Biden's presidency

[mtutiger]

 

[CMRivdogs]

That alone should qualify her a spot on Tap Dancing With The Stars

[chasfh]

4 hours ago, Mr.TaterSalad said:

3 new post SOTU polls out that all have Biden's polling up to 45% and 2 generic congressional polls that have Dems in the lead as well.

Morning Consult: Biden Approval 45%, Disapprove 51%

Reuters/IPSOS: Biden Approval 45%, Disapprove 49%

Economist/YouGov: Biden Approval 45%, Disapprove 49%

Economist/YouGov: Democrats +5 Generic Congressional Race

Politico/Morning Consult: Democrats +2 Generic Congressional Race

For the record I believe none of these polls, least of all the Congressional polling. I think it will be a 2010 style bloodletting for Democrats because of the usual midterm factors with inflation, gas prices, and a general malaise to boot.

Quick, call for a congressional election right away!

[Mr.TaterSalad]

2 hours ago, chasfh said:

Quick, call for a congressional election right away!

I wish we had a parliament with Snap Elections.

[1776]

WASHINGTON—President Biden and his fellow Democrats have lost ground to Republicans on several of the issues most important to voters, a new Wall Street Journal poll finds, a troubling sign for the party seeking to extend its controlling majority of Congress for another two years.

The new survey showed that 57% of voters remained unhappy with Mr. Biden’s job performance, despite favorable marks for the president’s response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine and a recent State of the Union speech, which provided him an opportunity to directly speak to millions of Americans. Just 42% said they approved of Mr. Biden’s performance in office, which was virtually unchanged from the previous Journal poll in mid-November.

Meanwhile, Democratic advantages narrowed over Republicans on issues related to improving education and the Covid-19 response. A 16-percentage-point Democratic edge on which party would best handle the pandemic was down to 11 points, while a 9-percentage-point lead on education issues was down to 5 points.

When asked about which party was best able to protect middle-class families, the 5-point advantage for Democrats four months ago evaporated and left the parties essentially tied on the question.

WSJ 

[Mr.TaterSalad]

LOL at voters thinking the party that believes in teaching creationism over evolution and banning books is better on education issues. These fucking people literally believe the Earth is 6,000-7,000 years old. That's as bad as thinking the Earth is flat.

[chasfh]

2 minutes ago, Mr.TaterSalad said:

LOL at voters thinking the party that believes in teaching creationism over evolution and banning books is better on education issues. These fucking people literally believe the Earth is 6,000-7,000 years old. That's as bad as thinking the Earth is flat.

My favorite part is the Jesus rode dinosaurs story.

[Mr.TaterSalad]

And for anybody that thinks I am being hyperbolic about Republicans wanting to teach creationism a bill passed last year in the Arkansas State House by Arkansas Republicans.

[Mr.TaterSalad]

36 minutes ago, chasfh said:

My favorite part is the Jesus rode dinosaurs story.

When I was a kid my mother forced me to go to catechism class as a Catholic. I want to say I was in 4th or 5th grade at the time it occurred. We had a catechism who actually told us that the Earth was only 7,000 years old and when asked about the Dinosaurs she said that these so called scientists were lying and that people walked around with Dinosaurs. That's a true story!

[CMRivdogs]

The Gospel according to Fred Flinstone....

[chasfh]

23 minutes ago, Mr.TaterSalad said:

When I was a kid my mother forced me to go to catechism class as a Catholic. I want to say I was in 4th or 5th grade at the time it occurred. We had a catechism who actually told us that the Earth was only 7,000 years old and when asked about the Dinosaurs she said that these so called scientists were lying and that people walked around with Dinosaurs. That's a true story!

Maybe we're different generations, but I don't remember ever being taught that Earth is literally only 6,000 years old, and I do remember in high school religion class a discussion about how it was all a story. I definitely remember learning basic geology in our fourth grade science class at St Anne that this or that rock we had in the classroom were this many or that many million years old.

[Tiger337]

In public school in the seventh grade, I remember being taught evolution and I was surprised when one kid shouted out that it was all BS.  It was surprising at the time because this kid was usually kind of laid back and joking all the time.  It was the first time I had heard about this controversy.  My parents taught me about religion, but it was never a big deal.  They bought a chidren's Bible as a kid and I read it.  My father told me there were some good lessons in there, but that it was just stories, not real.  

[oblong]

The catholic church doesn't really believe all of that anymore.  But in my upbringing it's just accepted as fact the earth is 7-10K years old and evolution is BS.  "God created the Earth with age" is what they said.

 

[gehringer_2]

3 minutes ago, oblong said:

The catholic church doesn't really believe all of that anymore.  But in my upbringing it's just accepted as fact the earth is 7-10K years old and evolution is BS.  "God created the Earth with age" is what they said.

 

yeah, I remember those interpretations: "God buried all the dinosaur bones as a test" etc. 

So you want to believe that the supreme being in the Universe is ....Loki?

[smr-nj]

2 hours ago, Mr.TaterSalad said:

When I was a kid my mother forced me to go to catechism class as a Catholic. I want to say I was in 4th or 5th grade at the time it occurred. We had a catechism who actually told us that the Earth was only 7,000 years old and when asked about the Dinosaurs she said that these so called scientists were lying and that people walked around with Dinosaurs. That's a true story!

I went to Catholic schools til a sophomore in h.s. (When we moved from the Bronx to NJ), had religion classes/catechism every day, and was never,  ever,  taught that. (& I’m talking in the 60’s.)  And our science classes taught evolution.

 I’m sad that this was your experience 

 

[buddha]

24 minutes ago, smr-nj said:

I went to Catholic schools til a sophomore in h.s. (When we moved from the Bronx to NJ), had religion classes/catechism every day, and was never,  ever,  taught that. (& I’m talking in the 60’s.)  And our science classes taught evolution.

 I’m sad that this was your experience 

 

i also went to catholic school, had religion classes every day, and science classes, and was never taught that either.  we learned evolutionary theory just like everyone else.

i suspect almost every kid in catholic school now does too.

[Mr.TaterSalad]

To be clear, this was merely religious education class for me, not school. I went to public schools. But yes, my 4th grade Catechism instructor really did say that to us as students at St. John Neumann Church in Canton. I don't think that's any less ridiculous than people believing the Noah's Arc Story or that someone could turn bread into fish.

[mtutiger]

56 minutes ago, buddha said:

i also went to catholic school, had religion classes every day, and science classes, and was never taught that either.  we learned evolutionary theory just like everyone else.

i suspect almost every kid in catholic school now does too.

The Parish Priest where I grew up always commented that God's concept of time was different than man's. I suppose that was his way of backfilling an explanation for why evolution was real and to account for the discrepancy between the Bible and Science on the age of the earth.

Either way, my view is that Catholics generally believe in evolution and the science behind it, although I'm sure more conservative Catholics may differ.

[oblong]

John Paul said evolution was a real thing in the mid 90's and I recall a scathing Cal Thomas article condemning it.

Sounds like you had a rogue teacher in catechism.

 

 

[casimir]

4 hours ago, chasfh said:

My favorite part is the Jesus rode dinosaurs story.

Everybody knows that's how bull riding was created.

[gehringer_2]

1 hour ago, smr-nj said:

I went to Catholic schools til a sophomore in h.s. (When we moved from the Bronx to NJ), had religion classes/catechism every day, and was never,  ever,  taught that. (& I’m talking in the 60’s.)  And our science classes taught evolution.

 I’m sad that this was your experience 

 

"Religious school" covers a large universe. Even inside Catholicism you have wildly different intellectual strains - for instance the Jesuit tradition (and Jesuits run a lot of schools) is strongly reason/free inquiry based.

Edited March 11, 2022 by gehringer_2

[chasfh]

Don’t quote me on this, but I think I have read news stories in just the past few years indicating that a lot of Catholics are going retrograde on the whole creationism thing. And the interest thing about that is that if they’re my age and went to Catholic schools themselves, they probably did not learn creationism in class, at least in science class.

 

[CMRivdogs]

So who gets to be the arbiter of exactly what is appropriate for K-3 students? And what happens when they begin to ask questions that are outside the guidelines set by the state?  These kids are a lot smarter than what so called conservatives give them credit for. Many of them know other kids from same parent families. That aside, hearing anecdotes from a niece who has taught K-3 in a rural, extremely poor county here in Virginia for the last 15 years,  she has to answer questions that weren't in her teaching curriculum.  She's also had to deal with first graders who decided it was a good idea to play doctor during recess. (Try keeping track of 20 kids at once on a playground)

All this law does is cause more confusion and political separation because parents are too lazy or not knowledgeable to do their job properly.  

Edited March 11, 2022 by CMRivdogs

[Mr.TaterSalad]

1 hour ago, oblong said:

John Paul said evolution was a real thing in the mid 90's and I recall a scathing Cal Thomas article condemning it.

Sounds like you had a rogue teacher in catechism.

In terms of being a Catholic, it sounds like I did have a rouge teacher. The thing is though, even if the Catholic Church doesn't believe it, the radical right evangelicals do and they are shaping public policy all across the country. In-fact, we are seeing a trend where fewer and fewer Republicans believe in Evolution.

There is Pew Research Poll from 2014 on Evolution. 43% of Republicans and 67% of Democrats say they believe that humans have evolved. A majority of Republicans are either unsure and/or believe we were created by the hand of God and have been the same way forever and ever. The data below breaks it down by religion too, where you see a majority of bible thumping Evangelicals don't believe in Evolution. The core point to all of this is that it amazes me how independent-leaning voters overall can even remotely trust Republican politicians more or equal to Democrats on matters of education when you have them out their denying basic scientific consensus, trying to teach Creationism, and ban books all at the same time.

 

[CMRivdogs]

According to that poll approximately 67% of Republicans seem to be retrogressing...