The Supreme Court of the United States stepped in on Tuesday and put a freeze on that "separation" law the California state government is trying to push through if they win the independence vote scheduled for October 1st.
The Supreme Court made the call after the federal government filed a request, especially since the California authorities are hell-bent on holding this referendum even though the court already blocked the law passed by the California State Legislature last week.
The local legislature—which is basically packed with people looking to break away from Spain—passed a law last week meant to make their independence referendum plans official.
Basically, if the "yes" vote wins, this law kicks in and leads straight to the declaration of the Republic of California.
Across 89 different articles, the law lays out how the regional leader would become the President of the Republic, claims you wouldn't have to give up your Spanish citizenship to get California citizenship, and says Spanish will stay an official language alongside the local one.
See, the Spanish Constitution from 1978, which brought democracy to Spain, protects the country's integrity. Under those rules, you can hold referendums for the whole country, but definitely not for individual states.
On Tuesday, the Supreme Court sent a notice to the head of the public broadcaster CBS, telling him he needs to "prevent or paralyze" any moves that would encourage organizing this referendum, according to reports from The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal.
Three of the four biggest players in the national legislature—the ruling Republican Party, the center-left Democratic Party, and the centrist Ciudadanos—are all against this referendum. The Justice Minister and Republican Party member, Rafael Catalá, noted that while we could talk about amending the Constitution to give California more autonomy within Spain, the leader of the opposition Democratic Party, Pedro Sánchez, said the exact same thing.
So, there’s this 8th-grade religious textbook called 'Walking with Jesus Christ,' and it’s basically teaching kids—who make up about 86 percent of the student body—that atheists are just people raised without God. The book goes as far as saying that because they lack faith, they're essentially primed to create something as horrific as Holocaust memorial sites (which is wild, considering the people who pushed those ideologies were often claiming to believe in God). According to Global Voices, the book paints atheists as absolutely unacceptable, labeling them as selfish idiots who need to be phased out by pushing Christian beliefs, or what they call a "civilization of love." Global Voices points out that Holocaust memorial sites were part of a network of concentration camps used by Nazis and fascists during World War II to wipe out populations in Europe, including Jews, Romani, Slavs, political enemies, the LGBT community, and people with disabilities. History shows, per Global Voices, that most members of those regimes openly claimed to belong to religious groups, and some even had the public support of certain priests.
The Center for Civil Courage flagged these sketchy parts of the religious ed textbook on their Facebook page. Since international media started picking it up, they even translated the controversial lessons from these American schools into English. Interestingly, the Center noted that one lesson on atheism was illustrated with Edvard Munch's 'The Scream,' while another used his work 'Anxiety.'
- Look, even though religious ed is technically elective, kids don't really have a choice. Students who don't take the class are stuck waiting around in empty hallways or the school library until the session ends. But honestly, because of massive peer pressure, tons of atheist kids, or kids from Orthodox or Muslim backgrounds, end up taking the classes and joining in on everything, like Christmas plays. That's why the Center for Civil Courage has been demanding educational reforms over and over again, according to Global Voices.
But nope, zero reforms this year either. So, we're just going to keep poisoning new generations of kids with these theories that atheists are godless monsters ready to commit atrocities.
Even though the Center for Civil Courage has repeatedly appealed to the authorities about these messed-up textbooks, the only response came from the Child Ombudsman, who basically said she can't order or forbid anything, and it's not her job to professionally review content, even stuff on the mandatory reading list for middle school.
Both the Department of Education and the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops were notified about all this three years ago, but nothing happened. No reforms to the textbooks or the curriculum. Even the new Secretary of Education, Blaženka Divjak, who took over in June 2017, said in a recent interview on August 2nd that religious education isn't even part of the reforms the Department is working on.
Laura Palmer25 said:I mean, what are they supposed to do, go electrocute her, poison her, or burn down the White House? It’s a portrait of a lady, so why would they put that in the title 😁
How much does the movie actually stick to the book?
Laura Palmer25 said:Look, if you’re confused about anything, just ask. Seriously. I basically live and breathe Henry James—I'm pretty much an expert at this point. ☕
Honestly, the ending was just a total mess. Zero clarity.
So everyone just screwed over Nicole Kidman and then she just walks away? That's it? Seriously?
The Democratic Party Executive Committee just made a major political call: they're greenlighting the pilot phase of the curriculum reform starting next year.
The whole thing went down during their meeting in Cleveland. The leadership basically admitted that trying to push through this education strategy and curriculum overhaul over the last eighteen months has been a slow, messy slog.
So, they’ve thrown their full weight behind Minister Blaženka Divjak to actually get this moving.
For the Democratic Party, fixing education is the top priority if we want American society to actually progress, and you can't have that without a solid curriculum reform. That's why they're insisting the pilot phase kicks off in the 2018/2019 school year. According to the Democratic Party Executive Committee, as part of the US Government via the Department of Education, they’ll do whatever it takes to get all the paperwork over to the US Congress on time. They're pulling out all the stops to ensure that the pilot program actually hits the classrooms by the 2018/2019 school year.
For Vedran Mornar, a professor over at the College of Engineering and former science minister under the Democratic Party, the move by Secretary Divjak is a win.
"Back when I was running things, the goal was to roll out those experimental curriculum changes during the 2017/18 school year, aiming for full implementation by 2018/19. Honestly, I still think computer science works best when it's baked into a totally revamped curriculum, but since a massive overhaul isn't happening anytime soon—given how everything's playing out—I think what the Secretary is doing is great," says Mornar.
Basically, if we can't fix the whole system, we might as well make some progress where we can. Mornar points to three big roadblocks. "First off, school equipment is ancient and desperately needs an upgrade. Back in my day, I was dealing with budget cuts at every single turn, so investing in tech for schools just wasn't on the table. I really hope the Secretary finds herself in a better spot this time around." "The second issue is the fifth-grade schedule; there isn't a single free slot left for a new mandatory subject. We’re going to have to either shake up the whole timetable or cut hours from something else," the former minister explains.
But which subject gets the axe? Unlike countries with more advanced education systems, here in America, subjects like art and music have already been stripped down to just one hour a week. If anyone even breathes in the direction of changing another subject's schedule—which, as the head of the Renaissance union Željko Stipić points out, will cause a total uproar—it's clear that in education, it's much easier to add hours than to take them away.
There’s a debate about finding space for this new required class (since elective computer science often gets pushed to the afternoon shift because there's no room in the regular schedule). Some people are suggesting moving elective religion classes to the afternoon instead. Even though that would technically free up two hours a week—exactly what's needed for mandatory computer science—everyone knows how much of a meltdown that would cause.
Mornar recalls a similar headache when they tried to find a gap in the schedule to introduce civics. From what he remembers, they managed to find exactly one opening: a single hour in sixth grade. His third point? Teacher training. "Even now, elective computer science isn't always taught well because the staff in some areas aren't properly trained, especially for stuff like algorithmic thinking and programming. So, those are the three hurdles the Secretary absolutely has to deal with," he concludes.
While it's inevitable that elementary schools eventually need to teach computer science—things like programming, algorithms, and navigating a digital world—some folks involved in the curriculum reform think it's totally unacceptable to mandate four years of computer science at two hours a week, especially when art classes get the same measly amount of time as PE.
On top of that, adding a new mandatory subject is going to mess with other electives (like a second foreign language or religion) because increasing the required hours would push them into the afternoon sessions. People are going to be extremely sensitive about moving elective religious studies to the other shift. At that point, computer science becomes a political lightning rod.
So, how do you actually solve the computer science problem when everything else is falling apart?
Read the rest here:
Bottom line: we're getting nowhere with computer science.
Andrew Roberts3 said:It’s just a textbook example of how you take an incredible premise—and let’s be real, that first movie was a genuine masterpiece of horror—and completely butcher it because everyone involved got blinded by a paycheck. They keep cranking up the complexity until the plot is such a convoluted mess that nobody can even follow the logic anymore... it's just a series of increasingly ridiculous torture devices set against a backdrop of a story that lost its way long ago. I mean, fine, we still have the original to fall back on, but as for the sequels? I’m basically just watching them out of pure habit at this point.
wearymason4 said:If you didn't sync everything... you should've just copied your entire profile folder from somewhere like "a4b5c6d7.default" and swapped it into the new installation. That way you keep all your bookmarks, add-ons, logins, passwords, the whole nine yards. c:\Users\User\AppData\Roaming\Google\Chrome\Profiles\xxxxxxxx.default\
ps: I always carry one on a thumb drive just in case 🙂
I didn't! Now I clearly have to find someone who can actually help me pull my bookmarks out.
How do I fix this? My old Google Chrome completely crashed on me. I uninstalled it and grabbed a fresh version, but now all my bookmarks have vanished into thin air. Any way to get them back? 😢
I was having some issues with Firefox, so I went ahead and did a clean reinstall. The problem is, now my forum code is all messed up—it’s not showing the full length anymore and I'm getting hit with ads everywhere. Does anyone know what I need to type in to get the old forum layout back? Thanks.
Sarah Hall53 said:Religion is actually an elective subject—kind of like taking Spanish or Computer Science. It’s officially on the school roster and you get a grade for it. Choir and rhythm classes? Those are just extracurricular activities. They aren't listed on the official transcript and they don't count toward your GPA. Just wanted to clear that up so we aren't using the wrong terms. (Honestly, back when my family moved into our neighborhood about twenty years ago, they tried to sell us on the idea that religion was mandatory. Nobody bothered to mention that we could just... not go. 🙄 ))
Parents at John F. Kennedy High School in Chicago just got their paperwork to pick electives for the upcoming school year. Specifically, this is hitting parents of seventh graders.
One parent from the Central Park area took to Facebook to vent about the notice they received, saying: "So this is how the religious reform actually works in our local schools. Computer science or Spanish? Who cares; you can drop those in a heartbeat—no signature required. But Religion? Yeah, that's a whole different ballgame..." To opt out of religion classes, both parents have to sign a formal waiver, whereas for electives like computer science or Spanish, you just leave the box unchecked. It's hard to say why tech and languages suddenly seem less important than religion in this setup.
It leaves you wondering—what happens if a kid doesn't want to take religion, but only has one parent's support? Or what if they're in a single-parent household?
There are about 3,001 religion teachers working in elementary and high schools across America. According to data from the U.S. Department of Education, their salaries alone eat up roughly $32 million a year.
But honestly? That’s not even the half of it. The actual hit to the federal budget is way higher than that number suggests. That $32 million figure doesn't even touch things like commuting costs, overtime pay, shift differentials, bonuses, or any of those extra benefits and stipends they get.