More sleazy education news

Arne Duncan appears to be actively promoting for-profit schemes for public education.  The link to the Hill is just jaw-dropping.  Blatantly promoting schmedumacation profiteering.

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In other education news, the educators sounding the alarm were/are being monitored.  For what??

The link provided to the smear piece by Huffington post reporter Peter Cunningham, a former DOE employee, doesn’t include the comments, so I’ll post the link here:

huffingtonpost.com/peter-cunningham/ravitch-redux_b_3768887.html

This comment from the Cunningham piece tears down his arguments:

this article criticizes ravitch for making ad hominem arguments, cherry-picking data, setting up straw men, distorting language, taking comments out of context and ignoring sound evidence that conflicts with her point of view. then the article proceeds to do each and every one of those things.

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People have asked why Huffington Post would be so anti-public education…assuming that because they are reportedly “progressive” that they would not buy into the nonsense that is charter schools.

Ariana Huffington once said “we want the purple people.”  “purple people” meaning those of us who actually think and don’t subscribe to sheep-ism by following party lines blindly.  Purple being the combination of conservative (red) and progressive (blue)…

…but in reality, they want the purple vote, but do not want the purple “voice”…for example–the abortion debate–women who believe in equality but didn’t believe in abortion were marginalized–denied a voice.

Nick Clegg defends bullying Guardian

Nick Clegg has defended his actions towards the Guardian newspaper.

The fact that the Guardian has copies outside the country has restored my faith…somewhat.  Why should they have to go to such great lengths to exercise Freedom of Speech?

Gah, as I thought about this story last night, images of the King’s soldiers coming in and smashing printing presses went through my head…if nothing else, it sure does hit home that nothing has changed and that Freedom of Speech needs to be fought for and protected for democracy to survive.

News of Egypt, Syria, Middle East

In Syria,  appears there have been several chemical attacks on civilians, according to this. 

The video is hard to watch.  Good God.  They’ve got oxygen masks on them, but I would think that water is more suited to flushing the poison out of their systems?  What kind of monster would do this?

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EU’s response to the crisis in Egypt.

Meanwhile, a court orders the release of Hosni Mubarak.  (!!)  Color me confused.

The report states this is likely to add fuel to the fire in Egypt already, so I’m at a loss to understand the thinking behind it.

 

 

Following the mercury trail…

Here is an excellent piece on solving the mercury mystery….it’s not really that hard if one looks for it.  But that would require work and persistence…

This passage really struck home to me:

He was only 44 years old. The cause of death, according to the ASA account, was lupus erythermatosis, an autoimmune disease in which the body attacks its own healthy tissue. According to his death certificate, as mentioned above, his brother, Ritchey, died of multiple myeloma — a cancer of the immune system, formed by malignant plasma cells in the bone marrow.

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Mercury/heavy metals cause autoimmune diseases.  They also cause cancer.   I mean, they actually use nickel in labs to give rats cancer! These are well known, but rarely looked at by the medical profession…why??

Too much profit in providing medical care?? Too much profit for Big Pharma??

If you think not, just remember the story by Gary Null about the hospital in Washington state that first entertained the idea of liquid zinc helping women suffering from anorexia/bulimia…when the doc who discovered the connection was asked to speak before the hospital staff, the bean counters pulled the administrators aside and remarked that if a simple thing like liquid zinc could bring results in a week or so, what would happen to their $$$ profits on the eating disorders clinic…??  Yep.

As Shirley Chisholm said, “When profits come up against morality, it’s rare that profits lose.”

James O’Keefe at it again? **edited

This *cough* surfer guy sure does resemble James O’Keefe—the guy who brought down ACORN with his pimp impersonation and who also tampered with Mary Landrieu’s phone system.

This hit piece is just another Reagan-Cadillac-driving-welfare-queen smear to incite hatred towards food stamp recipients.  There is no waaaay someone on food stamps could survive buying lobster and other expensive grocery items in this video.  When his $200 is gone…it’s gone.

One would have to buy chicken, beans, rice, etc., to survive.  And fruits and vegetables to stay healthy.  But again, this video sneakily ignores that…

God these people are evil.

**edited to add link. Geesh

The Guardian hard drives destroyed

When I first began reading this, I wondered how the agents got into the basement….shocked doesn’t begin to describe how I felt when I read that the Guardian’s editor allowed them to destroy the hard drives. Wow.  Just wow.

I never thought I’d see the day that the Guardian caved.  They threatened legal action?  Are you serious?  You caved because of threatened legal action?  Or was the threat something more sinister?

Jaysus H.

 

Detroit Unions Fighting Back

Good for them.

Make Orr lay the evidence that Detroit is insolvent out there.  Make him negotiate in good faith, with everyone taking a hit, not just the unions.

…and a thought just occurred to me…if a person owes a bank money, say, for a car, and doesn’t pay…then the bank takes possession of the car, correct?  So…if the city of Detroit owes the union workers money…wouldn’t they then…ahem…take over the running of the city…?  Hell, they couldn’t do any worse…

I tried looking up the Idaho bankruptcy mentioned in the article, but could only find articles talking about the bankruptcy–not their successfully challenging it.