I don't think they'd end the meetings, they'd sure as shit end the one doing the quoting though. And that person's family. And their mosque. And any other Muslims in the area. Ect.
I would add to that any prayer offered by a member of the Havasupai Tribe. These actions on the part of the religious right look more and more like the flip side of Scopes. They are probably emboldened by a sympathetic SCOTUS.
Oh I don't know. It sounds like the Board President let it happen for a month or two and then started working with the board's legal counsel to see if they could rein it in. I would not atttribute fundie christian-ism to him given the (admittedly minimal) facts we have at this time.
Ms. Rooks, allow me to ask this question: What part of "secular government" don't you get? Certainly, you have every right to practice your religion 𝗢𝗡 𝗬𝗢𝗨𝗥 𝗢𝗪𝗡 𝗧𝗜𝗠𝗘. When you are in the halls of government, you ONLY obligation is TO THE LAW. Your devotion to your religious beliefs have as much place in a public school board meeting as your favorite recipe for chocolate cake, probably less so. Your religion is NOT the only religion out there, and as such, school board meeting should not indulge in any form of religious practice or expression.
No, I don't expect her to get this [religious freaks like Rooks never do]. I'm pleased that the Freedom From Religion Foundation has weighed in on the matter, and it's just possible that the threat of legal action, backstopped by the FFRF, may just get the message through.
They are actively fighting against the idea of a "secular government". They are trying to erase and rewrite history to show that our government is not the evil 'secular' but a Christian theocracy. Personally, I think we may be in the turning point. The point where they have pushed too far. Today's youth, for the most part, have seen their bigotry, misogyny and other shenanigans and will reject religion or at least gravitate toward churches that actually practice what Jesus taught. Even the youth who are currently being lied to will grow up and learn the truth. Those are the ones that will be the most angry. Christo-fascists need to watch out because they may be bringing on the reckoning that they are currently lying about.
Absolutely they're fighting against secular government. I suspect a great deal of their action is based in their insecurity about their faith. Believers and especially evangelical or radical believers are notoriously allergic to cognitive dissonance. They need EVERYONE to agree with them in order to keep that conflict at bay. Being that they tend to use a sledgehammer to kill flies, their take on the best way to accomplish their goal is to create a Christian theocracy where the United States used to be.
And indeed, yes, the 2024 election will be a pivot point to this whole fracas, and we CANNOT let them have their way.
Voting in November for me is about as automatic as it gets. As for moving? Let's see how the 2024 elections come out, first. Personally, I'm provisionally hopeful.
I'd be very dubious about the whole Eric / Ivanka thing. Neither of them have the irrational attraction that Donnie has, though whether Trump can keep breathing to the 2028 elections is debatable at best.
David Pakman had a very good observation about Republicans and their current penchant for hero / icon / Trump worship. The ONLY way they will come off Trump is when someone else shows up for them to mindlessly venerate. Exactly WHO that is, I have no idea, though I can't see anyone in the current GOP / Trump party who really qualifies.
It's a scary thought, though. As to recent history, first Republicans worshiped Eisenhower, then it was Nixon, then Reagan, then two Bushes, and now Trump. The quality of their icons shows a distinct downward slope, IMHO ... and yeah, I find that VERY disturbing.
My prediction right now would be that Biden beats Trump head to head, but the GOP takes the Senate by a large margin. And we're in for 2 years of nothing getting done.
Though I think there's a good outside chance that Trump doesn't get the GOP nod. He's huge in the polls, but his die-hard support is only something like 35% of the party.
> "religious freaks like Rooks" I'm delighted to see that phrase. I remember fondly the era back in the 70s and 80s when virtually everyone thought of hardcore christians as "Jesus freaks." I'd love to see that phrase become common once again, because it nails the situation quite precisely. They are freaks. Their beliefs are freakish and aberrant. Their relentless attempts to force their superstitions into everyone else's lives are freakish beyond all sense. They are freaks, Freaks, FREAKS, goddammit, and it's high time for society to get back to labeling them as such.
Using her autistic child as a pawn in the deadly temper tantrum during the pandemic on the right and to garner votes is gross.
No transgender boys in girl’s bathrooms, I know she being transphobic, but the transgender boys don’t want to be in the girl’s bathrooms. But learning the right names of things might actually teach her how to be empathetic, or at least sympathetic, to others, so willful ignorance it is.
Of course she supports vouchers, she opposes raising taxes to fully fund the schools, she’s a righty looking to defund public education. CRT should not have been brought up in the survey in the manner it was, no one is trying to get it into primary and secondary education (K-12) but we gotta fight it. It’s a dog whistle now for “we don’t teach bad things about slavery and civil rights anymore”.
This is the shit I’m talking about, she presents herself as some kind of victim, talks about things out of context of reality, intentionally manipulating terms and phrases to mean something nefarious to get votes while undermining the institutions they are elected to. Parental rights aren't keeping parents involved in their kid’s educations, but allowing certain parents to keep their children from learning anything that might conflict with their worldview. Children deserve to learn about their bodies and sexuality. There’s so much ignorance surrounding sex and relationships, even and especially the heterosexual ones. Do you know how often I come across men and women, full grown adults mind you, that do not know that the urethra is a whole different hole than the vagina. This is basic shit I figured out by myself as a single digit aged child. Or that women can hold in their periods, or shut it off and turn it on whenever. And the big one, more men stretch out the vagina, but having only one partner doesn’t. It’s all depressing. And it’s all because shitheads like her are more worried about rambling on about god than educating children.
I've gone through a couple SEL things as a parent of a kid in a school doing that. Really nothing to get verklempt about. I liken it to sort of a 'FAQ' overview for going into a new grade level. Don't be an ass, ask for help if you need it, the kid next do you may do different things than you and that's okay, etc. sort of advice. For the life of me I can't imagine what anyone would find objectionable about it. But I guess angry people gonna angry.
The Bible does in fact contains the occasional bit of good advice, and I find myself hoping that one of the rational members of the Peoria school board will soon trot out the nice little couplet from Matthew 6:5-6:
“And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.
“But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.”
I can't help but notice how evangelicals are utterly consistent in their ignorance or dismissal of Matthew 6:5-6. I often think they would prefer that those verses simply did not exist.
There are 23,000 + verses in the Protestant bible. It is like the monkeys on typewriters, eventually they will come up with something that makes sense.
I seem to recall Jesus had a lot of negative things to say about preening religious jerks who spent all of their time doing performative "righteousness" instead of being compassionate, caring, and kind.
I always wonder where that claim comes from and how it could be justified. I've spent a bigger-than-usual part of my life in bookstores, and I can't remember ever seeing anyone buy a bible.
Best seller lists, like the Times', are compiled not from the numbers that actually sell in bookstores but from the numbers shipped to bookstores by publishers, or to put it another way, the numbers booksellers order. I don't have actual figures to back it up, but I can't imagine those numbers for bibles are very high. The numbers of bibles on bookstore shelves are downright paltry.
There's also the question of WHICH bible. Given the multitudes of competing translations into any of the world's hundreds of languages, the only way "THE bible" is the best selling book is if you pretend there is one and only one damn bible, that every last version agrees with every other version on every last little point. That obviously isn't the case.
In short, I'm quite convinced that the claim about "the bible" being the bestselling book of all time is as bogus as every other claim christians make.
Back when local newspapers ran classified ads, I came across one in the general merchandise section that said “Large white family Bible. Never been used. $10.”
Now I know a ‘family” bible is one where you write everyone’s name and vital stats but the ‘never been used” still cracked me up.
One of our Linn-Mar (we got a shout-out from Mike Pence at last night's GOP cage match cum circus) school board members - Matt "Shoutyman" Rollinger - places his Bible on the table in front of him at every meeting...gotta let everyone know how very Xtian he is else they might judge him by his behaviors.
It's not just Iowa, the crazies can be found everywhere. Fortunately we have a significant population of the good guys, too..... we're just in a rebuilding phase.
I think there ought to be a federal law (probably run up against states' rights, which is a questionable part of the Constitution) that sets a nationwide date for primaries. For one thing, it might shorten the year and a half of politicking before every election.
Actually, there are some good arguments for Iowa being FitN. Until recently we were fairly purple. The media markets are affordable. The population small enough to allow for old-school retail politics. And so on.
Obama got his start here, something unlikely had it been many other places.
God's been around a while... old guy's not quite as sharp as he used to be, you know? Gotta throw him a bone to make totes sure he doesn't miss you in the Cruise Ship To Paradise boarding call.
Pardon me, this is very likely to devolve into something of a rant.
I am heartily sick of this anti-education position we've been seeing out of the Republican platform in recent years. I honestly wish I could take away every last bit of benefit Ms. Rooks is receiving from education in the United States; that includes things like social media, her copy of the Christian Bible, her car, and that bleach she's using on her hair. Anyone who hates education to the extreme some of these people do should just go on and suffer without it for a few hours. Booting these people out of society may seem extreme, but it sure looks to me like that's what they expect everyone else to do; they should lead by example.
That said, I also feel it necessary to point out that inspirational quotes don't usually much come out of that bible. I remember being miserable at church when surrounded by 'loving Christians' and what they really thought. The Christian bible didn't stop them then, and I don't see any reason to think that's changed; if that's the result of the inspirational qualities of the bible, yeah, I'm gonna have to take a pass, sorry.
The lawsuit claims she quotes “from religious, historical, and philosophical sources and figures as a source of personal inspiration.” But so far all we see are bible quotes, can she prove that she is drawing from the historical or philosophical sources she claims? It doesn’t count if she’s calling the characters in the Bible historical or philosophical, nor does it count if she’s using historical and philosophical folks quoting from the Bible in their speeches, books, or whatever.
The quotes she chose are blatant in their expression of demanding the district students believe as she does. If the quotes were the “do unto others” type of feel good verses, this would be a little more difficult to prove her intentions. But they’re the, “you must make children Christian, you must follow God’s rules, you have to submit” type verses. And they’re clearly targeting folks who are non-Christian with a bit of threatening language.
I wish the voters could truly learn about the school board candidates before voting on them. The Nazis and white supremacists get away with being elected because they can hide their true intentions with dog whistles and misleading Facebook pages. The questions they answer in for the papers and election websites are too generic and can be well manipulated into feel good rhetoric. Too many people don’t recognize the dog whistles and the right has done a fantastic job of using common, completely benign language for their nefarious ends. Take traditional values for example. Whenever I see a candidate use that phrase I don’t really need to read further, they won’t get my vote, but some folks I interact with see that phrase as nothing alarming, it’s just that the candidate wants to care for their family and support a strong community. But the right uses that religion for the phrase to forward strict and harmful rules for families, no LGBTQ, no single mothers, women stay home and never send your kids to daycare, and promote school vouchers, the community must be Stepford-like and so on. The manipulation is so obvious to me, but the average citizen, though they might be concerned and care, may not have the ability to discern the dog whistles from the din. I had a a village board candidate that anonymously wrote a letter to the editor about the library grooming children, but it was typical right wing lies over an attempt to ban any books that might mention LGBT people or issues. The media covering him, including his own Facebook page, was benign, average, traditional values, diversity of thought*, bla bla bla, no red flags waving. If folks in the know, a part of the incident at the library, hadn’t spoken out, no one would have known he wrote that letter, or his real agenda. He lost, but he got too many votes for my comfort.
*diversity of thought is another dog whistle that means “white supremacists should have a seat at the table regarding diversity.” It may have had another meaning at one time, I’ve never heard it used outside the right wing manipulation, but it really is the “tolerate my intolerance or else you aren’t really tolerant.” I even had a friend try to tell me that it’s a real thing and not a white supremacy dog whistle. So we are fighting an uphill battle.
When I first became aware of such shenanigans years ago, I often get angry at those who violate one's freedom of religion and speech. But over the years, I gradually began to understand that these are efforts made by Christian zealots to throw tantrums and cry out "Persecution!" only because the government wouldn't let them forcefully impose on others prayers, Bible reading, and all other forms of Christian doctrines and ideologies.
Someone like TJ would probably use their own 'open remarks' time to dress down the quoter. But that leads to a toxic atmosphere. Would be much better if every board member acted like professionals on a job withuot having to be told to do so...but here we are.
They have the liar Barton to tell them all the founding fathers were good southern baptists following the exact same Christianity they follow, exactly how they follow it and the words laid down in the constitution are not clearly saying what they clearly say.
In our county board meetings, the open remarks section is the last maybe 5 minutes of a 2-hour public meeting, and then there's a nonpublic meeting on top of that time. So the 'too much free time' observation doesn't really apply. But this kind of use of even that small bit of public time is still annoying.
[Late edit] Now that I think about it, our format offers another potential solution to the problem. Assuming she would win the suit, a response might be for all the public attendees to just stand up noisily and leave as soon as she starts making her remarks. I.e. pretend like the meeting has adjourned. It's quite rude and insulting, but since our 'open remarks' time comes at the *end* of our meetings, nobody would be missing or delaying any business by doing so, and being kicked out for it is not any sort of real threat since you were literally getting up to leave anyway.
The school board tries to do the right thing (and incidentally pay attention to the very expensive lawyer they pay for legal advice) and gets sued anyway.
If a Muslim started quoting Koran scripture during board meetings, they will end those board comments in a heartbeat.
I don't think they'd end the meetings, they'd sure as shit end the one doing the quoting though. And that person's family. And their mosque. And any other Muslims in the area. Ect.
Or an atheist quoting Dawkins, Hitchens, etc.
Dawkins is an anti-trans bigot.
Agreed he is a piece of shit. He’s also unfortunately one of the most well-known atheists.
I would add to that any prayer offered by a member of the Havasupai Tribe. These actions on the part of the religious right look more and more like the flip side of Scopes. They are probably emboldened by a sympathetic SCOTUS.
Oh I don't know. It sounds like the Board President let it happen for a month or two and then started working with the board's legal counsel to see if they could rein it in. I would not atttribute fundie christian-ism to him given the (admittedly minimal) facts we have at this time.
Ms. Rooks, allow me to ask this question: What part of "secular government" don't you get? Certainly, you have every right to practice your religion 𝗢𝗡 𝗬𝗢𝗨𝗥 𝗢𝗪𝗡 𝗧𝗜𝗠𝗘. When you are in the halls of government, you ONLY obligation is TO THE LAW. Your devotion to your religious beliefs have as much place in a public school board meeting as your favorite recipe for chocolate cake, probably less so. Your religion is NOT the only religion out there, and as such, school board meeting should not indulge in any form of religious practice or expression.
No, I don't expect her to get this [religious freaks like Rooks never do]. I'm pleased that the Freedom From Religion Foundation has weighed in on the matter, and it's just possible that the threat of legal action, backstopped by the FFRF, may just get the message through.
They are actively fighting against the idea of a "secular government". They are trying to erase and rewrite history to show that our government is not the evil 'secular' but a Christian theocracy. Personally, I think we may be in the turning point. The point where they have pushed too far. Today's youth, for the most part, have seen their bigotry, misogyny and other shenanigans and will reject religion or at least gravitate toward churches that actually practice what Jesus taught. Even the youth who are currently being lied to will grow up and learn the truth. Those are the ones that will be the most angry. Christo-fascists need to watch out because they may be bringing on the reckoning that they are currently lying about.
Absolutely they're fighting against secular government. I suspect a great deal of their action is based in their insecurity about their faith. Believers and especially evangelical or radical believers are notoriously allergic to cognitive dissonance. They need EVERYONE to agree with them in order to keep that conflict at bay. Being that they tend to use a sledgehammer to kill flies, their take on the best way to accomplish their goal is to create a Christian theocracy where the United States used to be.
And indeed, yes, the 2024 election will be a pivot point to this whole fracas, and we CANNOT let them have their way.
I think the trick is to vote in November and move to Canada in December.
Edit: After we lose the Senate, don't win back the House and possibly end up with a Trump/DeSantis Presidency.
Voting in November for me is about as automatic as it gets. As for moving? Let's see how the 2024 elections come out, first. Personally, I'm provisionally hopeful.
If it's not 2024, it'll be 2028 (Eric/Ivanka maybe) I've given up hope that this won't end in totalitarianism or Civil War.
I'd be very dubious about the whole Eric / Ivanka thing. Neither of them have the irrational attraction that Donnie has, though whether Trump can keep breathing to the 2028 elections is debatable at best.
David Pakman had a very good observation about Republicans and their current penchant for hero / icon / Trump worship. The ONLY way they will come off Trump is when someone else shows up for them to mindlessly venerate. Exactly WHO that is, I have no idea, though I can't see anyone in the current GOP / Trump party who really qualifies.
It's a scary thought, though. As to recent history, first Republicans worshiped Eisenhower, then it was Nixon, then Reagan, then two Bushes, and now Trump. The quality of their icons shows a distinct downward slope, IMHO ... and yeah, I find that VERY disturbing.
See my edit as to my predictions for the results.
My prediction right now would be that Biden beats Trump head to head, but the GOP takes the Senate by a large margin. And we're in for 2 years of nothing getting done.
Though I think there's a good outside chance that Trump doesn't get the GOP nod. He's huge in the polls, but his die-hard support is only something like 35% of the party.
In other words, the same shitshow that the GOP-run Senate has been doing for the past 50 years.
> "religious freaks like Rooks" I'm delighted to see that phrase. I remember fondly the era back in the 70s and 80s when virtually everyone thought of hardcore christians as "Jesus freaks." I'd love to see that phrase become common once again, because it nails the situation quite precisely. They are freaks. Their beliefs are freakish and aberrant. Their relentless attempts to force their superstitions into everyone else's lives are freakish beyond all sense. They are freaks, Freaks, FREAKS, goddammit, and it's high time for society to get back to labeling them as such.
"Ms. Rooks, allow me to ask this question: What part of "secular government" don't you get? "
The part where the rules are supposed to apply to her, too.
Obviously, that phrase is there to keep dirty heathens out of government, not the True Word of God.
Nailed it. That sums up their thinking in a nutshell.
See her voter guide page, particularly the survey.
https://www.azvoterguide.com/candidate/school-board/rooks-heather/
Some quotes:
"I will make sure no transgender boys are in girls bathrooms and showers."
"There will be no teaching of CRT, equity, diversity, SEL when I become a board member"
She's a horrible person through and through. And a moron.
Yikes on bikes!
Using her autistic child as a pawn in the deadly temper tantrum during the pandemic on the right and to garner votes is gross.
No transgender boys in girl’s bathrooms, I know she being transphobic, but the transgender boys don’t want to be in the girl’s bathrooms. But learning the right names of things might actually teach her how to be empathetic, or at least sympathetic, to others, so willful ignorance it is.
Of course she supports vouchers, she opposes raising taxes to fully fund the schools, she’s a righty looking to defund public education. CRT should not have been brought up in the survey in the manner it was, no one is trying to get it into primary and secondary education (K-12) but we gotta fight it. It’s a dog whistle now for “we don’t teach bad things about slavery and civil rights anymore”.
This is the shit I’m talking about, she presents herself as some kind of victim, talks about things out of context of reality, intentionally manipulating terms and phrases to mean something nefarious to get votes while undermining the institutions they are elected to. Parental rights aren't keeping parents involved in their kid’s educations, but allowing certain parents to keep their children from learning anything that might conflict with their worldview. Children deserve to learn about their bodies and sexuality. There’s so much ignorance surrounding sex and relationships, even and especially the heterosexual ones. Do you know how often I come across men and women, full grown adults mind you, that do not know that the urethra is a whole different hole than the vagina. This is basic shit I figured out by myself as a single digit aged child. Or that women can hold in their periods, or shut it off and turn it on whenever. And the big one, more men stretch out the vagina, but having only one partner doesn’t. It’s all depressing. And it’s all because shitheads like her are more worried about rambling on about god than educating children.
I had to look up SEL. For anybody that's interested, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social%E2%80%93emotional_learning
Of course she opposes it. It goes against the MAGAt mantra of "fuck your feelings".
I've gone through a couple SEL things as a parent of a kid in a school doing that. Really nothing to get verklempt about. I liken it to sort of a 'FAQ' overview for going into a new grade level. Don't be an ass, ask for help if you need it, the kid next do you may do different things than you and that's okay, etc. sort of advice. For the life of me I can't imagine what anyone would find objectionable about it. But I guess angry people gonna angry.
The Bible does in fact contains the occasional bit of good advice, and I find myself hoping that one of the rational members of the Peoria school board will soon trot out the nice little couplet from Matthew 6:5-6:
“And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.
“But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.”
I can't help but notice how evangelicals are utterly consistent in their ignorance or dismissal of Matthew 6:5-6. I often think they would prefer that those verses simply did not exist.
Or the ones about giving anything you don't need to people who do need it. Shit, that's some straight up un American shit right there.
There are 23,000 + verses in the Protestant bible. It is like the monkeys on typewriters, eventually they will come up with something that makes sense.
I seem to recall Jesus had a lot of negative things to say about preening religious jerks who spent all of their time doing performative "righteousness" instead of being compassionate, caring, and kind.
"the world’s best-selling book" - Maybe.
Least read - for sure.
I always wonder where that claim comes from and how it could be justified. I've spent a bigger-than-usual part of my life in bookstores, and I can't remember ever seeing anyone buy a bible.
Best seller lists, like the Times', are compiled not from the numbers that actually sell in bookstores but from the numbers shipped to bookstores by publishers, or to put it another way, the numbers booksellers order. I don't have actual figures to back it up, but I can't imagine those numbers for bibles are very high. The numbers of bibles on bookstore shelves are downright paltry.
There's also the question of WHICH bible. Given the multitudes of competing translations into any of the world's hundreds of languages, the only way "THE bible" is the best selling book is if you pretend there is one and only one damn bible, that every last version agrees with every other version on every last little point. That obviously isn't the case.
In short, I'm quite convinced that the claim about "the bible" being the bestselling book of all time is as bogus as every other claim christians make.
Back when local newspapers ran classified ads, I came across one in the general merchandise section that said “Large white family Bible. Never been used. $10.”
Now I know a ‘family” bible is one where you write everyone’s name and vital stats but the ‘never been used” still cracked me up.
"I can't remember ever seeing anyone buy a bible."
That's because they have to do it in the secret back room because the Marxist Atheistics have made it illegal to sell bibles.
"There's also the question of WHICH bible."
https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/418RPec58fL._AC_UF1000,1000_QL80_.jpg
Guinness World Records claims the bible is Number 1 but as I posted elsewhere those numbers are suspect and should be suspect.
". . . I can't remember ever seeing anyone buy a bible."
Don't hang out in kkkristian bookstores, do you?
“Least read - for sure.”
As well as least understood.
One of our Linn-Mar (we got a shout-out from Mike Pence at last night's GOP cage match cum circus) school board members - Matt "Shoutyman" Rollinger - places his Bible on the table in front of him at every meeting...gotta let everyone know how very Xtian he is else they might judge him by his behaviors.
Jesus would call him a hypocrite for his oh-so-public "piety."
I would like to see one of the other board members place a copy of the Kama Sutra in front of them to see how he reacts.
I'm sure all his social media handles lead w/ something like "man of Christ/follower of Christ"
Christ Warrior.
(Call back to an old troll.)
You summon it and its sock puppets, you take the responsibility.
I was careful to only say it once.
Just don't call too loudly.
The scariest thing was listening to an Iowa Republican focus group on CNN. Not a place I'd ever care to visit.
It's not just Iowa, the crazies can be found everywhere. Fortunately we have a significant population of the good guys, too..... we're just in a rebuilding phase.
Iowa getting first crack at presidential primary is where the animosity lies.
I think there ought to be a federal law (probably run up against states' rights, which is a questionable part of the Constitution) that sets a nationwide date for primaries. For one thing, it might shorten the year and a half of politicking before every election.
Iowa Dems lost FitN. Now it's just the Trumpublicans invading every nook & cranny in the run-up to Caucus.
Point is...so much influence on such an important national decision doesn't belong in Iowa.
Actually, there are some good arguments for Iowa being FitN. Until recently we were fairly purple. The media markets are affordable. The population small enough to allow for old-school retail politics. And so on.
Obama got his start here, something unlikely had it been many other places.
Rebuilding what? Pig farms and raising corn to burn with gasoline?
Hey now.....we have soy beans, too. (And lots of poultry.)
Also, where do you think Crunch Berries come from ? 😉 https://livability.com/ia/cedar-rapids/food-scenes/cedar-rapids-ia-is-feeding-the-world/
What's the growing season for those?
Pretty much year-round...aside from the occasional shut-down week for maintenance/retooling.
God's been around a while... old guy's not quite as sharp as he used to be, you know? Gotta throw him a bone to make totes sure he doesn't miss you in the Cruise Ship To Paradise boarding call.
That's frankly better than forcing the public to hear about it.
They wanna put their own personal troll doll on their desk, well I can't even see it from where I'm sitting in the middle row.
Oh, he and his supporters do rant from the Bible as well.
Pardon me, this is very likely to devolve into something of a rant.
I am heartily sick of this anti-education position we've been seeing out of the Republican platform in recent years. I honestly wish I could take away every last bit of benefit Ms. Rooks is receiving from education in the United States; that includes things like social media, her copy of the Christian Bible, her car, and that bleach she's using on her hair. Anyone who hates education to the extreme some of these people do should just go on and suffer without it for a few hours. Booting these people out of society may seem extreme, but it sure looks to me like that's what they expect everyone else to do; they should lead by example.
That said, I also feel it necessary to point out that inspirational quotes don't usually much come out of that bible. I remember being miserable at church when surrounded by 'loving Christians' and what they really thought. The Christian bible didn't stop them then, and I don't see any reason to think that's changed; if that's the result of the inspirational qualities of the bible, yeah, I'm gonna have to take a pass, sorry.
It's not recent. They've been cutting education budgets and generally fucking over textbook content since at least the 90's, than I can remember.
The daughters of the confederacy have been doing it since before the civil rights movement.
The lawsuit claims she quotes “from religious, historical, and philosophical sources and figures as a source of personal inspiration.” But so far all we see are bible quotes, can she prove that she is drawing from the historical or philosophical sources she claims? It doesn’t count if she’s calling the characters in the Bible historical or philosophical, nor does it count if she’s using historical and philosophical folks quoting from the Bible in their speeches, books, or whatever.
The quotes she chose are blatant in their expression of demanding the district students believe as she does. If the quotes were the “do unto others” type of feel good verses, this would be a little more difficult to prove her intentions. But they’re the, “you must make children Christian, you must follow God’s rules, you have to submit” type verses. And they’re clearly targeting folks who are non-Christian with a bit of threatening language.
I wish the voters could truly learn about the school board candidates before voting on them. The Nazis and white supremacists get away with being elected because they can hide their true intentions with dog whistles and misleading Facebook pages. The questions they answer in for the papers and election websites are too generic and can be well manipulated into feel good rhetoric. Too many people don’t recognize the dog whistles and the right has done a fantastic job of using common, completely benign language for their nefarious ends. Take traditional values for example. Whenever I see a candidate use that phrase I don’t really need to read further, they won’t get my vote, but some folks I interact with see that phrase as nothing alarming, it’s just that the candidate wants to care for their family and support a strong community. But the right uses that religion for the phrase to forward strict and harmful rules for families, no LGBTQ, no single mothers, women stay home and never send your kids to daycare, and promote school vouchers, the community must be Stepford-like and so on. The manipulation is so obvious to me, but the average citizen, though they might be concerned and care, may not have the ability to discern the dog whistles from the din. I had a a village board candidate that anonymously wrote a letter to the editor about the library grooming children, but it was typical right wing lies over an attempt to ban any books that might mention LGBT people or issues. The media covering him, including his own Facebook page, was benign, average, traditional values, diversity of thought*, bla bla bla, no red flags waving. If folks in the know, a part of the incident at the library, hadn’t spoken out, no one would have known he wrote that letter, or his real agenda. He lost, but he got too many votes for my comfort.
*diversity of thought is another dog whistle that means “white supremacists should have a seat at the table regarding diversity.” It may have had another meaning at one time, I’ve never heard it used outside the right wing manipulation, but it really is the “tolerate my intolerance or else you aren’t really tolerant.” I even had a friend try to tell me that it’s a real thing and not a white supremacy dog whistle. So we are fighting an uphill battle.
“tolerate my intolerance or else you aren’t really tolerant.”
No different than people saying "Respect the Disrespectful or else you're not Respectful at all." Another example of manipulation.
I've been saying this as well. If we're not allowed to see the true character of candidates, how are we supposed to make an informed choice?
When I first became aware of such shenanigans years ago, I often get angry at those who violate one's freedom of religion and speech. But over the years, I gradually began to understand that these are efforts made by Christian zealots to throw tantrums and cry out "Persecution!" only because the government wouldn't let them forcefully impose on others prayers, Bible reading, and all other forms of Christian doctrines and ideologies.
The eternal victim complex.
"the world’s best-selling book"
The logical fallacy Argumentum ad Populum in all its glory.
It's what some people say about Hitler's "Mein Kampf."
People like her are just the symptoms. Christianity is the cause.
To the First Liberty cretins...
Uh, the first 6 Presidents were Deists, not Christians. Can't see them quoting scripture from a religion they neither liked nor trusted.
Someone like TJ would probably use their own 'open remarks' time to dress down the quoter. But that leads to a toxic atmosphere. Would be much better if every board member acted like professionals on a job withuot having to be told to do so...but here we are.
I would bet a bright shiny nickel that the people at FL don't know what a Deist is nor would they accept that any president ever was one.
They're willfully ignorant and damned proud of it.
They have the liar Barton to tell them all the founding fathers were good southern baptists following the exact same Christianity they follow, exactly how they follow it and the words laid down in the constitution are not clearly saying what they clearly say.
Your school boards have both too much power and free time on their hands.
In our county board meetings, the open remarks section is the last maybe 5 minutes of a 2-hour public meeting, and then there's a nonpublic meeting on top of that time. So the 'too much free time' observation doesn't really apply. But this kind of use of even that small bit of public time is still annoying.
[Late edit] Now that I think about it, our format offers another potential solution to the problem. Assuming she would win the suit, a response might be for all the public attendees to just stand up noisily and leave as soon as she starts making her remarks. I.e. pretend like the meeting has adjourned. It's quite rude and insulting, but since our 'open remarks' time comes at the *end* of our meetings, nobody would be missing or delaying any business by doing so, and being kicked out for it is not any sort of real threat since you were literally getting up to leave anyway.
The school board tries to do the right thing (and incidentally pay attention to the very expensive lawyer they pay for legal advice) and gets sued anyway.
'Murica.
Hey Rooks: 1 Timothy 2:12.
Now shut the hell up and make us all a sammich, woman.
Is that clothing of mixed fibers too?
That bleached hair smacks of vanity, too. She's much better at quoting the bible than following it, it seems. A common flaw.
It's OK if a Christian does it.
Rules and scripture never apply to her and her ilk.
I tell them: "I've read the history of your religion. You want me to follow what the bible says? You first."
And do they look at you as if they've just lost all grasp of the English language?
Isn't that their normal state?
😁