August 30, 2009
Rule Five: Zooey Deschanel
Most probably don’t know who this actress is. She caught my eye (really my ears, I love her voice!) when she palyed opposite Will Ferrel in elf. Yes, she was a blond back then.
I think that she is adorable and might be replacing Scarlett Johansson as my favorite actress. In fact, I think she already has.
August 27, 2009
This is not the time to quit, CPR.
Conservatives for Patients’ Rights stops advertising against Obamacare because of Teddy’s death:
A conservative group that opposes President Obama’s approach to health care reform said Wednesday that it is suspending a multi-million dollar television campaign, because of the death of Massachusetts Sen. Edward Kennedy.
“[N]ow is a time for respect, reflection and remembrance,” Rick Scott, chairman of Conservatives for Patients’ Rights, said in a statement. “Senator Kennedy’s lifetime of dedicated public service transcended multiple generations. His devotion to many issues and his relentless passion made him a hero to his supporters and worthy adversary to his opponents. His voice and presence will be missed.”
Scott also said Wednesday that the group knows “the debate will continue.“A debate Senator Kennedy embraced with vigor, and we look forward to engaging in the debate in the months ahead.”
Conservatives for Patients’ Rights has spent more than $4 million on ads against health care reform, including a recent ad buy intended to catch the eye of President Obama who is vacationing this week on Martha’s Vineyard.
I dont’ really get it. I understand a man just died, but that doesn’t mean that we can quit the fight against this horrendous health care bill. The Democrats and Obama have been poised to use Kennedy’s death to further this bill since they found out the guy was sick. The opponents of the bill can’t give them this ground. They wouldn’t give it to us and if we give them an inch they’ll take a mile.
I can’t really say that I’m sorry Kennedy is dead, either. Maybe that makes me an evil person. I don’t know. He killed a woman. It wasn’t some tragic accident that couldn’t have been prevented. Mary Jo didn’t die in the car crash. She didn’t drown. She was alive and breathing when he swam to the surface and walked away. She died from asphyxiation. After the crash, she put her face in the last pocket of air and remained there until there was no oxygen left. While he was out concocting a story, she was gasping for air probably thinking he was going to come back to save her. He was a Kennedy, after all.
I’m sorry for his family and their loss, but I’m not sorry for him. Forty years ago last month he killed a woman. He then went on to have a very successful career as a politician and lived a free and rich (and long) life. One can only hope he is paying for his sins now. And, the death of this murderer should not be the death of any campaign against this health care bill.
Comments (2)
PETA vs. Fat People
I’m not really sure what the billboard actually means. It says save the whales. Lose the blubber: Go vegetarian. Are fat people out there eating whales? Someone, call Sea World and tell them to put an extra guard on Shamu. I was there in May and there are some fat people. I knew we had an obesity epidemic. I just hadn’t realized that fat people were attacking the whales.
By the way, I’ve known some fat vegetarians. Just because a person doesn’t eat meat doesn’t mean that their diet is fat free or even low in fat. There are plenty of dishes out there that are vegetarian that have plenty of fat in them. A vegetarian doesn’t only eat vegetables.
I wonder how this will figure into the health care debate. I mean, if I’m being forced to pay for another person’s health care through a “public” option, shouldn’t they be required to be in shape? Maybe the government could tax people based on how much they weigh. It’s just a thought. As the report said, health problems caused by excessive weight is about to surpass health problems associated with ciggies. I guess the Big Mac will be the next thing to get that $1.01 tax. Now, there’s an idea.
Comments (1)August 25, 2009
From landing on the moon to 2+2=5: America’s educational fall from grace.
Math and science didn’t make the list of things America’s children are learning in school:
American children aren’t necessarily getting smarter or dumber, but that might not be good enough to compete globally, according to numbers cited Tuesday by Secretary of Education Arne Duncan.
He noted a special analysis put out last week by the National Center for Education Statistics that compares 15-year-old U.S. students with students from other countries in the Organization for Economic Development.
It found the U.S. students placed below average in math and science. In math, U.S. high schoolers were in the bottom quarter of the countries that participated, trailing countries including Finland, China and Estonia.
The way to solve this problem? Throw money at it, of course. According to Secretary of Education Arne Duncan we just need to offer more money to teachers in the subject areas that need improvement: math, science, foreign language. But, of course, the National Education Association objects to this. Everyone must be paid the same, now. Now, I actually have to agree with the NEA. Perhaps creating an incentive, like bonuses for teachers who improve scores, would be a better choice than paying people more simply because the teachers already teaching those subjects are obviously failing. But, the NEA is against performance based pay, so I’m sure I can’t get them on board with that idea, either.
This is the natural result of a public school system that worries more about how a student feels than what they have learned. A system that has rejected all standardized testing because it’s inherently sexist or racist or whatever. With our government working us so far into debt that our only hope is for our children and grandchildren to remain globally competitive in order to give our nation a chance at survival (someone has to pay off this debt!), one would think that properly educating our children to compete in this global economy would be a top priority. But, no. Common sense be damned! Let’s just socially promote them to protect their self-esteem.
I’m not a teacher and I don’t want to get in trouble for talking smack about teachers. The problem here is systemic. We decided, at some point long ago, that it was more important for our children to feel good about themselves than to tell them they got something wrong. Well, it is we who have gotten it wrong. Break out those red pens and start marking those papers. Children need to be made aware of when they make mistakes and corrected. If we do not do this, out of our own self-interest because we don’t have the guts to be the bad guy and tell them when they’ve gotten it wrong, then it is we who have failed our children and our nation.
Adding in some competition by putting the dollars on each student and allowing parents to have a choice in which school their child attends might help. Performance-based pay might be a good idea. Encouraging competition between schools, teachers, and students, generally, would probably be a good thing. Oh, and firing teachers who can’t perform and produce the results needed in order for our children to succeed should probably be fired and booted out of the teaching environment. Just some ideas off the top of my head that I’m sure the NEA would not approve of, but that’s to be expected from union thugs who are only interested in maintaining their monopoly.
I’m just curious. How did we go from a country so dedicated to math and science that we landed a man on the moon within our 10 year goal to a country that can’t keep up with the rest of the world in math and science? It’s only been 40 years! How badly have we damaged the educational system in America that we went from being light-years ahead to lagging so far behind? And, are we willing to do what we need to do in order to restore our rightful place as the leader of the pack?
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Wait, it’s the Republicans who want to protect Medicare?
So, Republicans are for Medicare, now? I knew there was a reason I refused to call myself a member of this party:
The Republican Party issued a new salvo in the health debate Monday with a “seniors’ health care bill of rights” that opposed any moves to trim Medicare spending or limit end-of-life care to seniors.
Intended as a political shot at President Barack Obama, the Republican National Committee manifesto marks a remarkable turnaround for a party that had once fought to trim the health program for the elderly and disabled, which last year cost taxpayers over $330 billion.
The Republican stance also underscores how tough it will be for Mr. Obama to find politically palatable savings to pay for new coverage while reining in spiraling health-care costs.
The Republicans said they aimed to “protect Medicare and not cut it in the name of health-care reform,” in a statement and an accompanying op-ed written by RNC Chairman Michael Steele and published in Monday’s Washington Post.
This pandering to the elderly is about as obvious as having Michael Steele head the RNC to pander to the black community. And, who is behind this brilliance? Affirmative action hire Michael Steele, of course. Shocking! At least he’s not trying to bring hip-hop to the old folks home in order to lure them in.
Shouldn’t Republicans be supportive of cutting Medicare costs, or cutting Medicare all together? That just seems to me to be more in line with Republican principles, as I understand them. The thing about a political ploy this obvious is that it won’t work and will be seen for exactly what it is, which will just turn more people off to politics in general and the Republican Party in particular. I can’t wait to see what Steele’s next big idea is.
Comments (0)August 23, 2009
Sunday Rule Five Action: Kourtney Kardashian
Since I featured her earlier this week, for deciding not to abort her unborn child, I figured I would hit the blog up with some serious Rule 5 action.
What’s that? Oh, you want one more pic? I think I can provide that for you.
