Obama Circuit Court Pick Successfully Filibustered By Republicans

Just over a year ago I wrote about Goodwin Liu, President Obama's pick to sit on the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. Today his nomination was filibustered in the Senate; Professor Liu will not be a circuit court judge.

I listened to Hugh Hewitt a few moments ago as he interviewed Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, and the Liu filibuster was discussed at length. Hewitt's link on the subject is here, which should shortly contain a transcript of that interview so you can judge for yourself if what I present here is accurate.

There are some Democratic chickens that are coming home to roost here. Democrats, are you happy with this outcome? Senator McConnell stated that Democrats filibustered President Bush's nominations--specifically mentioning Miguel Estrada--and that Republicans effectively lost the "up-or-down vote" battle when that happened and are now merely adjusting to the new reality of the Senate. Again--Democrats, are you happy with those seeds you've sown? Hewitt stated that he thinks all nominees reported out of committee deserve an up-or-down vote; did Senator McConnell think that this could serve notice to the Democrats that maybe they should sit down with Republicans and craft some "no filibuster on judicial nominees" rule? McConnell replied that he did not see such a discussion in the near future.

What I got from Hewitt was very much a consistent, reasoned set of questions on Liu, and from McConnell an acknowledgement of Realpolitik in the Senate. I cannot remember which one said it--I guess we'll find out when Hewitt posts the transcript--but one of them said that Republicans cannot just roll over when Democrats change the rules of the game (when they started filibustering judicial nominations under President Bush) and continue to play by the old rules of comity. McConnell also said that Liu's views are very extreme, that his writings seem to imply that judges can make law up as they go along.

Both sides have now slapped. Will they consider themselves "even" and try to work these kinds of issues out together in the future, or will this escalate into a brawl?

Update: Less than two hours later the transcript is posted at the link above. I'll quote some of the highlights.

MM (Mitch McConnell): So I think the reason for it (Liu's filibuster) is quite clear. He had the view that it’s perfectly permissible, and even desirable for judges to kind of make it up as they go, in other words, to act as legislators. It probably didn’t help him any that he testified against both Chief Justice Roberts and Justice Alito, and used some rather strident language in describing both of them. But I think the core reason he was denied a vote, and therefore defeated, was because he seemed to be uninterested in what the Constitution, or even the case law, might require a judge to do, and really, pretty openly, said he believed in judges ought to do whatever they think is the right thing to do.

HH (Hugh Hewitt): Now Leader McConnell, a lot of scholars, including Ken Starr, president of Baylor, former solicitor general and D.C. Circuit judge, weighed in on behalf of Professor Liu. Was it a close call in the minds of many of the Senators in your caucus? Or was this an easy one for them to invoke filibuster on?

MM: Well, Republicans…hey, you know, in the early part of the previous decade, argued very strenuously against filibustering judges. But frankly, we lost that battle. They filibustered Miguel Estrada, an extremely well-qualified nominee of President Bush’s seven times, and hung up a huge number of his judges. And I think it just dawned on a bunch of us that that battle had been lost, and clearly, the Senate would now filibuster a judge when it deemed the judge objectionable. And so all we did today was simply follow the new norm in the Senate, and I’m pleased that with one exception, every single Republican voted against giving Mr. Liu a vote.

There's that Realpolitik I spoke of. And it was Hewitt who mentioned "rolling over":

HH: My question, Leader McConnell, is does this open the door for some kind of an amendment of the Senate rules so that all judicial nominees, both Republican and Democrats, are guaranteed up or down votes if they get out of committee? Is there a chance here to go back, because I’m one of those critics of the extra-Constitutional standard. At the same time, I don’t believe the Republicans can roll over and allow their judges to be filibustered and not pay back when the Democrats come along. Is there a chance now to perhaps reopen that and get a rule that guarantees nominees an up or down?

MM: No, I don’t think so.

Go read the full transcript; I think you'll see the differences I spoke of--McConnell's reality vs. Hewitt's "way it outta be".

Update #2: From the Washington Examiner:

Liu's nomination was blocked by a Republican filibuster Thursday -- the first successful filibuster against a judicial nominee since Democrats stopped all 10 of George W. Bush's appeals court nominees from 2003 to 2005. Although no one back then could have predicted that today's fight would be about Liu, everyone knew it was going to happen sometime. Once Democrats crossed the line to filibuster those Bush nominees, you could bet Republicans would strike back. And now they have.

If the Republicans really want to pay the insult back, they have 9 more to filibuster. Hey lefties, is this how you want your government run? No? Then maybe you need to learn to play nice.

Did He Lie?

If not, what's the significant change that's merited this tectonic flip-flop?

In 2008 Barack Obama told American Jewish leaders that he would not divide Jerusalem.

But that was when he needed the Jewish vote.

Today Obama rewarded the Hamas-Farah alliance by telling Israel to divide Jerusalem and move back to the 1967 borders.

Jews, who in this country vote overwhelmingly Democrat, should be embarrassed by their support of this president.

Update, 5/20/11: Does this guy sound like a madman? He sounds calm and realistic to me.

Update #2, 5/22/11: Did Obama backtrack? Reiterate? Say whatever he had to in order to get reelection money from AIPAC? Regarding his speech at AIPAC:

The president did not disappoint. The speech, as you can read for yourself, was full of obligatory promises of how the United States stands by Israel, and how his administration has done whatever it had to in order to guarantee Israel’s military requirements and security...

So what are we to make of all this?

On this issue, the critical response came during the panel that followed. The points in the president’s speech, Wall Street Journal columnist Bret Stephens said, “are not as innocent as he made them out to be.” To this, Stephens received a large ovation from the assembled delegates, more than Obama received for any points that he had made...

So the question is, as I conclude, whether or not the president means it, whether or not he will backpedal in the other direction, and whether he will seek to mend matters with Prime Minister Netanyahu, rather than push him in directions Israel does not want to go. We now have evidence that in a few short days, the pressure moved the president away from the contentious trap he set before meeting PM Netanyahu. Will he now change again facing pressure from the “realists,” the anti-Israel left wing, and the Arab nations — including those of the Arab Spring that are turning out to be vigorous enemies of Israel? Time, as usual, will tell.

President Richard Milhous Obama

That's the funniest line I've read in awhile, and it comes from this article:

Boston Herald, welcome to the official “Enemies List!”

No, my Herald colleagues, you aren’t the first journalists to feel the wrath of President Richard Milhaus Obama. And you won’t be the last.

Giving a reporter the boot because you don’t like the Herald’s coverage — classic Obama, says David Freddoso, author of the book “Gangster Government,” who reminded me that during the 2010 campaign, the president promised that “We’re gonna punish our enemies and we’re gonna reward our friends.”

And the Boston Herald is not one of the president’s friends.

Remember the White House’s self-declared “War On Fox News?” Upset by unfavorable coverage, they declared that Fox was “not a legitimate news organization,” tried to get a Fox reporter banned from a press pool interview and announced no more Obama interviews for the rest of the year. Team Obama only backed down when other media outlets objected.

Last month the White House kicked San Francisco Chronicle reporter Carla Marinucci out of the local press pool for recording protesters at an Obama event. And according to Chronicle editor at large Phil Bronstein, “more than a few journalists familiar with this story are aware of some implied threats from the White House of additional and wider punishment if Carla’s spanking became public.”

Then there was the Orlando Sentinel reporter stuck in a closet during a Joe Biden fundraiser by White House hacks. “Every time I . . . stepped out to see what was going on a staffer told me I couldn’t come out yet,” Scott Powers reported.

And now it’s the Herald.

“I tend to consider the degree to which papers have demonstrated to covering the White House regularly and fairly in determining local pool reporters,” White House spokesman Matt Lehrich said.

Some conservatives are using this to mock “the most transparent administration in history,” but I disagree completely. Team Obama is beyond transparent — it’s utterly shameless.

Seriously — barring “unfriendly” reporters from political events? What’s next — a Biden speech about the “nattering nabobs of negativity?”

The last time we had a president this paranoid about his enemies, Woody Allen was still making movies that were actually funny.

And remember, this is the administration that wants prospective government contractors to disclose how much money they've given to Republican causes before they get the government contracts.

Dogs and Cats, Lying Down Together

Politics makes strange bedfellows, so to speak:

The former president of the Washington Teachers' Union is joining Michelle Rhee's education advocacy group as a senior fellow...

If you'll recall, the teachers' union and Rhee got along like a tornado crawling with bedbugs and virtually anything else. Parker was ousted from his presidency by his vice president, Nathan Saunders, who charged Parker with being too soft at the negotiating table with Rhee and her deputy, now Acting Chancellor Kaya Henderson.

In the release, Rhee acknowledged that she and Parker are strange bedfellows.

"George and I clearly don't see eye-to-eye on everything," she said. "But ... he and I came up with a teachers' contract that dramatically changed how D.C. public schools operate. I hope, working together again, we can come up with effective ideas for improving how schools serve children nationally."

For his part, Parker doesn't toss unions out the window. Sort of. "I also look forward to advancing the role of unions in education reform," he said. "Teachers unions represent a very unique component of the American workforce. If our country's schools are to improve, the unions must be an integral part of the solution."

If he thinks unions are "integral" to school improvement, I don't see how he and Rhee can work together. This can't last.

How The Mighty Have Fallen

It's hard to feel sorry for Ted Rall, disgusting human that he is. I actually find it entertaining that he has the gall to whine that no one will publish his work now:

Ted Rall's cartoons and opinion pieces were all the rage when he was attacking George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, and American soldiers.

But now that there's a man in the White House the press absolutely adore, the once syndicated polemicist claims he's having a hard time getting anyone to publish his work:

In the past, editorial rejections had numerous causes: low budgets, lack of space, an editor who simply preferred another creator's work over yours.

Now there' s a new cause for refusal: Too tough on the president.

I've heard that from enough "liberal" websites and print publications to consider it a significant trend.

A sample of recent rejections, each from editors at different left-of-center media outlets:

· "I am familiar with and enjoy your cartoons. However the readers of our site would not be comfortable with your (admittedly on point) criticism of Obama."

· "Don't be such a hater on O and we could use your stuff. Can't you focus more on the GOP?"

· "Our first African-American president deserves a chance to clean up Bush's mess without being attacked by us."

I have many more like that.

What's weird is that these cultish attitudes come from editors and publishers whose politics line up neatly with mine. They oppose the bailouts. They want us out of Afghanistan and Iraq. They disapprove of Obama's new war against Libya. They want Obama to renounce torture and Guantánamo.

Did he really believe they published his crap because he was "right on"? What a tool. Ted, you're what's known as a "useful idiot" and you've outlived your usefulness, at least until the next Republican president. And believe me, "idiot" is the nicest term that could be applied to you.

The War Powers Act

I first learned about the War Powers Act in law class at West Point. At the time I questioned its legality, but in the intervening years I'm come to think that the Founders would have approved of allowing the President to act immediately in a situation but would, in fact, have to get Congressional approval within a reasonable time. The presidency is not imperial, and being the Commander-in-Chief does not give the president unchecked authority to use the military however he wants. It's obvious--except, perhaps, for the most rabidly partisan--that the Founders intended that both the executive and the legislature would have a say in military operations, each in their own way. The War Powers Act seems to me to be reasonably in accord with that sentiment.

So what happens in two days?

This week, the War Powers Act confronts its moment of truth. Friday will mark the 60th day since President Obama told Congress of his Libyan campaign. According to the act, that declaration started a 60-day clock: If Obama fails to obtain congressional support for his decision within this time limit, he has only one option — end American involvement within the following 30 days...

His (Obama's) March 21 letter to Congress telling of the Libyan campaign stated that it was “consistent with the War Powers Resolution.” And his Justice Department issued an opinion that acknowledged the 60-day rule without questioning its constitutionality.

Why, then, hasn’t the president been pressing Congress to approve the war before the looming deadline? Because it’s easier to paper over the problem with new legal fictions pretending that the time limit doesn’t apply to this instance...

Once Obama crosses the Rubicon, future presidents will simply cite Libya when they unilaterally commit America to far more ambitious NATO campaigns.

Make no mistake: Obama is breaking new ground, moving decisively beyond his predecessors. George W. Bush gained congressional approval for his wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Bill Clinton acted unilaterally when he committed American forces to NATO’s bombing campaign in Kosovo, but he persuaded Congress to approve special funding for his initiative within 60 days. And the entire operation ended on its 78th day.

In contrast, Congress has not granted special funds for Libya since the bombing began, and the campaign is likely to continue beyond the 30-day limit set for termination of all operations.

I'm sure our friends on the left will explain to us how President Bush's presidency was "imperial" but President Obama's is something else--maybe they'll call it "practical" or something that sounds equally innocuous. Or maybe, after supporting it for almost 40 years, they'll say it's unconstitutional.

Wednesday Trivia

The answer to yesterday's question, the last in 1960-1969 Week, is:
Stonewall Inn, from which comes the name of the Stonewall Riots.

Today's question, the first in 1970-1979 Week, is:
In what year were women first allowed to compete in the Boston Marathon?

A Little Needling For The Nanny-Staters

C.S. Lewis once wrote that "of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive." Rulers who just want to exploit us may relax once their greed's sated.

But "those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience," Lewis said.

Via Reason.

Tuesday Trivia

The answer to yesterday's question is:
1966 (December 15th).

Today's question, the last in 1960-1969 Week, is:
What was the name of the New York City gay club that was raided by police in June 1969, reaction to which essentially inaugurated the modern gay rights movement?

Is Taxpayer Support For College A "Public Good"?

It's been accepted as Gospel for almost 50 years now, since California's Master Plan For Education was first published, that it's good for California to have affordable higher education available to everyone, that California benefits (presumably financially) from its "investment" in higher education--that would be the billions provided to the University of California, California State University, and Community College systems each year.

But what if it's not true?

Who Wins? Who Pays? The Economic Returns and Costs of a Bachelor’s Degree finds clear winners: Bachelor’s degree holders get a good return on their investment. But taxpayers can be losers, the report concludes. Including public subsidies, tax breaks and government aid to students, taxpayers spend more than they get back for bachelor’s degrees earned at public and private nonprofit institutions; only for-profit colleges turn a profit for the taxpayers.

Definitely worth a read, especially in these budget-cutting times.

CTA's State of Emergency: The Lamest Show on Earth

The California Teachers Association's State of Emergency rallies ended last Friday, not with a bang but with a whimper. "Mellow" is not a word you want associated with the culmination of your angry protests.

Many of the union's nuttier ideas were discarded under public scrutiny, but one that survived intact was the "300 volunteers needed for a sit-in in the State Capitol (beginning Monday, May 9)." We've since learned that the sit-in and arrests on Monday occurred over CTA objections, and the "occupation" of the Capitol involved searching in vain for GOP legislators to bother (it helps if you know what they look like).

Two news cycles were devoted to CTA president David Sanchez's overnight jail stay (plus video) and the - I kid you not - vigil that was held until his release.

It's somehow appropriate to the situation in California that the State of Emergency protests cost millions of dollars and thousand of man-hours while accomplishing nothing concrete.

Read more at EIA. Further down on the same page we get this:

Washington Education Association Approves "Day of Action." It's all the rage with the cool kids. I'm guessing it will include, oh, I don't know, a protest rally at the Capitol?

One-note Charlie.

Is the US Department of Education Breaking The Law?

A guest blogger over at Joanne's site does more than offer an opinion, he offers some evidence.

Lefties, Do You Support This?

WI Attorney General Releases 100 PAGES of Documented Threats Against Lawmakers During the Budget “Negotiations”

Wisconsin Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen released 100 pages of documented threats against lawmakers. The released documents include threats against both Republicans and democrats but, of course, the most vile and violent threats were sent to Republican officials.

According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, "A surprising number of even the most vile messages came from readily-identifiable senders."

Civility is for chumps, I guess.

Why I Don't Want the Government To Have So Much Power

Of the 204 new Obamacare waivers President Barack Obama’s administration approved in April, 38 are for fancy eateries, hip nightclubs and decadent hotels in House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi’s Northern California district.

That’s in addition to the 27 new waivers for health care or drug companies and the 31 new union waivers Obama’s Department of Health and Human Services approved.

Pelosi’s district secured almost 20 percent of the latest issuance of waivers nationwide, and the companies that won them didn’t have much in common with companies throughout the rest of the country that have received Obamacare waivers.

Other common waiver recipients were labor union chapters, large corporations, financial firms and local governments. But Pelosi’s district’s waivers are the first major examples of luxurious, gourmet restaurants and hotels getting a year-long pass from Obamacare.

Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2011/05/17/nearly-20-percent-of-new-obamacare-waivers-are-gourmet-restaurants-nightclubs-fancy-hotels-in-nancy-pelosi%e2%80%99s-district/#ixzz1Mdpj1Ose

Update, 5/18/11: Gotta love this one!

Monday’s New York Times had another classic entry in the annals of Obamacare. It seems that nursing homes are asking HHS for waivers from Obamacare’s requirement that employers provide health coverage to their workers. Nursing homes, even though they are in the health-care business, often don’t provide insurance to their employees. They can’t afford to. And why is that?

Mark Parkinson, president of the American Health Care Association, the largest trade group for nursing homes, says the problem is that reimbursement rates for Medicaid and Medicare, set by government agencies, do not pay them enough to offer their employees medical coverage. “We do not have much ability to increase prices because we are so dependent on Medicaid and Medicare” for revenue, he said.

Yes, that’s right. They can’t afford to give their own workers health insurance because they are dependent on government-provided health insurance programs for their own revenue, and the arbitrary price controls in those programs don’t allow them to make much of a profit.

Update #2, 5/19/11: Let's double down on the Obamacare waivers:

Don’t like Obamacare? Want your company to get a waiver from it, but they won’t give you one because you don’t have the right connections? Don’t worry, your secret’s safe with Barack. TheDC’s Matthew Boyle reports: “Amidst the news that 38 of the 204 Obamacare waivers approved in April went to posh entertainment venues in House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi’s district, new questions about the Obama administration’s transparency pledge have arisen. Although the administration has approved more than 1,300 Obamacare waivers and published the recipients’ application information online, it has not made public which companies and other entities have been denied waivers and why they were denied. Obama’s Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) won’t release that information, nor will they publicly release the identities of those still waiting for a decision. HHS won’t even say how many applications are in the queue.” This is the most transparent administration in U.S. history, and everybody knows that when something’s transparent, you can’t even see it. Duh.

This administration is an embarrassment.

Update #3, 5/21/11: The Washington Times doesn't go easy on the president, his administration, or his allies in Congress, either:

I will repeat the same question I’ve been asking since the first health care waiver was granted: If Obamacare is such a great law, why does the White House keep exempting its best friends from it?

The Responsibilities That Go Along With Blogging

Today I received a comment on a post I wrote last January. The comment was from a parent seeking advice on a topic I'd written about.

It's one thing to put my views and opinions out here, but quite another when someone reads those views and opinions and then solicits my advice. To me, that's a weighty responsibility.

Please go read the post and the comments and let me know if I did OK or not, or how I might have responded better to PA MOM.

Monday Trivia

The answer to yesterday's question is:
Prague. It didn't quite work out.

Today's question is:
In what year did Walt Disney die?

A Modest Proposal For Affirmative Action

Auction off "affirmative action seats" in freshman classes, making AA both profitable and sustainable!

The “auction” would work as follows. Schools would announce a limited number of sponsored undergraduate fellows that could be “endowed” by super-rich do-gooders. Given the prestige (and favorable publicity) of sponsoring a university fellow, the rush would be on, especially at elite schools. The opening bid would be set equal to the total four-year cost for a minority student, and this would include full tuition, student-activity fees, room and board, some spending money, all necessary remediation, the per-student cost of the cultural center, and everything else imaginable. Moreover, to cover administrative costs, “overhead” would be tacked on (in research contracts, this can be as high as 80 percent of a grant). I’d guess that $100,000 per year per fellow would suffice as the minimum opening bid for direct expenses, plus, say, another $50,000 for overhead. If, for example, Harvard opened the bidding at $150,000 for 30 fellows, the guaranteed yearly haul would be $4.5 million (the actual net would be substantially higher, since this outside contribution cancels the cost of internally funding affirmative action). For a four-year (probably five-year) program, this works out to at least $18 million per year in fresh revenue.

But, given today’s philanthropic madness, these figures are far too low. Imagine an auction at a lavish New York Plaza Hotel banquet, complete with New York Times coverage and glamorous celebrities with Bill Clinton as the emcee. The event would be a feeding frenzy for well-heeled, social-status-seeking do-gooders. Billionaire hedge-fund operators would vie for the honor of the most extravagant bidder. Auctions in the hinterland would be more subdued, and at the local Holiday Inn, but the cost of education here is much lower, and so $25,000 a year might “buy” a fellow. In a nutshell, achieving diversity becomes a profit center.

Now, the winning bidders would get to choose their recipients according to their own standards. Actually, they would probably outsource this task to others, just as members of Congress farm out military academy appointments. In any case, it would be unlikely that any fellows would remain unsponsored, and, in an instant, revenue soars and expenses drop sharply. The million-dollar tuition/expense/overhead checks would arrive promptly and no discounts would be given. Proud sponsors would take out full-page Wall Street Journal advertisements to showcase their latest fellows. And with some legal finagling to avoid laws banning reverse discrimination, these fellows would not be classified as regular students, though in practice they would be indistinguishable.

Privately paid fellowships also avoid certain commonplace political problems — no public money goes toward admitting and then retaining students who fail to meet academic standards. No parent complains that their super-smart offspring was pushed aside by an unqualified minority student. Indeed, the private largess may reduce tuition, so diversity would more than pay for itself. Financially hard-pressed parents may even demand greater revenue-generating diversity at State U.

The sentence following the snip above is worth the price of admission all by itself. Go take a read.

What Democratic Leadership Thinks of California's Citizenry

Having failed to win enough Republican votes to put the taxes on the ballot in June, the governor is expected to ask lawmakers to impose at least some of the levies first and seek Californians' blessing after the fact, said officials with knowledge of Brown's plan...

Even Democratic leaders and the governor's union backers, doubting the odds of a tax measure passing at the ballot box, are pushing Brown to break his pledge and forgo voter input.

"Go get a deal done," said David Kieffer, executive director of the state council of the influential Service Employees International Union, in a challenge to Brown and the Legislature. Californians "would vote the taxes down," he said, and "they don't actually need to be involved in this decision."

And this comes from the reliably conservative (snicker snicker) Los Angeles Times.

Allow me to summarize what Brown's being told: "Tax 'em. Break your promise to 'em. Screw 'em."

I'll Bet The CTA Won't Tell You This

And this quote comes from that conservative/Republican Party mouthpiece, the Los Angeles Times:

Are California public retirement plans better than those for federal or private-sector workers? Yes in some ways, no in others.

Generally they allow earlier retirement than their counterparts. Typically, public-safety employees such as police officers and firefighters have the best deals, schoolteachers the worst.

Good job, CTA. Clearly the union dues teachers pay each year (over $1000 in my school district) are justified by the exceptional job the CTA does in looking out for my pay, benefits, and working conditions.

Sunday Trivia

The answer to yesterday's question is:
The Maple Leaf. It's official name is the National Flag of Canada.

Today's question is:
Which city's “Spring” took place in 1968, promising “socialism with a human face”?

Can They Control It, Or Not?

Teenagers will always say they can't control farting or loud burping or whatever, but when you put genuine (and unpleasant) consequences behind your disgust they usually, somehow, find ways to control the uncontrollable. How can we tell the difference between controllable and uncontrollable behavior, though? With 13-year-old boys, I'm not willing to be very lenient, and neither is this school district:

An Ohio seventh-grader was suspended last week for doing arguably the most predictable thing a 13-year-old boy could do for a laugh on the school bus. He cut the cheese.

Canal Winchester Middle School students Anthony Nichols and another boy lost their bus privileges on Friday for their stinky stunt, which prompted the customary rousing laughter and "lowering of windows," according to the Columbus Dispatch.

Administrators ruled that the flatulence was in violation of the school's code of conduct, but if you ask Nichols' parents, the decision reeks of poor judgement.

Mumsy claims that she has "gastrointestinal distress" and perhaps her son does, too. So? Others shouldn't have to suffer because of your problem. Wear those charcoal-lined undies or something, and quit making excuses for your jerk of a kid.

This Is Entirely Legal In California

New Zealand parents are outraged after learning some schools are helping to keep teenage girls’ abortions a secret, the Sunday Star-Times reports.

One mom is angry that her 16-year-old daughter had a secret abortion allegedly arranged by a school counselor.

"I was horrified. Horrified that she'd had to go through that on her own, and horrified her friends and counselors had felt that she shouldn't talk to us," she told the Star-Times.

The mother learned that the school counselor had taken the girl for a scan and to doctors. “I didn’t know they could do that,” she said. link

In California, we're required to let kids leave school for "medical procedures" and are not allowed to tell their parents they're leaving school. We're forbidden to give them an aspirin if they have a headache, though. And they need a parent's permission before getting a tattoo.

How Much Do Sheets Weigh?

Enough, apparently:

The California hotel workers union is pushing a bill that requires all hotel mattresses to have flat sheets instead of fitted sheets. They argue that the heavy lifting required for fitted sheets is causing back injuries for workers.

Do I even need to comment on this? Perhaps I should create a new category/label called "insanity" and put posts like this in it.

Yesterday's Teacher Rally at the Capitol

Click here to read fellow blogger, fellow teacher, fellow conservative, reader of Right on the Left Coast, and friend W.R. Chandler's firsthand account of yesterday's CTA rally at the Capitol. About the only leftie cliche I didn't see in his story was Code Pink.

Converts Are Strongest Believers

Higher ed, he said, was an elaborate scheme to deprive young people of their freedom of thought. He compared four years of college to a lab experiment in which a rat is trained to pull a lever for a pellet of food. A student recites some bit of received and unexamined wisdom—“Thomas Jefferson: slave owner, adulterer, pull the lever”—and is rewarded with his pellet: a grade, a degree, and ultimately a lifelong membership in a tribe of people educated to see the world in the same way.

“If we identify every interaction as having a victim and an oppressor, and we get a pellet when we find the victims, we’re training ourselves not to see cause and effect,” he said. Wasn’t there, he went on, a “much more interesting .  .  . view of the world in which not everything can be reduced to victim and oppressor?”

This led to a full-throated defense of capitalism, a blast at high taxes and the redistribution of wealth, a denunciation of affirmative action, prolonged hymns to the greatness and wonder of the United States, and accusations of hypocrisy toward students and faculty who reviled business and capital even as they fed off the capital that the hard work and ingenuity of businessmen had made possible. The implicit conclusion was that the students in the audience should stop being lab rats and drop out at once, and the faculty should be ashamed of themselves for participating in a swindle—a “shuck,” as Mamet called it. link

I wrote about David Mamet once before, about three years ago. I appreciate his consistency!

Saturday Trivia

The answer to yesterday's question is:
February 9, 1964.

Today's question is:
In early 1965, Canada adopted a new national flag. What is the commonly-used nickname for this flag?

More Incompetence, But This Time It Works In My Favor

Just 2 days ago I wrote about how, after 2 weeks, I still hadn't received my disabled parking placard from the Department of Motor Vehicles. It took two calls to learn that it can take up to 4 weeks to process such requests, and the second person I talked to could find no record of DMV's having received my application or money.

Today, just 2 days later, I received my placard in the mail.

It's Senior Prank Season

Pranks are one thing, destructive and/or costly-to-remove pranks are entirely different:

Thirty-one students have been suspended from a Michigan high school for five days after a scavenger hunt that included defecating on rival schools' athletic fields, officials said...

About 10 of the 31 were heavily involved in the May 5 hunt that also included cutting tennis nets at its rival school, Huron High School, and spray painting the letter P on their athletic fields, Margolis said. The rest of those suspended were either on the schools' property or in cars.

Don't be stupid.

Double Standard?

OK, the boy in this story is, well, whatever bad name you want to call him. But notice how the girl gets a pass, legally:

"The boyfriend kept asking the girlfriend to send him a nude photograph of herself. She denied it [but] finally after enough pestering she gave in and sent him one of herself," Erica O'Bryon, a spokeswoman for the Roswell Police Department, told AOL Weird News.

Photo in hand, the teen boy allegedly set the second part of his plan into motion: to extort what he wanted from his high school sweetheart.

"He told her if she did not have sex with him he was going to post the picture on the Internet," O'Bryon said. "She refused, so he did, in fact, post the picture on Facebook"...

According to O'Bryon, officials did not file any charges related to child pornography because they did not want to "victimize the victim again, because we would have to charge her with it as well," she said.

There's more than one lesson that should be learned here, by more than one person.

Strange Weather

I've always said that it always rains for one day during the first week of June in Sacramento. And that's a fluke, because it usually stops raining in April here. Not so much this year, though:

A weekend storm is pushing into the state today, bringing the threat of showers around Northern California and snow in the mountains.

The unseasonable weather will be dropping temperatures to around 15 degrees below the average for this time of year, according to the National Weather Service.

Up to .30 inches of rain is expected to fall in the Sacramento Valley.

High temperatures will range between the mid-60s and low 70s, forecasters said.

If this is global warming, sign me up for more.

Unintentional Mockery

A few minutes ago I received the following message from fellow blogger and long-time RotLC reader Mark:

Darren,

Just noticed that I sent an email to the daughter that also cc'd you. Purely unintentional and considering your current condition also cruel.

Mark

The email was a Groupon for half off a round of golf at a Cupertino golf course!

Someday, They May Point To This As The Point At Which America Went Over The Cliff

For those of you who want to give more power and authority to the government, is this what you had in mind?

Overturning a common law dating back to the English Magna Carta of 1215, the Indiana Supreme Court ruled Thursday that Hoosiers have no right to resist unlawful police entry into their homes.

In a 3-2 decision, Justice Steven David writing for the court said if a police officer wants to enter a home for any reason or no reason at all, a homeowner cannot do anything to block the officer's entry.

"We believe ... a right to resist an unlawful police entry into a home is against public policy and is incompatible with modern Fourth Amendment jurisprudence," David said. "We also find that allowing resistance unnecessarily escalates the level of violence and therefore the risk of injuries to all parties involved without preventing the arrest."

As a conservative I am sickened by this.

Should I Teach--Or "Facilitate"?

You can tell by the scare quotes which answer I think is correct. I genuinely honestly truly believe that I'm paid a moderate amount by the school district because I know a goodly amount of math and how to impart that knowledge to others, and the district would like it if I would so impart! That means I teach, not "facilitate learning". Additionally, I very much believe in being the "sage on the stage", not the "guide on the side"--and there's a new study that backs me up:

A new study finds that 8th grade students in the U.S. score higher on standardized tests in math and science when their teachers allocate greater amounts of class time to lecture-style presentations than to group problem-solving activities. For both math and science, the study finds that a shift of 10 percentage points of time from problem solving to lecture-style presentations (for example, increasing the share of time spent lecturing from 60 to 70 percent) is associated with a rise in student test scores of 4 percent of a standard deviation for the students who had the exact same peers in both their math and science classes – or between one and two months’ worth of learning in a typical school year.

Update: On a related, but not an opposite note:

Who's better at teaching difficult physics to a class of more than 250 college students: the highly rated veteran professor using time-tested lecturing, or the inexperienced graduate students interacting with kids via devices that look like TV remotes? The answer could rattle ivy on college walls.

A study by a Nobel Prize-winning physicist, now a science adviser to President Barack Obama, suggests that how you teach is more important than who does the teaching.

He found that in nearly identical classes, Canadian college students learned a lot more from teaching assistants using interactive tools than they did from a veteran professor giving a traditional lecture. The students who had to engage interactively using the TV remote-like devices scored about twice as high on a test compared to those who heard the normal lecture, according to a study published Thursday in the journal Science.

The interactive method had almost no lecturing. It involved short, small-group discussions, in-class "clicker" quizzes, demonstrations and question-answer sessions. The teachers got real-time graphic feedback on what the students were learning and what they weren't getting.

Return

I did not wade ashore for the cameras, pipe in mouth, but I did return to school today. In person.

On Wednesday I Skyped into my 6th period for the last 15 minutes of the day. I'm not sure who enjoyed it most--me, for getting to see and talk to the kids; my substitute, for not having to be "on stage" for 15 minutes; or the kids, who got out of 15 minutes of work!

Yesterday was the last staff meeting of the year, and the math department's turn to recognize two Students of the Month. Last month I nominated one of my students who has Lyme Disease, and despite all the treatments and absences (Lyme is really bad) always showed up to school with completed homework in hand and a readiness to take any quizzes/tests missed. With an attitude like that, is it any wonder she's going to USC in a few months? Anyway, that recommendation was accepted unanimously, and I very much wanted to be the teacher to present the award to her.

Enter Skype again.

Everyone saw me up on the screen and could hear me over the speakers, and it was amazing how much of the meeting I could hear via the microphone. I was present for the whole staff meeting!

That's how I knew about today's PTSA luncheon. One of the perks of teaching in a well-to-do area is that our PTSA is very generous; in addition to running a Parent Secret Pal program, they put on a back-to-school luncheon and an end-of-the-year luncheon--and they go all out. The food is always exceptional, and there's always plenty of it.

And anyone who knows me knows that I'm not going to let a little knee injury get between me and a spread like that!

My dad drove me to school about 45 minutes before lunch, and I'd arranged with a fellow teacher and friend to drive me home. Movement across campus was very slow, as the campus seems much larger than usual now that I'm gimpified. Two of my students were helping on the luncheon, and they carried the food for me as I crutched outside and found a bench. It was great to be able to relax and tell the kids what happened without disrupting any classes. Everyone wanted to hear the story of how it happened! Shortly before lunch ended I went back into the library, site of the luncheon, to chat with my fellow teachers while time was available.

The travel across campus to the classroom (and eventually the car) of my ride home was taken in small pieces--from this bench to that one to that one. You wouldn't think that just walking across a high school campus could be so much effort, but it was arduous--and barring the injury, I'm not in the worst physical shape, either. Even after relaxing (it was her prep period, and she was grading essays) in the classroom and getting driven home, I'm still exhausted. Physically, completely, exhausted.

Besides a couple trips to the doctor or to the store to get pain pills, this was my first time "out", and it was an extended stay from home. I'm not tired enough to sleep, but I'm exhausted enough not to move for awhile.

It was actually nice going back to school and seeing everyone. Who'd'a thunk it?

Friday Trivia

The answer to yesterday's (Wednesday's, actually, since Blogger was down for a day) is:
Gagarin's flight took place on April 12, 1961, and Shepard's flight was on May 5, 1961—23 days later.

Today's question is:
When did The Beatles first appear on the Ed Sullivan Show?

What Teachers Do On Their Own Time...

...is, with few exceptions, no one's business except their own. Joanne's recent post, Flash: School teachers have sex, pretty much hits the nail on the head.

What If They Busted A Union--And No One Noticed?

Read this entertainly-written story out of Wisconsin to see what happens when the sky doesn't fall.

Some Recent Liberal Hypocrisy

Because, you know, they're so good at it. Let's look first at military intervention:

Ross Douthat and Jeffrey Goldberg are far too kind to today’s Democratic party.

Douthat: “Imagine, for a moment, that these were George W. Bush’s policies at work. A quest for regime change in Libya, conducted without even a pro forma request for Congressional approval. A campaign of remote-controlled airstrikes, in which collateral damage is inevitable, carried out inside a country where we are not officially at war. A policy of targeted assassination against an American citizen who has been neither charged nor convicted in any U.S. court. Imagine the outrage, the protests, the furious op-eds about right-wing tyranny and neoconservative overreach. Imagine all that, and then look at the reality. For most Democrats, what was considered creeping fascism under Bush is just good old-fashioned common sense when the president has a “D” beside his name.”

Goldberg: “These last eight days, as well as the last 10 years, suggest to me that there is only one American foreign policy; this default foreign policy is interventionist, moralistic, and militarily robust. Everything else is commentary.”

A less charitable interpretation is that in a dangerous world, there is a clear set of policies that is required to protect the country, but only one party is honest about it.

And now, civility and working together:

“I’m going to do my part to lead a constructive and civil debate on these issues.”

— Barack Obama, speech on immigration, El Paso, May 10

Constructive and civil debate — like the one Obama initiated just four weeks ago on deficit reduction? The speech in which he accused the Republicans of abandoning families of autistic and Down syndrome kids? The debate in which Obama’s secretary of health and human services said that the Republican Medicare plan would make old folks “die sooner”?

In this same spirit of comity and mutual respect, Obama’s most recent invitation to civil discourse — on immigration — came just 11 minutes after he accused opponents of moving the goal posts on border enforcement. “Maybe they’ll need a moat,” he said sarcastically. “Maybe they want alligators in the moat.”

If you wrote fiction like this, people would say it wasn't believable.

Blogger Was Down For About 24 Hours

Most of you who blog probably knew this already, but for everyone else--yes, the Blogger platform had some issues starting yesterday afternoon and all blogs were put into read-only mode while the problem was fixed. Looks like everything's peachy now.

Department of Motor Vehicles

They're everybody's favorite whipping boy, and apparently with good reason.

Two weeks ago I mailed in my check and the paperwork to get a handicapped parking placard. Yesterday I called to find out why I hadn't received it; after all, roundtrip mail takes only two days to downtown, so what's going on with the other 8 working days?

The first time I finally got to speak to a human, I was put on hold and then disconnected after 5 minutes. I called back and was on hold approximately 20 minutes before getting to speak to another person. To avoid disconnecting me, she just set the phone down to go check--but didn't tell me that's what she was doing. I could tell I hadn't been disconnected, but it was somewhat disconcerting to have no one at the other end of the line for about 10 minutes.

She came back and said she couldn't find my paperwork, and since there's no fee with it there's no further way for her to check if it was received. I told her that since it's a temporary placard there *is* a fee, and I enclosed it. She asked, "can you check your bank to see if the check has cleared?" But don't do it yet, because it takes four weeks to process these placards.

Lefties, don't come back at me about how I support cuts and the like. You don't really want to try to justify why it takes 4 weeks to see a form filled out by a doctor, see an attached check, and put a piece of plastic in an envelope and mail it, do you? Four weeks. One month.

Pathetic.

Wednesday Trivia

The answer to yesterday's question is:
Cyprus.

Today's question is:
How long after Yuri Gagarin's first flight into space was Alan Shepard's first flight into space?

Mean-Spirited, Spiteful, and Vindictive--To What End?

Besides the title of this post, which tells you where I stand on the issue, I have nothing else to add to this story:

It began as a simple gesture. Shelton High School senior James Tate just wanted to make his good friend, Sonali Rodrigues, feel special.

So instead of the usual way of asking her to the senior prom, Tate and two friends went to the high school campus in the middle of the night and posted 12-inch tall, cardboard letters on the outside of the building -- at the main entrance.

The message that many saw when they arrived to school Friday, read: "Sonali Rodrigues, Will you go to prom with me? HMU Tate."

She said yes.

"It took a lot of effort," said Tate.

He posted the letters, one at a time, in a "safe and thoughtful way" to avoid trouble.

But, it appears, that didn't work out.

Because of what he did, Tate can't go to the prom.

Tuesday, after meeting with his headmaster, Tate and his two friends were each given one-day, in-house suspensions and banned from the prom. Tate was told the administration felt what they did was a safety risk...

He was told another reason for the suspensions was that they trespassed on school grounds.

Update: Bad press is the sunlight that makes the cockroaches scurry away:

A Connecticut teenager who has been barred from attending his senior prom after posting an oversize message to the front of his high school should be allowed to attend the dance, the town's mayor told FoxNews.com.

Shelton Mayor Mark Lauretti said he's unsure that the "punishment fits the crime" for James Tate, an 18-year-old senior at Shelton High School who, along with two friends, posted 12-inch tall cardboard letters outside the school’s main entrance last Thursday night so students would see the message in the morning.

The letters read: "Sonali Rodrigues, Will you go to the prom with me? HMU -Tate." HMU means hit me up, or call me.

Update #2, 5/13/11: Still digging:

Two state lawmakers -- and more than 170,000 people on social networking sites -- have lined up to support a Connecticut teen who remains banned from his senior prom following Thursday's announcement that the decision to keep him out will not be reversed.

Update #3, 5/14/11: And the final verdict is:

Connecticut teen James Tate will now be allowed to attend his senior prom, according to the Connecticut Post.

Education Buzz

This week's is here and includes my post about the uncomfortable moment that occurred when I met my long-term substitute for the first time.

Union Mentality

One of the aspects of teacher unionism I find particularly abhorrent is the behavior and mindset it instills; we claim to be "professionals", yet when something related to unionism comes up we go straight to blue collar speech and thuggery. Is this the kind of teacher you want for your children?

"We're not just here to lobby. We're here to raise some hell," Betty Olson-Jones, president of the Oakland Education Association, said as the arrests began.

Way to stay classy.

And then there's the hypocrisy and idiocy:

"It's not right that the rich and big businesses don't pay their fair share of taxes," (CTA President) Sanchez said.

As Mike Antonucci of EIA often points out, the CTA doesn't pay any taxes.

Tuesday Trivia

The answer to yesterday's question, the last in 1950-1959 Week, is:
Roger Bannister of England, ran 3:59.4 in Oxford.

Today's question, the first in 1960-1969 Week, is:
Thirteen African countries (Benin, Burkina-Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo, Cote D'Ivoire, Democratic Republic of Congo, Gabon, Madagascar, Niger, Somalia, and Togo) were admitted to the United Nations on September 20, 1960, tying for the first countries to be admitted in the new decade. Which is the only non-African country also admitted on that date?

The Real Price of Social Justice

When you hear stories like this from the San Francisco Chronicle, you just know it goes even deeper:

San Francisco's much-heralded "social justice" requirements for city contracts are costing local taxpayers millions of dollars a year in overcharges, according to workers in departments ranging from the Municipal Transportation Agency to the Department of Emergency Management.

In one case, a Muni worker said the city paid $3,000 for a vehicle battery tray. Such parts can be found online for $12 to $300, depending on the type of vehicle. City officials said they couldn't verify that purchase, saying the trays are usually bought in bulk with the battery.

Other city purchasing policies, if followed, would mean paying about $240 for getting a copy of a key that actually cost a worker $1.35 to get done at a hardware store on his break, the employee said. Another city worker called the use of catalog pricing for supplies "Pentagon-style purchasing."

Markups from approved vendors range from 10 to 150 percent, employees said, with one calling the city's requirement that contractors provide health care benefits for domestic partners "the expensive white elephant standing in the middle of the room (that) no one wants to mention."

Some vendors are suspected of being little more than middlemen who comply with San Francisco's very specific requirements for contractors - like disclosing historic ties to slavery and providing domestic partner benefits, a provision known as 12B because of its chapter in the Administrative Code - then turn around and buy the products from companies that don't meet the restrictions, city officials acknowledge.

San Francisco values, indeed.

Gratitude

Recently I came upon a blog wherein the author will, for each day in 2011, display a sense of gratitude about something. Since my recovery is expected to take 6-12 months, I thought that each day I could chronicle some small progress or otherwise show some gratitude for improvement in my condition--but then I realized that people don't come here primarily to read about a gimp's recovery, and soon, very soon, such posts would become exceedingly boring. So I decided not to do it.

But today I am, because I've got some gratitude to display. Yesterday I got the staples out of my knee, and the x-rays "look good". But that's not the best part. This morning, for the first time since that fateful day over 2 weeks ago, I got to take a real live genuine shower. Praise be to Jesus!

Recently the best I've been able to do was a washcloth bath, or sometimes just sit on the toilet seat and lean my upper body into the shower and use the hand-held shower squirter. It was enough to keep me from feeling gross, but not enough to feel clean and shiny. But today, oh, today was different.

Taking a shower means having to maneuver without the leg immobilizer on--and that petrifies me. I have one of those plastic stools in my tub, and it took me a couple minutes to figure out how to get my bad leg, which must remain perfectly straight, into the tub without the immobilizer. Fear, panic, dread, but after a few different attempts I devised a procedure to get the leg in there. And then, there I was. Sweet Mother of God, did that hot water falling from above feel good!

I feel clean, refreshed, and happy.

Monday Trivia

The answer to yesterday's question is:
Spin and Marty.

Today's question, the last in 1950-1959 Week, is:
Who was the first person to run a mile in under 4 minutes, on May 6, 1954?

One Big Happy Family?

California's 50-year-old Master Plan for Education, with its 3 levels of supposedly-affordable higher education, will begin to unravel if this takes place:

Should an education at UC Berkeley cost more than one at UC Santa Cruz? Should a student pay $11,000 in tuition at UC Riverside while his friend is billed $16,000 at UCLA?

Leaders of the 10-campus University of California system are considering such questions as they grapple with state budget reductions that already have led to tuition increases, staff layoffs and cuts in class offerings.

Advocates of allowing undergraduate tuition to vary by campus say that the change would raise funds the schools could share and that consumer demand should play a bigger role in setting tuition. But opponents contend that the idea is inherently elitist and could harm the unified nature of the UC system.

I'm not saying it's necessarily a bad idea, but I can foresee many unintended consequences of such a move.

Know What Bums Me Out Today?

Because of my injury, I can't go down to the Capitol for any of CTA's protests this week. Neither can I go see if any fireworks are stirred up by the "entirely coincidental" protest/occupation by that Blast From the Past, Mama Moonbat herself, Cindy Sheehan.

Having to miss all that is really bumming me out :(

Sunday Trivia

The answer to yesterday's question is:
Buddy Holly, the Big Bopper, and Ritchie Valens died in a plane crash on February 3rd, 1959.

Today's question, the last in 1950-1959 Week, is:
Who were the title characters in the cowboy/dude ranch series that aired on the Mickey Mouse Club from 1955-1957?

What Makes America Great?

To conservatives, it's not government spending, despite what the president thinks.

Mark It On The Calendar, Boys and Girls!

I agree with Maureen Dowd! Oh, she took a few of her obligatory shots at President Bush, but as I say about so many things, "once you accept that it's a dog, you can't get upset when it barks."

In another inane debate last week, many voices suggested that decapitating the head of a deadly terrorist network was some sort of injustice.

Taking offense after Ban Ki-moon, the United Nations secretary general, said he was “much relieved” at the news of Bin Laden’s death, Kenneth Roth, the executive director of Human Rights Watch, posted the Twitter message: “Ban Ki-moon wrong on Osama bin Laden: It’s not justice for him to be killed even if justified; no trial, conviction.”

I leave it to subtler minds to parse the distinction between what is just and what is justified.

When Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, said she was “glad” Bin Laden had been killed, a colleague called such talk “medieval.”

Christophe Barbier, editor of the centrist French weekly L’Express, warned: “To cry one’s joy in the streets of our cities is to ape the turbaned barbarians who danced the night of Sept. 11.”

Those who celebrated on Sept. 11 were applauding the slaughter of American innocents. When college kids spontaneously streamed out Sunday night to the White House, ground zero and elsewhere, they were the opposite of bloodthirsty: they were happy that one of the most certifiably evil figures of our time was no more...

It may be that some administration officials have taken Dick Cheney’s belittling so much to heart that they are still reluctant to display effortless macho. Liberal guilt may have its uses, but it should not be wasted on this kill-mission.

The really insane assumption behind some of the second-guessing is that killing Osama somehow makes us like Osama, as if all killing is the same.

Only fools or knaves would argue that we could fight Al Qaeda’s violence non-violently.

What time is it? I'm going to see what she posts in 12 hrs.

Gas Prices and the President

I don't think even this video will change any minds, but when you see people speaking and hear them in their own words, it takes extreme efforts to deny the hypocrisy.

Hat tip to NewsAlert.

Progress

Today goes into the win column. Sure, I've felt a lot of discomfort today, but many good things happened, too.

I can "walk". My left leg, the one with the sliced knee tendon, remains in an immobilizer so that I have to swing it out and left when I want to step, but it's doable. For short distances I'll go without a crutch, for longer distances maybe I'll take just one crutch. Only when I first get up in the morning do I feel like I need both crutches. I've already had my dad take away the walker, which was useful the first couple days after the accident but no longer.

When I first got out of the hospital I was on 6 pain pills a day. That soon jumped to 12, the maximum allowed by my prescription, and now I'm down to 6. I could probably survive on 4 or 5, but I'm going to stick with the plan for awhile. We'll see what happens after I get the staples out of my knee on Monday morning.

I've been able to borrow an iPad and have loaded several free apps and free books, and it's much more comfortable to lie down with the iPad on my chest and read/surf than it is to hold a real book or to sit at my computer. Of course it's not as convenient as my computer is, especially for creating content (like this blog), but for consuming content it's not bad.

I've also borrowed a motorized wheelchair. Can't use it yet, though, because I need a brace to hold my left leg out straight. My dad came over today and we put our heads together--he came back with some aluminum scrap he had around the house and a design/plan that struck me as ideal. It might take him a couple of days to fabricate it, but once done, I'll no longer be confined to my house. I'll be able to get out in the sunshine, perhaps zip up to the library to to the store. Oh, I'll still be quite the invalid, depending for the most part on the kindness of others, but at least I won't be housebound.

Spirits remain high, and so far there have been no complications.

Update, 5/8/11: Last night I tried going 6 hrs between pain pills, instead of only 4 hrs. That would be only 4 pills a day, down from my current 6 a day, which is down from a high of 12 a day. That experiment was a mistake, corrected after only 12 hrs! I learned, though, that the pain pills are only partially for my injured knee; they're also for the rest of my body--right knee, hips, wrists--that are compensating for injured leg. I can't wait for the sucker to kick in, as sore as I feel all over right now.

When The Government Breaks The Law

San Francisco isn't going to detain illegal immigrants anymore:

San Francisco, one of the first sanctuary cities in the nation, plans to end its cooperation with federal immigration officials and start releasing illegal immigrants arrested for minor offenses before they can be picked up for deportation.

The city's decision is the latest development in a tug of war between several communities and the federal government over its controversial national program that automatically checks the immigration status of arrestees.

Well isn't that special. As I wrote last year, that's illegal under state law, and in that linked post I quote directly from California Penal Code:

834b. (a) Every law enforcement agency in California shall fully cooperate with the United States Immigration and Naturalization Service regarding any person who is arrested if he or she is suspected of being present in the United States in violation of federal immigration laws.
(b) With respect to any such person who is arrested, and suspected of being present in the United States in violation of federal immigration laws, every law enforcement agency shall do the following:
(1) Attempt to verify the legal status of such person as a citizen of the United States, an alien lawfully admitted as a permanent resident, an alien lawfully admitted for a temporary period of time or as an alien who is present in the United States in violation of immigration laws. The verification process may include, but shall not be limited to, questioning the person regarding his or her date and place of birth, and entry into the United States, and demanding documentation to indicate his or her legal status.
(2) Notify the person of his or her apparent status as an alien who is present in the United States in violation of federal immigration laws and inform him or her that, apart from any criminal justice proceedings, he or she must either obtain legal status or leave the United States.
(3) Notify the Attorney General of California and the United States Immigration and Naturalization Service of the apparent illegal status and provide any additional information that may be requested by any other public entity.
(c) Any legislative, administrative, or other action by a city, county, or other legally authorized local governmental entity with jurisdictional boundaries, or by a law enforcement agency, to prevent or limit the cooperation required by subdivision (a) is expressly prohibited.

California's governor is also our former attorney general, so in theory he knows something about enforcing the law. So how about it, Jerry? Are you going to compel San Francisco to obey the law, or allow them to flout it and do whatever they want? If the latter, are you prepared for the consequences of starting down that slippery slope?

History Is So Much More Than Just A Mish-Mash of Different Groups Of People

It's bad enough now, and Leno wants to make it worse:

For decades, California educators have wrestled with how to teach history in the public schools.

Given the diversity of race, ethnicity and religion in California's classrooms, whose story do you tell? Who are the leading characters? And how are they portrayed?

Existing state law requires social studies lessons to incorporate the storylines of American Indians, African Americans, Mexican Americans, Asian Americans and European Americans. In the 1970s, textbooks were amended to highlight the contributions of women. In recent years, Jewish, Muslim, Hindu and Sikh representatives have lobbied for their place.

Now, state lawmakers are considering a bill that would add another thread to that complex tale: requiring public schools to incorporate the achievements of gays and lesbians into the history and social studies curriculum.

The bill, dubbed the Fair Education Act, also would add bisexual and transgender people, Pacific Islanders and people with disabilities to the list of groups whose stories must be highlighted. The legislation would prohibit school districts from adopting materials that reflect negatively on a person's religion or sexual orientation.

The bill was authored by state Sen. Mark Leno, a San Francisco Democrat and one of the first openly gay men to serve in the Legislature. He argues the legislation simply adds gays, lesbians and transgender people to the list of minority and gender groups already represented in public school lessons.

Adding the accomplishments of gay people to a lesson on gay rights, for instance, is entirely appropriate. But pointing out that someone who just happened to be gay did something or other, that's paternalistic and insulting. What it says is, "What you did isn't good enough to be recognized in general, but only because you're attracted to someone of the same sex." It's the exact same lesson with skin color, religion, ethnic background, etc.

Saturday Trivia

The answer to yesterday's question is:
Syria, which seceded from the union in 1961.

Today's question is:
In what year was The Day The Music Died?

The Bill

For an emergency room visit and one night in the hospital. It's no wonder the two meals they served were so good--I couldn't have spent this much on a night at the Bellagio in Vegas!

click to enlarge

Don't misunderstand. I'm not complaining one ounce about the care I received. It was top notch.

But wow.

Teacher Fired For Sex Ad

Long-time readers of this blog will know that I'm a big proponent of the belief that what teachers do on their "own time" is of no concern to their employers (school districts). Unlike when I was in the military, I do not now consider myself a teacher 24 hours a day. A state commission agreed with me, but unfortunately, a state appeals court disagrees with me:

A state appeals court has upheld the dismissal of a San Diego schoolteacher who was fired for posting a sexually explicit ad and photos in the "men seeking men" section of Craigslist.

Frank Lampedusa's firing had been overruled by a state commission that said the ad was unrelated to his ability to teach middle-school students. But the appeals court disagreed, saying Lampedusa's conduct showed he was unfit to teach and "serve as a role model" for his students.

A teacher's private life can constitute grounds for dismissal if it demonstrates "indecency and moral indifference," said the Fourth District Court of Appeal in San Diego. The court issued the 3-0 ruling last month and published it Tuesday as a statewide precedent for future cases.

I consider this a travesty. Whose morals and what morality, especially in California? I addressed this just 2-1/2 months ago, and the same scenarios I presented in that post cry out for answers in light of the current ruling.

The guy was seeking a consenting adult with whom he could participate in an entirely legal activity--and for this he was fired. It's been ruled that his behavior makes him ineligible to be a role model; is the only "good" gay a "celibate" gay? I've read scores of comments, and many indicate that the problem was his posting a picture. If he hadn't posted a picture of his face, but emailed it before meeting, would he still be fired? I guess my question is, what was the immoral behavior? Was it placing the ad, in which case government-decided morality would be that he should remain celibate, or was it the posting of a picture in public?

Again, my belief is that absent inappropriate classroom conduct or conduct clearly related to teaching children, what teachers do in their off-duty time is, for the most part, of no business to anyone else.

I continue to be floored by the idiocy around this issue. I'm going to take to wearing a halo when I get back to work.

Friday Trivia

The answer to yesterday's question is:
Enewetak atoll, in the Pacific Ocean's Marshall Islands.

Today's question is:
In 1958, Gamal Nasser's Egypt joined in a short-lived union, the United Arab Republic, with which other country?

The $25 Computer

David Braben is a very well-known game developer who runs the UK development studio Frontier Developments, but is just as well known for being the co-developer of Elite...

Braben argues that education since we entered the 2000s has turned towards ICT which teaches useful skills such as writing documents in a word processor, how to create presentations, and basic computer use skills. But that has replaced more computer science-like skills such as basic programming and understanding the architecture and hardware contained in a computer.

As someone who bought a book and taught himself BASIC, I agree with him. Check out his solution.

Communists

Some people think I'm an anachronism, what with my worries about communists. They are not in the past:

When I tell people that public political rallies are more and more being led by communists and socialists, most folks simply don’t believe me. Aw, come on, you’re just giving decent protesters an extreme label, they say. No, actually, I’m not: The communists freely and proudly declare their affiliation.

Look at the pictures. Look at their signs. Believe your lying eyes.

Taxes Too Low?

You've got to love stories like this:

Here's a dirty little secret that most Americans don't want to hear: We're under-taxed.

Well, that's certainly a point of view. Then they add this cherry to the top:

This fact is separate from the politically charged questions of whether government spends too much, the fairness of who pays how much and what we value or don't in government spending. It's simply that our tax burden is low in the long view of U.S. history, and there are many ways to measure that central truth.

Huh? That's not separate, that is the issue.

The only reason to collect taxes is to pay for the legitimate functions of government. If government gets the money it needs, then taxes aren't too low, historical trends be damned.

But government doesn't get all the money it needs, you say. I'll disagree. It gets plenty, and it wastes more of it than most really want to admit.

But anyway, this isn't a "taxation" post. This is a "note the media bias" post.

Thursday Trivia

The answer to yesterday's question is:
1958.

Today's question is:
Where did the United States test the world's first hydrogen bomb, in 1952?

In What Possible Way Is This Any Interest of the US Government's?

Justice Department asks NCAA why it doesn't have football playoff

Under what possible interpretation of the Constitution is the existence, or lack thereof, of a college football championship game a legitimate interest of the US government?

It's not. This government is out of control. That shouldn't be just a conservative view, either.

It's All About The Socialism

When the socialists break out their talking points regarding Obamacare, one of the first is that everyone has a "right" to health care that government must secure. Even those that don't venture that far into the fever swamp will say that health care is an important social service, and that it's "unfair" (they love that word) that some can't afford as much of it as they need so government should provide it.

To that I always respond that I need food more than I need health care; why doesn't the government provide me food? If the government is going to provide my health care, can't it insist on what I should eat and how much exercise I should get? With no good rebuttal, they usually reply that "Bush lied, people died" or some other slogan right off the talking point sheet and walk away mumbling.

But seriously, why does government not provide food? I've written before about schools that don't allow food from home because parents can't be trusted to pack a "healthy" enough lunch for students, and we've had schools feeding both breakfast and lunch to students for years. You've got big cities banning certain types of food (foie gras) or food additives (trans fats), and we have entire categories of food derisively labeled "junk food". We have a First Lady who wants to push healthy eating on people, making comments that lead one to believe that she'd compel it if she could. At this point, we may as well be honest and just have government provide our food to us. There are more than a couple US states in which alcohol can be purchased only at state-run stores, so the precedent already exists.

So under this vision we'd have government-run supermarkets. The Wall Street Journal envisions what these markets would look like if they operated the same way as do public schools:

Suppose that groceries were supplied in the same way as K-12 education. Residents of each county would pay taxes on their properties. Nearly half of those tax revenues would then be spent by government officials to build and operate supermarkets. Each family would be assigned to a particular supermarket according to its home address. And each family would get its weekly allotment of groceries—"for free"—from its neighborhood public supermarket...

Being largely protected from consumer choice, almost all public supermarkets would be worse than private ones. In poor counties the quality of public supermarkets would be downright abysmal. Poor people—entitled in principle to excellent supermarkets—would in fact suffer unusually poor supermarket quality...

Responding to these failures, thoughtful souls would call for "supermarket choice" fueled by vouchers or tax credits. Those calls would be vigorously opposed by public-supermarket administrators and workers.

Opponents of supermarket choice would accuse its proponents of demonizing supermarket workers (who, after all, have no control over their customers' poor eating habits at home). Advocates of choice would also be accused of trying to deny ordinary families the food needed for survival. Such choice, it would be alleged, would drain precious resources from public supermarkets whose poor performance testifies to their overwhelming need for more public funds.

It's a well-written, entertaining article, well worth your time.

Busted!

I was just checking email and one of my students had sent me a nice message. It's rewarding to hear from them.

Then I looked at the date/time stamp. It was sent during class--my class!

I told her I should rat her out to the substitute! But she probably knows I won't.

Wednesday Trivia

The answer to yesterday's question is:
Konrad Adenauer.

Today's question is:
In what year was Elvis Presley drafted?

George "Moonbat" Monbiot Admits--Green Movement Is Hopelessly Flawed

You've got to love the teaser to his article:

All of us in the green movement are lost before the planet's real nightmare: not too little fossil fuel – but too much

That's right, folks. Peak oil isn't the problem, the problem is there's so much oil available that we're not going to turn away from it for unproven, far more expensive alternatives because we don't have to. And after admitting that the environmental left doesn't have anywhere intelligent to go, he throws up his hands in surrender:

All of us in the environment movement, in other words – whether we propose accommodation, radical downsizing or collapse – are lost. None of us yet has a convincing account of how humanity can get out of this mess. None of our chosen solutions break the atomising, planet-wrecking project. I hope that by laying out the problem I can encourage us to address it more logically, to abandon magical thinking and to recognise the contradictions we confront. But even that could be a tall order.

I assert--and this is just me being wacky here--that the reason you can't come up with a "solution" is because you've misidentified the problem.

This article does an exceptional job of shredding Moonbat and his compatriots.

Using Math To Prevent Gerrymandering?

At first glance, it's an interesting proposal:

The degree of contrivance behind the design of a set of districts is directly related to the oddness of the shapes employed to reach the election-rigging objective. There is a precise mathematical way to measure such malformation. That is, if you take the square of the perimeter of any shape, and divide it by the shape’s area, you arrive at a number, which can be called its irregularity. For example the irregularity of any square, regardless of its size, equals 16 (because (4s)2/s2 = 16.) On the other hand, the irregularity of a rectangle whose long side is 10 times the length of its short side is 48.4 (because (22s)2/10s2 = 48.4.) The odder and more contrived the shape, the higher will be its irregularity.

Now congressional districts need to have equal population sizes, so the task of dividing a state fairly is more complicated than simply slicing it up into low-irregularity shapes. Still, there is a solution which can be objectively ascertained that does accomplish the goal of creating equal population districts with the minimum total irregularity. This can be found either by humans or computers.

I suggest it be done as follows. Let’s let the majority party in the state legislature take the first shot at proposing a redistricting plan. The sum of the irregularities of all the proposed districts can then be added up to create a score for the majority plan. The minority party can then be given 30 days to come up with an alternative plan. If they can come up with a design whose irregularity score is 1 percent lower than the majority plan, then the minority plan is adopted. If not, then the majority plan remains in place.

Creating districting boundaries in this way will not prevent the creation of safe districts for one party or another in all cases. But it will leave the matter to fair chance and geography, rather than the arbitrary actions of political cabals.

Faux Pas

I wrote earlier that today my long-term substitute teacher came over and we discussed logistics, lesson plans, etc. At one pointed we retreated to my library to look some things up on Zangle, the online system our district uses for grades, attendance, discipline, and all other records.

I fired up the monitor and this article from New York Magazine, about how lately it's fashionable to think that a college degree isn't all it's cracked up to be or is more expensive than it's worth, was what filled my screen. Problem is, the entire center of that opening screen is a picture of several very attractive college students, naked except for mortarboard hats which cover their privates.

Let me repeat. We go into my library, fire up my computer, and filling a large section of the middle of my screen is a picture of several mostly naked, very attractive college-aged bodies.

Heck, I'm not even going to comment on that article anymore. I'm just going to laugh at the uncomfortable moment it caused before she realized I wasn't looking at porn.

Just Met My Replacement

A fellow teacher brought my replacement over, and the other teacher corrected papers for about 90 minutes while my long-term sub and I tackled all the big issues of the day. I told her that if it fits her style, I'd like her to continue to run things pretty much as I've set them up, and that I'd like to be a team with her to get her (and the kids) through the end of the school year with as little problem as possible. She certainly seemed to like all of that.

She now knows how to read my lesson plans and where all my "stuff" is. Right now we're hoping she can find the paperback "worked out solution manual" for pre-calculus, as that's the only thing that's iffy right now. She's got a little bit of work to do catching up on entering assignment grades for the past week, but other than that she's slid into about as easy a job as anyone could hope to slide into at this time of year.

I keep my phone on my person at almost all times and told her to call me if something comes up and needs my immediate attention.

The two of them also brought cards and snackies from both students and other faculty and staff members at school, which is always a treat. I've read the cards and have put a healthy dent in the snackies already....

Tuesday Trivia

The answer to yesterday's question, the last in 1940-1949 Week, is:
1947.

Today's question, the first in 1950-1959 Week, is:
Who was the chancellor of West Germany throughout the entire decade of the 1950s?

Steps

Put one foot in front of the other
And soon you'll be walking 'cross the floor-or-or
Put one foot in front of the other
And soon you'll be walking out the door!

I've tried for the last few days and failed, but tried again today. I lifted the crutches off the ground and tried to take steps. I won't say I tried to walk, because "walk" would be way too much exaggeration for what I'm attempting.

Today I was able to take steps. Each one was about 3", and I could take maybe 6 of them before I had to get back on the crutches. That's how I'm defining progress right now, that's how I'm defining success right now--six 3" steps. Just another indication of how badly I screwed that knee up.

Nancy Pelosi, A Hypocrite?

Say it isn't so.

I concur completely with the closing sentiment:

It is unfortunate that many public figures are unable to view events otherwise than through a partisan prism. Osama bin Laden's operational significance had undoubtedly dwindled over the years, and al Qaeda, after nine years of relentless attacks, is a shadow of its former self. But bin Laden's death is obviously an important and helpful milestone in the long war against radical Islam. Congratulations to all who worked so hard for nearly a decade to bring it about.

Update, 5/4/11: For whatever reason--good, bad, political (and you can bet it's political), or otherwise--Nancy has now thanked President Bush for the role he played in bringing down Osama.

Junior To Run For School Board

Good, bad, or indifferent, I don't know, but you've got to admire the kid's pluck:

Connor Kurtz, self-described fiscal conservative, aims to win himself a seat on the Daniel Boone Area School District school board. He won't be able to vote for himself in the primary next month, however, because he's only 17.

The Amity Township, Pa., junior turns 18 in September and can legally run in the November election. He faces three other candidates. If he wins, he'll attend a local college so he can serve his full four-year term...

"I realized they don't know what they're doing. They don't have a plan," he told KYW-TV. "It boggles my mind that you can be on the school board without a plan"...

"I believe my age is an advantage," he told the Reading Eagle. "I'm the end user of the services that the district provides. All the decisions the board makes affect me."

Monday Trivia

Today's question is:
Pinocchio (1940), Dumbo (1941), Fantasia (1941), and Bambi (1942).

Today's question, the last in 1940-1949 Week, is:
Jackie Robinson, the first black to play major league baseball in the US since the 1880s, started playing for the Brooklyn Dodgers in what year?

Terror

I was in reading my latest Clive Cussler novel and my leg hurt--I just couldn't get it comfortable. I've only recently taken my double-shot of percocet, so there was nothing that could be done other than bear it. I thought, though, that removing the leg immobilizer and loosening up the ace bandage might help, and it did, even if only just a tiny amount.

There it was, my knee, covered now only with a piece of gauze. I know it's too early--heck, I don't get the staples out for another week--but how bad is it, really? I'll try, let's just see how much it will bend. I'll only go a millimeter or two, I just want to know it works, you know?

What a strange sensation. It won't bend.

I can tell it's supposed to, but it doesn't. It's not rigid, but there's no flexibility there, either. Wherever the median is in those two statements, that's the murky reality in which my knee exists. If it were sentient I'd say it moved just enough to let me know that it knew it should, but no further. It felt like it would snap--instantly, violently, and painfully--if I dared any further. It felt like, it flexed like, a thin piece of plywood.

The staples come out in a week. I'm going to have to walk on it, and it's going to have to bend. But right now it won't bend. And it won't get bendier as time wearing the immobilizer goes on.

The only reality I have to face is that this is going to be a very long, painful recovery. The proof--a knee that would snap before it would bend--struck terror in me. I have to turn plywood into a knee.

This is not a movie. It's not a feel-good news story with a happy ending. This is my reality, for several months to come.

Update, 5/2/11: Added the lines about plywood, as that realization hit me this morning.

Teachers Need To Be Paid More

Can you spot all the fallacies in just the opening lines of this article?

WHEN we don’t get the results we want in our military endeavors, we don’t blame the soldiers. We don’t say, “It’s these lazy soldiers and their bloated benefits plans! That’s why we haven’t done better in Afghanistan!” No, if the results aren’t there, we blame the planners. We blame the generals, the secretary of defense, the Joint Chiefs of Staff. No one contemplates blaming the men and women fighting every day in the trenches for little pay and scant recognition.

And yet in education we do just that. When we don’t like the way our students score on international standardized tests, we blame the teachers. When we don’t like the way particular schools perform, we blame the teachers and restrict their resources.

Compare this with our approach to our military: when results on the ground are not what we hoped, we think of ways to better support soldiers. We try to give them better tools, better weapons, better protection, better training.

OK, that was too easy--but there are just so many fish in this barrel. How about this one?

At the moment, the average teacher’s pay is on par with that of a toll taker or bartender. Teachers make 14 percent less than professionals in other occupations that require similar levels of education. In real terms, teachers’ salaries have declined for 30 years. The average starting salary is $39,000; the average ending salary — after 25 years in the profession — is $67,000. This prices teachers out of home ownership in 32 metropolitan areas, and makes raising a family on one salary near impossible.

So how do teachers cope?

When teacher unionism took off 40 years ago, two of the things teachers complained most about were low pay and large class sizes. How has 40 years of unionism helped the situation? (Answer: it obviously hasn't.)

The consulting firm McKinsey recently examined how we might attract and retain a talented teaching force. The study compared the treatment of teachers here and in the three countries that perform best on standardized tests: Finland, Singapore and South Korea.

Turns out these countries have an entirely different approach to the profession. First, the governments in these countries recruit top graduates to the profession. (We don’t.) In Finland and Singapore they pay for training. (We don’t.) In terms of purchasing power, South Korea pays teachers on average 250 percent of what we do.

And most of all, they trust their teachers.

Just curious: how militant are the teachers unions in these countries? How political are they?

There's a lot wrong with the linked article, the demonstrated bias being just the tip of the iceberg.

May He Rot In Hell

Usama bin Laden is dead, multiple sources confirm to Fox News.

President Obama is expected to deliver a statement from the White House Sunday night to discuss the major development.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2011/05/01/usama-bin-laden-dead-say-sources/#ixzz1LA2CKJxF

Update: This is probably the first speech that this president's given that I, for the most part, liked. When I can find a transcript of it, I'll post my favorite line.

Update #2, 5/2/11: Transcript is here. My favorite line: "[H]is demise should be welcomed by all who believe in peace and human dignity."

Taking Sex Ed Too Far?

This is one of those issues that will just never go away:

A Washington state mother has filed a complaint against her daughter's school district after she brought home a sexual education book...

"I start flipping through -- this is all right -- but then it starts talking more about sex, and I get into it and it's completely too graphic for her," she told Q13Fox.com.

The book, "What's the Big Secret," which is allowed at the Oak Harbor School District, shows how boys and girls differ and talks about "different types of touching."

"This is one of the first that definitely caught my eye, talking about masturbation when you are 10 years old. What do you need to read that for? I'm not so upset about the book itself. I think they should be sending home permission slips, making sure parents are aware that the book is there," she told the website.

Sunday Trivia

The answer to yesterday's question is:
Clement Attlee.

Today's question is:
Identify any of the first 4 animated feature films released by Walt Disney Studios in the 1940s.