Category Archives: Big Brother

Bill Gates hasn’t destroyed public education yet….

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…but damn,he sure is trying with everything he’s got.

<sigh>  I was all ready to rip into Gates once again… but I’m halfway through the article of Chronicles of Higher Education….and this one sentence that Gates “just wants to get more people through the system with college degrees so that it will lift them out of poverty…”

bwahahahaha.  That’s rich.

Then, further down, they disclose that Gates Foundation is supporting the Chronicles of Higher Education financially.  I think I’ve already read that somewhere, but alas, the brain didn’t bring it up…the article is clearly a promo by Gates…so yeah….

So…I’ll have to refer to previous blogs on Gates…

Here.

Here. Silencing teachers.

Here. Supporting Brookings Institute that dismissed Diane Ravitch

Here. Not content with just controlling education, but the food supply, as well.

Here.

Israel launched Air Strike Against Syria

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You know, I have been wondering about all the important news out there that has been happening while they’ve been broadcasting the Zimmerman trial nonstop….

It’s not that I don’t think it is important–it is….but it does not need 16 hour coverage five days a week!

And I think the minute Zimmerman grabbed his gun and uttered the words “I’m sick of these punks getting away…” he met the legal standard of manslaughter, perhaps even murder.  I hedge on that because murder is premeditation–you decided you were going to kill your spouse when you found out they were cheating on  you.  This, on the other hand, sounds more like manslaughter–you weren’t intending on killing someone, but nevertheless, you did.

Self-defense is the only reason for someone to be set free.  I don’t believe in my heart that Zimmerman feared for his life.  Again, the words “I’m sick of these punks getting away” is an aggressive stance, not one of fear.

So…what’s been happening?  This, for one.  Happened a week ago!

More on the abortion debate in Texas.  I agree with limiting it to 20 weeks, even twelve weeks, but the rest is draconian and meant to interfere with a woman’s right to an abortion in that time frame.

Good for you, Suri

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Suri Cruise gave the stalkerazzi a piece of her mind.  Good for you, Suri.  And good for your mother raising you to believe in yourself and your right to privacy.

…and don’t mind the “bitch” word–you’ll hear that word when you stand up for yourself, as you have now experienced.  Embrace the word–it becomes a word of power once you realize it means you aren’t a doormat and you have set your boundaries.  Bravo.

And the Kardashians? Meh.  You can’t have a TV show exposing your every move and then claim you want privacy.  It messes with the  mind.

 

Obama and the Education Fiasco?

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One of the commenters on Diane Ravitch’s site has this link up .  An excellent timeline on what has been going on behind the scenes with *cough* education reform.

I really, really, hope that Barack Obama has changed his mind regarding this–as Diane Ravitch did when she came to realize that education reform was actually turning schools into for-profit centers.

From the link:

“When teachers are given powerful opportunities for career advancement, ongoing professional growth and recognition for outstanding achievement, we see increased student achievement in TAP schools,” Lowell Milken said in a December 2008 press release. “Chicago TAP schools are off to a strong start in continuing efforts to achieve these goals.”

Milken, unmentioned in most accounts, has a vested financial interest in school reform efforts and “fixing failing schools.”

That’s because Milken is a major investor in K12 Inc., a corporation traded on Wall Street that sells online schooling and curriculum to state and local governments. Milken invested $10 million in K12 Inc. in 2000, a stake that is now worth over $125 million, according to a July 2008 article in Forbes.

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Milken is full of it, to put it bluntly.  Nobody who knows anything about teachers and education would ever make such an idiotic statement.  Most teachers are in the profession because they want to see children learn, NOT because they want “career advancement”.  Their professional growth comes with experience….there is no substitute for that and no amount of money can magically *poof* experience.

Truly, to say that a student’s achievement is the teacher’s achievement is, in my view, taking away from the student’s hard work.  A good teacher is only part of the student-parent-teacher equation.  ALL of them play an important role in how well the student does.

When I first went to college, I wanted to be a teacher.  When I discussed this with my college advisor, she discouraged me from going that route–she said the jobs wouldn’t be there.  I wonder what she knew and when she knew it??  Anyway, I decided to go into Communications so that I could make documentaries and still somewhat “teach”.

However, when I was on what was supposed to be a progressive jobs website, there was Teach for America.  I applied, writing in my application how I had helped my daughter overcome dyslexia and learn to read.  I wanted to teach in inner city schools, I told them, so I could help the little ones with such learning hurdles.

I was turned down flat.  Not even an interview.

Knowing what I know now, it is obvious they were never interested in educating kids.  They didn’t want folks who were passionate and truly wanted to help kids learn.

When you couple this with the military in schools, it’s truly scary, indeed, on what is happening to our schools.  God help us.

Napolitano leaving

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Janet Napolitano is leaving the Dept. of Hysterical Security to head up….wait for it…the University of California, including Berkeley.…

While reading the article, I again ask myself, “why is one person head over natural disasters, the CDC,  as well as security?”

No More State Secrets

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Judge Jeffrey White  is allowing the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) to move forward.   Don’t fly in any small air craft, judge.  Or drive a car...

From the EFF website:

“The court rightly found that the traditional legal system can determine the legality of the mass, dragnet surveillance of innocent Americans and rejected the government’s invocation of the state secrets privilege to have the case dismissed,” said Cindy Cohn, EFF’s Legal Director. “Over the last month, we came face-to-face with new details of mass, untargeted collection of phone and Internet records, substantially confirmed by the Director of National Intelligence. Today’s decision sets the stage for finally getting a ruling that can stop the dragnet surveillance and restore Americans’ constitutional rights.”

Rewriting history

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Is what seems to be happening in the last few weeks of the “George Love In”….with the *cough* George W. Bush library that re-programs, er I mean, explains to the public  how it really was when he was president…

Abortion

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This is such a hard subject for me, because I’ve been from one extreme to the other with my feelings on it.  And feminists marginalize those women who believe in equality but have reservations about abortion.  It’s probably one of the biggest reasons that the women’s movement lost steam in the 70s.

When I was younger, before I had my children, I thought abortion was okay.  But when I had my children, I thought that it was wrong.  But I have seen the horrible picture of the woman who was so desperate that she had her boyfriend use a coat hangar on her to abort her pregnancy.  She died of an embolism.  I don’t want us to go back to that, but at the same time, I feel that there needs to be restrictions.   The heart starts beating at six weeks.

I learned something from Bill Moyers’  book published in the 80s–it stated that Europe is not as lenient about abortion as America is.  This shocked me–thinking that Europe has always been more open and “liberal’ about stuff, I presumed that they were of the mind that a woman could have an abortion at any time. Nope.  Here is a list of the countries and their abortion policy.  Most of them cut off abortion at 12 weeks, even for rape.  They only make exceptions for the physical and mental health of the mother, but even then, there are some cut-off dates.  The book stressed that the Europeans have a much more supportive structure in that they educate women and men on contraceptives.  And if a woman has the baby, she is supported the first five years of life.  Amazing, isn’t it??

In the not too distant past, women were not informed on how to prevent a pregnancy (Comstock laws) .  They  were having five and six kids and desperate not to have another when they became pregnant again.  They were too poor and uneducated to provide for the children they did have….what were they to do?

We’ve had politicians who want to deny women the means to prevent pregnancy, but then they also want to deny them abortion.  It makes absolutely no sense.  And when those children arrive, they will deny them food stamps and decent housing.

Educating women  and men is key.

Providing safe contraceptives is also key.  (Despite the popular idea that birth control pills are safe, there are many, many problems with them.  I have read that gluten intolerance is linked to them, but now can’t find the reference.  )

Spermicidal foam had been found to have mercury in it.   More here on other issues with it.  As far as I know, sponges are safe, but since they also contain N-9  there are issues.

Some women use the natural sea sponge for menstruation as well as a contraceptive.   I had heard that the ladies of days past used the sea sponges.

Here’s a report from a lady who had issues with chemically treated sponges.  On another site, a poster said she had heard that honey was a natural spermicide.  Interesting.  Here’s another site that had a brand of spermicide that is non-chemical.  It’s made in the UK, however, and I don’t know whether it’s available here.  I looked on their website, and it says there is an extra charge for shipping outside of Europe.  If one is interested, probably best to contact them and ask.

So…a complicated subject with emotions running high and no quick, easy answers.

It’s not easy for women to prevent a pregnancy in a safe way.  Why is that?

 

 

Mold

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…grows in the dark….is what passed in my head while reading this.

I just can’t wrap my brain around this.  The hubris is just beyond me.  What gives us the right?