Etc.

Wall Street was pleased as punch the jobs numbers weren't worth a crap.
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At least I didn't wait five years to find out he died late last year: Psychiatrist and academic Thomas Szasz (unfortunately, it isn't spelled the same way backwards as frontwards), 92, died in September. He was well known for his critiques of the mental health profession and had a decidedly libertarian bent.

I read a number of his books, but he lost me with his opposition to the existence of public education. I decided I had no use for him despite having watched him on various television programs.

He was lecturing until the end. It was a sad end, as he died after a fall. Bad stuff at that age.

Szasz was always controversial, but when this happened, the criticism hit fever pitch:

In 1969, in a move that damaged his credibility even among allies, he joined with the Church of Scientology to found the Citizens Commission on Human Rights, which portrays the field as abusive and regularly pickets psychiatric meetings.

Dr. Szasz was not a Scientologist himself, and he later distanced himself from the church, but he shared the religion’s critical view of psychiatry. His provocations were not without cost. In the 1960s, New York mental health officials, outraged at his attacks on the state system, blocked Dr. Szasz from teaching at a state hospital where residents trained, according to two former colleagues. Dr. Szasz bristled but had little recourse, and his teaching was curtailed.

Some can call him heroic, but most of us would call him a fool.
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There is no doubt Louisiana has gone batshit crazy.

You can bet you ass if the same was done to traditionally male-dominated fields like law or medicine, such ideas would be shot down:

BESE Is now talking about abolishing certification for teachers. They want to go back to the good old days when anyone could teach without any professional preparation.

A local school board president, Clarence (Sonny) Savoie said that BESE has no respect for teachers and no understanding of their work. He could not understand why other professions would need a certification process, but not teachers.

“I guess it never ceases to amaze me what comes out of BESE. We can certify doctors and public accountants and a lot of other professions, but we can’t certify public educators,” Savoie said. “I’m just wondering if anyone on BESE needs a brain surgeon because I’ve got an uncertified doctor I can send them to.”