March 9, 2013
Some “Refined” Rock
From the Seth Archives, this is a short and sweet one by Focus, called “Tommy”:
Enjoy.
March 8, 2013
Dumbing Down Basic Education
This seems to be a problem that’s a direct result of teachers’ unions becoming powerful in the lobbing/campaign backing milieu. Our (mine and Wolf’s) two sons went through the public (government run) school system back in the 1970s and early 1980s, when teachers still, pretty much as a whole, were dedicated to educating our children.
Somewhere along the line since those days something has changed, perhaps having to do with the liberal takeover of the education system and the related strengthening of teachers’ union influence.
Face it, with liberals at the helm of the education system, there’s a lot more political indoctrination and permissiveness than there is a prioritization of discipline, the passing on of the ability to reason for onesself and, of course, mastery of the good old “Three Rs.”
As a result, we now have this:
Approximately 80 percent of NYC high school grads can’t read well enough for community college
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has built quite a legacy for himself cracking down on soda, salt and, just the other day, loud ear buds.
Nevertheless, as CBS New York reports, Bloomberg might want to spare a few minutes to focus on this shocking statistic: Almost 80 percent of all New York City high school graduates who want to enroll in the City University’s community college system must first relearn basic reading, writing and math.
All told, approximately 11,000 would-be students are required to take remedial courses each year.
The problem has gotten so bad and institutionalized that City University system officials have introduced a program called CUNY Start that provides inexpensive immersion classes for students who managed to graduate high school without mastering basic skills.
“They get lost sometimes in the classroom and in CUNY Start we give them a lot more one-on-one attention, small group work,” Sherry Mason, a teacher in the program, told CBS Local. “It helps them achieve more in a short amount of time and so they’re able to get on with their credit classes.”
A student in the remedial skills program told CBS Local he was very happy with it.
“I knew I needed to take remedial,” said Nicholas Gonzalez, who graduated from Brooklyn’s New Utrecht High School. “If I started right away with credit classes it wasn’t going to be so well, so it’s better off starting somewhere.”
The New York City Department of Education noted that the percentage of students requiring remedial courses used to be even higher, and has only slightly decreased in recent years.
While nearly 80 percent of students who graduate from New York Public Schools can’t read well enough to attend community college, they can at least frolic in all the unprotected sex they want without fretting over the natural consequences.
The Bloomberg administration used 40 individual “school-based health centers” to lavish nearly 13,000 free doses of Plan B — the “morning-after pill” — on students during the 2011-12 school year.
While Mayor Bloomberg fiddles around with his Napoleonic micromanagement of New Yorkers’ basic rights and does his bit to make the Big Apple into an exclusive club for the rich (even a parking meter in Manhattan requires $4.00 for one hour, $9.00 for two hours, and we won’t even talk about the basic cost of living in Manhattan from rent on down…), the children in the five boroughs are getting burned education-wise by his education system, on his watch, as the local teachers’ union runs their regular free for all and job fair for a largely incompetent collection of “teachers” in a liberal racket geared toward shaping opinion for the future that will guarantee them a bunch of uninformed, leftward future votes, and basic literacy be damned.
This is a very real crime, brought to us by the same people who regularly use “but…but it’s for the children” as a selling point for myriad outlandish taxation schemes that do little or nothing for… the children…
March 6, 2013
NYT: Never met an enemy of America they didn’t like
That’s right. Take the newly late and profoundly unlamented — except, of course, by Hollywood liberals, the New York Times and the rest of the “communism trumps America, any day” crowd — Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez…
From the Media Research Center.
Wash Post’s Eugene Robinson Appears on MSNBC to Praise ‘Quick,’ ‘Popular,’ Funny Hugo Chavez
Within minutes of the death of death of repressive socialist Hugo Chavez on Tuesday, MSNBC featured ex-Washington Post managing editor Eugene Robinson to fawn over the “quick,” “popular” leader. Though Robinson allowed that “freedom of speech suffered greatly” under Chavez, he praised, “He provided medical attention that the poor of Venezuela hadn’t received before, and, and, frankly, it was the first time in many decades that a leader had paid that kind of attention to the poor majority in Venezuela.”
With a nostalgic grin on his face, Robinson told guest Hardball host Michael Smerconish about the time he met the “quick-witted” anti-American. “He came to the Washington Post and there were several of us waiting to greet him,” the liberal journalist giddily recounted. Robinson continued, “I didn’t know if he spoke English at the time, so I introduced myself to him in Spanish when he got to me in the line, and he shook my hand and looked up at me and kind of grinned and said, ‘hello, my name is Hu.’”
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Having seen what our mainstream media’s socialist embeds have to say, for some reading that the left-hand side of our population ought to take the time for, here’s a really spot-on piece by Right Thinking Ion Mihai Pacepa at PJ Media.
The Bangles meet Little Richard
Just because this one’s kinda cute, not live but the video for one of their bigger songs, guest starring Little Richard for an amusing finish.
Enjoy…
March 5, 2013
A First Lady after her husband’s own heart
Or so it would seem. Remember the video of Barack Obama giving a eulogy in which he was more concerned with talking about himself than with talking about the deceased?
Well, Michelle seems to have a similar idea regarding her own appearances.
From Political Outcast…
Lisa Putnam is a fifth grade teacher in the Chicago Public School system. She and her students were very excited about participating in the Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move kickoff even in the Windy City. The event was being held at the McCormick Place, billed as the largest convention center in all of North America.
Their day of fun and excitement turned out to be anything but fun and exciting. The students spent over 7-8 hours without food for what turned out to be nothing more than a commercial for Michelle Obama who literally ignored the 6,000 kids brought in for the event. When Obama took the podium, she never faced the kids. Instead, she faced the cameras and media covering the event.Putnam, a supporter of the First Lady was so appalled by what happened that she felt compelled to write about what happened. This is what she wrote:
“If you are a parent, imagine that you take your child on a trip and they are very excited. Now imagine they have to wait on a bus and stand in straight lines for three hours straight. Then imagine after one hour of “fun” that they have to sit around and wait for three more hours that bus to pick them up. Oh, did I mention that are not allowed to have a morsel of food the entire time? Now, multiply that by 25 to 35. Sounds fun right?! That’s a little bit what the day was like for CPS students, parents and teachers at the Let’s Move! Campaign.”
“When offered the chance to participate in the Let’s Move! campaign, I thought it would be a lot of fun and jumped at the chance. After all, my students have been working very hard to prepare for next week’s ISAT test and deserved a to let loose a little. Had I known what this event entailed, I would have definitely taken a pass.
“The day began with the buses picking us up from our school. As we arrived at McCormick Place, we passed bus after bus after bus, full of students. Our bus took its place at the end of that line, and we waited for over 45 minutes to reach our destination. I thought the 90 total minutes in a school bus full of children would be the extent of my stress, but I was a bit naive at this point.”
“As we entered McCormick place we were ushered immediately to metal detectors and our bags were searched. We didn’t bring food or drink as was requested, so the security check went by flawlessly. Then we waited in another line, this time for t-shirts. When my 10 year old students received their XL men’s t-shirts, I did my best to tell them with a straight face that the shirts would shrink and the girls could maybe wear them as a dress.”
“We were moved to a location in a large concrete room with thousands of children. We were told to keep our students in three straight quiet lines. The students stood there for almost an hour. Then, the students were ushered into a giant room with a stage and told they had to be very quiet, that there was a “surprise in there for them.” 6,000 kids quiet? Good luck guy. As the students went into the room, they were all assigned to stand in different areas. The students framed the stage on three sides and the media was seated on the four side of the rectangular square. As the commercial, I mean event, began each athlete was introduced.
They all had a 1-2 minute motivational speech that was so cheesy that none of the athletes really seemed to connect with the students and the messages did not resonate. It seemed like one giant Nike advertisement. Finally, the first lady came out. Although she was stunning and her message was powerful, her back was to the children. She was facing the media. I couldn’t help wondering, who is this event really for? Then I realized my students were just a backdrop to this campaign/commercial.”
I suppose you could say that Mr. & Mrs. Obama are cut from the same egomaniacal cloth….
March 4, 2013
Speaking of Egypt….
I’ve always thought this song was kind of absurd, but the audience response hints that it’s got a cult following all its own. 
State Department findings vs Obamaference
Well, lookie here…
From Heritage.Org:
In Washington, a presidential Administration releases news it doesn’t like at 5 p.m. on Fridays. So it pays to pay attention when everyone is leaving work for the weekend.
Late last Friday, the State Department released a positive environmental review of the Keystone XL pipeline. President Obama has been delaying this pipeline—which would carry oil from Canada to refineries in Texas—for more than three years.
The delay has meant that America is still waiting on an additional 700,000 to 830,000 barrels of oil per day from a close ally, not to mention 179,000 American jobs.Why has this taken so long, when all environmental reports thus far have been positive? Heritage’s Nicolas Loris, the Herbert and Joyce Morgan Fellow, explains:
Given the need for jobs and more oil on the global market to offset high prices, the permit application had been moving along positively with bipartisan support without much attention until environmental activists made blocking the Keystone XL pipeline their issue to rally around for 2011. Although President Obama and the Department of State (DOS) said they’d make a decision at the end of 2011, they ultimately catered to a narrow set of special interests, punting the decision until after the 2012 elections.The State Department, which is overseeing the pipeline because it crosses a U.S. border, has “already conducted a thorough, three-year environmental review with multiple comment periods,” Loris reported last year.
The review has been comprehensive:
DOS studied and addressed risk to soil, wetlands, water resources, vegetation, fish, wildlife, and endangered species. They concluded that the construction of the pipeline would pose minimal environmental risk. Keystone XL also met 57 specific pipeline safety standard requirements created by DOS and the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration.
Canada has oil to sell, and it isn’t likely to wait forever. Forbes writer Brigham McCown said that “Delays in approving the upper portion of the pipeline have bewildered many Canadians who see the U.S. as their closest ally and trading partner.”
McCown pointed out that “Even without the pipeline, Canada will continue to extract the oil which would be most likely transported by pipeline and rail to Canada’s coast for shipment to Asian markets.”
Because the State Department is overseeing the application, the new Secretary of State, John Kerry, will be giving his recommendation on the pipeline. Ultimately, the decision rests with President Obama. But Heritage’s David Kreutzer says Congress can, and should, step in if the President continues to block it:
Should the President reject Keystone again, Congress should wield its power to regulate commerce with foreign nations and approve the pipeline’s construction once the State Department again finishes its review of the rerouted project.
These delays are pointless. The Keystone pipeline has passed its environmental reviews, and the Obama Administration is only hurting America by holding it up.
The ball, as they say, is in Obama’s court. If he still refuses to budge, Congress had darn well better get involved!
Steyn on the Sequester
This one by Mark Steyn is just too funny….
A few weeks ago, Ann Coulter announced that she was bored of American politics and spending her days watching Turner Classic Movies. I confess that, when it comes to Beltway melodrama, I too am fighting vainly the old ennui, and minded to plump up the pillows and settle back with a bucket of bonbons and a beribboned Shih-tzu for an all-night Norma Shearer marathon.
At least, unlike Washington, there’s a chance you may catch something you haven’t already seen a hundred times before. For example, I’ve a yen to see “Roberta” (RKO, 1935), in which Irene Dunne sings:
“Yesterdays
Yesterdays
Days I knew as happy sweet sequester’d days …”
I believe that was the last known use of this blameless and mellifluous word until it was conscripted by the political class for this month’s dreary Mayan Apocalypse of the Month thrill ride. Say what you like about those Mayan guys, but they only schedule an apocalypse once every 5,126 years. Only Washington would try to pull it off every six weeks.
If I understand correctly, by the time you read this, the planes will be dropping from the skies; the drip-feeds in every emergency room will be dry; every creature on the endangered species list will have broken free from our pristine federally manned national parks to be left for roadkill in the potholed asphalt of America’s crumbling interstates; you’ll turn on your bathroom faucet only to find the town reservoir choked with fecal coliform; the ebola virus will be rampant across Ohio, Florida, New Hampshire, and other swing states, where it will nevertheless enjoy higher approval ratings than Mario Rubio and every other prospective GOP nominee.
LOL…Read the entire column here.
March 2, 2013
Ticking Off His Fellow Democrats
Yes, Bob Woodward is doing a journalist’s job here, reporting from a non-partisan perspective, but of course, since the people on the left side of the political equation don’t like to hear the truth (liberal propaganda is their version of “the news”), die hard lefties couldn’t help but become enraged.
The White House sure is…
Misunderstanding, misstatements and all the classic contortions of partisan message management surround the sequester, the term for the $85 billion in ugly and largely irrational federal spending cuts set by law to begin Friday.
What is the non-budget wonk to make of this? Who is responsible? What really happened?
The finger-pointing began during the third presidential debate last fall, on Oct. 22, when President Obama blamed Congress. “The sequester is not something that I’ve proposed,” Obama said. “It is something that Congress has proposed.”
The White House chief of staff at the time, Jack Lew, who had been budget director during the negotiations that set up the sequester in 2011, backed up the president two days later.
“There was an insistence on the part of Republicans in Congress for there to be some automatic trigger,” Lew said while campaigning in Florida. It “was very much rooted in the Republican congressional insistence that there be an automatic measure.”
The president and Lew had this wrong. My extensive reporting for my book “The Price of Politics” shows that the automatic spending cuts were initiated by the White House and were the brainchild of Lew and White House congressional relations chief Rob Nabors — probably the foremost experts on budget issues in the senior ranks of the federal government.
Obama personally approved of the plan for Lew and Nabors to propose the sequester to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.). They did so at 2:30 p.m. July 27, 2011, according to interviews with two senior White House aides who were directly involved.
Read the entire article here.
