Editorial: Short events about blasphemy, sawing, praying for the planet, and defeating solar | editorial

The Cassville School District in southwest Missouri has made national news about its decision to reinstate corporal punishment. That is, the blasphemy of students who are deemed to have committed a serious offence. Parents still have to allow punishment to be used in writing, so it’s not like a group of principals bent on terrorizing kids with a slapping device can do whatever they want. But nonetheless, this seems like a throwback to the disciplinary actions of the 1960s, when the good old days weren’t as good as parents of school-age children think today.

Supervisor Merlin Johnson told Springfield News-Leader that the decision had become popular. “We’ve actually had people thank us for that,” he said. “Surprisingly, those on social media would probably be horrified to hear us say these things, but the majority of people I interviewed were supportive.”

The parents said, ‘Why can’t you paddle my student? “And we’re like, ‘We can’t blaspheme a student, our policy doesn’t support that,'” he said. The ensuing consultations led to a revision of the policy, and it turned out that Missouri is one of 19 states that still allow corporal punishment.

Next comes a ban on bell-bottoms, miniskirts, and novelty dresses. And boys, these Beatles hairstyles just can’t grow under the collar. And keep these shirts folded.

Finally, Twitter introduces an “Edit” button. This likely won’t affect the toxic environment still hanging above the platform, but it will at least allow users to clean up their spelling before posting their insults. Unlike many social media sites, most notably Facebook, Twitter has long refused to allow users to change their posts once they have access. Users who mistype something, or just decide they should mitigate it, can delete it entirely, but they cannot change it.

Twitter users have been clamoring for the editing ability for years. The company has resisted, saying it can cause mischief and confusion, as people scroll through tweets without realizing that they will be changed later.

The most notorious victim of this restriction was then-President Donald Trump, who in 2017 tweeted this scammer: “Despite constant negative press coverage.” He deleted it hours later, then hinted that he did it on purpose.

The edit button, which Twitter will gradually roll out to different categories of users, will limit the edit within 30 minutes of the original tweet, then mark it as edited, with access to previous versions.

Because political conservatives tend to be more skeptical of the scientific facts of human-caused climate change, the white evangelical movement has also been home to such stubborn resistance to solutions. So it is especially encouraging that a large evangelical group is now proving that climate action is a Christian responsibility with biblical support.

The National Association of Evangelicals has released a lengthy report on global warming, titled “Love Less Than These: Addressing the Changing Environment.” He lays out the evidence for what he calls the “scriptural basis” for his address.

As reported by The Washington Post, the report’s authors went so far as to quote directly from biblical passages that they believed supported the work, such as Genesis 2:15 (“Then God took man and made him dwell in the Garden of Eden, to be sown and cared for”).

“The Bible tells us nothing directly about how to evaluate scientific reports or how to respond to a changing environment,” the roughly 50-page report states, “but it does offer many useful principles: a concern for creation, a love for our neighbors, a witness to the world.” .

Calloway County is celebrating the Missouri Supreme Court ruling that invalidated the tax credit for a large solar farm, which a group of anti-solar activists in the county called a “nuisance.” Although the solar farm was to be developed on private property, the residents decided there was something sinister about it, with all that liberal tree-hugging eco-land.

“I am not OK with covering productive farmland with solar panels,” County Commissioner Roger Fisher said.

It’s not clear where the county stands on using the private property of Governor Mike Parson’s favorite industrial pig farms, but it has been a longstanding pillar of the conservative belief that a landlord can do whatever they like as long as they don’t. Violate building, health, or safety codes. However, residents insist that creating a large solar farm would be a major inconvenience, so they canceled it. Incidentally, the only nuclear power plant in Missouri is about 25 miles from that proposed site.

In Lawrence County, Alabama, a school board member who also happens to be the head of the local Republican Party decided to post a fake photo online depicting a Republican elephant with a raised torso and red, white, and blue color. There is a white, rectangular, triangular gap between the four legs of the elephant, which someone changed by drawing the holes. The resulting image produces three covered Ku Klux Klan figures peeking between the legs of an elephant.

Shannon Terry, the incoming Republican Party chair in Lawrence County, said he did a quick internet search, then cut and pasted the photo into an Instagram post without looking closely at the photo, which was supposed to be a tribute to the outgoing president. Image is from a 2020 article published by Mother Jones about racism in the Republican Party.

Terry apologized after removing it. But the NAACP boycott demanded his resignation.