Random Thoughts from Random Places

SSM Supporters are Wondering

2009-11-04T10:35:00.000-08:00

what in the hell happened in Maine last night, and they think now the best way to advance their cause is by pressuring Congress to repeal DOMA.

Naturally, what would happen in that case is there would be a resurgence of the GOP, something this country CANNOT afford, but of course the GLBT community doesn't have the political sense to see the obvious.

The plain unvarnished truth is the majority, and in many states the vast majority, of people don't want same-sex marriage. It isn't just religious people who don't want it; there are people with no religious belief at all who don't want it. I place the blame on the lack of progress in this area (outside of the courts and legislatures in a handful of states) squarely on the GLBT community.

When you're a tiny minority, and a minority ONLY because of what you do or don't do in the sack, and you have an arrogant, obnoxious attitude towards people whose support you need to get anything done--the 99 percent or so who aren't gay or lesbian--don't be a bit surprised a huge portion of that 99 percent pushes back--and hard.

I always stated SSM was a loser issue, and I have been proven right.

The Senate is About to Extend UI

2009-11-04T10:26:00.000-08:00

and the homeowner's tax credit and may do so as "early" as today:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate was poised on Wednesday to extend aid for jobless workers and broaden tax breaks for homebuyers and businesses in a bill aimed at breathing life into the U.S. economy.

After weeks of partisan bickering, the Senate voted 97 to 1 to clear a procedural hurdle and move to final passage on Wednesday or Thursday. The House of Representatives is expected to approve it quickly and send it to President Barack Obama to sign into law.

Democrats who control Congress are under pressure to get the economy moving before the November 2010 congressional elections. But they have been reluctant to assemble another massive stimulus package after February's $787 billion measure, fearing a voter backlash over record budget deficits.

Miscellaneous News

2009-11-04T10:01:00.000-08:00

Engaging in horse play will cost Rodell Vereen three years of his freedom.
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Speaking of horses, Zenyatta, who is undefeated, will be challenging the boys in this Saturday's Breeders' Cup Classic and be the first female ever to win the major race on the card.

I prefer she enter the Distaff rather than face possible defeat. She has won all of her 13 starts.

Classic winners Mine That Bird and Summer Bird are expected to run in the race.
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The Richmond, California, gang rape victim says violence is always the wrong choice.
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Because It is the WSWS,

2009-11-04T08:24:00.000-08:00

you know it isn't going to have one good word to say about Barack Obama, let alone anybody who is a Democrat.

The outfit is always harsher on Democrats than on Republicans, in case you aren't aware of that, but the reason I pick articles from there a lot is because there is some good analysis of issues when one strips the Trotskyite rhetoric.

link

The Education Wars

2009-11-04T07:41:00.000-08:00

Everybody should pay close attention to what is happening in NYC schools and Joel Klein and worry like hell what is or what will be happening in every single school district in the United States.

Running schools on a business model, whether it is New York City or Washoe County School District, is the rot that will kill the system once and for all. And that's what the privatizers want.

Ohanian:

Working in private industry, three months after receiving the highest employee rating ever, I was forced out because a new boss perceived me as a threat. Anyone who has ever worked in private industry has similar tales to tell.

Corporate politicos like Welch and Klein can pooh-pooh seniority all they want, but there is no question that years of experience season a teacher. After five years, she begins to have a real grasp of what teaching is all about, and by ten years she's probably standing on solid ground. But even then, every day is a new day with new challenges. Teaching, when practiced by a professional, is never static, never just bean counting--or test training.

Yes, some teachers "get it" more quickly and some few teachers never do get it. But to let the corporate politicos scrap the seniority system, turning teaching into one more competitive rat race for test scores would be destroy any semblance of teaching as a profession.

Here's Klein's view of teachers: Most people who came to public education think that if you show up on day one and just stay out of trouble, you can be there forever.

She writes about the UFT being scared to confront this crook, but he should be sent packing.

Obama

2009-11-04T07:18:00.000-08:00

and the Democrats in Congress had better be concerned about last night's gubernatorial elections in Virginia and New Jersey, where Republicans won big.

I was never overly confident of Obama's ability to run things. And I want to know why the hell he isn't relying on Joe Biden more on domestic policy instead of listening to Wall Street flaks like Summers and Geithner.

The other and not surprising news from last night's elections had to do with Maine's voters rejecting same-sex marriage.

Not one state where the issue has been put to a vote has same-sex marriage ever passed. It will always be this way in this country. Some have argued that because younger people tend to be more "liberal" on this issue, that eventually SSM will happen nationwide. I doubt it very seriously. Once these young people have children themselves and many turn to religion in later years, they are going to be less receptive to the issue.

Not only that, but, as I have written many times, the GLBT community has shot themselves in the foot over and over again because they have absolutely no sense at all as to how they come across to the overwhelming majority of people in this country (as many as 99 percent of the population) who aren't GLBT. They have to have the straight vote to get anything done. But the way some of these people act, you'd think they WERE 99 percent of the population. You just can't piss off millions of people and think you are going to get anywhere. The courts have helped the GLBT community on this issue, but favorable rulings also bring about a backlash with the public.

Here is a report:

Maine would have been the sixth state in the country to allow gay and lesbian couples to marry, but instead becomes the 31st state to oppose the unions in a popular vote.

With 87 percent of precincts reporting as of 2 a.m. today, gay marriage opponents claimed 53 percent of the vote to supporters' 47 percent.

This Could Be Called

2009-11-03T19:39:00.000-08:00

"Be Careful What You Wish For":

Watch 8. The Twilight Zone - Time Enough At Last in Entertainment | View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com

Great episode, but Bemis should have had plastic lenses or laser treatment.

Political Bits

2009-11-03T18:33:00.000-08:00

A Republican has won the Virginia governorship tonight.

NJ is still too close to call.

Updated: A Republican won there, too.

The Education Wars III

2009-11-03T18:11:00.001-08:00

Another teacher wins a case, and of course the asshole school board is going to appeal:

A retired city school teacher who alleged she was forced to retire after blowing the whistle on testing improprieties at the elementary-middle school where she worked has been awarded $293,000 by a Baltimore Circuit Court jury.

The award for Joyce V. Dunston was reduced to $210,000 because of a limit. The defendant, the city school board, is expected to appeal the decision, according to Howard J. Needle, an attorney representing Dunston. The school system had no comment about the verdict delivered Friday.

"Friday made me feel it is good to be an American. I got an opportunity for other citizens to hear what goes on in city schools. I felt as though I did justice to the school kids in the city," said Dunston, a teacher for 37 years.

Dunston, 62, alleged that during the 2006-2007 school year, teachers at Rognel Heights Elementary/Middle School were told by their instructional support staff to use improper and unethical testing procedures, including giving students test questions in advance.

Being ethical is surely the way to ruin your teaching career.

The Education Wars II

2009-11-03T13:29:00.000-08:00

I wish I had known about filing a federal civil rights lawsuit against Washoe County School District when one of my principals wanted me to illegally put all of my students on alternate testing, regardless of their eligibility, so as to not drag down the schoolwide test scores. I probably would have prevailed in court, as this woman ultimately did:

A California special education teacher has won a suit for retaliation because she spoke out about the limited services provided to her special education students.

According to an article in Disability Scoop, Susan Barker was a resource specialist in Riverside, Calif. in 2005 when she raised red flags about the limited services provided to students with disabilities in the school district and that the school district was "non-compliant to federal and state laws".

She made a formal complaint to the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights. At that time, she says, her superiors in the school district began to retaliate and made the work environment "intolerable".

Instead, my union and its attorneys, both of which KNEW about this principal's violations, decided to cover up for the son of a bitch and not advise me to seek legal help when I could have filed a lawsuit.

The Education Wars

2009-11-03T11:09:00.000-08:00

I have written here WCSD superintendent Heath Morrison was bad news.

In the end, he is going to go out of his way to shitcan teachers, especially those who cost more money.

If he's worried about "underperforming" people in public schools, he better be looking at the crooks in the green house.

Obituaries

2009-11-03T10:58:00.000-08:00

Famed anthropologist Claude Levi-Strauss has died prematurely at the age of 100:

A powerful thinker, he was a profound influence even on his critics, of whom there were many. There has been no comparable successor to him in France. And his writing — a mixture of the pedantic and the poetic, full of daring juxtapositions, intricate argument and elaborate metaphors — resembles little that had come before in anthropology.

“People realize he is one of the great intellectual heroes of the 20th century,” Philippe Descola, the chairman of the anthropology department at the Collège de France, said last November in an interview with The New York Times on the centenary of Mr. Levi-Strauss’s birth. Mr. Lévi-Strauss was so revered that at least 25 countries celebrated his 100th birthday.

An imposing legacy is “Mythologiques,” Mr. Lévi-Strauss’s four-volume work about the structure of native mythology in the Americas, published from 1964 to 1971. The volumes — “The Raw and the Cooked,” “From Honey to Ashes,” “The Origin of Table Manners” and “The Naked Man” — challenge the reader with their almost obsessive interweaving of theme and detail. They are nothing less than an interpretation of the world, shaped by analysis of several hundred myths of little-known tribes and traditions.

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Qian Xuesen, considered the "father" of China's space program, which surprises me it even exists, also died at a premature age. He was 98.

He was as important in this country as he was in China.
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Although Mayor Michael Bloomberg

2009-11-03T09:13:00.001-08:00

of New York has been nothing but a disaster, especially when it comes to the school system in that city, he will probably get himself re-elected.

Money buys everything, it seems, except a conscience.

GOP Return?

2009-11-03T08:40:00.000-08:00

Who the heck is Nick Ayers, and should Democrats worry at all about him?

They better be worried about Obama, who, if he doesn't get his act together like yesterday, will wind up being a one-term president because he doesn't have his priorities straight.

H1N1

2009-11-03T08:07:00.000-08:00

While everybody in the country is worried they will come down sick with the H1N1 illness, Wal-Mart doesn't seem to mind at all its workers are frequently coming to work ill and thus spreading the illness far and wide.

After all, these workers are afraid they will lose money or even their jobs if they do the right thing. With ten or twenty people lined up to take their jobs, Wal-Mart can afford to treat them like dirt.

Miscellaneous News

2009-11-02T19:47:00.000-08:00

A jerk doctor who thought he ruled the road and mowed down two bicyclists is going to be doing some prison time.

The two cyclists hit were injured seriously enough that one of them rarely rides his bike anymore.

A physician accused of deliberately injuring two cyclists by slamming on his car's brakes on a narrow Brentwood road was convicted Monday of mayhem, assault with a deadly weapon and other serious criminal charges.

Dr. Christopher Thompson, 60, slumped forward and held his face in his hands after the verdicts were announced in a courtroom packed mostly with supporters and cyclists.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Mary Stone, who prosecuted the case, asked for Thompson to be jailed immediately, calling him a flight risk and a safety threat to cyclists.

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I found this article about an 11-year-old girl giving birth on her wedding day absolutely tragic and disgusting--I don't care what cultural norms there are, either.

This one isn't the youngest mother in medical history, either.

More from the Senate on EUI

2009-11-02T16:34:00.000-08:00

The body is moving ever so closer to final passage of the bill, which is expected by the end of the week.

Then I can get a move on with moving out of here, provided I have the ambition to do so:

The vote on the unemployment bill was 85-2. That is well above the 60 needed to limit amendments and move the legislation toward a final vote, which is likely later this week.

The legislation, expected to win quick passage in the House once the Senate acts, contains a trio of measures backed by the administration to prevent the fragile economic recovery from backsliding and help tide people over until companies start hiring again.

_It provides up to 14 additional weeks of unemployment insurance benefits to out-of-work people whose benefits are running out. The jobless in 27 states where the unemployment rate is at 8.5 percent or above will get six weeks on top of that. Supporters argue that, despite signs of economic recovery, the unemployment rate, now at 9.8 percent, continues to inch up and 7,000 people a day are exhausting benefits.
Some 15 million unemployed are chasing 3 million jobs, said Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont. Unemployment insurance "is a lifeline that many families and communities continue to need just to keep afloat."

The rest of the story is here.

Those Two New Biographies

2009-11-02T15:59:00.000-08:00

of crackpot writer Ayn Rand might be worth reading. She was one screwed up individual who unfortunately has had too much influence on one political party and thus screwing up the body politic.

One almost feels sorry for her. The operative word, of course, is "almost":

Rand had become addicted to amphetamines while writing The Fountainhead, and her natural paranoia and aggression were becoming more extreme as they pumped though her veins. Anybody in her circle who disagreed with her was subjected to a show trial in front of the whole group in which they would be required to repent or face expulsion. Her secretary, Barbara Weiss, said: "I came to look on her as a killer of people." The workings of her cult exposed the hollowness of Rand's claims to venerate free thinking and individualism. Her message was, think freely, as long as it leads you into total agreement with me.

In the end, Rand was destroyed by her own dogmas. She fell in love with a young follower called Nathaniel Branden and had a decades-long affair with him. He became the cult's No. 2, and she named him as her "intellectual heir"—until he admitted he had fallen in love with a 23-year-old woman. As Burns explains, Rand's philosophy "taught that sex was never physical; it was always inspired by a deeper recognition of shared values, a sense that the other embodied the highest human achievement." So to be sexually rejected by Branden meant he was rejecting her ideas, her philosophy, her entire person. She screamed: "You have rejected me? You have dared to reject me? Me, your highest value?"

She never really recovered. We all become weak at some point in our lives, so a thinker who despises weakness will end up despising herself. In her 70s Rand found herself dying of lung cancer, after insisting that her followers smoke because it symbolized "man's victory over fire" and the studies showing it caused lung cancer were Communist propaganda. By then she had driven almost everyone away. In 1982, she died alone in her apartment with only a hired nurse at her side. If her philosophy is right—if the only human relationships worth having are based on the exchange of dollars—this was a happy and victorious death. Did even she believe it in the end?

What a pathetic mess.

The Education Wars IV

2009-11-02T12:10:00.000-08:00

Tying standardized test scores to teacher "evaluations" and pay is a bunch of ignorant tripe. As the piece notes, many teachers teach subjects not subject to standardized testing such as music, art, physical education, and special education.

More important, though, is the fact few students take the standardized tests that seriously. They tend to rush through the tests, checking off or bubbling in any old answer.

As long as students don't take the tests seriously, and they never will, the rest of the country shouldn't, either.

The Education Wars III

2009-11-02T11:49:00.000-08:00

Some writer who has a little bit of a clue about education believes colleges need to treat would-be educators with respect, and so forth, so they can have their souls and their careers slaughtered when they go into the shithole called public education.

I suggest this naive author actually go out and talk to real teachers who have to put up with the shit school district administrators pull, and then, once the corruption and workplace abuse is made public, nobody in his or her right mind would go into the field.

As long as teachers are a dime a dozen, things won't change in education. They will only get worse.

The Stimulus Bill

2009-11-02T08:30:00.001-08:00

helped stop the economy from going into further free fall, but it hasn't gone anywhere far enough to combat the real problem, and that's increased unemployment.

The federal government can't afford to ignore the problem.

The Education Wars II

2009-11-02T07:56:00.000-08:00

If D.C. "chancellor" (read dictator) Michelle Rhee weren't such an unqualified, blithering incompetent, maybe the school system there wouldn't be in the shitter further than it was before she arrived.

If you are going to treat teachers like shit and not care less about educational stability for the kids, you shouldn't be running a school system.

Susan Ohanian excerpted some of the comments, so I thought I'd include them here:

A leader gets those who look up to them to follow. Our schools are not military institutions that just need a good hard general to crack down on those who will not follow blindly. Schools are human organizations where trust, camaraderie, and mutual respect get human results. Michelle Rhee is the wrong person for a truly human enterprise.
11/1/2009 11:59:18 PM
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Staticvars:

You're another naive, blind Rhee-supporter, but it's not necessarily your fault.

She has raised cronyism at DCPS to a level not seen in prior administrations. She has fired almost everyone at Central Office with institutional knowledge who were excellent at their jobs, so she could put people in place loyal to (or fearful of) her who would not question her about her wrongdoing (she also is the most autocratic leader of the school yet). As a result, central office is staffed by over-paid novices (the salaries she pays these people without prior experience are alarming, yet teachers, paid far less on average, are being unfairly slandered by her and her likewise supercilious supporters, as if the failures and ineffectiveness of DCPS is their fault alone). Worse, central office is run no better, as her cronies make more mistakes and add to inefficiency far more than the people she fired. Unfortunately, this aspect of her management remains a dirty little secret that only insiders know. The local newspapers won't touch it. That's why I understand that your ignorance about Rhee is really not your fault.

I wanted desperately to believe in Rhee too. As a special education teacher who fought frustration ever since I joined DCPS in 2005, I voted for the Mayor solely based on his promise to fix the schools. Also, as a DC Teaching Fellow/New Teacher Project recruit, I hailed his appointment of Rhee. Nonetheless,I had to join the army of dissenters when it became impossible to ignore Rhee's hypocrisy and laziness (yes, laziness, because she is working from Janey's curriculum, Janey's Master plan, and an ideology borne out of her cliquish "Teach for America/New Teacher Project/New Leader for New Schools" arrogance, which has a "my way or the highway" ring to it). Moreover, she does not have nearly as many responsibilities on her plate as her predecessors did. Fenty took away facilities matters from her and gave it to Alan Lew, the Technology department was meshed with the city's, the curriculum was already in place, thanks to Dr. Janey, and certification was assumed by the Office of the State Superintendent of Education, OSSE. All of these matters were managed by her predecessor. Yet, what has indolent Rhee done with her free time? She has roamed the nation bad mouthing teachers and well-meaning people, who are nonetheless ignorant of education, have drunk her kool-aid and fallen victims to her indoctrination.

Trust me, if you really care about D.C. and its children, you too will come to see the light about Rhee and realize that she is not who she purports to be.
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The call for Mr.Fenty to end the Council/Rhee bickering is ridiculous. Mr.Fenty has neither the skill nor the motivation to enter into this fray. The man can hardly put together a coherent sentence. Mr.Fenty was never known as a conciliator. Remember he is the original loose cannon of the Council. To ask him to mediate anything is laughable.
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Borrowing from Paul Hollander’s commentary today (link below) on the fall of communism, this is how DC school Chancellor Michelle Rhee’s oppressive brand of school reform could end – hopefully soon:

“[Rhee’s School Reform] collapsed for many reasons, including the economic inefficiency…and pervasive and mendacious propaganda, which amounted to the routine misrepresentation of reality highlighting the gap between theory and practice, and promise and fulfillment.”

“The political will of [City Council supporters] …diminished over time -- in part because of …revelations about …crimes but also because of their own experiences of the system's flaws.”

“The failure of [Rhee’s brand of school reform] confirms that humans motivated by lofty ideals are capable of inflicting great suffering with a clear conscience.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/01/AR2009110101702.html
11/2/2009 7:59:28 AM
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Keep in mind here:
Ms Rhee has never attended a day of public school in her life, or taught in one, or guided a child through one. [Actually Rhee did "teach," but as a Teach for America person for two years--hardly qualified to run any school district.]

Private schools, no matter how "open" or inclusive, choose their students, and the students or parents choose them. That, in and of itself creates a completely different culture from a public school which is obligated by law to accept anyone who finds their way in the door, and do what they can to teach them. Certain things in every business can only be learned in the trenches. I worked a number of years in a retail pharmacy. You don't know what you are doing until you have been at the counter with a winter storm warning posted.

Ms Rhee, has also never managed a large, politically charged organization in a volatile environment before.

I don't doubt her intention for a nanosecond. She is, however trying to manage something that can't be managed by chart and graph.
11/2/2009 8:32:32 AM
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When Rhee mouths the line she's "doing what's best for the kids, she is simply parroting a new slogan created in ultra-conservative think tanks. She's not alone. Joel Klein is doing it in New York City, Paul Vallas is doing it in New Orleans, in fact, every graduate of the Broad Center for Superintendents is singing the same tune. There isn't an ounce of sincerity in one of them, especially Rhee! They are all ideologues and functionaries who collect fat paychecks to do as Bill Gates, Michael Bloomberg, Jeb Bush and other super-rich men instruct them.

These think tanks are places like the Hoover Institute where neoliberals crawl around considering how unions, public schools and Social Security can be destroyed and the US can be transformed into a vast slave labor camp.

Since the DCPS is overwhelmingly populated with African-American children and other children of color, Ms. Rhee's comment implies that until she came along, no one cared for these children. No one cared, not their parents, not their teachers, not the men and women who represent their parents in political office, no one before Michelle of Arc.

Seems like a fair question next time you see her, Chairman Gray. Ask Ms. Rhee if she really believes that she cares about Black children more than you do. Ask her to go back in her life and cite concrete and demonstrable acts that prove her anti-racist credentials and superior wisdom on these matters.
11/2/2009 9:10:32 AM
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More on oppressive regimes that do great damage before their ultimate failure - from Vscribe, DCPS refugee and Paul Hollander, communist refugee.

Vscribe: “[Rhee] has raised cronyism at DCPS to a level not seen in prior administrations. She has fired almost everyone at Central Office with institutional knowledge who were excellent at their jobs, so she could put people in place loyal to (or fearful of) her who would not question her about her wrongdoing.

“[Teachers] are being unfairly slandered by her and her likewise supercilious supporters, as if the failures and ineffectiveness of DCPS is their fault alone.”

“She has roamed the nation bad mouthing teachers….”

Hollander: “Political violence under communism had an idealistic origin and a cleansing, purifying objective. Those persecuted and killed were defined as politically and morally corrupt and a danger to a superior social system.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/01/AR2009110101702.html
11/2/2009 9:21:05 AM
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Rhee is a total disaster but ideal for those with the Eli Broad bent. In any case, she's gotta go.

The Education Wars

2009-11-02T07:49:00.000-08:00

Gee, the "reformers" were so big on "standards" for graduation that more than a few students who met all the requirements for graduation, but couldn't pass the "competency" tests, were denied diplomas and thus couldn't get decent jobs or go to college.

GEDs aren't that highly regarded, but at least one school system is trying to give diplomas "retroactively" to students who were screwed out of them.

Thank God I received my diploma back in the days before "competency exams" were instituted.

Supposedly the U.S. Senate

2009-11-02T07:24:00.000-08:00

will take up EUI and homeowner's tax credit legislation "this week" after weeks upon weeks of haggling when these sons of bitches KNEW as early as July the extended benefits would run out:

Call it a mini-stimulus.

Senate Democrats say they finally have their procedural ducks in a row to pass an extension of unemployment benefits as well as some tax breaks that backers hope will help the economy.

After weeks of delays due to a fight with Republicans over amendments, Senator Harry Reid, the Nevada Democrat and majority leader, said he expects the Senate this week to approve an extra 14 weeks of unemployment aid for those who have exhausted their benefits. People out of work in states where the unemployment rate is more than 8.5 percent would get up to 20 weeks.

“We have a million people – one million people – who are eligible for this,” Mr. Reid said.

Dog Picture of the Day

2009-11-01T19:20:00.000-08:00