If you’re gay, its looking more and more like the Republican Party is not for you. Just imagine the outrage if a Democrat did something like this.

Virginia Congressman Randy Forbes is back in the news. We last wrote about Forbes in October when he was set to fundraise for an anti-gay hate group, the American Family Association (AFA). Now he’s pushing to deny money to gay Republican candidates for Congress - because they’re gay. Unfortunately for Forbes, his anti-gay bigotry is undercutting his effort to become chair of the powerful House Armed Services Committee.

Read More at Hate Watch

McDaniel: Courtesy of chris McDaniel for Senate; Flag: Pri xel Creative/Shutterstock

I saw the photo on the Mother Jones article that Rightwing Watch linked to in this story. Its the first link. Chris McDaniel is just another “totally not racist” Republican.

Mississippi’s Chris McDaniel isn’t the only Republican candidate for U.S. Senate who has allied with neo-Confederate activists. Warren Throckmorton reports today that Bill Flynn, a radio talk show host seeking the GOP nomination to challenge Democrat Kay Hagan in North Carolina, is a close partner of the Institute on the Constitution’s David Whitney and has taught courses through the Institute. Whitney wrote on the group’s website last week:

Our Institute On The Constituion [sic] Host Bill Flynn in Triad region of North Carolina announced his candidacy for the United States Senate race this past Sunday. Bill hosts a morning radio show on WEGO (980 AM). Bill has not only taught our U.S. Constitution course he was my co-host on the Constitutional Cruise, All Aboard America this past March. Bill is a good friend and patriot.

Whitney is the chaplain of the Maryland chapter of the League of the South, a neo-confederate hate group that promotes white nationalism.

Read More At Rightwing Watch

At this time, I am unaware of any transcript version of this video link.

escapistmagazine.com

The gist is that Bob “Moviebob” Chipman gives his two cents on whether its okay for a reviewer to bring their political/philosophical “baggage” to work or if film reviews should remain “pure.” The springboard that started this topic was the response to his review of Ender’s Game. But this covers such a wide variety of subjects in entertainment and can conceivably apply elsewhere in culture.

IMO, listening to this is worth anybody’s seven odd minutes.

The author of this commentary brings up a few examples of things such as abolition of slavery, racial equality and women’s suffrage that at one point in the past were all technically extremist positions. Yet today any support for things like slavery, segregation or not allowing someone to vote based on their gender would be regarded as morally abhorrent by the overwhelming majority of people in our society.

By Michael Kazin - October 30, 2013

American politics is a famously contentious theater, especially today. But the vast majority of liberals, conservatives, and Washington journalists all seem to agree that “extremism” is appalling and should be eradicated.

Yet the meaning of the term is as prey to ideological dispute as are such holy words in our political lexicon as “freedom” and “rights.” Conservatives call Bill de Blasio, who is about to be elected mayor of the nation’s largest city, a “left-wing extremist,” while liberals counter that anyone with ties to the Tea Party is an “extreme right-winger.” “Extremist” is the description of choice for fundamentalists of any religion, unless, of course, you belong to one of the faiths being gored. In that case, it’s only traditionalists from the other religions who are “extreme.” “Community,” the literary critic Raymond Williams once observed, “seems never to be used unfavorably.” But no one has a kind word to say for extremism or extremists.

Well, let me be the first. Sometimes, those who take an inflexible, radical position hasten a purpose that years later is widely hailed as legitimate and just. Extremism is the coin of conviction, whether virtuous or malign. It forces middle-roaders to crush the disrupter or adapt.

Read More At Dissent

I was originally alerted to this commentary here

In addition to what Kazin wrote, Ed Brayton asks an important question, I think we should all think about after reading the commentary.

So when is extremism good and when is it bad?

I hope they lose. Seriously, making that kid go through this nonsensical “therapy” to “cure” his “disease” of being gay, can only harm him. This is child abuse as far as I’m concerned.

credit Flickr Creative Commons

A New Jersey couple is suing their state over a law banning so-called gay conversion therapy, which they say is a violation of their free speech rights, freedom of religion and ability to parent their child “free from unconstitutional government interference,” which in this case means putting a 15-year-old high school student through a medically discredited pseudotherapy intended to “cure” him of his sexual and gender identity.

Read More at Salon

Teach for America places recent college graduates from top universities as teachers in America’s neediest classrooms. After five weeks of training, the new recruits are sent into the field to work their magic … or not.

In its early days, TFA was seen as a way to use the energy and brilliance of bright college students to boost the achievement of students near the bottom of the education ladder. TFA recruits are required to serve two years. Some wash out before their first, and very few stick with teaching after their second year. Most use their TFA experience as a stepping stone to pursue careers outside education. Some have become school system administrators and education policy makers. After two years in the classroom.

While I admire the original intent of Teach for America, I have misgivings about how TFA participants are being used as a stopgap for real teacher improvement. Rather than use highly experienced teachers (who might also be union members), school districts around the country throw these idealistic greenhorns into the lions’ den.

It pays to have friends in high places. Under the budget deal worked out in Washington a few days, language was introduced to expand the assignment of TFA recruits into at-risk classrooms.

On page 20 of this bill passed by the House, it says:

SEC. 145. Subsection (b) of section 163 of Public 5 Law 111-242, as amended, is further amended by striking 6 “2013-2014” and inserting “2015-2016”.

The law that is being amended includes the highly qualified provision, which Teach For America and other school reformers had persuaded legislators to pass a few years ago.

Under No Child Left Behind, all children are supposed to have highly qualified teachers, school districts are supposed to let parents know which teachers are not highly qualified, and these teachers are supposed to be equitably distributed in schools. They aren’t. It turns out that teachers still in training programs are disproportionately concentrated in schools serving low-income students and students of color, the very children who need the very best the teaching profession has to offer. The inequitable distribution of these teachers also has a disproportionate impact on students with disabilities.

More: The Debt Deal’s Gift to Teach for America (Yes, TFA)

There is no concrete evidence that TFA recruits, as a group, perform any better than experienced career teachers. It’s another example of how politics and networking benefit some, while neglecting those who need help most.

For more details about the redefinition of “highly qualified teachers,” read washingtonpost.com .

Video

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Why not just launch carrier or cruiser missiles at the Syrian’s key points of defenses and get accurate pin points via satellite,
then send planes to finish the raid, afterwards give the )good) rebels some weaponry to purge the rest of the terrorists in the area . Then assign a leader that generally everyone will support in that territory, preferably one that favors democracy.This way the US wouldn’t have to fight and have a fast speedy resolution to the war and we wouldn’t have to occupy the land trying to assymulate it’s people like in afghanistan.