendship with one who has blindly been to a No Kings rally, suffers from Trump Derangement Syndrome, uses the biased legacy media as their only source of ‘truth,’ wants Israel to be put in its place, requires unlimited immigration and voting without an ID, desperately aims to completely abolish ICE, allows biological males in women’s sports, and denigrates all MAGA as fascists or Nazis, without understanding the real meaning of those words.”

Dude, maybe volunteer to pass out leaflets for some candidate? You’d have better luck, but you must also accept that you look like Captain Kangaroo and unless you have a pile of money, you might have to settle for women your own age. WHICH IS FINE. Not all older men can be Jeff Bezos.

The heat wave is unrelenting. About to go out in it in a bit. Pray for me.