I don't think the drugs should matter. Let's imagine a similar situation where a victim dies during the commission of a crime- assault, robbery, hostage situation, etc. Maybe the victim had drugs in his system, but had the crime not occurred, or had the hostage taker allowed medical personnel to help, he could have been saved...the perpetrator will be charged with murder. It happens all the time! The only difference is that the people being charged in these murders are not wearing badges during their crimes. I really dislike how George Floyd's behavior is being used to minimize the behavior of the cop. So what if he did overdose? Do we think maybe the paramedics who wanted to help could have saved him if they were allowed to intervene? Do we think maybe having his breathing restricted was a contributing factor? We have a clear pattern of victim blaming whenever the police are involved and I think it serves to prevent real accountability and change. It's a harmful distraction. The same with sexual assault. People have been telling women how to behave to protect themselves for who knows how long? Hundreds of years at least. It doesn't really help and it is a form of social control that limits the freedoms and choices women feel they have- if my DH can walk the dog at night safely, I really should be able to as well in a perfect world! It also allows men to avoid the conversation about their own behavior and beliefs and lets society off the hook for putting the burden on women to try to control everyone while simultaneously controlling nothing.

I hope they will send him off to doggie reform school. I think he needs some more intense training than they have the time for right now. I've been enjoying Canine Intervention on Netflix- he needs to go somewhere like that with a real trainer.

What does that mean? Do you wear what makes you unhappy? I know it's trite, but I think anything worn with confidence and by a happy woman looks best. I'm trying to own that myself and to really think about what I want to wear instead of what I think others want me to wear. I'm pretty vanilla, but I think of the older women I know who look fabulous and most of them either are women who probably always looked fabulous and stylish or they are women who are so happy and comfortable with themselves, that they look fabulous in anything- it's their spirit that gets you. I want to be someone with the spirit- I'm certainly not the 1st category. I wouldn't buy ripped jeans but I've worn plenty of them because there was a time when I had constant holes from crawling on the floor with little kids. I've decided I don't want to wear frills and ruffles anymore. I feel ridiculous in them and I don't want to be that little girl. I gave all my clothes with ruffles to my DDs. I'm not sure there's anything I'd say an older woman shouldn't wear if she wants- that seems a little misogynist, but we shouldn't wear things that make us feel ridiculous, unhappy, or insecure.

I want to combine my 9th and 12th graders next year in US History. Does anyone know of a good, flexible course or resource? I think I want a spine that will give basic, neutral info, and which will have some easy to schedule assignments or quizzes that correspond, but not too much because I want to bulk it up with my own stuff. If we were designing what I'm imagining for 3rd grade, for example, I would be happy having lots of nonfiction books and documentaries, projects, discussions, writing assignments, but then I'd add in a Spectrum workbook or similar once a week to keep us on task and make sure the basics are covered. Is there something like that appropriate for HS? Maybe an IB workbook? We have one for Econ that seems to do the job there. We've done US History in elementary and middle school already so I don't want to just rehash the same things, always staying on the surface, for the millionth time. On the other hand, I know their memories are terrible and unless we actually do it again- at which point they'd roll their eyes and say haven't we done this 5 times?- if asked about some aspect of US History now, they'd probably say they've never heard of something! Also, they hate history. Side question- Could we cover US history from Reconstruction to present or modern history only and still give a legit US History credit? We've also done (or will do for younger DD) Civics in HS which reviewed quite a bit of early history already, and that was usually the focus in earlier years. I'm a little tired of early American history.

It sounds like too much to me. I'd break it down like this: Art Language Arts Math Science Social Studies (History/Geography) French PE- extracurricular (Philosophy- stick it into Lit- read and discuss) There's an opportunity cost to everything and for 3rd grade, I think you have diminishing returns when the schedule is too full and spread out.

Can anyone share why Queen's Gambit is rated MA? I'm not opposed to MA, but I like to know what I'm getting into. My DS (19) wanted to watch it but there's some things I don't want to watch with him! I like Russian Doll. So good!

Sometimes I'm polite to her. I've thought that if my 3yo hears us issuing commands then he'll speak like that so I try to use please and thank you even with Alexa. But that's only when I'm not calling her a big ugly witch because she hates me personally and deliberately only refuses to listen to me and does whatever anyone else in the house wants! LOL! Hopefully it balances out.

It will be interesting to see how they respond to Beth Moore. Her books used to be SO popular and promoted. Everyone loved her. Will she be shunned or will people still have classes with her books and say something about how they are sad to see her go?

I would be very surprised if you live in a moderately sized city and don't have a SBC in your community. What's more likely is you have a stealth SBC. There's a trend of churches not advertising their affiliation with the SBC because they know there's a stigma and are afraid that it will affect who chooses to visit their churches. You may not know unless you dig into their bylaws. Southern Baptists are super into church planting and domestic mission fields- they are everywhere.

I don't think many Americans give a rat's behind about whether we have an American Duchess or anything like that. We're just shooting the breeze. If we defend her, it's because we think she's been treated poorly- not because we care if she's royal.

I mean, need or want? Pay for it for a few years while the threat is high and then just hire some bodyguards and live in a gated place. If they reduced their profile for a few years, I bet their risks would decline significantly and they could reduce their security budget proportionately. They say they want a normal life, but not really. Harry gets a bit of a pass because he probably has no idea what a normal life looks like. I'm happy for them that they feel they are free now. Good luck to them in future endeavors, and all that...I'm sure things were rough. But they have the ability to be fine, so my sympathy is limited. Family problems can be rough- I'm not sure this is the path to healing. I'm glad they are trying to raise awareness about mental health issues and being honest about their struggles to reduce stigma.

I agree. Just because she consented to the rules doesn't mean she felt she had a choice or that she didn't feel significant pressure to do as she was told. She probably could have pitched a fit and done whatever she wanted, but at what cost? They were trying to follow the rules and protocol for a while and to fit in. Many women have more theoretical choices than what they consider to be actual possible choices at the time. I wasn't going to watch but ended up turning on the last 30min because I was sucked in by twitter comments. I found them naïve and credible. It's not a crime. I'm sure both sides could have behaved better but I find the hate on Megan to be strange. I don't know her or the royal family enough to have a strong opinion on their characters. I think it's unlikely that any of them are sociopaths or anything more than people trying to do their best. I don't have much sympathy for rich people problems, though. I'm quite sure they could afford a modest apartment in small town USA on the millions that they already have without breaking a sweat. They could probably afford that security with a modest lifestyle, lower their profile, let people forget about them, and continue to live privately the rest of their lives if they wanted to. But they want more, so I'm not too sympathetic. Lots of people want more.

I would have him go to his professors' office hours and tell them about his test difficulties and see if they can help point him in the right direction. They probably at least have online office hours. If nothing else, he should be there for extra help if he's failing tests. They should be the first resource- not the last. It would be good for him to get into the habit of going to office hours before he's on his own.

I think this was a savvy public relations move. They have some books that aren't selling well. They are problematic books too that the estate may be uncomfortable with. So now, Seuss estate gets praise and maybe some sales from people who are happy with their decision. They also get sales from people who are enraged about "cancel culture" and anyone who would dare to cancel Seuss- maybe they'll just buy Seuss to support his estate or maybe they'll specifically look for the copies of the discontinued books before they are available only in the secondary market (if any are left?). I've never even heard of any of them and my parents read me tons of Seuss when I was a kid and we had many books. Any book will go out of print if it doesn't sell and if it no longer fits the public's tastes. I think it's a good thing that the public's tastes are moving away from racist kids' books. There's a ton of excellent kids' books- too many to waste time reading problematic books for enjoyment. I've been thinking I need to disappear some of my DS's books that feel like time wasters- those that don't have great pictures, great stories, or great or thoughtful messages need to get off my shelf. My HS students are reading Miss Julie right now. I told them before we started that they'd find it offensive, but that it will make for good discussions. I'm not at all saying we should avoid books that present ideas that we find offensive or uncomfortable, but itty bitty kids? They're just reading for fun.

Thanks for the ideas. I'll google the centers. I hadn't considered how good they may be for hand strength and motor skills. DS really likes snapping them together and pulling them apart. They take more effort than preschool legos and I'm not setting him loose with the regular legos yet!

The Dora movie was actually pretty cute. My kids (preteens and teens at the time) all liked it- it has action, it has cute animals, Dora's not a princess, but they may like the novelty of seeing her all grown up. It's tame too, as far as I remember.

I have a set of 1000 mathlink cubes (learning resources) that I have no idea what to do with. I picked them up years ago because they were free but my kids were a little old for them and they sat in a closet. Now I have DS(3) and pulled them out for him and I'm sure there must be more to this. I looked online- ideas to sort by color, shape, etc...boring. I'm used to C-rods and they make more sense to me. Right now I'm making 100 flats of each color to see how many pieces may have fallen out of the bag and it seems maybe we could use them stacked in rows on top of each other to show subtraction or missing pieces. Other than that I don't know. They are kind of fun as blocks or weird legos, but I feel I should do more since I have 1000 of them! Does anyone have any more fun or useful ways they've used them or want to chime in on how much fun you found them?

I would just invest in carpet cleaner and let DD be the one to clean up the mess. I have a problem cat of my own, and think that there's unlikely to be carpet damage if the cat is peeing on a pile or even stack of clothes- unless they're like swimsuits or something. DD will have some natural consequences and it won't be your problem. You could also try a pheromone collar for the cat or a pheromone diffuser for DD's room. I didn't read everything, but I saw enough to see that there's likely a lot of stress going on right now, so I'd pick my battles. 4 pees on a pile of clothes on the floor in a year isn't that bad. If he does it regularly, then I'd look into why the cat doesn't want to use the box.

What would you do if DC took 2 levels of language with 1 provider (say, well regarded public school) and did very well- top of class...but then transferred to a new provider at home and that provider places them a level down because of scope and sequence mismatch, poor instruction at the first school, or who knows why. So they did 1 school's levels 1-2, and then a new provider places them in their level 2 instead of level 3. Would this count as 3 years of foreign language if they completed it or would the student need to suck it up, do the level 2 for "free" and then earn level 3 at the new provider. I obviously don't want a student placed in an inappropriate level, and I also don't want to shop around for the easiest provider to place into level 3, but the student would be sad to essentially lose a year's worth of credit through no fault of their own. I suspect the PS class was just really bad, and if the student had stayed they would have excelled in the bad level 3 class as well. If we went with the provider who would put them into level 2, how would you address this on a transcript?

My tier is open but I haven't signed up. I contacted my doctor to see if I could, but then I saw what a mess it is in our county. All the shots were gone and nursing home residents were still not fully vaccinated, the scheduling was a mess, and we were going out of town for a few weeks which would mean I may miss the call anyway, so I'm waiting. I qualify with medical conditions, but I can stay home and am otherwise healthy and low risk. I'm going to wait until the elderly have and 1a people have actually gotten shots before trying to get in line. My parents in another state got theirs quickly and easily. They're older with health issues, but it seems their system was much more organized. Or maybe they had more shots and less demand?

DH has been working outside the home the entire time. He can't work from home. He's our biggest exposure. Kids don't go anywhere except occasionally to the store and we mask. They might go once a month or so. We try to do grocery and store pickups as much as possible, but sometimes things come up. We keep medical appointments that have to be in person and have to occur- some things can't be done online, but I'm not scheduling optional appointments like annual checkups. We go to parks and hiking (when it was warmer) and on walks in the neighborhood but not with anyone not in our immediate family. We only go to playgrounds if they are mostly empty and I try to be early in the day. I've had some interactions with the cat rescue people that I was fostering for, but not too often. They're probably my biggest risk factor. I always wear a mask but I know some people involved in the group are less cautious than we are, and I won't ask people to mask in their own home if they aren't. I just try to do what I need to do quickly. We left town while our kitchen is being remodeled and we are doing the same in our rental- take outs, pick ups, staying home except for outside things when the weather is ok. We are staying away as long as we can because the workers will be in our home all day and it'll be busy and loud and disruptive, not even considering covid risk, but they aren't finishing as quickly as I had hoped. They'll probably still need another week after we get back and I guess we'll just try to hide in our rooms and avoid them. We can see on the security camera that they aren't masked all day (it's a family team), but they probably will without us having to ask when we return. They've had a week and a half and we still don't have the cabinets and countertops in! What are they doing? The demo was complete in under 48hrs and there's been no surprises or delays...but I'm off topic. 😄 Haven't been to church in almost a year! They were virtual only for a while but are in person now and not requiring masks.

Can anyone tell me what sort of fees HSA charges to transfer a class from one student to another? They say it will show you the fees when you begin a transfer (and you can back out) but I am having absolutely NO luck getting a customer service agent to tell me what the fees or formula for calculating the fees are in advance of purchasing. We are very long term clients but are out of classes and I can't check myself without purchasing more classes. I want to purchase a lot of classes and split them between one child who only needs a few lessons and another who needs more. I don't want to pay $20 a class for the kid who only needs a few makeup lessons so I thought I'd have that one take the classes he needs, and then transfer the rest to a sibling next fall. BUT they won't tell me what this would cost or let me see if the preferred teacher will be available before purchasing, both of which are souring me on the whole business. Has anyone done this who can tell me an approximate cost and if it's worth it? I transferred a few classes years ago but they didn't charge for it back then. I'd rather have this student take some extra lessons on italki or something if it's going to cost us a lot more and he still has to see a new teacher.

You're much more optimistic than me if you expect her to change her behavior based on feedback. She's an adult- surely she knows such behavior is inappropriate and unprofessional. I would drop the class and complain to outschool but not bother sending her anything. I agree with your DH. Even if she promised to change her ways I wouldn't risk setting my kid up for disappointment again.

Did she respond?

We try to be prepared for a week or 2 unless we have advance warning that something worse is coming. But preparation is a privilege- I have space and money to buy more than today's needs. But we also need to see that climates are changing and "once in a lifetime" events are happening far more often than once in a lifetime. I think the duty is on governments and, by default the citizens who vote for and actually are the government, to change, recognize, and prepare for what's going on instead of endlessly being surprised. I saw some mayor's statement who said that nobody had any duty to help...that was disgusting. Isn't it the mayor's job to lead? And if you aren't leading in a disaster or crisis, what is your actual point of existence as a mayor?