And another day of Republicans ready to declare the US a Christian Nation, how religious fundamentalism hijacks the brain, Italy embraces the far-right, Iranian women risk everything, still no power in Puerto Rico, higher ed, and tropical storm Ian comes to a close:
“They killed Eric Garner for allegedly selling loose cigarettes. They killed George Floyd for an alleged counterfeit $20. But Brett Favre conspired w/people to steal $5M in welfare funds—people who have pled guilty to that theft—and yet he walks free w/o a charge or complaint.” — Quasim Rashid, Esq.
Deaths
US: 1,081,715
World: 6,540,339
Cases
US: 97,905,915
World: 620,253,838
Republicans Are Ready to Declare the United States a Christian Nation. Eisenhower and Reagan were Republicans, but on this issue there was a unity of understanding with Democrats such as John Kennedy and Jimmy Carter. Separation of church and state was sacrosanct. Both parties could agree on that. Until now…Sixty-one percent of the Republican respondents expressed support for the declaration, while just 39 percent said they were opposed. In other words, the party’s base voters are not divided on the question of whether to toss aside the Constitution and declare the United States a Christian nation. They overwhelmingly support the concept…What this means is that, in a party where leaders have bent again and again toward the most extremist positions of their electoral base, there is a growing movement that is prepared to tear down the wall of separation between church and state and declare the United States to be a nation in which one religion—their own—reigns supreme…Christian nationalism has been mainstreamed to such an extent that it is now the accepted faith of the party faithful. And Greene is not the only elected Republican promoting the ideas associated with a movement that Representative Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) decries as “the American Taliban.”…Boebert’s wrong, as is Pennsylvania Republican gubernatorial nominee Doug Mastriano when he dismisses the separation of church and state as “a myth.” And so is Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who is promoting a Civics Literacy Excellence Initiative that wants high school students to be taught that the founders of the American experiment didn’t really believe in maintaining the “wall of separation” that Jefferson described…The good news is that the vast majority of Americans respect religious pluralism every bit as much as the founders did. By a solid 62-38 margin, respondents to the Critical Issues Poll said they opposed officially declaring the United States to be a Christian nation. That means that if the overall electorate recognizes what’s at stake in the Republican turn toward Christian nationalism, they will reject it. But for that to happen, Democrats need to start making an issue of the fact that the Party of Lincoln, Eisenhower, and Reagan is rapidly becoming the party of Lauren Boebert, Doug Mastriano, and the deconstruction of the wall of separation between church and state.
How Religious Fundamentalism Hijacks the Brain. In moderation, religious and spiritual practices can be great for a person’s life and mental well-being. But religious fundamentalism—which refers to the belief in the absolute authority of a religious text or leaders—is almost never good for an individual. This is primarily because fundamentalism discourages any logical reasoning or scientific evidence that challenges its scripture, making it inherently maladaptive. It is not accurate to call religious fundamentalism a disease, because that term refers to a pathology that physically attacks the biology of a system. But fundamentalist ideologies can be thought of as mental parasites. A parasite does not usually kill the host it inhabits, as it is critically dependent on it for survival. Instead, it feeds off it and changes its behavior in ways that benefit its own existence. By understanding how fundamentalist ideologies function and are represented in the brain using this analogy, we can begin to understand how to inoculate against them, and potentially, how to rehabilitate someone who has undergone ideological brainwashing—in other words, a reduction in one’s ability to think critically or independently.
Abortion is a matter of ‘freedom’ for Biden and Democrats. White House aides think the message is a particularly potent one, especially when combined with repeated reminders about the GOP’s proposals on abortion, which often do not include exceptions for rape or the mother’s health that are popular with voters. The freedom message also resonates, officials say, as access to contraception and abortion medication is under threat in Republican-controlled states.
Italy voters shift sharply, reward Meloni’s far-right party. Italian voters shifted sharply, rewarding a party with neo-fascist roots and bolstering prospects the country could have its first far-right-led government since World War II, partial results Monday from the election for Parliament indicated. In a victory speech, far-right Italian leader Giorgia Meloni struck a moderate tone after preliminary results in Sunday’s national election showed her Brothers of Italy party leading contenders.
Why Iranian women are risking everything by burning their hijabs. In response to Amini’s death, Iranians are demanding an end to mandatory hijab laws and burning the scarves in powerful displays of refusal. In Tehran, they have been chanting, “We don’t want forced hijab.” That’s connected to the police’s purported reason for detaining Amini, but the act of protest carries multiple meanings. Negar Mottahedeh, a professor of gender and feminist studies at Duke University, likened the images of Iranian women burning their headscarves to the bra-burning of the 1960s. Bra-burning meant many things at once: an expression of feminism and liberation, but also a broader rejection of the Vietnam War and of capitalism. Similarly, the images from demonstrations across Iran over the last week object to compulsory veiling and the morality police, but also against a paranoid, controlling state that has sought to police women’s bodies.
A week without power after Fiona, Puerto Ricans experience echoes of Hurricane Maria. For Puerto Ricans, the uncertainty of when electricity will be fully restored is a haunting echo of the catastrophic situation following Hurricane Maria five years ago, where it took some areas months and others up to a year to regain power. About half of the nearly 1.5 million power customers are still without electricity on Sunday, a week after Fiona made landfall near Cabo Rojo, leaving the entire island in the dark.
One of Higher Ed’s Worst-Kept Secrets Is Out. It’s Even Grimmer Than We Knew. Out-of-state students are funding flagship universities—and piling up debt in the process. As to why this is happening on a national scale, the reason is indeed that sweet, sweet tuition revenue. As current University of California chancellor Carol Christ said in a 2016 interview (when she was interim executive vice chancellor and provost), “Colleges and universities are fundamentally in the business of enrolling students for tuition dollars.”…If the goal of a public system of higher education is to provide access to opportunity and advancement to qualified students in an efficient and cost-effective way, we almost could not do worse than the current status quo…The only long-term solution is to fund these public institutions with public money from the federal government, combined with contributions from the state, and tie that money to requirements to admit all qualified residential applicants.
Texts: Favre also sought welfare money for football facility. After Mississippi spent millions of dollars in welfare money on Brett Favre’s pet project, a university volleyball arena, the retired NFL quarterback tried two years later to get additional cash from the state’s welfare agency for another sports facility, new court documents show. The governor at the time, Republican Phil Bryant, texted in 2019 with Favre, who wanted to build an indoor practice facility for the University of Southern Mississippi’s football team. Bryant told him federal money for children and low-income adults is “tightly controlled” and “improper use could result in violation of Federal Law.” -- Favre is a shitty human.
Tropical Storm Ian strengthens as it heads to Cuba, Florida. Authorities and residents in Florida were keeping a cautious eye on Tropical Storm Ian as it rumbled ominously through the Caribbean on Sunday, likely to become a major hurricane on its path toward the state. Gov. Ron DeSantis has declared a state of emergency throughout Florida and urged residents to prepare for the storm to lash large swaths of the state with heavy rains, high winds and rising seas.
James Earl Jones is Retiring from Darth Vader, But an AI Firm Owns His Voice. We'll likely be hearing Jones as Vader even after he's passed on.
Life’s short. Live, love, create, and help others.
Until next time, my friends. Stay safe and stay sane. Good night.
No comments:
Post a Comment