It sure puts things in perspective....

[gimmethesimplelife]

The realistic possibility, for the first time in my 55 years for nuclear war to take place. Sometimes I'll be worrying about something and I'll be - "This is not the last thought I want to have should (the unthinkable) happen."

Who knows what is going to happen next but I'm trying to use this less than pleasant possibility to chill out a little more. I am finally understanding that all those years working in restaurants made me tense and I just got used to it. Who knows what's going to happen? I've done what I realistically can. Rob

[Tradd]

I’m in the Chicago area. A nuke here would probably take me out. I grew up close to Detroit. There would have been lots of nukes to take out the auto plants. It is what is it. If this whole thing interferes with my long planned diving goals, I will be very pissed. Damn Commies.

[gimmethesimplelife]

I’m in the Chicago area. A nuke here would probably take me out. I grew up close to Detroit. There would have been lots of nukes to take out the auto plants. It is what is it. If this whole thing interferes with my long planned diving goals, I will be very pissed. Damn Commies.Good attitude methinks. Life goes on and we do what we can. I personally am able to just do my best. It is what it is, just as you said, Tradd. Rob

[ApatheticNoMore]

I don't know, I've figured things will get real bad from climate change anyway. I mean ok nuclear war is closer to an extinction level event and climate change just ever increasing misery event. Someone who cares that much about human extinction or not may think that's a significant difference. But that's not necessarily me. It's all just badness. So I think I already operate with a kind of background bleakness about it all, and an awareness that maybe all we have is now, even though I make future plans and all that too.

[ToomuchStuff]

The realistic possibility, for the first time in my 55 years for nuclear war to take place. Rob


Wow.

I lived through the 70's and 80's, when the threat was so much bigger, and the fear was pushed via media (Miracle Mile, The Day After, etc).
And don't forget Reagan's joke, that caused a Russian to try to send out an attack order.

My father, for years, didn't consider himself a vet. While others went to Nam, he was back here, working on the missle warning system.
Now, if I was in the Ukraine, I might be more worried.

[LDAHL]

The realistic possibility, for the first time in my 55 years for nuclear war to take place.

The “realistic possibility” has existed for every minute of your life. Sometimes closer than today. I remember during one of the intermittent undeclared border wars between the Soviets and Chinese the Russians inquired of Richard Nixon what the US response might be to the use of nuclear weapons in the region. Nixon (and Henry Kissinger) elected to keep them guessing. We could use a couple of clever bastards like that today.

[pinkytoe]

I am actually more concerned with cyber attacks of essential infrastructures like water plants and power grids. Most are privately owned and have substandard security.

[jp1]

The Russians aren’t going to nuke the US. As poorly maintained/trained as we all now know there army is why would anyone think their nuke weapons have been any better maintained. The money that was supposed to be used for that purpose was used to buy yachts and real estate, not for actually maintaining weapons that were never going to be used anyway.

[gimmethesimplelife]

I so hope you are right, jp1. Rob

[jp1]

In case I’m wrong you should probably do some duck and cover drills just to be safe…. It’s funny to think that some people think first graders these days are too fragile to learn about gay people yet when I was a first grader I had to learn about my potential nuclear annihilation.

[Alan]

In case I’m wrong you should probably do some duck and cover drills just to be safe…. It’s funny to think that some people think first graders these days are too fragile to learn about gay people yet when I was a first grader I had to learn about my potential nuclear annihilation.
I don't think anyone is terribly concerned about their first graders knowing about gay people, it's more about promoting specific lifestyles to impressionable youngsters. There was a story recently (sorry I don't remember where) about a teacher feuding with her school about their wellness week, she was upset that they were spending so much time on wellness while only giving 'Pride' a single day. She said that during this current school year her focus on providing a safe space for gay and trans students had resulted in 20 of her 32 fourth grade students coming out to her. If she's lucky, she may get the remaining 12 to come out before the school year ends. I think reasonable people can assume this sort of thing represents more than just allowing children to learn about others, in her case, it appears to be more of a recruitment effort.

There are other stories about school nurses providing puberty blocking medications to children without their parent's permission. Then there's the infamous Virginia school district which covered up a sexual assault by a trans student, enabling him to continue assaulting other students, all while having the original victims father arrested for complaining about the situation at a school board meeting. It's these sorts of things that have parents concerned.

Now, to return to the topic, I agree that there's little to no chance ICBM missiles with large nuclear warheads will be launched targeting this country. We have a fairly robust air defense system that minimizes the chances of one hitting its target and the rest of the world knows that even a failed attempt will most likely generate a nuclear response.

[herbgeek]

There are other stories about school nurses providing puberty blocking medications to children without their parent's permission

I went looking for this story. I can only find obviously biased reports all reporting the same story with blog names containing "liberty" or "patriot" on this, nothing in known media. A nurse was supposedly fired for posting on Facebook that she knew of a child on puberty blockers who supposedly didn't tell their parents about this. It isn't stated exactly who is providing these medications, and who has verified that this information is being kept from parents.

The one about the wellness week had also biased sources (when Lib is in the first sentence, I assume the person is biased). Again, someone is saying someone else is saying this. No one has actual names, or actual school systems quoted.

Kind of reminds me when our former president would say "many people are saying..."

[ApatheticNoMore]

She said that during this current school year her focus on providing a safe space for gay and trans students had resulted in 20 of her 32 fourth grade students coming out to her. If she's lucky, she may get the remaining 12 to come out before the school year ends. I think reasonable people can assume this sort of thing represents more than just allowing children to learn about others, in her case, it appears to be more of a recruitment effort.

Well it could only possibly represent a recruitment effort as far as gays, if you believe people don't have a sexual orientation. Which I suppose is a position. And perhaps bisexual or people on the asexual spectrum might agree that this is their experience. Only people who are strongly heterosexual or homosexual wouldn't. And yea men likely are almost always more focused on sex than women, ha. I have thought that if I'm reincarnated I want to come back as a gay man. But anyway if that is one's experience of being attracted to both sexes or having no strong sexual attraction to either sex (but perhaps aesthetic appreciation or romantic attraction) then that's valid. But it certainly doesn't seem to be universal.

And you might say 4th graders are too young to know. And that's legit. It's often pre-puberty, pre sexual experimentation, etc., but some people have known from early childhood.

[Teacher Terry]

I am in the camp of let children enjoy their childhood and not be burdened by adult concerns. Unfortunately not all kids have this luxury. Being trans is a very small segment of the population and if it becomes otherwise especially in teens then it may not be real. I am not for surgery or medication until adulthood.

[JaneV2.0]

Instances of "grooming" and "recruitment" are few and far between, as far as I've been able to tell. As ANM suggests, most of us know our orientation at a very early age. But some segments of society seemed obsessed by sex--particularly the kinds they think other people are having.

On the other hand, maybe I was "recruited" by the spinster teachers I admired, and just didn't know it. I certainly embraced the unmarried lifestyle enthusiastically...

[jp1]

I don't think anyone is terribly concerned about their first graders knowing about gay people, it's more about promoting specific lifestyles to impressionable youngsters.

What lifestyles should we not be promoting to impressionable youngsters?

I agree that any discussion with a youngster should be age appropriate. I'll give an example from my own life of one such conversation.

SO's sister and family came to visit us 15 years ago when we had just moved to a new place. During the grand tour we had stopped in the primary bedroom and were chatting about whatever when SO's 7 year old nephew asks, "Uncle JP, where do you sleep?" Me: "Uncle SO and I both sleep in this room." I could practically see the cogs in his brain grinding this out for a few seconds and then the lightbulb obviously went on in his head. "Oh ok. Mom, when are we going to dinner? I'm hungry."

[Alan]

What lifestyles should we not be promoting to impressionable youngsters?

I would think public schools should not be promoting any lifestyle. I believe you're on record as being against the promotion of specific religions in school aren't you? What lifestyles are you in favor of using public schools to promote? And secondly, do you think parent's wishes should be part of social curriculum issues in public schools?

I know those are all off-topic questions so maybe we should take this hijack to its own thread if you're interested.

[jp1]

So are you also against promoting the heterosexual lifestyle in schools? That’s certainly one of many lifestyles. Is it somehow better than other ‘lifestyles’? Or do you truly think schools should not mention it in classrooms and expect teachers to remove pictures of their families, mention their families etc?

Your heterosexual lifestyle isn’t any better or more valid than my lifestyle.

[bae]

Is sexual orientation a "lifestyle" now? There's a bit to unpack there then...

[Chicken lady]

My kids went to high school in a very red place.

They were required to take a class on life skills. As part of this class, each student was randomly assigned an opposite sex spouse, divorced, or single status, a random number of kids (including none), and a random role in the economy. So we are already choosing which lifestyles are normative here.

Then they were required to create a budget. The first thing my son and his partner did was determine that her waitressing job had such a minimal impact on the family budget after taxes and child care, that it could be eliminated and the family situation improved both socially and monetarily by the investment of her time. The teacher told them they couldn’t do that, they had to make a budget with their assigned careers. They argued that the girl hated waitressing and WANTED to stay home with the kids, hang laundry, and produce food. Nope. So, waste of time, waste of learning opportunity for the rest of the class when presentations were done, and direct conflict with the values those kids were being taught at home.

[iris lilies]

My kids went to high school in a very red place.

They were required to take a class on life skills. As part of this class, each student was randomly assigned an opposite sex spouse, divorced, or single status, a random number of kids (including none), and a random role in the economy. So we are already choosing which lifestyles are normative here.

Then they were required to create a budget. The first thing my son and his partner did was determine that her waitressing job had such a minimal impact on the family budget after taxes and child care, that it could be eliminated and the family situation improved both socially and monetarily by the investment of her time. The teacher told them they couldn’t do that, they had to make a budget with their assigned careers. They argued that the girl hated waitressing and WANTED to stay home with the kids, hang laundry, and produce food. Nope. So, waste of time, waste of learning opportunity for the rest of the class when presentations were done, and direct conflict with the values those kids were being taught at home.
This plays to my conviction that budgeting and money management is all values based, and that is a basic life skill poorly conveyed in an academic setting.

Here I am really speaking to the crowd that thinks schools need to do a better job of teaching the American public about money. Sure there are some things that can be taught to the generic public, that’s for sure, but Ongoing life with money is a fundamental thing taught at home through demonstrated daily life.

[iris lilies]

I made a new thread about public schools on the Public Policy sub forum.

I am not a thread nazi and i don’t mind at all topics meandering from nuclear war to public schools, but the latter has been in the news a lot.

[ToomuchStuff]

This plays to my conviction that budgeting and money management is all values based, and that is a basic life skill poorly conveyed in an academic setting.



While a lot of it certainly is values based, I have always seen it as more a math skill, sort of like balancing the checkbook. (find the error) I think it could easily be taught in math class and leave the values out.