November 28, 2021

TN Education Dept. lists 14 race, history concepts that cannot be taught in classrooms

The Tennessee Department of Education is tweaking a new set of rules covering what can and what can’t be taught when it comes to race and history in classrooms.

Those topics have been at the center of lots of debate around the country. While the term critical race theory isn’t used in the guidelines for Tennessee schools, you may have heard it in connection with the issue. A draft of new rules came out in August after a bill passed in the General Assembly and the public had a chance to weigh in.

The modified version still has a list of 14 prohibited concepts, including that race or sex makes a person inherently privileged and that the U.S. is fundamentally racist.

However, it gives the state the possibility to take away more funding if it finds violations. Provided below is a document containing the Department of Education’s rules and specifically prohibited concepts in instruction

a) One (1) race or sex is inherently superior to another race or sex;
(b) An individual, by virtue of the individual’s race or sex, is inherently privileged, racist,
sexist, or oppressive, whether consciously or subconsciously;
(c) An individual should be discriminated against or receive adverse treatment because of
the individual’s race or sex;
(d) An individual’s moral character is determined by the individual’s race or sex;
(e) An individual, by virtue of the individual’s race or sex, bears responsibility for actions
committed in the past by other members of the same race or sex;
(f) An individual should feel discomfort, guilt, anguish, or another form of psychological
distress solely because of the individual’s race or sex;

The whole thing can be downloaded here
https://www.wate.com/news/tennessee/tn-education-dept-lists-14-race-history-concepts-that-cannot-be-taught-in-classrooms/

It is pretty disgusting and narrow-minded, IMNSHO

November 27, 2021

Suspect in Waukesha parade attack has history of domestic violence. Experts aren't surprised.

The violence starts at home. Then it spills out to the public.

The 39-year-old Milwaukee man charged in the Waukesha Christmas Parade attack, which left six people dead and more than 60 injured, had a history of domestic violence and violence against women.

Experts and advocates who help survivors of domestic abuse say it's a troubling pattern they've seen repeatedly in mass casualty events.

"Domestic violence — family violence — predicts mass shootings," said Karin Tyler, the injury and violence prevention coordinator for the city of Milwaukee's Office of Violence Prevention.

Nearly 60% of 749 mass shootings between 2014 and 2019 were either domestic violence attacks or committed by men with histories of domestic violence, a 2020 Bloomberg analysis found. A peer-reviewed academic study released earlier this year had a similar finding: About 59% of the 110 mass shootings analyzed were related to domestic violence.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2021/11/26/waukesha-parade-suspect-history-domestic-violence/8766461002/

November 27, 2021

School rape culture: 'Her death could have been prevented'

Since Everyone’s Invited, a campaign raising awareness about rape culture in schools, was set up in June 2020 over 54,000 anonymous testimonies have been submitted by current and former students across the UK. BBC Three has spoken to people who say more needs to be done by the authorities to prevent sexual assault in schools and support victims.

Zara McDermott was 21 when she was assaulted while walking home. It was daylight and she was only minutes from her parent’s house.

A teenager, who had been following her, forcefully pushed her against a fence as he tried to take off her clothes and put his hand down her trousers.

Zara says she was lucky, as passersby saw and ran over to help and she was able to escape.

"He was a school boy, probably 15 at the oldest," she recalls.

She reported the incident to the police, but they were never able to find or punish the perpetrator.

Her experience got her thinking about rape culture and how behaviour like this might escalate from a young age: "I wanted to catch him because I thought this is going to be a gateway offence to more serious assaults."

Since Zara shot to fame after appearing in Love Island in 2018 she has been working as a model, influencer and presenter. She says she put the incident to the back of her mind because things like this are so normalised for women and girls.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcthree/article/b41fb362-6615-4e9b-950e-36859358e023
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True not only of the UK, but in the US and globally

November 27, 2021

Covid: South Africa 'punished' for detecting new Omicron variant

South Africa has complained it is being punished - instead of applauded - for discovering Omicron, a concerning new variant of Covid-19.

The foreign ministry made the statement as countries around the world restrict travel from southern African countries as details of the spread emerged.

Early evidence suggests Omicron has a higher re-infection risk.

The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Friday that the new variant was being considered as "of concern".

Several cases have been identified in Europe, including two in the UK and one in Belgium. Single suspected cases were also found in Germany and the Czech republic.

The new variant has also been detected in Botswana, Hong Kong and Israel.

Hundreds of passengers arriving in the Netherlands from South Africa are being tested for the new variant.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-59442129

November 26, 2021

Why Iraqi Kurds risk their lives to reach the West

Many of the 27 men, women and children who lost their lives in the English Channel on Wednesday as they tried to cross from France to the UK in an inflatable dinghy are believed to have been Kurds from Iraq.

Iraqi Kurds have also died in recent weeks on the border between Belarus and Poland, while hundreds more trying to get into the European Union are stranded there in freezing temperatures.

The tragedies have left many wondering why so many people from the semi-autonomous Kurdistan Region of Iraq, which has oil resources and a reputation for being relatively secure, stable and prosperous, would want to undertake such perilous journeys.

Many of the Iraqi Kurds stuck at camps dotted along the northern French coast and Belarus-Poland border say they are trying to escape economic hardship in the region and build better lives.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-59419953
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The Kurds were given their own state of Kurdistan in 1920 in the Treaty of Sevres, only to be screwed out of it three years later by the Treaty of Lausanne. You could look that up.

November 25, 2021

Murder Is A Leading Cause Of Death In Pregnancy In The US

A woman in Houston who showed an ultrasound to her boyfriend, a mother of five who was carrying a sixth child, and a pregnant woman coming home from a baby shower were all recent victims of homicide, a top cause of death for pregnant people in the US.

Pregnant people are more than twice as likely to be murdered during pregnancy and immediately after giving birth than to die from any other cause, according to a nationwide death certificate study. Homicide far exceeds obstetric causes of death during pregnancy, such as hemorrhage, hypertension, or infection.

Nationwide, there were around 10,000 homicides reported last year, according to FBI statistics, and only 1 in 5 victims were female. But pregnant women face a risk of being murdered 16% higher than women the same age who are not pregnant, the recently released Obstetrics & Gynecology journal study concludes. (The paper focused on people identified as female based on their death certificate.)

This new nationwide analysis was enabled by a change in how death certificates are recorded. As of 2017, certificates in all states now have a checkbox for “pregnancy.”

Investigators looked at all deaths among women ages 10 to 44 held in a federal database from 2018 and 2019. They found 273 homicides of pregnant women, which make up almost 6% of all murdered women in the US. Most of them were shot at home; guns were involved in 7 out of 10 such homicides, an increase from past decades.

https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/danvergano/pregnant-murder-statistics-cause-of-death

November 25, 2021

British man given 3D printed eye in world first, hospital says

A British man has become the first patient in the world to be fitted with a 3D printed eye, according to Moorfields Eye Hospital in London.

Steve Verze, who is 47 and an engineer from Hackney, east London, was given the left eye on Thursday and first tried it for size earlier this month.
Moorfields Eye Hospital said in a press release Thursday that the prosthetic is the first fully digital prosthetic eye created for a patient.
The eye is more realistic than other alternatives, and is designed to have "clearer definition and real depth to the pupil," the hospital said.

Other prosthetic eyes consist of an iris hand-painted onto a disc that is then embedded into the eye socket.

http://www.cnn.com/2021/11/25/health/3d-printed-eye-scli-intl-gbr-scn/index.html

November 25, 2021

High school football hazing led to brain damage, according to suit against California powerhouse Mat

High school football hazing led to brain damage, according to suit against California powerhouse Mater Dei


A teenager suffered brain damage and other injuries from a brutal high school football hazing ritual, according to a lawsuit against a prominent Southern California school and the Catholic diocese.

The anonymous plaintiff, a player for Mater Dei High School born in 2004, filed the civil action Tuesday through his anonymous guardian in Orange County Superior Court. Mater Dei, of Santa Ana, southeast of Los Angeles, and the Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange are named as defendants in the complaint, a copy of which was obtained by NBC News.

While he was preparing for the football team’s Covid-delayed spring season, the youngster on Feb. 4 engaged with his teammates in a game of “Bodies,” a Mater Dei ritual in which one student punches another as many times as possible before the person surrenders, according to the complaint filed by Costa Mesa-based lawyer Brian L. Williams.

The plaintiff was struck multiple times in the face and the head during the hazing, leading to permanent scars and a “traumatic brain injury” marked by “pain, slurred speech and cognitive dysfunction,” Williams wrote.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/high-school-football-hazing-led-brain-damage-according-suit-powerhouse-rcna6641

November 25, 2021

Georgia teens become unlikely warriors in redistricting fight

At 13 years old, DJ Horton can’t vote or even drive a car, but that hasn’t stopped him from becoming a prominent voice in Georgia’s redistricting process.

The middle school student and aspiring politician from Gwinnett County testified at two redistricting hearings hosted by the state Legislature this year. This month, Rep. Derrick Jackson, a Democrat from Tyrone, Georgia, quoted him during floor remarks about the maps; Horton was also invited by his state senator earlier this month to speak at a committee hearing about proposed state Legislature maps.

“On behalf of future young Georgia voters across this state, I am asking you — in fact, I am begging you — to reconsider the redistricting maps that have been drawn,” he said at that hearing. “This is not a right or left issue; this is a right or wrong issue.”

Horton is one of the dozens of teenagers mobilizing and testifying in Georgia’s redistricting process this year, juggling finals and extracurriculars with special legislative sessions and injecting an unusual level of youth engagement into a typically wonky, insiders' political routine.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/elections/georgia-teens-become-unlikely-warriors-redistricting-fight-n1284351
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More of these kids, please!

November 25, 2021

National Guard scandals in these 13 states raise questions about culture and accountability

The National Guard system – crucial to America's military defense and vital to state emergency operations – is reeling from corruption and misconduct that reflect overarching command failures, a USA TODAY investigation has found.

For more than two decades, state Guards from Alaska to California to Delaware have been shaken by scandals, often exposed by whistleblowers who are subjected to retaliation amid coverups.

In Maryland, a Black soldier was taunted and forced to wear chains as punishment.

In Vermont, an Air Guard commander allegedly flew a fighter jet to the nation's capital, where he had a tryst with a Pentagon official.

In state after state, soldiers have been sexually assaulted or harassed, only to suffer reprisal from executive officers.

Throughout the National Guard system, which consists of 54 independent state and territorial militias, soldiers and airmen have complained for decades about abuses that suggest a failure of culture and oversight.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2021/11/25/national-guard-scandals-by-state/6093566001/
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This makes me sad. My son was a career Army National Guardsman.