September 3, 2014

WTF ...133

England: Creationism cannot be taught legally



BUT in the

USA : State-by-state breakdown where creationism is or can be taught

Arizona: As many as 15 schools that teach creationism may be participating in the state’s tax credit scholarship program for disabled children or children attending underperforming schools. (Arizona has not released a list of private schools that have received students on this scholarship.)

Arkansas: Responsive Education Solutions operates two campuses in Arkansas that use creationist curricula. (See Texas.)

Colorado: At least eight schools in Douglas County teach creationism while participating in the Douglas County Scholarship Program.

Florida: At least 164 schools teach creationism while participating in the state’s tax credit scholarship programs for disabled children and children from low-income families.

Georgia: At least 34 schools teach creationism while participating in the state’s tax credit scholarship program for disabled children.

Indiana: At least 37 schools teach creationism while participating in the state’s voucher program for children from low-income families.

Louisiana: The Louisiana Science Education Act of 2008 allows teachers to use “supplemental textbooks and other instructional materials to help students understand, analyze, critique, and review scientific theories in an objective manner,” specifically theories regarding “evolution, the origins of life, global warming, and human cloning”—in effect, allowing creationist material inside classroom. It’s no coincidence that the Discovery Institute, a creationist think tank that provides such “supplemental textbooks,” helped write the bill, which the American Association for the Advancement of Science described as an “assault against scientific integrity.”

Ohio: At least 20 schools teach creationism while participating in a tax credit scholarship program for children in underperforming public schools.

Oklahoma: At least five schools teach creationism while participating in a tax credit scholarship program for disabled children.

Tennessee: A 2012 state law, like Louisiana's, permits public school teachers to teach the “scientific strengths and scientific weaknesses” of theories that can “cause controversy,” specifically citing evolution, global warming, and cloning, thereby providing legal cover for teachers who want to forward creationist pseudoscience.

Texas: The state’s largest charter program, Responsive Ed, receives $82 million in taxpayer money each year, but that hasn’t stopped its schools from adopting a creationist curriculum that seriously misrepresents the science of evolution. These materials wrongly portray the fossil record and the age of Earth as scientifically controversial, assert that there is a lack of “transitional fossils,” and claim evolution is untestable.

Utah: At least five schools teach creationism while participating in a tax-credit scholarship program for disabled children.

Washington, D.C.: At least three schools teach creationism while participating in a tax-credit scholarship program for children from low-income families.

Wisconsin: At least 15 schools teach creationism while participating in a Milwaukee or Racine voucher programs.

http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/science/2014/01/creationism_in_public_schools_mapped_where_tax_money_supports_alternatives.html


Are we going backwards in time or does it just look like we are ...?

September 3, 2014

The Selfie of Selfies ... LOL

September 3, 2014

WTF ...132

How Crony Capitalism and Deregulation Poisoned Toledo's Water

Toledo's recent water crisis isn't unlike this year's water-related crises in West Virginia and Detroit. As in those other events, the poisoning of Toledo's water is ultimately tied to corruption at the highest levels of state government by corporate special interests.

Freedom Industries's toxic chemical spill in Charleston's Elk River in January, which poisoned drinking water for 300,000 people, was a direct result of West Virginia's state government deregulating coal, the state's top industry, and selective enforcement of environmental laws when it concerns big campaign donors in the coal business.

In Detroit, the poorest 40 percent of the city stood to lose water in their homes – something the UN has declared a basic human right. The Detroit water shutoffs were proposed by an unelected emergency manager who singlehandedly made the decision to pay off big foreign banks with $537 million meant for city water infrastructure, while making the most vulnerable foot the bill.

Toledo's water crisis would never have happened if agricultural runoff had been properly regulated – and if Ohio's government hadn't systematically diverted tax dollars meant for cities and counties to upgrade infrastructure, meanwhile rewarding corporations and the rich with more tax breaks.

- See more at: http://www.occupy.com/article/how-crony-capitalism-and-deregulation-poisoned-toledos-water#sthash.HSitFDUr.dpuf

September 2, 2014

WTF ...131

These are the blood suckers draining our country dry ....

September 2, 2014

WTF ...130

September 2, 2014

WTF ...129

September 1, 2014

WTF ...128

Poverty wages for a poverty class ...

September 1, 2014

WTF ...127

We live in a bizarre society.

A society in which we lock up people for doing certain drugs, yet it it perfectly legal to walk into a store or bar and buy even more dangerous alcohol.

A society in which we spend more on the military than we do on feeding, clothing, or educating our children.

A society in which we feed on the babies of our fellow creatures, yet recoil in horror when we learn of crimes against our own children.

A society that tolerates hatred, violence, bigotry, and cruelty in the name of freedom.


A society that embraces and extols gods and myths, while ignoring the plights of people and animals. Especially people and animals that aren't within our borders.

How do we change all this?
How do we wake people up?
How do we make people look into a mirror to see what they have become?

Shake folks awake!
Put the truth in front of their noses.
Point out the obscenities which are accepted as normal.
Press tracts into their hands.
Books into their laps.
Videos onto their screens.

That breakast you're eating is someone's baby.
That snack was a life.
That shoe was some poor creature's skin.
That person you sent to jail is your neighbor's son.
That child you do not want to feed is just like your own.
The Republican you voted for is giving billions to corporations.
That Conservative you supported is passing laws making it illegal to report animal cruelty.
That Congressman you meet at the Rotary Club is killing wild horses.
The preacher you listen to on Sundays wants to make this a theocratic state and outlaw women's reproductive healthcare.

Most will ignore us.
But a few will listen.
Some who listen may agree.
Some who agree will join us.
Many who join us will help others.

Most will ignore us. But so what?
The world was never changed by the majority.
It has always been changed by a tiny fraction of the population.
Radicals.
Liberals.
Visionaries.

It is why we no longer live in caves or dance around fires.
Why people are no longer stoned or crucified.
Why we no longer have kings or conquerors.
Why slavery is no longer.
Why people can vote.
Why the world is ours to change.

http://www.leftwingradiostations.com/#!inmates-running-the-asylum/c1m05

And it is why sooner rather than later ISIS or whatever the fuck you want to call them will no longer exist ...

September 1, 2014

WTF ...126

HERE ARE SOME THINGS THAT ALL POOR CHILDREN KNOW that Republican Politicians don't seem to know (or care).

1. A fingernail file can be used to file a jagged edge if a tooth breaks.
2. We go to the doctor when we’re sick, but mom doesn’t.
3. We have to move a lot because sometimes we can’t afford the rent.
4. I don’t always tell my mom when I need school supplies. I can tell it makes her nervous.
5. Having to print something for school gives me anxiety. Our printer doesn’t always have ink. It’s easier for me to just get a bad grade on the project than admit to the teacher I can’t afford to print.
6. Ditto homework that requires the internet. Sometimes we have it, sometimes we don’t. People say “use the library” but there’s not always gas money to get there and they are only open one evening a week.
7. God doesn’t hear my prayers.
8. The only time I’ve ever been to a store to buy new clothes is when my aunt took me. The dressing rooms were foreign to me.
9. I learned how to cook ramen noodles when I was six years old. I was hungry when I got home from school and mom wasn’t ever there to cook because she was working.
10. Healthy snacks are expensive. Ramen noodles are cheap.
11. My grandmother criticizes my mom for not feeding us more healthy food. What she doesn’t understand is that healthy food usually costs a lot more.
12. We can never get the chicken nuggets at McDonald’s. We have to order from the dollar menu that mom calls garbage food.
13. Every day when I get off the bus, I’m scared until I get inside the house. Mom’s at work when I get home.
14. I know I’d be a really good football player, but we’ve never been able to afford for me to play.
15. When I go somewhere where there’s a piano, I love to try to play. I know I’d be really good but we’ll never be able to afford a piano or lessons.
16. I don’t wear different clothes every day.
17. We have to buy all white socks because if one gets lost or torn up, it may be a while before we buy more.
18. We are really good at cleaning our house with stuff that most people don’t use to clean, like bleach and vinegar.
19. I needed colored pencils for a project once. My teacher told me that if I didn’t bring them, I wouldn’t be able to do my project and I’d get a zero. I told the teacher I didn’t have any and she told me I’d better figure it out. On the way to school, my mom went into the grocery store. I was confused because she told me she didn’t have money. When she came out, she had the pencils but they were in her purse, not in a sack. I think she stole them. She was crying.
20. Mom keeps her toothbrush in her bedroom so that it doesn’t accidentally brush up against ours in the bathroom. Germs and she can’t afford to get sick and miss work or go to the doctor.
21. I have no idea what other kids are talking about when they’re talking about the latest TV shows. We’ve never had cable.
22. I sometimes dread the summer and weekends because at school, I eat two meals a day.
23. I’ve never tasted any of the cool cereals that my friends talk about.
24. When I get money from relatives for my birthday or Christmas, I use it to buy things I don’t want to ask mom for, like hair products and underwear.
25. My hair nearly always get too long between haircuts. I got sent home from school once because of it. Mom cut it herself.
26. Other kids make fun of my clothes.
27. I know what it’s like to be really cold in the wintertime.
28. We wear our jackets and gloves in the house in the winter.
29. When our dryer broke, we had to hang our clothes to dry. It took all weekend for my jeans to dry in the wintertime.
30. Christmas is about things we need, not things we want.
31. We can never buy cool clothes “just cuz.” They always have to be things that have a dual purpose. We can wear them to school, church, or whatever.
32. I’ve never been to summer camp. Even if we could afford to go, I’d be embarrassed about my old underwear.
33. I did go to summer camp. I was the only kid who could never buy snacks from the canteen.
34. I got my first job babysitting when I was 14. I couldn’t spend the money. We needed it for bills.
35. Sometimes we have to put stuff back in the checkout line because we don’t have enough money. The cereal always gets put back first.
36. Cashing a check is hard if you don’t have a checking account. You have to pay to cash it.
37. I’m an expert on what can and can’t be bought with SNAP and WIC.
38. One Christmas, we had no money so we went to the Dollar Tree where everything is a dollar Mom gave us each $5 and told us to go shopping for each other. It was the weirdest and funnest Christmas ever.
39. Sometimes we have to use dish liquid in the washing machine. It works if you only use a small squirt.
40. Sometimes we get sick and go to the doctor. He gives us an antibiotic and tell us to start it, but if he calls to say that our strep test came back negative, we can stop taking it. When this happens, Mom keeps that medicine so that she can take it if she has an emergency and gets sick.
41. Sometimes we want to pack cool lunches like some other kids do, but it’s cheaper to eat the school cafeteria food. Mom says the food’s not healthy, but we get free lunches so that’s what we eat. Mom gives us money every day so that we can buy an extra milk at school. It’s cheaper than if we bought it at the grocery store.
42. Sometimes we don’t eat if there’s a mean kid in the line. We don’t want them to know we’re getting free lunch. They’ll make fun of us forever.
43. Duct tape can fix almost anything. Mom makes a game out of it. If a window gets a crack in it, she fixes it with duct tape and uses the tape to make cool designs.
44. I sit really quietly when I get an ice cream cone, enjoying every lick.
45. I share a bedroom with my two younger siblings. It’s impossible to find a quiet place to do my homework.
46. I didn’t do as well as I should have in math classes because I couldn’t afford the calculator that was required.
47. I couldn’t be in Boy Scouts because we couldn’t buy the uniforms.
48. I couldn’t be in Girl Scouts because we couldn’t afford the books and patches.
49. You can make a whole meal out of gravy and white bread.
50. White bread is usually cheaper than wheat bread.
51. Spending the night at a friend’s house is awesome. They always have plenty food.
52. Butter and sugar sandwiches are the best.
53. We don’t trust the police. We know they won’t treat us fairly.
54. We eat a lot of: potatoes, beans, and cheap bread.
55. My mom lies about not wanting seconds.
56. I’ve learned that when mom says “do you want the rest of this [food]?”, what she’s saying is “if you don’t want it, then I’ll eat.” I’ve learned to say I’m full, even if I’m not, so that she will eat.
57. Hamburger Helper feels like a gourmet meal.
58. When I got home one day, I let it slip that the other kids went on a field trip and I stayed behind. She asked why I didn’t go and I told her it cost money and I didn’t want to ask. Later, I heard her crying.
59. I’ve had to stay home from school when my little brother was sick because Mom couldn’t miss work.
60. I know what day Frito Lay dumps the expired chips in a dumpster.
61. We can’t always afford to go to the laundromat and we have to wear dirty clothes.
62. A bottle of Febreeze can be used to cover the smell of dirty clothes.
63. When my shoes start to become too small, I get worried.
64. My pants are always too short about two months after we buy them.
65. I know exactly how many miles our car will go after the low fuel light comes on.
66. We take blankets in the car because the car doesn’t have heat.
67. I’ve never had a birthday party.
68. We don’t always get our presents — birthday and Christmas — at the right time.
69. When my mom complained to her sister about not having enough money to raise her kids, her sister told her “you should have closed your legs.”
70. We’ve never been able to take all of the school supplies that we were supposed to have.
71. I’ve never bought a school yearbook or school pictures.
72. I’ve never bought a book at a school book fair.
73. One winter when we ran out of propane and couldn’t buy any for a week, mom made us one huge bed in the floor in the living room. She brought every blanket in the house and we stayed in there all the time staying warm.
74. Our grass gets high sometimes. We don’t have a lawn mower and mom never has enough money to buy one. She usually does have $50 to pay someone to mow the grass but sometimes she has to wait a couple of weeks to get the money.
75. Mom misses my open houses at school and my football games because she doesn’t always have gas. She has a neighbor friend who I can ride with to my games.
76. I’ve never had a new coat. Mom says that we’re lucky that someone always gives us one of their old ones just when we need one.
77. We learned that washing our clothes by hand is a lot of work. Our washer broke and it was two months before we could afford a new one.
78. When we finally got a new washer, Mom bought it at a place where you can rent to own. It costs twice as much to buy things that way. Mom says it’s expensive to be poor.
79. One time Mom had to write a check for the electric bill. She said she knew that she didn’t have the money in the bank, but she had to do it or they would cut off our electricity. She said the bank would pay it. They did, but she had to pay them an extra $30 because of not having enough money in the bank. The electric bill was late and we had to pay the electric company $10 for being late.
80. We’ve never met our doctor. We go to a clinic and a nurse sees us every time.
81. If we go to the grocery store and pay with money, the clerks are nice. When we pay with our food stamp card, the clerks are rude.
82. We know that if we go to college, it’s going to cost us a lot of money because we’ll have to get loans. Poor kids have to pay a lot more for an education.
83. We don’t get to participate in some school activities if they cost money. Even stuff like band costs more money than we can afford.
84. We eat a lot of unhealthy food. Carbs and fats are cheaper than protein.
85. I have a poor friend who lives in the inner city. He’s afraid all the time. Mom says it’s because he hears a lot of gunshots when he’s trying to sleep and during the day. She says that he doesn’t know how to turn off the fear.
86. I’ve never ordered a soda at a restaurant.
87. We never take anything for granted. Whether it’s candy, toys, food, or cool clothes, we know it’s a blessing.

"A Framework for Understanding Poverty" by Ruby K. Payne, Ph.D.