Blog
Why, in 1865, of course! Or so sayeth the Carson City, Navada school system. Ya see, they're presently trying to run history teacher Joe Enge out of town on a rail for daring to teach an alternative version of American history...one that starts with colonialization and details the birth of this great nation and the role the Founding Fathers played in it. And poor Joe ain't got a friend in the world.
Joe’s supervisors - including Carson High’s principal, Fred Perdomo - have given Joe unsatisfactory evaluations in retaliation for his refusal to teach a Founding-free version of American history. And although Joe’s a “tenured” teacher, three such bad evaluations would be grounds for running this maverick out of town on a rail (students would have to read Revolutionary War-era history to know just what this phrase means). So Joe challenged the administrative evaluations; however, the Carson City School District Superintendent, Mary Pierszynski, sided with the principal. Big surprise there.
Joe's own version of the event can be read here. After you read up on the subject, direct your rage to the petition to save Joe's job.
There was once a senator from Illinois, Everitt Dirksen, who said that "the main purpose of GDP (GNP in his day) was to make everything else look small by comparison." To that effect, I give you the National Defense Authorization Act.
National Defense Authorization Act, FY2006 - Vote Passed (98-0, 2 Not Voting)
The Senate passed this $492 billion bill authorizing Department of Defense expenditures for the 2006 fiscal year.
Sen. Arlen Specter voted YES
Sen. Rick Santorum voted YES
A hundred-billion here and a hundred-billion there and pretty soon you're talking about real money. Seems funny that Santorum, once thought to be the start of a new wave of honest senators, has tasted the blood of wartime appropriations and likes it. Meanwhile, on the other side of the Rotunda...
Troop Withdrawal Resolution - Vote Failed (3-403, 6 Present, 22 Not Voting)
The House rejected this non-binding resolution calling for the immediate withdrawal of troops from Iraq.
Rep. Curt Weldon voted NO
Heck, somebody's gotta spend that money! Courtesy of The Liberty Committee.
Charlie Reese must be reading my own writings here at LibertyGuys.
Next year, we should all go to the polls and vote against every single incumbent running for re-election, regardless of his or her party or so-called philosophy.
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Six years in the House or Senate is enough for any citizen. Don't get fooled by the so-called value of experience. The experience they gain is the same as whores and thieves. Inexperience can be a virtue, and experience can be a vice.
I've been spouting this vile vitriol since well before the last election. From a statistical standpoint, it makes sense. After all, what are the chances of voting in another legislator as "experienced" as the previous one? And one other point that Reese doesn't make is that after a few cycles of People Power, those who would run your lives may may just forget about trying to do it via public office.
From the Chicago-Sun Times:
VIENNA, Austria -- Right-wing British historian David Irving, who once famously said that Adolf Hitler knew nothing about the systematic slaughter of 6 million Jews, has been arrested in Austria on a warrant accusing him of denying the Holocaust.
I've often been heard saying that I'll miss the old Soviet Union as it always gave me a yardstick to measure how screwed up things could really get. I no longer need it because we now have the European Union.
Just saw this little snippet from the News of Delaware County. A lawyer named Kathy Brenneman ran (unsuccessfully) for a seat on the Media PA borough council on a platform of, get this, traffic calming.
I had bever heard this term before but since lawyers are so much more prescient than the rest of us underlings, I had to look it up. I understand the concept although I do believe that it is an industry devoted to sucking up to local government for its very survival.
Not sure if Kathy looks out her office window much but Media, although a nice place, is extremely cramped with trolley tracks running straight down its main artery (State St) and the humongous Delaware County Courthouse plopped right down in the middle of everything. I'm sure Media does have its problems but speeding is not one of them. Besides, with so many pedestrian lawyers in Media, one would have to take it easy to avoid hitting one (not that it would be a bad thing).
This Slate article is a great reference piece on torture as defined (and not) by Army Field Manual. If you scroll down to the illustrations, you can plainly see (without help of the captions) where the US military has strayed away from the AFM and the Geneva Conventions.
Army Field Manual
DoD Working Group Memo
But not to worry. This only happens to the bad guys.
Can someone please tell me when the entire university system will implode under its own weight?
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - The University of California paid 2,275 employees more than $200,000 last fiscal year, up 30 percent over two years, even as the system continued to cut student services and increase fees, a newspaper reported Monday.
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The number of employees making at least $300,000 annually climbed 54 percent to 496 last year, according to the newspaper.
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The newspaper also reported that the UC system spends about $1 million a year to maintain large homes for its president and 10 campus chancellors.
The only complete inversion of market principles I have seen on a grander scale is a full-blown, fascist, warfare state. Can this be so much of a lesser issue than Social Security that it is slipping under the radar? I am at the point where I don't think my kids will be able to attend college in 13 years not because of the tremendous cost but because I can't imagine there will be any left by then.
Thanks to David Beito (for making me lose sleep!).
Mike Caracciolo uses some mighty strong language but I can't argue with his reasoning.
Click here to play the video (Windows Media Format - 1MB). WARNING: Turn down your volume if you are at work!
Must check out HowStuffWorks.com. Lots o' cool stuff here such as How HEMI Engines Work.
There is also a page on How Counterfeiting Works but it falls short of implicating the Fed.
Just saw this little nugget from Richard Feynman.
I listened to a conversation between two girls, and one was explaining that if you want to make a straight line, you see, you go over a certain number to the right for each row you go up--that is, if you go over each time the same amount when you go up a row, you make a straight line--a deep principle of analytic geometry! It went on. I was rather amazed. I didn't realize the female mind was capable of understanding analytic geometry.
The girl was describing how to knit argyle socks, by the way.
In 1975 Richard Feynman bought a new Dodge Tradesman Maxivan and had it outfitted in Long Beach according to the cultural mores of the times -- with a mustard-yellow, avocado-green interior, and a customized mural exterior.
