Month: May 2006

Well, Diane has “Dead Guy on the Sidebar” and Samantha has “Moron of the Week” so I thought I’d see if anyone would play a new game here.

It’s a simple game, and the rules are even simpler: simply answer the question I pose here in comments. Both commenters can submit all the answers they want.

What was I thinking?

OK, time frame: 0-dark-30 this morning.
Sitch: woke to the sounds of thunder and rain, extremely dark. No, darker than that.

What was I thinking?

Thas all folks.

Heading back over to Diane’s Stuff to see if Samantha’s guessed the third Dead Man in the Sidebar. 🙂

Wednesday Open Trackback Alliance open post. Link here and track back. More below the post body.

Or, “How to meet the requirements to become a warden in our nation’s prisons for kids.” From Hugh via email, with an addendum from me:

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Brit politicians and utility workers could probably very easily qualify to be administrators in our government schools.

hth
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From “Bonehead-Of-The-Day” award by Jerry Lerman.

Peddling And Spinning
The Guardian (UK) 2-May-06

Bonehead award one goes to British Conservative leader David Cameron who rides a bicycle to work every day to increase environmental awareness and who is followed by a car carrying his briefcase, apparently to increase political awareness. [emphasis added]

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Drowning in Incompetence, Part II
The UK Sun 8-May-06

A water leak that gushed through a UK Hamlet for 16 years, causing extreme icy road conditions and wasted millions of gallons of water, was finally stopped when a farmer turned it off at the faucet.

Water board officials at Hamerton Cambs insisted for 16 years that it was a natural spring.

“If that is a natural spring then it must be the only one with a tap on it,” said the farmer.

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You think I’m kidding (or that Hugh is offbase) equating pubschool administrators with monumantal stupidity? Just google it. Or click here and read for a start on some search terms. Or read this and weep. While teachers seeking advanced degrees (which darned near all require taking the GRE) scored relatively poorly—a little to the left of the mean on the bell curve—those seeking “Education Administration” degrees fared quite a bit worse. Yep. That’s right. The pool of folks who are teachers are demonstrably to the left of the bell curve among those who seek masters degrees or higher, while the people who are the managers and administrators in pubschools are demonstrably dumber than the folks they supervise.

Heck, the phenomenon of dumbness extends to all the professions that are involved in one way or another in ruining education:

In a nutshell, GRE scores of applicants for graduate study in education are on the left side of the ” bell curve ” distribution of scores. For example, applicants for graduate study in Education Administration – tested between July 1, 2001, and June 30, 2004 – had a combined mean total GRE score of 950 (Verbal – 427; Math – 523). That is sixth from the bottom of 51 fields of graduate study tabulated by the Educational Testing Service. The mean total GRE score across all fields was 1066. Which applicants had still lower total GRE scores than applicants in Education Administration ? Social Work – 896, Early Childhood – 913, Student Counseling – 928, Home Economics – 933, Special Education – 934 – education fields all. Other fields with mean GRE scores on the far left side of the GRE bell curve? Seventh, eighth, ninth and tenth from the left tip of the curve, respectively: Public Administration ( ” practices and roles of public bureaucracies ” ) – 965, Other Education – 968, Elementary Education – 970, Education Evaluation and Research – 985, Other Social Science – 993.

Note the pattern: Eighty plus percent on far-left-side-of-the-GRE-bell-curve are headed for – or, more likely, already employed by – public education systems. Ninety plus percent are headed for some form of government employment.

The picture is not unrelievedly bleak. There is a GRE outlier in the public education world: Secondary Education – 1063, in the middle of the GRE bell curve. That makes sense. Many secondary school teachers have academic degrees. Problems at the high school level may have less to do with teacher aptitude than with students ‘ K-8 preparation, with the regulatory/contractual straitjacket in which high schools operate, and with education administrators ‘ aptitude (mean GRE – 950), which likely contributes, for example, to school systems ‘ tolerance of out-of-field teaching:

On average, then, the best of teachers—as a class: secondary level teachers—are average. What that makes pubschool administrators—as a class—is subnormal.

Or, as I like to put it from my years’ exposure to the breed, dumber than rocks.

N.B. All of these assessments are based on differentiated classes of persons, determined by both such objective criteria as GRE scores and subjective evaluation based on performance, personal evaluation of curricula I’ve been exposed to for advanced work in education and ed admin, etc. There ARE sterling examples among teachers, administrators and ancilliary personnel in our schools. I have known many fine, intelligent, hard-working teachers (often “beaten down” or burned out by the system and often ganged up on by lazy, incompetent and stupid colleagues *sigh*) and three very good principals. Exceptions do exist within this sub(human) species.

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As I said, this is an open trackback post. Link to this post and track back. And do see these other fine blogs offering linkfests:

Also note the other fine blogs featuring linkfests at Linkfest Haven.

Lovely Daughter recently bought her first new car. She names all her cars and this one is Yolanda Yaris. She loves the lil bugger (in a very platonic sense–no, not platonic in the modern pejorated sense, in the ancient Platonic sense. *heh*), but we always hurt the ones we love, eh? Meditating on Yolanda’s name, she emerged wi8th this lil mnemonic for you, just to help y’all recall her Lovely Car’s name:

“Yolanda the Yodeling Yaris Yakked Yogurt Yesterday…Yuck!”

(Note: because of her work with a private social services agency and cos I’m just a tad protective, I obscured/blurred out her face. It doesn’t look anything like the pic! *sheesh!* folks, get your eyes checked! Oh, and yeh, that’s Buttons, the dog we’ve done a lotta doctorin’ n nursin’ of recently, layin’ there at her feet. He got bored while I was taking a buncha pics, yawned and plopped down. :-))

We now return to our regularly scheduled blog posting…

*heh*

Well, I knew the previous owners of our home had done a few things on the cheap. After all, I’ve spent the last eleven years upgrading lots of the cheapy “gotta do this to make it an attractive buy” things.

But I’d been holding off on upgrading the cheapo water heater until… yeh. It’s started a very, very small leak. One that will only get larger. And yeh, I could patch it, but why? It’ll just start again somewhere else, likely when I least expect it; probably when we’re gone for a weekend or something, right?

So. It’s not a tough job. Really about a 2 on a scale of 1-19, and that mostly for the hassle of hauling the old one off.

But. Another (though decent) tank water heater, or should I install a tankless job? Bosch makes one I find attractive. Total cost of installing it (myself) would only be about twice that of a typical old tech tank heater. Natural gas, so I wouldn’t have to run a 240 electrical circuit/line. That’s nice, cos I don’t have room for a new 240 circuit on our current primary service panel, and I’d hate to run one off the exterior panel that does have room for another circuit. OK, maybe bump the difficulty to a 3 cos I’d have to enlarge the vent stack hole, install a larger vent stack and new flashing, etc., but big stinking deal, eh? The escalation to a three would mostly be cos I no longer like climbing on the roof. Used to free climb, but that was over 30 years ago, yah know…

Oh, well. Gonna have to make a decision in the next week or so, I believe. I’m leaning to the tankless, despite the new vent stack I’d need to install. Any comments, suggestions?

It won’t be after you read this post by Heidi at Euphoric Reality.

This is a certified RCOB (blinded by a Red Curtain of Blood rage) moment.

The feds who have engaged in this behavior should be tried (for whatever capital offense can be made to stick) and shot and left for scavengers. And their descendents unto the seventh generation should be hounded from the face of the country these quislings have dishonored.

A tanning booth on the sun for every fedgov traitor who engages in this sort of behavior is far, far too kind.

Now, are you going to CLICK on over there and read what has me about to stroke out?

This is my Tuesday Open Post. Link to this post and track back. More below the post.

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For more on developing the right attitude toward terrorists, may I commend to your attention the “escape fiction with a none too hidden message” found in The Weapon, by Michael Z. Williamson. A brief sample from chapter six…

I hate terrorists. To me, anyone who attacks civilians in lieu of soldiers (collateral casualties do happen, but aren’t an excuse to be abused) is a gutless turd. I don’t care what the historians have to say about Lenin, the “Irish Republican Army” (which was neither Irish, Republican, nor an army), Hamas, al Qaeda… or any other group of thugs in history, or those running around now. They attack civilians to create terror, to force a government to yield. They do not attack politicians directly, or soldiers or cops. They attack civilians “because they have no choice” (and because their penises are too small for real fights and they lack the intelligence to stage real revolutions)… I don’t care how “noble” the cause is, how oppressed you feel you are, how “romantic” or “elegant” it is to shoot kids, blow up offices, destroy marketplaces, you will get naught but a bullet from me. If you want a fight, call me. That’s why I’m here.

Oh, there’s much more in that vein, of course. Buy a copy and start passing it around to weenie faux liberals you know. Tell them it’s a Libertarian anti-war book or something. *heh* It’s available here, here or here, at various prices and in various formats.

Sure, it’s light reading, not “literature” at all—something to zip right through for purely entertainment value—but Williamson does tell the story well, and his protagonist has the right attitude about dealing with terrorists…

Of course, it’s really about waging war on government anarcho-tyranny… the worst form of terrorism, where citizens are turned into subjects by force or threat of force and petty bureaucrats rule.

Oh, and about irony. Massive, gargantuan irony… *sigh*

The Weapon

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Go ahead and link to this post and track back. And see some other fine blogs’ linkfests at

My open post today included a request for suggestions on how to deal with new neighbors who don’t know how to pee on the paper…

JimmyK came up with the best line of suggestions so far…

1. Got any friends who are Hell’s Angels?
2. Borrow 2 coon dogs for the week end.
3. Call the ACLU and tell them there is a church meeting going on at the house.
4. Call Cindy Sheehan and tell her the media will be at the party.

Now, that’s what I’m talkin’ about! More, please!

🙂

This is an open trackbacks post. Link to this post and track back. More below the “Hey rube!”

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OK, the downside of living in America’s Third World Countyâ„¢. *sigh*

For the past eleven years, we’ve lived in a very quiet neighborhood in a small town in America’s Third World Countyâ„¢ where the loudest disturbances have been dogs barking at invading wildlife, the occasional sound of hunters over the hill (maybe a quarter mile off and well over a hill) during deer season and the mostly distant sound of the trains passing through, which everyone in town hears.

None of this is a patch on city traffic, C-130s doing touch-and-gos and MLRS launches that were common where we moved from (heck, some of the missle launches weren’t a patch on the artillary range impacts which could be heard miles away).

But recently, here in our quiet cul de sac, we’ve had to consider dealing with a different set of noises. Some young 20-somethings were able to swing financing the house our good neighbor moved out of a few years after losing his wife to cancer (a long story there). They got it for a song—not a patch on what our former neighbor had paid (some problems with a city right-of-way had forced demo-ing a portion of the house *sigh*), but still… Yeh, seem like nice kids, but…

…it’s been a while, a pretty good long while (back when we bought and began rennovating a bungalow in “the better part of the ghetto” in KCMO when we were just newlywed pups), since we’ve had to put up with loud, drunken parties late on Saturday night/early Sunday mornings—or at any time, for that matter. Heck, they have a nice back yard, so why do they have to congregate and do their loud, drunken hootin’ andf hollerin’ in their front yard, just a bit away from our bedroom windows?

OK, I’ve stifled my natural tendencies, and all of our neighbors and their drunken friends are still alive and unmarked (by me, at least). And my blood pressure isn’t all that bad right now, either.

But.

Before I TAKE STEPS, I thought I’d solicit the considered thoughts of readers here: what helpful hints (beyond buying/renting/building a “Sonic Laser” *heh*) would you suggest for dealing with these drunks?

Comments (or even whole posts tracked back to this one) welcome.

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As I said, this is an open trackback post. Link to this post and track back.

Also note the other fine blogs featuring linkfests at Linkfest Haven.

Today’s Guard the Borders post is from Rahel B. Avraham of CustomerServant.com. While I posted on “The Pachuco Hymn” last week, it warrants repeating. All I’ll add to Rahel’s post is a small edit adding an mp3 file so you can sing along with the REAL National Anthem, if you wish, since she includes the lyrics to the REAL thing below the vile abortion of the Alien Invaders’ Anthem. Oh, and an added emphasis to words in our REAL national Anthem that cause faux liberals to choke on their own bile…

Blest with vict’ry and peace, may the heaven-rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: “In God is our trust.”

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Nuestro Himno: Is It Really “Our Anthem?”
By Rahel B. Avraham of CustomerServant

The pro-illegal immigration folks now have their own campaign song. It’s called “Nuestro Himno,” (our anthem), and it’s peddlers say it’s just a re-interpretation of our national anthem, “The Star-spangled Banner.” Let’s see if that claim actually holds water.

First, an English translation of “Nuestro Himno.”

Verse 1

It’s sunrise. Do you see by the light of the dawn
What we proudly hailed last nightfall?
Its stars, its stripes
yesterday streamed
above fierce combat
a symbol of victory
the glory of battle, the march toward liberty.
Throughout the night, they proclaimed: “We will defend it!”

Chorus

Tell me! Does its starry beauty still wave
above the land of the free,
the sacred flag?

Chant:

It’s time to make a difference the kids, men and the women
Let’s stand for our beliefs, let’s stand for our vision/What about the children, los ninos ?

These kids have no parents, cause all of these mean laws.
See this can’t happen, not only about the Latins.
Asians, blacks and whites and all they do is adding
more and more, let’s not start a war
with all these hard workers,
they can’t help where they were born.

Verse 2

Its stars, its stripes,
Liberty, we are the same.
We are brothers in our anthem.
In fierce combat, a symbol of victory
the glory of battle,
(My people fight on)
the march toward liberty.
(The time has come to break the chains.)
Throughout the night they proclaimed: “We will defend it!”
Tell me! Does its starry beauty still wave
above the land of the free,
the sacred flag?

And now, to put things in perspective, the lyrics to “The Star-spangled Banner.”

The Defense of Fort McHenry
September 20, 1814
By Francis Scott Key

Oh, say can you see, by the dawn’s early light,
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight’s last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars, through the perilous fight,
O’er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming?
And the rockets’ red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.
O say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

On the shore, dimly seen through the mists of the deep,
Where the foe’s haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o’er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning’s first beam,
In full glory reflected now shines on the stream:
‘Tis the star-spangled banner! O long may it wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle’s confusion
A home and a country should leave us no more?
Their blood has wiped out their foul footstep’s pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave:
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

Oh! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved homes and the war’s desolation!
Blest with vict’ry and peace, may the heaven-rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: “In God is our trust.”
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

As you can see, there’s very little similarity between these two pieces, and that’s just scratching the surface. The fact is “Nuestro Himno” is not a simple translation of our national anthem into Spanish. It’s an attempt to take what is now a very familiar tune, which carries with it very vivid associations for some of us, and slap a pro-invader anthem on top of it.

The Star-spangled Banner was written in response, to a real life-or-death battle. If we had lost that part of the war of 1812, we’d be British subjects. On the other hand, this new cheap imitation that wants so desperately to be our national anthem is a plea for acceptance on behalf of those who have broken the laws of this country, and yet want to be forgiven for their trespass without paying any penalty.

“We know we’ve broken your laws, but can we have some of your hard-earned liberty anyway? After all, we’re brothers. And if you don’t give us some of your freedoms and rights, more than we already have, we say that your flag no longer flies over the land of the free and the home of the brave, because we’re in this land, and we’re not free, and though we were brave enough to cross through Central America and Mexico to sneak across the border, you don’t call us brave. But we are brave! We sneaked past your border guards, and we believe we can halt your economy in one day, and we don’t care if you give us free schooling, government subsidies for every baby born in this country. We’ll wave Mexican flags, and even cover your flag with ours, and we’ll even claim that your entire southwest region is ours and we’re going to take it back, but all the same, we want you to accept us as perfectly legal.”

This, at least, is how I interpret this anthem’s message.

And some record company’s CEO has ingeniously figured out how to cash in in a big way on the immigration fight going on in this country. By asking that “Nuestro Himno” be played simultaneously on Latino radio stations yesterday, and marketing it as simply a re-interpretation of the national anthem that will allow Hispanics who don’t speak English to understand what they’re singing, that CEO stands to make a huge amount of cash, and gain himself a lot of publicity.

If anyone is really interested in understanding what the national anthem’s lyrics mean, they could very easily have the lyrics translated in non-poetic form. But this is poetic license gone horribly wrong. And the national anthem isn’t copyrighted, so no one has to pay any royalties. No record producer could have missed that.

To conclude, I would answer the question I posed in this way. “Nuestro Himno” is a shining example of criminality and greed. Nothing more.

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This has been a production of the Guard the Borders Blogburst. It was started by Euphoric Reality, and serves to keep immigration issues in the forefront of our minds as we’re going about our daily lives and continuing to fight the war on terror. If you are concerned with the trend of illegal immigration facing our country, join our Blogburst! Just send an email with your blog name and url to euphoricrealitynet at gmail dot com.