November 2009 Archives

Yesterday marked the one-year anniversary of the day Barack Obama was elected president of the United States. Although he has only been in office for nine months, I thought it would be an appropriate time to reflect and re-assess my vote for him and see if I made the proper choice, based on what I know now. As I did I remembered his speech on the night of November 4, 2008:"The road ahead will be...

I never dreamed that I would end up sounding like my parents. I still remember my mother shouting my name because the word processing program at the time (probably Word Perfect) wasn't doing something she wanted it to do. I would dutifully go in there and fix the simple problem. I find myself doing that a lot these days in education. Education is kind of a funny business in the sense that there are very...

Despite the screaming headline in the New York Post, the Rupert Murdoch-owned New York Post, that "The Obama Magic Has Faded," last night's election results and exit polls tell a different story. A little analysis and perspective:* In the race for Congress in the 23rd district of New York, Doug Hoffman, the darling of the far-right extremists, lost. Eljefebob has the analysis on this, so I'll move on to New Jersey and Virginia.* In what...

Here's a clip from Channel 26 of last night's Tea Party held at the Sam Houston Race Park:Notice all the children in attendance? I wonder how many of those same children were kept home from school the day of President Obama's address? One person's indoctrination is another person's patriotism, I suppose. They also mentioned the number of veterans who were there. Protesting government-run health care, no doubt. ...

Back on October 15, we ran a piece about Keith Bardwell, a justice of the peace in Louisiana who refused to marry an interracial couple.  He resigned today, according to the Associated Press: A justice of the peace in Baton Rouge who refused to marry a couple because the bride was white and groom was black resigned. The justice of the peace, Keith Bardwell, who is white, quit the post with a one-sentence statement to the...

Can we please have an Afghanistan reality check? President Hamid Karzai stole the first election, with one out of every three votes being fraudulent. Abdullah Abdullah, who finished second and was supposed to be Karzai's opponent in the run-off, withdrew because the same election commission, all Karzai appointees, was poised to steal the run-off as well. Following Abdullah's pullout, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters: "President Karzai has been declared the winner of...

I was reading JKugler's entry today and it reminded me of a deep problem we have with the second amendment. It isn't being followed. When most people read that statement they naturally assume that I am talking about excessive regulation of gun ownership. In point of fact, we allow too many people to own guns. The problem is that the second amendment really wasn't about gun ownership at all. It was about the problem with...

I know, I know.  Funny videos and music are reserved for weekends.  Well, this morning I received this video from a friend, and wanted to share it with all of you to help you get you through the Monday morning blues.  Presented without further comment:*Note: Obviously, this editor does not endorse drinking and driving, but does recognize good police work when he sees it.  Hope this lightened the load this morning....

I have a string going of sorts at work. We have to contact parents whenever we have any kind of meeting concerning their child. That makes perfect sense even though the rules stipulate that we can hold the meeting without them. When we get parent involvement we can get them to assist us at home with bridging the gap for their child. This makes perfect amount of sense to those of us that grew up...

Listen to a conversation between Chris Wallace, host of Fox News Sunday, and Bill O'Reilly from September 18 as they discuss President Obama's decision not to go on Fox when he went on the other Sunday news shows to promote health care reform. Wallace insists that "Fox News Sunday is a truly fair and balanced show" and O'Reilly chimes in with "You're not an ideological show at all." Then Mr. Fair and Balanced Wallace calls...