Brother, can you spare a dime?

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Because young, hopeful, eager teachers need any spare change you can give…. (hat tip to Diane Ravitch).

I wish I could say this is just happening to the teaching profession, but alas…it’s been going on in the private sector, as well, for, oh, at least seven years.  It was just understood that you didn’t take breaks.  What? You need a lunch?  Well, okay, but be quick about it.  What?  You need a bathroom break?  Well, okay, but you’ll have to clean it, too, while you’re in there….

Yep.  It’s the dirty little secret nobody talks about.  (The above was reference to a store owned by people professing to be progressive Dems, too. Um-hmm..)

Yes, the teaching profession was insulated from this for awhile, but alas, it too, has been sucked into the black hole that was once this magnificent country….bankrupted by bankers who produce nothing and corporate CEO’s who actually think they’re worth the millions paid to them.

I was trying to think of a profession this hasn’t hit–the medical profession and the lawyers, the bankers, and, of course, Congress, who never seem to have to pay their dues with the rest of us; are the only ones I could think of.

Bank tellers, however, have been impacted, along with others. 

So…I went looking again for stuff made in the United States of America…in fear that perhaps nothing is made here anymore…only slightly cynical…

I found this very cool fabric manufacturer.  I soooo want to buy that fabric!

And this.  (Note the theme of organically grown crop)

Here’s one for fleece.

And one for wool.

Another organic cotton manufacturer.  Man, my mood has lightened up considerably. 🙂

More here.

Finally, for my newer readers, this website is terrific for finding stuff (Christmas gifts?) still made here.  Enjoy.

 

Knowing history

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(woke up yesterday with a migraine-like headache from the stupid chemtrails.  Thought it best that I not post.)

At about 12:30 today, I asked the kids if they knew what happened this day 50 years ago…hoping that they knew.  Nope.  I told them what happened (briefly, no gore), and then told them some of the things JFK did.

It was disheartening that they knew so little of the circumstances or about John F. Kennedy.  I’ll bet they are very aware of presidents who promote war, however. (cynical, I know, but the over-emphasis on war in textbooks and the absence of praise for peace is glaring.)

It all seems like it happened yesterday to me.  And they have no comprehension of how this day changed everything.  I wished I could have gone into more detail with them, but that would not have been appropriate.   And as I write that, i’m thinking….these kids witness more violent acts than any generation before them….why would this not have been appropriate….?  I clumsily tried to explain to them that our society is more violent now than it was then–how could I convey that to them when they have no idea how that act, and the murder of Martin Luther King, Jr., and the rest were out of the ordinary?    They hear about violence daily.  They experience bullying at school.  They’re being pressured to perform like circus animals at school.  Their world is so far removed from Camelot….it’s like trying to explain colors to someone who is blind.

 

Rep. Brower of Hawaii smashes the homeless… **edited

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meager possessions.  (hat tip to Harsh Reality who, unfortunately, doesn’t care about the “moochers”). **see comments–apparently Harsh Reality does care…sarcasm doesn’t translate well on the ‘net.

I am beyond comprehension of this horrible person.  Who would do that?  What does he think he’s accomplishing?  As others pointed out in the comments, the person IS STILL HOMELESS after this self-righteous jerk destroys what little they have.

Just another compassionate conservative. Yep.  Probably takes taxpayer paid-for junkets to exotic locations, eating steak on taxpayer dollars, and probably gets free coffee and donuts on the taxpayer dime, too, while the homeless go hungry and scrape by with dumpster diving…

We’re okay

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I was going to make a crack about it being a slow news day when CNN covers stuff happening in Indiana….but thought better of it when I heard of how devastating the storms were–

They aren’t exaggerating when they say the storms passed very quickly.  Five minutes total.  The winds were ferocious–and a family member heard the dreaded “freight train” sound associated with tornadoes.  We were in the bathrooms for the worst of it, and then came out to see it after the worst had passed.  A chair was blown into the yard and lawn furniture tossed around, but other than that, we sustained minimal damage.

They say that three are dead in Illinois and Peoria took a big hit. Kokomo, Indiana is in a state of emergency.

My family is okay, though.  Blessings to those who suffered a loss.

It’s really not a gender issue

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This is spot on.  We’ve been told that men and women communicate differently….so that makes it harder to understand one another.  Women have been promoted as a group instead of a collection of individuals with independent thought.

News Flash:  we don’t all think alike!  As the cartoon illustrates…if you want to know what a woman is thinking, ASK HER.

(hat tip Lisa Wade at sociological images)

 

Education News

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Here’s a great post on what is happening to the kids.  You know….those kids that the reformers say they are concerned about??

G2 put a comment linking to this post. I found this passage especially poignant:

It is imperative, therefore, that we make school a supportive environment free of the extreme stress that can harm healthy development. Some stress is productive and promotes growth. However, especially for children living in poverty, creating an unnecessarily stressful environment has long-term damaging effects.

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To label schools as “just” a place to get an education is a short-sighted, narrow view.  Children in poverty are already stressed out by worrying that they won’t have enough to eat that day…that Mom will be crying again because she doesn’t know how she’s going to pay the bills…

…and the one thing that can make that child feel worth something?  Knowing the answer to a question the teacher asks.  Getting an “A” or even a “B” on a test.   Having a teacher provide a treat on his/her birthday….which he/she might not get at home because there just isn’t any extra.

School can be the difference between a poor kid seeing beyond their environment and reaching beyond their little world.

More here:

Child-development experts have decried the age-inappropriateness of the Common Core. In 2010, more than 500 people signed a statement stating that the “standards conflict with compelling new research in cognitive science, neuroscience, child development, and early childhood education about how young children learn, what they need to learn, and how best to teach them in kindergarten and the early grades.”

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A reminder of the nonsensical approach of Common Core.

This just says it all:

The U.S. Department of Education hyped the Common Core as creating a “national market” for “educational entrepreneurs.”

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Makes you sick, doesn’t it??

One of the commenters said that homeschooling is the next step.  Yes and No.  If you’re wealthy enough that one parent can stay home, you can do that.  And we would lose so much of the connectedness that school encourages.  We would be further isolated from each other.  I just can’t wrap my brain around that–our children and grandchildren will be living in the same neighborhood, but regarding the others as strangers.  I see kids out playing in the neighborhood and it makes my heart sing.  If this continues, there won’t be the shared experience of discovering new things together, of sharing their personal stories in class discussions (finding common ground or discovering other cultures), of class plays, of singing together, of inspiration…

Bring it on, Arne.  She’s referring to this by Duncan. Oh.My.God.  Did he really say that??  Did he really just insult a group of women who know their children and know their schools and know their teachers?  Is he really that condescending and arrogant? And racist?  I mean, really, if it was stated that a group of “angry, black women” were not accepting their failing schools, it would be seen as the racist statement that it is.

There’s another link here, to a report on Common Core playbook, from the Perdido site.

There’s more but this is making me so depressed I need to step away for the moment.

Yoga for lymph system

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Did you know that the lymph system is as important for circulation as the respiratory system?  I sure didn’t.  The lymph glands in my neck have been swollen since 1995.  I had one amalgam placed in 1991, and the other seven that did me in, in 1994.  One year later, I began getting the monthly migraines.  I also was exposed to melted plastic when I worked in the office of a car parts manufacturer.  We were attached to the factory, and someone had a machine on that molded plastic parts.  I never got the full story of what happened, but the accident had to have been huge, as I smelled burnt plastic in the office.  My glands were swollen from then on.

So…I’ve noticed when I’m chelating, that the glands go down to normal size.  When I stop the round?  Back to swollen again.  This seems to be an issue for most of us with mercury poisoning.  The poor lymph system is supposed to carry out all the wastes, but it just gets overwhelmed.

I found this site explaining the lymph system and thought I’d pass it along.  Yoga is supposed to help the lymph system to cleanse itself–and jumping on a trampoline helps, too.

I also started a search on sea salt benefits.  I had purchased some of the pink salt that has not been chemically processed and wondered what benefits (or detriments) it possessed.

They make the case that table salt is sodium chloride and has been processed out the wazoo to remove all the additional minerals.  The companies then sell the minerals for $$.  The resulting sodium chloride is not recognized by the body and is sent to the…uh…waste bin…

The theory is that untreated salt is much better for us because the body recognizes it and utilizes it accordingly to keep the delicate balance for the heart and kidneys to function properly.  One site even claimed that it helps remove plaque from the gut.

Of course, one always has to take what is said with a critical eye.

I think there is something to it, however, because I took 1/4 tsp baking soda + 1/4 tsp pink salt in a glass of water–sipping it throughout the day.  I started craving the pink salt.  Interesting.

I listen to my body–when I was a vegetarian, I was craving meat…my body understood what it needed, and even though I hated going back to eating meat, it saved my life.   So when it craves something, I pay attention, keeping in mind that craving something could also mean I am allergic to it.