…too much education fogs the mind up too much…

Three Australian women in 1961 ponder the question, “Is education a waste of time for married women?”

I like how even the woman arguing for the utility of education explains how modern women can get all their household chores done in the morning, leaving them free for the afternoon, until the children get home. She still has a few shackles to break, I think.

Technology is trying to kill me now

These new health features in the Apple Watch are tempting.

I would worry that the false positive rate is going to be sky high, but on the other hand, I’m getting older, have a family history of heart problems, and had my own cardiac scare several years ago. Maybe this would be a good thing to look into.

How much do these Apple Watches cost, anyway? (quickly checks apple.com to answer my own question.)

GAAAAAAH! $400!

(Strokes out. Goes into v-fib. Collapses. Heart explodes. Dies.)

Nope, sorry, the budget isn’t going to be able to cope with this at all.

Hey, Arizona!

Your kids are about to have their educations wrecked!

Your current superintendent of public instruction is reviewing state curricula, and she has an agenda.

Douglas has been working for awhile now to bring a little Sunday school into science class. This spring she took a red pen to the proposed new science standards, striking or qualifying the word “evolution” wherever it occurred.

This, after calling for creationism to be taught along with evolution during a candidate forum last November.

They’re about to do a final edit of the state science standards, and she appointed Joseph Kezele to the 8-person review team.

Kezele is a biology teacher at Arizona Christian University. He also is president of the Arizona Origin Science Association and, as Flaherty puts it, “a staunch believer in the idea that enough scientific evidence exists to back up the biblical story of creation.”

Yeah, this guy.

Evolution, he said, is a false explanation for life and should be taught so that students “can defend against it, if they want to.”

“I’m not saying to put the Bible into the classroom, although the real science will confirm the Bible,” Kezele told Phoenix New Times in an interview on Wednesday. “Students can draw their own conclusions when they see what the real science actually shows.”

He argued that scientific evidence supports his creationist ideas, including the claims that the Earth is only 6,000 years old and that dinosaurs were on board Noah’s Ark.

Or you can watch him calmly peddle ignorance on YouTube.

Might as well put a flat-earther on the review committee to make sure none of that spherical Earth stuff is taught to kids.

As always, I am astounded that such stupid nonsense continues to be given equal time.

(By the way, Douglas is, of course, a Republican.)

The movie this week was…the Prairie Light Film Festival!

Yeah, it was a bunch of movies, and I saw most of them. My eyes! Need a nap now.

The only one I missed was The Rider, which looked good, but I did see the other four, listed here in ascending order of my appreciation.

4. Hereditary. You know, I heard a lot of praise for this movie, but I didn’t care for it much at all. It’s a supernatural horror film, which means that it is a succession of creepy/scary/gross events which don’t need to make much sense, because spooky/mystical reasons. It’s well-made, but I just didn’t see much point to it all.

3. Won’t You Be My Neighbor? Mr Rogers! I like Mr Rogers! But you’ve probably heard—you shouldn’t find out about your heroes. A couple of things bugged me: 1) He was a lifelong Republican, and 2) while he was happy to support a black cast member (Officer Clemmons), on learning that he was gay, he warned him that he better not ever be publicly exposed. I guess there were limits to his tolerance. While he did good things, it’s clear he was a wealthy, privileged Christian who was locked into his comfort zone — he wasn’t going to support anything that made him uncomfortable.

2. Sorry to Bother You. Nobody told me that this was SF/fantasy/dystopian story! It was on the weird side, and enjoyable, even though it was taking a painfully humorous look at capitalism and racism. Fun! And grim! This is one I’d like to see again, because the first time through I was wrestling with trying to figure out what kind of movie it was.

1. 8th Grade. Best of the bunch. A fantastic performance by the lead, although maybe she was just living the real experience of being in junior high. It’s just a simple slice-of-life story, but it’s made compelling by the actor and the remembered awfulness of 8th grade. Yeah, it sucked. The movie brought it back to life.

We’re going right back to the popular cheesy stuff this weekend: it’s going to be The Meg! I guess I’ll have to go to bring some balance back to my movie-going.

He couldn’t even stammer out “states rights”?

It’s always nice to see a racist stunned into silence.

The dope with his jaw dropped is Andy Hallinan, a guy whose sole claim to fame is that he owns a gun shop where he publicly announced his refusal to sell guns to all Muslims, and sells targets with photos of Democrats. Now he has another stupid thing added to his reputation!

Pauline Hanson, pick on someone your own size, ya drongo

Wow. Australia has the same unthinking conservative dimwits we have over here. It’s like we’re sister countries or something. Of course, we also have some of the same thoughtful people of conscience, like Harper Nielsen.

Harper Nielsen, who lives in the state of Queensland, told CNN affiliate Nine News she sat during her country’s national anthem because she believed it was disrespectful to Indigenous Australians.
The anthem, titled “Advance Australia Fair,” …

Hold on a minute, I did not know the name of your national anthem.”Advance Australia Fair“? Unless the song is about promoting a seasonal carnival with farmers showing off their prize sheep, that title alone is stunningly racist. So racist that a 9-year-old school kid noticed. At least we Americans have the excuse that no one ever sang the third stanza of our national anthem, but you put the bigotry right up there in the title.

A plain-spoken people, those Australians.

… contains the line “Australians all let us rejoice, for we are young and free.”

“(But) when it says Advance Australia Fair, it means advance the white people,” the 9-year-old student told Nine News.

“And when it says ‘we are young’ it completely disregards the indigenous Australians who were here before us for 50,000 years.”

She seems like a thoughtful, principled young lady. Good for her. A healthy democracy thrives on an intelligent, informed citizenry that constantly questions and works to improve society.

But then…

This craven politician wants to “give her a kick up the backside” and have her expelled from school? And claims Harper Neilsen has been brainwashed? You know what’s brainwashing: it’s have repetitive patriotic platitudes recited at you every day, and being force to participate in mindless rituals. Hanson claims it’s “about who we are”. OK. You have a choice. You can be like Harper Neilsen and think about what it means to be a conscientious citizen of your nation, or you can be like Pauline Hanson and demand servile, thoughtless obedience to dogmatic loyalty oaths.

If you choose the latter, you get the bonus of being able to beat up little girls. This may appeal to many people, unfortunately.