Suing Meta

Meta has run into problems since it was introduced by Mark Zuckerberg. Now, in addition to its financial and public image trouble, it's being sued by forty-one states. 

This is a big deal. Their claim is that "that Meta knew its “addictive” features were harmful and intentionally misled the public about the safety of its platform." The Attorney General of the state of California says, "Meta has been harming our children and teens, cultivating addiction to boost corporate profits.” 

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According to the lawsuit, "Meta designed and deployed harmful and psychologically manipulative product features to induce young users’ compulsive and extended Platform use."

Meta is in the crosshairs of the attorneys general of 41 of America's 50 states. That's a lot of firepower.

from Yahoo

Awokening 3

(cont'd from last Friday's post)

Woke values require that all of us be pushed and coerced into saying things that we all know are not true (as in last Friday's video). Fairness is one of those values we all aspire to, but it's sacrificed and violated when female athletes are forced to compete with physically male athletes.

A high school girls track meet this month illustrates the point. King's Christian Academy girls put in a winning performance, but they were edged out of first place by Seattle Academy because one "girl" on that team has a male body with its typical advantages. 

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It's the same unfair situation that Riley Gaines faced when she competed against the transgender UPenn swimmer, Lia Thomas. Sports is a primarily physical competition, and competitors should be qualified on physical terms, not emotional feelings.

Riley tweeted that the girls and their coach were threatened "not to say anything/act up on the podium or else they would be suspended ruining their chances of going to State. Parents were warned not to wear political shirts. A coach got suspended for yelling "fair sports for girls."

Awokening 2

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

Woke values just don't sync with most Americans. We don't want to cancel everybody who disagrees with us and don't want to be cancelled if we're pretty sure men can't get pregnant.

Babylon Bee manages to help us laugh about it just a little👇 

from Babylon Bee

Awokening 1

You don't hear the word "woke" much these days. As a left-wing movement that started back in 2014, it may be on its last legs, according to this author. 

"[A]fter tearful marches, fiery riots and innumerable acts of public penance by government agencies, colleges and large corporations, the Great Awokening appears to be slowing down and may be headed for collapse."

One of its features was the virtue-signaling of companies and organizations who couldn't wait to tell us how supporting they were of extreme causes like Black Lives Matter. Huge sums of money poured into BLM, which did such damage to black Americans:

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Pew polling reveals a decline in public support. In 2017, 44% of Americans thought sex could be changed, compared to 38% in 2022. In 2017, 54% of Americans thought sex was permanent and could not be changed, compared to 60% in 2022. The public in general has moved back toward the science of biological sex.

from MSN

(cont'd tomorrow)

Move aside 7

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

A power struggle is taking place in public schools over the question of who has authority to choose what is best for children. Government schools claim it for themselves (yesterday's post) and deny it to parents. Courts are deciding the answer in cases around America.

Decisions vary. Muslim, Jewish and Christian parents fought back in Maryland. They wanted the freedom to release their kids from LGBTQ curriculum, to opt out; but the judge denied them that freedom. She said parents had no right to do that.

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Is it true that parents don't have that right before the law in America? Judges are supposed to make decisions that are consistent with precedent, that is, "previous judicial decisions on the same subject."

Precedent in American law is solidly on the side of parents in multiple cases. In 2000, the Supreme Court said, "“The interest of parents in the care, custody, and control of their children is the oldest of the fundamental liberty interests recognized by this Court.” 

That Maryland judge was acting on her own preference or politics, but clearly not on the side  of established law in America. "Supreme Court precedent unequivocally establishes parents’ fundamental rights in raising and nurturing their children . . ."

from The Stream

Move aside 6

Follow-up to these posts

Should schools tell the parents if a student wants to change to the opposite sex? 

Parents say yes; schools often tell parents to mind their own business (in effect). Parents get the feeling that they're being attacked for trying to protect and raise their kids. 

Yes, it's hard to believe that schools violate parents like this, but they do. In California, the government throws its enormous weight on the side of the attack.

Rocklin Unified School District board of trustees voted 4-1 last month to require that teachers tell parents if their child wants to change their sex. Trustees said, "We trust our parents to know what is best for their children."

Orange Unified School District voted 4-0 to require the same kind of notification. Four others adopted this policy during the summer.

One of the four, Chino Unified School District, is being sued by the state's attorney general. A judge has temporarily put a hold on their chosen policy.

(cont'd tomorrow)

Elon leads

Whether you admire or despise Elon Musk, you know that his influence extends around the globe. Part of his appeal is certainly the entertainment value of watching somebody take huge risks and succeed.

One reason why his companies achieve highly is because he asks a lot of his employees . . and they know he asks even more of himself. It sent a message when, during shift change, they saw him spending the night sleeping under his desk. "They knew I was there, and it made a huge difference. So they gave it their all." He wasn't sipping Mai Tais on a tropical island.

Check it out here (Youtube won't let me embed it😕)

“Light yourself on fire with passion and people will come from miles to watch you burn.”― John Wesley

Miss Iraq 2

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

All her life Sarah had heard that Israel was murderous against Arabs and that both evil Israel and America deserved death. But as a child she had some interaction with American military and found them to be kind. She listened to American music and started to learn English, later becoming a translator.

As a Miss Universe contestant, she took a photo with Miss Israel and posted it on social media. Her friends and family were terrified. The title "Miss Iraq" was taken from her and death threats followed, but she wouldn't back down. 

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After becoming a citizen of America, she visited Israel to speak -- and was shocked to see many Arabs living there peacefully beside Israelis, "walking together" as she puts it. 

She rejects the hate that she was taught as a child and works for peace today from her home in Los Angeles.

from Jewish Journal

Miss Iraq 1

Sarah's family had power in their home only a few hours per day as she was growing up. When they could get water, they would store it up for the days when they couldn't, and the same applied to food. Sarah Idan was brought up in Baghdad, Iraq.

They didn't have a reliable supply of power or food, and they didn't have freedom of speech or dissent. But Sarah had the opportunity to represent her country at the Miss Universe competition . . until she got in serious trouble.

Today Sarah lives happily in America. What she learned, how she wound up here, what she does now, is her story.

Trans at home 2

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

Pastor Micheal changed his attitude. He realized that gay/trans people are still people whom he's responsible to love and minister to. Today his son understands that his dad loves him regardless of the fact that he can't endorse his behavior.

We as Christians believe in the truth of evidence-based science (genetics), so we don't think a man or woman can become the opposite sex by wishing it. We must speak what is true. But the Bible tells us to also speak in love. So this author stopped making fun of gay people and switched over to reaching out to them.

This is the Christian life. When God puts his finger on something and tells us to change it, we don't cling to the old habit. We are open to being changed by the wisdom of God. Pastor Micheal showed us what that looks like in real life.

from The Stream

Trans at home 1

Follow-up to these posts

"Speaking the truth in love," that's our mandate as Christians. Not just truth, not just love, but both of them together. Here's one man's story of how he learned to practice that mandate when transgenderism came to his own home.

Pride Month happened in his city every year, and this author would make fun of it. But it got personal when his son told him that he was gay and considering transition. Grief and shame replaced mocking. The dad is a pastor in a Christian church.

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Loneliness came as well, because he and his wife at first wouldn't tell people what was going on. Their son thought his dad hated him because he wouldn't approve of this lifestyle. That's the narrative in our cultural moment: if you love someone, you will endorse all their choices (a principle that doesn't really work in any relationship).

But God was at work in Pastor Micheal's life.

from The Stream and a personal conversation with the author

(cont'd tomorrow)

Sustainable 4

(cont'd from last Friday's post)

Global fast food brand McDonald's says that they want to do what's best for people, for our shared planet, and for animals. So they have been working with a "regenerative" farming business in the United Kingdom, working to produce the kind of outcomes that Will Harris had on his farm (see posts last Wednesday-Friday).

CAFO, contained animal feeding operation, is still the system used by most farms. It's cheaper -  but less humane and not considered sustainable. In regenerative systems, the animals are freer while the soil holds more water and is full of microbial life and CO2. (And . . er, meat will be more expensive, but I think global elites already want that.)

McDonald's is under pressure to comply with the UN's IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change). 

Pressure may be coming from the European Union, too. Remember that Ireland and The Netherlands are moving to kill off cattle, ostensibly in response to the same climate change mandates. Could regenerative farming save European beef and farmers? I hope so.

from The Cattle Site

Sustainable 3

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

Re-post from 2017:

Lots of good things result from the success of the Harris farm . Will's decision to stop following the industrial farming model - and to start the sustainable grazing model - initiated ripples of improvement and prosperity beyond his family.

Originally a beef monoculture, the farm now additionally has goats, chickens, sheep, ducks, turkeys, rabbits, and more. Chickens graze a field after cattle move on, spreading manure and feeding on larvae breeding in it. Small ruminants also follow cattle. Will says the animals are healthier and happier every year.

Land that supported only cows years ago now now supports lots of diverse life - all of which make the land better. There's more microbial life in the soil, it absorbs much more water (instead of letting it run off), and more carbon is sequestered in it.

Animals, land, Harris family, 100+ employees, businesses they buy from - all benefit because the folks at White Oak Pastures create value. It all works because they serve a market niche that is willing to pay the price for these products.

Sustainable 2

(cont'd from yesterday's post) 

Re-post from 2017:

McDonald's is looking for sustainable farmers. Here is the story of one.

Will Harris inherited the northern Georgia farm that his grandfather originally bought. It was profitable until the early 1990's, then it wasn't. That's when the land's productivity sank so low that farms couldn't be profitable anymore, and the little farming community died.

Will's dad started using ammonium nitrate fertilizer on his pasture back in 1946. What he didn't know was that, although the grass seemed to love it, that fertilizer was killing "the microbial life that fed the soil."

His "contained animal feeding operation" (CAFO) supported his family for about twenty years. Then came the dark days and he wound up borrowing $7 million to maintain his industrial farm. At the bottom of the barrel, he changed to a system like Joel Salatin's.

He calls himself a grass farmer now, just like Salatin does. His farm has grown from 700 cows in 1995 to 100,000 different animals - all on the same land. It seems like a miracle. They support their family and over one hundred employees.

(cont'd tomorrow)

Sustainable 1

 Re-post from 2017:

Allan Savory has been speaking and training farmers for years. Joel Salatin has been speaking and writing books and training farmers for years. Both of them are passionate to spread the message that correctly raising pastured beef produces productive land & nutritious meat . . and takes CO2 out of the atmosphere. 

That huge global user of beef, i.e. McDonald's, may have been listening. 

photo: firstwefeast.com

"For more than four years, McDonald’s has been traversing a long and arduous path to produce "sustainable beef" in its sprawling global supply chain.

"The fast-food giant is embarking on a small but potentially significant project to measure and analyze the ability of cattle farming to sequester carbon in soil, using a style of grazing called adaptive multi-paddock — AMP, for short. If it works, it could transform the way McDonald’s ranchers raise cattle and produce beef — while avoiding the release of millions or even billions of tons of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere."

(cont'd tomorrow)

Not taking notes

Do we want students to pay attention to professors' lectures? Only if we want them to learn something from their expensive college experience.

Are they learning something? It's a serious question today. 

When you look at a class lecture and see the students with open laptops before them, you naturally suppose they're all taking notes. But, sadly, that's not the case. Many don't have the discipline to ignore the obvious distraction potential of an open laptop. As usual, the student who can discipline him/herself to focus will have the rewards.

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"College is an interactive place where kids need to focus for long periods of time in order to learn." 

San Fran Targets

Follow-up to this post

"We know that our stores serve an important role in their communities, but we can only be successful if the working and shopping environment is safe for all."

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Target, Inc. recently issued this statement, which must be self-evident to every one of us. If it's not safe to work/shop in a store, the store can't stay open. So three Targets are closing in San Francisco, California.

Retail stores come and go in different localities, so that's not unusual. But this is different because the reason being given is a lack of safety and security.

Sound familiar? "Security" is why Whole Foods left. Seven Starbucks are going to close in San Francisco this month.

Note to readers in other countries: rampant, business-destroying crime is new and  alarming here. The state of California seems uninterested in prosecuting it.

from MPR News

Speak up 2

Unlike the woman in yesterday's post, most of us will likely censor ourselves rather than speak up in public situations. We know we'll get opposition to our sincerely held convictions, because that's the cultural moment America is in. 

Fierce opposition is certain to be employed by the left against good and traditional American virtues. Issues of free speech and parental rights are landing in the court system because our constitution was designed and created to be the final, lawful defender of those rights. 

But maybe it doesn't have to go that far, maybe more people agree with these values than it seems. That's the view of this author, who thinks "a whopping 80% of Americans would find themselves nodding in agreement."

So let's try to engage, even with people we think may not agree with us. Keys to good conversations always apply: 1) listen to them, 2) try to understand their view, and 3) create a human connection. Some no-no's: don't shout them down or call them names.

Some people are open to civility.

Speak up 1

Last year a Christian mother of four children was elected to her Arizona school district's governing board. She started serving last January. She authentically brought her convictions with her to her new position in the community. When she spoke, she would read some verses from the Bible.

It shouldn't be forbidden to read a Bible verse. That should be obvious to any American, but the board barred her from it. She kept it up. The Freedom from Religion Foundation threatened "liability and financial strain" if the school board didn't find a way to stop her. She stopped reading verses.

It sounds like she was forcing the issue and it took courage. Her actions were called "unconstitutional." But that's just rhetoric without merit, because the constitution actually guarantees freedom to speak.

So she's going to sue the school district. It's sad that something like this has to end up in the court system. But the writers of the constitution put the principle of free speech in the Bill of Rights for this kind of situation. Read her lawyers' statement.

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from Life Site News

Men adrift 5

Follow-up to this post

Conventional wisdom says that men generally still achieve and succeed in STEM subjects (science, technology, engineering, math). But even that generality, which used to be true, is being challenged. The challenger is Lawrence Krauss himself, a very big name and authority in science.

In an article published last month, he says "Men are missing in academia." Decades of affirmative action programming and cultural shift have left men behind even in STEM, the subjects where they used to cluster and achieve. 

How did that happen? Krauss says DEI (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion) bears some blame. The "vast bureaucracy" of DEI resulted in disturbing new trends: "In a desire to include women and minorities, white males are often excluded . . ."

An unnatural absence of men in education has been noticed. The president of Purdue University says, "Where are all the men?" For asking this reasonable question, he got protests:

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Lifewise 2

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

In this day of opposition to the Bible, even to virtue, there's an organization that "provides Bible education for public school students during school hours." 

It used to be common that public school students could have "release time" to leave the school grounds and receive religious education for a couple of hours. That was a different time decades ago, a time when church attendance was very common. 

But students can still legally be taught the Bible. Lifewise Academy started up in 2019 and expects to operate in 300 schools this year. It must be privately funded, off school grounds, and students must have parents' permission. With anxiety and depression and suicide at high levels, some communities and schools welcome this opportunity to try for better outcomes for the kids. 

Lives have been changing. One school found that students involved with Lifewise were sent to the principal's office for discipline less often. It starts when people of the community ask for it in their schools.

Lifewise 1

Everyone knows that we in America are terribly divided and there are some forces, like CRT, determined to drive the division deeper and deeper. What do we as Christians still have in common with our neighbors and fellow citizens?

Thank God, there are some things that still unite most of us. Lifewise builds on those things. That's why the organization is flourishing, students are being reached, and both parents and school administrators like it. It seems like a miracle, so counter-cultural.

Watch their video:

(cont'd tomorrow)