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ridski
Discussion: The Trump Indictments

terp said:

I would prefer to live under a monarch who valued freedom.  

Lords don't get to be Lords without murdering the people who used to be Lords. There's no such thing as a monarch who values freedom..

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mrincredible
Discussion: N.J. school district apologizes for ‘inflammatory’ message about Israel, Ramadan

I checked out the website, where the really ill advised resource came from.

https://www.teachingwhilemuslim.org/classroom-resources

A couple of the other resources are available, including one with almost the exact same title as the offensive resource. The other resources don’t have any language remotely like the really inflammatory passage highlighted above. I don’t think anyone would be offended by, for instance, the one entitled “eight considerations for the classroom.” 

I actually looked at this site when I first read the emails for the distribution of the resource. I just looked now because I was curious if they still had the resource with the inflammatory passage. It is interesting to note that they actually now have two versions of that resource with the passage included.

While I agree that this was a mistake, it strikes me as a very foolish one. I’m glad that the school district is making an effort to educate the student on diverse, religious backgrounds. but it really surprises me that a resource regarding any religion would be distributed within the school district without very careful review.

drummerboy you and I are usually very much in agreement on a lot of things. But I do think you might be a bit dismissive of the seriousness of this oversight. I don’t think there is a teacher in this district who would be opposed to basic education about Ramadan for their students. But try to imagine being a Jewish staff member and reading that that paragraph. I know it was not considered an official school communication, but it was distributed by a member of the administration. So I agree that some corrective action needs to be taken.

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marksierra
Discussion: Inconsequential Chat

Clip Art

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susan1014
Discussion: N.J. school district apologizes for ‘inflammatory’ message about Israel, Ramadan

Steve said:

I think that folks may be overlooking the fact that it appears that it was not provided by TWM, but by a program at Montclair State to which the District subscribes.  It truly appears to have been inadvertent.  Let's show some grace and move on.  

Here is the thing - I think it is absolutely a core responsibility of district leaders to actually know the content of materials they are sending out for instructional use, and ideally to get them approved by the appropriate curriculum or equity committee.

Sending out something on a potentially controversial topic without either reading it all the way through OR having it vetted by the correct committee is a mistake, but it isn't an innocuous mistake. I see it as a significant failure to do his job correctly. 

Not as bad as being actively antisemitic, but still a rather poor reflection on his talent as an administrator, so I'm not too quick to "show grace and move on".  I see it as a black mark on his record, to be part of how he is assessed on his performance. 

And, if we are paying money to Montclair State to provide this sort of inflammatory material, that feels like a very easy first cut to make to make a small reduction in our looming budget deficit.

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susan1014
Discussion: N.J. school district apologizes for ‘inflammatory’ message about Israel, Ramadan

drummerboy said:

susan1014 said:

Steve said:

I think that folks may be overlooking the fact that it appears that it was not provided by TWM, but by a program at Montclair State to which the District subscribes.  It truly appears to have been inadvertent.  Let's show some grace and move on.  

Here is the thing - I think it is absolutely a core responsibility of district leaders to actually know the content of materials they are sending out for instructional use, and ideally to get them approved by the appropriate curriculum or equity committee.

Sending out something on a potentially controversial topic without either reading it all the way through OR having it vetted by the correct committee is a mistake, but it isn't an innocuous mistake. I see it as a significant failure to do his job correctly. 

Not as bad as being actively antisemitic, but still a rather poor reflection on his talent as an administrator, so I'm not too quick to "show grace and move on".  I see it as a black mark on his record, to be part of how he is assessed on his performance. 

And, if we are paying money to Montclair State to provide this sort of inflammatory material, that feels like a very easy first cut to make to make a small reduction in our looming budget deficit.

you've got a lone employee who made a bad (and sloppy) decision, on their own, and it's a significant failure of the principal?

if the employee acted on their own, how could he have possibly prevented this?

how much hand holding is he supposed to do?

I don't understand.

The Assistant Principal is the one who sent it out. So yes, it is his significant failure.  

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drummerboy
Discussion: The Rose Garden and White House happenings: Listening to voters’ concerns

mtierney said:

https://apple.news/PgEw2WP2EVXgeZTumue2rca?articleList=ApjetQ5VfQAOgwTjMonW99w,A8dya_JHhRjqBsAB5x-r4Hw,AMVP299QIQomB_2KxgWvIrQ,AhPx9NwGrRYOLUSPfi9DRCA,AuVm_DbaDSUS-YIpN6keP_A,AnGeyRhelSiKebiZz-_Et8w,A3UMkGR3wTz-oGBlCNQNIKg,AM-UPUdrBSsWMRCoC-bwYug,AQ0lODIoBRAyT9EoiTbuPFQ,Aacr2eumuTZegXVE2PW2wEg,Ak9AEyweuRHGiKwTnTPxPJw,AB7YWsra1QhmadI4H9Ru1kQ,A0_4DxtC6SaKm0G4coKMhXA&campaign_id=E101&campaign_type=7995097e-2a56-4031-c56d-b00844c5c7fa/default&creative_id=daily_v2_more_stories_entry_with_image-5-20:moreStoryWithImageEntry

That is the whole Apple News link for the Texas Monthly long article. I wouldn’t touch that one with a 10 foot pole! @ridski once cleaned up a link for me, but I forgot how he did it.

It is amusing — but sad — how the Boys Club attacks the messenger while critiquing the unread article! The grammar king is always at the ready with snide corrections — sometimes even  riling his fellow club members — which is revealing.

Whatever, I shall soldier on in the interest of learning the whole story on  “what’s happening” in America.

not sure what website you're on, but I see no critiques of the article here.

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marksierra
Discussion: Inconsequential Chat

With Latin origins, the Ides of March derived its meaning from 'Idus Martias,' referring to the middle of the month of March and signalling the full moon in the sky.

However, the date of March 15, the Ides of March, is forever associated with the assassination of Julius Caesar by senators hoping to preserve the Roman Republic.

Hence the expression:  "Beware the Ides of March!"

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marksierra
Discussion: Inconsequential Chat

Don’t forget that the new Facebook rule starts this weekend where Mark Zuckerberg can sneak into your kitchen at night and eat whatever is in your refrigerator. To stop him from doing that, copy and paste this message on your Facebook feed:

I do not authorize Mark Zuckerberg or any entity associated with Facebook to sneak into my house and eat anything in my refrigerator. With this statement, I notify Facebook to leave my milk, eggs, butter, cheese, veggies, sandwich meats, pickles, and leftover pizza alone.

After you copy and paste this message, the light in your refrigerator will turn blue and you'll be good to go.

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tjohn
Discussion: The Rose Garden and White House happenings: Listening to voters’ concerns

mtierney said:

It is amusing — but sad — how the Boys Club attacks the messenger while critiquing the unread article! The grammar king is always at the ready with snide corrections — sometimes even  riling his fellow club members — which is revealing..

Actually, I think most of us find Dave's observations to range from thoughtful to clever.  I know his comments constantly remind me to read what an article actually says and to always look for the full context.

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ml1
Discussion: T**** is your 2024 Republican candidate - OWN IT!

PVW said:

nohero said:

He's apparently going to keep repeating the same phrases which he's been shown are incorrect, no matter what's known.

It's what people on twitter tell him to say.

because the people on X are the ones we should believe, not the CDC or the NIH.

I'd post more studies showing how many infections, hospitalizations and deaths were prevented by COVID vaccinations, but all the ones I've found seem to be from official government sources. And of course some folks KNOW they're all lying. Not like random people on Twitter. They are the ones who know the REAL story.

But seriously, to claim COVID vaccinations were useless (or to some anti-vaxxers worse than useless -- they were "death jabs"), a person needs to deny a lot of history and a lot of the caveats we received about vaccinations in general, and COVID vaccines in particular. 

  • I'm sure there were some people claiming 100% effectiveness of the vaccines, but nearly all credible sources were telling us that the vaccines wouldn't result in immunity for roughly 10% of people. Therefore breakthrough infections were expected by anyone who was consuming ALL the official info.
  • We were told from the get go that we needed to continue social distancing until about 2 weeks after the second dose for Pfizer and Moderna, and the first dose for J&J, in order for the full immune response. Current claims that the 2 week lag in considering a person having immunity is a "cheap trick" to boost efficacy rates is bluntly, ****.
  • When the vaccines were rolled out in the general population, it became apparent the immune response wasn't permanent and boosters would be needed to maintain immunity (of course, for the conspiracy minded this wasn't considered normal like what happens with the flu vaccine, but it was a plot for big pharma to make more money)
  • Only a minority of vaccinated people got boosters. So a fair number of vaccinated people didn't have robust immunity to COVID's new variants. Result -- a larger number of breakthrough infections, but fortunately for most not resulting in severe illness.
  • The COVID virus mutated quickly and new variants produced breakthroughs among vaccinated people (but again for most, not resulting in severe illness). There were of course bivalent boosters available to address some of the new variants, but once again relatively few people got the boosters.

If you ignore all that, of course it looks like the vaccines weren't effective.  But no matter how hard the anti-vaxxers try, it's really hard to deny the huge difference in COVID body counts among vaccinated and unvaccinated people.

I suppose a person could claim the CDC figures on deaths and vaccination status were flawed, or falsified, or wrong in some other way. And certainly many of them do.

And for those who reflexively disbelieve all official sources, there will never be evidence that COVID vaccines were effective, and it's pointless for the rest of us to argue otherwise.

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