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I don’t know anything about the climate change themed drag show on ice. Your post isn’t about the climate change themed drag show on ice. You haven’t mentioned anything about it other than that it exists. However, the thing you were actually talking about, NPR, has been discussed at length. Until you changed the subject because it wasn’t going the way you wanted.

I was inspired to post this by BIGUN's conversation over in the Britney Griner thread. Here in Oregon our schools are way below average national performance, particularly in 3rd grade and beyond reading skills. Like the rest of the country it's Blue in the cities where the Teachers Unions hold sway and Red elsewhere where ignorant local school boards rule town. The problem, as is well known, is that the school boards in many cases would be pleased to use the bible as a tool for teaching reading and the liberal and politically powerful unions won't support any candidate who won't promise more money and the freedom to teach as they choose, per classroom. The outcome is that real science based practices that are proven to be successful in raising kids reading scores aren't used universally so as to avoid broadening the area of offense taking and to keep one's reelection hopes alive. The consequence is that kids, parents, and society suffer. We now have a new Governor, Tina Kotek, a Democrat. She is so new she still squeaks. Literally, she embodies the tax, spend, pander, and hope for the best Liberal. Sadly, she was the better choice out of three. To the point: I think teachers in K-12 classrooms at a minimum shouldn't be free spirits, falsely believing that their innate talents will get the job done of educating our youth. Defined curriculum, according to a national standard, should be taught step by step with the teachers' individual techniques and talents being used to accomplish that task per student, sort of like what it's like to earn your flying certificates. No going off the rails or wasting time as perhaps BIGUN's daughter is suffering. Kids who do great move up and out, kids who are not go to a plan "B" solution, but the majority stay on course. Sto ad arietem If you are bored to tears, our Governor: https://www.opb.org/article/2023/03/03/think-out-loud-conversation-oregon-governor-tina-kotek/

Tablets. Allow me to expand. Gen Z is the first generation to have the world in their hands. Gen Z doesn't need to be taught; they know how to learn. Curriculum - of course, but the instructional methodology needs to be adjusted to adaptive learning. They need to be challenged on subjects. One of them says something and to their devices they go. And, they saturate themselves on the subject in a short period of time. As far as social rules. They have it wrapped up by the age of ten. The little one knew racism was bad. Her friends know racism is bad. They know about gender identification. My little one knows more about chromosomes than most 40 year old men. They accept others for their differences. More than any other generation. There was a time when previous generations made fun of the physically or mentally challenged. Not this generation. It is inspiring to see a physically or mentally challenged kid pull up in a car. They don't stand there and watch, They don't jeer. They go over and help. One of them grabs the books, the other grabs their lunch, another the wheelchair and they talk with the child - all the way to class. If they are well-versed in racism, gender identification, etc. they really don't need some adult less versed in the subject telling them what they need to know. They get it. They get it more than any other generation. Preaching to them ad nauseum about gender identification is about as effective as an undergraduate trying to show Kallend how smart they are in physics. They get it. They get it more than any other generation.

For family reasons I spent the weekend in Arkansas. Judging by the billboards along the highways, it would appear that Arkansans spend a whole lot on guns and ammo. Maybe they should reconsider their priorities. Arkansas rankings among the states: Health Care#49 Education#41 Economy#41 Infrastructure#43 But they sure are ready to fight off those Russian and Chinese invaders.

Oh no dude, it’s way lower than that.

I just received a yepzon from a friend 3 months ago, no wonder it was free

Mate I just went and checked my profile, and it turns out yesterday marked my 10th year on here. You haven't engaged in a single topic in good faith for at least half of that time. People respond to you in accordance with your actions.

Well, it wouldn't be a brent post if he doesn't make up the argument of the other side, wouldn't it?

Why should you care at all? Being offended by someones sexuality when it does not affect you at all isn't being old fashioned it is being bigoted. Let adults live their one life in any way that gives them hope and pleasure. The bottom line, so to speak, is that whatever gay or trans people are doing they aren't doing it to you and if they are, well, it can't be much of a deal because you don't seem to have noticed.

That's just awful.

Truth. Thank you. My club was PGR before there was a PGR. In fact, two of our members broke off and formed the PGR. Been a part of it since the beginning.

My wife has a tracker for her dog. It is about 3/4 inch x 1 inch x 1.5 inch. She can use her cell phone and track his location from any where. She was overseas last week and could tell where he was within a few feet. It came with a charger and needs to be recharged every few days.

To a large degree because the very wealthy have decided they don't want to support the rest of the country. Oversimplified, but accurate. It's the old 'oligarchs & wealthy land owners are not willing to pay their fair share because the poor and minorities benefit from it' story. So the far right has bought politicians with 'dark money' (thanks to Citizens United), Murdoch's media conglomerate has spread vitriolic, divisive propaganda, and the 'useful idiots' have embraced the ideology, ignoring the fact that it hurts them almost as much as it does 'those people'. Heather Cox Richardson writes a daily (more or less) article, tying historical issues with todays headlines. One thing she has beaten well past death (the cliched 'horse smoothie') is how similar we are now to the period just before the Civil War. When the wealthy Southern slave holders did everything in their power to hold on to their wealth & power. Including co-opting poor whites into fighting and dying for them. Without ever realizing they'd been conned. Not unlike the MAGA fools.

So I guess when they come up with a methane powered jump plane, the skydivers can provide the fuel on the way to altitude.

Doesn't Apple Air Tag rely on it being within bluetooth range of an apple device? Not very useful if the canopy is somewhere in the fields and trees.

A phoney what? I don’t think your moral worldview has much to do with Jesus.

Social messages like . . . accept that some people are different from you? Live and let live? Stop hate crimes? Everyone deserves the same rights? Don't be ashamed of who you are? Yes, children are being exposed to these messages, and have been for decades. And that's a good thing.

?? Fox News does that all the time. They regularly have "climate change is a joke" features followed by "drag queens teaching your KIDS!" specials. For example, only yesterday on FOX News they had a feature titled "Graphic drag show for babies" and another titled "House Democrats' own witness blasted Biden's climate bill for permitting 'climate apocalypse'." Hearing FOX News supporters ridicule another news organization for reporting on climate change and transgender people is . . . hilarious. Up next! Right wingers complain that there is too much about cancel culture in the news, and demand the mainstream media be cancelled as a result.

Yes in the end we all die. Brilliant observation. Who knew.

The disconcerting trend is that intervals between coronovirus outbreaks has been decreasing. SARS to MERS was 10 years. MERS to COVID was 6 years. If that trend continues we are about ready for a new coronavirus outbreak.

It must be quite the burden for you, being wise beyond the comprehension of everybody else, and yet so deeply cynical. At least you are eloquent! BTW there is no compelling evidence to support the idea that Covid-19 is a bioengineered weapon. On the other hand there is very strong evidence that it is a naturally occurring virus, spilled over from a zoonotic reservoir (probably bats), likely through a secondary zoonotic host, and into humans. There are many related coronaviruses that cause occasional spillover infections in people, and it is only a matter of time before it occurs again in circumstances that support higher transmission to people, selection for adaptive mutations, and yet another pandemic. A spillover infection in a small farming community almost always burns itself out, but the same virus brought to a "wet market" in a densely populated city presents a vastly greater risk. A problem with the "bioengineered" mythology is that it discounts the role of spillover of natural viruses, encourages politicians to dismiss that threat, and discourages efforts to find and track these spillover events and prepare for future pandemics. Of course, it is politically expedient, in that it allows politicians of a certain inclination to blame China (or any other entity it is convenient to direct the base's hate towards) while slashing funding for efforts to deal with present and future pandemics.

I don't believe much of anything, and I'm certainly not a supporter of any of the usual suspects. Having said that, Antifa burnt more things to the ground than I'd prefer. If Portland survived their attentions good for them. SARS-COV-2 is rather a definitive bioengineered pathogen, its release most certainly the result of blunder rather than intent. The response to the pandemic was also an exercise in incompetence (any time something actually turns out to be due to conspiracy I'm quite impressed). I've lived in both Chicago and Florida, and both have areas that are either genteel to the point of idyllic or violent, dystopian hell holes, depending on who's doing the finger pointing. The only difference between one side of the aisle and the other the population to whom they pander. Both groups are equally FUBAR. BSBD, Winsor

Oh piffle. You're using FACTS again, Professor. His base are the people who believe (among other things) that Antifa burned Portland to the ground, Trump won the election, Covid is a Chinese engineered bio-weapon AND a hoax (at the same time), the vaccines have tracking chips in them and have killed millions. Of course they believe that Chicago is a violent, dystopian hell-hole (instead of Florida being one ).

Because until they're the ones giving chest compressions, tying off a tourniquet or holding a canopy to shade some poor broken fucker while waiting for the LifeFlight they will always operate under the credo "Anyone but me. It will happen to anyone but me." This shit isn't complicated. Myopic assholery, yes, but not complicated.

I didn't scold you. I disagreed with you. If you took it as a scolding that's on you, not me. As I said before, my intent was and is to set the record straight for those who might take a veteran skydiver's words literally. Nothing more. Nothing less. I avoided dz.com for a long time because of situations just like this. I guess I'll go back to the many skydiving Facebook groups where people actually try to be productive. I'm out.