Meanwhile, in Florida...

[Brian Peacock]

It's got to be the vaccine, because COVID was like totally harmless right?

[Tero]

Florida men, far out of range, convicted for stealing truckloads of meat
https://www.1011now.com/2023/08/02/flor ... nd-island/

[JimC]

Sentence them to a Vegan diet for life...

[L'Emmerdeur]

'Where woke comes to die.'

'Florida Has Banned AP Psych Over Gender and Sexuality Content, College Board Says'

Florida has “effectively” banned the Advanced Placement Psychology course from being taught in classrooms over lessons on gender identity and sexual orientation, the College Board said on Thursday.

In a statement, the nonprofit educational organization said that Florida superintendents had been told by state education officials that “districts are free to teach AP Psychology” only if the gender and sexuality material is excluded. The condition, according to the College Board, which oversees the Advanced Placement’s 40-course program, renders the course inadmissible for college credit.

“Our policy remains unchanged,” the College Board said. “Any course that censors required course content cannot be labeled ‘AP’ or ‘Advanced Placement,’ and the ‘AP Psychology’ designation cannot be utilized on student transcripts.”

The AP Psychology curriculum, which requires students “describe how sex and gender influence socialization and other aspects of development,” has been offered in Florida schools since 1993. Around 27,000 students in the state took the course last school year, according to the Orlando Sentinel. This year, around 30,000 were expected to sign up.

“We have heard from teachers across Florida who are heartbroken that they are being forced to drop AP and instead teach alternatives that have been deemed legal because the courses exclude these topics,” the College Board said.

“To be clear,” the organization added, “any AP Psychology course taught in Florida will violate either Florida law or college requirements.” It advised district officials not to offer AP Psych until the state agreed to reverse its decision.

The move comes around a week before the new school year is set to begin in many of Florida’s districts. Trouble has been brewing in and around Florida’s classrooms since last year, however, when Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a slew if restrictive education bills, including HB 1557, the so-called “Don’t Say Gay” bill that prohibits discussion of gender and sexuality in kindergarten through third grade. Earlier this year, the law was expanded through to 12th grade classrooms.

[pErvinalia]

Champion of free speech.

[NineBerry]

Leprosy May Be Endemic in Central Florida, Scientists Report

Leprosy, a fearsome scourge of ancient civilizations, may have become a permanent fixture in Florida, according to a new study.

The authors described a 54-year-old man who was diagnosed with the illness but had no known risk factors and had never traveled outside Florida. Other people have similarly become infected without obvious explanation, suggesting that leprosy is now endemic in the state, the researchers said.

[...]

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/02/heal ... orida.html

[Brian Peacock]

[JimC]

The Republican answer to leprosy...

"They bought it on themselves..."

[Animavore]

My gf is going to Florida in a couple of weeks. I hope Florida man doesn't show up.

[pErvinalia]

Laklak is busy that week. I know lak...

[Tero]

Never marry anyone renting a storage unit.
https://www.1011now.com/2023/11/20/body ... olice-say/

[L'Emmerdeur]

'Protected government speech.' Protected by the 1st Amendment according to Florida, despite the usual understanding that the 1st Amendment exists to prevent government from unduly restricting free speech of the people. Some wonderful stuff coming from the 'Free State of Florida.'

'Florida Says Its Public Schools Exist to "Convey Government’s Message"'

GOP Governor Ron DeSantis often talks about what he calls “the free state of Florida” but Florida Republican Attorney General Ashley Moody has declared the Sunshine State’s public schools, including its libraries, do not exist to promote the free exchange of ideas, but rather, to “convey the government’s message.”

In a legal brief, the State of Florida argues it has a First Amendment right to remove LGBTQ books, or any book, from public schools and libraries, USA Today’s Tallahassee Democrat reports.

“It’s a contention that First Amendment experts and advocates call extreme and chilling. But the state maintains the books on school shelves represent protected government speech. Public school libraries are ‘a forum for government speech,’ it says, not a ‘forum for free expression.'”

“Public-school systems, including their libraries, convey the government’s message,” Attorney General Moody (photo) also wrote in the legal brief.

“Like the selection of monuments,,” Moody writes, quoting a legal case: “the government speaks through its selection of which books to put on the shelves and which books to exclude.”

She also argues that the “purpose” of public school libraries “is to support the government’s educational mission.”

Moody also cites the very narrow recent anti-LGBTQ Supreme Court ruling in 303 Creative that was riddled with falsehoods.

Florida’s First Amendment stance has experts calling the State’s claims “authoritarianism.”

They would though. Experts are completely untrustworthy. Worse than fact-checkers.

[JimC]

One would expect to see libertarians fuming at what they might well call government over-reach.

But given that US libertarians have an embedded (but disguised) conservative bias, I doubt we will see that...

[Brian Peacock]

They sure like banning books in Florida.

[Svartalf]

Books other than the Good Book are Bad