Quo Vadis GOP?

[Valmy]

I don't think my wife will ever let me be rid of my gas stove. So for the forseeable future my fireplace and stove will remain gas. Everything else is electric though, powered by my solar panels (to an extent...when I get my battery backup it will be 100% but that is still for the future)

[HVC]

They care about their employees Jacob, you should appreciate that      

Hard for the employees to cook if they're bosses are holding on to the gas ranges and refusing to let go.

A good chef cooks around their crazy boss.

Anyone, the GOP is weird in general, but I assume these objections are being paid by their regular oil and Gas lobby so makes sense.

[HVC]

I don't think my wife will ever let me be rid of my gas stove. So for the forseeable future my fireplace and stove will remain gas. Everything else is electric though, powered by my solar panels (to an extent...when I get my battery backup it will be 100% but that is still for the future)

What battery system you looking at?

[Valmy]

I don't think my wife will ever let me be rid of my gas stove. So for the forseeable future my fireplace and stove will remain gas. Everything else is electric though, powered by my solar panels (to an extent...when I get my battery backup it will be 100% but that is still for the future)

What battery system you looking at?

Generac. They work best with my panel system.

But hey by the time I am ready to do it who knows who might be good? The market is changing pretty fast.

[Sheilbh]

The gas stove rage v distribution of different types of stoves is very weird given the way it's split in the culture war - wonder if this will flip as people in red states start getting gas stoves to signal their cultural/political values:

[Valmy]

Doubtful. Kitchen changes of any kind are brutally expensive.

[DGuller]

I wonder how common the gas lines are.  Do you need a gas line for anything other than a gas kitchen range?  If not, then I don't see the utility of even having them outside of densely populated areas.

[Admiral Yi]

I wonder how common the gas lines are.  Do you need a gas line for anything other than a gas kitchen range?  If not, then I don't see the utility of even having them outside of densely populated areas.

Gas furnace, water heater.

[Valmy]

I wonder how common the gas lines are.  Do you need a gas line for anything other than a gas kitchen range?  If not, then I don't see the utility of even having them outside of densely populated areas.

Gas water heaters and furnace as well.

Edit: Dang it Yi!

[Admiral Yi]

 

[PDH]

I understand people use gas for water heaters and furnaces as well.

[crazy canuck]

My understanding is that many use gas for home heating and hot water tanks.

[grumbler]

From your mouth to God's ear, Matt.  May it happen sooner rather than later.

[The Larch]

First they came for the gays...

Florida Rejects A.P. African American Studies Class
The state's Department of Education said in a letter that the course content was "inexplicably contrary to Florida law and significantly lacks educational value."

MIAMI — Florida will not allow a new Advanced Placement course on African American studies to be offered in its high schools, stating that the course is not "historically accurate" and violates state law.

In a letter last week, the Florida Department of Education informed the College Board, which administers A.P. exams, that it would not include the class in the state's course directory. Rigorous A.P. courses allow high school students to obtain credit and advanced placement in college.

"As presented, the content of this course is inexplicably contrary to Florida law and significantly lacks educational value," the department's office of articulation, which oversees accelerated programs for high school students, wrote on Jan. 12. In the future, should the College Board "be willing to come back to the table with lawful, historically accurate content, FDOE will always be willing to reopen the discussion."

The letter, with no name attached to it, did not cite which law the course violated or what in the curriculum was objectionable. The department did not respond to questions asking for more details. But last year, Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, signed legislation that restricted how racism and other aspects of history can be taught in schools and workplaces. The law's sponsors called it the Stop WOKE Act. Among other things, it prohibits instruction that could make students feel responsibility for or guilt about the past actions of other members of their race.

On Thursday, the College Board said that the A.P. African American studies course was still undergoing a multiyear pilot phase. The course is multidisciplinary and addresses not just history but civil rights, politics, literature, the arts, even geography.

"The process of piloting and revising course frameworks is a standard part of any new A.P. course, and frameworks often change significantly as a result," the College Board said in a statement. "We will publicly release the updated course framework when it is completed and well before this class is widely available in American high schools."

Mr. DeSantis, who is widely considered a top contender for the Republican presidential nomination, has repeatedly taken on polarizing culture war issues, including teaching about race and gender. Those stances are popular among many parents and helped him win re-election last year by a wide margin. He pledged when he was sworn into a second term this month that he would continue seeking to make Florida "the land of liberty and the land of sanity."

Last year, a federal judge blocked part of the Stop WOKE Act — officially named the Individual Freedoms Act — that would have regulated workplace trainings on issues such as race and diversity. But the law still applies to public schools. So does another 2022 law, the Parental Rights in Education Act, which critics call "Don't Say Gay," that among other things bans instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity in kindergarten through third grade.

Some Florida teachers have said they feel as if they are looking over their shoulder, worrying about what and how they can teach.

Even before Mr. DeSantis signed the contentious laws last year restricting what can be taught, his administration rejected dozens of math textbooks for use in public school classrooms, claiming their incorporation of social-emotional learning and critical race theory. The rejection of the new A.P. African American studies course was first reported by National Review.

The course has been tried in 60 high schools across the country, including at least one in Florida. At all schools, students taking part in the course will not receive an A.P. exam score or college credit.

Florida already prohibits schools from teaching "critical race theory," an academic framework for understanding racism in the United States that was not taught in high schools but became a political rallying cry among parents and political activists on the right.

The state also does not allow educators to teach the 1619 Project, a classroom program that was developed by The New York Times and sought to reframe the country's history by putting the consequences of slavery and the contributions of Black Americans at the center of the national narrative.

Henry Louis Gates Jr., a former chair of Harvard's department of African and African American studies and director of the Hutchins Center for African & African American Research, who was a consultant to the College Board as it developed the A.P. course, said last year that he hoped the curriculum would not shy away from such debatable topics — not as a framework, but as a way of studying different theories of the African American experience.

[garbon]

Meowtf?