Religion / Society

Afghanistan Declares “Vice and Virtue” Laws

“In the first formal declaration of vice and virtue laws in Afghanistan since returning to power in August 2021, the Taliban says it is mandatory for Afghan women to conceal their voices and faces in public.”

“The laws were issued Wednesday after they were approved by supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada, a government spokesman said. The Taliban had set up a ministry for the “propagation of virtue and the prevention of vice” after seizing power in 2021.

“The ministry published its vice and virtue laws on Wednesday that cover aspects of everyday life like public transportation, music, shaving and celebrations.

“They are set out in a 114-page, 35-article document seen by The Associated Press and are the first formal declaration of vice and virtue laws in Afghanistan since the takeover.

“‘Inshallah we assure you that this Islamic law will be of great help in the promotion of virtue and the elimination of vice,’ said ministry spokesman Maulvi Abdul Ghafar Farooq on Thursday.”

“Article 13 relates to women. It says it is mandatory for a woman to veil her body at all times in public and that a face covering is essential to avoid temptation and tempting others. Clothing should not be thin, tight or short.

“Women should veil themselves in front of all male strangers, including Muslims, and in front of all non-Muslims to avoid being corrupted. A woman’s voice is deemed intimate and so should not be heard singing, reciting, or reading aloud in public. It is forbidden for women to look at men they are not related to by blood or marriage and vice versa.

“Article 17 bans the publication of images of living beings, threatening an already fragile Afghan media landscape.

“Article 19 bans the playing of music, the transportation of solo female travelers, and the mixing of men and women who are not related to each other. The law also obliges passengers and drivers to perform prayers at designated times.”

Source: https://apnews.com/article/afghanistan-taliban-vice-virtue-laws-women-9626c24d8d5450d52d36356ebff20c83

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2024-08-26
Society / Technology

Australia’s New “Right to Disconnect” Law

Australia has a new “Right to Disconnect” law!

“Is your boss texting you on the weekend? Work email pinging long after you’ve left for home?

“Australian employees can now ignore those and other intrusions into home life thanks to a new “right to disconnect” law designed to curb the creep of work emails and calls into personal lives.

“The new rule, which came into force on Monday, means employees, in most cases, cannot be punished for refusing to read or respond to contacts from their employers outside work hours.”

Source: https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/australian-employees-now-have-right-ignore-work-emails-calls-after-hours-2024-08-25

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2024-08-26
Information Literacy

Which Face Is Real?

Interesting! Here’s a website that shows you the faces of two different people. One is real and one is AI-generated. You click on the one you think is real.

“All images are either computer-generated from https://thispersondoesnotexist.com using the StyleGAN software, or real photographs from the FFHQ dataset of Creative Commons and public domain images.”

Source: https://whichfaceisreal.com/

Learn how to tell the difference: https://whichfaceisreal.com/learn.html

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2024-08-25
Education / Society

Illinois Bans Corporal Punishment in All Schools

“This school year, Illinois will become just the fifth state in the nation to prohibit corporal punishment in all schools.

“Legislation that Gov. JB Pritzker signed into law this month bans physical punishment in private schools while reiterating a prohibition on the practice in public schools implemented 30 years ago.

“When the ban takes effect in January, Illinois will join New Jersey, Iowa, Maryland and New York in prohibiting paddling, spanking or hitting in every school.

“State Rep. Margaret Croke, a Chicago Democrat, was inspired to take up the issue after an updated call by the American Association of Pediatrics to end the practice, which it says can increase behavioral or mental health problems and impair cognitive development. The association found that it’s disproportionately administered to Black males and students with disabilities.”

Source: https://apnews.com/article/schools-corporal-punishment-paddling-discipline-54591cd8826079a2a6c22e083612abd9

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2024-08-22
Politics / Society

Georgia Creates Online Portal to Challenge Other People’s Voter Registration

Georgia is actually making it HARDER to vote! They’ve spent taxpayer money to develop a website — not to register to vote or to get an absentee ballot — but to REQUEST THE CANCELLATION OF VOTER REGISTRATION OF OTHER PEOPLE!

The Georgia Secretary of State says it’s intended for people moving out of state or who have a deceased family member. But in the last few years, Georgia has had hundreds of thousands of challenges of voter registrations by right-wing groups that didn’t even know the people involved, and most of those challenges were groundless and eventually denied.

When it launched on Monday, it was “marred by a glitch that allowed people to access a voter’s date of birth, driver’s license number and last four numbers of a Social Security number. That’s the same information needed to verify a person’s identity and allow a registration to be canceled.” Apparently the glitch only lasted an our or so, but it underscores concerns that the site could allow outsiders to unjustifiably cancel voter registrations.

“If someone knows my birthdate, you could get in and pull up my information and change my registration,” state Senate Minority Leader Gloria Butler, a Stone Mountain Democrat, said Tuesday. Democratic staff showed The Associated Press a copy of a document with Butler’s information that they said was produced by the system.

This kind of website isn’t actually needed and is clearly to make it even easier for extremists to challenge the voter registrations of anyone they don’t want on the rolls. The original language on the website attested to that, but was later changed.

Not only is there this context of right-wing challenges of voter registrations of so many legitimate voters, but there have been laws passed in Georgia that make it HARDER to vote. Example: requiring a “wet-ink signature” for people to be able to vote, but setting up this online portal to allow anyone to try to remove voter registrations. Shouldn’t it be the other way around? Shouldn’t someone asking to remove someone have to sign a piece of paper, perhaps under the penalty of perjury? Making it easy to ask for the removal of voter registrations is simple disenfranchisement.

Source: https://youtu.be/MK4b-meIGPU

Source: https://apnews.com/article/georgia-cancel-voter-registration-personal-information-5bf7d7d474e0e077c7fd50141ff487e8

Source: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2024/08/01/georgia-voter-cancelation-portal-launches/74616004007/

Source: https://www.cartercenter.org/resources/pdfs/peace/democracy/ask-the-experts-voter-challenges-georgia.pdf

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2024-08-22
Politics

Trump Interferes in US Negotiations with Israel & Hamas

Apparently Donald Trump has called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to discuss the ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas that the U.S. is negotiating. CBS reported that he is trying to get any deals to be DELAYED until after the U.S. election, because any deal worked out earlier might benefit Harris.

Just like Trump made the bipartisan border bill FAIL so he could use immigration as an issue in the election, he wants to do everything he can to keep the Israel-Hamas war active so it can be an issue as well.

This article discusses how this might even be a crime.

Source: https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-accused-crime-benjamin-netanyahu-call-ceasefire-hamas-1942248

Source: https://newrepublic.com/post/185076/donald-trump-scheme-beat-kamala-harris-benjamin-netanyahu-ceasefire

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2024-08-21
Religion / Society

Texas Public Schools Adding Christian Teachings to State Curriculum

The Texas Public Schools are proposing requiring the teaching of the Bible as truth, regardless of the religion of the teacher or the students. This is in the public school curriculum proposed for August 2025. Schools will be incentivized with up to $60 per student in additional funding.

In this short video, the Texas Education Commissioner is asked some questions about the curriculum, getting to the heart of the problem.

Example: The 3rd Grade curriculum requires teaching that “Jesus rose from the dead.”

And there is not really any representation of other faith traditions and religions.

This clearly violates the Establishment Clause regarding establishing a religion. So much so, that the bill specifically includes IMMUNITY for teachers for violating the Establishment Clause of the Constitution.

Source: https://www.texastribune.org/2024/05/30/texas-public-schools-religion-curriculum/

Source: https://youtu.be/IiR-VQ-I2kk?si=CUblJYhtKMR2xycn

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2024-08-16
Economy / Society

Americans Refusing to Pay Higher Prices May Be Helping Avoid Inflation

Looks like consumers have more of an impact on the economy than the government does. When everyone keeps paying for things no matter how much the prices go up, that encourages raising prices further.

“Some of America’s largest companies, from Amazon to Disney to Yum Brands, say their customers are increasingly seeking cheaper alternative products and services, searching for bargains or just avoiding items they deem too expensive. Consumers aren’t cutting back enough to cause an economic downturn. Rather, economists say, they appear to be returning to pre-pandemic norms, when most companies felt they couldn’t raise prices very much without losing business.”

Source: https://apnews.com/article/inflation-prices-consumers-economy-spending-federal-reserve-c69408f05baeffac0023ceb76b747999

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2024-08-13