10:00 – It was 21.2F (-6C) when I took Colin out this morning, but the temperature is gradually rising. No wind at the moment. We’re to top out today at around 45F (7C), and then warm up into the 60’s over the next few days. Barbara just left for the gym and supermarket.
It’s been three months since Trump was elected. I’m happy about some of the stuff he’s doing–notably his appointments, most of which are anything but business-as-usual–but not so happy about some of the things he says he intends to do. But on balance, my opinion hasn’t changed since the election. I’m afraid Trump is too little, too late.
He faces huge opposition, mostly from worthless progs, bureaucrats, public-employee unions, and other entrenched interests, but also from some good libertarians and conservatives. Indicative of this is the opposition to Trump’s appointments. Obama and Bush each made 30+ appointments that required Senate confirmation. Of those 60+ appointments, the Senate approved all but a handful overwhelmingly, by what amounted to a rubber stamp. Trump’s appointees have not been shown the same courtesy. They have so far faced extreme opposition, including from some Republicans, and that seems likely to continue with other appointees who are awaiting Senate approval. Obviously, the progs and lefties intend to do everything possible to make Trump’s administration permanent gridlock. The obviously senile prog/leftie Pelosi says she isn’t willing to work at all with President Bush.
* * * * *
Lori just showed up with an Amazon shipment that included a case of 24 small cans of mushrooms and one #10 can each of Augason Farms dried celery and carrots. The latter both have best-by dates in 2041.
Which brings up an interesting point. Like many preppers, I’m loathe to open those nice #10 cans because they’re already packaged for LTS. And in some cases, that’s fine. We have, for example, a couple hundred #10 cans of LTS bulk foods like rice, flour, sugar, potato flakes, macaroni, spaghetti, dry milk, etc. etc. We don’t need to open any of those. Rice is rice, so for day-to-day cooking we just use rice we’ve repackaged from 50-pound Costco bags. The same is true of the other bulk staples in #10 cans.
But some of the stuff we buy in #10 cans is not necessarily fungible. For example, we have #10 cans of Augason dried bell peppers, celery, carrots, cheese powder, etc. etc. Although I hate to open them, we need to learn to use them in day-to-day cooking. An open can is rated for a one-year shelf life versus 20 or 25 years on a sealed can. But opening a can doesn’t necessarily cut the shelf-life down to a year. We’ll simply repackage the contents immediately after opening the can. Put the contents into PET bottles, add an oxygen absorber, and we’re back up to a 20 or 25 year shelf life (and probably more).
And in some cases, we pay no penalty for buying LTS packaged food. I’ve mentioned before the Augason potato shreds, which we started substituting for the frozen Ore-Ida products. On a reconstituted weight basis, the AF dehydrated potatoes are actually less expensive than frozen. The same is true of things like onion flakes, which are actually cheaper to buy in #10 cans than they are in large jars at Costco.
In addition to the obvious benefit of eating regularly from LTS food, we’ve found that there’s another benefit to cooking from scratch with LTS foods. The results taste better. That was reinforced yesterday when we made sloppy joe sauce from scratch. Barbara announced a few days ago that she wasn’t buying any more of the canned Manwich sauce because she wanted to try making it from scratch. It’s cheaper to make it from scratch, we can do it from stuff in our deep pantry, and it tastes better. An all-around win.
What about DeVos? The progs are going nuts, saying she’s unqualified, Michigan charter schools, blah blah blah.
I know some don’t like her link with Amway (why?), but is there anything really wrong with her?
My biggest worry with Trump is that at some point he’ll just say ‘I don’t need this crap’ and tune out. As a businessman, he’s used to giving orders and getting results. He can also fire the people not performing. Government is a different story, the bureaucratic SOBs can ignore him and tie things up for years with challenges from the unions. Since most of the establishment likes things the way they are, they’ll also do their best to gum up the works. I’m not sure he’s got the personality to deal with perpetual frustration. I hope I’m wrong.
The PEU’s hate her because she supports school choice, including charters, private schools, vouchers, etc. The teacher unions understand that if she and Trump have their way, public schools would die a richly-deserved death, which of course means their jobs would also disappear. The 5% or 10% of public school teachers who are actually competent would have no difficulty finding jobs with private schools, albeit at lower pay and with retirement plans that aren’t platinum-plated. The 50% of public school teachers who are mediocre time-servers might find teaching jobs, although at even lower pay, and the 40% or so of public-school teachers who are completely incompetent would find themselves out of work entirely.
@RBT said: “But on balance, my opinion hasn’t changed since the election. I’m afraid Trump is too little, too late.”
I agree and conventional solutions will not work. Debate and compromise no longer apply. There is no room for compromise and debate requires the other side to have an IQ greater than 1, which the progs do not have and have no desire of improving.
This is not a time to turn the other cheek or show any compassion, the progs certainly will not.
Do not look for salvation from above. We have already shown that we cannot recognize when to change. What were the people doing when Moses came down from the mountain? What were the people doing when Noah built his arc. What about Sodom and Gomorrah?
This is where we are at today:
And I believe that God then pronounced judgement and sent the man to Hell.
As I said before the election, Trump should politely invite all of the liberal SCOTUS justices to resign, along with all of the liberal/prog congressmen. Then he should mandate a new uniform for any who refuse to resign. That uniform would have bullseye targets front and back.
The Prez doesn’t have authority over congressmen or their staff, but there’s no reason for the mandatory uniform for all executive branch employees not to have bullseyes.
re breakup of the public schools, in outlining the probable fates of the teachers, you addressed only about half of the school district employees. I foresee a place
on the welfare rollsin the biodiesel input hoppers for the vast majority of administrators, administrative assistants, counsellors, and other parasites.My daughter’s school, which has about 160 students, has one secretary who does nothing else. There’s a principal, who does administrative stuff, scrounges for money, and fills in for missing teachers. They have part time groundskeepers and maintenance guys and such. That’s it. Contrast with the public schools, whose instructional faculty is typically a fraction over 50% of the total staff.
Yep. This whole thing about smaller class sizes is actually about hiring more teachers. That in turn requires more administrators and support personnel.
My elementary school (grades 1 through 6) had one janitor, one principal, one secretary, and one teacher for each classroom, with classes being 25 to 30 students. In grades 1 through 3, students spent all day in one classroom with one teacher. In grades 4 through 6, the classes still stayed together, but we rotated to different classrooms for different subjects. In junior high (grades 7 through 9), classes stayed together and rotated through different classrooms for different subjects. Staffing levels were about the same per student, and class sizes were similar. In high school (grades 10 through 12), they divided us into nine tracks, pretty much purely on IQ. Supposedly, the track numbers were random, but everyone knew which was the brightest and dumbest. Actually, the dumbest weren’t the dumbest of all students, because after junior high they strongly encouraged the poor students academically not to go to real high school. Instead, they sent them to the vocational/technical high school, where they learned a trade. And the staffing levels at both NCHS and VoTech were similar to what they’d been in elementary and junior high.
“What about DeVos? The progs are going nuts, saying she’s unqualified, Michigan charter schools, blah blah blah.
I know some don’t like her link with Amway (why?), but is there anything really wrong with her?”
IM(Not So)HO, nothing wrong with her. What they don’t like is that she is not one of them. Specifically, she has ZERO experience as a professional, bureaucratic educationist. As such, none of the failures such as Race To The Top and No Child Left Behind can be attributed to her.
I will admit, OTOH, that I was a product of one of the today’s worst public school systems, Chicago Public Schools. Luckily, I was out in ’56 before the ACLU and ilk destroyed it. Likewise, my three sisters.
My paternal grandfather was uneducated. His father died at age 30, so he had to work. He may have been uneducated, but he wasn’t stupid. In his forties, he decided to take the GED. My aunt, his oldest child, kept offering to help him study for the test. He refused her assistance. The first time he took the GED, he passed. Given all the stuff I forgot from high school until my 40th birthday, I’m impressed by this.
I’m wondering what percentage of high school graduates from the class of 2016 could pass the GED exam. I think the answer should be 100%, but doubt that the answer is anywhere near that.
I think it’s long overdue that we either fix the education system or publicly admit it’s only for kids whose parents can’t figure out how to home school them or private school them.
When I grew up we had in excess of thirty kids in each classroom and most came out with some sort of reasonable education. But that was before the libs took over and did their best to destroy the schools.
Back in the day each classroom had three different levels and you were placed in one based on your capability, you were moved from one group to another based on performance so there was some incentive to work hard due to social pressure. I’m guessing that this is no longer allowed because it would stress the little darlings and also might be found to be racist if the groups weren’t fully integrated.
The government also does it’s best to prevent education from happening by mandating that no one can be denied for whatever reason. In the old days you would get kicked out if you were a problem. That doesn’t happen any more. A nearby town had a high school kid that was charged with brutally murdering an old woman. The courts let him out on bail and the school system offered to have him tutored. No way, his parents insisted he attend the school. The courts decided in their favor and he was placed back into school much to the horror of the other parents.
In a nearby state a few years back, some parents sued because the school system didn’t want to educate their kid. It was a sad situation. The child was severely retarded with little hope of learning and required constant supervision and specialized medical equipment which the school system said they could not afford. Courts ruled in favor of the parents and a good portion of the schools budget was spent dealing with this kid so the parents could feel good.
When the primary focus was education and the people running the system were reasonable there was a chance that public schools could work. Sadly, those days appear to be over.
It’s already the de facto dumping ground. In LA the charter and private schools routinely kick out their low performing kids just before state testing. Those kids then get counted with LA Unified or go uncounted. After the test, they let them back in. (This according to a friend who works in the district. It’s his biggest beef with private/charter schools.) In many places, the district kicks out those kids so their scores don’t get counted.
In many cities, simply checking for immigration status and denying free school (and breakfast lunch and dinner) to non-citizen children and the citizen children of illegal immigrants would go a LONG way to relieving any ‘budget pressure’ or ‘under-funding’ or ‘over-crowding’. In my district, getting half the kids to pay for the privilege or getting rid of them would eliminate any budget problems, improve scores, and probably improve discipline anywhere above the 3rd grade.
n
“so the parents could feel good.”
More like so the parents didn’t have to pay for the ” required constant supervision and specialized medical equipment “.
n
tie things up for years with challenges from the unions.
Apparently, the president could revoke federal worker union recognition by executive order. It would unleash a storm that would make the current travel ban look like a gentle settling of the dew. If I was him, I would wait until the economic part of his platform gets enacted.
I can’t add anything to what others here have already said about the public mis-education systems in this country; it’s an obscene joke and has been since roughly around the time many of us were in middle school or high school. i.e., the Glorious Sixties. Our kids managed to get through it, but they’re pretty bright kids and didn’t/don’t have any crippling mental, physical or medical handicaps. Give the chance to do it over again, I should have just stayed home and done the home schooling thing with them, as it’s patently obvious by now that Mrs. OFD brings home the greater percentage of bacon, consistently. We were/are also victims of the old-fashioned and long since discredited school of thought that the dad brings home most, and preferably all, of that bacon. And the mom stays home with the kids. That whole thing was destroyed, and I fail to see how we as Americans are better off for it, i.e, rushing tens of millions of women into the rat-race work force.
Economics and financial shenanigans also worked against us, which can be seen in the actual value of the dollar in, say, the 1970s and today. My dad supported a wife, five brats, and the house and car on $13,000 a year. Good luck with that now. And we weren’t all that well off by any means but we had the three hots and a cot, school, a tee-vee, and pretty decent birthdays and Christmases. I also worked at various part-time jobs middle school on, shoveling driveways, mowing lawns, bag boy at the supermarket, usher at the movie theaters, etc. And did the track-and-field and sportsball stuff while also working on my stamp and coin collections, building model airplanes and ships, and also, during high skool, partying with my buddies all over town and skipping out and driving or hitching rides to Boston. It was a pretty happy childhood and growing up.
I dunno how parents cope with all the shit that is out there nowadays. The most glaring example to me is that you absolutely cannot let your seven-year-old child walk alone to the library or swim lessons or a friend’s house now. I did that regularly and no one worried about it.
I felt weird the last time I walked my five year old daughter to her grandparents house less than a half mile away. I did something terribly outside the ordinary today. I let her walk by herself a few steps ahead of me. Do that a couple more times, and I might start doing something unthinkable like let her walk there alone.
“Mexican Citizen Sentenced To 8 Years In Prison For Voter Fraud In TX”
http://dfw.cbslocal.com/2017/02/09/grand-prairie-woman-sentenced-to-8-years-in-prison-for-voter-fraud/
I am guessing that she voted for Hillary.
When I grew up we had in excess of thirty kids in each classroom and most came out with some sort of reasonable education. But that was before the libs took over and did their best to destroy the schools.
My great-grandfather Austin Harshbarger taught 80 kids in single room schoolhouse by himself for 20 years in Pottsboro, Texas back in the early 20th century. He passed on to his reward when I was 8 years old. My grandmother told me that he brooked no nonsense whatsoever (she and my grandfather were educated by him) and would have the miscreant stand up and bend over the desk for their reward with wooden paddle. He commonly used the older kids teach the younger kids their three Rs. When the town postmaster job came open, he moved on and grabbed that for 20 years before retiring as a postal employee.
Must have been a good school, my grandfather went to TAMU in 1928 and got a degree in Industrial Engineering. He was offered a teaching position at TAMU teaching drafting which he did for 38 years. Two of my grandfather’s brothers also went to TAMU and got engineering degrees. Seems to run in the family.
It’s been three months since Trump was elected. I’m happy about some of the stuff he’s doing–notably his appointments, most of which are anything but business-as-usual–but not so happy about some of the things he says he intends to do. But on balance, my opinion hasn’t changed since the election. I’m afraid Trump is too little, too late.
Me too. But, despair is a sin. And, I have hope.
I keep on telling the wife that we are on the precipice of a civil war. She tells me that will never happen.
“She tells me that will never happen.”
Join the club. “You don’t really believe all that stuff is gonna happen, DO YOU?”
And mark my words; if any of it DOES happen, it will be all tRump’s fault.
I don’t see a civil war happening, either, unless there’s some kind of catastrophic black swan event like a long-term grid down scenario, a lethal pandemic, or something else that causes millions of initial casualties. In that event, all bets are off, but in the normal course of things, we Normals are too polite and law-abiding, while the progs are too incompetent and poorly-armed. I mean, let’s face it, millions of Normals would just as soon shoot a prog as look at it, but we don’t because doing so is illegal.
Part of the problem is the definition of reasonable accommodation. The law does not define it. I propose 2x the cost of the service or 20% of the poverty rate, whichever is higher. Generally that would mean that an employer would be on the hook for about $2500 max expense for the accommodation and the schools wouldn’t be paying as much as $50K for 1 student when the average costs ~$10K per student.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/local/wp/2015/06/02/the-states-that-spend-the-most-and-the-least-on-education-in-one-map/?utm_term=.52faf8d09e3d
Wow, I did not realize that a classroom cost that much. $300K per classroom? Where does it all go?
I don’t see a civil war happening, either, unless there’s some kind of catastrophic black swan event like a long-term grid down scenario, a lethal pandemic, or something else that causes millions of initial casualties. In that event, all bets are off, but in the normal course of things, we Normals are too polite and law-abiding, while the progs are too incompetent and poorly-armed. I mean, let’s face it, millions of Normals would just as soon shoot a prog as look at it, but we don’t because doing so is illegal.
Ordinarily, I would agree. But I see a financial collapse of the USA on the far horizon. Even though previous financial collapses have not caused civil wars, I suspect that USA will breakup into several regions at that time, somewhere around 5 to 8. There may or may not be civil wars to keep this from happening.
The next financial collapse will be a doozy. We will see all kinds of machinations to keep it from happening such as seizures of IRAs, 401Ks, and all private pension funds. We may even see nationalization of the banks (we are already on this road). At the point of property seizures of the “rich”, we will probably see the breakup. The “rich” of tomorrow will be the middle class of today. We may see an actual restriction of property ownership in our lifetime. See Venezuela and Argentina for previews of this disaster.
There is a big difference between the coming financial disaster in the USA in the next 10 to 20 years and previous financial disasters. Many people are now financials wards of the federal government. When the federal government cannot pay its bills, or the means that it uses to pay its bills, the dollar, is worthless, then these people will be destitute. Destitute people are dangerous and unpredictable. After, isn’t it said that anarchy is just three meals away from any point in maintaining civilization ?
Or, maybe my grey matter is collapsing unto itself and I am just a doddering old fool.
“What Rogue One Teaches About Data Backup”
https://www.backblaze.com/blog/rogue-one-teaches-data-backup/
“anarchy is just three meals away”
I think what you mean is any country is only three meals away from CHAOS.
Anarchy = good
Chaos =very, very bad
That’s why I’m an anarchist, not a chaosist. Progs are chaosists.
“Or, maybe my grey matter is collapsing unto itself and I am just a doddering old fool.”
I don’t think so. I find myself entirely in agreement with our Sugarland correspondent.
https://itsgoingdown.org/know-gun-rights-primer-radicals/
They’ve even stolen Molon Labe.
And the hardcore elements among them will have no problem sending in the clowns, like they do now with their flash mob riots, you can spot them on the peripheries. Several of the couple of hundred arrested in Mordor for the inauguration day rioting are obvious professional commie agit-prop shit-stirrers. As the point has been made elsewhere, these people are serious players; they often work hard shitty jobs while spending all their free time organizing stuff and tooling up, and living crummy lives from hand to mouth. How many hardcore righties and Normals do we see doing that?
Are the DC
anarchistschaosists out on bail? acquitted yet?I am guessing that she voted for Hillary.
Texas was closer than I expected it to be. Two years ago, Gov. Abbot won every county except Travis (Austin Metro, of course), and he openly joked that his job as Attorney General was to go to the office, sue Obama, and go home.
Trump won’t get FL in four years.
The next financial collapse will be a doozy. We will see all kinds of machinations to keep it from happening such as seizures of IRAs, 401Ks, and all private pension funds.
This is the Prog to watch on the subject of retirement account seizres. If she starts showing up on Capitol Hill again on a regular basis, you know it is BOHICA time.
http://teresaghilarducci.org/
Even though she is not an elected/appointed official, Ghilarducci should have one of those “target” uniforms RBT mentioned above.
“It’s already the de facto dumping ground. In LA the charter and private schools routinely kick out their low performing kids just before state testing. Those kids then get counted with LA Unified or go uncounted. After the test, they let them back in.”
10-4, In LAUSD there is no test requirement for graduation. There is high school freshman year test to predict the probability of real graduation, but that is not a filter. Now they have online makeup classes, or work, to gain diploma without testing. Typical high school graduates have 3R capabilities at the 8th grade level. Remember that they cannot kick them out of high school after failing real senior level tests for X consecutive years when they are 25 years of age,
Now in Chicago, anyone with a high school diploma must be admitted to a city college, such as Chicago Teachers College. After 4 years of attending the required classes, a BS degree and teaching certificate is conferred upon them. Subsequently, anyone with those two documents cannot be refused employment in the Chicago School System.
Any affirmative action and equal opportunity denied, Rahm?
OK, here is the real prog fraud regarding the “failing” schools as they characterize them. Using SAT results to characterize student capabilities, the home and family environment is 90% as compared to the school impact of 10%.
The telling statistic? In homes where both parents have BS degrees, the children at age 3 have 3 times the vocabulary than the other 3 year old group.
So you see, it did no harm to Thomas Edison being thrown out as “uneducable”.
Yo, he deserved it….
http://preparedgunowners.com/2017/02/06/police-just-shot-armed-man-with-hostage-incredible-video/
Hard to see but looks like a stone-accurate head shot by one officer; nice shootin’, son.
“Teresa Ghilarducci”
Boy, she got beaten pretty hard with the ugly stick.
Here I go disagreeing with our host again. A lot of the trades require average or better brains. A lot of the people with two year degrees doing vocational/technical stuff are paid more than the typical four year liberal arts major. Why are they paid more? Because they’re smarter than some liberal arts majors.
Why are they paid more?
Because they are doing something useful for society. Liberal arts majors are parasites.
In Chicago, as in most cities I expect, children must be enrolled in a school until a certain age, typically 16 or 17.
In that city, if they are going absolutely nowhere in a conventional, neighborhood high school, they will eventually be sent to a “vocational school”.
Here, in Orange County, such are termed “continuation schools”. As such, they continue learning nothing.
Boy, she got beaten pretty hard with the ugly stick.
Isn’t it always the case with these fringe academics?
The elephant-that-must-not-be-named: intelligence, in particular the effect of genetics on intelligence.
I didn’t read any of the links on this page (I’m taking just a few minutes’ break while working) but I’ve seen studies showing similar results, that home life is much more important than school. “Home life” was always boiled down to “the number of books in the house”, “do the parents read to the little kids before bed?”, “how many hours per week do the children watch TV?”, and the like. Stability of the parents, in terms of both parents being there from the child’s birth to at least the teen years, was seldom mentioned probably because of perception of judgment and probably because of disparate racial findings in the US.
Either not mentioned or given only a sentence was the intelligence of the parents and the intelligence of the child. Possibly that’s almost reasonable, in that brighter parents will generally have more books in the house and thus “books” is a proxy for “brains”. Dodging the question smacks of cowardice, but it might be reasonable because the flap and bother from mentioning it would cause the main point to be lost. It’s not how I’d bet, but it’s possible.
That’s an overgeneralization. It’s the 999 who make the other one look bad.
Exactly, and when my daughter’s (MS) children stay here overnight when they were preschool age, my wife (BS) would read to them in bed. Now both grandchildren are doing very well, college bound, in a Newport Beach high school.
What is good about their school, is the student body from two parent, upscale (not economically deprived) households.
@CowboySlim
Are you suggesting the ones in Santa Ana might not be as good?
We always had books in the house and both of my parents read, until later years. They made me do a book report on the ten books I had to read in the local library’s summer reading program at age 7 and in the years after that my mom would take me to the library in whatever town we lived in (we moved four times when I was growing up) and we’d load up my card AND her card with books for me to read. It was not unusual for me to read ten or twelve books per week, on TOP of my school work and endless homework. My siblings evidently never caught the bug, though. And I’m the only college graduate.
And a liberal arts major, in English literature. I do not regret that nor do I regret the several years of grad school in the subject. Did it have anything at all to do with the jobs I’ve worked since I left Uncle’s plantations? Nope, well, not much anyway; I worked briefly in a couple of bookstores but the pay sucked. And I guess I’m a parasite now, because the only income I’m getting here is from Uncle again, in the form of SS and VA disability payments. Tough shit. I paid in one form or another for both.
Can’t argue with that.
But if income is down, there’s always one option: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119164/?ref_=nv_sr_1
“Here I go disagreeing with our host again. A lot of the trades require average or better brains.”
NOW, yes. But I’m talking about 45 to 50 years ago, when there weren’t any computers in general use and things were much simpler. You could make nearly any car repair with just a hammer and a flat rock.
“…But if income is down, there’s always one option…”
Believe you me, no womyn wanna see my aged and decrepit 240-pound carcass.
True, dat, though, about cah repairs 40-50 years ago. Most stuff could be handled by the average schmuck with a wrench and set of screwdrivers. Now you need a BS in Computer Science and they send mechanics to special schools for all that chit.
@RBT
You could make nearly any car repair with just a hammer and a flat rock.
Wasn’t that Fred Flintstone?
Oh crap, now I have that damn theme song running in my head. I gotta listen to something else to cancel it out…
Maybe Zepparella…I’m in love with both the bass player and guitarist…yikes….
More than once lately I’ve left MeTV up and fallen asleep(Prob watching Hogan’s Heros). I’ve then been awakened by 77 Sunset Strip. Talk about a theme you can’t shake.
“@CowboySlim
Are you suggesting the ones in Santa Ana might not be as good?”
Roger that, Santa Ana is the next town to the north. The school that they go to is just 3 or 4 miles from the coast and it is all non-minority, million dollar and up homes.
OTOH, the same school district that they go to has homes several miles to the west and they are in an area that is 100% Hispanic. Now, it is not that the schools are worse; but the parental caste is 0.00% college educated.
It is called Newport Mesa Unified School District. My daughter is a teacher there at one of the underprivileged schools. I, as a volunteer, helped with her classwork activities. Claro que si?
More than once lately I’ve left MeTV up and fallen asleep(Prob watching Hogan’s Heros). I’ve then been awakened by 77 Sunset Strip. Talk about a theme you can’t shake.
Back when MeTV ran “Lost in Space” late on Saturday nights, I used to get a kick out of the “Music by Johnny Williams” credit. Everybody starts somewhere, and the final season had a great theme.
Oh yeah, they, progs, always want to blame the underperformance in these schools on the teachers. Am I to agree that my daughter is much inferior to those who teach where her children go to school? Hopefully, De Vos sees through that nonsense.
“I’ve then been awakened by 77 Sunset Strip. Talk about a theme you can’t shake.”
Thanks a lot. I haven’t even heard these themes in decades and now they’re in my head again; doesn’t 77 have that finger-snapping thing going on?
“Seventy-seven…Sunset Strip…snap-snap”??
Yup.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AMyIm8kx6rQ
Shall we move on to Mandy?
And I guess I’m a parasite now, because the only income I’m getting here is from Uncle again, in the form of SS and VA disability payments
As am I. My SS starts this month, first check third Wednesday in March. VA disability has been for awhile, need to make an appointment to have it increased. But I gave my 10.5 years to Uncle Sam, spent a lot of time working and paying into that SS fund.
doesn’t 77 have that finger-snapping thing going on
Don’t forget The Addams Family……………..
They’re creepy and they’re kooky,
Mysterious and spooky,
They’re all together ooky,
The Addams Family.
That’s an overgeneralization. It’s the 999 who make the other one look bad.
Name the one. I need education to stop being such an over generalizer.
children must be enrolled in a school until a certain age, typically 16 or 17
Here they can leave school at 16. But they lose their driver’s license. When they reach 18 they can leave and still keep their license.
Subbing I see several in the senior classes that are just waiting for their 18th birthday so they can leave. They do nothing in class, sleep if anything, and tell you they don’t care if they don’t do the work. Teacher knows about it and there is not much that can be done.
One student even told me that his parents did OK without working, got money, food, medical and utilities paid and there is no reason he can’t do the same. Girlfriend is already pregnant. Both will not be working and will get the entire birth at our expense. No plans to get married as girlfriend will get more “free” stuff if she stays single.
It’s About Time
With Shag and Gronk, although they quickly renamed Shag to Shad once they realized that shag was slang for fuck.
Well, we’re socked in with heavy overcast. No moon visible in the sky and certainly no “very subtle” penumbra eclipse for us.
No green comet either.
Unless it hits us.
or passes close enough that the gravitational forces rip chunks from the surface of the earth, and shake us like a terrier with a rat………….
Guess not.
nick
Awesome potential for prepper camper.
This is one sturdy beast. Just look at the power distro panels.
n
http://www.publicsurplus.com/sms/auction/view?auc=1783269
And another portent of the next civil war:
http://www.theamericanconservative.com/dreher/dont-dismiss-sjws/
They’ve thoroughly infiltrated all systems, like the Borg. tRump will be lucky to make a small dent in any of this now. All we have is a small window of time to get ready, and these people and the street operators are way more ready than we are, currently.
The game ain’t over until the fat lady gets rickrolled.
“It’s About Time”
Hey, I remember that show. Didn’t it prove that humans and dinosaurs co-existed?
OFD and family:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/It's_About_Time_(TV_series)#/media/File:Its_about_time_1967.jpg
DH wrote:
“Believe you me, no womyn wanna see my aged and decrepit 240-pound carcass.”
I’m sure Hillary and Nancy would like to employ you as their slave boy… 🙂
“I’m sure Hillary and Nancy would like to employ you as their slave boy…”
Well, firstly, Cankles is a dyke and would prefer slave grrls, as she’s been caught on camera numerous times ogling them, and secondly, it was you who had the hots for her not that long ago.
Nancy is so far gone she thinks Bush has the hots for her.
When really it’s that pudgy little homicidal maniac in North Korea.
@Dave, Ray
And I guess I’m a parasite now, because the only income I’m getting here is from Uncle
Gentlemen, I’m going to pretend that my tax dollars are going to your pocket instead of the loser 16 year old pregnant b;+ch that can’t keep her knees together, ‘kay?
Makes paying Uncle much more palatable for me.
Two nonobaddogs scared the living day lights out of me Tuesday. Got loose and had a fine old time.
Tonight husband and I were breaking down cardboard in driveway. Husband did something or other at the gate, didn’t latch it. Young female was closely watching and seized his moment of inattention to run out.
Chaos ensued.
Somewhere in the resulting shrieking and carrying on all four got loose. The two boys have solid recalls and after flirting with the idea of running off, came back and went into yard like good dogs. The girls were another story. It only took 3 or 4 minutes to get them all corralled but it felt like hours. After the excitement of Tuesday, a serious financial hiccup Thursday resolved Friday, and running off tonight I’m done. Glass of wine, mindless drivel on the tv, and surfing. We start work on remedial recalls with the girls tomorrow.
Some dog trainer. Maybe I should go sign up to teach at the local a Elementary school .
Oh – for what it’s worth husband and I have been touring local schools in preparation for daughter entering Kindergarten next fall. Homeschooling is our preference but given the medical bills were paying off (2012 and 2014 were bad years) not an option right now.
Private schools mean religious or some flavor of Waldorf. Public includes Charter but still under the ever helpful Federal govt.
Our neighborhood school is one of the best in town. The kids get a measly 20 minutes of recess daily, a couple hours on Chromebooks weekly, and the school us spending a ton on digital whatsits. Which the principle and token kindergarten teacher demonstrated their lack of ability. It was underwhelming. We’ll tour a couple other public schools out of due diligence but she’ll attend public over my dead body.
The reality is what we are really choosing is her indoctrination.
I’m afraid we may wind up with sticking the poor child in Catholic school. I know, that sounds appalling. They appear to be the only ones who still care about focusing on the basics while acknowledging that youngsters need physical activity outside every damn day. And that technology is not a panacea. She’ll be indoctrinated in God and Jesus and all the church lies.
I can counter that I think more easily than the public school programming.
@Jenny
I don’t think you should worry too much about your daughter being indoctrinated that early. Public kindergarten should be fine, and you can just get ready as fast as you can to start homeschooling her.
If I were you, I’d connect up with any local homeschooling groups or co-ops and attend a meeting or two. Let them know your situation, that you’d strongly prefer to homeschool but can’t due to financial issues. You aren’t the first person to find herself in that situation, and the homeschoolers may be able to suggest alternatives.
Years ago, I had a long email discussion with a would-be homeschool mom who was in a similar situation. She was able to find another homeschool mom who agreed to teach her child as well as her own child. In return, my correspondent, who’s a scientist, committed to teach science to both children. She actually ended up doing that sooner than expected, teaching an elementary school science class to several kids from the co-op every Saturday. By now, I imagine the kids are close to middle-school age, and I suspect my correspondent will end up teaching a group of them all the way through high school science.
Is homeschooling other people’s kids legal in Alaska? I know the teacher unions try to prevent that sort of thing.
Alaska is pretty laid-back. They don’t even require parents to notify of their intent to homeschool. State laws vary all over the place. The best states place no restrictions at all on homeschooling. The worst make it as difficult as possible for parents.
Here’s a site that’s anti-homeschooling, “think of the childrens…” But it does have a map that summarizes requirements by state. As you might expect, most of the southeastern US and the midwest are pretty laid-back. The Northeast is bad to hideous. Surprisingly, California is pretty good.
It’s about time…
It’s about space…
It’s about two men in the craziest place…
@RBT
connect up with any local homeschooling groups or co-ops and attend a meeting or two
I’ll give that a shot. It’s a good suggestion. Anchorage has a good home schooling support structure. We can almost manage on my income alone, but that’s like the swimmer who can almost reach the surface…
One of the schools we are considering is run by Lutherans and very small.
http://www.faithalaska.com/site/default.asp?sec_id=180013953
About 30 kids, 3 teachers for K-8. It felt more like a Montessori or Waldorf school than a church school. We would have the most influence on her education there, short of homeschooling. We met most of the staff and liked their answers to our various questions. Nice intelligent folks that were engaged in their work. The school is heavily supported (40%) by the congregation. They don’t have a volunteer hour requirement which I found odd – the other private schools require 40 hours or more per school year, keeps their costs down and takes the burden off staff (shoveling snow, recess monitoring, etc).
Another plus is they are close enough that when she is a bit older and the environmental conditions cooperate she could walk / bike on the park trails to get there. I cherished that as a kid and would like her to have that same freedom and responsibility.
Principle expressed interest in RBTs science kits, which we found encouraging.
The Lutheran place sounds good. Lutheran schools are usually pretty laid-back. Actually, even Catholic schools are often not particularly insistent on religious stuff. It’s always there in the background, but most RC schools don’t attempt to convert students.
Not being evangelical, the RC church (at least in the west) does not worry too much about converts.
n
Which goes against what the Church actually teachers, of course, which means active evangelism. But its history in the West since the Reformation is somewhat problematic, as it is especially here in the FUSA, despite there being 75 million of us. We seem to hide our lights under our bushels, as it were, and you won’t find us knocking on your door of a summer weeknight, clutching a Bible and Catechism.
Nevertheless, Extra Ecclesiam nulla salus.
Of course no one ever talks about this stuff anymore, or the Last Things, which long ago were staples of Sunday homilies.
Ecclesiates goes better with extra salsa?
hide our lights under our bushels
I see what you did there.
Wowie, we got some clever and slick readers and scribblers here! Who don’t hide they own lights, fah out!
Chillunz makes they own decisions…
http://freedomoutpost.com/you-simply-will-not-believe-this-live-video-of-black-carjackers-getting-shot-during-police-chase/
For what little it’s worth, Jenny, I’m a hard-headed atheist* but send my daughter to a christian school. At least half of the students’ parents are not christian but use that school for the better education. I’m not thrilled about the bias in much of the books, particularly science, but I’ve been supplementing the kid’s education since she was 3, so I’m not too concerned. Overall, I consider the expense and bother to be worth it. (We’re looking at switching to a different christian school for next year, for the even more better education, but that has no reflection on these points.)
And, as noted above, the public schools push plenty of their own religious propaganda, even if they deny it’s religious.
There are a few non-religious schools in the area, but they’re vastly more expensive, well out of our budget.
I’d love to homeschool, but with our particular brat it won’t work out. (I can make her behave and pay attention beyond the first couple days. Experienced school teachers mostly can. Her mother, her brother, various parents who’ve taught Chinese or other subjects can’t. Working with a home schooling co-op didn’t work out.) (There’s also the issue that New York State makes home schooling very burdensome.) This is purely down to my daughter’s monumental stubbornness and not the merits of hooking up with other home schoolers. You might look into it.
* Not exactly an atheist. I simply recognize no god greater than myself.
“…Not exactly an atheist. I simply recognize no god greater than myself.”
A driving factor of the Reformation and of course the form that religiosity takes in the publik skool system of indoctrination. Except that in the latter, the god is the Holy State.
And, as noted above, the public schools push plenty of their own religious propaganda, even if they deny it’s religious.
AGW is happening, climate change will make the hot days hotter and the cold days colder, diversity is good, islam is rich religion of peace, etc.
I forgot, that Obama is a god on the Earth.
FWIW, I keep some of my lights under bushels but my FLASHLIGHTS are out for all to see.
The cool thing about climate change and the temps getting warmer is that a lot of the Clinton Archipelago will go under. I would pay good money to see live satellite feeds of that chit.
Diversity is not just “good:” it is our Vibrancy.
And Islam is a brilliant religion of peace that saw its wondrous golden age destroyed by Crusader infidels; young womyn and grrls are so right to welcome swarms of swarthy young musloid males into their countries and neighborhoods, what could possibly go wrong??
And Barack Hussein Soetero, many blessings be upon his name, is apparently set up in his walled-off brick mansion just two blocks from the White House and already back at his “community organizing” via the Approved Alinsky Method, only on a national scale now. He looks to rake in even more millions, like many of his professional Afrikan-Murkan cohorts of past decades. But he and the Mooche won’t be simple-ass pikers like them, or the tribal chiefs back in Afrika who run the same scam. They’ve learned from the Clinton and Bush crime families and will be dealing in hundreds of millions. I see another Foundation on the horizon, and more active cooperation and links with the Soros Machine.
hide our lights under our bushels
What DadCooks said. All my lights are LED and none are hidden in any bushes. Clever indeed Mr. OFD.
Extra Ecclesiam nulla salus.
Ecclesiates goes better with extra salsa?
Nah, I think it is “extra Ecclesiastes goes better without salsa”. In other words, no eating salsa while reading your Bible. Just too messy.