Stephon Marbury?
or Ron Artest?
Friday, July 31, 2009
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Links: July 29, 2009
A shocking crime, even for Los Angeles. A wonderful piece of in-depth crime reporting, however, shocking for the L.A. Times ...
Why can't I be down with people like this?
I've read about a lot of teacher-student relationships in the last decade, but never involving two females. Until now. The fact that she's a softball coach isn't going to stop that stereotype anytime soon ...
I don't know whether to laugh or cry at this story, which is basically the police storyline in Superbad brought to life ...
Why can't I be down with people like this?
I've read about a lot of teacher-student relationships in the last decade, but never involving two females. Until now. The fact that she's a softball coach isn't going to stop that stereotype anytime soon ...
I don't know whether to laugh or cry at this story, which is basically the police storyline in Superbad brought to life ...
Monday, July 27, 2009
Links: July 27, 2009
Every word on this sign is misspelled except one. If you can't pick out the one, you're even dumber than the guys who made the sign ...An excellent retelling of the path medical marijuana has taken since its passage in California. Easiest way to uncomplicate everything? Completely legal pot.
Stephon Marbury is fn crazy ...
Friday, July 24, 2009
Rant: Yes we can! ... continue to make stupid education decisions
President Barack Obama is promising to throw money at schools that will follow his lead on "change" in education.
How is this different from previous administrations? Every president comes into office with ideas on how to fix our schools, usually buzzwords such as Obama's "charter schools" and "performance pay."
For President Bush, it was "testing" and "accountability," which is how we ended up with No Child Left Behind, which is leaving thousands of children and schools behind. Now, as schools are still struggling to forcefeed children answers to federal tests in order to keep needed funding, they'll have to figure out how to satisfy the new president in order to obtain new funding.
But how is opening new schools that parents can opt to send their children to really going to improve education? What about when the next administration focuses on strengthening public schools and leaves these charter schools out in the cold?
And tying teacher pay to student achievement seems like a great idea, but then won't good teachers choose to only teach at schools with high-income students -- who usually have higher educated parents able to do more to help them achieve -- leaving struggling low-income and minority students falling behind once again?
Changes in administration, at the state and county levels as well as the federal, continue to force schools into adopting different goals and ideals, causing fractured education structures that leave administrators focused on the wrong things, teachers confused and students uneducated. Many schools have goals and ideals that look like the California law books -- filled with the well-meaning but shortsighted rules set forth by countless politicians that counteract each other and leave everyone in a vortex of unpredictability.
President Obama is working to create more common academic standards nationwide, which is laudable, but the rest of his goals are just empty ideas that seem great now but will fall apart in the future. Meanwhile, as the quotes in the Washington Post story from state education officals prove, he will get enough lip service from schools to hand out the money, and they will use half of it to halfass their way to what he wants them to do and use the other half to actually educate their students.
And the cycle continues ...
How is this different from previous administrations? Every president comes into office with ideas on how to fix our schools, usually buzzwords such as Obama's "charter schools" and "performance pay."
For President Bush, it was "testing" and "accountability," which is how we ended up with No Child Left Behind, which is leaving thousands of children and schools behind. Now, as schools are still struggling to forcefeed children answers to federal tests in order to keep needed funding, they'll have to figure out how to satisfy the new president in order to obtain new funding.
But how is opening new schools that parents can opt to send their children to really going to improve education? What about when the next administration focuses on strengthening public schools and leaves these charter schools out in the cold?
And tying teacher pay to student achievement seems like a great idea, but then won't good teachers choose to only teach at schools with high-income students -- who usually have higher educated parents able to do more to help them achieve -- leaving struggling low-income and minority students falling behind once again?
Changes in administration, at the state and county levels as well as the federal, continue to force schools into adopting different goals and ideals, causing fractured education structures that leave administrators focused on the wrong things, teachers confused and students uneducated. Many schools have goals and ideals that look like the California law books -- filled with the well-meaning but shortsighted rules set forth by countless politicians that counteract each other and leave everyone in a vortex of unpredictability.
President Obama is working to create more common academic standards nationwide, which is laudable, but the rest of his goals are just empty ideas that seem great now but will fall apart in the future. Meanwhile, as the quotes in the Washington Post story from state education officals prove, he will get enough lip service from schools to hand out the money, and they will use half of it to halfass their way to what he wants them to do and use the other half to actually educate their students.
And the cycle continues ...
Links: July 24, 2009
No comment on this picture, I just like it.Keep an eye on the California papers today as the Legislature continues to battle on the budget. The Senate passed it late last night/early this morning, but the Assembly is still debating. I still think it' stupid that they refuse to raise taxes to help offset a little of the pain, but California's spineless (and useless) politicians will never let that happen.
The follow-up to the best story from yesterday includes some more explication on the delicious details of the New Jersey political-corruption case. Plus a picture of handcuffed rabbis being led into a prison bus. TOO much fun.
I think I may like baseball too much because I would watch this game.
Thank god for shady lawyers and Photoshop because this story and accompanying art is too damn funny.
On another baseball note, Dave Zirin perfectly expresses why yesterday's perfect game was a sweet candy in a sports world of dogshit sandwiches.
This is not going to end well.
A Slate writer is asking Jon Stewart to change his name back. Well, at least he isn't asking him to permanently change it to Jewey Von Jewenstein ...
Even this acknowledged dog lover thinks this idea is sick sick sick sick sick.
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Links: July 21, 2009
Sorry for the delay, but at least I have a fully functioning kitchen to show for it!
California has a budget! Well, actually it's just an agreement between the governor and legislative leaders, mostly Democrats, which Republicans can block, as they have done time and again. The L.A. Times and Sac Bee are leading the coverage on this issue, as is typical with California legislative stuff: check out the effect on prisoners, a near-useless state board, state parks and everything else. One of the best recaps, however, is from Dan Balz at the Washington Post, who also attempts to take a lesson from the idiocy.
Is Charles Schumer the only politician in America willing to talk about immigration? It's a tough issue, but Schumer has the big picture: Do everything short of militarizing the border (which is almost there already) to stop illegal immigration, then welcome with open arms the illegal immigrants already here. Of course, each side hates one part of this plan, so I'm glad there is one nationla politician who cares so little about his future that he's willing to step up and take care of it. Go Chuck!
No more wasting money on F-22s! Truthfully, this might be the best thing this Congress has done since being seated, refusing to waste more money on equipment we just aren't using in today's military environment. Of course, it took a Republican Defense Secretary to stand up and yell about it to make it happen, but at last it finally did.
California has a budget! Well, actually it's just an agreement between the governor and legislative leaders, mostly Democrats, which Republicans can block, as they have done time and again. The L.A. Times and Sac Bee are leading the coverage on this issue, as is typical with California legislative stuff: check out the effect on prisoners, a near-useless state board, state parks and everything else. One of the best recaps, however, is from Dan Balz at the Washington Post, who also attempts to take a lesson from the idiocy.
Is Charles Schumer the only politician in America willing to talk about immigration? It's a tough issue, but Schumer has the big picture: Do everything short of militarizing the border (which is almost there already) to stop illegal immigration, then welcome with open arms the illegal immigrants already here. Of course, each side hates one part of this plan, so I'm glad there is one nationla politician who cares so little about his future that he's willing to step up and take care of it. Go Chuck!
No more wasting money on F-22s! Truthfully, this might be the best thing this Congress has done since being seated, refusing to waste more money on equipment we just aren't using in today's military environment. Of course, it took a Republican Defense Secretary to stand up and yell about it to make it happen, but at last it finally did.
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