Let The Stress Begin!

Last night I heard from the department chair in my master's program.  Crap is getting real now.

Over the past 4 1/2 years I've taken one graduate course per semester; next semester will be my 10th class, my 30th unit, and then end of my program.  Rather than writing a thesis, though, I have to take a cumulative final exam over 6 of the 8 math classes I took as part of the program (the other two classes were education classes).  I got to choose which 6 classes to be tested on--yay me.

Last night the department chair sent me review topics for 4 of those classes.  The other two were taught by an instructor who died in a car accident about a year ago, so the instructions I was given for those two courses was "study the tests you took in those classes"--in other words, review those classes in their entirety!  By the way, the review topics for just those 4 classes took two typed pages.

So next semester I'll be teaching as well as devising new lesson plans for all the classes I teach (that takes time, if you want quality education for your kids) because we got new curricula this year.  I'll also be taking my 10th class--a math class, not an education class!--and studying math I've learned over the past 5 years in order to prepare for my cumulative exam.  And I'll take this cumulative exam a few weeks before I finish the 10th class, and that 10th class will be covered on the cumulative exam!

So yes, the stress curve has taken a jump.  Crap is getting real now.

The Fun of Teaching Probability and Statistics

There are so many interesting real-world examples from which to draw!

The last chapter my students studied was about probability, and the current chapter is on the normal curve.  I've been writing quiz and test questions (I don't really like using the "test bank" that comes with our adopted curriculum materials) recently and having fun. 

For example, last week I spent a lot of time sick in bed--playing Yahtzee on my phone :)  As I played I realized that I was constantly calculating expected values, probabilities, etc., in my head, and that some of these would make excellent quiz and test questions.  But that was last chapter's material.  No problem--my bonus question on each chapter test relates to last chapter's material, to keep it current in the students' minds.  I could use a Yahtzee question as a bonus question for this chapter's test!  Example:  I need 4 5's in order to score 63 points on the left (of the Yahtzee scorepad) and thus earn the 35 point bonus.  On my first roll I got two 5's and on my 2nd roll I got one 5.  What is the probability of getting 1 or 2 5's on my 3rd and final roll?  Example:  On my first roll I got a 23345. I keep the 2345 and roll the remaining die.  What is the probability of getting a 1 or a 6 on either of my next two rolls, thus getting a "large straight"?

Today we had 3 2-hour block periods (don't ask), and I spent about 20 minutes each period today teaching my students how to play Yahtzee.  My rationale was simple:  if they understood how to play the game, they'll be able to better understand what I'm asking on their test.  They'll be able to devote all their brain power to calculating the probabilities rather than trying to figure out exactly what I'm asking.  In another couple years I'll probably have to do that for playing cards, too, as entirely too many students today don't know what comprises a standard deck of cards (and hence have difficulty understanding probability questions about drawing from a deck of cards). 

My current master's class is on testing/measurement/assessment, and one of the last chapters in our book was about standardized tests.  We read about stanines, deciles, having a score in the xth percentile, etc.  Since standardized tests mostly assume a normal distribution of scores, questions about stanines, deciles, etc., are great questions for our current chapter on the normal curve.  Throw in a little SAT score information gleaned from the College Board and you have a smorgasbord of questions that can be asked, all of which have some applicability to the students themselves.  Example:  given that the average SAT math score is such-and-such with a standard deviation of this-and-that, what is the minimum score that would place a student in the top decile?  Example:  what fraction of test scores are in the 5th stanine?

If you're creative enough and thoughtful enough, writing test questions can be quite enjoyable.

In Solidarity With My Gay Brothers and Sisters...

...I recommend that we petition the City and County of San Francisco to rename Castro Street and the neighborhood known as The Castro.  After all, how can a gay enclave share a name with a notorious homophobe?

Fidel Castro was many things: a revolutionary, a communist, a garrulous orator. Amid the fawning encomia released upon his long-overdue death at the age of 90, it should never be forgotten that he was also an oppressor, torturer, and murderer of gay people.

“We would never come to believe that a homosexual could embody the conditions and requirements of conduct that would enable us to consider him a true revolutionary, a true communist militant,” Castro told an interviewer in 1965. “A deviation of that nature clashes with the concept we have of what a militant communist should be.”

In the eyes of Castro and his revolutionary comrade Che Guevara—who frequently referred to gay men as maricones, “faggots”—homosexuality was inherently counterrevolutionary, a bourgeois decadence. To a traditional Latin American machismo that viewed gayness pejoratively, they married an ideological fixation treating it as politically undesirable...

Though the Cuban regime closed down the UMAPs in the late 1960s, it continued to repress gay men as ideologically subversive elements. Openly homosexual people were prevented from joining the Communist Party and fired from their jobs. One of the country’s most distinguished writers, Reinaldo Arenas, recounted the prison experience he and countless other gay men endured in his memoir Before Night Falls. “It was a sweltering place without a bathroom,” he wrote. “Gays were not treated like human beings, they were treated like beasts. They were the last ones to come out for meals, so we saw them walk by, and the most insignificant incident was an excuse to beat them mercilessly.”

Gays comprised a significant portion of the 125,000 Cubans (“worms,” in Fidel Castro’s words) permitted to leave the island for the United States as part of the 1980 Mariel Boatlift.

You know, just in case you know of some leftie who worships this now-dead human piece of excrement.

The Final Push

I've been kind of a slacker in my master's course the last couple weeks.  In my defense, though, I had worked ahead and was all caught up, and then some!

I have 4 short assignments, and one longer assignment, that are due by next Sunday.  I thought I'd better get started on them so I decided to tackle the longer assignment, which is a peer evaluation of a classmate's project.  Turns out, though, that she posted the wrong assignment, leaving me with nothing to evaluate.  I emailed both her and the instructor, and hope this will get fixed pronto.  (I have a comment I'm dying to make about this, but I'm not going to.  Maybe someday.  It's so hard not to!)

Instead I knocked out two of the smaller assignments.  I'm working late tomorrow and then going to my mother's house for dinner, so I doubt I'll do anything tomorrow (except send another email if the situation above still hasn't been corrected).  I can finish the other two assignments on Tuesday.  That leaves only Wednesday and Thursday to do the big assignment, because I don't want to be working on it during the weekend!  Ugh!

Now I'm going to go chug some more cough syrup and relax the rest of the evening, knowing I have to be healthy enough to go back to work tomorrow.

Professor Watch List

Is your professor keening over Castro's death?  Trashing capitalism, dead white men, and/or the Constitution?  Who you gonna call?  Not Ghostbusters:

Conservative student organization, Turning Point USA, has released a new project called the Professor WatchList. The website enables students and parents to research professors that have a history of promoting a radical liberal agenda in their classrooms...

(Project founder) Charlie Kirk told Independent Journal Review the site is merely a tool for students to help them make informed choices. Kirk writes:

“Alumni, donors, parents, and students deserve to know the biases that exist in our universities. This is an awareness tool, not calling for termination or action. We simply seek to educate the public on the radical behavior that has taken over our colleges and universities.”

You support transparency, don't you?

Break So Far, and Thoughts on Christmas

As no one brought up politics yesterday, what could have been a contentious family dinner was instead rather enjoyable :)

My near-death illness seems to be abating, but has instead left me with an itchy-as-heck rash on my neck and cheek.  Is this what growing old is like, mystery illnesses for no good reason?

I put up my Christmas tree this morning, and several minutes ago finished putting up my Christmas decorations.  I have two totes of Christmas decorations and paraphernalia but leave one of them entirely untouched.  I've decided which decorations I like a lot and which I can do without, and thus the two totes.  And of course, I've switched out all the candles in the house to the Christmas scents.

I don't really have a theme when it comes to decorations.  There's no unifying style, just random decorations here and there.  But it satisfies me, I like what I see.

My Christmas tree got a new ornament this year, from Calgary.  My tree is covered with ornaments from places I've been, thus allowing me to relive my past vacations each year when I decorate.  My tree, too, is a hodge-podge of ornamental styles, from my Star Trek (and one Battlestar Galactica) ornaments to military themed ones to vacations ones, and a few actual Christmas ones thrown in for good measure.  It may be odd but it is, however, my tree, and it brings me great joy.

For the first time in a couple years I've put my grandparents' manger scene out on my front porch.  I'm not plugging in the lights, but it's out on the porch--where it was every Christmas while I was growing up.

My mother and I, veterans both, went to Applebee's on Veteran's Day and received $5-off-your-next-visit cards that expire on Sunday.  Since only one card per table per visit can be used, I think we'll do appetizers there the next couple days to use our cards without spending too much money.

Did I mention that I buy presents all year long, and therefore I'm almost done with my Christmas shopping?  Well, I do, and I am.  That means I can go to the stores and the malls and just absorb the season without the anxiety of "having" to buy somebody something.

I started playing the Christmas CD's today.  I don't think I have one with my favorite Christmas carol, O Come All Ye Faithful, but I play what I have.  I should go find a CD of chorale music--including O Come All Ye Faithful and Hark The Herald Angels Sing.  The two "Christmas" songs I despise the most are Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer and that stupid Christmas Shoes song.  Seriously, a dying mother gets people in the Christmas spirit?  Seriously?

How long can I sit on the couch and watch the lights sparkle on my tree?  A long time, I'd wager to guess.  It can be so hypnotic.

Update, 12/15/16:  I've heard neither the reindeer song *nor* the shoes song this entire Christmas season!  Glory to God in the highest!

Agency Fee Rebate

What a nice Thanksgiving gift!  Today in the mail I received my agency fee rebate check from the CTA.  If you don't know what that means, let me explain.

With regards to union membership, there are two types of states:  "right to work" states, wherein an employee has a right to work without being required to pay a union, and "fair share" states, where employees are required to pay a union.  Twenty-six states are "right to work" states, and of course California isn't one of them.  As a result, I'm required to pay a union as a condition of my employment.  In fact, not paying a union is about the only thing a teacher could do that would cause the teachers union to push for dismissal.

We all learned about "closed shops" back in high school history class, places where union membership was required as a condition of employment (BTW, closed shops were put in place to keep blacks from working, but that's yet another sordid detail from union history--that, and the violence).  Closed shops are now illegal in the United States.  As a result, I'm required to pay a union to "represent" me but I'm not required to be a union member.

Due to a few court cases, though, I'm only required to pay for those activities that a supposedly impartial arbiter (paid for by the union) determines are directly related to collective bargaining and organizing.  Each year I have to send a certified letter to the CTA requesting my refund, and each year they send it (why I only have to resign once, but have to request the money each year, is a situation that exceeds my own logic).  Usually I get somewhat over $300 of my over $1000 a year in union dues refunded to me.

This being an election year, though, my rebate check was slightly over $400.  Take a look at the percentages below.  The national teachers union spent almost 5/8 of its money on activities not related to collective bargaining (e.g., political donations), and the state and local unions spent about a third of their money on such activities:

Keep these percentages in mind when you hear unions and other lefties wanting to overturn the Citizens United case!

Anyway, if you're a California teacher and would like to learn more about your rights regarding union membership (or non-membership, if that is your choice), visit the web site of the California Teachers Empowerment Network.

Perspective on Nazis

I'm not a fan of completely lifting someone else's posts and putting them here at RotLC, but what could I say that would improve on this:

PERSPECTIVE: An Awful Lot of Media Coverage for About 200 Losers Getting Together.
Jim Geraghty:

It is not that hard to gather a couple dozen or couple hundred people together for just about any idea or concept, no matter how obscure or outlandish. About 80 Abraham and Mary Todd Lincoln presenters – don’t call them “impersonators!” – gathered for their convention in Vandalia, Illinois. The white nationalists couldn’t gather as big a crowd as the 300 mermaids and mermen at “MerFest” in Cary, North Carolina last year. Of course, all of these gatherings shrink in comparison to “BronyCon”; about 7,000 grown adults attended the last convention for My Little Pony fans. (You may find that a completely different sign of the Apocalypse.)

Yet from the headlines, you would think that this was some sort of burgeoning mass movement, marching through the streets and taking over the nation’s capital.

It takes a lot of effort to establish a narrative.
UPDATE (FROM GLENN): Seen on Facebook:

Progressives on 9/12: ‘Just because some Islamics are terrorists, doesn’t mean all Islamics are terrorists! It’s not okay to just walk up and assault them!’

Progressives on 11/9: ‘Some Trump supporters are Nazis so Trump and all his supporters are NAZIS! Just walk up and assault them!’

Yeah, pretty much.

When even Joy Behar says that we shouldn't be paying so much media attention to these people, maybe you lefties should realize that no one likes Nazis.  Maybe you should learn a little something about the right, something beyond your wildest evil fantasies about what we're like.  Red herrings and straw men don't make for a satisfying intellectual meal.

White Privilege

Would You Want This Guy Teaching Your Kid?

Seriously.  Watch this kid.  Listen to him.

And he goes to a multi-tens-of-thousands-of-dollars-a-year school.  And he wants to be a teacher.  *sigh*

I'm reminded of this Amherst freshman:

He tutors "underprivileged" kids so he's a saint, but can't respond to D'Souza's point that "This college is privilege!"  (If you don't want to watch the whole thing, start at 8:35)

It's Hard *Not* To Write About How Bat**** Insane the American Left Is Acting

I'll cut/paste this, whole cloth, from Instapundit:

CHARLIE MARTIN: The Hysterical Left Is Making NeverTrumpers Reconsider.

I’ve got to say: if you’re trying to make a case against Trump via trying to reverse the election by mob rule, by threats of violence against electors, and by openly planning an insurrection — er, “disruption”?

Then you’re making one hell of a good case that Trump is less of a threat to democracy than his opponents.

Yes.

I'd rather write about something else, but let's face it, the left's complete and total meltdown is a big deal.  Seriously, harassing electors at their homes, and publishing their names and addresses?  Way to win friends and influence people, lefties.

Thanksgiving Break, Day 1

I don't consider the weekends to be part of break time :-)

This morning I went to the DMV to pick up my personalized license plates.  I had an appointment, walked in a few minutes early, and there was no line.  Checked in and was given a number, and before I could even sit down, my number was called. 

Plates look good on my pickup :-)

I was in a meeting all day on Friday, so my substitute was left with the task of giving quizzes in each of my 5 classes.  I brought them home to grade.  Knocked out one class today, my plan is to do a class a day until they're all graded.

I haven't watched any NFL this season because the league (not just the idiot from the 49ers) has been taking an anti-American stance.  A friend asked me to meet him at a restaurant tonight to watch the game, though, and since we don't see each other often at all, I'll suspend my personal boycott tonight.

That will pretty much be my Monday.

Canadian Coins Captivate

I think American coins are ugly.  American currency is, too.

It wasn't always this way.  It wasn't until 1909 that we first started putting dead presidents on our coins, for example.  Until then, any humans on our coins were either representations of Lady Liberty or were Native Americans. I want to remove all dead presidents from our coins.

Washington and Lincoln made appearances on our paper money in the 1800s, and later even non-presidents did:  Hamilton, Lincoln, and Chase, for example.  But our paper money wasn't always so ugly.  Even though it's long been green and black, we used to have beautiful images on our currency.  This "educational series" note is one of the most famous and most beautiful.  And though that note has Martha and George on the reverse, I'd still be all for removing George, Abe, et al., from our currency.

Even our commemorative coins today are uninspiring, which is unfortunate given their themes.

There are plenty of countries around the world that produce beautiful coins.  If you want to see some genuine outside-the-box thinking on coins, though, you need look no further than to our friend to the north, Canada.

Just browsing the Royal Canadian Mint's web site turned up these three commemorative coin subjects:  Star Trek, DC Comics, and Star Wars.  Note that these are actual commemorative legal tender coins, not coin-like medals made by a private mint.

Now don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that our coins should be about pop culture.  But travel the world and you'll see all sorts of representations on even circulating coins, from animals, to sports (really!), to plants, to national crests and symbols, to historical representations, to landmarks, etc.  And foreign currency gets even more creative.  Have you ever seen, or felt, Australia's polymer, not paper, notes?  Imagine trying to counterfeit a note with a see-through spot on it!

Money is a tangible ambassador for its country of origin.  Ours is less than satisfactory.  Perhaps I should run a series of posts with pictures of very cool coins and currency that I have collected over the decades....

The Union Voting Guide

Here's a chart from the American Enterprise Institute showing voting patterns of union households in each presidential election since 1972:

click to enlarge

Do union voting guides look like that?  Are they at all representative of the obvious ideological diversity of union members?  No, I didn't think so, either.

Kinda Sorta A Victory For Sanity

If you just read the headline, this sounds like a victory for the forces of sanity against the delicate dispositions of the snowflake brigade:

Oberlin College has refused to suspend failing grades this semester despite requests for relief from students who skipped classes and missed study time to protest recent deaths at the hands of police across the nation.

A student petition, signed by more than 1,300, called for the college to institute a "no-fail mercy period" that would eliminate all failing grades and make a C the lowest possible grade a student could receive, the student newspaper reported.

President Marvin Krislov responded with an email to students on Sunday, saying he and the college's deans opted not to grant the reprieve after giving the request serious consideration.

Then you read the next sentence:

"We are in firm agreement that suspending grading protocols is not the way to achieve our shared goal of ensuring that students have every opportunity and resource to succeed," he wrote.

I would prefer something along the lines of "Choices have consequences.  Put on your big kid undies and face the day."  But no:

"To reiterate: we are firmly committed to supporting students in their health, well- being, and academic success," Krislov wrote.

Too squishy for me.

Unprofessional

This isn't the right way to address a colleague whose opinions you think are wrong:

Julie Mumma says criminal defense attorneys like her have won justice for the wrongly accused and changed unfair laws.

Former Sacramento County sheriff’s deputy Jimmy Martinez contends criminal defendants are usually guilty and that their attorneys frequently lie in the courtroom.

The clash of ideas between the two Sacramento State criminal justice professors came to a head last month when Mumma took her students to Martinez’s Criminal Justice I class in Solano Hall and demanded a debate.

Mumma “hijacked my class,” said Martinez, recounting the morning his colleague came with her students to challenge him.

“I’m tired of his fiery rhetoric,” Mumma said. “I’m not opposed to conservative ideas, but I want to hear those ideas challenged, debated and discussed.”

Both professors said they have had positive feedback from their students about the rare classroom confrontation. As the judicial system and law enforcement face increasing scrutiny, the impromptu faceoff has prompted efforts to create a series of discussions among criminal justice professionals with divergent views.

Somehow, I have to believe that if the "conservative" instructor barged in to the "liberal" instructor's class and hijacked it, the thrust of the article would have been the denial of academic freedom, the hatred in Donald Trump-like views, and perhaps even something about the patriarchy.  We'd also probably be reading about the university president, a released statement therefrom, and potential disciplinary measures in the offing.

The Illusion of California

I'm told--often by people whose paychecks come from a government entity--that California is doing fine.  The economy is great, Governor Brown has Made California Golden Again, and unicorns are farting gold dust again.  You'll pardon me if I'm somewhat skeptical.

I came across these two articles today, the juxtaposition of which shows you just how far down the track to Crazytown my home state has gone.

First, utopia:

Democrats have dominated all branches of California’s government since 2011, when Jerry Brown succeeded Arnold Schwarzenegger as governor. With the largest economy in the U.S. and the sixth-largest in the world, the state enjoys greater independence from Washington than most. It was the first state to adopt its own vehicle emissions standards, in 2002. In 2012, California created the only state-level cap-and-trade system for limiting greenhouse gas emissions after Republicans in Congress rejected a national model. California, which has more undocumented immigrants than any other state, offers them driver’s licenses as well as financial aid for college. It has imposed some of the country’s strictest background checks on firearms purchases. It’s one of three states to provide paid family and medical leave and one of five that require employers to offer paid sick leave. “This is unlike anything we’ve seen in modern political history,” says de León. “We’re going to do everything in our power to protect our people and our values as Californians.”

Hillary Clinton won more than 61 percent of the state’s vote, a higher share than President Obama won in 2012. Voters approved ballot measures decriminalizing recreational marijuana use, restricting ammunition purchases, and increasing taxes on the rich. The national election triggered a resurgence of California secession fantasies, this time under the hashtag #Calexit—a reference to Brexit, Britain’s vote to leave the European Union...

From January 2014 to September 2015, California released immigrants considered deportable under federal law in more than 11,000 instances, rather than keeping them in custody for federal agents, according to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement data obtained by the Texas Tribune. The next state on the list, New York, released people in fewer than 2,000 cases...

Governor Brown has devoted himself to strengthening California’s carbon pollution rules, already the nation’s toughest. “We will protect the precious rights of our people and continue to confront the existential threat of our time—devastating climate change,” Brown said in a statement that also referred to finding common ground with Trump and the GOP where possible. Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf says cities should be willing to uphold the Paris commitments at the local level. “You have 70 percent of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions coming from cities,” she says. “If all mayors agree to take action, we can actually render federal action irrelevant.”

California’s Democrats are also exploring ways to ensure continued access to health care. The Affordable Care Act guarantees federal subsidies for 90 percent of the 1.4 million residents insured by Covered California, the statewide health exchange, and about 5.5 million more Californians now have insurance via the Medicaid expansion made possible by the 2010 law. A repeal, as Trump and Republicans have pledged, would cost the state more than $15 billion in federal subsidies a year, according to the nonprofit Urban Institute. “In theory, California could implement its own universal health-care program,” says California’s insurance commissioner, Dave Jones—though doing so, he warns, would require significant state tax increases.

If you think all this is free, think again.  Californians already pay some of the highest taxes in the country.  We also make promises to people that we're probably not going to be able to keep:

In 2015, California tried to reform CalPERS to address its shortfalls, but they didn’t do nearly enough. The system currently assumes annual returns of 7.5 percent, which is still far too optimistic. So CalPERS plans to revise its expectations downward, which would force governments to kick in more money to meet liabilities. Local government budgets, of course, are already stretched. It isn’t long before they’ll have to ask the state and, potentially, the federal government for a bailout. And with Republicans in control in Washington, it’s hard to imagine California getting any sympathy.

California’s state government has enjoyed finally being back in the black. But with all these pension liabilities coming due, it’s unclear how long the good times will last.

I don't pay into PERS (Public Employees Retirement System), but STRS (State Teachers Retirement System).  Same idea, different agency.  To keep STRS afloat we teachers are having to pay more into our retirement fund just to get what we've already been promised, and more increases are coming.   That may keep it afloat for awhile, but as Instapundit always says, "Something that can't go on forever, won't."  Eventually, after jumping off that balcony, you're going to hit the sidewalk.

One Buys Two

I stayed home from work yesterday.  I felt OK enough to go in to work today, but after having been home for over 3 hours now, I'm not feeling better than when I got home.  Weaker, slower, painier.

I'll get about 8 hrs of sleep tonight.  That should get me through tomorrow.

Taking yesterday off work bought me the last two days before Thanksgiving break.

Here We Go Again With Sick Crap

I'm writing this post on Monday evening, as what I'm about to write is supposed to be kept secret.  It will be over by Wednesday afternoon, hence my scheduling of this post for that time.

Tomorrow and Wednesday, my school will be participating in the Every 15 Minutes program.  If you don't know what that is, here's a synopsis from a post I wrote years ago:

Genuine car accident cars are brought out to the field, and the whole school goes out to watch as actual emergency response personnel act out the scenario of a drunk driving accident. Pre-trained students are also involved, and have make-up on to simulate the wounds of the accident. The "drunk driver" is checked out by the police as the firemen use the jaws of life on the car to get a student out. A lifeflight helicopter transports the "wounded" student to the hospital, where they are pronounced dead and taken to the actual morgue. Throughout the rest of the day, pre-chosen students are pulled out of class by the Grim Reaper (in the past, it was our principal in the garb) every 15 minutes--they are taken to a site where they discuss the program, write "good-bye" letters to their families as if they had really died, etc. All of this is filmed, of course, and the next day at the Every 15 Minutes Rally the whole school watches the video and the students involved, along with their parents, talk about what it was like to simulate this tragedy.

To me it's emotional abuse. If there were any evidence at all that the program saved lives, perhaps I'd be more inclined to support it, but there is none. Not one piece. To toy with the emotions of teenagers for no measurable benefit, and to take two school days to do so--well, I've already said I find it manipulative and abusive.

This year we're upping the ante.  We're keeping the program a secret.  We're just going to spring this on our students, the goal being to go for "maximum effect".  To me, that means we're going to try to get maximum emotional trauma out of our students.  We want them to cry!  We want them to be scared!  We want them freaking out!  And that's the whole student body! 

And there will be no permission slips from parents, no excusals, nothing.  All students will attend.  But hey, we have chaplains and counselors and maybe even comfort dogs and coloring books at the ready if some kids lose their cool at our required, hope-you-get-traumatized event.

What's really sick is that the pre-chosen students and their parents will write letters to each other.  We have a woman at school who actually lost her son (in Afghanistan), and in the back of my mind every day is the fact that my son could very well go to that same godforsaken place within a year.  If the thought of my son's death crosses my mind, it's very real to me and I hide that thought in some deep, dark place in my mind and turn to something else.  I can't imagine what kind of parent can pretend their child is dead without losing their mind.  To me it's sick--but they're going to do it.  And then they're going to write letters to their "dead" children. And some of these letters will be read in front of the entire student body at Wednesday's mandatory gathering.  Maximum emotional trauma.

Some people really don't like it when I bring up these objections.  There is to be no disagreement, we do it, do it their way, and that's final.  I'd welcome the opportunity to have a study hall in my classroom for kids who don't want to attend or for kids whose parents don't want them to attend, but no one is being given that option.  Remember, it's all being kept a secret, we're just going to spring this on the students tomorrow.

This is public education.

Voting For Women

You can believe, if you so desire, that Republicans have some "thing" against voting for women.  I can't understand why believing that makes some people feel good about themselves, but apparently it does.

I'm happy to vote for women--because I don't care if they're women or not.  I care about what they think, not whether they have interior or exterior personal plumbing.  As a result, I didn't vote for Hillary Clinton, and I have never voted for Senator Barbara Boxer--who, incidentally is probably one of the dumbest people ever to sit in the Senate--or Senator Dianne Feinstein, who is not.  I did, however, vote for Meg Whitman when she ran for governor 6 years ago.  Are those who didn't vote for her misogynists?  The only two politicians to whom I've ever donated money were women, and they both lost their elections.  Heck, I've even voted for a woman who was a Democrat--March Fong Eu, when she was California's Secretary of State.  Her office made sure I had my election materials well in advance of elections when I was away from California in the army, why mess that up?

As an aside, I've voted for many Democrats over the years.  How could I not, when here in California we know the political parties of even those who run for supposedly non-partisan offices such as Secretary of State, Superintendent of Public Instruction, and Insurance Commissioner?

But back to women.  I'd have been happy to vote for Governors Susanna Martinez or Nikki Haley or Sarah Palin, or Congresswoman Mia Love, had I lived in their states.  And I'd be happy to vote for Kristi Noem if I lived in her state:

Rep. Kristi Noem (R-S.D.), just reelected last week to a fourth term, announced Monday she will run for South Dakota governor in 2018.

So you see, it has nothing to do with a politician's sex for me, it has to do with their views and capabilities.  It doesn't have to do with their ethnicities, either, as Governor Martinez is an American of Hispanic heritage, Governor Haley is an American of (East) Indian heritage, and Representative Love is an American whose skin is black.  And I wouldn't vote for them because of ethnicity or race, although I like to point it out to lefties because, for some reason, they like to talk a lot about such things.

The American Left likes to treat women like its own little voting bloc, one to simultaneously stir up and pander to for its own devices.  Maybe, hopefully, that tactic won't work so much going forward:

Sisterhood is dead. If the left learns nothing else from this election, perhaps they should understand that there’s no such thing as female solidarity — not, at least, as they envision it...

When women were genuinely oppressed — before they could vote, before they could own property, before they could have the same access to education or the same opportunities in the workplace — it might have been possible to appeal to them as a bloc, even as a movement.

But in an era when women get a greater percentage of the college degrees and women without children earn more than their male counterparts, most women don’t see themselves as victims, let alone ones who need to join hands in solidarity.

Let's hope.