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Alabama state Rep. Chris Pringle (R-Mobile) may not know what "critical race theory" is, but he's pretty sure it's bad.
At least, the Republican legislator thinks it should be illegal to teach in Alabama schools, and Pringle has pre-filed a bill outlawing those lessons eight months ahead of the next session is scheduled and has been talking about the measure on conservative radio, reported AL.com.
"It's pretty simple," Pringle said. "All it says is you can't teach critical race theory in K-12 or higher education in the state of Alabama."
But columnist Kyle Whitmire pressed the lawmaker a bit harder and asked him to explain the topic he's trying to ban from the state's schools.
"It basically teaches that certain children are inherently bad people because of the color of their skin, period," Pringle said.
Whitmire asked the legislator to identify someone who's teaching that in Alabama, and Pringle promised he would look into the issue but couldn't provide any specific examples.
"These people, when they were doing the training programs — and the government — if you didn't buy into what they taught you a hundred percent, they sent you away to a re-education camp," Pringle said.
Whitmire agreed that sounded pretty terrifying, and his request for more specifics sent Pringle to dig through assorted materials in the cab of his pickup truck to provide details that didn't quite come.
"Here's an — it doesn't say who it was, it just says a government that held these — these training sessions," Pringle said, trailing off. "The white male executives are sent to a three-day re-education camp, where they were told that their white male culture wasn't their..."
He trailed off again before claiming that he'd just been hoping to start a conversation by introducing the measure.
"I introduced a very brief version of the bill to start the conversation, but it's very difficult in this cancel society to have a frank discussion about racism in this country and this country's history," Pringle said. "I mean, history is being rewritten and I'm not exactly sure of the accuracy of what's there now and what they're trying to change it into."
"This is still the greatest country that's ever, ever been in the history of the world," he added, "and the radical left is trying to destroy that and tear us apart and divide this country based on race and class, which is exactly what they do in communist countries."
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'Do your job': Texans blast Greg Abbott for 'embarrassment' sovereignty resolution as they face more blackouts
June 15, 2021
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott was blasted by many Texas residents on Tuesday after he hyped up a new culture war stunt during a time when residents of the state are staring at the prospects of more blackouts.
The Electric Reliability Council of Texas, which operates the state's electric grid, urged Texans on Monday to conserve energy to avoid a fresh wave of blackouts in the state.
Despite this, Abbott on Tuesday was more focused on pushing symbolic resolutions asserting Texas's "sovereignty" in all powers not directly allotted to the federal government in the United States Constitution.
"I just signed a Resolution asserting Texas sovereignty under the 10th Amendment over all powers not granted to the federal government by the US Constitution," Abbott wrote on Twitter. "The Resolution officially notifies the President & Congress to cease acts of encroaching upon the powers of states."
Many of the governor's constituents, however, were not happy that his focus was anywhere but on the looming power crisis they face -- check out some reactions below.
@GregAbbott_TX Do these powers include the power to fix the grid?— EricaGrieder (@EricaGrieder) 1623775101.0
@GregAbbott_TX You did this instead of working on our power grid? Not all that useful.— Amlaw00 (@Amlaw00) 1623774269.0
@GregAbbott_TX Why don’t you figure out how we won’t get our goddamned electricity cut off because you can’t do your job!!???— Janet Leigh 🇺🇸 (@Janet Leigh 🇺🇸) 1623774406.0
@GregAbbott_TX Do your job. https://t.co/IgO7ux7vvw— Mike Deegan (@Mike Deegan) 1623774326.0
@GregAbbott_TX Meanwhile you micromanage Texas cities….— TamaraVotes.TX (@TamaraVotes.TX) 1623775740.0
@GregAbbott_TX Cool stunt, bro. It won't work. As a Texas voter, I'm not buying it. And, yes, you'll be voted out of office.— The Great War & Modern Memory (@The Great War & Modern Memory) 1623776392.0
@GregAbbott_TX TEXANS WOULD PREFER YOU WORKING ON THE POWER GRID SINCE SUMMER HAS JUST BEGUN AND WE SEEM TO ALREADY HAVE TROUBLE.— Texas Gal (@Texas Gal) 1623774990.0
@GregAbbott_TX Great! What other essentially meaningless things will you announce in the future?— Joseph Nobles (@Joseph Nobles) 1623774726.0
@GregAbbott_TX Here's the resolution. It's an embarrassment. https://t.co/fHwHiEhJxh— RandomWinston1984 (@RandomWinston1984) 1623775667.0
@GregAbbott_TX sir when people freezing to deatg told you “please keep the power” this is not what they meant— kilgore trout, offer expires june 31 (@kilgore trout, offer expires june 31) 1623776033.0
@GregAbbott_TX The 10th Amendment was the same argument used to retain the right to enslave Black People, Greg.— Andy Rose - The GOP is the American Fascist Party. (@Andy Rose - The GOP is the American Fascist Party.) 1623774305.0
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Crayfish exposed to antidepressants via contaminated water behave more "boldly," emerging from hiding more quickly and spending longer looking for food, a study said Tuesday.
The paper, published in the journal Ecosphere, highlights the unintended impacts human medicines can have in aquatic environments, as they alter food web dynamics and ecosystem processes.
"Our study is the first to look at how crayfish respond when exposed to antidepressants at levels typically found in the streams and ponds where they live," said lead author Alexander "AJ" Reisinger of the University of Florida's Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences.
Antidepressants that are flushed directly or excreted in trace amounts eventually end up in the environment, either through leaky septic systems or through water treatment plants not designed to filter them out.
"Because they live in the water, animals like crayfish are regularly exposed to trace amounts of these drugs. We wanted to know how that might be affecting them," added Reisinger.
The team examined the impact of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), a class of antidepressants that work by increasing levels of the "feel good" chemical serotonin in the brain.
Commonly prescribed SSRIs include fluoxetine, which goes by the trade name Prozac, and citalopram, also known as Celexa.
US agencies advise against flushing unused medication down the toilet or sink due to the environmental impact, with the Drug Enforcement Agency coordinating periodic National Drug Take Back days to aid in proper disposal.
The researchers recreated the freshwater crustaceans' natural environment in a lab where some were exposed to environmentally realistic levels of antidepressant for two weeks, while a control group was not exposed.
The crayfish were placed in a shelter at the entrance to a Y-shaped maze, which has a short entrance that branches into two lanes. One lane emitted chemical cues for food while the other signaled the presence of another crayfish.
The crayfish that were exposed to antidepressants emerged from their shelters earlier and spent a longer time looking for food, but they avoided the side of the maze signaling another crayfish, indicating they weren't looking for confrontation.
The altered behavior could expose the crayfish, also known as crawdads in Louisiana where they are a staple in local cuisine, to increased risk of predators, which include eels and turtles as well as mammals and birds.
It might also impact the entire aquatic ecosystem as crayfish eat algae and other organic matter that impact the recycling of nutrients -- but this effect would likely come later and requires further study to confirm, the team wrote.
© 2021 AFP
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