Texas School District Decides To Just Ban All Books Flagged For Review… Including The Bible

If you’re not familiar with the story and history behind the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, then go read up on it, because it’s a great story. For you lazy bums out there, I’ll summarize it thusly. A 24-year old in Oregon got sick of religious types in Kansas trying to inject the teaching of intelligent design in public education institutions under the guise of “teaching the debate” or “equal time” with, well, actual science. As a result, he created a spoof religion centering on a monster made of pasta that uses his noodley appendages to do all kinds of things in our world, including changing carbon dating results so as to hide the actual age of the world and universe. He then argued for “equal time” for this religion in Kansas, stating that if it was good enough for Christians, it was good enough for “Pastafarians”.

Texas School District Decides To Just Ban All Books Flagged For Review… Including The Bible

At least they’re being consistent!

Russian operative used U.S. activist groups to spread propaganda, feds say

A Russian operative backed by the Kremlin meddled in United States politics for seven years and recently tried to undermine American support for Ukraine by recruiting local activists to spread pro-Moscow propaganda, the Justice Department announced Friday.

Russian operative used U.S. activist groups to spread propaganda, feds say (archived)

The timing is suspicious, considering they knew about the alleged connections since before ‘Russiagate.Are they going after the Texit leader, next, or just going to ignore it (not saying that any of them should be gone after but it just adds to my suspicions)?! A message to the antiwar/anti-imperialist movement?!

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Arizona Can’t Function Without Forced Labor, Is That Bad?

As much as we love to talk about how we have “abolished” slavery in these here United States, there is an exception to the 13th Amendment — involuntary servitude is still legal if it’s being used as punishment for a crime. In Arizona, as in many states, prisoners are required to work 40 hours a week for at little as 10 cents an hour, unless their health does not allow it (which is a very big possibility considering a federal judge just found the state’s prison healthcare system to be “plainly grossly inadequate” and “unconstitutional”).

Arizona Can’t Function Without Forced Labor, Is That Bad?

Related:

Arizona communities would ‘collapse’ without cheap prison labor, Corrections director says

‘We can’t be an oil supplier’: Biden’s adviser says oil reserve releases must end

One of Biden’s top energy aides confirmed Friday the administration won’t extend the oil releases from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve that are scheduled to end this fall.

‘We can’t be an oil supplier’: Biden’s adviser says oil reserve releases must end

Related:

Soaring U.S. Production Can’t Keep LNG Prices In Check

Europe has displaced Asia as the top destination for U.S. LNG, and now receives 65% of total exports.

According to a report by the Oil & Gas Journal, 10-year LNG contracts are currently priced at ~75% above 2021’s rates, with tight supplies expected to persist as Europe aims to boost LNG imports.

Who’s telling the truth about prices?!

When Abortion Was Illegal, Adoption Was a Cruel Industry. Are We Returning to Those Days?

by Pema Levy

A few weeks ago, before the final decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization which ended the constitutional right to an abortion, I downloaded the audio version of American Baby: A Mother, A Child, and the Shadow History of Adoption by the journalist Gabrielle Glaser. Glaser’s book details the history of what became known as the “Baby Scoop Era,” the period from 1945 to 1973 during which as many as three to four million young, unmarried women surrendered their newborns to an exploitative adoption industry, and for many against their will, were permanently severed from their child.

When Abortion Was Illegal, Adoption Was a Cruel Industry. Are We Returning to Those Days?

Related:

The cruel secret history of a Jewish adoption agency that separated siblings

Woman discovers shocking truth of maternity home where she gave birth