Is This How You Think The United States of America Should Behave?

I was considering posting this as my Facebook Status today, but I really am not sure I want to go there.

I’m going to get un-friended by some folks, but I hope you read this first.  I was taken aback by something a lifelong educator that I know and like said to me recently, and I hope this makes those that I love and respect (and those that I just love) take stock of your thoughts. 

It started as a simple “some administrators are idiots, too, so with all the talk about firing the bad teachers, what about firing the bad administrators?” talk.  Inside, I thought “well, that’s a general truth in life, right, that some managers aren’t very good and can hire and fire anyway?” I taught for almost 9 years, and have seen that everywhere I’ve worked when I wasn’t teaching, too.  Do a web search for “bad boss” for Pete’s sake, stories are legendary. But I digress.

What disturbed me came next: he got an email that said something about it being time to “get a little bloody.” Now, if you pay attention, you know that this was recently stated (and probably inspired) by Congressman Michael Capuano in Massachusetts (who now “regrets his choice of words”), but for my friend, I thought he was being metaphorical about the situation here in Ohio until he followed it up with “these right-wingers think they’re the only ones with guns, and they’re wrong.”

This is a complicated issue, and my FB status is no place for debating specifics, I think. I have stopped doing anything other than “liking” posts that I like, for the most part, so I won’t engage in it. However, let’s fly at 30,000 feet, as they say, and ask the philosophical questions, shall we?

Is this how you think America should work? Is this what you expect from an educated person and an educator? Is this how you think The United States of America should behave? I understand that people will react strongly if they feel their livelihood is being threatened and I understand that these were promises made, the pensions and retirement benefits, but still, the threat of violence over this? Going to protest at the homes of people with disagree with?

Another lifelong educator I know threw in "why blame the state's financial woes on the the teachers? Why not look to Wall Street?" and then included the Republicans. I don't have the heart to tell her, because I like her very much, that the number one recipients of Wall Street donations are Democrats, according to CBS and 

the Puffington Host (I can't believe I'm linking to them). Businesses give to the party in power, usually, so it fluctuates, but this Republicans=Wall Street is a myth that I am so tired of. How many Goldman Sachs people work for the current Administration? Even the NY Times has weighed in.

The upshot is that the Union Leaders have screwed the members for years, in collusion with the politicians that have kicked this can down the road, making unsustainable deals. The difference here is that it's our tax dollars footing the bill. A former CEO of GM famously said that he didn't run a car company, he ran a pension and benefit company that sells cars to pay for it. The 90% of workers in this country who aren't in a union are footing the bill for this mess.

gettting traffic, eh?

Well, I have no idea sometimes about how works the internet: I'm getting traffic on a very short post, and here's some funny parts:

I got a hit when someone searched "why republicans are feeble minded" and that person was probably not pleased with the result, I bet.


I was somehow referred by an "onlineviagrapill dot com" site, which is a total mystery.

This is interesting: Moldova? Really?

Pageviews by Countries

Ukraine 12 Russia 9 United States 9 Moldova 3 Germany 2

My Moments On The Radio...and I Finally Wrote Something To Put On The Graph.

Well, yesterday I had my first piece published on The Graph and was fortunate enough to talk to Sean Hannity on his radio show about Egypt.

As expected, I didn't get to mention the Graph piece about Egypt, and it wasn't as clean of a performance as I would have liked, but he certainly did just let me have my say, didn't he? It helps to be polite and make the Host look good, doesn't it?

one side doesn't get the science....

I love this from drudge:  Al Gore replies to Bill O'Reilly and quotes a non-scientist for backup. Here's his post:

An Answer for Bill February 1, 2011 : 11:43 AM

Last week on his show Bill O’Reilly asked, “Why has southern New York turned into the tundra?” and then said he had a call into me. I appreciate the question.
As it turns out, the scientific community has been addressing this particular question for some time now and they say that increased heavy snowfalls are completely consistent with what they have been predicting as a consequence of man-made global warming:
“In fact, scientists have been warning for at least two decades that global warming could make snowstorms more severe. Snow has two simple ingredients: cold and moisture. Warmer air collects moisture like a sponge until it hits a patch of cold air. When temperatures dip below freezing, a lot of moisture creates a lot of snow.”
“A rise in global temperature can create all sorts of havoc, ranging from hotter dry spells to colder winters, along with increasingly violent storms, flooding, forest fires and loss of endangered species.” 


His quote is from Clarence Page at the Chicago Tribune, who assumes, like Gore, that we trust that because he says a scientist said it, a scientist said it...and neither attribute their information to the originator. Hmm.

Now, I love that this youtube video follows the link on drudge's page:


in which the exact opposite weather data means It's Global Warming's Fault...oops, I mean "man-made-global-warming's-fault."

So, if there's no snow, it's evidence of Global Climate Change, and if there's a lot of snow, it's evidence of Global Climate Change. Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight.

Drudge has updated to include an actual Weather Guy's take on all of this, too. He also makes a point that I make:
Bastardi adds that with the U.S. in the middle of one of its worst recessions in its history and the price of oil in question, he is extremely concerned about the prospect for more persistent cold weather in the coming years putting increased financial hardship on Americans.
"Cold is a lot worse than warm," Bastardi said, "and that's why your energy bill goes up during the winter time: because of the fact that it takes a lot to heat a house."

Yes, it's true folks, cold is worse than heat, that's why there are so many more people that live close to the equator than the arctic.... Read up on Lief Erikson if you want to get an idea of life with a warmer planet. Greenland, anyone? Vinland?