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[stabbymcstabstab]

The Pledge at least in my part of Michigan(Yooper land for the interested), It's just a formality my friends usually play speed during, then again up here our Catholic school barely cares if your Catholic so it's more local beliefs.

[Baffler]

We said the Pledge every morning in my high school, but I almost never actually said it. It was a rare day I'd even put my hand over my heart.  You get dirty looks for it sometimes, but nobody truly cares. I just couldn't ever get over seeing it like it seems to be seen elsewhere: as creepy, ritualized nationalism.

I, too, went to a Catholic school. From kindergarten to 8th grade. It was small, there were only 8 other people in my graduating class, but it's a pretty small town. Our religious education was simple stuff early on, of course, but got progressively more focused and philosophical later on. We also had mandatory school Mass on Wednesdays but, like XXSockXX's, nobody cared all that much what you did as long as you at least looked like you were participating.

[Sheb]

I think it works the other way around. Religion in school here is so common and inoffensive that people just ignore it. On the other hand, in the states, any religion getting its way in school would be the work of some crazy conservative.

[GrizzlyAdamz]

It's pretty much like how Americans have their kids swear an oath of loyalty every morning, something that would never be accepted over here.

This seems to hold some water.
Though I'd wager there are more put-religion-in-school nuts here than there are insert-nationalistic-rituals-into-school nuts there.

[Dutchling]

I think I'd rather pledge alliance to some dyke than memorize a new psalm every week. God that was awful. Not to mention completely useless since the church I went to as a kid didn't even sing psalms -.-'

[10ebbor10]

It's pretty much like how Americans have their kids swear an oath of loyalty every morning, something that would never be accepted over here.

This seems to hold some water.
Though I'd wager there are more put-religion-in-school nuts here than there are insert-nationalistic-rituals-into-school nuts there.

I'm pretty sure the US outnumbers the EU in both aspects.

[Sheb]

Well, there are institutional reasons. In  much (?all?) of the US, schools are run by directly-elected school boards, so that kind of bullshit get more attention and crazy nuts have an easy way to try to force their agendas in school. In most of Europe, this set-up simply does not exist.*

*Although sometime nuts still manage to get through, like in the recent story about UK school and Islam.

[miauw62]

My R. E. lessons in elementary school weren't really impressive. In the last year we did an entire year worth of RE in the last two days because our teacher forgot or couldn't be arsed to do it the rest of the year.

Previous two years in middle school were quite Christian-y, but as always the Bible was never interpreted literally. This year I've had an awesome teacher and the R. E. classes are basically just Ethics classes. The teacher really stresses giving your own opinion and is just a pretty cool guy in general.

Elementary school had a lot of mandatory events held in the local church, though. Mostly Christian events, but the church also doubled as a community room or w/e you call it. It wasn't exclusively a church.
(Entrance to the old church was prohibited because it was really old and due to be demolished, a new building has been built where it stood)

E: For clarification, both often these schools are private schools. The community around my elementary school was rather cliquey, though. And while the school I go to now has Catholic origins, little of that remains (the same is probably true for the two other private ASO schools in this town, but I'm not sure).

[Sheb]

So, Russia 24 had a segment about hordes of grateful Russian tourists boosting Crimea's economy.



Apparently, Crimea was also moved to Brazil. Because that beach is in Rio.

EDIT: Looking at Russia-24's wikipedia page just made me laugh.

[Steeled]

Also, in other news, today the prime/state ministers of Germany, Dutchland, Britain, and Sweden met to decide how to best fuck over the rest of the EU. Because clearly that's four people capable of decide the future of EU's economic policy.

There are a few differences between the European Union and the Pam-American union. First of all, virtually all american countries are apart of it, except Cuba I believe, the EU has a few large gaps in that regard. Secondly, the PAU nations isn't actively working to erase cultural identities, the most visible example of this is by examining the EU's and PAU's flags. Thirdly, the nations of the PAU aren't ruled over by a group of non-elected officials that can determine policy within their borders.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

The reason why you've never heard of the Pan American Union is because it doesn't make a habit of fucking people over on a near daily basis

Personally I'm surprised Germany and Britian haven't ditched that clusterfuck sooner. They get nothing out of the bargin aside from knowing they are throwing money at countries like Greece. If I had a bunch of worthless hobos suckling on my teats I'd leave too.

[Ukrainian Ranger]

So, Russia 24 had a segment about hordes of grateful Russian tourists boosting Crimea's economy.



Apparently, Crimea was also moved to Brazil. Because that beach is in Rio.

EDIT: Looking at Russia-24's wikipedia page just made me laugh.

Usage of  the "146%" meme  say that that is a parody on Russia 24 But that is not far from actual methods used by Russian media so many believed this and it spread like fire through social networks


Real Crimean  beaches look like
this  BTW It is not a bad twitter to get English language information about Crimea and Eastern Ukraine in English

[Ukrainian Ranger]

Meanwhile I smell treason from our new president

“Maybe some Ukrainians would like to have Sweden or Canada for a neighbor, but we have Russia,” he said on Monday inside the Presidential Administration Building in Kiev, fidgeting with a set of rosary beads throughout the interview. “So we can’t talk about a firm sense of security without a dialogue and an understanding with Russia.” That is why Poroshenko spent the first full day of his tenure on Sunday in marathon talks with the Russian ambassador to Ukraine, Mikhail Zurabov.

Dear Poroshenko, could you say that you'll seek "understanding" (capitulation if you take away the diplomatic language) during the election campaign? Businessmen does what is expected - trade
Will be glad to be wrong here... But that looks very grim

[Sergarr]

Meanwhile I smell treason from our new president

“Maybe some Ukrainians would like to have Sweden or Canada for a neighbor, but we have Russia,” he said on Monday inside the Presidential Administration Building in Kiev, fidgeting with a set of rosary beads throughout the interview. “So we can’t talk about a firm sense of security without a dialogue and an understanding with Russia.” That is why Poroshenko spent the first full day of his tenure on Sunday in marathon talks with the Russian ambassador to Ukraine, Mikhail Zurabov.

Dear Poroshenko, could you say that you'll seek "understanding" (capitulation if you take away the diplomatic language) during the election campaign? Businessmen does what is expected - trade
Will be glad to be wrong here... But that looks very grim

Did you forget that he's a oligarch? He wants money, Russia has money, see where this goes?

[Sheb]

Crap, I got trolled. :p

Edit: Also, in the ongoing story "Who the fuck though that was a good idea?", several parties have contested the recent elections: there was all kinds of problems with electronic voting and some vote were really close.

But of course, all those appeals are being refused. Because for some reasons, it's the newly elected parliament who is asked to rule on the appeals to the elections that just put it into power.

[XXSockXX]

Crap, I got trolled. :p

Are you sure? Maybe this was about self-defense forces in Riodejaneirograd fighting for an independent New Southwest Russia.

Edit: Also, in the ongoing story "Who the fuck though that was a good idea?", several parties have contested the recent elections: there was all kinds of problems with electronic voting and some vote were really close.

But of course, all those appeals are being refused. Because for some reasons, it's the newly elected parliament who is asked to rule on the appeals to the elections that just put it into power.

Which elections, the ones in Belgium?
The EU parliament elections have come under some scrutiny too because of double votes, but I don't think much will come out of it.