Author Archives
Eye Candy
This week’s photos of lovely Canada.
#1: someone with too much time on their hands…obviously. 🙂
#5 is absolutely gorgeous
#14 could have been taken hundreds of years ago…
Enjoy.
It’s Not Safe to Breathe in New York…
…or anywhere else, for that matter.
Although the small town I’m in has beautiful blue skies, when chemtrails are sprayed, I can’t go outside for any length of time–as turning pale and getting a swollen face and getting a migraine were the result of jogging outside when chemtrails were heavily sprayed.
Same with Fort Wayne–when I jogged on days of ozone warnings, I thought I could jog early in the morning…nope. I was wheezing by the time I got back to my apartment.
Nature.org has this up on the costs of pollution to all living things…
Here is a paper on thyroid cancer and nuclear energy…
Why Powerful and Greedy Elites Scapegoat the Schools
Our economy is changing in ways that are alarming. Income inequality and wealth inequality are at their highest point in many decades; some say we are back to the age of the robber barons. Most of the gains in the economy since the great recession of 2008 have benefitted the 1%, or even the 1% of the 1%. The middle class is shrinking, and we no longer have the richest middle class in the world. The U.S. has the highest child poverty rate of any of the advanced nations of the world (and, no, I don’t count Romania as an advanced nation, having visited that nation, which suffered decades of economic plunder and stagnation under the Communist Ceausescu regime).
Forbes reports that there were 442 billionaires in the U.S. in 2013. Nice for them. Taxes have dropped dramatically for the top 1% since the 1970s. But don’t call them plutocrats…
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When Politics Runs In The Family
Nepotism…ain’t it grand…? /snark
If you follow the links to the NY Times piece, you’ll see a link to a pdf about the Clintons and a poll of what Americans think of Dynasties.
Sadly, a country that was founded on independence and getting away from a kingdom and its dynasty…has brain-dead people who don’t see a big problem apparently, with once again having kings and queens, absent crowns and coronations. This is not good, folks. Not good at all. We have the powerful promoting their own. And more importantly…protecting their own….then it becomes about their own interests that suits the family instead of what is best for the country.
By the way, here’s a list of the political families of the U.S.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_political_families_%28B%29
A well-connected family helps if you want to be in Congress:
Across all Congresses — House and Senate — from 1789 to 1986, nearly nine percent of legislators came from families that had previously sent a member to Congress. The prevalence of these dynastic legislators has decreased over time. “While 11 percent of legislators were dynastic between 1789 and 1858, only 7 percent were dynastic after 1966,” the authors write. And that number has been mostly flat, according to an October 2013 analysis by Chris Wilson of Time, who found that 6.9 percent of current House and Senate members — 37 in total — come from dynastic families.
As for senators, 13.5 percent have come from dynastic families, versus only 7.7 percent of representatives. One of the key findings of the dynasty paper is that political power is self-perpetuating: “Legislators who hold power for longer become more likely to have relatives entering Congress…
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Thank You, Louis C.K.!!! Just Posted on Huffington Post
Well, now. THANK YOU, Louis C.K. (apologies that I’m out of the loop with his act)
Related to this–the parrot media was touting the “fact” that there were more people employed last month. They found jobs in the fields related to STEM, or Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math.
The worst of it is that it is not true. Not only is it a lie, but a damned lie.
This piece explores that lie, and although it’s from last year, it seems that they wish to continue the same script:
http://cis.org/more-us-stem-grads-than-jobs
I have heard of this personally where tech/engineering grads are either not able to find work, or they are having to take jobs with much lower salaries. As the article states, they allege a shortage, but then wages would have risen…instead they have remained at 1990s levels.
And the icing on the cake:
http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2013/07/31/theater-grads-have-lower-unemployment-rates-than-engineering-and-tech-grads
Please read my commentary on what Louis C.K. has done to expand the debate about Common Core.
It was just posted on Huffington Post at the top of the page.
In my view, he has just smashed the carefully crafted narrative that the only critics of Common Core standards and tests are extremists of the right and left.
Being a comedian with 3.3 million followers on Twitter gave him a platform.
Being a parent of two children in public school gives him legitimacy.
His intervention changes the conversation. Maybe now we can have an honest debate instead of name-calling of anyone who dares to raise a voice in criticism of the CCSS.
Please leave a comment, if you choose.
HS Teachers Will Boycott NYC Test May 1
This just in:
FOR PLANNING PURPOSES: April 29, 2014
CONTACT:
Emily Giles, e.giles@ihsph.org, (917) 575-2936
Emily Wendlake, emilywendlake@gmail.com, (413) 657-7255
Rosie Frascella, r.frascella@ihsph.org, (917) 767-1001
Anita Feingold-Shaw, afeingoldshaw@gmail.com, (510) 872-1712
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**Media Advisory**
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26 Teachers and Staff of International High School at Prospect Heights refuse to give NYC ELA Performance Assessment Test
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WHEN: Thursday, May 1, 2014, 7:45-8:20am,
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WHERE: International High School at Prospect Heights, 883 Classon Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11225
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WHAT: Teachers will hold a press conference to announce their refusal to administer the NYC ELA Performance Assessment. 26 teachers and staff at Prospect Heights International High School are refusing to administer a new assessment that is part of the new teacher evaluation system pushed by Bloomberg’s DOE and the UFT last spring. 50% of parents have opted their children out of the test. The high school serves almost exclusively recently arrived English Language Learners.
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The story behind the story…
…of the 15 year old boy stowaway who traveled to Hawaii in the wheel well of a plane. His story is yet another tragedy in angry divorced fathers who take children away from their mother, who is living in poverty. He was told his mother was dead–how horribly selfish and psychologically traumatizing to a child.
I hope that Hawaiian authorities will not release the boy to his father, who obviously cares more about revenge than his child’s emotional health. Rather, it would be refreshing to see someone stand up for the mother, and help her reunite with her child.
Good luck students. Your professors are heading for the exits.
Under provisions of the State University Retirement System’s money purchase option, 10,000 state university employees are eligible to retire by July 1.
As a result of the Senate Bill 1 pension theft passed last December 3rd and signed immediately by Squeezy, thousands are heading for the exits to avoid loosing thousands of dollars in post retirement compensation.
Senator Dan Biss was a member of the bipartisan Committee of Ten that was assigned the job of constructing the bill. He now admits the problem, but claims it is an “easy fix.”
Much of what Senator Biss says is unreliable. That is never more true than his “easy fix” comment.
Today’s Tribune provides the numbers.
As of last week, about 1,700 university employees had filed retirement applications this year, compared with 960 during the same period last year. Not all will ultimately decide to retire, and many others will file applications in…
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Stranger hacks baby monitor, screams at baby
I don’t even know where to begin with this…
It’s disturbing that a complete stranger had access to the private home of these folks, and could see their child, see into their house, and do something so troubling.
Then there’s the mother, grabbing her phone to see the baby. Good Grief, I would have been running for the baby’s room, not grabbing the stupid phone to look to see if the baby was okay.
Not to mention exposing the child (and parents) to EMF’s which can cause damage that we are not even aware about yet.
The whole story is just unsettling.
Eagle 
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