“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 [...]

“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 [...]

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 [...]

Dear Glenn Beck:

Hi.  I know you’re probably having a little bit of a rough patch right now, but I just wanted to help you out a little bit with something that’s been bugging me for a while.
I actually listened to your radio train wreck show yesterday.  Don’t ask me why.  I was running errands and it was [...]

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 [...]

Say the words.

Now spread the word.

“What do Starbucks and Wal-Mart have in common?”

Actually, they have more in common that just this.
Wal-Mart sells cheap plastic crap made in overseas sweatshops.
Starbucks sells (burnt-tasting) coffee that tastes like crap.
Visit Stop Starbucks here.

What he said.

Seen in San Francisco on Tuesday.
(via Common Dreams)

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 [...]

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?”

More on “The Army Experience.”

Seven Arrested at Philadelphia Mall Over Military Recruiting Practices

PHILADELPHIA, Pa (CommonDreams) May 2 - Several hundred demonstrators from a coalition of 30 national and regional veteran, youth and peace groups, including the Iraq Veterans Against the War, Veterans for Peace, BuxMont Coalition for Peace Action, Student Peace Action Network, protested what they claimed were unethical military [...]

An open letter to the local chapter of the John Birch Society:

This letter is addressed to whoever left a leaflet stuck in my front door on Sunday,  April 26, the one advertising the showing of the racist, anti-immigrant propaganda film “Immigration Invasion” at (a location I will not discuss, on a date I will not disclose).  Ironically, I found it there after returning home from an [...]

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 [...]

“The Global Teachers’ Anthem.”

by Jesse Hagopian
(CommonDreams) April 3 – “Raise the threat level to a code red,” they cry out.     
From Baghdad to D.C., a growing chorus of a-tonal anti-union executives around the world (the only choir that may be left after all the public school budget cuts) are asserting that the teacher union menace must be neutralized. [...]

Happy (human rights hero) birthday.

Happy birthday to Cesar Chavez, born March 31, 1927.
Si se puede!
Sign the petition to support the National Cesar Chavez holiday HERE.

CEOs: Flunking out.

Teachers for CEO Merit Pay!
by Jesse Hagopian
(CommonDreams) March 19 – Pop quiz:
Chief Executive Officers, take out your #2 pencils and mark the letter that corresponds to the single best answer choice (remember, unlike on Wall St. your scores will be invalidated if you are caught cheating).
1) What have CEOs achieved in recent years that would [...]

Fired for fighting the good fight.

I can’t believe I missed this story last week…
Gay-themed film cost Oklahoma teacher her job
(USA Today) March 16 – Gay rights groups are complaining about the firing of a rural Oklahoma high school teacher who lost her job last week after assigning a play about the 1998 death of a gay college student. But the tiny [...]

Dear Mr. President:

You’re wrong on this one.
Obama, taking on unions, backs teacher merit pay

WASHINGTON (AP) March 10 – President Barack Obama embraced merit pay for teachers Tuesday in spelling out a vision of education that will almost certainly alienate union backers. A strategy that ties teacher pay to student performance has for years been anathema to teachers’ [...]

The Agitator writes a letter.

 (This space formerly occupied by a picture of a mushroom cloud.)
To the Editor of the Philadelphia Inquirer:
In his fawning puff piece espousing the virtues of former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton (“A Dangerous Naivete on Foreign Policy,” March 1), columnist Kevin Ferris leaves out mention of one other key quote from Mr. [...]

Be(ing) a citizen of the world.

I hope this will make sense.  A whole lot of things are running through my enfeebled brain at the moment, so I hope I can pull it all together.
I recently received my March issue of my favorite Friendly publication, Friends Journal, which I dove into with gusto, as is my habit.
As usual, the first thing [...]