Rambling ranting & raving…

A sampling of the stuff that’s floating around my brain right now:
- There’s a huge amount of fuss and bother in the media right now about the upcoming swine flu pandemic that’s apparently going to destroy the universe or something, and I’m sure there’s good reason for concern.  Not panic, not even major worry, but [...]

News flash:

Today, President Barack Obama went for a morning walk in the White House Rose Garden, looked up, and commented that the sky was “really blue”…

Shortly thereafter, conservative commentator Glenn Beck railed that the concept of a “blue sky” was something that Obama learned “at the knee of Saul Alinsky,” and that “blue sky” had also been [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

“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 [...]

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 — [...]

Why I find it hard to take The Huffington Post seriously these days…

Today’s “headlines” at HuffPost:
“Jon Gosselini’s Girlfriend in Party Pictures (PHOTOS)” Whose what?
“Michelle Obama’s Outfits Abroad: Which Did She Wear Best?” C’mon now.
“Jared Kushner, Ivanka Tump Engaged.” WHO ARE THESE PEOPLE???
“WATCH: UFO Flies Off Wind Turbine – What the Heck Is It?” Well, it wasn’t a flying saucer, that’s for sure, if that was where you [...]

Bad to worse.

First, we had all the news this weekeknd about the shananigans at the CIA.
Now THIS:
WASHINGTON (AP)  July 12 – President Barack Obama has ordered his national security team to investigate reports that U.S. allies were responsible for the deaths of as many as 2,000 Taliban prisoners of war during the opening days of the war in [...]

What we’re (still) up against.

Prepare to be angry.
Montco swim club accused of racial discrimination
PHILADELPHIA, Pa (Philadelphia Inquirer) July 9 - Days before a Northeast Philadelphia day camp’s membership at a private suburban swim club was rescinded, several of the campers said they had heard racial remarks about themselves at the pool.
Parents and staff members of Creative Steps Inc. day camp [...]

In memoriam.

Allow me to vent.
They’re burying Michael Jackson today, and they’re throwing him a big send-off in Los Angeles, and that “service” is being paid for with taxpayers’ money and that bugs me.  That’s millions in taxpayers’ money that the state of California apparently did not have when it shut down schools and laid off thousands [...]

Sick sad world, v. 1.

I give up.
Gun-loving pastor to his flock: Piece be with you
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) June 4 – A Kentucky pastor is inviting his flock to bring guns to church to celebrate the Fourth of July and the Second Amendment.
New Bethel Church is welcoming “responsible handgun owners” to wear their firearms inside the church June 27, a [...]

Riddle me this:

What are we supposed to do now?
U.N. Security Council condemns North Korea nuke test
NEW YORK (AP) May 25 - The U.N. Security Council swiftly condemned North Korea’s nuclear test on Monday as “a clear violation” of a 2006 resolution banning them and said it will start work immediately on a new one that could result in [...]

Proof that fear is bad for your brain.

It stops you from thinking clearly, for one thing.  It also makes you jump to really offensive conclusions…
Utah school forces student to change out of kilt
WEST HAVEN, Utah (AP) May 17 – The principal of a Utah middle school has been asked to apologize for forcing a kilt-wearing student to change his clothes.
Weber School [...]

Just. plain. wrong.

A Different Kind of Boy Scout: Armed and Fighting “Terrorism”*
IMPERIAL, Calif. (The New York Times) May 14 – Ten minutes into arrant mayhem in this town near the Mexican border, and the gunman, a disgruntled Iraq war veteran, has already taken out two people, one slumped in his desk, the other covered in blood on [...]

Duh.

You can always tell it’s prom season: the adults are being dopey again.
Pennsylvania high school orders shot glasses as prom favors
LITITZ, Pa. (AP) May 9 – A Pennsylvania high school ordered more than 450 shot glasses for its prom, a move the assistant principal now says sent the wrong message.  [Ya think?]
As the Warwick High [...]

Friday (somebody’s) baby blogging.

(A recent “Twitpic,” sent to me by Blue Gal.)
The caption read “A child in Gobay Village, Ethiopia, shows us his drinking water.”
Yes.  I said his drinking water.
As one commenter stated (pointing out the obvious), “Kind of puts things in perspective, doesn’t it?”

Blogging Against Theocracy… sorta.

Today’s the day I’ll post for the now-annual blog-a-bration known as Blog Against Theocracy.
I wasn’t going to do this this year because I haven’t been in much of a mood to post about anything these last few days, and because, frankly, I thought I didn’t have much to add to the conversation.  I still kind of [...]

I got your “accountability” right here…

So last week, a visitor to my little corner of the cyber-sandbox engaged me in an email conversation on issues related to some of the posting about education that I’ve been doing here lately.  Yeah, there has been a lot of that.  My little borough is about to experience a perfect storm of education-related chaos: our teachers’ [...]

Listen to the children. PLEASE.

School shooter warned of attack, in chat room
WINNENDEN, Germany (AP) March 12 – The 17-year-old gunman who went on a rampage at his former school and killed 15 people before taking his own life gave a warning in an Internet chatroom only hours earlier and said he was “sick of this life,” officials said Thursday.
The [...]