August 2009 Archives

Senator Edward M. Kennedy passed away Tuesday night, August 25, 2009 of brain cancer.  He was 77.  Please enjoy the following speech by Teddy from the DNC, followed by the touching video that outlined the victories and hopes of his life.  Now is not the time for politics, but I will just say I am deeply saddened he didn't make it long enough to cast the vote he worked a lifetime to make possible.  RIP,...

I have children attending HISD, specifically the performing arts schools in the district. The facilities themselves are some of the oldest there are in the district, and some of the worst maintained.  It is obvious that we as a society don't appreciate the arts (and smARTS) the way we used to because we let these gifted kids go to school in substandard facilities. I'm guessing a major problem lies in the fact that FOOTBALL programs...

The NASA community - civil servants, contractors, and politicians alike - is holding its breath while we await the final report from the Augustine Commission and the decision of President Obama on what exactly he wants NASA to do.  Out of the several options the Human Space Flight Plans Committee is considering, one that has garnered particular interest from the press and some industry circles is the so-called "Deep Space" option. The basic idea is...

I got a lot of response to my post on the Christian Left, so I thought I would add to it and throw in some clarification about what I am talking about. My impetus for writing the first go around comes from three different and unique inspirations. The first comes in my personal view of history. All teachers that teach history have their own slant on the subject. My personal slant looks at the five...

Let me talk about something that has been bothering me for some time. Really, there are two simultaneous trends that combine to create this huge problem. The first began in the 1980 presidential campaign when Ronald Reagan tried to reenergize the fundamentalist Christians to get them back into politics. From that, the Christian Coalition got their start and they went from staying out of politics to dominating local politics like school board elections, city council, and...

Robert Reich wrote in his blog on Friday about the so-called Gang of Six-- the three Republican and three Democratic members of the Senate Finance Committee who have been given undue influence and disproportionate control over any pending health care reform legislation. "It's come down to these six senators. The House has reported a bill as has another Senate committee, but all eyes are fixed on Senate Finance -- and on these three Dems and...

As the so-called education blogger I thought I would add this in on the eve before school starts for most of our students. Some of our students have been back a week, but this message is important for all of our parents. Call this a preliminary statement before things get heated or tense.For those of you that don't know, I am a school counselor by trade. There are quite a few licensed professional counselors that...

I have had the inestimable pleasure from time to time of watching animated and live action children's movies with my kids. As has always been true, there is as much in them for adults as there is for the kids. Think Popeye, Aladdin, The Wizard of Oz, Alice in Wonderland, The Chronicles of Narnia ... lots of political, religious, social commentary there.I had been putting off watching the movie Wall-E because at some point, I felt...

A living will is defined as "instructions given by individuals specifying what actions should be taken for their health in the event that they are no longer able to make decisions due to illness or incapacity." Read that again, please.   In other words - if you want your family to let you die if you are so incapacitated that you can't make the decision yourself, so be it.  If you want to be kept alive...

As President Obama's approval ratings, both overall and on his handling of the issue of health care reform, continue to slide, the unasked question in these polls is why do those polled disapprove. Part of the answer may lie in the numbers from the latest Daily Kos/Research 2000 tracking poll. While the disapproval rating among Republicans remains constant, despite the concessions and the futile attempts to appease the unappeasable, the drop among Democrats and Independents...