AZ School District Pulls Sexually Explicit Book Recommended by Common Core Standards

An Arizona school district has pulled from its reading list a sexually explicit novel that is recommended as an "exemplar text" in the Common Core Standards. Parents and community members at Buena High School in Sierra Vista, Arizona expressed concern about the novel Dreaming in Cuban by Cristina Garcia.

According to the Sierra Vista Herald, school district curriculum director Terri Romo informed the school board Tuesday that she contacted the Arizona Department of Education to find out how the book came to be placed on the list of Common Core recommendations. Romo said she was told the "exemplar texts" are intended to show the correct reading level and are not recommendations for purchase.

Conservative grass-roots consultants Voices Empower, founded by Alice Linahan, reported that one Buena High School mother sent the following email:

    Below is a picture and an excerpt out of the book Dreaming in Cuban by Cristina Garcia.

    This is a 10th grade literature book that was used in my son’s class at Buena High School in Sierra Vista, Arizona. The whole class read this book out loud during class. Everyone in the class had a copy of this book.

On the Voices Empower website, the parent provides screen shots of the book, showing the Buena High School bar code on the cover and page 80 of the book that contains the following excerpt [Note: Caution advised - graphic text follows]:

More @ Breitbart

Student Protesters Rip 2,977 American Flags Out of Ground at 9/11 Memorial

More than 200 colleges and high schools across the nation participated in Young America's Foundation's 9/11: Never Forget Project. Students came together to establish an American flag memorial on campus consisting of 2,977 flags representing each person murdered in the terrorist attacks. Unfortunately, five student protesters at Middlebury College ripped the flags out of the ground before 3:00 pm.

The 9/11: Never Forget Project has been an annual nonpartisan event at Middlebury College for the past ten years. By participating in the 9/11: Never Forget Project, students honor the victims of the attacks, as well as honor the American principles for which they died.

Middlebury student groups spent nearly two hours setting up the flag display yesterday morning. The protesters told Ben Kinney, president of the conservative club on campus, they were "confiscating" the flags in protest of "America's imperialism."

More @ Breitbart

Assad: Will finalize deal if US stops suppling rebels with weapons.

Via avordvet

 

 Syrian President Bashar Assad said Thursday that his government would put its chemical weapons under international supervision within a month after it signs the UN Chemical Weapons Convention, but only if the United States stops its “policy of threats.”

“Syria will send an appeal to the United Nations and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons in a few days. [The appeal] will have the technical documents necessary to sign the agreement,” Assad said in an interview with Rossiya-24 television.

“These are standard procedures, and we will follow them,” he added, speaking in Arabic with a Russian translation.

Assad emphasized, however, that Syria would not follow such procedures unilaterally while facing US threats and international support of rebel forces.

“When we see that the US genuinely stands for stability in our region, stops threatening us with military intervention and stops supplying terrorists with weapons, then we will consider it possible to finalize all necessary procedures and they will become legitimate and acceptable for Syria,” he said.

More @ Rianovosti

Video from Afghanistan consulate attack

Via avordvet

Militants carried out a brazen attack on the U.S. Consulate in the western Afghan city of Herat early Friday, killing two policemen and injuring dozens of other people, including civilians, according to local officials.

No Americans were believed to be among those hurt. The attackers were all reported to have been killed.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, which started just before sunrise with a suicide car bombing approximately 60 yards from the consulate entrance, followed by gunfire from militants attempting to enter the compound.

More @ LA Times

Is War Now "Inevitable"

Via avordvet


In a moment of surprising clarity, Deutsche Bank's Jim Reid pointed out what is largely taboo in the financial industry - the truth. "Looking back, real GDP growth in the US through the latter half of the 2000s and the 2010s has been at the lowest levels since the cyclically scarred decades of the Great Depression and the First World War."

What is amusing, is the constant state of shock of supposedly serious people who are stunned that despite the Fed being constantly in the markets, and buying up trillions in securities, the US economy has not responded in a favorable manner. Of course, nobody has pointed out that if all it took to generate growth out of thin air without consequences was for the Fed to print, i.e., monetize debt, this would have started 100 years ago in 1913, and by now the US economy would be so advanced it would be colonizing Uranus. Logic, however, is not a Keynesian economist's best friend.

That said, the reasons surrounding the lack of US growth are secondary for the time being. A bigger question is what happens from here, now that even respected banks, and even ivory tower economists have admitted that QE has been a complete failure for the broader economy, and the common American, benefiting only the uber-wealthy. Which leads us to a different topic. Syria.

More @ Zero Hedge

We're about done asking nicely with our words...

 

There is an interesting article linked at Drudge that talks about a group of counties in Western Maryland in which a Citizen group is seeking to split from Maryland and form their own state.  What is interesting is that this concept is cropping up across America.  There are several places across the country working to separate, peacefully, from their current state and form a new political entity at the state level that allows them to govern themselves according to their ideals.

Maryland is truly four different states.  The western mountain area is "Red".  The Eastern Shore is Red (farmland and watermen).  "Southern Maryland" is made up of Calvert County (Where I grew up on the waters of the Chesapeake with watermen and farmers), Charles and St. Maries counties.  That area is Red.  Then you have the center of the state from Montgomery County out to Baltimore, which is as Blue as it gets in America.  The Blue folks in Maryland are AT LEAST as Blue as New York and California Marxists.

Now, read this one quote from the author of the Maryland article:  I don't know about anyone else around here, but I'd have a hard time giving up Western Maryland. It's too nice for a bunch of grumps.

It is important to note that the author does not live in any of the counties that would be breaking away.  Yet, he'd "...have a hard time giving up Western Maryland..."

He believes it is his to give or not.

More @ III Percent Patriots

John Kerry vs. Sergei Lavrov: Round 1

 

Our Secretary of State and famous traitor, John Kerry, is in Europe now negotiating the future of the Middle East with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

The Diplomad, who has had personal dealings with Lavrov, describes him as follows:

 "Kerry will find Lavrov a humorless, extremely intelligent, worldly, intensely patriotic Russian nationalist with a deep envy of and resentment for the United States and the West. He holds the classic Russian view that the world, lead by the insufferably arrogant Americans, conspires against Russia to deny it the respect and status it deserves. Lavrov, a professional who speaks several languages, and works non-stop, sees his life's mission as restoring Russia's rightful place in the upper echelons of the world's hierarchy."

Meanwhile, our "hero," John Kerry is reporting for duty.  Again, The Diplomad puts his two cents worth in:

More @ The Daily Timewaster

Putin Makes Obama Pay a High Price for Syria Escape

 

 Kerry begins his negotiations with his Russian counterpart today, and any idea that the US was going to strike has evaporated. Obama is inert, rendering Kerry’s threats empty. As Putin’s op-ed shows, the old game can still be quite effective.

****************************

John Kerry can finally say he knows how Richard Nixon felt.

Kerry rose to power because of his leading role in the American antiwar movement of the 1970s. His testimony accusing, sometimes 99% wrongly, American soldiers of atrocities in Vietnam launched a political career that took him to the Senate, the Democratic nomination for the presidency and, now, to the top post in President Obama’s cabinet.

Vladimir Putin rose to power because of his service in the KGB, which in the 1970s was trying to exploit and manipulate the American antiwar movement. We know that while Kerry and others on the left were comparing American troops to Genghis Kahn and throwing their medals away, the KGB was working overtime to infiltrate antiwar groups and overtly propagandizing with the same messages embraced by American liberals.

Kerry has certainly changed his tune. It would appear that Putin has not.

More @ Fox

Matt Drudge eviscerates 'fascist' Dianne Feinstein

'Declaring who qualifies for freedom of press is ridiculous!' New-media pioneer Matt Drudge called Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., a “fascist” after she suggested only “real reporters” deserved protection under a new media-shield law.

“Comments from Sen. Feinstein yesterday on who’s a reporter were disgusting,” Drudge tweeted, adding that a “17-year old ‘blogger’ is as important as Wolf Blitzer.”

“Fascist!” he declared.

Drudge, the owner and operator of the most successful news site on the Internet, took to Twitter to defend bloggers and to hammer the senator. 

More @ WND

Saudi Arabia sends 1300 prisoners sentenced to death to fight in Syria

Via Arctic Pilgrim

Pravo Slavie

VERBATIM

 

Riyadh, September 10, 2013

 

Saudi Arabia sent about 1300 prisoners sentenced to death to fight in Syria against the troops of the president of the republic Bashar Al-Assad. 

 

According to the website of the American newspaper USA Today, as early as in April this year the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Saudi Arabia offered 1239 prisoners, sentenced to death penalty, pardon and monthly payment of money to their families in exchange for participation in combat operations in Syria. 

The newspaper notes that among prisoners sent to struggle with the regime of Assad there were citizens of Afghanistan, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Pakistan, Somali, Sudan, Syria, Kuwait and Yemen. All of them had been sentenced to death in Saudi Arabia for murders, sexual assaults, and spreading of drugs. 

Sedmitza.ru