“A Few Good Kids?”

As the kids return to school, a couple of interesting articles dealing with the subject of military recruiting on campus:
A Few Good Kids?
(Mother Jones) Sept/Oct 2009 – John Travers was striding purposefully into the Westfield mall in Wheaton, Maryland, for some back-to-school shopping before starting his junior year at Bowling Green State University. When I asked [...]

Hate goes back to school.

You can tell it’s time for the kids to head back to school.  You can tell by the amount of stupid the parents are sending out there…

“Devil” shirts send kids home
GAINESVILLE, Fl (Gainesville.com) 26 August – More children from the Dove World Outreach Center arrived Tuesday at area public schools with shirts bearing the message [...]

This week on Planet Autism, 8/26/09.

CHICAGO (AP) 25 August – Kaleb Drew went to first grade on Tuesday tethered to his Labrador retriever, over the school’s objections, but his family is optimistic they’ll win a court battle to keep the dog in class.
Chewey the Lab, trained to help the autistic boy deal with his disabilities, did “just as he’s supposed [...]

“Nazi Medicine.”

I received the following the other day in an email sent to me from one of the finest educational organizations I know, the New Jersey Commission on Holocaust Education. It was originally an essay published on The Huffington Post. It’s a powerful piece of writing, and I wanted to share it with you. Feel free [...]

Playing at war.

Not sure what to think about this.  You tell me…
Military enthusiasts begin re-enacting the Vietnam War
BOALSBURG, Pa. (AP) 17 August – The dirt paths that lead to Alpha Company’s field headquarters are lined with overgrown grass and weeds. A canvas tent is protected by machine guns, sandbags and Army-green storage boxes.  And lurking somewhere outside [...]

Yes!

WASHINGTON (AP)  17 August – The  Supreme Court on Monday ordered a new hearing for death row inmate Troy Davis, whose supporters say is innocent and should be spared from execution for killing an off-duty police officer almost 20 years ago.
Davis has spent 18 years on death row for the 1989 slaying of [...]

Little victories, cont.

North Carolina activist can coax students away from military
RALEIGH, NC (AP) August 12 - A rural North Carolina school district with a proud military tradition is allowing a Quaker peace activist a chance to coax high school students away from careers in the armed forces, attorneys said Wednesday.
For years, Sally Ferrell had been asking permission [...]

“Learning from Harry Patch.”

by Belinda Webb
(Guardian/UK) August 6 – Today is the day that Harry Patch, having lived 111 years on the earth to become last surviving “Tommy” of the first world war, is laid to rest in Wells, Somerset.
Like Henry Allingham, who died aged 113 just weeks ago, Harry kept silent for over eight decades about the [...]

“Quakers make the right decision.”

by Rosemary Hartill
(The Guardian/UK) August 3 – Following the decision by the Religious Society of Friends on Friday to become the first historic church to say “yes” to same-sex marriages, Saturday’s Guardian ran an editorial entitled In Praise of .. the Quakers. It highlighted the long history of Quaker trail-blazing – in the reform of [...]

“Selective Service Is Sued by Quaker.”

(Washington Post) July 30 – A Washington state Quaker filed a federal lawsuit Wednesday alleging that the U.S. government is discriminating against him because it will not recognize his status as a conscientious objector on military draft forms.
The American Civil Liberties Union filed the suit on behalf of Tobin D. Jacobrown, 21, in the District’s [...]

Here we go again…

Good grief.
Obama’s military spying on U.S. peace groups
by Amy Goodman
(TruthDig) July 28 - Anti-war activists in Olympia, Wash., have exposed Army spying and infiltration of their groups, as well as intelligence gathering by the Air Force, the federal Capitol Police and the Coast Guard.
The infiltration appears to be in direct violation of the Posse Comitatus [...]

This isn’t a football blog, but…

So, Michael Vick has been reinstated by the National Football League.  Meaning he’s clear to play if some team will have him.
We heard this on the network news the other night, and Mrs. Agitator, who usually ignores most of the news broadcast, turned to me and asked, “What team in the league would risk signing [...]

Passing the hat for education?

Curious as to your responses to this:
Parents pass the hat to make up for school cuts
SEATTLE (AP) July 24 – Rachael Bouma calculated the cost of keeping rambunctious kindergartners under control at her son’s school at exactly $227.

That was the amount she and other parents in the Tacoma district figured every family with kids in [...]

This isn’t a baseball blog, but…

Hmmmm…
Can an asterisk save baseball’s Hall of Fame?
COOPERSTOWN, N.Y (USA Today) July 27 – Reggie Jackson and other Baseball Hall of Famers were elated with Hank Aaron’s pronouncement that he would accept players linked to performance-enhancing drugs into the Hall of Fame only if there is an asterisk on their plaque.
“I’m thrilled that Henry spoke,” [...]

“Mr. to Miss, now teacher is resigning.”

Sad.
Mr. to Miss, now teacher is resigning
LITTLE EGG HARBOR TOWNSHIP, N.J. (Philadelphia Inquirer July 23 – When word got out that Mr. McBeth, a popular substitute teacher at two South Jersey school districts was about to come back to class as Miss McBeth, it caused an uproar.
William McBeth had undergone sex reassignment surgery [...]

What a “radical” idea!

That Tyler Perry  What a “radical” he must be!
Tyler Perry Gives the Gift of Disney World to Philadelphia Campers
(Philadelphia Inquirer) July 21 – Six-year-old Creative Steps camper Dajuan Tucker doesn’t remember much about his last trip to Walt Disney World. He was only 4 years old and has vague memories of water slides and meeting [...]

“Youth of Color Resist Military Recruiting.”

(Dollars & Sense)  In 2006, high school senior Stephanie Hoang started working with Better Alternatives for Youth—Peace (BAYPeace), educating her peers about the potential risks of joining the military and helping to build alternative education and employment opportunities. For Hoang, her truth-in-recruitment work is more than just an internship. “It’s my peers being affected. [Recruiters] [...]

Yet another reason why I am no longer a Democrat.

Democrats Drop Key Part of Bill to Assist Unions
(NY Times) July 16 – A half-dozen senators friendly to labor have decided to drop a central provision of a bill that would have made it easier to organize workers.
The so-called card-check provision — which senators decided to scrap to help secure a filibuster-proof 60 votes — [...]

Dispatches from Planet Autism: 7/16/09.

Who says Asperger’s sufferers are unemployable?
(Telegraph UK) July 13 – When customers step into the Broughton Street Book Shop in Edinburgh, a high-ceilinged, wood-panelled room enticingly crammed with shelves of second-hand books, the rather gangly young man behind the counter hands them a pamphlet, without making eye contact.
The leaflet explains that his [...]

“Is the United States a Christian nation? Let’s look at the Bible…”

by Richard T. Hughes
(Philadelphia Inquirer) July 12 – Newt Gingrich has news for Jim Wallis, editor of Sojourners magazine, whose recent book, The Great Awakening, proclaimed the demise of the Christian Right:
“Christian America” is alive and well.
Gingrich has created an organization called Renewing American Leadership, dedicated to the work that Jerry Falwell [...]