In Case You Slept Through Church This Sunday

Arkansas Teachers Can Go Commando

An Arkansas school board actually issued an edict requiring that all of it's teachers wear underwear. No spandex, either. And underwear was not to clash with clothing, or reveal panty lines. The question that apparently was not asked when the school board in Little Rock voted on this nonsense has to do with what the author of the edict was actually thinking when he wrote it! Probably not academics!

So anyways, the teachers all got mad and complained, and now the school district in is receivership. The state has stepped in and taken over, and now teachers are free to choose their own underwear again. Or go commando. Greg Adams, the president of the Little Rock School Board, is disappointed. Some of the high schools in that district were also found to be under "academic distress", and the imposition of non-spandex undergarments did not promise enough improved learning for the board chairman, Sam Ledbetter, who, despite Adams's disappointment, stated, "At some point, you just have to go in a new direction."

Looking at all the problems experienced by public schools nationwide, and all the reasons a school district could go into receivership, it amazes your blogger that a state would actually take over a school district over teachers' undergarments! Are bra straps really that important? Geesh!

In Case You Didn't Bother With Church This Sunday

Satan Claws Is Coming To Town

Well, well, well. The good Christians of Lansing, Michigan are in a snit over religious freedom. That's right; their nativity was forced to move over and make room for the Michigan chapter of the Satanic Temple to put up a holiday display, as well. The Satanists focused on the gift of knowledge, and on it's importance to mankind.

Christians appear oblivious to the actual origins of most of their "holy" days. In fact, all Christian holidays are leftovers from bygone eras when the Catholic Church, in an ongoing effort to collect tax dollars from the entire world, used the church to control entire populations. Instead of taking the winter holiday away from everyone, an interesting accusation in and of itself, the church just renamed all of it's holidays, putting the face of a European Jesus on all of the Gods whose holy days had previously been celebrated at those times by Pagans. Christmas is a conglomeration of Winter Solstice, Saturnalia, and Yule. If there ever actually was a Jesus Christ, he certainly was not conveniently born on the same day as the Sun God!

If the Christians had not wanted the Satanists to "take Christmas away", (was it ever really theirs in the first place?) they could have honored the law and kept their religious icons at home. Since the government is not allowed, by law, to favor one religion over another, it has to allow every religion equal space if it allows one religion any space. So now, we are taking back Winter Solstice. We have a beautiful display done by an artist of the Satanic Temple on display this week in Lansing, Michigan. It looks like a win for the Constitution of the United States. Just remember to keep Sol in Winter Solstice.

Important Reason Why Christian God Does Not Belong Anywhere

"You are the type that doesn't really give two shits about the flag, thinks God doesn't belong....ANYWHERE, and is in love with those wonderful goverment handouts!"

That's a snippet from some words shared with me a couple of years ago by a Melissa Kennedy, teacher at the public school in Frankfort, Kansas. She wanted to continue her meaningless dialogue about her religion with children in public school, and I wanted all proselytizing to stop. The ACLU got involved, and the school grudgingly conceded to obey federal law. The reference to government assistance refers to a time when I took my husband, a veteran, to the  VA when he got sick. It seems Melissa Kennedy does not like veterans.

There are several reasons why god, in terms of christianity, does not belong anywhere,  but here is a serious one that has been downplayed by the media here in Kansas. A Reverend Bugbee (the name is interesting for a child molestation suspect) was arrested on November 19 for commercial exploitation of a child and for sexual exploitation of a child. Washington Christian Church, in Washington, Kansas, mostly looks innocent from the outside, looking in; but a pastor there apparently spreads his faith....and his seed.... in ways that violate the law. Horny Christian clergy often have trouble taking no for an answer in situations that involve sex, but should not involve sex; so it seems to me that Church and State have no business mixing in public schools, where christianity practiced as Bugbee has been accused of practicing it can be a problem in many ways. Once again, this is not the only reason god does not belong anywhere, but an important one.

Reverend Jim Bugbee. Proof, once again, that god does not belong anywhere. Especially when children are involved.

In Case You Weren't In Church On Sunday

Can anyone say "overkill"? Responding with the words "bless you" when hearing a sneeze is not what our forefathers had in mind when they agreed upon separation of church and state. This Tennessee classroom has obviously gone overboard in giving a child in-school detention for instinctively using those words when a classmate sneezed. Now; if she seriously believed the archaic German/Christian superstition that one's soul disappears into the mists via the sneeze whenever this happens, and had reiterated that failing to say "bless you" could lead to eternal damnation, there may have been a slight violation; but this did not happen. Perhaps along with "overkill", she should say "gesundheit" next time.

Has Your School's Insurance Been Canceled?

Has your local public school's insurance been canceled? If you live in Kansas, the answer might be "yes". EMC Insurance Companies, the Iowa based backer for most of the insurance companies used by public schools in Kansas, has refused, this year, to underwrite a policy for any public school that allows guns on school premises, except in certain instances, such as when police officers happen to visit a school for some reason, in the line of duty. In July of this year, Kansas lawmakers decided not only to extend de facto permission to allow guns at school to  students who hunt in the morning, before school starts; but to also allow teachers to carry concealed weapons to school!

In the tiny public school that is closest to my home, all six of my children have been bullied by oversized, pink, blond children, and when that has not been enough to satisfy the lust for violence among the inbred population that was waiting for us when we moved here, teachers began to bully me and send nasty emails to me, for such infractions as failing to support their favored candidates during elections and failing to attend their churches! The ACLU was forced to step in on my behalf! No loving parent sends a child to Frankfort School in Kansas if another choice is available. Should any of the teachers who stoop to bullying tactics experience a momentary lapse of reason while carrying a gun, the closest child would probably be the first to take a bullet, and the child with the darkest hair and skin would probably be the first at whom the bullet is deliberately aimed.

In response to the new law, allowing teachers of all levels of sanity and intelligence, or lack thereof, to carry weapons to school, EMC has decided that the risk is unworthy, and about ninety percent of Kansas public schools did not have insurance when school started. Because public schools in Kansas are not consolidated, but run by small, "unified" districts and ridicules local school boards, school boards are scrambling to appease insurance companies with newfangled "policies" about guns in schools, in an ongoing effort to convince underwriters that their buildings will be safe. If schools were consolidated and all under the control of the state of Kansas, one decision could be made for all Kansas public schools, and the insurance companies would not have to deal individually with many different school districts. In the mean time, school has started with no insurance for most public schools in Kansas. Failing to carry insurance is against the law in most states for drivers, and most businesses must carry insurance, so I can only wonder how public schools in Kansas get away with this. Also, why has this been largely ignored by Kansas media? Are parents seriously not concerned about children attending uninsurable schools?

It should also come as no surprise when the unified districts that do manage to procure insurance find themselves doing so at a higher rate than they formerly paid. The climate of Kansas schools has already been shown to be unsafe. Shouldn't the local school boards on the unified districts have seen this coming, and begged their representatives to vote otherwise on this law? Now there will be even less money for actual education, such as it is in Kansas.

Some time ago, the local school board thought I was jesting when I explained to them that allowing guns at school in the hands of students is foolish, and that if they did nothing about the guns that were taken to school by certain students, I would make their oversights public. I called the school's insurance company, and was told that under no circumstances should a weapon be taken to a school by a student or a teacher, and that the information I had just given them would be shared with their investors. I suppose those who provide the school's insurance had hoped that the school board folks would wake up and smell the coffee before a tragedy forces their eyes open, but Kansas, instead, has compounded the issue.

In other news, Iowa has begun to grant permits to carry concealed weapons to blind applicants.

Second Reason To Consolidate Kansas Schools

Not too long ago, I discussed, on this site, what I consider to be the first reason to consolidate Kansas public schools, rather than leave them under the control of unified districts and unprofessional local school boards consisting of uneducated folks with no teaching experience. This allows the unified districts too much leeway to violate federal and state laws, since none of them answer to federal or state authority in any way. One of those laws that Kansas school boards attempt to sidestep has to do with student safety and weapons; specifically firearms.

Before she graduated last year, my daughter shared with me the fact that she did not always feel safe at school because some of her classmates took guns to school. I was shocked to hear this, and asked her why this was happening. She told me that during hunting season, boys in her class went hunting before school started, and instead of taking the guns home and putting them away, they would leave them in their lockers, or in the back seats of their cars! This particular school, in Frankfort Kansas, has all grades from kindergarten to grade twelve, and no one besides my daughter had ever considered the possibility that a small child could open a car door, find an unattended weapon, and create a tragedy. Also, at least one of the children cited by my daughter as taking weapons to school is a confirmed bully, and allowing such a child to take weapons to school is crazy, but this is school in Frankfort, Kansas.

I went to the local sheriff's office to complain about this, and was told by the undersheriff, Tim Ackerman, that because of the Republican leanings of most Kansans, and because many of them go to fundamentalist Christian churches, Frankfort School does not have to worry about tragedies such as the ones in Columbine, Colorado and Newton, Connecticut. Later, I called the Kansas Department of Education, and was told that Kansas schools do not have to really obey the law. It is only a "recommendation" in Kansas, not a requirement. The best alternative my family was able to find for the protection of everyone in our home was to find another school that is not affiliated with Kansas public schools or USD 380.

The only way to change this, and make Kansas schools safe is to either put the entire mess (and I DO mean mess) of public schools in Kansas in receivership, or simply consolidate Kansas public schools and make them answerable to state and federal authorities. Most Kansans hate that idea, but if Kansas were truly able to understand the law and govern themselves, public schools in Kansas would all be in compliance with the law.

Tim Ackerman, the cop who thinks voting Republican and going to church are great ways ensure that kids can safely attend school with guns in tow during hunting season.