32 Matching Annotations
  1. Jun 2017
    1. The United States Constitution also contains a provision called the "Religious Test Clause." It prohibits any kind of religious test for citizens to hold elected public office, or to be a public official or employee.

      This further implies religion being a personal thing that should not affect a person in society.

    2. Free Exercise Clause

      This Clause also extends to the other ways of expression, tackling "the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people to peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

    3. Establishment Clause - This clause prohibits a joining between government and religion, such as no official state religion, no preference by government of one faith over another or religion generally, no taxes to support religion, and no government support for religious worship or practice.

      This Clause is a direct statement from the Constitution itself, that there must be no state-religion relationship.

    4. These special restrictions and protections are expressed in the first sixteen words of the First Amendment

      I don't understand why is there so much arguing about religion laws, if it is right at the beginning of the U.S. constitution.

    5. Based on the unique nature of religion, the Founding Fathers in drafting the First Amendment wisely treated religion and religious beliefs differently from other forms of expression to ensure protection of religious freedom.

      This is a curious thing, due to the religion of Founding Fathers being branches of Christianity.

    1. There cannot be the slightest doubt that the First Amendment reflects the philosophy that Church and State should be separated. And, so far as interference with the 'free exercise' of religion and an

      Even though this case isn't about the separation of government and religion, it still serves as evidence to another thing discussed in the podcast, the separation of church and government.

    2. This is not to say, however, that religion has been so identified with our history and government that religious freedom is not likewise as strongly imbedded in our public and private life.

      I like how, even though the United States is a Christian country, their laws still promote religious freedom.

    3. The fact that some pupils, or, theoretically, all pupils, might be excused from attendance at the exercises Page 374 U. S. 211 does not mitigate the obligatory nature of the ceremony, for . . . Section 1516 . . . unequivocally requires the exercises to be held every school day in every school in the Commonwealth.

      This is an interesting thing to consider. Basically, even if no one attends an "obligatory" religious ceremony held in a school, it is still considered illegal.

    4. sectarian

      Definition of sectarian: relating to religious or political sects and the differences between them

    5. Edward Schempp testified at the second trial that he had considered having Roger and Donna excused from attendance at the exercises, but decided against it for several reasons, including his belief that the children's relationships with their teachers and classmates would be adversely affected. [Footnote 3]

      Besides the legal nature of the decision to prohibit the teaching of religion in schools, there is a moral reason and this is a great example. If religious practices in schools were allowed, but only "optional", that would still hurt the minorities that don't practice that religion by hurting relationships with their teachers and classmates.

    1. And he said, I believe everything in this Bible. Do you believe everything in this Bible?

      I doubt that he actually believes that if your brother dies and his wife has not given birth you shall take care of that, as said in Mark 12:19 "Master, Moses wrote unto us, If a man's brother die, and leave his wife behind him, and leave no children, that his brother should take his wife, and raise up seed unto his brother."

      Though maybe he does believe that. If that's the case, he surely doesn't believe in all of the ridiculous bible verses listed here: http://www.ranker.com/list/top-20-bible-passages-to-use-against-fundamentalists/ivana-wynn

      If he does in fact believe all of those, I'll be speechless.

    2. Have you ever celebrated Christmas, the holiday of the Christian church?

      I personally have celebrated Christmas, even though I don't believe in Jesus being the son of God. My reasoning behind this is: "Who cares if we're still gonna have a good time?"

  2. May 2017
    1. important social issues, like what to do over the weekend and who to do it with

      A little humor helps to make a good essay.

    1. Believing there’s no God means I can’t really be forgiven except by kindness and faulty memories. That’s good; it makes me want to be more thoughtful. I have to try to treat people right the first time around.

      This is a very strong statement of the pros of not believing in God, and just the knowledge of truth (which is a strong pro by itself). Not believing in Gods means you have no easy excuses to what you do and you face reality straight on.

    2. I believe that there is no God.

      Very good topic sentence to start with

  3. Feb 2017
    1. Smear the mirror. Students take turns using whipped cream tosmear parts of their reflection they don't like, e.g., the fatthey have accrued from never doing a damn thing in gym class.

      (A) I wonder what more ridiculous the author could've added to this list.

    2. Marbles. Winning others' marbles is overly capitalistic.

      (A) I wonder why is it overly capitalistic?

    3. Tag. Referring to any child as it is demeaning and hurtful.Instead of the child hollering, "You're it!" we recommend,"You're special!"

      (S) This is too much. I don't think minor things like that can hurt someone (unless someone is really mentally unstable)

      (C) The fun of games, is that they are a challenge, and that it is difficult to complete. That is why you feel special when you win. Taking the challenge away, ruins the fun.

    4. duck-duck-goose and musical chairs

      (S) Basically, they are banning all games where someone would loose.

    5. Human targets? What's tag? What's a snowball fight? What's aclose play at second?

      (A) Where's the fun?

    6. Personally, Iwish all these people would go suck their Birkenstocks.

      (C) Probably, the worst joke in all of the story.

    7. I kid you not. Dodgeball has been outlawed by some schooldistricts in New York, Texas, Utah and Virginia. Many more arethinking about it, like Cecil County, Md., where the schoolboard wants to ban any game with "human targets."

      (A) What are the thinking about?

      (P) If they outlaw dodgeball, what will happen with other games?

    8. Schools have started banning dodgeball.

      (A) Are you serious? Teacher, I think you labeled the fiction and nonfiction stories wrong. This is fiction, not nonfiction.

    9. By Rick Reilly

      (C) The author writes very similar jokes like my dad uses.

    10. The Weak Shall Inherit the Gym

      (S) The author does a great job using very sarcastic humor. I personally love it

    1. There were born to him seven sons and three daughters. 3 He possessed 7,000 sheep, 3,000 camels, 500 yoke of oxen, and 500 female donkeys, and very many servants, so that this man was the greatest of all the people of the east.

      (S) This guy must've been very rich.

      (A & P) Is he some kind of emperor or king?

  4. Jan 2017
    1. The Sun's radiation pressure and solar wind accelerate materials away from the comet's head at differing velocities according to the size and mass of the materials. Thus, relatively massive dust tails are accelerated slowly and tend to be curved. The ion tail is much less massive, and is accelerated so greatly that it appears as a nearly straight line extending away from the comet opposite the Sun. The following view of Comet West shows two distinct tails. The thin blue plasma tail is made up of gases and the broad white tail is made up of microscopic dust particles.

      As the comet approaches the sun, a part of a comet is formed which is called the tail of a comet. This tail is formed because of the incoming solar wind and radiation coming from the sun. This leads to the tail of a comet being extended like a straight line away from the sun.

    2. Comet structures are diverse and very dynamic, but they all develop a surrounding cloud of diffuse material, called a coma, that usually grows in size and brightness as the comet approaches the Sun. Usually a small, bright nucleus (less than 10 km in diameter) is visible in the middle of the coma. The coma and the nucleus together constitute the head of the comet.

      Structures of different comets often vary. They all have in common a part called a coma, which is a cloud of diffused material surrounding the comet. The coma gets larger and brighter as the comet approaches the sun. The nucleus of a comet and its coma is refered to as the head of the comet.

    3. They have highly elliptical orbits that bring them very close to the Sun and swing them deeply into space, often beyond the orbit of Pluto.

      Comets have orbitsin shape of an ellipse that goes through the solar system and around the sun. This elliptical shape orbit comes very close to the sun and often goes beyond Pluto, the smallest and furthest from the sun planet in our solar system.

  5. Dec 2016
    1. The plus operator (+)

      A very useful operator when searching for something that has different attributes. For example, you want to search for all computers on the market that have a 500gb hard drive.

    2. Use a different search engine, like Yahoo!, Bing, Startpage, or Lycos.

      A good idea is to use google scholar search to narrow results to trustworthy sources like research papers, articles, and even law cases specifically.

    3. Wonder Wheel: The Google Wonder Wheel can visually assist you as you refine your search from general to specific. Here's how to use this tool:

      A good thing to look out for when researching is to verify that the information is up to date.