Miscellaneous news items that don't warrant their own thread

[Pwns]

This guy took Rush Limbaugh's time slot where I live. I was never a big fan of Limbaugh but he did sometimes make good points.
This guy is just awful and cringe.

[BDKJMU]

This guy took Rush Limbaugh's time slot where I live. I was never a big fan of Limbaugh but he did sometimes make good points.
This guy is just awful and cringe.

The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton show took over the EIB Network time slot (450 stations nation wide). Weird that that guy is on your local radio, and not the Clay Travis/Buck Sexton show..I guess Rush was on more than 450 stations….

[Col Hogan]

Ban Assault Bows now!!!

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-58906165

[Winterborn]

Ban Assault Bows now!!!

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-58906165

FBI murder statistics are quite interesting. Blunt objects (club, hammer, etc.) were used to kill 397 people in 2019 and personal weapons (hands, feet, etc.) were used to kill 600 people.

Moral of the story is that people will kill each other no matter what and with anything. Banning "weapons" does not address the mental health issue.

[Winterborn]

Greenwald had a good article on Facebook (and the role the whistleblower is playing) last week that I thought had some very salient points. The last paragraph that I quoted is very telling to me on the mindset of a particular portion of the voting bloc.

There is no doubt, at least to me, that Facebook and Google are both grave menaces. Through consolidation, mergers and purchases of any potential competitors, their power far exceeds what is compatible with a healthy democracy. A bipartisan consensus has emerged on the House Antitrust Committee that these two corporate giants — along with Amazon and Apple — are all classic monopolies in violation of long-standing but rarely enforced antitrust laws. Their control over multiple huge platforms that they purchased enables them to punish and even destroy competitors, as we saw when Apple, Google and Amazon united to remove Parler from the internet forty-eight hours after leading Democrats demanded that action, right as Parler became the most-downloaded app in the country, or as Google suppresses Rumble videos in its dominant search feature as punishment for competing with Google's YouTube platform. Facebook and Twitter both suppressed reporting on the authentic documents about Joe Biden's business activities reported by The New York Post just weeks before the 2020 election. These social media giants also united to effectively remove the sitting elected President of the United States from the internet, prompting grave warnings from leaders across the democratic world about how anti-democratic their consolidated censorship power has become.
......
Agitating for more online censorship has been a leading priority for the Democratic Party ever since they blamed social media platforms (along with WikiLeaks, Russia, Jill Stein, James Comey, The New York Times, and Bernie Bros) for the 2016 defeat of the rightful heir to the White House throne, Hillary Clinton. And this craving for censorship has been elevated into an even more urgent priority for their corporate media allies, due to the same belief that Facebook helped elect Trump but also because free speech on social media prevents them from maintaining a stranglehold on the flow of information by allowing ordinary, uncredentialed serfs to challenge, question and dispute their decrees or build a large audience that they cannot control. Destroying alternatives to their failing platforms is thus a means of self-preservation: realizing that they cannot convince audiences to trust their work or pay attention to it, they seek instead to create captive audiences by destroying or at least controlling any competitors to their pieties.
.....
A Pew survey from August shows that Democrats now overwhelmingly support internet censorship not only by tech giants but also by the government which their party now controls. In the name of "restricting misinformation,” more than 3/4 of Democrats want tech companies "to restrict false info online, even if it limits freedom of information,” and just under 2/3 of Democrats want the U.S. Government to control that flow of information over the internet:

https://greenwald.substack.com/p/democr ... ot-want-to

[kalm]

Texas….

“SOUTHLAKE, Texas — A top administrator with the Carroll Independent School District in Southlake advised teachers last week that if they have a book about the Holocaust in their classroom, they should also offer students access to a book from an “opposing” perspective, according to an audio recording obtained by NBC News.

Just try to remember the concepts of [House Bill] 3979,” Peddy said in the recording, referring to a new Texas law that requires teachers to present multiple perspectives when discussing “widely debated and currently controversial” issues. “And make sure that if you have a book on the Holocaust,” Peddy continued, “that you have one that has an opposing, that has other perspectives.”

“How do you oppose the Holocaust?” one teacher said in response.

“Believe me,” Peddy said. “That’s come up.”


https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/so ... nnlBY5PkWI

[Ibanez]

Texas….

“SOUTHLAKE, Texas — A top administrator with the Carroll Independent School District in Southlake advised teachers last week that if they have a book about the Holocaust in their classroom, they should also offer students access to a book from an “opposing” perspective, according to an audio recording obtained by NBC News.

Just try to remember the concepts of [House Bill] 3979,” Peddy said in the recording, referring to a new Texas law that requires teachers to present multiple perspectives when discussing “widely debated and currently controversial” issues. “And make sure that if you have a book on the Holocaust,” Peddy continued, “that you have one that has an opposing, that has other perspectives.”

“How do you oppose the Holocaust?” one teacher said in response.

“Believe me,” Peddy said. “That’s come up.”


https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/so ... nnlBY5PkWI

Would Mein Kampf be the opposition?

[Ibanez]

Texas….

“SOUTHLAKE, Texas — A top administrator with the Carroll Independent School District in Southlake advised teachers last week that if they have a book about the Holocaust in their classroom, they should also offer students access to a book from an “opposing” perspective, according to an audio recording obtained by NBC News.

Just try to remember the concepts of [House Bill] 3979,” Peddy said in the recording, referring to a new Texas law that requires teachers to present multiple perspectives when discussing “widely debated and currently controversial” issues. “And make sure that if you have a book on the Holocaust,” Peddy continued, “that you have one that has an opposing, that has other perspectives.”

“How do you oppose the Holocaust?” one teacher said in response.

“Believe me,” Peddy said. “That’s come up.”


https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/so ... nnlBY5PkWI

Would Mein Kampf be the opposition?

[kalm]

Texas….

“SOUTHLAKE, Texas — A top administrator with the Carroll Independent School District in Southlake advised teachers last week that if they have a book about the Holocaust in their classroom, they should also offer students access to a book from an “opposing” perspective, according to an audio recording obtained by NBC News.

Just try to remember the concepts of [House Bill] 3979,” Peddy said in the recording, referring to a new Texas law that requires teachers to present multiple perspectives when discussing “widely debated and currently controversial” issues. “And make sure that if you have a book on the Holocaust,” Peddy continued, “that you have one that has an opposing, that has other perspectives.”

“How do you oppose the Holocaust?” one teacher said in response.

“Believe me,” Peddy said. “That’s come up.”


https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/so ... nnlBY5PkWI

Would Mein Kampf be the opposition?

Exactly what my oldest said. Can we give Texas back to Mexico?

[AZGrizFan]

Would Mein Kampf be the opposition?

Exactly what my oldest said. Can we give Texas back to Mexico?

No, lets just keep teaching kids WHAT to think, instead of HOW to think. It’s worked so well in libtard states.

[kalm]

Exactly what my oldest said. Can we give Texas back to Mexico?

No, lets just keep teaching kids WHAT to think, instead of HOW to think. It’s worked so well in libtard states.

So which Holocaust counter book do you recommend?

[Winterborn]

Would Mein Kampf be the opposition?

Exactly what my oldest said. Can we give Texas back to Mexico?

Only if we can give California , Oregon, and Washington back to Spain.

[Winterborn]

No, lets just keep teaching kids WHAT to think, instead of HOW to think. It’s worked so well in libtard states.

So which Holocaust counter book do you recommend?

Plenty of information on the Holocaust deniers out there. Teach people that some people deny it and move on. Not sure what the big fuss about it all is.
Basically a nothing burger except for those that do not like what Texas is doing and pick the pettiest things about what they are doing to bring up.

[UNI88]

No, lets just keep teaching kids WHAT to think, instead of HOW to think. It’s worked so well in libtard states.

So which Holocaust counter book do you recommend?

Mein Kampf or the Koran.

AZ is right, if we'd taught kids how to think then we wouldn't have millions of people blindly believing that the election was stolen.

It would be interesting to see the response if the topic requiring a counter was CRT ant not the Holocaust.

[UNI88]

The Texas law "requires teachers to present multiple perspectives when discussing “widely debated and currently controversial” issues."

CRT is widely debated ​and currently controversial but is the Holocaust?

Is this a just butt-hurt overreaction to the law?

Teachers told to offer books with ‘opposing’ Holocaust views

[kalm]

The Texas law "requires teachers to present multiple perspectives when discussing “widely debated and currently controversial” issues."

CRT is widely debated ​and currently controversial but is the Holocaust?

Is this a just butt-hurt overreaction to the law?

Teachers told to offer books with ‘opposing’ Holocaust views

Perhaps. And/or a butthurt reaction regarding how to enforce the law. Either the board/admin of one of the state’s best school districts is ineffective or the law itself is stupid.

Late last year, one of those parents complained when her daughter brought home a copy of “This Book Is Anti-Racist” by Tiffany Jewell from her fourth grade teacher’s class library. The mother also complained about how the teacher responded to her concerns.

Carroll administrators investigated and decided against disciplining the teacher. But last week, on Oct. 4, the Carroll school board voted 3-2 to overturn the district’s decision and formally reprimanded the teacher, setting off unease among Carroll teachers who said they fear the board won’t protect them if a parent complains about a book in their class.


Teachers grew more concerned last Thursday, Oct. 7, when Carroll administrators sent an email directing them to close their classroom libraries “until they can be vetted by the teacher.” Another email sent to teachers that day included a rubric that asked them to grade books based on whether they provide multiple perspectives and to set aside any that present singular, dominant narratives “in such a way that it ... may be considered offensive.”

In a statement, Fitzgerald, the district spokeswoman, said the training session was planned weeks ago in response to the new Texas law and was not related to the school board’s vote to reprimand a teacher. Fitzgerald acknowledged that the timing of the board’s disciplinary vote and the release of new class library guidelines caused “confusion and worry” among teachers.

But the district’s inconsistent messaging to staff members and parents since then has also caused confusion, teachers said.
Image: Carroll ISD circulated new rules about classroom libraries to teachers this week.
Carroll ISD circulated new guidelines about classroom libraries to teachers last week.Obtained by NBC News
Last Friday, after NBC News published an article detailing the district’s book instructions and plans for staff training that afternoon, Carroll Superintendent Ledbetter sent an email to parents denying that the district was asking teachers to remove books — even though the district had instructed teachers a day earlier to close their classroom libraries until every book could be vetted.

“I would like to take this opportunity to set the record straight,” Ledbetter wrote in the Friday note to parents. “The district has not mandated that any book be removed from teachers’ classroom libraries. Additionally, the district has not provided any training on removing books.”


About an hour before Ledbetter’s note went out on Friday afternoon, Carroll teachers were receiving a different message, according to the audio of the training session recorded by a staff member and shared with NBC News.

“The information we have right now is that classroom libraries cannot be used until they have been vetted,” an assistant principal can be heard telling a group of elementary school teachers, instructing them to use the rubric sent by the district to determine which books are appropriate. “So you do need to go back to school and separate the books that have been vetted, and those books need to be available to students. The other ones do not need to be available to students until they have been vetted.”

A teacher can be heard arguing that the guidelines shared by the district for determining the appropriateness of classroom books are too subjective. Another said she didn’t feel safe keeping any books in her classroom following the school board’s vote to reprimand one of her colleagues.

[UNI88]

The Texas law "requires teachers to present multiple perspectives when discussing “widely debated and currently controversial” issues."

CRT is widely debated ​and currently controversial but is the Holocaust?

Is this a just butt-hurt overreaction to the law?

Teachers told to offer books with ‘opposing’ Holocaust views

Perhaps. And/or a butthurt reaction regarding how to enforce the law. Either the board/admin of one of the state’s best school districts is ineffective or the law itself is stupid.

Late last year, one of those parents complained when her daughter brought home a copy of “This Book Is Anti-Racist” by Tiffany Jewell from her fourth grade teacher’s class library. The mother also complained about how the teacher responded to her concerns.

Carroll administrators investigated and decided against disciplining the teacher. But last week, on Oct. 4, the Carroll school board voted 3-2 to overturn the district’s decision and formally reprimanded the teacher, setting off unease among Carroll teachers who said they fear the board won’t protect them if a parent complains about a book in their class.

Teachers grew more concerned last Thursday, Oct. 7, when Carroll administrators sent an email directing them to close their classroom libraries “until they can be vetted by the teacher.” Another email sent to teachers that day included a rubric that asked them to grade books based on whether they provide multiple perspectives and to set aside any that present singular, dominant narratives “in such a way that it ... may be considered offensive.”

In a statement, Fitzgerald, the district spokeswoman, said the training session was planned weeks ago in response to the new Texas law and was not related to the school board’s vote to reprimand a teacher. Fitzgerald acknowledged that the timing of the board’s disciplinary vote and the release of new class library guidelines caused “confusion and worry” among teachers.

But the district’s inconsistent messaging to staff members and parents since then has also caused confusion, teachers said.
Image: Carroll ISD circulated new rules about classroom libraries to teachers this week.
Carroll ISD circulated new guidelines about classroom libraries to teachers last week.Obtained by NBC News
Last Friday, after NBC News published an article detailing the district’s book instructions and plans for staff training that afternoon, Carroll Superintendent Ledbetter sent an email to parents denying that the district was asking teachers to remove books — even though the district had instructed teachers a day earlier to close their classroom libraries until every book could be vetted.

“I would like to take this opportunity to set the record straight,” Ledbetter wrote in the Friday note to parents. “The district has not mandated that any book be removed from teachers’ classroom libraries. Additionally, the district has not provided any training on removing books.”

About an hour before Ledbetter’s note went out on Friday afternoon, Carroll teachers were receiving a different message, according to the audio of the training session recorded by a staff member and shared with NBC News.

“The information we have right now is that classroom libraries cannot be used until they have been vetted,” an assistant principal can be heard telling a group of elementary school teachers, instructing them to use the rubric sent by the district to determine which books are appropriate. “So you do need to go back to school and separate the books that have been vetted, and those books need to be available to students. The other ones do not need to be available to students until they have been vetted.”

A teacher can be heard arguing that the guidelines shared by the district for determining the appropriateness of classroom books are too subjective. Another said she didn’t feel safe keeping any books in her classroom following the school board’s vote to reprimand one of her colleagues.

There is truth there as well. Is it fair to ask how we got here? Are schools teaching students how to think? Or are some teaching them what to think? Do parents have a right to be concerned? You might not like the law but it didn't come from nothing. It was a reaction to a problem that some don't want to acknowledge.

I believe that we should be teaching the role of race and slavery in America. I also believe that we should be doing this when students are ready to understand the context (the cultural norms of the time). We also shouldn't be damning white people today for what white people did 50, 100 or 200 years ago just like we shouldn't damn Trip because Arabs captured and sold Africans for longer than the USA has existed.

[UNI88]

‘Airplane!’ creator slams joy-killing threat: ‘Twitter 9 percent’

Today, we’re faced with social and political pressures that are tearing our country and our families apart. Not that I couldn’t do without some family members anyway, but the point is, we live in the most outrageous period in our recent history, when the need for humor is greatest, and yet we seem to be losing our ability to laugh at ourselves and our world.

Humor happens when you go against what’s expected and surprise people with something they’re not anticipating, like the New York Jets winning a game. But to find this surprise funny, people have to be willing to suppress the literal interpretations of jokes.
...
I admit that their fear of audience retaliation is not entirely unwarranted. There is a very vocal, though I believe small, percentage of the population that can’t differentiate between Glue Sniffing Joke and Glue Sniffing Drug Problem. It is these people whom studio executives fear when they think twice about rereleasing “Airplane!” on its 40th anniversary, when they put disclaimers in front of “Blazing Saddles,” or when they pressure writers to remove jokes that are otherwise perfectly offensive.
...
Is there a way to determine what exact number of America’s population is killing joy for everyone? Since I can’t seem to find one, let’s go with Phillips’ estimation of “30 million people on Twitter,” which computes to roughly 9 percent of America’s population.
...
In all fairness, 9-Percenters are not a new segment of society; they’ve always lived among us. The difference now is that social media amplifies the voices of even the smallest subgroups while the anonymity of the Internet removes all consequences.

This means that today’s 9-Percenters can hide behind screens and social-media handles as they attack any person on the Internet whose jokes offend them. The 9-Percenters of 40 years ago had to think twice about what they were sharing publicly, because at the end of the day, they had to sign their names to their reactions. Without this accountability, it’s all too easy for today’s 9-Percenters to attack and shame comedy writers into giving up on the genre.

Lot of truth here.

[Winterborn]

Some interesting trends listed this year.

Not particularly happy at the trend ND has on property taxes.



https://taxfoundation.org/2021-state-bu ... ate-index/

[kalm]

Perhaps. And/or a butthurt reaction regarding how to enforce the law. Either the board/admin of one of the state’s best school districts is ineffective or the law itself is stupid.

There is truth there as well. Is it fair to ask how we got here? Are schools teaching students how to think? Or are some teaching them what to think? Do parents have a right to be concerned? You might not like the law but it didn't come from nothing. It was a reaction to a problem that some don't want to acknowledge.

I believe that we should be teaching the role of race and slavery in America. I also believe that we should be doing this when students are ready to understand the context (the cultural norms of the time). We also shouldn't be damning white people today for what white people did 50, 100 or 200 years ago just like we shouldn't damn Trip because Arabs captured and sold Africans for longer than the USA has existed.

Agreed.

[kalm]

‘Airplane!’ creator slams joy-killing threat: ‘Twitter 9 percent’

Today, we’re faced with social and political pressures that are tearing our country and our families apart. Not that I couldn’t do without some family members anyway, but the point is, we live in the most outrageous period in our recent history, when the need for humor is greatest, and yet we seem to be losing our ability to laugh at ourselves and our world.

Humor happens when you go against what’s expected and surprise people with something they’re not anticipating, like the New York Jets winning a game. But to find this surprise funny, people have to be willing to suppress the literal interpretations of jokes.
...
I admit that their fear of audience retaliation is not entirely unwarranted. There is a very vocal, though I believe small, percentage of the population that can’t differentiate between Glue Sniffing Joke and Glue Sniffing Drug Problem. It is these people whom studio executives fear when they think twice about rereleasing “Airplane!” on its 40th anniversary, when they put disclaimers in front of “Blazing Saddles,” or when they pressure writers to remove jokes that are otherwise perfectly offensive.
...
Is there a way to determine what exact number of America’s population is killing joy for everyone? Since I can’t seem to find one, let’s go with Phillips’ estimation of “30 million people on Twitter,” which computes to roughly 9 percent of America’s population.
...
In all fairness, 9-Percenters are not a new segment of society; they’ve always lived among us. The difference now is that social media amplifies the voices of even the smallest subgroups while the anonymity of the Internet removes all consequences.

This means that today’s 9-Percenters can hide behind screens and social-media handles as they attack any person on the Internet whose jokes offend them. The 9-Percenters of 40 years ago had to think twice about what they were sharing publicly, because at the end of the day, they had to sign their names to their reactions. Without this accountability, it’s all too easy for today’s 9-Percenters to attack and shame comedy writers into giving up on the genre.

Lot of truth here.

Oh hell yeah…and it transcends ideology. Growing up…much of the 9 percent was the Christian fundies. But then…Tipper Gore.

Had this conversation last night with my Mormon, Trump loving, close friend regarding Gruden (he’s also a huge Raiders fan)

He reminded me that back in the day, we played “smear the queer” and called each other “fag.”

Those terms don’t fly today. The world changes as do cultural views. You can either attempt to deny change and growl at what the world is becoming or attenpt to apply some equanimity and be less bitter about things. Regardless of what you think is fair or important.

[BDKJMU]

‘Airplane!’ creator slams joy-killing threat: ‘Twitter 9 percent’



Lot of truth here.

Oh hell yeah…and it transcends ideology. Growing up…much of the 9 percent was the Christian fundies. But then…Tipper Gore.

Had this conversation last night with my Mormon, Trump loving, close friend regarding Gruden (he’s also a huge Raiders fan)

He reminded me that back in the day, we played “smear the queer” and called each other “fag.”

Those terms don’t fly today. The world changes as do cultural views. You can either attempt to deny change and growl at what the world is becoming or attenpt to apply some equanimity and be less bitter about things. Regardless of what you think is fair or important.

Kids don’t play smear the queer anymore?

[UNI88]

‘Airplane!’ creator slams joy-killing threat: ‘Twitter 9 percent’

Lot of truth here.

Oh hell yeah…and it transcends ideology. Growing up…much of the 9 percent was the Christian fundies. But then…Tipper Gore.

Had this conversation last night with my Mormon, Trump loving, close friend regarding Gruden (he’s also a huge Raiders fan)

He reminded me that back in the day, we played “smear the queer” and called each other “fag.”

Those terms don’t fly today. The world changes as do cultural views. You can either attempt to deny change and growl at what the world is becoming or attempt to apply some equanimity and be less bitter about things. Regardless of what you think is fair or important.

The commonality between the Christian fundy and illiberal, pseudo-progressive disdain for humor is the self-righteous belief that what they believe is right and that everyone should conform to their beliefs.

I don't think I'm attempting to deny change. Not using the terms smear the queer or fag is a good thing. Demonizing humor is a bad thing. Humor is part of how we cope/heal/grow.

Also, kids aren't just not calling it smear the queer anymore, they aren't playing it because it's too violent and symptomatic of toxic mascullinity.

[kalm]

Oh hell yeah…and it transcends ideology. Growing up…much of the 9 percent was the Christian fundies. But then…Tipper Gore.

Had this conversation last night with my Mormon, Trump loving, close friend regarding Gruden (he’s also a huge Raiders fan)

He reminded me that back in the day, we played “smear the queer” and called each other “fag.”

Those terms don’t fly today. The world changes as do cultural views. You can either attempt to deny change and growl at what the world is becoming or attempt to apply some equanimity and be less bitter about things. Regardless of what you think is fair or important.

The commonality between the Christian fundy and illiberal, pseudo-progressive disdain for humor is the self-righteous belief that what they believe is right and that everyone should conform to their beliefs.

I don't think I'm attempting to deny change. Not using the terms smear the queer or fag is a good thing. Demonizing humor is a bad thing. Humor is part of how we cope/heal/grow.

Also, kids aren't just not calling it smear the queer anymore, they aren't playing it because it's too violent and symptomatic of toxic mascullinity.

Won’t get much argument from me. The last part ironically has more to do with toxic femininity…and probably liability issues.

[UNI88]

The commonality between the Christian fundy and illiberal, pseudo-progressive disdain for humor is the self-righteous belief that what they believe is right and that everyone should conform to their beliefs.

I don't think I'm attempting to deny change. Not using the terms smear the queer or fag is a good thing. Demonizing humor is a bad thing. Humor is part of how we cope/heal/grow.

Also, kids aren't just not calling it smear the queer anymore, they aren't playing it because it's too violent and symptomatic of toxic mascullinity.

Won’t get much argument from me. The last part ironically has more to do with toxic femininity…and probably liability issues.

Agree on the toxic feminity but not sure about the liability. We never played smear the queer/king of the hill in an organized setting. It was spontaneous and outside of a school/organized sports setting.