(1/35) A thread about growing up as a gay kid in a Christian fundamentalist right-wing homeschooling family in the 1990s, and how I interpret today's political culture in light of those experiences.

Not all tweets are numbered but this is where it's going.
Tweets 3-9 "biblical law" and stoning gay people
Tweets 10-17 coming out in the evangelical church
Tweets 18-29 white-washing confederate history
Tweets 30-35 Scopes in modern politics & education

I grew up with R. J. Rushdoony on the bookshelf, an influential proponent of homeschooling who sought to instill Christian dominion in America. Reading @JulieIngersoll's excellent book last weekend inspired me to share how his ideology impacted my life. @C_Stroop @RLStollar

Ingersoll wrote in her 2015 book about how Rushdoony "advocated the death penalty for gays and incorrigible teens" (xiii). I made the same point in 2009, junior year of college, when I wrote an essay called "Education, the State, and the Fight to Take Back America."

In that 2009 essay, I wrote how Rushdoony promoted a "return to Biblical law, which he said should govern all nations, especially America" and how that law "would even apply the death penalty to homosexuals or rebellious children" (18). I wrote that line based on 2 sources:

Normally at this time of year, I get to tout the successes we’ve enjoyed in #Chattanooga in the past 12 months, like initiatives that help our families, ribbon cuttings for park improvements, and economic development deals that bring good jobs.

This year has been different. 1/

As we enter 2021, it is also important to count our blessings. This painful, strange year, for example, has indeed brought renewed clarity to a lot of what is truly important. 2/

I’m thinking about the nurses, doctors, home healthcare staff, and medical providers who have been working harder than ever to care for COVID-19 patients and others. Every day, we witness their sacrifice and service. 3/

I’m thinking also about the police, firefighters, public works employees, teachers, child care workers, and other truly essential personnel who have shown unrelenting dedication to keeping us safe and educating our young people against truly staggering odds. 4/

The pandemic has been brutal on our small businesses and Chattanoogans already living on the edge. I appreciate our Economic & Community Development Dept giving rent and utility assistance and other kinds of support to the business owners and employees who need it the most. 5/

It’s interesting that so many people are talking about the issue systemic racism & white supremacy like it’s a new phenomenon & a new discussion. This county’s foundation is racist. From the moment the architects of the nation purposely exterminated native Americans &

kidnapped scores of Black people & subjected them to slavery to build it’s economy, while creating myths & legends & lies about America to justify her racist nature, this has been a racist nation. White supremacy & systemic racism is not new. It may seem new to those who are

finally awakening to its brutal & dehumanizing reality, but it has been clear to Black people for 401 years that this nation is racist. America still struggles because she doesn’t want to face herself & she doesn’t want to pay the price for change. She had rather continue

to believe the lies she has told herself about herself. As a rule, the privileged prefer those lies in order to maintain their privilege & not have to live with the guilt that the Truth generates when the lie is exposed. Meanwhile those of us victimized by a racist system have to

continue to simultaneously fight to survive while also fighting to dismantle this demonic system. We’ve done it, along with woke allies, for centuries & the struggle continues. But please know that just because it’s new to you doesn’t mean that it new. And if you are a novice

It’s time to do a thread about @NeilDotObrien. This arrogant, self-serving, narcissistic, devoid of empathy and pathetic excuse for a human being, continues to spout nonsense on his Twitter page instead of doing his actual job as an MP.

MP’s like @NeilDotObrien do not care that lockdown measures across the developed world, will push an extra 150+ million people into absolute poverty, which will mean them starving to death over the next 10 years. He doesn’t care if people can’t eat, because it doesn’t affect him.

MP’s like @NeilDotObrien don’t care about the millions pushed into unemployment; the millions of small and medium sized businesses going bankrupt; entire family businesses seeing decades of their hard work disappear overnight due to avoidable lockdown measures.

MP’s like @NeilDotObrien earn a salary of £81,932, more than £50k above the national average salary. He is not affected by a loss of income, had his wages reduced to 80% on furlough or worried where his next pay cheque will come from. Why? Because he doesn’t care.

MP’s like @NeilDotObrien don’t care that we have accrued the biggest public debt since WW2, and that these measures are actively destroying a once sound economy which will lead to the greatest economic depression since The Great Frost of 1709.

A little thread about language and #HumanRights...

Recently I shared an NHS letter (not mine) that started with the line 'The vast majority of babies are normal.' It meant 'normal' as opposed to babies born with particular conditions, including #DownsSyndrome

Regularly hearing negative language about your child is emotionally wearing. And surprisingly hard to challenge in the moment (for me anyway... which is possibly why I choose to try and challenge it by writing about it).

A fortnight before Rosa was born, a consultant explained the problem they'd spotted with her digestive system, and then went on to say "...and now I have to say something to you that's not very nice... this condition is often associated with Down's syndrome."

In hospital, nearly three weeks after Rosa was born a nurse repeatedly told me what my baby wouldn't do compared to a "normal baby".

In my first conversation with the Health Visitor her opening question was "Did you know she was going to be Downs?"

@ThyConsigliori

This is not in response to your work, Pat  but...

this is well, ummm

MY FIRST THREAD😳

I am posting  what I sent to my Reps in D.C., in hopes that others will follow. The time is now or never to say HEAR ME!

(1)To: (my reps),

It is your duty to stand and represent, as our reps, to not only vote to elect Trump, but also with your objections to electors that are falsely claimed for Biden. 

You are bound by the constitution to uphold what the maj. of YOUR constituents

2. believe to be true.

(A)That Donald J. Trump won this election in a grand way and should be inaugurated on Jan. 20. 2021. 

(B)That Biden electors in certain states are falsely claimed by the use of lawlessness and deception.

(3) As a public servant it is your duty, first and foremost, to represent your constituents. You are our voice in Washington and our voice needs to be heard. We know much about what happened in this election, and on what we don't know, there are very strong

(4) suggestions and unexplained anomalies. If you don't stand up to fight for America herself today, to fight for the truth to be uncovered, then you will never have this chance again. Even if you have been "promised" a "bright future". To surrender today only means one thing.

Dear #YoungProfessional,

Beat Deadlines, don’t meet it:

In the world of social media and the latest gist/violence, there is the tendency to relegate quite important things.

In the world of work, many will meet deadlines, others will miss deadlines but only the exceptional

beat deadlines.
Many times, young professionals equate beating deadlines to not having so much work. That’s not really true!

You can make a habit of beating deadlines, it only requires the discipline needed and self-application.

It is likely that you’re working with a superior who likely also has a superior, thus, there’s a chain of command that probably need to review a piece of work before going to the client. Beating deadlines not only shows you as being efficient, it also shows you’re effective.

Am I saying you should beat deadlines without the required dedication and quality? NO! As I was once told, quality over speed! Does it also mean you cannot have quality and speed? NO! In fact, if you produce quality work and you deliver it past the needed time, the quality

work may become useless!
As I concluded my orientation& training when I first started working, I had a short meeting with a mentor, who is a partner at another top law firm. Over a glass of red wine and me asking how he became a partner quite early,

If you are still suffering from cognitive dissonance and can't seem to interpret what is going on around you, let me see if I can at least help you understand what is happening within broader evangelicalism and the Roman Catholic Church:

(2) The "church" is becoming the state church. The church that doesn't just obey the state and governmental authorities but that is incorporated into the state.

Ecumenism will be based upon subjective economic, social, and supranational policies: and you must believe.

(3) And along with this transition you must obey and do whatever the state tells you to do. This is now "loving thy neighbor". This is the new collective.

And you must hate the old nation, the old constitution, the old economy, the old ways.

You must embrace the new systems

MY PERSONAL SEXUAL HARRASSMENT CASE :

This SYED woman had her new born baby admitted at JVC NICU. Her brother in law was SHO. They seemed to have high level contacts as I got a call to take care of baby from Consultant before the baby was admitted.

Incidentally, a cousin of lady happened to be my intern just days ago, she came with her own reference.

The rule was, attendents are not allowed into ICU except 1 to change diappers & feed baby, but this family got VIP entry for more than 1 attendent for obvious reasons.

The baby was doing well, some issues had settled, others were resolving.

On fateful night, I wasn't on duty, my colleague was.

Father of baby tried to interfere beyond acceptable level. He asked my colleague why he hasn't sent such test on repeat when it wasn't needed.

Next he tried to read the file & take pics with intent to send them outside, which is illegal.

My colleague objected but attendent was VIP with SHO brother, so it ended up in fight between attendents & my colleague, with attendents breaking some property.

Next day, I went to duty & came to know about the incident.

Now I was in charge of ICU.

As I was putting my morning notes & examining patients, mother came & gave me urine culture vial & told me to do her babie's urine culture.

1) 💥THREAD ON ANTONY GREEN💥

Antony “Deep State” Green ...

... is very famous in Australia.

👉

My dear law students, I know that the events in Brisbane are at the top of your minds, so I will jump on the bandwagon and talk about one aspect of this wonderful test series that appealed to me. Right through the series, we have seen the role of fortune in a player’s success.

Rishabh Pant escaped a stumping before he went on to win the game for India in Brisbane. In Melbourne, Ajinkya Rahane was dropped before he went on to make a hundred. But is it not the case that we give these players credit for their achievements despite their fortune?

We also hold these players responsible even if what happened was their misfortune. India’s 36 in Adelaide was a collective failure no doubt but it was also a perfect cocktail of bad luck-pitch, conditions, and all the Australian bowlers managing to get their line & length right.

That’s test cricket, but we might say that’s life in general. Luck, good and bad, plays an important role in how the world judges us. We might go further and say that the law reflects life in this respect.

When I look at the way the law apportions responsibility, I am amazed that there is widespread acceptance of the system. Take the law of negligence that all of you study in the first year. The law of negligence establishes an objective standard of care.

I asked the Taoiseach to ensure that the coroner carries out its duty in respect to the mass infant and child deaths in mother and baby homes👇.

It is the duty of a coroner to hold an inquest when a body is found in their district. See here: ℹ️ https://t.co/jQmq6ex1GK

The Government Action Plan👇published in response to the report makes no mention of inquests or accountability and simply does not reflect the magnitude of the crimes committed. In fact, it seems like a blatant attempt to avoid these very issues.

ℹ️

We need to make sure survivors get justice.

If you agree, I am asking you to email your TDs, the Taoiseach & the Min for Children to tell them there needs to be an inquest into the deaths, as well as redress, access to data, a commission for the disappeared and further research.

If you need some help getting started, you'll find a draft email template here: 📧https://t.co/h5v4LY3mkr

I recommend reading the joint statement from Adoption Rights Alliance, Justice for Magdalene laundries and the Clann Project: ℹ️

I have also put together a brief Q+A below on what has happened and will happen next in terms of the Report of the Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes👇👇👇.

Q. Where can I read a copy of the report for myself?

A. Right here:

Another Friend suggestion: Do we want to require all new buildings to be electric, like other cities have done? Seems like the time given our Xcel partnership.

Weaver also had this on his list.

Jonathan Koehn: This is ongoing work. We've been thinking about it as part of the Climate Action Plan coming to council for an update this year.

"We really do need to be mindful of costs and equity," Koehn says.

Lindsey back to talk about the next update to energy codes. The next one is two years away.

Boulder all requires residential development over 3,000 sq ft to be net zero (producing as much energy as they consume, or else paying into a carbon offset fund)

I'm disappointed that the following needs to be said, because professors ought to educate themselves on basic facts, instead of accepting myths uncritically and behaving harmfully towards minoritized women in STEM.

People, especially women, who are Black and/or Indigenous have especially challenging pathways into tenure track faculty positions, because academia is still racist and sexist in ways that are intersecting and nonlinearly compounding.

The following myths and facts are paraphrased from the 1996 research article about Ford Foundation Fellows by Smith, Wolf-Wendel, Busenberg et al, "The Pipeline for Achieving Faculty Diversity: Debunking the Myths" at

Academia changes slowly, so these 1996 research results still hold, and in fact other studies indicate that the representation of Black faculty has worsened since 2005.

To summarize the research...

Myth: Potential faculty of color are sought out by numerous institutions, and the competition to hire them is fierce, because there are so few candidates of color.

Fact: Supply and demand statements like this are greatly exaggerated.