Boo!

Just a little something to go along with last night's post.



via GIPHY

Trumpdy Dumpty

You most likely have heard about Trump's cancelled Chicago rally.

The New York Times reports that Trump was quoted as saying he "didn't want anyone getting hurt" at the rally, and this was his reason for cancelling. However, CNN reported not that long ago that Donald Trump said that he would like to "punch a protester in the face." In addition, Trump has been quoted as saying that his solution to the ISIS problem is to "bomb the sh*t out of them."

So why is he suddenly turning peaceful?
To make the protesters look violent, of course. The New York Times even spoke of "violence" at the potential rally, but in the article itself only mentions a couple "skirmishes" and incidents of police wielding batons and causing injuries with said batons.

I won't even get into the inaccuracy of Donald Trump claiming that First Amendment rights were being violated. If you cannot see past that, then I probably won't get through to you anyway.

Instead, let me take you all through some more reasons why Trump is a person of poor integrity and character.

Here are 9 examples of Trump being racist.

Justifying military sexual assault. 

Possible sexual assault on his part.

The list goes on and on. Please do not vote for this person. 

Don't Type So Close to Me

Why do people feel as if being online allows them to act differently towards people than if they were to be having a discussion in person? Probably, for one, because they cannot see the facial expressions of the person with whom they are speaking. Research suggests that viewing and the subsequent unconscious mimicry of facial expressions/nonverbal gestures can help people see and even agree with the viewpoints of others.

In the end, however, it is still a person's choice to be rude or even creepy, the latter I encountered in a random stranger on the internet. A friend of mine had a friend who had decided for some reason to "poke" me and several others on Facebook. My friend told me that all he ever did was try to get in her pants. This irritated me, so I decided to do something about it. (This was awhile ago, but I was reminded by it due to some articles I had read by ladies who had been harassed on various social networks).

Notice the immediate neediness. "You busy?"

He obviously didn't understand what I was saying.

I Didn't Know You Could Resurrect a Movie Too

God's Not Dead 2 is in the works. I saw the trailer for it today.








If you would like to view it, I have embedded the link above--but I will spare you if you would rather not. It feels a great deal like an action/suspense movie in which the underdogs, the Christians, are having their freedoms slowly taken away by the villains, the atheists and secular humanists. The protagonist, a teacher, mentions a Bible verse in class and suddenly her job is in question and her life is in turmoil because of these horrid people.

I like to keep discussions in class open-minded, so I have mentioned Bible verses in my classroom on numerous occasions. And I am a secular humanist. Nobody came after my job or threatened me in any way. I have had teachers in high school who mentioned Biblical concepts and even asserted that these concepts were true--and I went to public school!

I think the makers of this movie are confusing secular groups' wishes for separation of church and state in law and science especially as a "war on Christianity." This is not the case. I want everyone to believe what they wish, as long as they do not force their beliefs on others or cause others harm because of them. We are not trying to "wage war." We are trying to make sure that certain groups do not have too much power and influence in the lives of others.

Have You Been Touched By Buddy Jesus?

A few days ago, a coworker of mine recommended that I see "Dogma."

One of my first thoughts was, "Oh! So that's where that goofy Jesus statue comes from!" (Bear with me, folks. I am just now discovering these movies. Ironically, my youth group appropriated pictures of this statue for lessons on numerous occasions).

I love this movie for a number of reasons. Firstly, I mean, Alan Rickman as Metatron and Alanis Morissette as God--that right there was amazing. But I also respect the movie for the questions it asks (no, I'm not talking about Jay asking if he can bang the Zion every five minutes).

I believe in the possibility of a god or yet undiscovered being of higher intelligence. I am simply not comfortable asserting that any god or such being exists because I have no tangible evidence. And if one does exist, I do not think the Bible or Quran or any other religious book out there effectively explains or identifies it. All religious texts must have some bias. When it comes down to it, they were written by completely fallible humans. For example, the Bible (this example being from the KJV) is horribly, horribly misogynistic. According to a passage in Deuteronomy, if a man calls his new wife a "slut" but her virginity is verified, the man must be admonished. But if he calls his new wife a "slut" and her virginity cannot be proved, she shall be stoned to death. The Quran permits rape as long as the victim is a slave taken as a prisoner of war.

Hm. Sounds to me like they could have been written by men with power complexes. I don't believe, but I have an idea.

Biofeedback is a Beautiful Thing

A couple days ago, I happened upon a "suggested" post about the videogame "Nevermind."

Being that I am a fan of horror video games and psychology, my interest was instantly peaked. (Damn you Facebook and your pointed advertising). According to the game's webpage, "Nevermind" uses a biofeedback algorithm as one is playing the game to monitor how stressed the player is becoming. When the player becomes more stressed out, the game becomes more difficult.

You might be wondering, "well how is that at all helpful? Wouldn't it be better to help the player stay un-stressed, especially if they have anxiety?" This makes sense intuitively, but for people diagnosed with anxiety (me being one of the many) avoiding anxiety-provoking situations actually hinders our progress. The worst thing about anxiety is not the actual situation we fear, it's the anticipation beforehand.

For people with obsessive-compulsive disorder, the most effective treatment is exposure plus response prevention, which is essentially forcing the person with the disorder to either do the very things that they are afraid of (like touch something which they perceive as "germ-ridden") or not do the ritual behaviors to which they have become accustomed (like repeated hand-washing). The goal is to show the individual that nothing catastrophic happens after they change the behavior and also to get the individual's nervous system to "acclimate" to the anxiety. This makes it easier for one to control their own level of anxiety in stressful situations.

This videogame relies on a similar strategy. Imagine (even if you are not a person with a diagnosed anxiety disorder) that you are playing the game and  a stressful situation arises. Your nervous system is flooded with cortisol and adrenaline, and the game recognizes through your increasingly frantic movements that your stress levels are rising. The game suddenly becomes more difficult--to advance you will need to stop, maybe for just a second or two, and breathe. Get those levels back down. The game becomes easier and you can continue. And the beauty of it is, you can do this all in a secure environment.

These Thoughts Run Through My Brain Too Fast

Today's not the first day I have been threatened with violence.

Class today was pretty normal up until the end of the second hour. One of my students who has trouble focusing was flat-out refusing to do his assignment for a myriad of reasons, and I wasn't sure if any of them were true. He claimed to be afraid to write down his thoughts for fear of judgement (something I have seen before in other students). He claimed that he did better with typing than with writing, but I told him that I had taken away the laptop because it had been distracting him. He then claimed that I never gave him a chance to open a word document (a flat-out lie) and I told him that while he had had the laptop out I never said that he couldn't type out his responses.

Still, the student became more and more frustrated. Since he was still refusing to do his work, I reluctantly wrote a referral and poked my head out of the door to get the attention of the hall monitor. At this point, the student warned me that he had thrown desks at people before and that he was getting very angry and often became violent while angry. I took a deep breath and just let him continue talking until the assistant principal arrived.

I know that this particular student has a lot of problems with focus and dealing with emotions. But there is a point in which one has to say, "your problems do not excuse this behavior." However, perhaps planning a lesson that helps the student feel a bit more comfortable doing his work and that he is not, by any stretch of the imagination, stupid (as he has referred to himself before), I can prevent future situations from coming to a head like they did today. People get extremely defensive and may attack when they feel anxious and threatened by the surrounding situation.

 I found an interesting class activity to help others understand what it's like to have ADHD, as well as the fact that they need to make sure that they are not doing anything which could add to the overload of sensory input that the student is experiencing.