You’ve used some common buzz words and phrases: ‘conservative,’ ‘Republican,’ ‘Liberal Republican in Name Only.’ Can you put some meaning to those words for our readers, by telling us where you stand generally on issues?
... and his answer.
Let’s start by saying I refuse to compromise my values or moderate my positions in order to pander to what I think people want to hear.
I’m Pro-Life. I fully support the 2nd Amendment. I’m a nationalist who wants to live under the United States Constitution, not some United Nations diktat. I support President Trump’s effort to secure the borders, to renegotiate bad trade deals, and his muscular foreign policy that puts America First. Like President Trump puts America first, I will put the citizens of the MA-5th Congressional District first. I will put the Constitution and individual liberty first. That means limiting the role of the federal government, keeping taxes low, limiting regulations to only what’s necessary, and it’s time we stop digging our own fiscal grave. We must balance the budget and address the national debt.
In short, I’m virtually the polar opposite of Katherine Clark on just about every issue. She’s a globalist, a tax and spend liberal, who favors open borders, sanctuary cities, and virtually every extreme social interest measure proposed by the radical left-wing base of today’s Democrat Party. Even on a cultural level – she’s totally out of touch with the average American. Let me give one disgraceful ‘for instance.’ Her claim to fame is walking out on the moment of silence held in Congress for the victims of the Las Vegas shooting. She literally called this prayerful moment an ’empty gesture.’ The America I grew up in doesn’t believe that invoking God in our own way is an empty gesture. Quite the opposite, I was brought up to believe that invoking the aid of God is an act of humility that seeks not just His intervention but His wisdom and guidance. Not to mention we honor the victims. This is not an empty gesture.
I could go on. All you really need to know about Clark is that she puts the interests of illegal aliens who commit murder above the safety of innocent American citizens. Good grief! She voted against Kate’s Law. That just proves she represents everyone but the hardworking, taxpaying and law-abiding citizens of our district.
A letter was published September 11, 2018 in the Watertown News, described as
an independent, locally owned news website. watertownmanews@gmail.com 617-458-9561
The link in the last paragraph was included in his letter.
I want to take this opportunity to thank and congratulate every single person, no matter the party and no matter who you voted for, who took the time to do their civic duty on Tuesday September 4. Our republic only works, indeed can only thrive, if informed citizens participate.
I’m truly humbled and honored that 64% of those who voted in the Republican Primary selected me to be the Republican Nominee. I want to congratulate Dr. Louis Kuchner, my primary opponent, for running a spirited campaign that took the high road and focused on issues. He has graciously endorsed my candidacy and pledged his support. I am truly grateful. Having Dr. Kuchner as a primary challenger has made me a better candidate.
I’m running, quite frankly, because I’m sick tired or hearing people complain about the way things ought to be, but never doing anything about it. I’m just an average working-class citizen, struggling to pay my bills. I’m a Taxi Dispatcher. I’m sure you’ll hear that from my opponent’s campaign at some point. What can I possibly know about being a legislator? The answer is simple. I have to live with and under the laws, pay the taxes, and deal with consequences of what legislators do – just like the average voter in our district. But most important, I love my country and I don’t believe that Katherine Clark’s vision of America and policy views are consistent with what the vision and policy views espoused by the hard-working people, struggling to make ends meet in our district.
America is a bulwark of freedom. The Constitution protects and guarantees that freedom, primarily from the Government. Our free-market economy affords Americans the best hope for liberty, opportunity, and prosperity. Free Market Capitalism, although not perfect, has done more to elevate people from poverty than any well-intentioned government programs, which often times institutionalize poverty for generations.
I want to congratulate Katherine Clark and invite her to debate the issues. I believe there are stark differences in our philosophy of government. Let’s debate them.
The hardworking people of the 5th Congressional District deserve no less.
I invite you the voters to visit www.johnhugo.com to read more specifics about what I believe and what priorities will be as your congressman.
Respectfully,
John Hugo
Candidate for Congress, Massachusetts 5th Congressional District
This is a video of him and someone else holding a campaign sign in his hometown of Woburn. I recorded it on August 7, 2018.
This is his platform, copied from a document that is available on his Facebook page.
I am a working class candidate for the 5th Congressional District. Please consider my platform.
Taxes from Social Security should go into a fund and never be spent by the government, except for Social Security payments.
I will never seek an increase in the national debt. The debt needs to be tackled immediately. I also feel that the U.S. Constitution needs a balanced budget amendment. It is unfair that we are saddling the next generation with so much debt.
We need respect for law and order as well as respect for civil rights, and neither needs to be exclusive. We should always seek more efficient utilization of law enforcement while fostering better community relations. Law and order keeps us safe. So do civil rights.
We are all one race - the human race. We should focus on what we have in common and work together to make our country a more tolerant place. Frankly, I am so tired of the politically correct crowd dividing us into opposing groups. All human DNA is 99.5% the same. Let's teach that instead of division.
Our own government has always been the biggest threat to our own liberty. Federal authorities should stay out of our e-mail, stop recording our web browsing history, and listening to our phone calls. I oppose government trying to interfere with free speech on the internet. We must always seek to protect American liberties. Let's reassert the rights of the citizenry.
I will only support judges who will strictly interpret the Constitution and never try to legislate from the bench. The Constitution has protected us for a long time. Let us not be the cursed generation which destroys it. At present, our fragile republic is under threat, especially the 1st and 2nd Amendments. We have not enjoyed the privacy protections of the 4th Amendment for quite some time.
We imprison more people than any other country. Much of this is due to the failed war on drugs. We need to rethink the problem. I support medical intervention for drug addicts instead of incarceration. There is a difference between an addict and a criminal. I support the end of cannabis prohibition on the national level.
The higher your taxes, the less freedom that you have. I will never seek to increase the burden of taxation on the people. We need better utilization of our revenues and our resources. We are all overtaxed. Let's get the government off our back.
The world is a dangerous place, and we need to be prepared to defend American liberties. I will support a strong military and seek to reduce wasteful spending at the same time. We should always seek peace, while prepared for war. I strongly support putting our veterans first in line for government jobs. They have made a unique sacrifice.
High political office has become the province of the wealthy. The working class has been marginalized. This is not what the framers of our Constitution envisioned. The system is broken. Let's fix it together. I mean business. Please support me in my campaign for Congress.
I collected signatures to help him be eligible to be listed on the ballot. I have held a campaign sign for him on public sidewalks. I want to see him elected to the U.S. House of Representatives so that he can truly represent the best interests of the 5th Congressional District, which includes these cities.
Arlington
Ashland
Belmont
Harvard Square
Framingham
Holliston
Lexington
Lincoln
Malden
Medford
Melrose
Natick
Revere
Sherborn
Southboro
Stoneham
Sudbury (parts)
Watertown
Waltham
Wayland
Weston
Winchester
Winthrop
Woburn
This is the link to an 8-minute video that I recorded of him making a campaign speech at an event in Waltham on August 2018. At that time, he still had a Republican opponent in the primary election in September, but these are the results of the Massachusetts primary. If you scroll down to the section titled "U.S. House of Representatives", and then scroll down a little further to the 5th Congressional District, John's name is bold-faced, indicating that he won.
I had this t-shirt custom-made, and I will wear it during the campaign as my personal endorsement of him.
You've probably heard about those bathroom bills. They're legislation that puts restrictions on stores, restaurants, swimming pools, and other places where the public can visit bathrooms.
These restrictions force those places of public accommodation to allow people to use the "other" bathroom, or in some cases, the "other" locker room. That means that woman and young girls may have to watch a man entering your private, protected space.
You may even have to hear your 13-year-old girl say that a teenaged boy entered the girl's locker room at her public school, undressed, and then walked naked into the shower room while she was taking a shower. His excuse would be that he felt like a girl that day.
Don't come in !!
I'm naked !!
A boy came into the room where I was showering.
In the past, this boy's excuse (he thought he was a girl) would not have prevented him from being suspended from school or even expelled, but some people with a radical sexual agenda want boys like this to be encouraged to take a shower with your 13-year-old girl!
Police have received two complaints about a flasher exposing himself to children in Lawrence.
One of the incidents involved the Fall Creek Junior High School track team. As the team ran down East 59th Street Wednesday, police said, a man inside an SUV yelled out to them.
When the children looked, they saw that the man's pants were pulled down, 6News' Dan Spehler reported.
LaDonna Landgren is the mother of a child on the team. She said her 13-year-old's fast-moving feet might have kept the incident from ending up a lot worse.
"He kept trying to get her or her and the girls to come in the car," Landgren said.
The girls ran back to their school, where administrators called police.
"This 13-year-old girl might end up being traumatized by this," said Lawrence police chief Deputy Robert Bowser. "Most 13-year-old girls don't encounter this."
Landgren said her daughter had a tough time sleeping the night after the incident. The more she thought about it, the angrier she got.
"To see my daughter upset makes me want to just pummel someone," Landgren said. "She's a good heart and for anyone to even think about taking advantage of her makes me want to kill them."
Police don't have much information to work with as they search for the flasher. Police said two men in their late teens to early 20s were in the green SUV.
TORONTO - A sexual predator who falsely claimed to be transgender and preyed on women at two Toronto shelters was jailed indefinitely on Wednesday.
Justice John McMahon declared Christopher Hambrook — who claimed to be a transgender woman named Jessica — was a dangerous offender.
The judge said he imposed the indefinite prison sentence because there’s a great risk that Hambrook will commit more sex crimes and require strict supervision if he returns to the community.
“I am satisfied there is no reasonable expectation that a lesser measure would adequately protect the public from Christopher Hambrook,” said McMahon.
He noted the Montreal man, 37, attacked four vulnerable females between the ages of five and 53 in Montreal and Toronto over the past 12 years.
“He has demonstrated from the age of 12 until the present an inability to control his sexual impulses,” said McMahon.
DOVER, N.H. —A man convicted of indecent exposure has been accused of violating the terms of his probation.
Jeffrey Gelinas pleaded guilty in June 2014 to exposing himself to a girl in the children's book section of a Barnes and Noble store in Nashua, and police in Salem are now investigating a similar case.
CHICAGO (WLS) -- Police are looking for a man accused of touching a female inappropriately and exposing himself at a CTA Green Line station in the Bronzeville neighborhood, police said.
The incident happened at about 11 a.m. Friday on the platform of the Green Line's 35th Street station.
Surveillance video captured images of the man, who is described as African American and between the ages of 18 and 20 years old. He was described as between 5-feet-2-inches and 5-feet-3-inches tall and about 120 to130 pounds
(APN) ATLANTA — Maya Dillard Smith, Interim Director of the Georgia chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), says she has left the organization due to a disagreement she had over its participation in recent litigation over the use of public restrooms by transgender persons. And at least one transgender advocate is outraged by her comments.
The rest of the article is about a dispute between the state of North Carolina and the North Carolina branch of the American Civil Liberties Union (A.C.L.U.). This dispute is a separate matter than the resignation of a State Director in a different state. A more thorough explanation of the incident that the Georgia State Director witnessed is offered by her personally in by the following story.
These are the first four paragraphs of a May 31, 2016 story, published by Life Site News. The video, which shows an on-camera interview with the same person, was uploaded by Fox News on June 2, 2016.
ATLANTA, May 31, 2016 (LifeSiteNews)
– The African-American woman who leads a state chapter of the ACLU has resigned, citing her own daughters' “frightened” reaction to biological males using the women's restroom.
The organization's increasing focus on legislating the transgender lobby's concerns pushed Maya Dillard Smith, interim director of the Georgia chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, to tender her resignation.
“I have shared my personal experience of having taken my elementary school age daughters into a women’s restroom when shortly after three transgender young adults, over six feet [tall] with deep voices, entered,” she wrote.
“My children were visibly frightened, concerned about their safety and left asking lots of questions for which I, like many parents, was ill-prepared to answer,” she continued.
“My children were visibly frightened, concerned about their safety and left asking lots of questions for which I, like many parents, was ill-prepared to answer.”
The story of the incident inside the women's bathroom and her subsequent resignation was also reported on June 2, 2016 by the following news organizations.
DUNDALK, Md. —Baltimore County police are looking for the man they said is responsible for exposing himself to a girl in Dundalk.
Police said the incident occurred at about 7:30 a.m. March 3 at the Big Lots store in the 1400 block of Merritt Boulevard. The girl's mother told police that they were in the store when they noticed the man following them.
Investigators said the girl sat down on a couch in the furniture section and her mother, who did not see her sit down, continued through the store. The man approached the girl and exposed
himself, police said.
The girl then ran to find her mother and tell her, police said. The man was seen leaving the location in a white compact car.
ANDOVER, Mass. — Andover police said they're searching for a man who exposed himself Monday to elementary school students.
Police received a report just before noon about a man parked in a Main Street parking lot, which abuts the St. Augustine Elementary school property. Students at the school were at lunch recess when some saw the man stand outside his vehicle and expose himself.
These six videos were uploaded by television news stations. They are about different incidents than the ones I have already mentioned.
uploaded June 20, 2010
uploaded October 10, 2012
uploaded June 24, 2015
uploaded December 13, 2016
uploaded October 8, 2013
uploaded October 25, 2013
These are the first five paragraphs of a March 19, 2019 Yahoo story. The links in these paragraphs were in their story.
A high school student in Pennsylvania has filed a complaint against her school, claiming that her civil rights were violated, and that she was subjected to sexual harassment, when a transgender student used the same locker room as her.
An attorney working with the teen has already filed the complaint with the U.S. Department of Education’s Civil Rights Division, detailing the female student’s experience in a Honesdale High School locker room earlier this year. In a video accompanying the complaint, the unnamed 15-year-old student says she immediately became worried when she heard a “man’s voice” as she was getting dressed. The complaint
states that the transgender student in question identifies as female.
“While I was putting on my pants, I heard a man’s voice. So I turned around and he’s standing there on the opposite aisle looking at me,” the female student said in the video. “I glanced down and I could tell that he was wearing women’s underwear and what was underneath it.”
According to the complaint, students weren’t made aware that the transgender student was given permission to use the women’s locker room. The complaining student’s attorney, Andrea Shaw, is now identifying the incident as a case of sexual harassment.
“Opening up restrooms and locker room facilities to members of the opposite sex is sexual harassment,” Shaw stated. “Like most forms of sexual harassment, the girls in this school have little power over their situation.”
Interesting argument. If you don't want your 12-yr old daughter to see a penis in the locker room you're "overprotective and intolerant." pic.twitter.com/1NPZAaJxCi
These paragraphs are part of the April 2006 story that was published by the Indy Channel. I reprinted the complete text of the story, with a link to the story, earlier on this page.
LaDonna Landgren is the mother of a child on the team. She said her 13-year-old's fast-moving feet might have kept the incident from ending up a lot worse.
"He kept trying to get her or her and the girls to come in the car," Landgren said.
The girls ran back to their school, where administrators called police.
"This 13-year-old girl might end up being traumatized by this," said Lawrence police chief Deputy Robert Bowser. "Most 13-year-old girls don't encounter this."
Landgren said her daughter had a tough time sleeping the night after the incident. The more she thought about it, the angrier she got.
"To see my daughter upset makes me want to just pummel someone," Landgren said. "She's a good heart and for anyone to even think about taking advantage of her makes me want to kill them."
"This 13-year-old girl might end up being traumatized by this," said Lawrence police chief Deputy Robert Bowser. "Most 13-year-old girls don't encounter this."
Unfortunately, they will encounter this frequently, if more cities and states force those jurisdictions to allow men and women into each others' locker rooms and bathrooms.
Thirteen-year-old girls need a wall between them and any men when they undress for any reason.
It should be common sense that every person is entitled to privacy when using the restroom, changing, or showering, but unfortunately, some have eliminated common sense from the discussion.
What else can explain the decision by dozens of school districts across the country, retailing giant Target, and even the U.S. Departments of Education and Justice to voluntarily adopt and promote policies that strip away privacy for everyone, allowing men into women’s restrooms and locker rooms, and vice versa?
Why does privacy even matter? Sure, our courts have recognized that it’s a constitutionally protected right. And our society has long structured itself around the need to allow privacy for the sexes in intimate settings. But why?
When discussing freedom of speech, one of our most precious rights, the Supreme Court has often emphasized that the right is most important for those whose speech is most vulnerable to censorship.
The majority’s views aren’t the ones that need protection. The minority’s views, the ones that may subject the speaker to abuse, are the ones that the First Amendment was designed to protect.
A North Carolina legislator was rightfully upset at a lame-duck President, unable to be voted out of office, and struggling to find an achievement he could be proud of, who ordered public schools to make little girls uncomfortable in their own bathrooms and locker rooms.
Republicans are falsely being accused of instigating the transgender bathroom debate, state Rep. Dan Bishop from Charlotte, North Carolina, told The Daily Signal.
“This controversy nationwide has been a media-driven, ideological carpet bombing,” he said. “And I think a very dishonest one across the board. Everything that we’ve done has been distorted—so many falsehoods, outright falsehoods about what HB2 does.”
Along with the media, Bishop, a Republican, blamed a “new and dangerous kind of activism” for peddling the controversy over HB2.
Obama's drinking and drug use during college, which he continues whenever he takes a vacation, are affecting his judgement. The first photo was taken in Joplin, Missouri, which was destroyed by a maximum-force tornado in May 2011. He left the next day for a week-long vacation in Ireland. The second photo was taken during that vacation in Ireland.
Hillary says I'm doing a good job,
so I must be doing a good job !
Link to my 2012 blog essay President Obama's 2011 Irish Vacation, which documented the planning for his trip and the fact that he left the United States the day after a tornado destroyed Joplin, Missouri.
The day after.
The Daily Signal website published another article on May 29, 2016. This is the first paragraph. The link in the first sentence was in their article.
On May 13, the Obama administration sent a letter to public schools on the topic of transgender students and where they use the restroom. But the directive, issued as “significant guidance,”
didn’t just apply to the bathrooms. It also entered the space of locker rooms, showers, dorms, overnight hotels, and other places you might not expect. Watch the video to see The Daily Signal break down where exactly the Obama administration’s bathroom directive applies, and where it doesn’t.
"Watch the video to see The Daily Signal break down where exactly the Obama administration’s bathroom directive applies, and where it doesn’t."
Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker is joining the transgender revolution. The liberal Republican has said he will sign the “transgender rights” bill pushed by leftist Democrats in the state Legislature.
The legislation represents a triumph for LGBT activists. It calls for individuals — based upon their “gender identity” or the “gender expression” they associate with at the time — to be able to use the restrooms, changing rooms or locker rooms of their choice. In other words, grown men, with their hairy chests and exposed genitals, will be allowed to shower beside your wife or girlfriend at the local YMCA or sit in a bathroom stall next to your daughter — and there is nothing anyone can do about it. Strange adult men can use women’s restrooms, locker rooms and changing areas with impunity.
In fact, the Massachusetts legislation goes one step further. If anyone complains — women, female teenagers, children, parents — they will be subject to criminal prosecution for “discrimination” against transgendered individuals and denying their so-called “civil rights.”
If a woman objects to a man showering in front of her at the local YMCA’s ladies room, then she faces jail time or a big fine. Should a young female not want to have a male stranger lurking in her high school or college women’s bathroom she must either bear it or wait outside until the coast is clear.
As state Attorney General Maura Healey told all the women who are uncomfortable sharing a bathroom with a transgender person: “Hold it.”
Jeff's Twitter account is @TheKuhnerReport. We follow each other on Twitter. My account is @BennyTheKite.
Link to State Representative Shauna O'Connell's website. She is leading the fight to stop this legislation. She has already helped Massachusetts voters to defeat a higher tax on gasoline, and some people are already suggesting that she would make a good Governor.
Governor Baker was quoted in the Washington Times today (June 1, 2016) as saying that he would sign the legislation into law, even before the Massachusetts Legislature, the representatives of the Massachusetts population, have decided on which amendments would be added to this legislation.
BOSTON —
A bill that would bar discrimination against transgender people in public accommodations and allow them to use bathrooms and locker rooms that correspond with the gender they identify with won overwhelming approval in the Democratic-controlled Massachusetts House on Wednesday.
Transgender people who haven't had the necessary surgery to "correct" what they believe is a mistake made by Mother Nature should have enough common sense to know that little boys and girls can be hurt or even traumatized if they see a person of the opposite sex, naked, while they're changing their clothes.
"This 13-year-old girl might end up being traumatized by this," said Lawrence police chief Deputy Robert Bowser. "Most 13-year-old girls don't encounter this."
Governor Baker did sign this state's Bathroom Bill. These are the first two paragraphs of a July 8, 2016 WBZ news story. WBZ is the Boston affiliate of CBS News.
BOSTON (CBS) — Massachusetts governor Charlie Baker signed a bill that would bar discrimination against transgender people in public accommodations, in what is considered the final step before becoming law.
The controversial legislation allows transgender people to use bathrooms and locker rooms that correspond with their identifying gender.
These other websites have a similar story. Unless otherwise noted, these stories were published on July 8, 2016. I'm still adding more links as I write this.
His signature on the legislation means that young girls will be able to see a penis when they're changing their clothes in their school locker room or in a changing room at a public swimming pool. The only excuse that any pervert will need in order to show it to a young girl will be his verbal statement that he's a woman himself, temporarily "occupying" a male body.
It also means that he is a Republican in name only, a R.I.N.O.
Other Bathroom Bills
Remember, each one that is signed into law by a Governor allows people to declare their own gender as a reason to walk into any bathroom in a retail store, a public swimming pool, or a school locker room in a public school.
North Carolina
I published an essay on the topic of their Bathroom Bill on May 9, 2016 on another one of my blogs. That essay is called The President and the Governor. This essay focuses on the relationship between President Obama and Pat McCrory, the Governor of North Carolina. That blog focuses on political science instead of partisan politics. The relationship, good or bad, between a President and a Governor is always a legitimate subject for an essay about political science.
That blog already has a set of two essays that discuss the president's effort to force Hawaii to secede. Political science includes the subject of a president's power as Commander-in-Chief. Any change in the ownership of Hawaii would result in the loss of America's ability to send military forces into the joint military base in Honolulu that is shared by the U.S. Navy at Pearl Harbor and by the U.S. Air Force at the Hickam Air Force Base.
The sequel included this editorial cartoon, which illustrates the reason why so many people want privacy to be the most important consideration whenever legislation like this is ever discussed.
The President and his Department of Justice (DoJ) want men like this to be allowed to enter a women's locker room and even to be allowed to take showers with women in gyms including the YWCA.
DoJ regulations would require any young man who feels the same emotions as the man in this cartoon to be able to walk into the girl's locker room in every public school in the country. When girls are showering after a physical education class, these boys would be able to undress in their part of the school's locker rooms and they would be able to take showers, naked, standing next to naked girls.
Only two things are necessary to accomplish this. A boy who states that he believes that he's a girl, and a U.S. Government agency that won't protect the privacy of real girls.
The Texas Supreme Court on Friday ruled that the Houston City Council must repeal or put up for public vote a 2014 ordinance that extended protections to gay and transgender residents.
The court directed the council to repeal the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance, better known as HERO, by Aug. 24 or place it on the November ballot. Passed after an intense public debate, the ordinance expanded the city’s ban on discrimination to include protections on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity at businesses that serve the public. The protections also apply to city contractors and municipal workers.
Houston's controversial equal rights ordinance failed by a wide margin Tuesday, with voters opting to repeal the law that offered broad non-discrimination protections, according to incomplete and unofficial returns.
The hotly contested election has spurred national attention, drawing comment from the White House and the state's top officials. Largely conservative opponents of the law allege that it would allow men dressed as women, including sexual predators, to enter women's restrooms. Supporters of the law, including Mayor Annise Parker, argue that it extends an important local recourse for a range of protected classes to respond to discrimination.
Preparations for Super Bowl LI continue to take place at NRG Stadium in Houston, Texas on February 3, 2017. The New England Patriots will play the Atlanta Falcons in Super Bowl LI on Sunday at NRG Stadium.
The NFL kept a low profile on a recently introduced Texas bathroom bill during the Super Bowl week.
But now that the game and festivities in Houston are over with, the league is threatening not to award future Super Bowls to Houston or the Dallas area if the controversial "Senate Bill 6" is passed.
The law would require people to use bathrooms that correspond with the sex listed on their birth certificate. It targets transgender people and would be similar to a bill that passed in North Carolina that led to the NBA pulling its All-Star Game out of Charlotte.
"... the league is threatening not to award future Super Bowls to Houston or the Dallas area ...."
A tweet from the Governor of Texas:
NFL decision makers also benched Tom Brady last season. It ended with NFL handing the Super Bowl trophy to Brady. https://t.co/Qg06jT9RDp
AUSTIN – Gov. Greg Abbott is warning the NFL to “get the heck out of politics” after a league spokesman suggested passage of a so-called bathroom bill could affect whether Texas gets future events.
“The NFL is walking on thin ice right here. The NFL needs to concentrate on playing football and get the heck out of politics,” Abbott said on Glenn Beck’s radio show Tuesday.
A coalition of pastors known as the Texas Pastor Council that spearheaded the defeat of Houston's Equal Rights Ordinance, known also as the "Bathroom Bill," is now taking aim at the National Football
League after the organization threatened to make Texas pay if the state passes a proposed transgender bathroom law introduced last month.
Senate Bill 6, one of Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick's legislative priorities, would require everyone to use bathrooms in public schools, government buildings and public universities based on "biological sex," said The Texas Tribune. The measure would also pre-empt local nondiscrimination ordinances that allow transgender Texans to use the bathroom that corresponds with their gender identity.
Republican Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee signed a bill into law Friday that separates private spaces such as bathrooms and locker rooms for use by individuals according to their biological sex.
The law means that individuals who are biological males cannot use restrooms for women because they “identify” as women and vice versa for women who consider themselves men.
The CNN storry about the new law and some other stories about the law were written in a way that made it seem that the law discriminates against the tiny percentage of the population that believes that God made a mistake when he assigned their gender to them.
The last words
"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing."
All of the following quoted paragraphs came from an article dated November 23, 2015 in the Lowell Sun. The article was written by Andy Metzger and Colin A. Young for the State House News Service.
I want to thank Pamela Geller for providing a link, on her Twitter account, to this article. That's how I found it.
These are the first three paragraphs of the article.
The Israeli-Palestinian conflict surfaced Monday as a central theme in two protests: one speaking out against an ad on the MBTA that some say is designed "to demonize Israelis and Jews," and another urging senators to forgo a planned trip to Israel next month.
After opposing viewpoints on one of the world's most contentious conflicts came to a head before the MBTA's management board on Monday afternoon, the T decided to ban political issue advertising on the transit system. The T's Fiscal and Management Control Board also banned advertising for electronic cigarettes.
"This change has been in the works for weeks, several weeks. Long before this particular controversy arose," MBTA general counsel John Englander said. The new policy was approved unanimously on a voice vote after a closed-door executive session and no public discussion.
For the benefit of people who don't live in Boston, the M.B.T.A. is the name of the state agency that oversees public transportation in this area.
I want to thank Mr. Metzger and Mr. Young for not identifying, in the first paragraph, the conflicting parties as Israelis and Arabs. The term "Arab" was originally a term that meant any person or group whose ancestors came from the Arabian peninsula, pictured on the right.
Most of this land is the country called Saudi Arabia.
Palestinian ancestors come from Jordan, which is on the edge of this peninsula, so even if you accept the definition of the word "Arab", they don't qualify.
Jews and Israelis
These are the fourth and fifth paragraphs of the article in the Lowell Sun.
Activists opposed to an ad on the MBTA representing that "Israel's military has killed one Palestinian child every three days" since September 2000 said the ad promoted hate against Jews, and attempted to shout over a man who supported the ad.
"We have the right to criticize government. Every government in the world needs to be able to be criticized," said Richard Colbath-Hess, of the Palestine Advocacy Project. Colbath-Hess, who said he is Jewish and his father survived the Holocaust, said it is a "mistake" to link anti-Semitism and criticism of Israel.
Mr. Colbath-Hess is absolutely correct. Three times.
Americans do have the right to criticize government. The right to do so is an integral part of the Declaration of Independence and the first amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Multiple decisions of the Supreme Court have said, explicitly, that Americans can criticize their government, verbally, in professionally-written newspaper articles, and in private correspondence.
Every government in the world does need to be criticized from time to time by their own people and by the rest of the world. Link to my essay Presidents must be accountable to their people. This applies to the president of any country because, as it is stated in the essay, any man can have a mental illness that makes it impossible for him to perform his official duties. The definition of a mental illness should include alcoholism, which afflicted Joseph Stalin, who then arranged for seven million Ukrainians to starve to death.
It is a mistake to link anti-Semitism and criticism of Israel. As stated in my 2012 essay Do you support Israel, there are four definitions of the word "Israel".
a man who was born with the name Jacob,
his blood descendants (they eventually became an extended family),
a piece of land described in geographic terms, and
a group of people, living anywhere in the world, who believe in the principles of a particular religion. They are often called Zionists, and they often exclude other Jews from their circle of friends if these other Jews aren't strict enough about their religious practices.
This makes it clear that Jews and Israelis are two different groups of people. Some people are accurately described as Jews and as Israelis, but other people only fit one definition.
A religious argument becomes a political argument
These are the sixth through the tenth paragraphs of the article.
[Richard Colbath-Hess] was subjected to shouting from his ideological opponents.
"He's the cousin of Hitler," said Daniel Hermon, slapping Colbath-Hess on the back. Hermon also joined those yelling over Colbath-Hess as he spoke to reporters.
Colbath-Hess said there is one ad in the system at the Davis Square MBTA station. Englander said that ad would be disallowed under the new policy going into effect midnight Nov. 30.
Paul Fleishman compared the ad -- which depicts a girl in pigtails standing outdoors -- to Islamic State recruitment and used it to disparage Palestinian children in comments to the control board.
"If it would be a real Palestinian girl it would have a suicide vest on her. That's how I know this is probably not a Palestinian girl," Fleishman said.
The fact that the article identifies Daniel Hermon as an "ideological opponent" is evidence that his conversation with Mr. Colbath-Hess is now a political feud. When a person who has a strong faith dislikes someone (that's rare, of course - God teaches and practices love), they don't compare someone else to Hitler. A person who has a strong faith would use words that are in his holy book, not a history book.
C.A.I.R. has poor public relations
This is the 11th paragraph of the article.
Charles Jacobs, who has been accused of Islamophobia by the Council on American Islamic Relations of Massachusetts, told reporters he does not agree that the girl should have worn a suicide vest.
The Michigan chapter of The Council on American Islamic Relations has made two notable and completely contradictory demands. Lack of a consistent message is a sign of an incompetent public relations department.
The Council on American Islamic Relations of Michigan (CAIR-MI) staff recently met with Dearborn Public Schools Superintendent Brian Whiston to discuss concerns from some parents regarding prayer accommodations in Dearborn Public Schools.
Dearborn Public Schools has implemented a policy which fully accommodates student-led prayer in all the schools, as well as unexcused absences for students who leave early on Fridays for Jumu'ah prayers. CAIR-MI is currently in discussion with Melvindale Public Schools to get similar accommodations for students that are now in place for Dearborn Public Schools.
The Michigan chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-MI) said today that a Detroit-area school district has apologized for handing out permission slips for Bible study classes to elementary school students.
CAIR-MI sent a letter to Roseville Public Schools after receiving a complaint from two parents of children who attend Huron Park Elementary School about distribution by teachers of permission slips for the Bible classes at a local Baptist church.
I've been wondering for a long time whether the Michigan chapter of C.A.I.R. has forgiven and then forgotten their arguments against Christians who wanted to study the Bible during school hours.
I have known many Christians who were eager to share their love of Jesus with as many people as possible, so that these people will all be together in Heaven some day.
I'm now certain that because of their advocacy of Muslim prayer in a Michigan public school, The Council on American Islamic Relations will have no objection to any student-led Christian prayer or Bible Study in the same school. If a Muslim can pray in school, why shouldn't a Christian (or a Jew, or a Buddhist, or any other student) also be able to pray or study the Bible, the Torah, or the Buddhist Sutras and Suttas in school?
That is both sensible political harmony and an example of the tolerance that Muslims say that Allah requires of them.
I have an unanswered question. If Israel is a democracy, as many people claim, then can someone who lives there but who isn't Jewish become the Mayor of Jerusalem or the Prime Minister of that country?
I published an essay on this blog on March 8, 2014 called Meet a murderer on March 24th. It was about a personal appearance that Hillary Clinton was scheduled to make in Boston later that month.
Hoping to keep the focus on policy issues rather than her controversial handling of e-mails as secretary of state, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton will attend an event in Boston
Thursday that will focus on substance abuse and its impact on communities.
Clinton, the front-runner for the 2016 nomination, will be joined by Boston Mayor Martin J. Walsh and Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey for a “conversation ... on substance abuse and its tragic effects,” her campaign said.
In her travels around the country, Clinton has “heard countless heartbreaking stories of families and communities torn apart by substance abuse disorders,” the campaign said in a statement.
The event will be held at the Boston Teachers Union hall on Mount Vernon Street in Dorchester at 2:30 p.m.
This photo was downloaded from the Twitter account of someone who was at the protest.
This protest was only one of the protest rallies. Thousands of similar rallies were held today all across the United States, and hundreds of people showed up at the rallies in America's largest cities.
This is a quote from the Twitter account of Life News that was posted today (August 22nd):
"How Can Planned Parenthood Say Babies Aren’t People When It Harvests Their Organs?"
These are the first four paragraphs of a story published today by the Washington Post. The Twitter account of the White House Press Corps linked to it. The link in the fourth paragraph was in their story.
Thousands of antiabortion activists descended upon Planned Parenthood clinics on Saturday to participate in a nationwide protest aimed at cutting off federal funding for the controversial health-care
organization.
The demonstrations unfolded at about 320 clinics around the nation, according to organizers, with some gatherings drawing a few dozen protesters and others drawing hundreds and perhaps
thousands more.
The protests kicked off at 9 a.m. Saturday and included speakers, prayer groups and chants, as well as signs distributed by organizers that said “Planned Parenthood sells baby
parts.”
The protests come after an antiabortion group secretly filmed a series of videos that show Planned Parenthood staffers discussing the extraction of fetal tissue from aborted fetuses before it is sent to research facilities. Abortion opponents claim the video captures an illegal operation in which organs are harvested for money, but Planned Parenthood officials have claimed the videos were edited to bolster critics’ false claims, according to the Associated Press.
Posted today on this Twitter account: @JGalt9:
"The most selfish act in the world is to take the life of your child in order to make your own life easier."
This is a link to a 54-page PDF-format document called "Massachusetts Science and Technology/Engineering Standards" on the official website for the State of Massachusetts, Department of Education.
The first page is the title page. The next page is the Table of Contents. After that is a four page introduction to the proposed standards, labelled pages 2-5. The science standards for pre-kindergarten begin on page 6.
Something important is missing
This is what I disagree with
For the sake of context, this is one complete paragraph of the introduction to the proposed standards, under the headline "The need to integrate science and engineering practices with concepts". The link in this paragraph was included on the page.
A college and career perspective emphasizes the importance of scientific and technical reasoning for students’post-secondary success. The skills needed to engage in scientific and technical reasoning are embodied in the science and engineering practices (detailed in a separate “matrix” document, www.doe.mass.edu/stem/resources/SciEngPractices-Matrix.docx). Integrating these practices with disciplinary core ideas is critical to students’ ability to apply their understanding to their community and professional work. Students cannot reason without content but content alone is not what defines a successful student in science and technology/engineering. Integration of concepts and practices results in better understanding of science and engineering, increased mastery of sophisticated subject matter, a better ability to explain the world, and increased interest in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) fields. A student’s ability to engage in scientific and technical reasoning through relevant experience is key to successful engagement in civic, college, or career contexts.
Also for the sake of context, this sentence is also included under the headline "Key features of the Science and Technology/Engineering Standards."
To support student readiness for citizenship, college, and careers, the Science and Technology/Engineering (STE) standards are intended to drive coherent, rigorous instruction that emphasizes student mastery of both disciplinary core ideas (concepts) and application of engineering practices (skills).
This is why I disagree with this proposed standard
A person that asks an employer to allow him to work in any field of science must be able to do more than simply show a "mastery of both disciplinary core ideas (concepts) and application of engineering practices (skills)." This person would only be qualified to be a technician, not a scientist.
A technician can apply existing scientific concepts to the needs of a job, but he may not be able to investigate and prove or disprove any new ideas. A true scientist has the advanced education to design and implement experiments that will, in fact, prove or disprove any new ideas that are within his field of expertise.
This defines the difference between a scientist and a technician.
The missing and necessary ingredient
What is missing from these proposed science standards is any mention of the scientific method.
Centuries ago, most of the people who called themselves scientists believed that all the other planets revolved around the Earth. They had been taught this concept as students from their own teachers, and they taught this false concept to their own students. Any student who learned this false concept well enough to discuss it intelligently would be falsely classified as a scientist under the proposed standards in this 2015 document.
The idea that all the planets revolve around the Earth is a false idea. The truth is that the Earth and the other planets revolve around the Sun, but this truth was proven by a true scientist. The people who passed along the false idea were nothing more than astronomical technicians.
Nicolaus Copernicus was born on February 19, 1473 in Torun, Poland. Circa 1508, Copernicus developed his own celestial model of a heliocentric planetary system. Around 1514, he shared his findings in the Commentariolus. His second book on the topic, De revolutionibus orbium coelestium, was banned by the Roman Catholic Church not long after his May 24, 1543 death in Frauenburg, Poland.
The State of Massachusetts must not allow its' students to call themselves scientists until they are thoroughly familiar with the scientific method, outlined here.
I applied the scientific method one day when I was a teenager. At the time, I questioned whether God was alive, but I designed an experiment to determine the truth.
I made a hypothesis was that he was alive. I then tested it by saying a prayer at a time and a place when no other person could hear me. My prayer asked God to show me that he did, in fact, exist.
Less than a week later, I found a $5 bill in my wallet on a day that I was certain that there was no money in it.
I accepted this as the proof of my hypothesis, and I believe in the existence of God now.
Many children who study various sciences in other countries have a better education in those countries than our own children. Our educational institutions cannot say that they teach science if they do not teach the scientific method.
If United States schools and Massachusetts schools do not teach the scientific method, we will produce people who will be vulnerable to repeating unscientific lies like the statement that the Sun and the other planets revolve around the Earth.
This is one complete paragraph of the proposed standards.
In particular, it is important to note that the science and engineering practices are not teaching strategies; they are important learning goals in their own right. The term “practices” is used in the standards instead the term“inquiry” to emphasize that the practices are outcomes to be learned, not the method of instruction. The term “inquiry” has so often been used to refer to an instructional approach as well as the skills to be learned that many educators do not separate the two uses. Students cannot comprehend the disciplines of science and technology/engineering, nor fully appreciate the nature of scientific and technical knowledge, without learning and using the science and engineering practices. The term “practices” denotes the skills to be learned as a result of instruction, whether that instruction is inquiry-based or not.
Up until the 16th century, it was expected that students would learn that the Sun and all of the other known planets revolved around the earth.
In the 21st century, we know that they don't, but it required the skills of a 16th century astronomer named Nicolaus Copernicus to prove it.
This proposed standard for Massachusetts schools emphasizes "learning and using the science and engineering practices."
It is inadequate.
Students cannot call themselves scientists until they can use the scientific method to make new discoveries in their field of science.
It has been one of the most stubborn problems in education: With 50 states, 50 standards and 50 tests, how could anyone really know what American students were learning, or how well?
At a dinner with colleagues in 2009, Mitchell Chester, Massachusetts’s commissioner of education, hatched what seemed like an obvious answer — a national test based on the Common Core standards that almost every state had recently adopted.
Now Dr. Chester finds himself in the awkward position of walking away from the very test he helped create.
On his recommendation, the State Board of Education decided last week that Massachusetts would go it alone and abandon the multistate test in favor of one to be developed for just this state. The move will cost an extra year and unknown millions of dollars.
Links to other stories about the same subject (listed in chronological order)
This October 22, 2015 Boston Globe article was written prior to the November vote by the Massachusetts Board of Education. The article was written by a former senior associate commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, who is opposed to Common Core.
The Massachusetts Board of Elementary and Secondary Education should reject a proposed rewrite of the Massachusetts History and Social Science Curriculum Framework in its entirety and immediately restore the state’s 2003 framework, considered among the strongest in the country, according to a new research paper titled, No Longer a City on a Hill: Massachusetts Degrades Its K-12 History Standards, published by Pioneer Institute.
“The 2018 revision fails to provide effective history education. It must be replaced with a framework that requires much of students but offers them, in return, a share of our common treasure,” wrote the paper’s authors, David Randall, director of research at the National Association of Scholars; Will Fitzhugh, founder of the The Concord Review, and Jane Robbins, senior fellow at the American Principles Project.
The authors argue that the draft of the new framework, released for public comment in January, “eviscerates” the 2003 framework and degrades it in five ways.
It replaces coherent sequences of American and European history with incoherent fragments.
It is 50 percent longer than the 2003 framework and presents the standards in “unreadable education-school jargon.”
It replaces the earlier framework’s full account of our country’s European past and replaces much of it with “the history of politically correct protest movements.”
It allots insufficient time for students to learn European and American history.
It eliminates the already developed 2009 history MCAS assessment and substitutes hollow “expectations” for each grade.
“Each of the 2018 Revision’s failings is sufficient to disqualify it as an adequate standard for K–12 history instruction,” according to the authors. “It should be rejected outright.”
Pioneer Institute is an independent, non-partisan, privately funded research organization that seeks to improve the quality of life in Massachusetts through civic discourse and intellectually rigorous, data-driven public policy solutions based on free market principles, individual liberty and responsibility, and the ideal of effective, limited and accountable government.
The education of students in Massachusetts and the rest of the country should not be subject to political whims. I agree with the authors of this article. This revised history curriculum framework should be rejected outright.
