Our thoughts about other things:

Ah, judicial common sense reigns in Massachusetts, where a U.S. District judge, William Young, wrote that the state’s ban on assault weapons and large-capacity magazines does not violate the right to bear arms under the Second Amendment. One can only disagree with that if one assumes the Founding Fathers could see into the future.

Of course, then, one could argue – and perhaps Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey will do so – that such a ruling means that the Second Amendment allows us to only carry muzzle-loaders.

For those who often go to Maine and drive through Wiscasset, it might be time to take sides. The state wants to cut down on the horrendous high-season traffic congestion in town by eliminating the angled parking spaces in front of stores and replacing them with satellite parking lots. Folks parking there and then backing into traffic cause slowdowns that add to the slowdowns caused by the somewhat pokey pace through Wiscasset and the two-lane bridge over the Sheepscot River. Local business owners like the slow traffic and the angled parking because often frustrated drivers will take a break, pull in, park and shop.

The fight is on.

Our vote? For the shop owners. Imagine getting rid of parking on the Milford Oval or on Main Street, Wilton, and hoping people will still stop and shop.

Hope, said Emily Dickinson, is a thing with feathers.

Teachers in Oklahoma are on strike, but not for better pay. They’ve won that battle, sort of, although, as with all teachers, they are still grievously underpaid. They are striking because they need more money to get proper supplies for their classrooms. Now, they buy their own or parents chip in.

Oklahoma is one of those states where Republicans decided, against all common sense, that tax cuts would spur greater state revenue but forgot to figure out how. Their governor, Mary Fallin, also supported what the Associated Press called, in the Boston Globe, “generous state subsidies for businesses that have led to declines in state funding for schools and other state services.”

Yes, but good for those businesses, right? And that’s all that matters. Schools schmools.

To paraphrase Marie Antoinette, “Let ’em learn through osmosis.”

Crayons? They can draw in the dirt. Calculators? What? They can’t count on their fingers?

Hello? China? We could use some advice here.