Friday, June 19, 2015

Schizophrenia

A few days ago I saw for the first time the tests given to children home schooled under a specific program that calls itself “Christian” (specifically “Accelerated Christian Education”). The program claims to be part of the accepted curriculum in over 6,000 schools and in districts all over the country. What I saw actually disturbs me. For example: Q: Wisdom – The pastor spoke with great wisdom – Wisdom means (a) a test, (b) Godly thinking, or (c) tasty milk. Here’s another example: (Sports coaches, Piano tutors, Librarians) can touch the lives of their students – pick the correct answer. The answer is Piano tutors, which the student is supposed to know because it is in a passage learned in a previous school year. One more example: Answer True or False: Leif Ericsson played short stop in the Icelandic League.


Seriously. These are questions for high school level students. No wonder many of these people can't think.
 
6,000 schools in the U.S. use this horseshit. It places that use vouchers it gets used as a required basis for education. It is, in short, teaching our children a different set of facts than the actual facts of the world. A different set of truths, and it has been doing so since 1970. 45 years. In case you wonder how some people can seem to be so stupid it’s because they were taught to be by people who want the world to be what they want to see, and not what it is, and because it has become as prevalent as it is we have a serious problem coming up.
 
It’s not yet fully diagnosed, but we as a country are showing signs of schizophrenia.
 
A shooting takes place in South Carolina: a young man who by his own admission is driven by racism shoots and kills 9 black people and parts of the country spin it as an attack on Christianity, not on Blacks. The Pope – the religious leader of one of the largest religions in the world issues an encyclical telling us to be kind to planet earth and is told by certain people to keep his nose out of science – despite the fact that it is the Pope and not these certain people who has a Master’s Degree in Chemistry. Certain people blame one of the victims of the murders in South Carolina because he told people that they shouldn’t come armed to church (listen, if I punch you in themouth and you bleed it’s your fault because you aren’t carrying boxing gloves). There are people running for president who believe in torturing people. There are people who say in a single breath that Obamacare is destroying America while celebrating that they can now afford health care. There are people who say the economy is in terrible shape while it has improved by leaps and bounds. There are people who look at pictures of military bases closed under the administrations of Bush and even Reagan and call them “Obama FEMA Reeducation Camps”. There are people who post pictures on Facebook calling for the arrest, trial, and hanging (whether convicted or not) of one of the world’s leading Constitutional Scholars - who also happens to be the current President of the US - without a) seeing the irony of this or b) realizing that they calling for the public lynching of a black man. We have an entire country arguing over a trade agreement that actually has nothing to do with trade but what laws are enforceable in which jurisdiction. We have people arguing that global warming is a hoax despite an alarming increase in hurricanes, tornadoes, flooding, and parts of Miami already underwater. There are people saying that Obama wants to take your guns when in reality despite all of the rhetoric gun laws have been relaxed under his leadership.
 
We tell anyone who doesn’t support any war we get involved in that they are against the troops but when these same troops ask for help for problems related to the wars we asked them to fight we tell them to fuck off. We call ourselves Number One in the world in everything from business to sports to science to education when it reality we most often don’t even break the top 20 in anything other than prisons or weapons of mass destruction. Maybe that’s why no one calls us on it – but the fact that we are also bullies is a separate issue.
 
Schizophrenia. I’m not a clinician but I don’t know what else to call it. I also don't know what to do about it - except maybe, just maybe, get us al on the same damn page as to what reality actually is.

That isn't going to happen. But there is something I know - things tend to not end well for untreated Schizophrenics.

Cheap Shots (everyone remember the rules?):


Required Reading.

By the way, Accelerated Christian Education comes from Texas - just like this woman.




Slutshaming is more common than you might think in more enlightened places than you'd think.


"Almost" doesn't cut it, dickhead.



I thought these guys had beef with one another but apparently they've buried the hatchet, and in a truly awesome way.

Wow. Did this fucker just call a shooting where 9 were killed an ACCIDENT? (It's Rick Perry, so the answer is - spoiler alert - yes he did).


Since I last ranted both Twitter and Tumblr became things, and I branched out from just music to comics as well. On Twitter I am @Animeraider. I am the same on Tumblr and a couple of other places. I do not have an instagram account. I will be posting to pages I think you should check out and I'm starting with Jin Wicked. She draws two comics, blogs about her life, wears an awesome top hat, and love rats.




Franz Ferdinand and Sparks aka FFS. Just about a perfect match (and if you're not watching Later with Jools Holland then why the hell not?):


Mmmmmm Bacon!






And a final note: It's been a while, hasn't it? Well, maybe, just maybe, I'm back. Remember, one drink for every time I swear. I'm drinking Gin today.

And now your moment of Zen:

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