MTheads

If You Can Read This, Thank A Teacher Who Stayed In Class

Joanne Jacobs has several links to sites with snap shots of recent teacher protests.  Here and Here.

Why does every leftist protest devolve into demands to tax the rich and end the illegal occupation of Palestine?  Again, it's not about reforming or fixing anything.  It's about leveraging real concerns for their fascist/socialist/freakish/utopian dream world where the misfits have the power. 

Here are some placards/protest signs we ought to see at the protests.

 

I'll Clean My Room After We've Eliminated Third World Poverty.

I like to read the comments on articles in the NYTs.  And I've noticed a good number of the commentators like to use a particularly dopey argument.  It has to do with: until A happens, B doesn't exist for me. 

No subject, be it ticks on dogs to John Edwards to the perfect cocktail, can be debated without making reference to Bush's two illegal wars.  Nothing anyone does can be deemed inappropriate or illegal until we have prosecuted Bush's (no one bothers with the "President" title) two illegal wars.  We can't go after lying cheating idiotic democrat politicians until we've gone after the greedy bankers who destroyed our economy on Bush's watch who started two illegal wars. 

Republican politicians, however, are still fair game because family values are one of their issues.  Strange this using of different sets of standards by which to judge people.  It certainly makes it easier to defend one's positions.  Maybe the greedy bankers were only using a different set of standards, too.  One which favored them.  Who are we to judge?

There are idiots out there who still defend John Edwards.  They think he's being persecuted for caring too much for the little guy.  You are a little guy mentally if you think he cares one tiny bit about you.  These are the same people who think President Obama can heal with a glance.  I've read again and again people who write that they trust President Obama to always make the right choice.  No need for that part of the brain which weighs facts and makes judgements.  They can fill that flabby area instead with pro-union slogans. 

This A first, then B is the same argument used by opponents of school reform.  They argue we need to first fix our broken society before we can fix our schools. Pol Pot made a similar argument. I'll take stabs at reforming our schools within our current system of justice over their idea of perfect social justice any day.  Fewer dead people. 

Now for some entertainment!

Teachers For Justice  a scary site more concerned with Honduras and LGBTQIA/Queer issues in education than with providing a good education to poor children.  You can bet these people like a good drum circle.  

Rethinking Schools  Another favorite "social justice on the backs of brown children" site of mine.   Get some popcorn.  The site is that entertaining.  Teaching Budget Cuts to Third Graders is an actual article in the latest issue. I wanted to mock the article, but I couldn't.  It is a mockery already.  Please, think about reading it and being changed for the better. 

Stupid Pet Picture Thursday

Believe it or not, she does this on command. 

The Pursuit of Perfect Health Comes at a Price - Your Dignity

The NYT carried an article the other day about the negative impact of sitting for long periods.  I'll buy into the theory that being immobile for weeks at a stretch isn't great for you.  But what about intellectual work like sitting for hours on the computer researching which electric toothbrush is the best one for me?   The study said we could offset our sedentary time by interweaving it with short bursts of movement.  Maybe a Whack-a-Mole game could come standard with every computer desk. 

Studies like this one worry me because so many impressionable people living in places like NYC, Portland, and Seattle will rearrange their entire lives in order to put into action whatever infallible conclusions are printed in places like the NYT health pages.  Reading the comments, people have already begun to balance their computers on empty Kashi product boxes so they can read the Huffington Post while walking on their treadmills.  Next, the couchless living room!

There were commentators who couldn't wait to post that they were planning to eliminate all sitting from their lives.  And all from one study.  I worry about these guys and gals.  The ones who spend all day checking off everything they need to do in order to never die, like eating wild harvested organic dried blueberries, brushing with non-fluoride toothpaste, drinking the exact right amount of red wine, green tea, POM, NPR, yoga, natural fibers, blue tooth.  Is this not the greatest generation for the advertising industry?