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The Onion: Charter Schools Lottery

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(hat tip Diane Ravitch)

The Onion has their usual satirical take on the Charter Schools lottery “system”.

“Between small class sizes, longer school days, individualized instruction, and superior college admission rates, charters provide amazing opportunities for students who don’t enter a convulsive state, fall into a coma, stop breathing, and cease all bodily functions during the admissions process.”

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bwahahahahahahaha.

Spot on.

It’s really sad that the article hits Charter snobbery at its heart….and the kids suffer most of all.

Six Nations on high alert as Haldimand council orders removal of blockade

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They call McHale an attention seeker…but the fact they call Randy Fleming his follower leads me to believe he’s most likely a racist.
…probably has a white robe and pointy hat in his vehicle.

Zig Zag's avatarWarrior Publications

The scene at Kanonhstaton after incident with Gary McHale, June 2014. The scene at Kanonhstaton after incident with Gary McHale, June 2014.

by Jim Windle, Two Row Times, June 24, 2014

CALEDONIA – Monday night, in camera, Haldimand Mayor Ken Hewitt and his council ordered the blockade put up to protect the Kanonhstaton land in Caledonia, to be removed ASAP.  Claiming the order was only to clean up the appearance from Highway #6 and to make the site “accessible to emergency access,” Hewitt insists that it was not council’s intention to cause any undue stress to anyone.

However many at Six Nations believe he is upping the ante after two recent provocative incidents created by Haldimand residents, Gary McHale and Randy Fleming a week apart which brought back memories of the 2006 shut down of Argyle Street.

View original post 307 more words

Stunning Upset in Colorado: Educator Beats DFER Candidate

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dianeravitch's avatarDiane Ravitch's blog

Valentina (Val) Flores, a career educator, won a surprising and decisive victory for a seat on the state board of education in Colorado.

Flores won by a margin of 59-41, beating a candidate who was supported by the hedge funders’ Democrats for Education Reform, Stand for Children, and Education Reform Now. Her opponent had two years experience in Teach for America.

Flores has more than 40 years experience in education.

In my post about this electoral contest, I asked “Will big money win again?” The answer in Colorado is a loud and decisive NO!

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Steve Nelson: Education “Reform” is a Mighty Hoax

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And this from my state: Vouchers cost the state $16M:
http://www.indystar.com/story/news/education/2014/06/20/report-school-voucher-program-cost-state-m/11113499/

dianeravitch's avatarDiane Ravitch's blog

This is a terrific article by Steve Nelson. I wish I could republish it in full but that is not allowed.

He actually says that wat is called reform is “a national delusion.”

He writes:

“As I watch the education “debate” in America I wonder if we have simply lost our minds. In the cacophony of reform chatter — online programs, charter schools, vouchers, testing, more testing, accountability, Common Core, value-added assessments, blaming teachers, blaming tenure, blaming unions, blaming parents — one can barely hear the children crying out: “Pay attention to us!”

“None of the things on the partial list above will have the slightest effect on the so-called achievement gap or the supposed decline in America’s international education rankings. Every bit of education reform — every think tank remedy proposed by wet-behind-the-ears MBAs, every piece of legislation, every one of these things — is an excuse to continue…

View original post 112 more words

More on the Middle East

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I’ve read a few good posts on the Middle East-– Iraq and the U.S.’s role in the mess there.

I have to agree with the writer’s premise–that we have made a mess of things and they need to work this out for themselves without us riding in on a white horse to only make matters worse.

They know how many Americans feel about Muslims–led by a biased media willing to portray them as all thinking alike.  That is as stupid as portraying all women as thinking alike. Or anyone, for that matter.

My other posts on Iran here and here.

Palestinians cry for help.

Presbyterian Church divests itself of U.S. corporations helping Israel to destroy the Palestinians.

 

 

 

Alert

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Just wanted to give you a head’s up on something the mercury group has posted~

Vitamin Research Products (vrp.com) is no longer stocking DMSA, one of the chelators of mercury and lead.  They just suddenly stopped stocking it and have even removed the page from their website.

This is not good news.  They were the main supplier of DMSA.  Theories are abound that Big Pharma is behind this–buying out the competition.  And if they can buy out natural cures, they can force sick people to buy their side-effect-laden crap.

There are also allegations that Obamacare is limiting natural methods of healing, such as chelation supplements, making it harder for folks to get well. I don’t know this for fact, but it is one of the reasons I have not signed up for the health care.  Another reason is the link to the insurance industry instead of single-payer, which would have been more palatable, being like Medicare for All.

I can tell you that many of us on the group lost jobs as a result of mercury–therefore, we had lost the ability to pay for medical insurance and the ability to pay for supplements that insurance didn’t cover.   But at least the supplements were available…and cheap.  I would have not gotten well without that.  So once again, the poor take a hit for the uber wealthy to make even more profits….

I suspected that Big Pharma would try to grab this part of the market again, because they had in the past and continually try to get some twerp in Congress to do their bidding with making supplements illegal.

With billions of dollars and high-priced lawyers, they have gotten away with trying to take credit for natural healing herbs and methods, such as those used in India.  These were used for thousands of years…and Big Pharma comes along and tries to claim a patent.  Utterly mindboggling.  More here on Big Pharma’s battle to get a share of the market in India. An even better explanation of it here.

Big Pharma tries to claim that compulsory licenses aren’t available for cancer drugs – a lie; or that they are only available for national emergencies – another lie; or that India is establishing a general exception to patents for pharmaceuticals – an even bigger lie.  Sovereigns retain the right under TRIPS to issue compulsory licenses or to allow public, non-commercial use of patented products or processes.  As long as the correct procedures are followed and adequate remuneration is paid, the patent holder has nothing legitimate to complain about – unless, of course, it is a U.S. multinational who doesn’t want an emerging country like India to get in its way.

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…or for a group of U.S. citizens who want natural methods to heal their bodies to get their way….

And unfortunately, that’s not all that the greedy are trying to patent.

Lastly, here is a good segment on DN! with Vandana and Mira Shiva–two “uppity” women I admire for fighting the good fight~~

Vandana brings up the point of liability.  It would seem that none of the chemical companies — be it Dow/Union Carbide or any Big Pharma — want to take responsibility for the harm that they cause.  All the profits. None of the guilt.

She also highlights the attitudes towards the poor–they don’t matter so let’s poison them or use them as guinea pigs.

It was great to hear of them speak of their strong mother in the end~~no junk food in the house.  My father, too, did not allow junk food in the house when I was growing up–a parent who cares is not going to feed their child junk.  I heard the other day of parents of my children’s generation feeding their kids nothing but junk…and they don’t see anything wrong with that.  Very unsettling.  Regretfully, I didn’t appreciate my Dad’s wisdom until recently.  I always felt deprived because other kids got to have a “treat” of junk food on Friday night.  Just before the divorce, my sister would make Chef Boy-ar-dee pizzas on Friday night.  I felt happy at getting that “treat”.  Pfft.  The “treat” that kills.

Food is medicine.  Weeds are medicine.  When will we learn to value that which is not valuable by profit-making and make that available to all, not just those with cash in hand??