Muslim Prayer In Ontario Public Schools

When I first read about the Muslim prayer controversy at the Valley Park Middle School in Toronto the first thing that struck me was "wow, a public school in Toronto that has a Muslim population of at least 80%."
Of course, most probably most of these kids and their families believe that Jews coming to Israel and becoming a majority there was something that had no business happening. And of course, they don't see the hypocrisy.

Now here are my major problems with this. It is a public school, when I grew up at least 80% of the kids in the school were Christian. It would have been terrible for me or any non Christian kid to have to have gone to a school with the knowledge that there was a special time set aside for most of the school's population to go to so that they can pray to Christ. It was hard enough at Christmas to be sort of an outcast because my family didn't celebrate the mythological Christ's mythological birthday.

Secondly, again, since it is a public school, tax dollars are involved. And tax dollars should not be spent on any religion (yeah I know that Ontario has a deal with the devil: The Catholic Church, that seems very binding). The fact that this prayer is organized and also happens during class time, is at best a misuse of funding.

Third, I don't buy the excuse that kids come back late from the Mosque, if they come back to the school at all. If they can't get the lunch prayers done on time, and come back late, they should be penalized in the same way any kid who is consistently tardy or truant is. Religion is no excuse for this. If you are taking advantage of the public system, play by the rules.

Fourth, because it is held in the cafeteria, anyone who wants to be there should be allowed. Apparently they ban non Muslims from entering the cafeteria during prayer.
This is too organized. Empty classrooms should be used, and the amount of kids in a room should be reduced to what is allowable by the fire code. If you can't get enough volunteer Imams to show up....too bad.
I have no problem with Christian groups, Jewish groups, atheist groups, etc. to have their own clubs after school....yes, after school. But the meetings need to be held in class rooms that are not going to be used or needed by anyone else in the school.

Fifth, to the people upset about menstruating girls having to be at the back of the prayer room....Get over it. Islam is a misogynist religion. This complaint is meaningless in the scheme of things, and has nothing to do with the fact that this type of organized prayer should not be allowed to happen during school hours.

Finally, there are two solutions. Turn Valley Park into a private school, and let the families pay for their kids education, or, ban religious prayer during class hours. If Muslims need to pray on Fridays, keep it to themselves, find unused classrooms at lunch or after school, or forget about it.

Does It Ever Dawn On High Profile Trial Jurors That They Are Morons

After watching the verdict in the Casey Anthony trial yesterday, a case of deja vu hit me. The same feeling I had after the OJ trial.

The defense selects the most dimwitted jurors in order to give themselves the best chance to win.

When watching a high profile trial, that fact is quickly forgotten.

But when the verdict comes in, it is clear that the most important job of the defense is to finding barely functioning idiots. Those who have major problems making inferences based on evidence. In other words, those who can't put two and two together. Possibly willfully ignorant individuals, the same who deny evolution because they've never seen a human come out of a monkey's vagina.

In fact, with the death penalty looming, the defense is best to look for Creationists, because they ignore science when it is convenient for them, and more importantly, they can be liberal when it comes to the evidence because if they are wrong in voting not guilty, God will ultimately right the wrong. If they sentence the wrong person to death, the juror might wind up in hell......I think I'm onto something, The Dumb Juror's Wager.

I just wonder when it finally hits the selected juror, that the main reason the person was selected, was because they just aren't the sharpest knife in the drawer.

I guess that is like asking if Creationists realize they are reality deniers.

Maybe the answer is never.