TresSugar

Where in the World is Osama bin Laden? In Theaters!

CitizenSugar — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 11:00:25 -0700

I must have been in a cave this weekend - or so busy talking about Ben Stein's Expelled that I completely forgot to mention that Morgan Spurlock's new flick, Where in the World Is Osama bin Laden opened this weekend. I've been following this film since way back, and now that it's out it sounds like part of a perfect afternoon - a nice double feature of intelligent design and terrorist hunting. Buzz would approve.

The trailer makes it seem like a wacky romp, which is odd given the sort of global gravity of finding bin Laden, but I'll bet Spurlock has some pretty scathing commentary on the man's elusiveness. Are you going to check it out? The reviews are in if you want to research before investing in a ticket. I wonder what topic Spurlock will take on next? Do you like his affable take on serious issues? Does he give Michael Moore a run for his money?

Bibles in Class? Not Just for Sunday School Anymore

CitizenSugar — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 09:00:00 -0700

The separation of church and state is a little less distinct at Hamilton County Schools in Tennessee. Funding from a special grant program means that students can elect to study Bible History in public schools.

While religion classes aren't uncommon in universities, topics of faith are muted in lower grades of public schools. For almost 90 years the program "Bible in the Schools" has provided up to $1,000,000 a year to cover Bible History courses.

One sophomore says, "It's not really based on religion. It's history, Bible history you're learning the history, it's just like another history class."

If learning the Bible is just another history class, Ben Stein's new movie might just count as science class?

Stein's movie Expelled hits screens today. We took a peek at the role of teaching evolution in education a while back, but now the Scientific American has an article that outlines "Six Things in Expelled That Ben Stein Doesn't Want You to Know...about intelligent design and evolution." I can't wait to see the movie, and this is the perfect companion read before you buy that tub of popcorn.

Privately funded Bible study in public schools? Is studying the Bible like learning history? Did you take a peek at the things Ben Stein doesn't want you to know?

Source

California Private Schools Can Expel Lesbians

LibertySugar — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 12:30:15 -0800

The headline might seem like something out of a time capsule, but it's still true today that gay students in California do not have a right to attend private schools. A state court ruled yesterday that because California Lutheran High School is a social organization, and not a business, it is not subject to state antidiscrimination laws.

In the 3-0 ruling the court maintained:

The whole purpose of sending one's child to a religious school is to ensure that he or she learns even secular subjects within a religious framework.

The decisions was based on an earlier ruling that held that the Boy Scouts of America could exclude gays and atheists.

The two girls at the center of the case were expelled after another student reported certain postings found on their MySpace pages. The principal questioned them about their sexual orientation, and then expelled them based on their answers. After the ruling, their lawyer lamented that according to the decision, religious schools can discriminate on any basis.

Since this ruling will most likely be appealed to the Supreme Court, do you think it should be overturned or upheld?

Source

Expelled: The Movie - Ben Stein's New Creation(ism)

CitizenSugar — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 15:00:09 -0700

I shun all things made up, my personal f-word is fiction, so imagine my delight when I found out Ben Stein, the clever-skirting-genius host of Win Ben Stein's Money that guy in that Ferris Bueller movie, and a former speech writer for Nixon and Ford has cooked up a new documentary.

It's called Expelled and looks at the teaching of science in schools. Either I'm wildly dimwitted, naive, brainwashed, or a scootch of all three, but I assumed the movie would be about how the education system is squashing scientific thought and empirical enterprise in America. And then I watched the trailer. Mouth, agape.

Whoa! Ben Stein, savant who sat in the final round of his game show crushing anyone who dared challenge his mental prowess, has made a movie about the strangle hold Darwinism has on other schools of thought. In the trailer he says this of the treatment of academics who don't strictly subscribe to the theory of evolution, "This tells me Darwinists are afraid. They're hiding something."

I'm going to be first in line when it comes out April 18. Ben Smartypants Stein, presenting a civil case advocating for free thought that might lead to intelligent design? This I gotta see. Check out the trailer and see what I mean.

Could he be right? Are evolutionists taking over and crowding out other ideas?

Prep Talk: Justifying Hazing at Boarding School

TresSugar — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 14:00:00 -0700

High school girls have many ways of punishing each other, the silent treatment being a classic tactic. But what about seniors marching through dorms with the precision of the gestapo, lining up freshmen, yelling at them, making them perform chores, and forcing them to count to 100 in German? It's not reform school - it's an annual ritual at Miss Porter’s, an all-girls boarding and day school in Connecticut where Gossip Girl-sounding names are as common as class rings.

Since Miss Porter's students, graduates, and even the administration are a secretive brood, it’s hard to know which rituals continue today, but we do know traditions die hard on the leafy-green campus. The school even has its own Skull and Bones group named the Oprichniki, after Ivan the Terrible’s secret police. And while Miss Porter's denied its existence in a March New York Times article, 2007 graduate Blair Clarke confirmed it in July's Vanity Fair when she said she “crash-studied German” to join the Oprichniki.

While we can let our imaginations go wild trying to figure out what really goes on at Miss Porter's, we do know this: Tatum Bass, a former student who was expelled, is suing the school for not intervening when she was harassed by the Oprichniki. Why would an otherwise popular senior in student government earn the infamous group's ire? According to Tatum, it started after she suggested the school participate in a multischool prom. As a breach in Miss Porter’s tradition, it was a major faux pas. The taunting, she claims, led to her skipping class and cheating on a test, which led to her expulsion.

What’s shocking is not that she was expelled or that a secret society exists, but that the reaction of students and alumni was, more or less, "Buck up, Bass!" To find out how they reacted, read more.

The ability to tough it out and not go crying to parents is a quality the school proudly instills in girls. So it's no surprise that students and alumni were appalled that Bass used taunting by classmates as an excuse to cheat. Cheating aside, how is it that adults justify teens abusing teens? I found my answer in both the Vanity Fair and New York Times pieces.

Blair Clarke, the confirmed Oprichniki member, said the group never inflicts real pain, just the anticipatory fear of it. Sarah Hart Hansen, a 1974 graduate, told the New York Times, “Maybe there’s nervousness in the beginning, but it’s a bonding moment.” Ah-ha! So it’s not hazing if there’s no physical pain? What a great definition that will create loopholes for underground societies, sororities, and fraternities everywhere.

Indian Colleges Blame Jeans For Sexual Harassment

TresSugar — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 12:00:00 -0700

Female university students in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh can no longer wear jeans or any other Western clothes to school. It's all for their own protection, of course - officials say that expelling women who dress like this is "the only way to stop crime against women."

If the schools really wanted to stop sexual harassment, they should probably go after the men who perpetrate it. The backwards logic makes me think this rule is really about preserving conservative values against the invasion of western culture, and I might be right: Hindu extremist groups have increasingly protested phenomena like women drinking in bars or publicly displaying affection.

Regardless of the motivation, the stated logic behind this rule - that men cannot control their actions and it's somehow a woman's fault if she is a target of sexual abuse - is nothing new or unique to India.
Source

Front Page: US Unemployment Jumps to 25-Year High

CitizenSugar — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 08:04:53 -0800

The US unemployment rate has hit 8.1 percent, the highest rate since 1983. - AP
Secretary of State Hilary Clinton said today that there's a chance for improved US-Russian relations but that she also sees areas of significant disagreement. - Reuters
Police are on the hunt for an Ohio gunman who allegedly killed his newlywed wife, his sister-in-law, and three young children. - AP
CNN's resident Sanjay Gupta has withdrawn his name from the list of Surgeon General candidates. - Chicago Tribune

Millions in Sudan risk starvation, as 13 international aid groups were expelled after the ICC issued an arrest warrant for President Bashir. - Reuters
Consumer activists in Indonesia want the government to ban "Obama snacks" being marketed to children. - Reuters

Source

What Did You Give Up For Lent?

DearSugar — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 11:00:00 -0800

Yesterday, Ash Wednesday, marked the beginning of Lent. Now I'm not too familiar with this Catholic practice, but I do know that Fat Tuesday is considered the last day one can commit a sin while Ash Wednesday signifies the start to a 40 day penance where one gives up a vice until Easter Sunday.

I've had friends give up chocolate, soda, even French fries for Lent, but tell me, what have you committed to expel from your life for the next 40 days?

Source

Dear Poll: Are You a Yeller?

DearSugar — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 13:30:00 -0800

We all have tempers, but it's important for us to learn how to keep them under control so we don't become walking, ticking time bombs! And since we all have unique personality traits, we probably also have different ways to expel that aggression, but according to the March issue of Glamour, 92 percent of women choose to vent their frustration by yelling. I fit comfortably into that statistic, but tell me, are you a yeller too?

Source

Russia Lectures US: You're in No Position to Give Advice

LibertySugar — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 14:00:30 -0700

Russian President Dmitri A. Medvedev is in no mood to listen to US criticism about the state of human rights or democracy in Russia. This week he said that the US was "essentially in a depression" and thus in no shape to tell other countries what to do.

During an interview with foreign journalists, one reporter asked the president about John McCain's proposal to expel Russia from the G8 for its record on democracy. Medvedev offered a lesson in international relations: "The Group of 8 exists not because someone likes or dislikes it, but because objectively, they are the biggest world economies and the most serious players from the foreign policy point of view." Little more than a decade after communism fell and left Russia in economic shambles, lucrative oil exports have made Russia economically, and geopolitically, confident.

Gas-station-side prayer vigils across America, organized by the Prayer at the Pump movement, might be giving Medvedev the evidence he needs to make such statements. For more on God and gas, read more.

The prayer group's founder, a member of the Seventh Day Adventist Church, said the group is currently in the prayer phase of working for lower-pump prices, but will soon begin activist work. He said: "We are praying that God will touch the hearts of people in power to find a solution quickly."

If money talks, do tough times mean America will soon lose its international influence?

Source