American politics and news thread 2.0

j7wild wrote:

My wife, her name is NOT Viceversa, attended and graduated with Top Honors from HBU, Houston Baptist University.

They have a whole strict manual that they wanted you to sign which included rules of things you are not allowed to do while on campus:

no holding hands in public while on campus
no kissing in public while on campus
no display of public affection of any kind while on campus

Sounds like NOT Viceversa went to a madrassa.

Why do you pal around with terrorists, Jay Seven?

Quote :

no holding hands in public while on campus
no kissing in public while on
campus
no display of public affection of any kind while on campus

These rules actually might work for the young campus male. The first two activities can be a real annoyance to the bon-vivant about campus, thus it would be handy to have the rule book to wave around to dissaude such behaviour.
The third rule though should include the waiver, "except when exiting the pub late at night after an evening of revelry." Otherwise enforce during daylight hours.
Yes, I lived in a campus dorm for two years, with a handy pub within crawling distance.

Am I the only one here who just assumed that j7 was single, given that, over at the old MI6 forums, he only ever seemed to posted galleries of thousands of images from Victoria's Secret shows?

j7's background hasn't exactly been consistent, even after MI6.

Prisoner Monkeys wrote:

Am I the only one here who just assumed that j7 was single, given that, over at the old MI6 forums, he only ever seemed to posted galleries of thousands of images from Victoria's Secret shows?

The nu-Jay Seven of B&B is a gritty reboot.

Because nothing says "gritty reboot" like being a family man who has a wife with an unusual name and a degree from a Baptist university by day, but sprouting fringe conspiracy theories by night?

Hilly wrote:

There it is, in black and white.

Or in the case of j7's wife's name, blue and red.

Blunt Instrument wrote:

Hilly wrote:

There it is, in black and white.

Or in the case of j7's wife's name, blue and red.

Quite patriotic even.

Prisoner Monkeys wrote:

Because nothing says "gritty reboot" like being a family man who has a wife with an unusual name and a degree from a Baptist university by day, but sprouting fringe conspiracy theories by night?

Isn't that the plot of TAKEN?

Hilly wrote:

Blunt Instrument wrote:

Hilly wrote:

There it is, in black and white.

Or in the case of j7's wife's name, blue and red.

Quite patriotic even.

Gawd Bless 'Mericky!

And Sharky ... he WILL find you. And he WILL kill you :affraid: .

Largo's Shark wrote:

Prisoner Monkeys wrote:

Because nothing says "gritty reboot" like being a family man who has a wife with an unusual name and a degree from a Baptist university by day, but sprouting fringe conspiracy theories by night?

Isn't that the plot of TAKEN?

if done by the Westboro Baptist Church perhaps.

and Blunters is right, time to pack and head for Switzerland.

Blunt Instrument wrote:

Hilly wrote:

Blunt Instrument wrote:

Hilly wrote:

There it is, in black and white.

Or in the case of j7's wife's name, blue and red.

Quite patriotic even.

Gawd Bless 'Mericky!

And Sharky ... he WILL find you. And he WILL kill you :affraid: .

But first, he WILL show you a gallery of Megan Fox's dresses from the world premiere of Michael Bay's Pointless Explosions.

Not to be confused with Bay's other *classic*, 'Military Hardware Sexually Arouses Me'.

Owner must make NFL gay-friendly

http://msn.foxsports.com/nfl/story/nfl-needs-owner-to-step-up-make-gay-player-feel-welcome-030513


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No, the NFL does not need to make the league "gay-friendly". The NFL is not anti-gay as it is, so it has no way to become "gay friendly" (and the game itself is pretty gay). This call for "tolerance" and "inclusion" and "diversity" is getting sickening because it's forcing everyone else (the other 97% who aren't gay) to have to presumably change something about themselves in order to make gay people (and straight) who will never be on the field, who will never have to make a tackle, who will never have to field a punt return, feel better about watching the game. Above all else, I'm just sick and tired of everything that is not political in this country being turned into a political or "civil rights" issue. Can we not just turn on the game for 3 hours on a Sunday without being forced to care about the plight of third-world refugees suffering from famine and AIDS?

It's becoming sensory overload. I just can't cope with being asked to care about every single bad, unfair, or unjust situation in the world. The NFL is my escape from reality; once the NFL is gone, where do I turn to next?

And the league is already integrated. No one is telling gay people they can't play. There are probably a few gay players in the league right now, but it should be their decision whether to be public about it or not. A chick reporter who has never benched-pressed 250 lbs in a weight room or had to defend a quarterback from being sacked by a group of sweaty 300 lb linebackers has NO IDEA about the chemistry, camaraderie, and skills needed in an NFL locker room and should just keep their mouths shut. This is the NFL, not the Lingerie Football League.

Maybe there just aren't that many gay people wanting to play football. Maybe the fashion-world and interior decorating industries should become more straight-friendly. Maybe the emotional character and make-up of someone who wants to play football is far different than your average gay male.

I guess I'm also saying that the media is going on this relentless drum beat about marriage equality and gay players in the NFL as if it were some sort of national emergency and that is it the most important thing in any person's life right now; it's not, nor ever will be. They are hyping this "problem" in disproportion to the amount of people actually talking about it or caring about it.

If you're man enough to get hit by a linebacker, you're man enough to work with players that may not like your sexual preferences.

I'm also willing to be that if a big name, successful quarterback came out WHILE playing, most teams and fans, by far, would not care. Success cures everything.

If only the world followed Weaton's Law and left it at that.

Gravity's Silhouette wrote:

I guess I'm also saying that the media is going on this relentless drum beat about marriage equality and gay players in the NFL as if it were some sort of national emergency and that is it the most important thing in any person's life right now; it's not, nor ever will be. They are hyping this "problem" in disproportion to the amount of people actually talking about it or caring about it.

Many sports reporters are plagued by the same pc conceits that hamper their non-sports brethern. In fact some overcompensate, for fear of being dismissed as lower level "journalists" who cover the jock-sniffing arts. Truth is athletes have very little use for reporters. They are loyal to the locker room and team building first and foremost. Media blowhards are only humoured. Gay athletes are perfectly welcome in the locker room as long as they put team first, which they all do. They wouldn't have got to this level if they were about pc politics. They are football teammates first, gay second. Just as the others are football teammates first, cheerleader- chasers second. If the reverse were true they wouldn't last.
pc sports commentators and administrators only impress themselves. Those concerned with the business of winning, which is what pro sports is all about, tune them out.

Asian Americans say they faced voting problems

http://www.ajc.com/news/news/asian-americans-say-the-faced-voting-problems/nWmtH/

Asian American voters in Georgia had a range of problems during the 2012 presidential election, including being improperly asked to show proof of citizenship at the polls, not having access to translators or interpreters when reviewing ballots, and having their names misspelled on voter rolls.

That’s according to poll data released last week by the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund, a nonprofit organization that surveyed more than 9,000 Asians at polling locations in 14 states — including Georgia, where 361 voters were interviewed in Suwanee, Norcross, Duluth and Doraville.

Documenting the problems is especially significant right now because the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments last week related to a challenge to the pre-clearance section of the Voting Rights Act. That section requires that some states and counties, mostly in the South, have changes in their voting law approved by the U.S. Department of Justice before they are implemented.

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Uh, excuse me? If you can't speak, read, or understand English and you need an interpreter, how is one eligible to vote? Of course they're going to say they had problems at the voting precincts: no one could understand them. LEARN ENGLISH!

From A 'View' To A Kill

http://insidetv.ew.com/2013/03/08/elisabeth-hasselbeck-the-view-also-leaving/

http://www.showbiz411.com/2013/03/08/exclusive-brooke-shields-likely-to-join-the-view-now-that-joy-elizabeth-are-leaving

Joy Behar is leaving the show, but that's because she wanted to. She's leaving to do a more politically oriented talk show probably on CNN or Al-Jazeera, and isn't interested in doing fluff pieces about tampons and Britney Spears like she was having to do on The View.

The real jaw dropper, though, is that Elisabeth Hasselbeck is being forced out for being "too right-wing" and "too extreme". Riiiiiiiiiiight. And Rosie O'Donnell and Joy Behar weren't too left-wing? If ABC thinks their demographics don't want to hear a conservative point of view, they should have the right to fire Hasselbeck (or not renew her contract). I would want my company to have the same flexibility in hiring or firing. I just find it ironic that on a show that purported to want to show a diverse group of women with different points of view, EH is being forced out because her political and social views aren't in sync with the rest of the women.

Granted, EH wasn't the most articulate representative of conservatives, but she was better than nothing and she was hardly an extreme, fringe, fanatical person.

But that's the wonderful irony of modern-day liberals: they're the movement of tolerance, and diversity and making sure we all accept minorities...as long as those minorities are minorities of color...of nationality.....of religion (except Christianity)....of sexuality.....of gender (or trans-gender as the case may be)....but never a minority of thought or intellectualism. If you THINK DIFFERENTLY than the rest, you are a minority, but liberals want nothing to do with helping make sure your views are protected and respected. I have no problem with the irony, but I do have a problem with the hypocrisy. Liberals are like Bruce Willis in the SIXTH SENSE: he didn't know he was dead, and liberals don't recognize that they are the most intolerant, racist, hypocritical people in the world because they claim to be something that, at their core, they really are not.

Hasselbeck will be alright, though. She'll get a job at FOX or on an affiliate.

Hasselbeck is a MILF.

This story is starting to get a lot of national attention. There are several interesting components to it: she was compelled to recite the Mexican Pledge of Allegiance as part of her class assignment, but she refused. Under previous Supreme Court rulings, she could not be forced to pledge allegiance to the American flag if she had a religious or conscientious objection towards such an act. But that wasn't the case here. She was refusing to say the Mexican Pledge of Allegiance because she felt she'd be betraying her country (what we once called The United States).

Her teacher would not allow her to recite the American Pledge of Allegiance in Spanish, and gave her an alternative assignment for which the girl got 13 points out of 100. Did the girl simply fail to do the alternative assignment, or was the teacher retaliating against the student?

But there may have been a law that said you can't compel a person to recite the Pledge of Allegiance of any national country, in which case the teacher could have been in the wrong.

This all took place in a town that is up against the Mexico/US border, so it begs the question: why is Spanish/multiculturalism even being taught in this area? It's already mostly Mexican (illegal) as it stands.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/feb/27/american-student-punished-refusing-recite-mexican-/

In any event, one thing is for sure: the time is coming when the entire Southwest section of the United States will look just like Mexico, and all that that implies.

The Democrats love diversity, the Republicans love cheap labour.

Good luck, 'Merica.

Gravity's Silhouette wrote:

There are several interesting components to it: she was compelled to recite the Mexican Pledge of Allegiance as part of her class assignment, but she refused. Under previous Supreme Court rulings, she could not be forced to pledge allegiance to the American flag if she had a religious or conscientious objection towards such an act. But that wasn't the case here. She was refusing to say the Mexican Pledge of Allegiance because she felt she'd be betraying her country (what we once called The United States).

Well, that's one of the most creative excuses I've ever heard for not doing your homework.

I suspect we're only getting half the story here. This girl has made a fuss over something her assignment required her to do, but if we could actually see the assignment and the reason why she was required to recite the Mexican Pledge of Allegiance, it would probably paint a very different picture.

Gravity's Silhouette wrote:

Her teacher would not allow her to recite the American Pledge of Allegiance in Spanish

No doubt there was a very good reason for that. Without having seen the exact nature of the assignment in question, I can only speculate - but I'm guessing that if the assignment specifically called for the Mexican Pledge of Allegiance and if reciting the American Pledge of Allegiance in Spanish was not an option, then the assignment probably had something to do with Mexico itself. In fact, I'm certain of it, seeing as how the alternative assignment was on the Independence of Mexico. So reciting the American Pledge of Allegiance in Spanish would probably result in the student losing marks since it doesn't actually answer the question that was set.

Gravity's Silhouette wrote:

This all took place in a town that is up against the Mexico/US border, so it begs the question: why is Spanish/multiculturalism even being taught in this area? It's already mostly Mexican (illegal) as it stands.

The curriculum probably demands it. I'm guessing this is a HSIE/SOSE/civics class (I don't know what it's called Stateside), and there are usually units of work directly related to examining the position of a nation in context of its place in the region. I can't do much more without seeing a copy of the syllabus itself, but if you know where I can find one, I can probably deconstruct it (they're bloody awful to read sometimes - they can be very political documents).

Prisoner Monkeys wrote:

Well, that's one of the most creative excuses I've ever heard for not doing your homework.

I suspect we're only getting half the story here. This girl has made a fuss over something her assignment required her to do, but if we could actually see the assignment and the reason why she was required to recite the Mexican Pledge of Allegiance, it would probably paint a very different picture.

I agree. We need to hear more from the teacher. I'm still trying to figure out what the damages were to the student. This event occurred in September of 2011. It doesn't sound like she failed the class or the grade level.

Update: I came across a story about this dating back to October or late September of 2011 on Glenn Beck's website: http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2011/10/17/blaze-exclusive-tx-high-school-students-made-to-recite-mexican-national-anthem-pledge-of-allegiance/

It's actually worse than I thought. This teacher has the students extending their arm out in a way that is very reminscient of the Heil Hitler salute, only the arm isn't lifted up quite the same height. There's nothing in the video that shows anyone being coerced. The teacher is not forcing anybody to do anything against their will. Quite frankly, it should be English that is being taught in these schools and not Spanish, as it doesn't appear anyone in the class had the least little problem speaking Spanish.

Gravity's Silhouette wrote:

Her teacher would not allow her to recite the American Pledge of Allegiance in Spanish

Quote :

No doubt there was a very good reason for that.

I was tempted to give the teacher the benefit of the doubt on this one early on, but something about the story from the school's point of view just doesn't seem right. If the goal was to get the student to demonstrate a command of the Spanish language, the teacher could have allowed the recitation of the US Pledge in Spanish. The FACT that she, as part of the "curriculum", assigned them to either state the Mexican Pledge of Allegiance or do a story on Mexico's independence smacks of a political agenda.

When I wanted to learn about Mexico I took four trips down there; I didn't speak no stinkin' Pledge.

School district spokesman Mark May defended the presentations, saying it’s a state requirement for upper-level language classes to teach about foreign culture.

According to the state’s Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills standards, students are expected to gain “knowledge and understanding” of other cultures and use the language to demonstrate understanding of different practices and perspectives. There are no specific requirements about learning to recite pledges or anthems.

May said it’s up to the teacher how to interpret and teach the standards.

“It wasn’t required to pledge loyalty and renounce the U.S., they were simply spreading the culture of another country,” May told The Blaze. “In my mind it’s no different from memorizing a poem or memorizing a passage from Shakespeare.”

It IS different you dumb ass. God, this is why half the country is so sick of "public education" and wants vouchers to put their kids in private school. I sincerely doubt anyone would be quite as forgiving towards a teacher or principal if they required, as part of a students study of German history, that they recite the The Wehrmacht Oath of Loyalty to Adolf Hitler:

"I swear by God this sacred oath that to the Leader of the German empire and people, Adolf Hitler, supreme commander of the armed forces, I shall render unconditional obedience and that as a brave soldier I shall at all times be prepared to give my life for this oath."

The more I think about it, the more I believe it is an attempt by the education system of this country to indoctrinate the kids into this asinine multiculturalism, or an attempt by Socialist and Communist-leaning teachers to tear America down from the inside. If this teacher is so proud to have been born in Mexico, why isn't she back over there living instead of living in the U.S.? We're seeing this sort of thing pop up all too frequently now: last year students were told they could not wear any clothing that had the American flag on it because it might upset students in a California school system that were going to be celebrating Cinco De Mayo. Then last month we read about students being told they can't chant "USA! USA!" at a basketball game for fear of offending Latino students.

The entire Southwest region will peel away from the Republic by 2075. The country as a whole is slated to be 25% Latino by 2030 or 2035, and the U.S. will devolve into 6 or 7 regional areas instead of 50 states. These people are taking California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas back from the United States little by little every year.

Gravity's Silhouette wrote:

This teacher has the students extending their arm out in a way that is very reminscient of the Heil Hitler salute, only the arm isn't lifted up quite the same height.

Given that the teacher is Mexican herself, that's probably how the Mexican pledge of alleigence is taken.

Gravity's Silhouette wrote:

If the goal was to get the student to demonstrate a command of the Spanish language, the teacher could have allowed the recitation of the US Pledge in Spanish.

It's a question of what level the students are working at. I can only go by what I know, which is the Australian system, but we arrange our twelve years of school (not including kindergarten) into six "stages", or two-year blocks based on what level they are expected to be acheiving at. Under our system, this class would be working at Stage 5 (for years nine and ten), which means they should be getting into some sophisticated ideas.

Now, the Pledge of Alleigence is something that is recited by school students every single day. And with this school being so close to the Mexican border, there would naturally be an influx of Spanish-speking students (legal or not). No doubt the Pledge of Alleigence would be taught in both English and Spanish to account for this. Therefore, reciting the American Pledge of Alleigence in Spanish would not be a suitable assignment, because the students would be doing work that I would expect a student at Stage 2 or Stage 3 to be able to do. Hence, the Mexican pledge of alleigence and the national anthem would have been chosen because they contain words that the students may be unfamiliar with, and would therefore be considered more challenging.

Gravity's Silhouette wrote:

The FACT that she, as part of the "curriculum", assigned them to either state the Mexican Pledge of Allegiance or do a story on Mexico's independence smacks of a political agenda.

A syllabus can be a funny document. A lot of the time, they are written in a very political style because they are trying to account for the needs of stakeholds - the schools, the boards of education, the government, the parents, and so on. Ironically, not many of them have any actual input from students. But that's beside the point. I noticed this in the body of the article:

Quote :

According to the state’s Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills standards, students are expected to gain “knowledge and understanding” of other cultures and use the language to demonstrate understanding of different practices and perspectives. There are no specific requirements about learning to recite pledges or anthems.

All of this is true. However, pledges and anthems often reflect social and cultural values. Look at the American Pledge of Alleigence, which specifcally calls for "liberty and justice for all" - those are the values of America. You'll find the same thing in the Mexican equivalent. And when you look at the American and Mexican national anthems, you will see common themes of a nation being forged on a battlefield as its people fight for their liberty.

No, to me, this whole thing reeks of a little brat who didn't want to do her work because she didn't think it was relevant, then gave some politically-charged excuse when she failed her assignment. Her father appeared on Glenn Beck's radio programme to complain - what does that tell you about the mentality involved? It smacks of the kind of insular ultra-conservatism that considers any exposure to anything other than "good old-fashioned American values" to be a conspiracy to rob America of its cultural identity, as if America is the only culture that values the things that it does.

CJB wrote:

Hasselbeck is a MILF.

Healthy looking milf. Never mind mom, baby is also way too smart for the View. I'm stilll hoping Connery might make an encore appearance with WaWa on The View. Even at 82 he'd have those witches, screaming, running for the exits.