January 28, 2022

Community upset over McMinn Co. BOE decision to ban Holocaust book from curriculum (update)

The McMinn County Board of Education voted unanimously to remove a book about the Holocaust from the school curriculum.

The vote was held during a called meeting on January 10.

Board members said the graphic novel called "Maus" by Art Spiegelman has inappropriate language and graphic depictions. In a statement on Facebook Thursday evening, the board said it felt the work was "simply too adult-oriented" to be in schools.

Read the board's (IMNSHO ridiculous) statement and the rest of the article here:
https://www.wbir.com/article/news/local/mcminn-county-school-board-faces-backlash-for-decision-to-ban-famous-maus-from-school-curriculum/51-aaaea576-7a19-47df-bfab-e9ca0fc5fd8b

A librarian at Tennessee Wesleyan University in McMinn County weighed in on the book-banning. Alex Sharp said the concept of banning books is something librarians have been fighting against for years.

"I'm saying if there is one parent who thinks their child should not read this, that is up to them, that is their prerogative. But, is it fair to tell every child and every parent that they're not allowed to read this book? I don't think so," Sharp said.

January 27, 2022

Justice Breyer's retirement highlights what's wrong with the Supreme Court

By Shan Wu, legal analyst and former federal prosecutor

Justice Stephen Breyer’s anticipated retirement announcement set off the usual frenzied speculation about who will be “the pick.” The reaction perfectly illustrates everything that is wrong with the Supreme Court.

Justices seem unlikely candidates to become cultural icons, but the prolific memes and two documentaries about Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg make it plain that justices are increasingly viewed as rock stars. This should not be surprising because today’s Supreme Court has become a super-legislature to which we look for solutions for everything from gun violence to the Covid-19 pandemic. Add to this that this super-legislative body has only nine members – all of whom are appointed for life – and it’s easy to see why individual justices are seen as either saviors or destroyers of our democracy.

Among worldwide democracies, the United States stands pretty much alone in obsessing over its high court and those who serve on it.

In Britain, for example, little attention is paid to appointments to its relatively new high court, and Canadian commentators have opined that more Canadians are familiar with Roe v. Wade than any of their own country’s high court judgments.

How did the high court gain such power in a country with three separate but supposedly equal branches of government? The full answer to this question is complex but can be boiled down to the simple fact that the Supreme Court is a much more efficient institution than Congress.

https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/justice-breyer-s-retirement-highlights-what-s-wrong-supreme-court-ncna1288113
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I like the idea not only of term limits, but of circulating federal justices at random through the court.

January 27, 2022

College student indicted on over 300 counts after allegedly selling guns to undercover officer

A college student originally from New York City has been indicted on over 300 gun-related charges, accused of trafficking firearms into the Big Apple and illegally selling dozens of weapons to an undercover officer, according to prosecutors.

Shakor Rodriguez, a 23-year-old Bronx native studying at Austin Peay State University in Clarksville, Tennessee, was hit with 304 counts in two indictments, including charges of criminal sale of a firearm and criminal possession of a firearm, the Bronx District Attorney’s office announced Wednesday.

Rodriguez allegedly brought the weapons and high-capacity magazines to New York from the South, stuffing the guns in duffle bags and sometimes traveling by bus from Tennessee with them, Bronx District Attorney Darcel D. Clark said.

Rodriguez also allegedly sold an undercover officer 73 firearms, 59 of which were loaded, and over 40 high-capacity magazines from July 17, 2020, to December 22, 2021, according to a news release.

The undercover officer paid between $1,000 and $1,500 per gun.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/college-student-indicted-300-counts-allegedly-selling-guns-undercover-rcna13758
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3.5 GPA? Buddy, you're not as smart as you think you are!

January 27, 2022

America's hottest city is nearly unlivable in summer. Can cooling technologies save it?

Asurge in heat-related deaths amid record-breaking summer temperatures offers a “glimpse into the future” and a stark warning that one of America’s largest cities is already unlivable for some, according to its new heat tsar.

Almost 200 people died from extreme heat in Phoenix in 2020 – the hottest, driest and deadliest summer on record with 53 days topping 110F (43C) compared with a previous high of 33 days. Last year there were fewer scorching days, but the death toll remained staggeringly high, with people experiencing homelessness and addictions dying disproportionately.

Phoenix, the capital of Arizona, is accustomed to a hot desert climate, but day and night temperatures have been rising due to global heating and the city’s unchecked development, which has created a sprawling urban heat island.

Scorching temperatures have made summers increasingly perilous for the city’s 1.4 million people, with mortality and morbidity rates creeping up over the past two decades, but 2020 was a gamechanger when heat related deaths jumped by about 60%.

Last year, after another deadly summer, the mayor announced the region’s first dedicated unit to tackle the growing hazard of urban heat, which also threatens the city’s economic viability.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/jan/27/phoenix-arizona-hottest-city-cooling-technologies
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Evacuate the damn place and raze it to the ground. It wastes water and is unfit for humans to live in.

January 27, 2022

LA shooting deaths of two women and girl highlight 'invisibility of Black life'

Three recent killings in the Los Angeles area have put the spotlight on the disparate impact of American gun violence on Black women and the lack of attention their stories receive, as the country reckons with some of the most intense spates of gun violence in years.

Both killings took place on weekends, a mere two weeks apart. On 8 January, California officials found the body of Tioni Theus, a 16-year-old girl who was found shot at a busy onramp of the 110 freeway. On 23 January, sisters Breahna Stines and Marneysha Hamilton were among four people shot dead during a mass shooting at a birthday party in Inglewood.

Neither incident received much coverage outside of local news, raising questions about which stories are elevated in the national spotlight and which mass shootings grasp the country’s attention. While discrepancies between the attention for white victims of violence and Black victims of violence is nothing new, community organizers and researchers worry about the message this phenomenon continues to send to young Black girls about their worth and potential.

“This image of a young Black girl on the side of a highway with cars driving by speaks to the invisibility of Black life,” said Nikki Jones, a professor of African American studies at UC Berkeley. “Black girls are contending with the messages that their life is disposable, and that’s an extremely dangerous message.”

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/jan/27/los-angeles-killings-black-women-violence

January 27, 2022

Parents who kept kids at home for fear of Covid are reported for neglect

Paullette Healy can tick off the ways her family’s life has been disrupted over the last three months: her younger child’s nightmares, the hours she has poured into collecting evidence to prove she’s a fit parent and an arduous legal process that still looms to clear her name.

From early November through 1 January, the Brooklyn family was under investigation by the administration for children’s services, or ACS, the New York City agency tasked with looking into suspected cases of child abuse and neglect. Healy had been reported for “educational neglect” for not sending her two children to school amid Covid fears, though she says her kids kept up with their work remotely.

Last fall, the city government issued guidance discouraging educators from reporting parents who kept kids home out of fear when schools reopened. But that has not been enough to stop families motivated by Covid concerns from getting caught up in the web of child protective services – a blunt instrument that disproportionately targets low-income families of color who have already suffered the most harm during the pandemic.

The report that spurred the investigation into the Healy family was one of more than 2,400 that New York City school personnel made to the New York statewide central register for child abuse and maltreatment during the first three months of the 2021-22 school year, according to data obtained by the 74 through a public record request – about 45% more than were reported over the same time span a year prior, when most of the city’s nearly 1 million students were learning remotely.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/jan/27/covid-kids-school-reported-for-neglect
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Appalling and discriminatory

January 27, 2022

Steelers QB Roethlisberger retires from NFL after 18 years

Nearly two weeks after a season-ending loss to the Kansas City Chiefs in the wild-card round of the AFC playoffs, Ben Roethlisberger confirmed what others had reported and he had indicated was coming: His NFL playing career is over.

The Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback officially announced his retirement Thursday in a social media post, bringing to an end an 18-year career – the longest of any quarterback who played with only one team – that included two Super Bowl titles and six Pro Bowl selections.

"The time has come to clean out my locker, hang up my cleats, and continue to be all I can be to my wife and children,” Roethlisberger said in the video. “I retire from football a truly grateful man.”

Roethlisberger had made no secret of his plans in recent weeks, saying in the lead-up to a Week 17 matchup with the Cleveland Browns that the game was likely his last at Heinz Field. Steelers fans rained down chants of "Let's go, Ben" and "Thank you, Ben" from pregame until well after the 26-14 victory, after which he took a lap to thank those in the crowd who had stayed.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nfl/steelers/2022/01/27/ben-roethlisberger-retires-nfl-pittsburgh-steelers-career/9149099002/
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IMO, he kinda overstayed his welcome by a couple of years.

January 27, 2022

Childless QAnon Influencer Ron Watkins Is Berating 'Communist' School Boards

Ron Watkins is worried about his children, his parental rights, and the dangers posed by “communist creeps” on school boards.

“The communist creeps at our school boards are now taking our parental rights away by teaching our children that they can be vaccinated without parental consent,” Watkins shouted at a school board meeting in Scottsdale, Arizona on Tuesday evening, adding that “communist school boards are now indoctrinating our children with transexual propaganda and teaching them to be racist against white people, by teaching racist Biden’s racist critical race theory.”

Of course schools are not teaching their kids to be racist or spreading “transexual propaganda,” whatever that means. Perhaps Watkins would know that if he had a child enrolled in an Arizona public school, which he doesn’t. Because he doesn’t have a child at all.

But for the QAnon influencer, and many within the conspiracy movement, actually having children is only a minor detail compared to the scale of the war they believe they are fighting against everything from vaccine mandates, critical race theory, and gender politics in schools all across the country.

https://www.vice.com/en/article/g5qddx/qanon-attack-school-boards-ron-watkins
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Does this assclown even LIVE in this district? We know he doesn't have kids.

January 27, 2022

Gun Owners in San Jose Outraged They'll Have to Buy Insurance, Like Drivers

Owning a gun in the city of San Jose will soon have a lot in common with owning a car.

In two landslide votes Tuesday night, the San Jose City Council approved a first-of-its-kind law that mandates gun owners buy and maintain liability insurance and pay an annual fee. The vote for the annual fee passed 8-3 while the insurance vote passed 10-1.

“Now, we know that law-abiding drivers might benefit from auto insurance because it incentivizes us all to drive more safely, invest in safer cars, anti-lock brakes, and a host of other measures,” San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo told the Los Angeles Times.

The two measures are aimed at encouraging safer gun ownership and reducing gun violence, according to Liccardo. Gun liability insurance would cover unintended firearm-related accidents and damages, according to the ordinance. Among the costs of emergency response, victim assistance, and more, gun violence runs city taxpayers as much as $442 million a year, according to the mayor’s office.

While many insurance companies and firearm associations offer some kind of coverage for gun owners, it’s unclear how many Americans actually have it.

https://www.vice.com/en/article/k7wgnw/gun-insurance-law-san-jose-california

January 27, 2022

Tennessee school board bans teaching of Holocaust graphic novel Maus

A school board in Tennessee has banned a Pulitzer prize-winning novel about the Holocaust from being taught in its classrooms.

Board members voted in favour of banning the novel because it contained swear words and a naked illustration.

The graphic novel Maus: A Survivor's Tale depicts how the author's parents survived Auschwitz during the Holocaust.

Author Art Spiegelman said he was "baffled" by the decision.

Six million Jewish people died in the Holocaust - Nazi Germany's campaign to eradicate Europe's Jewish population.

Mr Spiegelman's parents were Polish Jews who were sent to Nazi concentration camps during World War Two.

His novel Maus, which features hand-drawn illustrations of mice as Jews and cats as Nazis, won a number of literary awards in 1992.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-60153696
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These fools apparently think most 13 year olds have never heard swearing or seen a pic of a nude woman.