September 2007 – Page 2 – third world county

September 12, 2007September 12, 2007

T-13, 1.42: Thirteen Ways to Improve Public Education

Public schools in this country are, by and large, swamps of miseducation. The evidence of failure is rampant, and yet we allow the “soft” lobotomizing of students to continue when amelioration would be soooo easy.

13. Require remedial education for PARENTS when their children fail to attain…

12. Objective standards in reading, math, written English.

11. Burn down “schools of education” and

10. Put education professors and remote educrats to work on chain gangs making big rocks into little rocks (as punishment for their abuse of students)

9. Vouchers.

8. Pay school administrators at minimum wage. Give them bonuses for keeping their mouths shut.

7. Introduce State and Federal politicians who want to “fix” public education (after having been one of the chief causes of its problems) to Dr. Tarr and Mr. Fether. Seriously. *heh*

6. Shoot Big Bird and all his partners in crime.

5. Eliminate “No Child Gets Ahead” (disingenuously named by politicians, “No Child Left Behind”)–the current political attempt to create the world of Harrison Bergeron as filtered through the rose colored glasses of Lake Wobegon…

4. Track students. Face it, we do NOT live in Lake Wobegon. Half of the students ARE “below average” in intellectual ability. Only a very few can benefit from a genuine university experience. But we keep insisting that kids need to prepare for college, when less than a third of them really can qualify… (and that’s part of the reasonj that colleges are now turning out students who graduate as illiterates *sigh*)

3. Fire crappy teachers. Really. Credentialitis has now laded school systems down with folks who really do make a mockery of even the old slander “Those who can, do; those who can’t, teach,” so that it is now all too often, “Those who can, do; those who can’t, can’t teach either… but they have tenure!”

2. Let each and every local school board determine what subjects will be taught, what services will be offered, what teachers will be hired and fired, without outside interference.

And the number one thing that we can do to improve public education in America is…

1. Completely, totally, absolutely and permanently extirpate ANY messing around with public education by the “feddle gummint”–including razing to the ground every office that houses Education Department educrats and their evil *heh* minions, seizing all the assets of these blood sucking parasites and putting them to work on chain gangs with their buddies, the FORMER education professors.

Now, I know some very fine teachers who teach in public schools (AKA “prisons for kids”) who do their utmost to lead the little honyocks in their care into some semblance of civilization, despite the interference of politicians, bureaucrats, administrators and parents (who are themselves, now, all too often “edu-lobotomized” products of a failing system). I am even aware of a few (yes, a few) good schools where teachers, parents, students and the rare administrator have fought the good fight against the fall of night.

But these exceptions to the rule are far too few.

And yes, I know there are other things that can be done to improve public education, but NONE of them will be done by politicians, remote educrats, professors of education or schools of education. All those segments will do is what they have done for years: create more and more ways to destroy our most precious resource.

Trackposted to the Thursday Thirteen Hub and to Outside the Beltway, Blog @ MoreWhat.com, Perri Nelson’s Website, Rosemary’s Thoughts, DeMediacratic Nation, Right Truth, Nuke’s News & Views, Shadowscope, Webloggin, The Bullwinkle Blog, The Amboy Times, Colloquium, Pursuing Holiness, Right Celebrity, Woman Honor Thyself, Gulf Coast Hurricane Tracker, and The Yankee Sailor, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.

September 7, 2007September 8, 2007

Rambles

I’ll append the linkfest stuff below the rambling rabbit trails that follow…

So, Fred’s announced his candidacy and used some mostly right (or is that Right) rhetoric in doing so. Good on him. (BTW, I don’t use “rhetoric” in the pejorated sense of “empty rhetoric” that most Mass Media Podpeople, etc., would have us believe is all the word entails. Look it up. Or not. :-)) So he missed two of my hot buttons when talking with Leno. I’ll listen further.

Speaking of rhetoric, I once “knew” (via a mailing list) a guy with his doctorate in English, head of a major university’s English department, who taught rhetoric… and was seriously crippled in that department, because he was barely semi-literate. No kidding. I once noted (after punching enough holes in an onlist argument that the other guy’s position was more holes than argument) that a particular position/argument was “full of sound and fury, signifying nothing“, and this English professor emailed me privately to “confirm” that I was referring to a statement by… Faulkner! Kinda demonstrated my “sub-literate” label above rather nicely, eh? Entirely missed the metacommentary, which included–for a literate person–the critique,

“…it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.”

*sigh*

Read one of the most famous soliloquies in the English language at the link above. Something that “English professor” had never done!

Pound foolish. That’s what most self-lobotomized, brainwashed Americans seem to be. Example: buying new cars alla time and spending way, way more than is sensible for the latest, greatest stuff when what most of ’em have is just fine n dandy, peachy keen already.

Example: our family needs transportation as much as most folks in these (dis)United States seem to. My Wonder Woman needs to travel a bit in her work a couple of days a week (managing two different school libraries), so she needs a car of her own, but not the newest, shiniest toy, just one that’ll get her the couple of miles to work and back and then to the other school and back a couple of days a week as well, and to meetings, etc.

I’m all over the place during the day. Sometimes 30-40 miles (or more) away on gigs. Need great gas mileage (and I approach that at ~42mpg) in a comfortable, dependable vehicle.

Son & Heir needs better than average gas mileage (his is running about 36mpg–with an auto tranny) in dependable transportation to get the 30+ miles to work and back each day (cheaper for him than moving out into a place closer to work, so he can save more $$ for such a move later).

IOW, we need no latest and greatest do-dads and gimcracks, just basic, safe, dependable transportation. So, for less than what one new car would cost (MUCH less) we have three decent used cars. Paid for in full, leaving plenty for possible repairs and normal maintenance. Sure, one of them is coming up on a (normal maintenance) timing belt replacement, and we’re budgeting for halfshaft replacements on two of them (approaching 150,000 ,iles on one and the other already past that), but even if we paid someone else to do the work (unlikely: I’m always looking for reasons to use my tools–and buy new ones! :-)), we’ll still be many thousands ahead of buying a new car, let alone three.

Oh, and all the fancy do-dads? Really, I’ve not yet found a do-dad for a car that’s necessary for good, safe, economical transportation, ever since I decided I didn’t really need the distraction of the radio in my 1953 Chevy Belair…

So, that’s thousands of dollars not wasted that can be used for better, more lasting benefits.

Sure, in all the years doing this, I’ve bought a coupla lemons. (I really don’t wanna talk about the XJ-12. *sigh*) But even with those, we’ve not done badly, and I’m sure if just a few folks look carefully at their spending habits, they can see the wastage in wanting “Newer! Shinier! Bigger! Lots More Do-Dads!”

Similar thoughts can apply to nearly everything from electronics purchases to new shovels. Do we really need ’em?

Just sayin’…

I’ve listened to four of Beethoven’s nine symphonies today. I’ve never listened to so many in a row before. An ear-opener. Of course, the drawback is that I’ve had to listen to 128Kbit sampled mp3 files to do that, and my portable mp3 player didn’t come with the best earphones imaginable, either. *sigh* [Update: the last five sounded MUCH better with a new pair of earphones–some $20 JVC cheapies, no less!] Still, wonderful, though. I guess I’ll listen to the other five tomorrow. I was going to edit out the BBC commenter’s remarks before transferring to my player, but didn’t have the time for that and am glad I didn’t. A review of the symphonies’ biographical/historical settings has been a Good Thing.

Still, makes me want to listen to good CD recordings for a fuller sense of the sound.

I really wish Netgear would post ALL the drivers for equipment that’s still within its lifecycle. The only really negative thing I can find about Netgear.

Other techie stuff? OK. I’m considering adding a far out of lifecycle Palm V to my handheld stable. Under the “Do I really need this” rule, I probably won’t, though. But… I bought a Palm V modem for 25Ã‚Â¢ (mainly cos it came with 2 AA batteries and “free” shipping cos I bought some other things I do need at the same time *heh*), so I just hate to have nothing to mate with it. In final analysis, though, I think I’ll just be happy with the two Duracell batteries for 25Ã‚Â¢. I do not need a Palm V (or the modem). Heck, I rarely use dialup, anyway–just as a last resort backup to my cable connection.

Some of the other purchases? Well, a couple of Caleb 144MB “super floppy” drives (with media, no less) cos they also read/write 1.4MB floppies (which I still use for some things) and were cheaper on a closeout than any other new floppy drives I could buy, and I have two machines with flaky floppy drives to replace, soooo…

A better wireless card for my Wonder Woman, one that–surprise! surprise!–better matches the capabilities of the RangeMax wireless router we use. Why buy it? Two reasons: better network speeds for her and… her built-in wireless is now a backup wireless “card”. I like redundancy in computer equipment.

Oh, and I think I must have left my Nero installation disk at a client’s when I repaired her Nero installation, so a 99Ã‚Â¢ replacement disk for that (and if the client finds the one I’m sure I left behind, then I have a backup copy. :-)).

Have to go stand in line getting one of the cars tagged today. *sigh* Oh. Well. Maybe it won’t be bad. At least the tag’ll be inexpensive (cos the car sure was ;-))

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September 5, 2007January 24, 2015

T-13, 1.41: Thirteen Reasons to Drink Beer

As anyone who has visited here more than a few times knows, I am a firm believer in the many benefits of coffee, The Holy Brew, but only recently have I made note of my affection for beer (spurred in part, I must admit, by Bernie’s slanderous ( ;-)) post, Beer Will Turn Men Into Women, noted again in comments on this post :-)). So, I thought to myself, “Self, why not post about some of the good reasons to drink The Lesser Holy Brew?” *heh* And so it goes…

“Beer, if drank in moderation, softens the temper, cheers the spirit, and promotes health.”–Thomas Jefferson

The Health Benefits (just google the phrases I bold for more than just one link to the info):

1.) Light-to-moderate beer drinking may lower stroke risk by as much as 20%.

2.) THe polyphenols in red wine that have so much good press about their antioxidant effect reducing free radicals and reducing the risk of heart attacks? Beer has simmilar amounts of polyphenols and 2-3 servings a day can lower risk of coronary atery diosease by 30-40%.

3.) Homocysteine has been shown to have strong links to heart disease, and Vitamin B6–great for controlling homocysteine levels–is abundant in beer. Beer drinkers show healthier homocysteine blood levels than wine or liquor drinkers.

4.) Moderate beer drinking has a stress-reducing effect (whereas almost everyone can envision the stress-inducing effects of heavy beer drinking–*heh*).

5. A glass of beer is a great soporific. 🙂 Beer is not the perfect sleep aid, but is beneficial to some. In moderation.

6.) Beer helps promote blood vessel dilation (many side benefits–especially for us old guys) and urination.

7.) A main ingredient in beer is a prostate cancer antagonist (!). (So, between hops’ xanthohumol and beer’s famous ability to promote urination, a wonderful benefit to guys as we age ;-)).

8.) A Finnish study indicates that beer seems to reduce the risk of developing kidney stones.

9.) Those clever Japanese have discovered that beta-pseudouridine found in beer actually helps reduce chromosonal damage from radiation exposure! (Maybe I can dispense with my lead cup and tinfoil hat, ya think? :-))

10.) Beer contains anti-inflammatory agents (from the hops). Nice for my joints–and maybe yours, too, eh?

The alcohol in beer–generally less than in many other alcoholic beverages–is also beneficial in several ways, including

11.) Lowering HDL levels

12.) In mice at least, alcohol spurs the growth of new brain cells. (I’m not a mouse, but the research indicates that moderate beer drinking may actually help me as much as coffee does! :-))

13.) Moderates insulin levels.

There are more, of course, but it seems the folk wisdom of yore reflected in the Jefferson quote above has much more basis in fact than 99% of Mass Media Podpeople or politicians’ *spit* statements.

Noted en passant at the Thursday Thirteen Hub, and further noted at Outside the Beltway, Blog @ MoreWhat.com, Perri Nelson’s Website, Faultline USA, Right Celebrity, DeMediacratic Nation, Big Dog’s Weblog, The Pink Flamingo, Cao’s Blog, Leaning Straight Up, CommonSenseAmerica, Conservative Thoughts, Pursuing Holiness, Right Voices, and Gone Hollywood, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.