REBLOG: Being A Girl: A Brief Personal History of Violence

Luther M. Siler

I’m not in the mood to write today, and this is more important than anything I’d have to say anyway.

The Belle Jar

1.

I am six. My babysitter’s son, who is five but a whole head taller than me, likes to show me his penis. He does it when his mother isn’t looking. One time when I tell him not to, he holds me down and puts penis on my arm. I bite his shoulder, hard. He starts crying, pulls up his pants and runs upstairs to tell his mother that I bit him. I’m too embarrassed to tell anyone about the penis part, so they all just think I bit him for no reason.

I get in trouble first at the babysitter’s house, then later at home.

The next time the babysitter’s son tries to show me his penis, I don’t fight back because I don’t want to get in trouble.

One day I tell the babysitter what her son does, she tells me that he’s just a little boy, he doesn’t know…

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REBLOG: Freeing Christians From Americhristianity

Luther M. Siler2 Comments

An outstanding post. Give it a read.

john pavlovitz

CF1_0460-X2Dear World,

I’m a Christian who feels something needs to be said about my faith tradition.

Despite the ways we who practice it might declare otherwise (especially in weeks like this), it is intended to beautiful and joy-filling and life-giving. It is made of compassion and mercy and forgiveness and sacrificial love—or at least it is supposed to be.

It is supposed to be the most brilliant of lights in the dark places we often spend our days.

It is supposed to drive us to the places of deepest despair and greatest need, and fully burdened to make our home there until the low are raised up and the hurting healed and the captives freed.

It is also supposed to make us fearless.

The most-repeated words from the mouth of God/Jesus throughout both the Old and New Testaments to the faithful, is to not fear. At the very center of our religion…

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REBLOG: Pearson to become the gate-keeper for student teachers in Illinois.

Luther M. Siler6 Comments

You have GOT to be fucking kidding me. This– this nonsense RIGHT HERE– is why no sane person wants to teach any longer.

Fred Klonsky

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Sandra Deines (center).

-By Sandra Deines. Sandra is a member of the Skokie Organization of Retired Educators IEA Retired and a retired Park Ridge high school teacher.

Starting this fall Pearson will be in the business of deciding who becomes a teacher in the state of Illinois. 

The Illinois State Board of Education has adopted a rule that designates Pearson’s “edTPA” as the means by which student teachers will be evaluated and granted certification. 

As the fall semester begins, all student teachers in the state will be required to pay an extra $300 (on top of the tuition they are already paying) and arrange for videotaping so that they can submit a lengthy narrative that covers the planning, execution and evaluation of a series of lessons with one of their classes as well as a ten-minute video of themselves carrying out their lesson with a class.

Student teachers are required to get…

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REBLOG: Five Rules For The Jackholes Trying To Ruin Halloween

Luther M. Siler

As someone who lives in one of those neighborhoods that kids get brought to… yes, this.

Drifting Through

halloweensandy-2

Can we not suck the fun out of Halloween?

Can we have one day? One day where it’s just about having fun and there are no guidelines or parameters or judgement or rules?

I’ve been hearing plenty of grumbling on both mainstream and social media. Things that annoy people about Halloween. “Rules” for trick or treating.

There’s been an abundance of people who seem to have a stick up their candy bowl.

They have been lamenting the kids who trample their grass, don’t ask politely for candy. The ones who take the candy and don’t say thank you. People who wonder at the wisdom of giving candy when more kids are overweight. Remember the lady who handed out fat shaming letters to trick or treaters? And there are people who think it’s their job to determine how old is too old for trick or treating.

As a public service and…

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REBLOG: Star Wars: Aftermath And The Regressive Hate Machine

Luther M. Siler1 Comment

Ah, good. Now I don’t have to write this. Because I’ve been thinking about it.

Michael Patrick Hicks

starwarsaftermathcover

Update 9/6/2015, 4:51 p.m. EST: I was unaware of this, but saw a post on my FB timeline that was posted to Chuck Wendig’s page that there is apparently a Facebook group called The Alliance to Preserve The Expanded Universe that has launched a “raid” against this book, hence all the 1-star reviews cluttering up the Amazon product page. Chuck posted a link to this article from Oct. 2014, from TheForce.net. Another posted a link to Del Ray’s official Star Wars Books page, which given a cursory glance seems to be crawling with The New Expanded Universe protesters (because that’s apparently a thing now).

Original post follows….

This is not a review. In fact, at the time of this writing, I’m only little more than a quarter into Star Wars: Aftermath. If you believe the Amazon reviews, though, quite a lot of other folks have read the…

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