the scene of the crime

 

The intersection of Camino Verde and Valencia is less than a mile from our house. For some reason, it has had an unusually large number of accidents – and another one happened yesterday.

Here’s what I saw shortly after it happened:

 

 

There were numerous comments about the accident on Next Door this morning, but two of them really got my attention:

1)    The young male driver has been seen a number of times driving recklessly, it was inevitable that he was going to total his Mustang

2)   Driver’s training is not required in Arizona to get a driver’s license

 

Thomas Jefferson (the founder of the University of Virginia) is credited with this bit of wisdom:

 "An educated citizenry is a vital requisite for our survival as a free people."

 

Here is how that wisdom applies to today:

DRIVER’S EDUCATION

There are currently 37 states where driver's education classes are mandatory depending on your age. Since accident rates are the highest for new drivers, it's smart to take one. Arizona is not one of those states.

The link below shows the requirements for all 50 states.

https://leg.wa.gov/JTC/Documents/Studies/Driver%20Education_Beth/SummaryStateTable.pdf

 

The table below shows auto accident rates per 100,000 of population:

https://www.iihs.org/topics/fatality-statistics/detail/state-by-state

 

The worst state, by far, is Mississippi. The state does not require driver’s education to get a license, and people as young as 14 are allowed to drive if accompanied by an adult. If you have the patience to compare accident rates to which states require driver’s education, you’ll notice that states that require driver’s training have lower accident rates. My home state of Minnesota is one of the best states – and driver’s education is required to get a license.

 

SEXUAL EDUCATION

• Thirty states and the District of Columbia require public schools teach sex education, 28 of which mandate both sex education and HIV education.
• Thirty-nine states and the District of Columbia require students receive instruction about HIV.
• Twenty-two states require that if provided, sex and/or HIV education must be medically, factually or technically accurate. State definitions of “medically accurate" vary, from requiring that the department of health review curriculum for accuracy, to mandating that curriculum be based on information from “published authorities upon which medical professionals rely.” (See table on medically accuracy laws.)

Mississippi has no requirement at all.

https://www.ncsl.org/health/state-policies-on-sex-education-in-schools

Not surprisingly, the states that no requirement for sexual education have the highest teen birth rates:

https://worldpopulationreview.com/state-rankings/teen-pregnancy-rates-by-state

Mississippi is the worst state. If you count Arizona as a “purple” rather than a red state, the worst 25 states for teen pregnancy are all “red” states.

 

GUN SAFETY

32 states let people carry guns without requiring them to know how to shoot one. The color codes chart in the link below shows which states that so not require a permit (or training) to own a gun. There are also states that require a permit, but no training The final group is the states that require training in order to get a permit. Arizona required both training and permits when we moved here in 2011, but both requirements went away about a year later.

 

https://www.thetrace.org/2022/01/which-states-require-firearm-safety-course-concealed-carry/

You know what’s coming next.

The link below will show you which states have the highest rates of gun deaths:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firearm_death_rates_in_the_United_States_by_state

Alaska has the highest death rate per 100,000 people – but Mississippi is a very close second.

If you have the patience to compare death rates to the charts that show training requirements, you’ll notice that states that have the loosest gun laws also have the highest death rates, and states like Texas and Florida are intent on making them even looser.

 

CRITICAL RACE THEORY.

 

Critical Race theory is NOT taught in K-12 schools in America. Despite that fact, Arkansas governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders signed a bill earlier this year that outlawed its teaching, and Glenn Youngkin got elected as governor in Virginia because he promised to outlaw in that state as well. Florida’s fuehrer, Ron DeSantis, signed a bill in June of 2021 to do the same there.

https://www.cnn.com/2021/06/10/us/critical-race-theory-florida-ban-trnd/index.html

His attempt to “dumb down” Florida has recently led to book bans, the cancellation of an AP class in African American studies, and a bill to prevent a discussion of sexual orientation in public schools, the infamous “don’t say gay” bill that started a feud with the Disney Corporation, one of the largest employers in the state.

By the way, if you are not sure what critical race theory is, the quiz below will help:

https://tohell-andback.blogspot.com/2022/11/critical-race-theory-quiz.html

 

Thomas Jefferson and the other Founding Fathers that a democracy needs educated citizens in order to be successful. If you are wondering how idiots like Paul Gosar, Jim Jordan, Louis Gohmert, and Marjorie Taylor Greene keep getting elected, bear in mind that NONE of them represent districts that are highly educated.

Besides the fact that educated citizens make the country run better, there is also an economic reason for it. I’ve put together a spreadsheet that analyzes on all 50 states on a variety of criteria. The states that spend the most on education have the highest per capita income – and Arizona is one of the worst. Per capita income in Arizona is roughly $15,000 less than my home state of Minnesota, which has some of the highest education funding in the country.

Which state has the worst per-capita income?

Mississippi, which also happens to be the most obese, has the highest poverty rate, and the highest rate of teen pregnancy. The only positive rating it gets is in religion, since it is the most religious state in the country- and that is NOT something to be proud of.

 

If you haven’t guessed by now, a large portion of my income comes from teaching, and it’s one of the most important careers in the country. As I mentioned o few years ago, I’m one of those “loser” teachers – and I’m proud of that fact.

 

https://tohell-andback.blogspot.com/2019/02/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

this Bud's not for you

 

 

The other day, I monitored a class for a local teacher who took some of her class to the University of Arizona to explore an exhibit on diversity – a trip that would have been impossible in today’s Florida.

In January, the Florida Education Department sent a letter to the College Board that it was rejecting an Advanced Placement course on African American studies, and it was NOT the first time that Governor DeSantis had wandered into the culture wars.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/ap-african-american-studies-course-florida-rejected-rcna67112

In March of last year, he signed the controversial “Parent’s Right in Education” bill, (HB1557) which quickly became known as the “don’t say gay” bill because it prohibited discussion of sexual orientation and gender identity in public schools.

https://www.npr.org/2022/03/28/1089221657/dont-say-gay-florida-desantis

At least one Florida school is covering up or removing books in their classrooms that have not been approved under a law restricting instruction and books on race and diversity and making it a felony for teachers to share pornographic material to students.

A Manatee County, Florida, directive is instructing its schools to "remove or cover all materials that have not been vetted" in classrooms, according to a copy of the guidance obtained by ABC News.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in April signed the "Stop WOKE" act, which restricts lessons and training on race and diversity in schools and in the workplace, particularly anything that discusses privilege or oppression based on race, or whether someone "bears personal responsibility for and must feel guilt, anguish, or other forms of psychological distress" due to U.S. racial history. WOKE in the bill stands for "Wrongs to Our Kids and Employees."

A judge in November temporarily blocked the law from restricting race-related curriculum and conversation in colleges and universities, which is still being battled out in the courts.

Michael Barber, communications director of Manatee County schools, told ABC News on Friday that teachers could be charged with a third-degree felony if they share a book that's considered pornographic or obscene under Florida law. But many teachers misinterpret the law as meaning they could be indicted for simply sharing any unvetted material, he said.

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/florida-schools-directed-cover-remove-classroom-books-vetted/story?id=96884323

All of the bills signed by Florida’s Fuehrer had been passed before – during the 1930’s in Germany. (You many remember that homosexuals and others who did not possess pure Aryan blood were also targeted, but Jews suffered the worst treatment.

HB1557 generated a negative response from one of the state’s largest employers – the Disney Corporation.

On February 8, Arizona legislators quietly voted to hand control of the Reedy Creek Improvement District to DeSantis.

https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/29/politics/desantis-disney-board-control/index.html

A day before the new board was scheduled to take over, the current board amended its charter to prevent takeover by the state.

DeSantis vowed to retaliate, but yesterday, something remarkable happened.

The mouse roared.

The Walt Disney Company is suing Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) and other state officials, alleging that DeSantis is harming the company’s business operations. 

The lawsuit comes after months of Disney and DeSantis sparring over legislation that DeSantis has signed and steps the governor has taken to increase the state’s control over Disney. 

 “A targeted campaign of government retaliation—orchestrated at every step by Governor DeSantis as punishment for Disney’s protected speech—now threatens Disney’s business operations, jeopardizes its economic future in the region, and violates its constitutional rights,” the lawsuit states.

The lawsuit comes after the board that DeSantis appointed to oversee Disney voted Wednesday to void development contracts that Disney made.

Disney said in its complaint that the action from the board was the “latest strike” leading to the lawsuit.

DeSantis signed legislation at the end of February to end Disney’s power over the Reedy Creek Improvement District, the 25,000 acres that Disney has owned and self-governed for decades. The law allowed DeSantis to appoint a board consisting of five members to govern the district.

The move came after Disney openly criticized Florida’s Parental Rights in Education law, dubbed the “Don’t Say Gay” bill by opponents. The law places restrictions on the discussion of sexual orientation and gender identity in public school classes from kindergarten to 12^th grade.

Disney said it would work to repeal the law and vowed to “stand up for the rights and safety” for the LGBTQ community.

 https://thehill.com/regulation/court-battles/3972939-disney-sues-desantis-alleging-harm-to-its-business/

61% of the American pubic said that abortion should be legal in all or most cases.

https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/fact-sheet/public-opinion-on-abortion/

In addition, a majority of Americans think it is more important to control gun violence than to protect gun rights, according to a new PBS NewsHour, NPR and Marist poll.

Policies with the strongest support include more funding for mental health screening and treatment, mandatory background checks and licensing for gun purchases, and passage of a national “red-flag” law, which would give a judge authority to order the removal of guns from a person who poses a risk to themselves or others, the poll suggests.

 https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/most-americans-support-stricter-gun-laws-new-poll-says

Since the GOP is taking positions that are out of step with public opinion, they need to resort to “cultural issues” (abortion, CRT, LBGT rights, drag shows, and book bans) to attract votes.

The latest chapter in that battle is a strange one, and it involves beer.

The most popular beer sold in America is Bud Light, just ahead of Coors Light, Miller Lite, Budweiser, and Michelob Ultra.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2019/06/19/beer-brands-americas-31-most-popular-beers/39490347/

If you are a beer lover, you’ll discover that the best quality beers are almost an inversion of that list, and Bud Light comes in at #17 on the beer lover’s list. Natural Lite is considered to be the worst beer – and it is the 8^th most popular beer in America.

https://www.ratebeer.com/Ratings/TheWorstBeers.asp

Bud Light just generated some publicity because the company released a beer with a label that was intended to be more inclusive, since it featured a transgender individual named Dylan Mulvaney on the label.

 

 

Although sales of Bud Light temporarily took a hit, the long-term effect of the promotion are likely to be minimal.        

 https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/25/us/politics/bud-light-boycott-politics-republicans.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

 I’m a strong believer in diversity, and I have written about it before.

https://tohell-andback.blogspot.com/2019/10/diversity.html

If you went back to the Ozzie and Harriet days, you may remember that every ad that you saw on television featured nothing but white people. Today, it is highly unusual to see an ad today that does not have at least one minority person in the group.

Attempts at diversity are not new.

In the 1970’s, the town of Colorado Springs, Colorado attempted to diversity its work force, and they hired Ron Stahlworth to work in the local police force. Although he was initially assigned to clerical duties, he eventually was promoted to more responsible positions. When he applied to the local chapter of the KKK, things got VERY interesting.

BlacKkKlansman (2018) - Crank Calling the Klan Scene (2/10) | Movieclips - YouTube

As you are probably aware, Caucasians in America will soon be in the minority.

https://tohell-andback.blogspot.com/2023/03/the-shrinking-white-christian-population.html

You may not like that fact, but you’ll be a lot happier is you embrace the concept of diversity – since we truly ARE a melting pot.

tough times do not last, but tough people do

 

My parents were members of “the greatest generation”, which describes people who lived through the Great Depression and WWII. Both of them grew up on farms in the small town of Hastings. Minnesota, and both of them lived to their mid-80’s. There were siblings on both sides that lived to be 95.

Officially, I’m a member of the “baby boomer” generation. Although our issues weren’t quite as bad as what my parents faced, we lived through the 1960’s, a period of time that dramatically changed American society.

https://tohell-andback.blogspot.com/2015/03/4-dead-in-ohio.html

Like many people of my generation, I’ve had some setbacks. A job lass when I was in my 50’s was very damaging to my finances, and at one point, I owed the IRS $25,000. The stress of dealing with fixed expenses and diminished income caused my blood pressure to spike, and the only way to save my life was to move to China - so I did.

It was a great experience (except for the time that I got mugged by 3 guys on motorcycles) but I returned to America a much healthier person.

My wife and I are both cancer survivors. Although my cancer was not-life threatening (basal-cell carcinoma) hers was stage 4 disease that could easily have been fatal.

https//tohell-andback.blogspot.com/2011/07/

I’m practically guaranteed to get to heaven because I literally crashed on the way to Hell. Details of THAT story can be found at the link below.

https://tohell-andback.blogspot.com/2009/03/to-hell-and-back-on-bicycle.html

On the morning of October 2, 2022, I was on my way to school when I stopped at a local gas station to buy a couple of lotto tickets. When I went outside and started walking to my car, I did not notice that a white Ford pickup had  started moving in my direction. Before I knew what was happening, I was laying on the ground in front  of the truck, with bruises in three places. The school nurse patched me up, and this is what I looked like when I went to my first class.

I recently sent the picture to my old neighbor in China, who was amazed that I was still walking around after getting hit by a truck. 

 I am currently 75 years old, and my genetic background means that I have a  good change of living for quite a few more years. Since I have already suffered a few catastrophes, I guess that qualifies me as a “tough old guy”.

I did some research a while back and found (much to my surprises) that a number of people who lived to 90 or 100 had actually lived some hard lives, and some of the them had ties to slavery.

https://tohell-andback.blogspot.com/2013/01/

That sentence confirms the truth of the title of this article.

 Tough times don’t last, but tough people do.

 

 

 

 

 

the Klan is back

 

We don’t think much about the Klan today, but it has not gone away.

 

Although the is no shortage of books about Klan history, here’s a short synopsis:

https://www.history.com/topics/19th-century/ku-klux-klan

 Founded in 1865, the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) extended into almost every southern state by 1870 and became a vehicle for white southern resistance to the Republican Party’s Reconstruction-era policies aimed at establishing political and economic equality for Black Americans. Its members waged an underground campaign of intimidation and violence directed at white and Black Republican leaders. Though Congress passed legislation designed to curb Klan terrorism, the organization saw its primary goal–the reestablishment of white supremacy–fulfilled through Democratic victories in state legislatures across the South in the 1870s. 

After a period of decline, white Protestant nativist groups revived the Klan in the early 20th century, burning crosses and staging rallies, parades and marches denouncing immigrants, Catholics, Jews, African Americans and organized labor. The civil rights movement of the 1960s also saw a surge of Ku Klux Klan activity, including bombings of Black schools and churches and violence against Black and white activists in the South.

 The group including many former Confederate veterans founded the first branch of the Ku Klux Klan as a social club in Pulaski, Tennessee, in 1865. The first two words of the organization’s name supposedly derived from the Greek word “kyklos,” meaning circle. In the summer of 1867, local branches of the Klan met in a general organizing convention and established what they called an “Invisible Empire of the South.” Leading Confederate general Nathan Bedford Forrest was chosen as the first leader, or “grand wizard,” of the Klan; he presided over a hierarchy of grand dragons, grand titans and grand cyclopses.

The organization of the Ku Klux Klan coincided with the beginning of the second phase of post-Civil War Reconstruction, put into place by the more radical members of the Republican Party in Congress. After rejecting President Andrew Johnson’s relatively lenient Reconstruction policies, in place from 1865 to 1866, Congress passed the Reconstruction Act over the presidential veto. Under its provisions, the South was divided into five military districts, and each state was required to approve the 14th Amendment, which granted “equal protection” of the Constitution to former enslaved people and enacted universal male suffrage.

 From 1867 onward, Black participation in public life in the South became one of the most radical aspects of Reconstruction, as Black people won election to southern state governments and even to the U.S. Congress. For its part, the Ku Klux Klan dedicated itself to an underground campaign of violence against Republican leaders and voters (both Black and white) in an effort to reverse the policies of Radical Reconstruction and restore white supremacy in the South. They were joined in this struggle by similar organizations such as the Knights of the White Camelia (launched in Louisiana in 1867) and the White Brotherhood. 

At least 10 percent of the Black legislators elected during the 1867-1868 constitutional conventions became victims of violence during Reconstruction, including seven who were killed. White Republicans (derided as “carpetbaggers” and “scalawags”) and Black institutions such as schools and churches—symbols of Black autonomy—were also targets for Klan attacks.

By 1870, the Ku Klux Klan had branches in nearly every southern state. Even at its height, the Klan did not boast a well-organized structure or clear leadership. Local Klan members–often wearing masks and dressed in the organization’s signature long white robes and hoods–usually carried out their attacks at night, acting on their own but in support of the common goals of defeating Radical Reconstruction and restoring white supremacy in the South. Klan activity flourished particularly in the regions of the South where Black people were a minority or a small majority of the population, and was relatively limited in others. Among the most notorious zones of Klan activity was South Carolina, where in January 1871 500 masked men attacked the Union county jail and lynched eight Black prisoners.

Though Democratic leaders would later attribute Ku Klux Klan violence to poorer southern white people, the organization’s membership crossed class lines, from small farmers and laborers to planters, lawyers, merchants, physicians and ministers. In the regions where most Klan activity took place, local law enforcement officials either belonged to the Klan or declined to take action against it, and even those who arrested accused Klansmen found it difficult to find witnesses willing to testify against them. 

Other leading white citizens in the South declined to speak out against the group’s actions, giving them tacit approval. After 1870, Republican state governments in the South turned to Congress for help, resulting in the passage of three Enforcement Acts, the strongest of which was the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871.

For the first time, the Ku Klux Klan Act designated certain crimes committed by individuals as federal offenses, including conspiracies to deprive citizens of the right to hold office, serve on juries and enjoy the equal protection of the law. The act authorized the president to suspend the writ of habeas corpus and arrest accused individuals without charge, and to send federal forces to suppress Klan violence. 

This expansion of federal authority–which Ulysses S. Grant promptly used in 1871 to crush Klan activity in South Carolina and other areas of the South–outraged Democrats and even alarmed many Republicans. From the early 1870s onward, white supremacy gradually reasserted its hold on the South as support for Reconstruction waned; by the end of 1876, the entire South was under Democratic control once again. I 

 White Protestant nativists organized a revival of the Ku Klux Klan in 1915 near Atlanta, Georgia, inspired by their romantic view of the Old South as well as Thomas Dixon’s 1905 book “The Clansman” and D.W. Griffith’s 1915 film “Birth of a Nation.” 

 (The largest gathering of the KKK happened in 1923, when 200,000 people gathered in Kokomo, Indiana).  

This second generation of the Klan was not only anti-Black but also took a stand against Roman Catholics, Jews, foreigners and organized labor. It was fueled by growing hostility to the surge in immigration that America experienced in the early 20th century along with fears of communist revolution akin to the Bolshevik triumph in Russia in 1917. The organization took as its symbol a burning cross and held rallies, parades and marches around the country. At its peak in the 1920s, Klan membership exceeded 4 million people nationwide.

(The Immigration Act of 1924 was the official response to the wave of immigrants form eastern and southern Europe)

https://immigrationhistory.org/item/1924-immigration-act-johnson-reed-act/

The Great Depression in the 1930s depleted the Klan’s membership ranks, and the organization temporarily disbanded in 1944. The civil rights movement of the 1960s saw a surge of local Klan activity across the South, including the bombings, beatings and shootings of Black and white activists. These actions, carried out in secret but apparently the work of local Klansmen, outraged the nation and helped win support for the civil rights cause. 

In 1965, President Lyndon Johnson delivered a speech publicly condemning the Klan and announcing the arrest of four Klansmen in connection with the murder of a white female civil rights worker in Alabama. The cases of Klan-related violence became more isolated in the decades to come, though fragmented groups became aligned with neo-Nazi or other right-wing extremist organizations from the 1970s onward. 

As of 2016, the Anti-Defamation League estimated Klan membership to be around 3,000, while the Southern Poverty Law Center said there were 6,000 members total.

Here’s why we still need to pay attention to the Klan today:

At the core of it all was unabashed white Christian nationalism, and the link below explains why Christian nationalism is still a problem today:

https://tohell-andback.blogspot.com/2022/08/christian-nationalism.html

The original Klan, started by ex-Confederates chafing in a country where millions of people who had been held as property were now citizens, directed its terror at Black Americans. The reborn Klan expanded its range of hatred to the changing face of America: immigrants, Jews and Catholics. They also tried to repress the social liberation of women — in speakeasies thick with jazz, in film and in other cultural expressions.

Substitute today’s opposition to drag shows for the Klan’s campaign against changing morals and uncorseted flappers and you have another haunt of history. Those who want to turn back the demographic clock in the 2020s, who long for an America belonging to one race and one religion, will find a blueprint in the 1920s Klan.

Just as so many of those who stormed the Capitol on January 6, 2021, were found to be everyday folks with good jobs, Klan membership in the 1920s was a cross section of White America. But make no mistake, those people belonged to a masked, highly secretive hate group and knew full well what they’d signed up for. They were not ignorant of their Klan oath.

The hooded order of the 1920s moved quickly from basements in the Midwest to the halls of Congress. At its peak, the Klan claimed four U.S. senators as sworn members, and dozens under its control in the House of Representatives. By 1925, the ultimate political design seemed to be within reach: a Klan from sea to sea, north to south, anchored in the White House.

The most prominent member of the Klan today is David Duke. He is an American white supremacist, antisemitic conspiracy theorist, and former Grand Wizard of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan. From 1989 to 1992, he was a member of the Louisiana House of Representatives for the Republican Party. His politics and writings are largely devoted to promoting conspiracy theories about Jews, such as Holocaust denial and Jewish control of academia, the press, and the financial system. In 2013, the Anti-Defamation League described Duke as "perhaps America’s most well-known racist and anti-Semite". He was also one of the speakers of the Charlottesville rally in August of 2017. This is the meeting, remember, where “there were good people on both sides”

Spike Lee’s 2018 movie, “BlacKKKlansman” does an excellent job of tying together the old Klan and the new Klan. The closing sequence ties together cross burnings with the tiki torch carrying white nationalists at Charlottesville. The clip below is worth watching:

BlacKkKlansman (2018) - Crank Calling the Klan Scene (2/10) | Movieclips - YouTube

 https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/04/03/kkk-midwest-jan6-indiana/

  The Klan is back. Don't let them win 

 

Ku Klux Klan

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

the history of toilet paper

 

The link below contains a picture that was taken almost exactly three years ago, during the early stages of the pandemic. No matter which store you went to, toilet paper, and other paper products, was very scarce.

https://tohell-andback.blogspot.com/2020/03/no-shit-sherlock.html

Because people were afraid of running out of some of the basics, hoarding became more common, and there were stories of people getting into fights in grocery store aisles over toilet paper.

At the same time, oil prices plunged due to the fact that people were driving less, largely due to the fact that it was no longer safe to go into the office to work. For a brief period of time, there was an oversupply of oil, which pushed the price of a barrel of oil into negative values. It’s not a stretch to say that a roll of toilet paper was worth more than a barrel of oil.

An article in today’s Washington Post discussed an alternative to toilet paper, and it’s been around a long time.

It’s called a bidet.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2023/04/04/bidets-benefits-history-environmental-impact/

Although the bidet is thought to have been invented in France in the 1600s, Japan has embraced the device like few other nations, with an estimated 79 percent of households owning at least one.

In the United States, the bidet has barely cracked the mainstream. Our historical prejudice against the apparatus dates back to World War II, when many service members’ first encounters with it were in a French brothel. That created an association with sex work.

 The rest of the world, meanwhile, has embraced the concept, with the bidet evolving into myriad forms. 

 Today, no one buys more TP than Americans. The typical person in the United States uses about 24 rolls of toilet paper per year. That’s roughly three times more than Europeans — and among the highest per capita consumption of any country. Were the country to switch to bidets, millions of trees would likely remain standing every year.

Toilet paper is older than you might think.

During the early 14th century, it was recorded that in what is now Zhejiang alone, ten million packages of 1,000 to 10,000 sheets of toilet paper were manufactured annually. During the Ming dynasty (1368–1644 AD), it was recorded in 1393 that an annual supply of 720,000 sheets of toilet paper (approximately 2 by 3 ft (60 by 90 cm)) were produced for the general use of the imperial court at the capital of Nanjing. From the records of the Imperial Bureau of Supplies of that same year, it was also recorded that for the Hongwu Emperor's imperial family alone, there were 15,000 sheets of special soft-fabric toilet paper made, and each sheet of toilet paper was perfumed.

Joseph Gayetty  is widely credited with being the inventor of modern commercially available toilet paper in the United States. Gayetty's paper, first introduced in 1857, was available as late as the 1920s. Gayetty's Medicated Paper was sold in packages of flat sheets, watermarked with the inventor's name. Original advertisements for the product used the tagline "The greatest necessity of the age! Gayetty's medicated paper for the water-closet."

Seth Wheeler of Albany, New York, obtained the earliest United States patents for toilet paper and dispensers, the types of which eventually were in common use in that country, in 1883. Toilet paper dispensed from rolls was popularized when the Scott Paper Company began marketing it in 1890.

 

The manufacturing of this product had a long period of refinement, considering that as late as the 1930s, a selling point of the Northern Tissue company was that their toilet paper was "splinter free". The widespread adoption of the flush toilet increased the use of toilet paper, as heavier paper was more prone to clogging the trap that prevents sewer gases from escaping through the toilet.

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toilet_paper

 Northern Tissue, in 1935, began to advertise toilet paper that was “splinter free”. Prior to 1935, it was common to have splinters due to the production techniques used to produce the product.

https://www.thevintagenews.com/2016/11/05/splinter-free-toilet-paper-didnt-exist-until-the-1930s/?chrome=1&A1c=1

There’s evidence that humans have been baking bread in some form for about 30,000 years, but sliced bread has only been around since the early 20th century. The first automatically sliced commercial loaves were produced on July 6, 1928, in Chillicothe, Missouri, using the machine invented by Otto Rohwedder, an Iowa-born, Missouri-based jeweler. 

As a result, it is literally true that “splinter free” toilet paper was the greatest thing since sliced bread.

My father was born in 1909, and mom was born in 1913, long before “splinter free” toilet paper was available to the public. Since they both lived on farms, they used a product that was readily available and free.

Corn cobs.

 

Our son installed a bidet in our house during the brief period of time when he and his family lived with us between the lease on their rental house, and their better-quality apartment unit. I’ve used it a few times, but I’m not a regular user.

Bidets can be fairly inexpensive, but if you want to splurge, there’s always the Neorest NX2 toilet, which costs $21, 181. Designed by the Japanese company Toto, it features a remote control, heated seat, deodorizer, night light, and, as DJ Khaled says enthusiastically, “water that splashes up” after you’re done.    

Water, not paper, has long been the world’s gold standard for cleaning up behinds. The Quran details prescriptions for cleaning with water in the bathroom. More recently, a 1975 hygiene bill in Italy made it illegal not to have at least one bidet in every public lodging, reports The Guardian.

Since moving to Tucson, the only bidet that I have seen in a public building was in a high school on the east side of town.

 I doubt that bidets will ever become common in this country, but if we ever are faced with a shortage of toilet paper again, at least we’ll have a viable alternative.