BYU Commits Atrocious Act

A Mormon who was excommunicated has had his diploma denied by Brigham Young University.

Brigham Young University has yanked the diploma of a man who created a calendar featuring shirtless Mormon missionaries and was later excommunicated from the church.

Chad Hardy of Las Vegas attended graduation ceremonies Aug. 15 after finishing up his last four units of study online in June. But on July 13, in between completing his studies and the graduation ceremony, he was excommunicated by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Plenty of non-Mormons go to BYU. Is there some contractual agreement that says that BYU can withhold the diplomas of excommunicated Mormons? If so, it's a stupid agreement. If not, I hope they get their you-know-whats handed to them on a platter.

Usually I support BYU and other private schools with a conservative bent, but this type of "punishment" goes beyond the pale. At a minimum it's unethical.

Guess Who Doesn't Support Free Speech?

From the New York Post:

It's worth noting, as Jesse Walker does in the latest Reason magazine, that Trinity Church, the controversial church Obama attended for many years, is heavily involved in the media-reform movement, having sought to restore the Fairness Doctrine, prevent media consolidation and deny licenses to stations that refuse to carry enough children's programming.

The name, Fairness Doctrine, is as Orwellian as that of the Employee Free Choice Act.

Speaking At A University Campus

If you think free speech, the free flow of ideas, and tolerance are all the rage on American university campuses, then you haven't been paying attention.

For a conservative, the hazards of speaking on a college campus are more extensive than you might think. Once the security guards are in place – as they inevitably must be – the risk of getting pied or physically attacked or having one’s speech shut down by raucous protesters is actually a lesser problem than others one regularly encounters at these events.

Far greater is the problem presented by the generally hostile environment a conservative normally encounters on any campus. This includes destruction of flyers advertising one’s event, failure of the campus newspaper to publicize it and failure of professors to recommend or even require student attendance as they regularly do for radical speakers.

I have very little experience as a university student, but I do recall that the worst professor I ever had, and one of the worst humans I've ever dealt with, offered extra credit if we'd attend a talk by liar Rigoberta Menchu--and the class involved had nothing to do with writing, with the Maya in Guatemala, or with Latin American history or politics. I don't imagine many professors offer extra credit if their students go to a talk by David Horowitz or Mike Adams.

Synchroblogging

Reader Kelvin invited me to participate in this week's synchroblogging, in which several bloggers all post on the same topic. This week's is "I'm Usually in a Good Mood or Being Myself When...."

So without further ado:

I'm usually in a good mood (or being myself) when...

1) ...I'm soaking in my hot tub. I've admitted to myself that I'm reached the point where I'm firmly middle class, not just in values but also financially, and shortly after moving into my house I bought a hot tub. I love a good soak. Now that the weather's getting cooler, it's even more of a treat--hot water enveloping me, steam rising to keep my face warm against a cool breeze. It's even better when I get to share the experience with someone.

2) ...my son and I watch shows together. It's just the two of us, so we often eat dinner on tv trays and watch a tv show or dvd. Often we watch dvd's of long-past tv series, which can be interesting. He's in 7th grade; I'd love to watch Parker Lewis Can't Lose with him.

3) ...when I travel. For me, travel isn't just vacation time. No, it's also learning and adventure time. Search the first week of the August 2008 archives here and see how I spent my week in Cancun--it wasn't sunning at the pool or the beach, that's for sure.

4) ...I spend time with a certain friend--but that friend isn't in my life anymore, so I guess I don't get to have a #4.

Other bloggers who have participated are listed at the first link above and currently include

• This Side of Tomorrow [Nathan]
• Don't Stop Believin' [Nick Brown]
• Relatively Journalizing [Josua D]
• The University Blog [Martin]
• Simply Erin [Erin]
• The Voice to be Heard [Sara]
• Mamilicious [Amanda]
• Thunked and Befuddled [Alissa]

Smart Idea? Cowardly? Something Else?

I must admit that doing this never occurred to me:

In the competition to get into the most selective colleges, some students and their parents are resorting to a tasteless tactic: bashing other applicants.

The letters, mailed to college admissions offices, typically arrive without a signature. They say rival applicants cheated on exams or got suspended for underage drinking. Sometimes, they include an unflattering newspaper clipping or a sly suggestion to check out pictures on a student's Facebook page...

The e-mail exchange began with a simple query: "I just heard a horrific story from one of my students, and I wanted to see if there is any validity in it," Sue Moller, a high school guidance counselor on Long Island, N.Y., posted on a message board for the National Association for College Admission Counseling. She wrote that a student told her that parents were writing letters about the "bad" conduct of other students "to help the chances of their student gaining admission."

My first thought is to say that anyone who resorts to such tactics must be the lowest of the low. However, I've modified that belief to state that those who do so anonymously are the pathetic cowards. If you provide valid information to a school and sign your name to it, then I have no problem with it. I haven't put an extreme amount of thought into this, though, so I could be swayed to change this opinion if given a good argument.

Rabid Teachers Union Supporters

Why is it that some people who normally don't even think about unions--they don't look for the union label, they don't march in rallies, they don't even want to be a faculty union rep--get rabid when a fellow teacher dares question the teachers union?

I know why I think that is, but I'm curious to hear from RotLC readers before I offer my opinion on this topic.

Nebraska To Change Stupid Law

I've previously written about Nebraska's stupid child abandonment law here and here. Now it seems that under some fairly heavy national scrutiny, state lawmakers are going to change the law to make it a bit more reasonable.

Stung by the abandonments of children as old as 17 under Nebraska's brand-new safe-haven law, the governor and lawmakers agreed Monday to narrow the law's broad wording to protect only the parents of newborns from prosecution.

Forty of the Legislature's 49 senators would amend the law so it applies only to infants up to 3 days old, legislative Speaker Mike Flood said at a news conference. The age cap would change the Nebraska law from the most lenient to one of the nation's most restrictive.

That's a big pendulum-swing. I guess all children don't deserve protection after all (see first link above for reference).

And interesting that I learn about this from a Florida paper.

What's The Point Of Retiring?

From the major Sacramento newspaper:

Last year, 26,000 of the state's retired teachers returned to the classroom – about 14 percent of the more than 180,000.

Area retired teachers say they've returned to work because they miss the kids. But many also say they need to boost their retirement income.

If the cost of living gets too high, perhaps they could try living in the building shown in the 2nd picture of this post. (I was downtown yesterday--it looks completed, at least from the outside.)

British National Health Service, A Model For All To Emulate

When the government runs health care, the patient comes first. There's no profit motive to get in the way of world class medical decisions.

Dozens of incentive schemes have been uncovered which allow GPs to profit by slashing the number of patients they refer for hospital care.

Under one scheme, GPs stand to gain £59 for every patient not referred to hospital, if they cut an average referral rate by between two and eight per cent...

A leading surgeon said that patients' cancers had already gone undiagnosed after they were denied specialist care under two such "referral management" schemes...

The average family doctor, with a patient list of about 2,000 patients, stands to make between £6,000 and £9,000 if they achieve all the targets, on top of a performance-related pay system which already gives the average GP an income of £110,000.

Why anyone would want us to have a system like this just floors me.

Crocodile Tears From The Press

Via Instapundit:

KURTZ: Mark Halperin, we learned this morning that Barack Obama in the month of September raised $150 million, the early estimates had been about $100 million. They always kind of leak a lower figure so they can exceed it.

If a Republican had not taken public financing and had raised all that money, and the Democrat was struggling financially, wouldn't we see a lot of stories about one candidate essentially trying to buy the election?

HALPERIN: We would. We'd also see a lot of stories about his going back on his word saying that he would accept the public money and would reach out to Senator McCain to try to work out a deal. So I think this is a case of a clear, unambiguous double standard, and any reporter who doesn't ask themselves, why is that, why would it be different if it's a Republican? I think is doing themselves and our profession and our democracy a disservice.

Really? Ya think?

The Die Is Cast

Well, the ballot is, anyway. I'm a "permanent absentee voter", or whatever they call me, and I vote from home by mail. Tonight I filled in my ballot and sealed the envelope; tomorrow I'll walk to the mailbox and be done with it.

Press Bias and ACORN

Check out this exceedingly biased article from McClatchy:

An ACORN community organizer received a death threat and the liberal activist group's Boston and Seattle offices were vandalized Thursday, reflecting mounting tensions over its role in registering 1.3 million mostly poor and minority Americans to vote next month.

First off, I do not support vandalism and death threats. Those are illegal acts and should be not only shunned by all Americans, but punished to the fullest extent of the law.

But the "tensions" mentioned in that paragraph aren't caused by ACORN's "role in registering 1.3 million mostly poor and minority Americans to vote next month", they're caused by ACORN's fraudulently registering so many to vote.

Republicans, including presidential candidate John McCain, have verbally attacked the group repeatedly in recent days, alleging a widespread vote-fraud scheme, although they've provided little proof. It was disclosed Thursday that the FBI is examining whether thousands of fraudulent voter-registration applications submitted by some ACORN workers were part of a systematic effort or isolated incidents.

Little proof? Then why is the FBI investigating such spurious allegations? We can start here.

"I would not say that Senator McCain is inciting violence," Kettenring said, "but I would say that his statements about the role of this manufactured scandal were totally outlandish. We would call on Senator McCain to tamp down the fringe elements in his party."

Manufactured scandal? Why does McClatchy not point out all, or any, of the examples of fraud I linked to above? It looks like McClatchy might be pushing an agenda here.

Update: Hey, look! The LA Times reports that some people have been tricked into registering as Republicans. I'm sure the press will be all over this type of voter fraud. I agree with Instapundit: this might be a good thing, as it would force the press (finally) to address the subject of voter fraud.

Update #2, 10/20/08: What a shock! ACORN workers were pressured with quotas. Wonderful people, these ACORN types. Know anyone who's friendly with them?

Forced Unionism: Taxation Without Representation

From the LA Times comes this opinion piece by the president of the California Teachers Empowerment Network:

In 28 states, a teacher is essentially forced to join a costly union. A typical teacher in Southern California, where I teach, pays $922 every year to his or her local, which then sends $611 of that amount to the state affiliate, the California Teachers Assn., or CTA, and $140 to the national affiliate, the National Education Assn., or NEA. (One has to wonder, if the unions are so beneficial, why do teachers need to be forced to join and to fork over such hefty dues in most states?) ...

All of us who object to what amounts to taxation without representation must speak up. Teachers who are happy with their union should have the right to continue that affiliation. However, the rest of us -- especially those who live in states where we are forced to join a union -- would be well served to take a hard look at the organization that claims to represent our best interests and start demanding change.

If I've said it once I've said it a hundred times:

Every (non-military) American has a right to join a union. Every American has a right not to join a union. Every American should have the right not to be required to support a union financially.

(And allow me to correct Mr. Sand's piece above. No one is required to be a member of a union, we're only required to pay a union for their supposed "representation". Those of us in that position are not union members, we are "agency fee payers".)

To My Former Students Who Read This

There are a half dozen or so of you who still read this blog. Want $10,000? Start your own!

(Of course, I still want you to come read Right On The Left Coast!)

When Ideology Meets Practicality

But, if it was for the children, how can you cancel it?

Hawaii is dropping the only state universal child health care program in the country just seven months after it launched.

Gov. Linda Lingle's administration cited budget shortfalls and other available health care options for eliminating funding for the program.

Definitely a reason not to have government involved in providing health care--you certainly don't want health care dependent on which way the political wind blows, or on the intake of tax revenue.

What gets me, though, is this complaint, which shows either idiocy or ingenuousness:

A state official said families were dropping private coverage so their children would be eligible for the subsidized plan.

"People who were already able to afford health care began to stop paying for it so they could get it for free," said Dr. Kenny Fink, the administrator for Med-QUEST at the Department of Human Services. "I don't believe that was the intent of the program."

How could anyone think that wouldn't happen? Given a choice between paying for something out of pocket or having your fellow citizens pay for it indirectly through taxes, I'm sure most people would opt to keep money in their own pocket--especially since they're going to pay the taxes anyway.

Who was it who said that democracy can last only as long as people don't figure out they can vote themselves money from the public treasury? Yes, that Founder. He was right, I fear.

Another Reason To Learn Math

If you don't, you may have to lay off beaucoup teachers.

The Dallas, Texas, school district laid off hundreds of teachers Thursday to avoid a projected $84 million deficit...

The deficit was caused by a massive miscalculation in the budget, CNN affiliate WFAA-TV reported.

That really sucks, and I hope the person(s) responsible for the "miscalculation" are gone, too. But I liked reading this part:

The Dallas Independent School District will hold a job fair Tuesday for all employees who were given notice. More than 110 employers will attend the fair, which was put together by the district, the United Way and the Dallas Regional Chamber.

Joe The Plumber and Rigoberta Menchu

I agree with all of this.

How did three weeks before the election did everyone become obsessed with Joe the Plumber? And what does this whole episode reveal about how the left will go after someone who happens to make The One look less than swell?

Remember this guy didn't seek out Barack Obama, Obama was doing a photo op in his neighborhood and Joe came out to ask a question. And now we're at the point where journalists and liberal bloggers are swarming all over this guy's personal background with an avidity that they haven't shown about Barack Obama's record and associates. Does he have a license? Is he registered to vote? Does he have tax liens? Is he related to Charles Keating? Is he a Republican?

They even posted his address on the internet. How low will these guys go to attack anyone who says anything that makes their guy look less than awesome...

For those on the left who think that this whole story is about Joe's personal background, let me put in in terms they should understand. Think of Joe as a symbolic construct whose situation is "fake but accurate." The left always seems to like that sort of approach to what they regard as underlying truths. Think of him as the left thought of Rigoberta Menchu, the Guatemalan writer who won the Nobel Prize for literature with her autobiography of how, as an indigenous Mayan, she and her family had suffered at the hands of the Guatemalan army. Except it turns out that many of the details in her autobiography were fabrications. That didn't matter to the left or the Nobel Prize Committee because they regarded her story, true or not, as an essential expression of suffering that could have been true.

What is the real story here?

What matters is how Obama answered his question and what it revealed about his approach to redistribution of wealth. We're not about to elect Joe the Plumber.

Demonizing the Opposition

Is this the tolerance and inclusiveness we're supposed to teach in our public schools?

Jones is volunteering at the Republican Headquarters in New Smyrna Beach. The Palin t-shirt was a gift from her fellow volunteers...

“Some of the students were calling me racist because I was Caucasian,” she said. “I wanted the Caucasian man to win. And I told them that’s not true. It’s my freedom of speech, it’s my opinion.”

Free Speech, the Election, and FIRE

Thank God for FIRE. Can you imagine how bad things would be without them?

With the presidential race between John McCain and Barack Obama the focus of national attention, political speech on our nation's campuses has come under sharp attack. In recent weeks, the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) has investigated open and blatant attacks on political expression at colleges and universities across the country, from a previously unreported case at Oklahoma, to better-known cases at Illinois and Texas, to cases at smaller schools across the country. This alarming trend towards silencing political expression has prompted FIRE to release a Policy Statement on Political Activity on Campus today.

At the University of Oklahoma, students and faculty were notified last month that "the forwarding of political humor/commentary" using their university e-mail accounts was prohibited. In response to a letter from FIRE, the university has modified its stance, stating that the prohibition is only applicable "to the extent discussions are attributable to the University as endorsing or opposing a political candidate." However, the university has not communicated this change to the community at large, leaving many under the impression that such private e-mail forwards are forbidden. At the University of Illinois, the university Ethics Office issued a newsletter warning faculty against engaging in political expression on campus, including attending political rallies, wearing buttons, and even placing bumper stickers on cars. After widespread criticism and a letter from FIRE, President B. Joseph White issued a clarification, assuring faculty members that the university would allow them to engage in such expression.

"Political expression is exactly the speech the First Amendment was designed to protect. Our nation's colleges and universities do their students and faculty a grave disservice when they stifle the ability to engage the crucial issues of the day," said FIRE President Greg Lukianoff. "While colleges and universities may not institutionally endorse candidates, they have a societal duty to foster and encourage debate and discussion about those issues most important to our nation. Any blanket ban on 'political speech' betrays one of the academy's most important functions."

In addition to the situations at the University of Oklahoma and the University of Illinois, FIRE has monitored bans on political expression at several other institutions in the past few weeks.

Go read the whole thing--and keep in mind that this will get worse if Democrats run the presidency and both houses of Congress.

"Undermining Democratic Principles"

USA Today on the card check legislation that will breeze through Congress and end up on a President Obama's desk:

When citizens go to the polls on Nov. 4, they will be free to vote their conscience — regardless of pressure from relatives, friends or co-workers — after having had a chance to weigh the alternatives. Campaigns and secret ballots are sacrosanct elements of American democracy.

So it's surprising and disturbing that organized labor wants to do away with both these elements when workers decide whether to form a union...

Labor has seen its role decline since the 1950s, when about a third of all private sector employees belonged to unions, compared with about 7.5% today. So it's understandably eager to find ways to expand membership, particularly at a time when workers are feeling economically vulnerable. But undermining democratic principles is not the answer. (emphasis mine--Darren)

This is what you're voting for when you vote for President Obama and a Democrat-led Congress.

Even Democrat stalwart George McGovern is opposed to card check legislation. Anyone who claims to support un-American values should be opposed.

How the American Left Operates

Because everything for them is about how they feeeeeeel, with logic being completely irrelevent, the ends justify the means. Really, tracking down and publishing Joe the Plumber's home address? Getting into Sarah Palin's personal email?

These people are sick.

Personal Stuff

My son heard me drop an F-bomb this evening.

My sister called. My 90-year-old grandmother was in the emergency room, incoherent and unresponsive.

My son understood.

I met my dad and sister at the hospital. My uncle showed up a little later.

I've posted about nana before. She has Alzheimers now, and has been in a home for over 3 years. It used to be that she didn't seem aware of her surroundings but could still speak intelligibly; now it all sounds like incoherent babble.

Apparently she was incoherent, completely out of it, when they got to the hospital today, but this evening she started babbling a little again. My sister listened and was able to make out a few words.

Bill. All died. Four of us. Baby Bill. Always had food.

My sister didn't know it, but she was translating. You see, I know those words. I know the story they belong to. What we've long thought was babbling was actually nana's continuing to tell the same stories I've heard hundreds of times growing up.

She was the second of four children. Her only brother, Bill, was the youngest. Their father died in a coal mining accident when she was young. Her mother raised them on a widow's pension, supplemented by doing seamstress work in the neighborhood. They were poor, but they always had enough food.

My sister would say the few words she could understand, and I'd tell her what part of the story nana was telling. My sister would repeat it to nana, who would say, "Yeah." I augmented what she was saying, telling my sister the stories nana used to tell me about growing up in England during the Depression. My sister would ask about certain details, and nana would reply, "Yeah."

I've heard that with Alzheimers, you eventually regress back to childhood. Maybe that's where nana is now, back in England as a happy, young, fatherless girl.

Just in case, I was composing a eulogy on my way to the hospital. I'm thankful that right now it seems that I won't have to use it for awhile.

The Reality of Paying For College

Teenagers, think the current economy doesn't affect you at all? Let's talk college.

An increasing number of college-bound students who had favored private colleges are applying to public institutions in California and across the nation this fall as the faltering economy shrinks family savings and makes loans harder to find, experts say.

Many parents and children who might not have considered state schools, where tuition is typically a fraction of private schools, are re-evaluating their college options, college counselors say.

Something to consider.

Vote Fraud

Instapundit links to GayPatriot's list of recent voter fraud activities.

Remove Connecticut and Texas and the list above reads like a list of the swing states in this election. Will the media notice how widespread is this fraud?

Sure they notice. And they hush it up, because doing so helps their guy.

Transgender Teacher

From a local television station:

A music teacher at Foxboro Elementary School, who was formerly a woman, returned to school as a man at the beginning of the school year...

Some parents told Travis Unified School District that they feel like their rights to know were violated.

"All the information came straight from our kids and didn't come from the school board or the teachers ... this has all been second-hand information," parent Melissa Oiland said...

(Superintendent) Gavlak said the district consulted with lawyers and determined that legally, it could not disclose any information about the teacher's gender change...

So far, 23 students from 15 different families have transferred their children out of the music class and into a physical education class.

Honestly, this shouldn't be a big deal. Had the operation occurred during the school year, when students would be forced to address the sex change issue head-on, that would be a different story. But this occurred over the summer; the person who started school at the end of summer wasn't the same person who left in spring. Yes, it's a music class, so perhaps some of the students had previously had this teacher--but this still seems like a pretty weak reason to remove your kid from a class.

My opinion would change instantly if the teacher were talking about the operation, why she/he had the operation, etc. Absent that, the parents mentioned are, IMNSHO, overreacting.

It's opinions like this which cause conservatives in other states to think I'm a crazy California leftie wacko, while the liberals here in California assume my stance is the "duh" position so give me no "moderate" points for holding it.

In closing, let me be clear: I'm not saying the parents don't have a "right" to remove their kids from the class, I'm saying this is a weak reason to exercise that right.

Carnival of Education

This week's "debate edition" is over at Eduwonkette and includes my post about last week's staff meeting.

Politics In The Classroom, A Free Speech Issue

EIA has what I consider an extremely reasonable view about "politics in the classroom" (third point in this week's Communique):

The United Federation of Teachers filed a federal lawsuit after the New York City Department of Education directed principals to enforce a ban on political buttons or signs in the classroom.

It might surprise some of you to know that I support the union's position. Free speech should never be limited without evidence of direct, serious and negative consequences arising from its exercise. Knowing that a teacher supports Obama might make a student annoyed or uncomfortable, but I think that's a small price to pay.

I wonder, though, how quickly UFT would have defended free speech if the buttons in question read, "Abortion Is Murder," or "Decertify the UFT." Is all speech free or only speech with which the union agrees?

I have added the boldface above for emphasis.

I Must Be A Freakin' Genius...

...according to this BBC story.

For middle aged and older people at least, using the internet helps boost brain power, research suggests.

Update on JROTC in San Francisco

Joanne has penned a piece at Pajamas Media about the JROTC situation in San Francisco. The citizens there will get to vote on an advisory measure recommending that the district keep the program; the measure is not binding on the school board, however.

I found this comment on Joanne's article to be especially worthwhile:

JROTC, Civil Air Patrol, Police Explorers, Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, Sea Cadets (MY group) and other in and out of school related youth activities are primarily citizenship endeavors, promoting a love of country and teaching self-discipline and a sense of belonging. That some may (as in my case) lead to enlistment an/or a career in the military is not a bad thing. It doesn’t promote militarism (most of us don’t WANT to go to war - it’s our lives on the line after all!) but it does instill a love of country and a willingness to support and defend it not found in many other areas of our culture.

Obama the Socialist

I heard this clip on Hugh Hewitt's show yesterday. I saw the clip on ABC News last night, but they didn't show Obama's answer to the plumber who asked the question--rather, they cut the clip off and the anchor said something like, "His answer didn't satisfy that questioner."

It didn't? Really? I wonder why. The man owns (or is about to own) a plumbing business and asked the senator about his plans to raise taxes, which would certainly hurt this man and his business. Obama's response?

"It's not that I want to punish your success. I just want to make sure that everybody that is behind you, that they have a chance for success too." He went on to talk about "spread(ing) the wealth around".

Don't take my word for it. Go watch for yourself.

Clearly Predictable Consequences of a Stupid Law

Let's review this post from less than 2 months ago:

Nebraska has recently passed a law that allows parents to drop off "unwanted" children at local "safe havens", such as hospitals. Many states have such laws for newborns, but Nebraska's law includes all minors--up to age 19.

I follow that opening with a statement from an idiot politician who says that all children deserve the protection of the state.

OK, so let's assume you know nothing else about that law than what you read above. What do you think would be a reasonable guess about what might happen? What might be some strange consequences of that law? These, of course:

A Michigan mother drove roughly 12 hours to Omaha, so she could abandon her 13-year-old son at a hospital under the state's unique safe-haven law, Nebraska officials said Monday.

The boy from the Detroit area is the second teenager from outside Nebraska and 18th child overall abandoned in the state since the law took effect in July...

Last week, a 14-year-old girl from Iowa was left at an Omaha hospital by her grandparents. The girl has since been returned to her family...

An out-of-work widower who left nine of his 10 children said he simply felt overwhelmed by his responsibilities. That man, Gary Staton, has asked a judge to allow him to visit his children...

Lawmakers have spoken about the need to re-examine the law, but the Legislature doesn't reconvene until January.

Really? No one foresaw any these types of problems when the law lets anyone drop off any child under age 19? Really?

Yes, maybe they should re-examine that law. And their heads.

Gotta Love Seattle

Joanne Jacobs points out that eight years after trying some warm-and-fuzzy molly-coddling on students, Seattle schools have gone from a "no credit" designation back to one everyone understands: F.

Only in a place as divorced from reality as Seattle, and in a school district as dysfunctional (and loopy) as Seattle's, could the original change ever have occurred in the first place. Who in their right mind could possibly think it was a good idea?

Update, 10/14/08: Joanne gets a two-fer as far as Seattle goes, adding this post to the one above.

Ted Nutting, a calculus teacher in Seattle, blames “reform math” for students’ low achievement. Specifically, he blames Terry Bergeson, superintendent of public instruction in Washington state, for overseeing the development of “weak, vague math standards” based on a reform model.

Are The Dems Being Hypocrites?

Does the sun rise in the east?

Mark Foley's replacement pays hush money in lieu of a sexual harassment lawsuit

Rahm Emmanuel, who howled about Foley's indiscretions, "have been working with Mahoney to keep the matter from hurting his re-election campaign".

So much for that "ethics" thing.

No Income Tax?

There are more than a few states that do not have a state income tax, deriving their operating funds from other sources. Nevada comes to mind.

The fine citizens of Massachusetts, a state in love with taxes despite the history of the Boston Tea Party, are about to vote on a proposition that would phase out the personal income tax.

What would this mean for public higher education in Massachusetts?

Republicans Are Being So Mean And Nasty This Election Cycle

I hear this over and over, and having a few elections under my belt, I have to wonder how anyone could still believe that canard.



Are you going to excuse such behavior, and claim that these people are downtrodden or disgusted with the way things are, or perhaps that this is to be expected during an election season and they're really wonderful people? Then check out this photoessay from January 2006, before the current election season even began, on a topic not related to this election, and try to tell me that with a straight face.

Behold, your betters. If only they could direct as much anger to our country's enemies.

Update: HotAir has a few more examples that should put this lie to rest.

Update #2, 10/13/08: Women especially should enjoy this picture (be forewarned about the language). Lefties, these are your "peeps".

Lefties

I came across this comment on a Roger Kimball post and thought it of sufficient insight to post here:

We tend in this country, to overcompensate away the deficiencies of the last guy in office. Nixon was sort of brooding and had dark corners, Ford was affable and light. But Ford was portrayed as a clumsy oaf, so Carter was the nuclear engineer. But Carter was limp and cowardly, and Reagan was brave and heroic. But Reagan was sleepy, cowboyish and dim, Bush Sr. was erudite and gentler. But Bush, Sr. was a wimp married to his grandma, and Clinton was dashing and bold. But Clinton often ruled by polls and plebiscites and spent time chasing his tail literally and figuratively, (some of which he put on the payroll), so we closed the last chapter with the current President Bush, married to a sweet librarian and not leading by watching polls but rather, destroyed by them. Going it alone was a mantra, a badge of honor. Perhaps, most importantly, this President Bush, in a war of words…most often fought on a battlefield between his brain and his tongue.

So, the most eloquent speaker, who appeals to the “world court of opinion” and prodded on by a media in his pocket and not on his watch…will “cure” the ills that have befallen us.

What Christopher chooses to ignore, are all the signs of what we will have to cure in the next election. He glosses over them as if they are invisible. That is what surprises most, that is what deadens the heart and chips away at the soul.

Christopher is clearly brilliant enough to see and chooses instead to avert his gaze. The thuggery and mean-spririted henchmen who do the dirty work, keep clean the hands and the image of “first class” comportment. The abject slander heaped upon opponents, comes not from the mouth of the candidate…but from the bellowing rage of his campaign.

The crushing of dissent by teams of lawyers, calls to action and “in your face” aggression come not from written directive, but from the planning committee seeking to choke off relevant inquiry. Clearly, Christopher cannot be so mesmerized as to wash this grime away with a simple wave of the hand. He has fallen for the image and he has been distracted by the persona.

I love liberals, Roger…as I suspect you do. Many of them surround my daily life. But I despise leftists. A liberal is ruled by compassion, a leftist by deceit.

A liberal wants to try a different approach, a leftist wants to replace the system.

A liberal believes in fair play and honest disagreement, a leftist believes in hiding the truth and crushing dissent.

A liberal believes you may have a point, a leftist believes there are no points other than his.

A liberal says this country is great, but can be greater through dialogue. A leftist believes some other country is great and this country makes him puke.

A liberal wants equality for all persons regardless of gender, color or creed, a leftist wants class and racial warfare.

A liberal wants to take the poor and give them a chance to be rich, a leftist wants to take the rich and make them poor.

The liberals are gone, Roger. The leftists have consumed them.

Do You Trust Democrats With Your Retirement?

You may have to, unless you vote against them.

Powerful House Democrats are eyeing proposals to overhaul the nation's $3 trillion 401(k) system, including the elimination of most of the $80 billion in annual tax breaks that 401(k) investors receive.

House Education and Labor Committee Chairman George Miller, D-Calif., and Rep. Jim McDermott, D-Wash., chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee's Subcommittee on Income Security and Family Support, are looking at redirecting those tax breaks to a new system of guaranteed retirement accounts to which all workers would be obliged to contribute...

Under Ms. Ghilarducci's plan, all workers would receive a $600 annual inflation-adjusted subsidy from the U.S. government but would be required to invest 5% of their pay into a guaranteed retirement account administered by the Social Security Administration. The money in turn would be invested in special government bonds that would pay 3% a year, adjusted for inflation.

The current system of providing tax breaks on 401(k) contributions and earnings would be eliminated...

Higher-income employers provide matching funds to employee plans so that they can qualify for tax benefits for their own defined contribution plans, he said.

"If the tax deferral goes away, the employers have no reason to do the matches, which primarily help people in the lower income brackets," Mr. Belluardo said.

"This is a battle between liberalism and conservatism," said Christopher Van Slyke, a partner in the La Jolla, Calif., advisory firm Trovena LLC, which manages $400 million. "People are afraid because their accounts are seeing some volatility, so Democrats will seize on the opportunity to attack a program where investors control their own destiny," he said.

When you vote for a Democrat, you vote for a state-managed economy.

No More Bake Sales

I don't know how students can tolerate some of the ridiculous rules my generation foists on them sometimes.

But at Davis Senior High School, the old-fashioned bake sale is a thing of the past.

School officials have forbidden students from selling homemade cookies and cupcakes to raise money for their campus clubs or favorite charities.

Food prepared in home kitchens violates federal health laws, according to school rules handed down last month.

"If you wish to violate this order, your club will be disbanded," reads one provision.

Also banned are club meetings without a teacher present. "NO exceptions," say the rules.

And students can no longer accept cash at charity fundraisers – only checks – to avoid accounting irregularities...

The requirement that students write checks for a slice of pizza or a carwash was absurd, she (a student) said.

The people who crafted these rules are the same people who tell us we're supposed to teach critical thinking skills to students.

Math Is For Nerds

That's apparently true only in the US.

Food Shortages In Cuba

One comment entertained me:

Good point about Michael Moore. Maybe somebody should do a documentary and dissect the timeline.

No food shortage.
Michael Moore visits.
Food shortage.

Food shortages. Score another victory for the workers' paradise with the great health care system and full literacy!

Fuzzy Math--It's Not Dead Yet

I came across the following on an email list of which I am a member, and received permission from the author to repost it here.

"Mathematicians Fault Fuzzy Math Report"
by Donna Garner
October 10, 2008

Jo Boaler, an education professor, has published a report on constructivist math (often referred to as reform math, fuzzy math, "Rain Forest Algebra," etc.). Constructivist math means the student "constructs his/her own understanding. " Most parents simply want their students to know that 2 + 2 = 4 without trying to construct their own understanding. Parents also want their children to learn how to add, subtract, multiply, and divide with quickness and accuracy. Boaler and those who support constructivist math have a different view. She presented her report at the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) meeting in Anaheim, California, where she received enthusiastic applause.

The problem is that Boaler's report has holes in it. This report deliberately misleads the American public into thinking that reform math has raised students' academic achievement.

People such as Boaler want to institutionalize reform math and play down the importance of students learning basic math functions even though parents all over the country are worried sick because their children cannot function in the higher-level math classes without knowing their basic algorithms.

Jim Milgram, Wayne Bishop, Paul Clopton (three brilliant and well-known mathematicians) have taken Boaler's report and shown where her data is faulty. Not only is much of Boaler's data in error, but the questions she used as part of her testing instrument demonstrate lack of math facility on her own part.

It will be very important for the public to retain the website link to Milgram/Bishop/ Clopton's report entitled "A Close Examination of Jo Boaler's Railside Report." [Railside is a pseudonym for a make-believe elementary school to which Boaler refers in her study.] Whenever Boaler's less-than-factual report is referenced in the press and is acclaimed by constructivist math advocates, the public can now pull out the work of Milgram/Bishop/ Clopton to counter Boaler's claims.

Below is the Internet link and an excerpt from the Milgram/Bishop/ Clopton abstract:

ftp://math.stanford.edu/pub/papers/milgram/combined- evaluations-version3.pdf

This, together with a careful review of the test items used in the [Boaler] study , makes one extremely skeptical of the value of the Railside study’s tests for assessing achievement in mathematics. The Railside students show through AP, SAT, and state assessments that they do not have a good understanding of mathematics. This phenomenon speaks more to the flawed nature of the tests used in the study than it does to any claim of adequacy or inadequacy in the reform approach at Railside.

Update, 10/11/08: Link is fixed now.

How To Cheat Using the Internet

Online instructional videos on YouTube, showing kids how to cheat in class, show some serious brazenness. After all, they can't be afraid of the consequences if they're making the information (and their faces) public.

Via ABCNews.

Two Interesting Posts (from other sites) About The World Financial Situation

The short one

and

the long one....

So who, exactly, is responsible for the US portion of this mess? To be blunt, there's no one person. There are lots of people involved, and several bureaucracies and agencies and organizations. There are people at the head of those groups, but no one person is responsible. Some groups are more responsible than other groups, but that's about as close to finger-pointing as I can get.

But you might imagine which groups I would list as "more responsible than other groups" :-)

CTA Dues Rebate

Within the next three weeks I'll receive a check from the CTA. If you're a California teacher, or a union member in any other non-right-to-work state, you could get one, too--read on to learn how.

First off, you must resign from the union. Then you must request a rebate of all dues money not spent for representation purposes; detailed information on how to do so, along with sample letters, can be found at the web site of the California Teachers Empowerment Network, here.

You need only resign once but you must request the rebate each year. If you do so by September 30th, CTA will refund your money by October 31st. If you do so by November 15th, CTA will refund your money before Christmas. My rebate checks amount to about 1/3 of my annual union dues--it's nice to get a check for over $300 right before Christmas. And it's sad to think that they're spending that much of dues money on things unrelated to worker representation.

Update, 11/4/09: Here's an updated link to replace the one above.

Today's Staff Meeting

Today's staff meeting was painful. Let me share just one storyline with you, so you can get even the smallest idea of how painful it was.

Today we talked about student progress reports. Pretty innocuous stuff, right? Oh, don't be naive.

See, in the past, we filled out progress reports at 6 and 12 weeks into the semester. Some parents complained that they didn't get the progress reports until the 7th week (out of 18), by which time it was too late for them to motivate their kids to dig their way out of any hole in which their grades might inhabit. So we were directed to send out progress reports after 4-1/2 weeks.

The union and the district misunderstood each other. The district thought they negotiated to have progress reports every 4-1/2 weeks, whereas the union thought that the 6-week progress report has been moved forward 1-1/2 weeks but the 12-week progress report would stay where it was. The union's contention was that they didn't bargain for us to do an extra progress report each semester, which is what the district thought they had bargained.

Fair enough. But instead of resolving it, each school was seemingly given the option of choosing how it wanted to proceed.

So we spent the next 30 min or so arguing/discussing whether we should do progress reports at 9 and 13-1/2 weeks or just at 12 weeks. But wait, there's more. Due to athletic eligibility issues, our athletes/cheerleaders will need some kind of grade check at 9 weeks.

So now our choices are to do progress reports for just athletes/cheerleaders at 9 weeks and for everyone at 12 weeks, or to do progress reports for all students at both 9 weeks and 13-1/2 weeks.

Clearly this is a major issue.

We spent over a half an hour on this. Some wanted to know who mandated the 9 week report for athletes--is the union aware of this, was it negotiated? Others had other concerns.

Given the small difference between the two proposals to choose from, we spent more time discussing, arguing, and questioning, than it would take to fill out that "extra" grade report the district thought they negotiated in the first place.

That was just one topic addressed at the meeting today.

"Strip"-searched For Stolen Money

My question is: did they find the money?

DETROIT — Three seventh-grade girls at a school in Monroe were ordered to strip to their underwear while a teacher investigated the alleged theft of $42, their parents charge.

The principal of Trinity Lutheran School was placed on two-week leave and the investigation into the female teacher's alleged actions was continuing, Senior Pastor Stanley AuBuchon said Wednesday.

It's important to note that this did not happen at a public school.

Carnival of Education

This week's is here, and includes my post about teaching about dating violence.

"Political" Teachers

This is certainly an interesting view about politics in the classroom.

Pride High

Is there a "separate but equal" issue here?

Chicago school officials plan to recommend opening a gay-friendly campus,citing studies that homosexual high school students have greater dropout rates than heterosexual teens.


The School for Social Justice Pride Campus, if approved, would be the city's first school for gay, lesbian and transgenderstudents, The Chicago Tribune reported.

"Honor System" For College Admissions?

This sounds OK, but I'm still somewhat suspicious.

Starting with those applying this fall for admission to all three Rutgers campuses, high schools will no longer be asked to submit applicants’ transcripts. Instead, applicants will themselves enter all of their grades and high school courses in an online application form. An official transcript will eventually be reviewed for every applicant who is admitted and indicates a plan to enroll...

There is evidence that some combination of honesty and fear can in fact work to keep the self-reported transcripts accurate. The University of California, the pioneer in this type of admissions system, reports extremely low rates of transcript errors.

If it works, there's nothing wrong with such a system, I guess. I can imagine it would save time for high school registrars.

More "Genius" at the University of Illinois

The ban on political demonstrations of any kind has been completely lifted. While I support that, I also recognize that it will be a boon only to lefties.

So will keeping a "capitalism academy" off the campus:

Also Monday, the university’s flagship campus, at Urbana-Champaign, announced that it was calling off negotiations to create a research and education center that many professors feared would amount to a program with a single point of view and without regular academic oversight...

The other controversy at Illinois that was resolved Monday involved the Academy on Capitalism and Limited Government, which was set up with funds from alumni with the goal of promoting the study of free markets and principles of Western civilization — and which will now operate but not as part of the university.

In recent years, alumni of a number of colleges and universities have donated funds to colleges to endow programs to promote the study of American institutions or capitalism or other parts of society that the alumni feel deserve more attention on campus. At institutions such as Princeton University, such programs have won support both within and outside the academy, but in other cases, disputes have broken out over whether these centers were seeking more autonomy than is appropriate. And that was the case at Illinois.

We wouldn't want the university to be associated with anything like free markets, capitalism, or Western civilization, would we?

An Interesting View of the New Deal

From the UCLA Newsroom:

Two UCLA economists say they have figured out why the Great Depression dragged on for almost 15 years, and they blame a suspect previously thought to be beyond reproach: President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

After scrutinizing Roosevelt's record for four years, Harold L. Cole and Lee E. Ohanian conclude in a new study that New Deal policies signed into law 71 years ago thwarted economic recovery for seven long years...

"President Roosevelt believed that excessive competition was responsible for the Depression by reducing prices and wages, and by extension reducing employment and demand for goods and services," said Cole, also a UCLA professor of economics. "So he came up with a recovery package that would be unimaginable today, allowing businesses in every industry to collude without the threat of antitrust prosecution and workers to demand salaries about 25 percent above where they ought to have been, given market forces. The economy was poised for a beautiful recovery, but that recovery was stalled by these misguided policies."

We should be wary of such policies, especially today.

Bill Ayers, School Reformer

School reformer?

Calling Bill Ayers a school reformer is a bit like calling Joseph Stalin an agricultural reformer. (If you find the metaphor strained, consider that Walter Duranty, the infamous New York Times reporter covering the Soviet Union in the 1930s, did, in fact, depict Stalin as a great land reformer who created happy, productive collective farms.) For instance, at a November 2006 education forum in Caracas, Venezuela, with President Hugo Chávez at his side, Ayers proclaimed his support for “the profound educational reforms under way here in Venezuela under the leadership of President Chávez. We share the belief that education is the motor-force of revolution. . . . I look forward to seeing how you continue to overcome the failings of capitalist education as you seek to create something truly new and deeply humane.” Ayers concluded his speech by declaring that “Venezuela is poised to offer the world a new model of education—a humanizing and revolutionary model whose twin missions are enlightenment and liberation,” and then, as in days of old, raised his fist and chanted: “Viva Presidente Chávez! Viva la Revolucion Bolivariana! Hasta la Victoria Siempre!”

And this is a guy Barack Obama worked with, worked for, and in whose house Obama launched his political career. And Obama claims not to know about Ayers' terrorist past.

So even if Obama is never queried on whether he was the only adult in Chicago unaware of Ayers’s Weather Underground background, shouldn’t someone ask why he was working for and helping to fund an organization which supported this type of curriculum?

Yes, someone should.

Canadian Health Care

I haven't had a post about socialized medicine in a long time, so I'm feeling overdue here.

How's that vaunted Canadian health care system doing? Not so good--although I'd say that a market solution seems to be forming.

Queue-jumpers who can afford to pay at private clinics do so, and that means people in the public system wait longer, she added. In Ontario and Manitoba, Mehra said, they found local hospitals have reduced MRI hours because technologists have gone to for-profit clinics.

Mehra also said a little ominous:

"The contention that for-profit health care can exist along with a public system is not true," said Natalie Mehra, the report's author and director of the coalition. "It is a take-away from the public health-care system."

So you take what the government gives you, and nothing more. That doesn't sound like a free people to me.

Now This Is Too Much Teacher Free Speech

Joanne has the story of a teacher who--well, just go read her few paragraphs yourself. If you don't want to surf, I'll give you the punch line: “C.H.A.N.G.E. — Come Help A (N-word) Get Elected.” Now go take a look.

I have no idea if the person in question is a racist or was just being provocative for academic reasons. The news story Joanne links to doesn't give enough information from which to draw any such conclusion. I'm pretty sure that most of us can agree, though, that he certainly exercised poor judgement in either case. I'm not one who believes that one example of poor judgement, even in this case, necessarily merits being fired, but if he were expressing racist beliefs, I would. That dichotomy makes me very uncomfortable because I don't like thought police. I need to give this topic more consideration.

Here's an interesting question, though: what is the best reason for excluding racists from teaching?

Barack Obama, Prior Terrorist Bill Ayers, and Education

From the Wall Street Journal:

The CAC (Chicago Annenberg Challenge) was the brainchild of Bill Ayers, a founder of the Weather Underground in the 1960s. Among other feats, Mr. Ayers and his cohorts bombed the Pentagon, and he has never expressed regret for his actions. Barack Obama's first run for the Illinois State Senate was launched at a 1995 gathering at Mr. Ayers's home.

The Obama campaign has struggled to downplay that association. Last April, Sen. Obama dismissed Mr. Ayers as just "a guy who lives in my neighborhood," and "not somebody who I exchange ideas with on a regular basis." Yet documents in the CAC archives make clear that Mr. Ayers and Mr. Obama were partners in the CAC. Those archives are housed in the Richard J. Daley Library at the University of Illinois at Chicago and I've recently spent days looking through them.

The Chicago Annenberg Challenge was created ostensibly to improve Chicago's public schools...

The CAC's agenda flowed from Mr. Ayers's educational philosophy, which called for infusing students and their parents with a radical political commitment, and which downplayed achievement tests in favor of activism. In the mid-1960s, Mr. Ayers taught at a radical alternative school, and served as a community organizer in Cleveland's ghetto...

In works like "City Kids, City Teachers" and "Teaching the Personal and the Political," Mr. Ayers wrote that teachers should be community organizers dedicated to provoking resistance to American racism and oppression. His preferred alternative? "I'm a radical, Leftist, small 'c' communist," Mr. Ayers said in an interview in Ron Chepesiuk's, "Sixties Radicals," at about the same time Mr. Ayers was forming CAC.

CAC translated Mr. Ayers's radicalism into practice. Instead of funding schools directly, it required schools to affiliate with "external partners," which actually got the money. Proposals from groups focused on math/science achievement were turned down. Instead CAC disbursed money through various far-left community organizers, such as the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (or Acorn).

I think that's enough. You can read more at the link if you need to.

OK For Teachers To Have Sex With Students?

Well, not exactly OK, and maybe such teachers are guilty of a lapse in professional judgement, but they should not be prosecuted--so says a British teachers union official.

A British teachers’ union representative has come under fire after claiming that teachers who engage in consensual sex with students over the age of 16 should not be prosecuted, the U.K.’s Daily Mail reported Sunday.

Chris Keates, the general secretary of the National Association of Schoolmasters Union of Women Teachers, said in an interview to be broadcast in the U.K. on Monday that teachers who have sex with pupils over the age of consent are guilty of a mere “error in professional judgment,” and should not be placed on the sex offenders register, the Mail reported.

“There is a real anomaly in the law that we are concerned about,” the Mail quoted Keates as saying. “That is that if a teacher has a relationship with a pupil at the school at which they teach—it could be an 18-year-old pupil—then that teacher can be prosecuted and can end up on the sex offenders register.”

Should I end with an anti-union comment, or a lamentation about how far the British have fallen? It's so hard to decide.

Freedom Team Salute

A couple of days ago I received a large envelope in the mail. It looked like so many other solicitations for money, but I opened it anyway.

In it I found a letter, an army lapel pin, and this certificate:



No request for money, just a "thanks for your service". It's absolutely unnecessary--I was proud to play my part--but I'm happy to receive it nonetheless.

Update, 10/10/08: I discussed this certificate on an email list of which I am a member, and received a reply stating that active service members nominate friends and/or family to receive this award.

The lapel pin has found a permanent home on the lanyard holding my school ID card.

Teachers In Space

I received the following email and press release today:

Teachers Apply for New Astronaut Program

September 22, 2008 -- Teachers all across the country are applying for a new astronaut program.

Teachers in Space is seeking two Pathfinder Astronauts who will become the first astronaut teachers to fly in space and return to the classroom.

"Unlike the Educator Astronaut program, which takes teachers out of schools to join the NASA astronaut corps, we want to put astronaut teachers into American classrooms," said Teachers in Space project manager Edward Wright.

"TIS will allow teachers to keep their day jobs," Wright said. Pathfinder Astronauts will train on weekends and during the summer, so they will be able to keep their their full-time teaching jobs. "There will be about three weeks of training in total," Wright said, "which will include both spaceflight training and professional development activities to improve their abilities as teachers."

After they fly in space, Pathfinder Astronauts will be invited to return each summer to help teach the training course for new astronaut teachers. Eventually, Teachers in Space would like to fly 200 teachers a year, four from each and every state in the Union.

Teachers in Space began as a NASA project to fly a single teacher aboard the Space Shuttle. The original TIS project ended when the Challenger accident claimed the life of teacher Christa McAuliffe. NASA replaced Teachers in Space with the Educator Astronaut program, in which former teachers become full-time NASA employees. The original vision of putting an astronaut back into an American classroom was lost. That vision is now being revived by new Teachers in Space program, a non-profit project of the Space Frontier Foundation and the United States Rocket Academy.

Rather than relying on the Space Shuttle, the new Teachers in Space program will use the new reusable suborbital spacecraft now being developed by American industry. These new spacecraft, which promise dramatic improvements in cost and safety, will enable large numbers of teachers to fly in space. "We want to put a thousand astronaut teachers into American schools, within the next decade," Wright said.

The Pathfinder Astronauts will be the leaders who blaze the path for the large number of teachers who follow.

More information about Teachers in Space is available on the project's website: www.teachers-in-space.org.

Pathfinder application forms and information about the application process are available at: www.teachers-in-space.org/apply/apply.htm.

Teachers can submit applications for the Pathfinder program any time between now and December 4, 2008. Finalists will be announced and training will begin in 2009, which Pathfinder spaceflights expected to take place some time in 2010 or 2011.


Media Contact: 800-787-7223 or press@space-frontier.org

Up until 2nd grade, I wanted to be an astronaut. I remember waking up early as a young child "to watch the rockets take off"; it must be the Apollo shots I remember. What changed in 2nd grade? I learned there was no oxygen to breathe in space, and I decided on being a fighter pilot instead. I kept that dream for another 10 years, until going to West Point.

Sarah Palin, Feminist

Who says so? The president of the Los Angeles chapter of N.O.W., that's, who.

Sarah supports women's rights, equal pay, Title 9, and the middle class. She has integrity and demands it from others.

It's about time someone on the left noticed.

Update: "There is a special place in hell for women who don't help other women." Madeline Albright, former Secretary of State, as quoted on a Starbucks cup.

Service Academy Football

Army won its first game in about 10 years (yes, I'm exaggerating, but not by much) this weekend, handily defeating Tulane on the road 44-13. Navy went to Colorado Springs and beat up on Air Force a little bit, winning 33-27 at Falcon Stadium.

Maybe Navy's secret weapon, the USS Bancroft, had something to do with the win:



Background information: each year several juniors from our service academies serve as "exchange cadets" and midshipmen by attending one of their sister academies for the first semester. I was fortunate enough to attend the Air Force Academy from August to December, 1985, on such a program.

The submarine above, the USS Bancroft, was built by the exchange squids--I mean, exchange midshipmen--at the Air Force Academy. As I said, they're juniors--Class of 2010. It's on the "terrazzo", in the center of the Cadet Area, with the Air Force Academy Cadet Chapel in the immediate background. Tourists often stand along the wall in front of the chapel and watch the Cadet Wing form up and march to lunch--at least, they did back in my day.

I congratulate the mids above on a well-executed spirit mission. It's certainly better than anything we came up with!

(The picture above was sent to me by a former student who is currently a plebe at Annapolis. The picture is making the rounds of the internet, but if you know who took it, please let me know so that I can provide the appropriate credit.)

Teaching About Dating Violence

I see many girls at school hitting their boyfriends, but I'm sure any abuse the boys may level towards their girlfriends is not as obvious as a punch out on the quad.

Some states require teaching about dating violence in health classes.

Burke's 23-year-old daughter, Lindsay, may not have understood the dynamics of an abusive relationship, but her death is helping to ensure that other young people do.

Beginning with this school year, a new law called the Lindsay Ann Burke Act requires all public middle and high schools in Rhode Island to teach students about dating violence in their health classes.

The initiative was spearheaded by Burke and her husband, Chris, who say schools should be obligated to teach teens the warning signs of abusive relationships and broach the subject head-on so victims feel empowered to get help and leave violent partners.

"If this could happen to her, this could happen to anyone," said Ann Burke, a health teacher who runs a memorial fund to raise money for dating violence workshops for parents and educators. One other state, Texas, mandates unspecified awareness education on dating violence for students and parents, while several other states encourage it. But the Rhode Island measure goes further by requiring the topic be incorporated annually into the curriculum for students in seventh through 12th grade.

This One Time, At Band Camp....

I never played in a band. I don't play any musical instruments; I have a hard enough time playing a CD. But I saw a story about a university marching band this morning, and I thought I'd string together 3 marginally-related thoughts into one post.

I had a friend who was in the USC marching band. He loved it.

West Point didn't have a marching band, although we certainly knew how to march! Sometimes, at halftime during football games, the other team's marching band would perform at Michie ("mikey") Stadium. I think it was my sophomore year when Yale performed, and their show included several pointed jabs at our military. It was bad enough that our Superintendent, a 3-star General, said publicly that they wouldn't be allowed to perform there again. Let's be honest, what they did was in poor form.

And then there's this story, from which we learn that the University of Wisconsin marching band sat out a game this weekend "as an investigation continues into allegations of hazing."

You're In High School And Think This Financial Mess Doesn't Apply To You?

Think again.

Amid a deepening financial crisis that has sapped college endowments, college and university officials are grappling with the growing fear that the Wall Street turmoil could cast a shadow over nearly all their operations...

"Everything is on the table in this context," said Dennis Nealon, a spokesman for Brandeis University. "Colleges and universities can't pretend this isn't going to have an effect on us"...

At the same time, public colleges and universities are bracing for imminent cuts to state government subsidies that could lead to higher costs for students.

"Depending on their severity, there could be fee increases for the second semester," said Robert Antonucci, president of Fitchburg State College.

1st Amendment Doesn't Apply at the University of Illinois

I've written before about their crazy ban on political "speech", but here's more:

The University of Illinois has sparked outrage by telling faculty, staff and graduate students that a 5-year-old state law designed to prevent state workers from campaigning for candidates on state time or with state resources meant they could not express support for candidates or parties through pins, T-shirts or bumper stickers while on campus. Nor could they attend any political rally or event on campus, the administration said.

The governor's Office of Executive Inspector General, which investigates ethical violations, has gone one step further, saying state law meant that university students, not just employees, were prohibited from participating in political rallies on campus--an assertion at odds with the university's interpretation. On Friday, the state attorney general's office said the ethics law did not apply to students. The office did not answer whether the law prohibited university employees from wearing political buttons while at work, attending political rallies on campus on non-work time or some of the other specific interpretations made by the university. . . .

They think strangely in Illinois.

The Vice Presidential Debate

I took two pages of notes, in shorthand, during this debate. However, so many of the facts and factoids will be covered in other places, so I'll just give a relatively short commentary here.

Just like in the last debate, the first words out of the mouth of the Democrat were an attack on the President, and the first words out of the mouth of the Republican were positive and inclusive.

Unless I misheard, at 7:17 pm PDT Joe Biden, in reference to the role of the vice president as President of the Senate, stated that Article 1 of the Constitution refers to the executive branch, and that's where the vice president belongs. What an egregious error, if he in fact stated that! Article 1 refers to the legislative branch, the Congress--something he should know, having spent 35 years there. (Update: while still completing this post I just received an email from the Instapundit saying that he, too, noted the Article 1 error.)

With the exception of that one statement, I noted that neither candidate made any real gaffes. That was refreshing. I also noted that up until near the very end, Biden seemed agitated and perhaps angry, while Palin seemed poised and even cheerful throughout. She started off seeming a little nervous, but still radiated optimism. It didn't take her long to get into stride, and she flew like the wind once she did--and didn't look back. I loved her "Bless their hearts" comment regarding oil executives!

A few specifics. At 6:16 pm, Biden said that class warfare was "fairness"; I appreciate your clarification, comrade. At 7:25, he acknowledged that he's changed his opinion since joining the Congress and now believes in an ideological litmus test for federal judges. At 6:31 he stated that climate change is "clearly man-made", whereas Palin said it's real but not entirely caused by humans. At 6:36 Biden used the phrases "under the Constitution" and "it's what the Constitution calls for" regarding hospital visitation, property rights, and other benefits for homosexual couples; if those statements are true, why are we still legislating those rights? More on that later.

If Palin disappointed me at all, it was in her continued attacks on the greed of Wall Street. Why was none of her scorn directed at Joe Biden and the Congress, which created, shielded, and was wined and dined by officials from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac? Whatever happened to the concept of congressional oversight--or were the congressmen too busy with junkets and parties?

The two candidates agreed on some topics. Neither supports "gay marriage", and neither do their presidential candidates, but all four support seem to support equal rights and civil unions for homosexuals. Both spoke of unwavering support for our ally Israel. Both claim to wear the mantle of "change". Both have sons either in Iraq or on the way there.

And moderator Gwen Ifill, who isn't exactly impartial, what with the impending release of her book about Barack Obama and all, acquitted herself well.

Update: and even though you didn't come directly to this post, welcome to my visitor from Wasilla, Alaska!

It's Blatant

What's wrong with the information contained in this screen shot?



Well, the article discusses a debate that doesn't take place for another 40 minutes. And it's talking about that debate in the past tense. They've already written the story.

Nope, no bias there.

Update: Welcome Instapundit, NewsAlert, and HotAir readers!

What Your (Liberal) Betters Think Of You

This comes from Colorado:

In a confidential internal memorandum obtained by Face The State (PDF), the Colorado Democracy Alliance outlines a roster of "operatives" who worked for Democratic victory in the 2006 general election. The document outlines specific tasks for various members of the state's liberal infrastructure, including a campaign to "educate the idiots," assigned to the state's AFL-CIO union. Among the operation's intended targets: "minorities, GED's, drop-outs."

According to the comments, the CDA denies making the offensive statement and claims the document has been altered or forged. Then show us the real one.

Teacher Free Speech, Redux

From the Washington Post, via Newsalert:

An e-mail distributed by a Virginia teachers union encouraged members to bring politics into the classroom by wearing blue in support of Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama and simultaneously suggested that the union's voter registration efforts include those "you teach."

It's one thing to wear a button to express yourself. It's quite another to do so in an explicit attempt to indoctrinate.

This Is Rich

A replacement program wasn't ready in time, so San Francisco has allowed JROTC programs to exist in the city for one more year. You've got to love this, though:

Board members who decided to kick JROTC out of town see it as arm of the military that reaches into schools, discriminating against gays by enforcing the "don't ask, don't tell" mandate, and recruiting teenagers for an unpopular war.

"It's a broader issue about the Bush administration and military recruiting through JROTC," said board member Eric Mar. "It's clear with the military, if you're gay and out, you don't get the same opportunities," he added...

If the aim is recruitment, however, JROTC in San Francisco is a failure. Only two of the 1,465 cadets there signed up for the armed forces after graduation in 2006-2007, the latest year for which numbers are available.

Supporters view the elective course as valuable self-improvement — teaching them discipline, responsibility and leadership skills they say they do not get in other classes. JROTC rules prevent instructors from trying to recruit participants...

They also say the arguments about the war in Iraq and the Pentagon's policy toward gays miss the point: The program in San Francisco is inclusive, with 90 percent minorities and 40 percent women, they say.

Some gay and lesbian student groups have come out in support of JROTC and the ballot measure, saying some of their members have found a home in the program. (boldface mine--Darren)

That last statement can't be true--everyone knows that anyone even remotely involved with anything military is a bigot, a homophobe, an automaton, and anything else bad we can think of.

Chatting With Students Online

I can't see a good reason to do so.

I give my Yahoo email to my seniors when they graduate, and a few actually make use of it. One or two students have figured out my email from my blog profile page--no big deal. At most they've emailed me to let me know they found it. Any other student who has my email uses it extremely rarely, and it stays professional--job references, college or military information, and the like. I remember looking my teachers up in the phone book; I wouldn't have dreamed of calling them, but it was funny, somehow, knowing they were listed.

With internet chat, though, lines can get blurred. Is there really a reason to chat with current students online? Full disclosure: I just finished a Yahoo Messenger chat with a former student of mine who attends one of our service academies (and talked on the phone to another such former student last night)--but I'm sure we can all agree that that's not even in the same league as sex chat with a current student.

I'd ask what such people are thinking, but it's clear they're not.

NEA and Republicans

From the files of the Education Intelligence Agency:

In the 2008 campaign, NEA is supporting 31 Senate candidates, all Democrats, and 314 House candidates, 20 of whom are Republicans. Of the 20 House Republican candidates, 18 are incumbents, one is running for an open seat (the Ray LaHood GOP seat in Illinois), and only one is a challenger. But the challenger is Jim Burkee in Wisconsin’s 5th District, who is running against incumbent Republican Jim Sensenbrenner in a race with no Democratic candidate.

NEA continues to insist that it selects candidates “based on the individual candidate’s positions on key issues critical to public education - regardless of a candidate’s affiliation with a specific political party.” However, the NEA PAC Council, which decides which candidates to support, is made up of the union’s national, state and caucus officers. What percentage of these decision-makers are Republicans? If NEA’s own surveys are any indication, not very many, and certainly a lot less than that of the rank-and-file.

Raise your hand if you're surprised. Anyone? Bueller?

Teacher Free Speech

This just isn't right.

SOQUEL -- Teachers at Soquel High School have agreed not to wear "Educators for Obama" buttons in the classroom after a parent complained that educators were attempting to politically influence his daughter and other students...

"It doesn't matter who they are supporting," Hadley said Tuesday. "Teachers lose their free-speech rights when they go into a classroom. They are allowed to stick to the curriculum, not political views."

I wasn't aware that the 1st Amendment stopped at the schoolhouse door. Turns out there's some wiggle room here.

The law disagrees with Hadley, but does allow districts to set limits on the political activities of teachers during the school day...

Legal decisions in California allow educators to wear political buttons at work except during classroom instruction, unless the matter has a direct bearing on an education issue, such as a proposed school bond or contract matter.

Now we get to argue what "is" is. I wear a red, white, and blue elephant pin given to me by a former student. Is that a "political button"? And if my 1st Amendment freedom of expression can be limited in this way at school, are we also going to forbid the wearing of Stars of David or of crosses? This is obviously not a trivial question.

Carnival of Education

My recent posts on "making lemonade" and considering a masters degree program are included in this week's Carnival of Education, found here.