This seems like the appropriate song to accompany this announcement:
The short story is that the Republicans in the Monroe County NY legislature introduced a Wisconsin-style bill to limit the powers of the newly-elected Democratic County Executive. Then, a shitstorm ensued, they learned that it’s not what they thought when they first began it, and they gave up.
Ohio Mom
Always nice to see R’s defeated.
Also, always nice to see my Nym waiting for me.
Nicole
Well, between that and Roger Stone, not a bad way to start the weekend.
Major Major Major Major
Testing tweet embed
trollhattan
Also, Bevin conceded.
And also, too, got to see Aimee Mann a couple years ago. See her if you ever get the chance!
Mike S (Now with a Democratic Congressperson!)
@Ohio Mom: I agree. Was is public out cry, the disinfecting light of meadia coverage, human decency or something else that made them change their minds?
Attn Watergirl: @ohiomom=@commenter showed up on my FIRST click on reply! (Chrome/Win 10/HP Lap top)
C Stars
Just catching up on some highlights from the impeachment hearing today. Good lord, the GOP really was outclassed by Yovanovich. Jordan is just very clearly not the sharpest tool in the shed.
[Individual 1] mistermix
@Mike S (Now with a Democratic Congressperson!): There was going to be a public hearing on 12/10 and it was going to be a major shitshow, so I think that was one deterrent.
LesGS
@Ohio Mom: I saw your nym, and I wanted to ask you (and any other Ohioans what they thought the impact of this bill recently passed in your state might be. (It isn’t really OT, ‘cuz the post’s tag is ‘Republican Stupidity.’
“The Ohio House on Wednesday passed the “Student Religious Liberties Act.” Under the law, students can’t be penalized if their work is scientifically wrong as long as the reasoning is because of their religious beliefs. Instead, students are graded on substance and relevance.”
I’m guessing this is pointed at teaching evolution, but I wonder how a Mormon student’s answers on a history exam about North America would be handled.
Patricia Kayden
When Republicans pull these stunts, they just prove that they’re anti-democratic.
Steeplejack (phone)
@trollhattan:
• Monroe County GOP defeated.
• Roger Stone convicted.
• Bevin concedes.
• Saw Aimee Mann a couple years ago.
One of these things is not like the others.
Mike S (Now with a Democratic Congressperson!)
@LesGS: Good question. I’ve been wondering about that too and thinking about problematic “Facts” from a fundie pov. So far I’ve got mostly obvious things:
What others?
JWR
Test … eta Can’t embed tweets, though I went through the same steps earlier. Wait, lemme try again … Nope.
jeffreyw
@Mike S (Now with a Democratic Congressperson!): Yes! First try
ETA: had to refresh to see it after I scrolled back from the top of the page and the reply had not yet appeared
clay
@LesGS: “Substance and relevance”? The “substance” is scientific reasoning and knowledge. The “relevance” is how closely their answer follows scientific reasoning and knowledge.
This is just nonsense. Literally nonsense — it makes no sense. I’m a Christian, and a high school teacher (math). But if some student tried to answer a test question with “Pi equals 3 because the Bible says so”*, I’d fail them so hard they’d feel it next year.
*The Bible doesn’t actually say this, but a lot of people think it does for some reason
jeffreyw
ack! reply to is still not going well for me win 10 chrome
WhatsMyNym
@LesGS: Snopes has a good write up on it (only the House has passed it) https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/ohio-school-religion-answers/
jeffreyw
and there are issues with the editing bar going away after a refresh to see the reply I was making only to see it back again after an entirely new comment.
WhatsMyNym
@WhatsMyNym: Wow, the nym was there first try and didn’t have to refresh to see comment!!
ETA – firefox on Win7
Mnemosyne
@clay:
I’ve heard some people say that a lot of churches that do Bible Study don’t actually read it straight through — they have a topic every week and jump around looking at verses that the group leader and/or pastor says are relevant.
That’s how people can claim that they “know” what’s in the Bible without actually knowing it — they’ve read a bunch of disconnected verses but never read it as a whole to be able to see, say, the Sermon on the Mount as a single piece about social justice.
Old Dan and Little Ann
@Major Major Major Major: Sweet pics. Is that your personal Twitter handle? My phone is keeping my nym and email still. Pretty damn convenient.
LesGS
@WhatsMyNym: Thanks for the Snopes link! Hopefully it will remain only a political stunt and not make it into law…
walkingstone
My religion forbids judging my substance and relevance.
Marcopolo
Well, for the folks looking for good news today, at some point in the next few hours ActBlue will pass the $4 Billion dollar fundraising mark. For context, on Jan 1 2018 the total raised was $1,990,437,100. And that was from their starting in 2004. Now double in less than 2 more years. Maybe we can add another $2B between now & the election? I am fairly sure that the vast majority of Ds will have funds they need to run competitive campaigns.
Frankensteinbeck
@LesGS:
Only evangelical Protestant Christianity is legitimately a religion in the eyes of anyone who is going to make use of this law. Maybe, maybe, Catholicism when it usefully intersects with evangelical bigotry.
Omnes Omnibus
@Steeplejack (phone): They all seem like good things.
Avalune
@LesGS: I’m also from Ohio – though to be fair, I’ve only been back twice since turning 19… Leto always tries to get me to explain my people and I just look at him and shrug and point to the latest stupid thing South Carolina is doing. He sadly says yeah and we both carry on with whatever we were doing. I rarely envy teachers in the first place but I especially don’t envy teachers having to try to referee this crap. Are they going by a list of approved religions, major religions only, or can I make up a religion and say my bullshit wrong answer is based on it?
MomSense
I love that Magnolias soundtrack.
Steeplejack (phone)
@Mike S (Now with a Democratic Congressperson!):
Damn! Forgot about the bullet list for my previous. ?
sdhays
@Mnemosyne: That’s the only way I have ever heard of the Bible being studied in church. You start with the point you want to make and then find something in the Bible to help make that point.
People don’t go to Bible Study to better understand the Bible. They go to Bible Study to better understand how the Bible supports their world view.
Avalune
The only correct answer is ten because when Snorgbloop came down from Vexis and fed the people with blerg, he named all the things by what we call numbers in our lack of understanding.
Avalune
@sdhays: I thought they went to bible study for “fellowship” and snacks.
Steeplejack (phone)
@Omnes Omnibus: True. Just thought the apposition was funny.
Major Major Major Major
@Old Dan and Little Ann: No, but it’s a wonderful account! My personal account is linked from my nym.
sdhays
@Avalune: Yes. I should have said people don’t host Bible Studies to better understand the Bible. They host Bible Studies to convince other people that the Bible supports their worldview.
Steeplejack (phone)
@JWR:
Post tweet in Text mode, optionally erase the “script” niblet at the bottom. (That may actually be necessary, haven’t confirmed.)
Rusty
When they started getting cold feet and wanted to “negotiate”, I am glad Bello,t winner, stood his ground and said no negotiations. I was planning on going to the meeting on the 10th, that would have a show not to miss.
Raven
I have a friend and neighbor who is a lawyer and a very progressive christian and has a group called Theology on Tap. I like the dude and he rails at his fellow christers so that’s cool with me.
dmsilev
@Steeplejack (phone): Some fundies regard General Relativity as being against their religious beliefs. Amusingly, since GR is used as part of the calculations underlying the GPS system and since GPS undeniably works, they square that particular circle by denying that GR used in GPS. If you look at the “GPS” entry over in Conservapedia (remember that?), you can see this particular pathology.
Steeplejack (phone)
@jeffreyw:
If you don’t get the Reply @person, press X to get out of the comment, then press Reply again. That will put you back in the comment editor with the @Person.
Steeplejack (phone)
@dmsilev:
Relaying your reply to Mike S one down from me.
dmsilev
@Steeplejack (phone): Thanks!
Can you tell I’m really short on sleep? (yesterday was a 19 hour day. Bleh.)
Major Major Major Major
@Steeplejack (phone): I’m willing to bet that plebes have to remove the script element at the end since front-pagers weren’t allowed to use it until like this afternoon. Only one way to find out!
JaySinWA
@walkingstone: My religion says
Ellipsis can be fun.
The Moar You Know
@LesGS: Fine by me. If that passes both houses and gets signed into law, the company I work for (Republican as it gets but we do work that relies heavily on established science) will simply stop hiring anyone from Ohio. And knowing the owner, he’ll announce that publicly. And the reason why.
jeffreyw
@Steeplejack (phone): I was doing that and it works ok, but a newish quirk today was that, having done that, when I pressed post comment I am taken back to the top of the comment thread. Scrolled down to see if the reply posted and found that it had not. A subsequent refresh was needed to see my reply.
Roger Moore
@clay:
People believe the Bible defines pi as 3 because it describes a gigantic pot that’s 10 cubits across and 30 cubits around. Divide circumference by diameter to get pi=3.
Steeplejack (phone)
@Major Major Major Major:
I used to always take it out anyway, because it offended my sensibilities, so I haven’t checked leaving it in.
Steeplejack (phone)
@jeffreyw:
Yeah, that’s a different issue. I’ve been experiencing it too.
Ian R
@Roger Moore: Also, pi=3 is correct, to one significant figure. Arguing that pi=3 on your math test will just get marked down for insufficient precision.
Mnemosyne
@sdhays:
When Catholics do Bible study (which isn’t often), they usually go cover to cover. Julia Sweeney says that doing it that way was part of what made her an atheist, because she realized that it made no fucking sense when read in order.
swbarnes2
Urgg, can’t delete comments.
The Ohio bill might not be so bad, check out Snopes.
cckids
@Avalune:
That was my thought! Anyone who believes this is a good idea has not spent much time around middle/high schoolers and their imaginative ways to get out of work.
Feathers
@LesGS: what’s sad is that there is a better way of handling this, which is to allow students to give answers in the form of “science says X, but I don’t believe this because of my religious faith.” The problem is the fundies demanding that they be shielded from having to acknowledge the real world actually exists.
Mike S (Now with a Democratic Congressperson!)
@dmsilev: Thanks, I hadn’t heard of that one. Do you or anyone else know why they think General Relativity contradicts the Bible?
Does it sound too much like moral relativity?
oatler.
@Frankensteinbeck: Catholicism intersects with evangelism when they talk about the pope being a communist and how Vatican II was caused by evil dirty hippies.
Commenting at Balloon Juice since 1937
Dr. Joe Carbone gets his ass handed to him. Good.
Kayla Rudbek
@Mike S (Now with a Democratic Congressperson!): geology: spherical versus flat earth