Yes, I think the vaccine should be required for all students and staff before in person school should resume.
I'm not teaching this school year because of the epidemic. I won't go back until a vaccine is available and required.
GrreatTeacher
JoinedPosts by GrreatTeacher
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42
Flu Vaccine Now REQUIRED For All Students Going To School In Massachusetts
by minimus inthis is a requirement now in massachusetts.
children must get a flu shot by december 31. some allowances are made for religious reasons and health reasons.. personally, i don’t agree with the government making this mandatory.. what is your opinion?
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Which songs give you goosebumps?
by LoveUniHateExams ini don't know if this topic has been covered before - it might 've been.. i also recommend flipper's excellent music thread ('what songs have you been listening to?
', or similar).. but, i'd just like to start a thread about certain songs giving me goosebumps.
y'know, when you hear a song that profoundly effects you in some difficult-to-describe way and the hairs on your arm stand on end even though the room temperature's comfortably warm.. so, which songs give you goosebumps?.
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GrreatTeacher
Free agent, you hit mine. "The words of the prophets were written on the subway walls and tenement halls. And whispered in the sound of silence."
The Sound of Silence by Disturbed is maybe one of the best covers ever. He looks at you like he's staring into your soul.
Love the way the sound builds and builds and then ends gently and controlled.
Also, Over the Rainbow by Israel Kamakawiwo'ole on the ukelele. Tears for no damn good reason.
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The toxic JW Worldview
by TD insometimes i forget how small-minded, petty, provincial, mean-spirited ignorant and judgemental it was and still is.... then i sit down with a jw relative, hoping to have a normal conversation and realize there is literally nothing to talk about.. nothing..... current events?
hobbies?
your job?
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GrreatTeacher
Ah, yes. The cool congregations. Lots of pioneers because they actually had fun tearing around the territory.
I grew up in a fuddy fuddy congregation. There were 2 pioneers.
Everybody left that congregation, either to try to endure being a Witness in a cooler congregation or to leave the religion entirely.
But, no one stayed.
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Lockdown Blues and my new friend Carl the Cardinal
by GrreatTeacher inthe great lockdown has been mind-numbingly boring.
my husband has been an essential worker, but i have been home and not working.
the only other housemate is a teenager who is on distance learning from college.
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GrreatTeacher
I think there are a few things that attract all the wildlife to my yard.
First, there's been no construction in the neighborhood for about 20 years. Birds and wildlife have either lived here continuously or have a memory and return here annually to nest.
Secondly, in my neighborhood many people, and all those adjacent to me, plant trees on the property lines. People tend to use the middle of their lawns when outside thus making the animals feel more secure at the edges. This also means that the birds swoop across the lawn before landing on either side, making them easier to spot. The power lines on the front of my property attract the mourning doves for some reason, too. This allows the squirrels to make a nearly complete circuit of my yard while never leaving the ground.
Third, I and my neighbors have a huge variety of trees available, so there's something for every birdy. There are very tall white pines, more bushy-like Leland cypress (still tall), short bushes, maples with large leafy canopies and my pear tree which provides food, and when the pears rot, attracts butterflies.
Tiki, as you're there longer, I imagine more feathery friends will show up. I have a bird feeder, too, but I don't think it's the main draw, although small birds seem to like it a lot. Once the birds learn that you have a nice yard, they'll invite their friends to your neighborhood. :)
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Lockdown Blues and my new friend Carl the Cardinal
by GrreatTeacher inthe great lockdown has been mind-numbingly boring.
my husband has been an essential worker, but i have been home and not working.
the only other housemate is a teenager who is on distance learning from college.
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GrreatTeacher
Thanks for the birdseed!
Funny, my husband went out to mow the lawn tonight and poked his head in the back door again.
"Hey! Did you catch the osprey's name?"
I started laughing and went outside to find the guts of a large fish scattered in the yard. Large vertebrae, fish head ripped in two, tail fin, and scales scattered across the lawn. There was a dead spot in the yard in roughly the shape of a large fish.
We often see osprey and even eagles fly over with fish they have just picked up from the bay in their talons.
Looks like one landed and chowed down while we were not paying attention.
I'll be on the lookout for Ozzy the osprey now.
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Culture Wars
by Victor inwith things going to hell in a hand basket, i’ve taken an interest in the clashes of mindsets.
this of course takes me back to my own evolutionary mindset pre and post jw life of two decades.
if you overlay the core beliefs of memetic tribes as postulated by the authors, i’m curious what the median tribe of jwd would be?
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GrreatTeacher
Note: I started writing after Fink but it didn't post until after Slim. That's okay, though. Slim and I seem to have lots of overlap in our comments.
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Culture Wars
by Victor inwith things going to hell in a hand basket, i’ve taken an interest in the clashes of mindsets.
this of course takes me back to my own evolutionary mindset pre and post jw life of two decades.
if you overlay the core beliefs of memetic tribes as postulated by the authors, i’m curious what the median tribe of jwd would be?
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GrreatTeacher
The problem is that it is more like cultural divisions (plural)
You might think you're arguing about politics, but it might be about the nature of knowledge, or you might think you're arguing about race but the other guy is arguing class.
Or you might be arguing with someone and don't realize why you're busting your heads together without realizing that one of you might be motivated by a utopian world and another is motivated by a moral world but those two things are not exactly the same.
The article is about the fracturing of knowledge. Information moves extraordinarily fast and not along traditional networks anymore. So what is Knowledgd? How do we know?
These things used to be relegated to college Philosophy classes. Now it's each person's problem to find knowledge/ information, evaluate it and fold it into our existing knowledge and schema.
Sounds exhausting? It is! And (there's more) we're doing it badly! And we're not even sure what it is we are doing! Or not doing! And that's why we're fighting!
There's more to the article. It's long.
Loved the references to the red pill and the blue pill. We XJWs know the metaphor. The blue pill is agreed upon reality. The red pill allows you to see the secret underlying order. But, the Gray pill. That might be the ultimate reality because we admit we really don't know much. Everything is gray and murky and we might end up arguing against the position we thought we had.
Simplistic example. I'm on the political left. I'm for equality of the sexes. But, the transgender thing? I don't know. You don't have to deny your sex to embrace being a strong female. People who say that they knew they were transgender when they were growing up and were treated as the weaker sex and they knew they weren't weak and didn't fit in to that stereotype therefore they didn't identify with women. Well, there were times I was treated the same way, but it didn't cause me to not identify with women, it caused me to be a strong woman who didn't believe the bullshit about what being a woman meant, weak, etc. (Again simplistic. I do believe some people have always felt they have been born in the wrong body so to speak)
I'm a feminist, but I just enraged feminists that are passionate about transgender rights. To them it makes me Not a Feminist. Or Not a Democrat. At which suggestion I am enraged. Isn't it ultimately about getting Trump out of office? I'm sure we can agree on this! But they say, no what it's really about is people being free to be who they are! We are ultimately arguing about different things. People who seem the closest can enrage us the most.
The article lists a few dozen -isms that we may feel particularly passionate about. Believing one doesn't necessarily make you a nonbeliever in another. A certain group of -isms don't put you cleanly on one side and another group the other. And that's what's so confusing. Each new -ism ( or meme as the authors call it) must be evaluated on it's own. It's exhausting, but that's the rate of new information in the new information economy.
Anyhow, that's what I understand the authors to be saying. It's a tough bunch of new concepts.
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Culture Wars
by Victor inwith things going to hell in a hand basket, i’ve taken an interest in the clashes of mindsets.
this of course takes me back to my own evolutionary mindset pre and post jw life of two decades.
if you overlay the core beliefs of memetic tribes as postulated by the authors, i’m curious what the median tribe of jwd would be?
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GrreatTeacher
This was a long read and a kind of difficult new idea. Our society is not just split in two opposing tribes anymore. We can't just think in Left and Right. There are so many more groups, based on memes, that are pulling people in multiple directions. This has left us unable to even understand each other and share the same reality, thus the vicious cultural wars, politics, etc.
That's a quick summary of what I think they're saying.
Then they go on to speak of the multiple different mimetic groups. This will require much more reading. And much more thinking.
Thanks for the article.
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Miney under the table and retirement
by road to nowhere ini know several older retired witnesses who comolain abiut how little social security pays.
all of them made more than i ever did but were self employed.
they fudged the amount t they reported on taxes and thought they would never get old.
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GrreatTeacher
Always amazed that people think getting paid under the table is such a good thing and then are shocked that since they didn't report income they don't get Social Security.
It happened here locally. There were many self-employed watermen who worked for themselves all their lives and were having a tough time affording housing when the prices of real estate shot up.
So, the county created a senior housing apartment building where they could live in a very small apartment for a less than market rental price based upon a percentage of their monthly Social Security benefit.
The complex was built and the elderly watermen duly applied to the county. But, most of them had so underreported their income that they weren't qualified for any Social Security at all!
Some had Zero income. One gentleman lived with his very elderly mother and when she died, the house was condemned because it had basically fallen apart. He lived in his car in the backyard until he died. Very sad.
The county then had a problem filling their housing complex and ended up taking people on overflow from other nearby counties.
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Pioneering for real
by Giordano ini promised mom i'd pioneer for a year after graduating hs.. but!
i didn't say where.. i chose a small store front kingdom hall in kane pa, one of the coldest places in nw pennsylvania.
they were impressed with their frosty weather.
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GrreatTeacher
No kid today could ever imagine not having indoor toilets, but my mother clearly remembers the first one installed in her childhood home.
She was unhappy because she lost her toy room!
But, she learned to really appreciate not having to go outside in winter in the middle of the night.