Category Archives: News to use

Useful news for all to advance knowledge of the world and how it works

Climate: No More Excuses! — Grouse Beater

A land arid, inhospitable, the end of days Another in our Climate Crisis articles, this by three past distinguished secretaries of the United Nations…

Climate: No More Excuses! — Grouse Beater

Instagram, Facebook remove user posts offering access to abortion pills – National | Globalnews.ca

Social media posts aimed to help women living in states where abortion was banned have been immediately removed by Facebook and Instagram.
— Read on globalnews.ca/news/8951989/instagram-facebook-remove-user-posts-abortion-pills/

Similar offers to sell weed and guns left up Facebook and Instagram lining up with anti-women’s rights?

‘Dancing is happiness’ subway saxophonist arrested over ‘MTA complaints’ – Gothamist (Me: People get shoved in front of trains and someone shot and killed on subway but a guy making a living with a sax is arrested???)

In viral social media videos showing the Thursday arrest, the musician, John Ajilo, is seen being placed in handcuffs by several police officers at the same busking spot the performer has used for more than five years to set up his two speakers, grooving cats and a “dancing is happiness” sign.

Ajilo is heard protesting the police’s request to stop performing.

“I’m not committing any crime!” he said in the video.

After a few more warnings, the police then try to put him in handcuffs and grab his saxophone from him.

“My saxophone! My saxophone!” cried Ajilo as officers started holding him back. He repeatedly yelled for help as the arrest continued.

Ajilo posted on his Instagram after the arrest that his wrist was injured and his saxophone and “dancers” were damaged. He said he received four tickets after spending the night in jail.

In a statement, the NYPD said officers were responding to “complaints from the MTA regarding an unauthorized performer,” and cited a link to the MTA’s subway performance rules. The rules they shared do not specify needing a permit to perform, but they do prohibit performers from playing “at any location where the musical performance would interfere with…the movement of passengers,” which is what the NYPD alleged Ajilo was doing based on the staggered arrangement of his dancing electronic cats.

The NYPD also said Ajilo was stopped for “utilizing a sound reproduction device.” However, the subway performance rules on the MTA’s website do not explicitly say that speakers are not allowed for musicians – only that there are limits to their usage.

 

Source: ‘Dancing is happiness’ subway saxophonist arrested over ‘MTA complaints’ – Gothamist

The Supreme Court’s “praying coach” decision rests on a bed of lies – Vox

But it’s not clear how those lower court judges should now navigate questions about the separation of church and state. Although the Court overrules Lemon, it does not announce a fleshed-out test that will replace Lemon. Instead, Kennedy announces a vague new rule that “the Establishment Clause must be interpreted by ‘reference to historical practices and understandings.’”

Moreover, because Gorsuch’s opinion relies so heavily on false facts, the Court does not actually decide what the Constitution has to say about a coach who ostentatiously prays in the presence of students and the public. Instead, it decides a fabricated case about a coach who merely engaged in “private” and “quiet” prayer.

If the facts of Kennedy actually resembled the made-up facts laid out in Gorsuch’s opinion, then Kennedy would have reached the correct result. Even under Lemon, a public school employee is typically permitted to quietly pray while they are not actively engaged with students.

Gorsuch’s opinion, however, describes a very different case than the one that was actually before the Court.

Coach Kennedy engaged in very public prayer

In the real case that was actually before the Supreme Court, Coach Kennedy incorporated “motivational” prayers into his coaching. Eventually, these prayers matured into public, after-game sessions, where both Kennedy’s players and players on the other team would kneel around Kennedy as he held up helmets from both teams and led students in prayer.

After games, Kennedy would also walk out to the 50-yard line, where he would kneel and pray in front of students and spectators. Initially, he did so alone, but after a few games students started to join him — eventually, a majority of his players did so. One parent complained to the school district that his son “felt compelled to participate,” despite being an atheist, because the student feared “he wouldn’t get to play as much if he didn’t participate.”

Source: The Supreme Court’s “praying coach” decision rests on a bed of lies – Vox