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This morning I read two separate stories that indicated to me that school boards and school districts have autonomous powers that I never realized! I understand that certain rules and procedures are necessary in order for public schools to be able to fulfill what I thought was their purpose … to educate our children in the 3Rs. Nonetheless I never thought that they were beyond reproach or questioning concerning their seeming “my way or the highway” philosophy.

First from Townhall about Montgomery County, Virginia:

The girl’s lacrosse team at Blacksburg High School in Montgomery County, Virginia wanted to honor their coach, who had spent ten summers volunteering in Ukrainian orphanages.

T-shirts were designed and created – adorned with a simple, but profound message: “Pray for Peace.” These were warmup shirts to be worn before games.

Montgomery County Public Schools sent every team member an email ordering them to never again wear the shirts. … Ever.

“The Girls Lacrosse Team is no longer permitted to wear the Pray for Peace t-shirts at home or away events as warm up gear,” the email read. “The message conveyed by the shirts, although positive in nature and well meaning, can be interpreted as religious and political in nature.”

The school district said the shirts were too religious and too political. A double-whammy.

Parent Clare Levison said the girls offered to replace the word “pray” with the word “play.” However, that compromise was rejected.

The Roanoke Times reported that the school’s librarian was ordered to remove a display sign that featured books about Eastern Europe. The sign read, “Stand for peace.”

If “pray for peace,” “play for peace,” or “stand for peace” are not acceptable in Montgomery County, could it be “peace” that is really not acceptable. (It is rumored that an administrator at the Montgomery School District was overheard saying, “no ‘peace,’ under any circumstances!”)

OMG! Where do these power hungry imbeciles come from? 

Read on and I think you will get an idea as to where they come from.

Nicole Solas is a parent in Rhode Island. She had the audacity to ask what her daughter would learn in kindergarten.

From Nicole Solas via Townhall: 

“I’m just like any parent—when I enrolled my daughter in kindergarten, I wanted to know what she would learn. In response, our school district bullied, harassed, defamed, evaded, and stonewalled me. Then the teachers union sued me.”

Hmmm, the teacher’s union!

She goes on, “I called my principal in the South Kingstown School District in Rhode Island to ask if they teach concepts of Critical Race Theory or gender theory. That question and the events that followed changed my life.

“The principal said they don’t call children “boys” and “girls,” and teachers embed values of gender theory into classroom lessons.”

The story goes on from there, and the details can be read on Townhall.

Solas went on:

“Two months later, the Rhode Island branch of the National Education Association filed a frivolous lawsuit against me to silence me and send a message to other parents that they could be punished for asking questions too.”

(This sounds like eerily similar to our Attorney General’s (Merrick Garland) proclamation threatening parents who speak at School Board Meetings.)

OMG! Where do these power hungry imbeciles come from? How can merely wanting to know what your five-year old is going to be taught in kindergarten cause obviously defensive teachers, principals, and school districts to react with such venom?

Nicole Solas continued, “I hope that my story encourages more parents to ask questions about what their children are learning in public school. Remember that your taxes fund public school, and you are entitled to know exactly what you are paying for. I know the risk of retaliation is real—it happened to me—but our kids are worth the risk, and I’m still here fighting back. We have to show our kids how to stand up for themselves. If we don’t teach them that, who will?”

Amen!

4/13/22

Back in my early teenage years my friends and I used to play a lot of cards, usually Penny-ante poker. Although at this point I cannot precisely remember a lot of the details, one of our favorite games was a three card poker game called “Man or Mouse.” That particular game involved three cards being dealt to everyone, betting, followed by a draw (exchange) of up to two cards, more betting,  a declaration that you were either a “man” (going for the high hand) or a “mouse” (going for the low hand). Because “Man or Mouse” was a game in which the high hand and the low hand split the pot, there was no pejorative in consistently being a “mouse.” We usually had a group of five or six playing at once, and for the most part we all were aware that certain guys usually were “men,” while others were usually “mice.” Interestingly the declarations, over time, followed the individuals personality. For instance, B.D. who was rather outspoken and self-confident, more often than not,  would be a “man,” whereas J.G., who was quiet and somewhat introverted would more often than not, be a “mouse.”

[While my recollection is that I was usually a “man.” In all honesty, … err … the more I think about it, I think that yes, my recollection is correct … I was, more often than not,  a “man!”].

At an early age I learned that in real life, the psychology and predictability of that penny-ante poker game often held up. For instance, if your boss, who is a mean s.o.b., suddenly is “Mr. Nice Guy,” something funny is going on. And vice versa, if your boss is a schmaltzy ne’er-do-well, you would not predict that suddenly he would turn into “Mr. My Way or the Highway.” 

Likewise, when a schmaltzy ne’er-do-well politician threatens to act tough despite demonstrating his lack of a backbone in the past, should anyone believe him? … Specifically should Putin believe him?

BTW, I’ll bet Putin probably played “человек или мышь” as a young teenager.

4/12/22

Someone I know did not get into the college of her choice despite having a 4.52 high school grade point average. For those of you not aware, a high school grade point average (GPA) is calculated using all of the high school grades attained, including those of the first semester of freshman year. An A counts as 4.0 while a B counts as 3.0. In general, if an individual had an equal amount of A’s and B’s, then that individual would have a GPA  of 3.5. The next question that I can hear you asking is, “If a student had all A’s, his/her GPA would calculate out to a 4.0. So how does one attain a GPA of 4.52?”

The answer is actually quite simple … Advanced Placement (AP) and Honors course are worth more than regular classes when calculating one’s GPA. According to an A.P. teacher that I know, these Advancement Placement and Honors courses are significantly harder than the typical class in just about any subject. They cover much more material, in more depth over a shorter period of time. He further said that the extra boost in a student’s GPA that these courses provide, is well worth it the hours and hours of extra work and effort.

On a somewhat related note does the Peter Principle apply when talking about the other type of “principal?” For those of you not aware of this term … the Peter Principle, the following is from Wikipedia:

“The Peter principle is a concept in management developed by Laurence J. Peter, which observes that people in a hierarchy tend to rise to “a level of respective incompetence”: employees are promoted based on their success in previous jobs until they reach a level at which they are no longer competent, as skills in one job do not necessarily translate to another.

After reading a front page article in my local “newspaper,” I think we have a local example of the Peter Principle. Michelle Irwin, a  principal at the largest high school in San Diego, has apparently been quietly cutting several Honors and Advanced Placement classes without the knowledge or input from parents of students at her school. Why?

From the example noted at the beginning of this piece, not being able to take AP or Honors classes would put a student at a distinct disadvantage when competing against other students whose high school offers these classes. In fact the more AP/Honors classes that a high school student takes, the better for him/her in the highly competitive situation of getting into college.

Why would someone who has been an educator for twenty-five years and then a principal at Middle Schools for eighteen years before being promoted in 2020 to being a high school principal, do that? 

According to Ms. Irwin she cut these classes for “equity reasons.” She wanted to remove the stigma of non-honors courses, and sited racial disparities in Honors course enrollment. What that means is that “experts” have pointed out that Honors and A.P. courses disproportionately enroll lower numbers of students of color. 

Apparently Michelle Irwin is going to remedy this nationwide problem by punishing some students at her own school.

My take … Either this is a classic example of the Peter Principle, right here, literally, in my own backyard … or it’s just another blatant example of “wokeness” personified in education  … or most likely, both!

4/11/22

As per my Sunday tradition, today the individual who is deserving of our praise is Jonté Lee, who is a high school physics and chemistry teacher at Calvin Coolidge High School in Washington D.C. Teaching high school in D.C. is, by itself, praiseworthy, but that is not the reason for his honored spot in my Sunday blog.

From The Epoch Times:

Known for going above and beyond in the classroom, Lee delighted students during the early 2020 lockdown when he set up a functional chemistry lab in his home kitchen. He went viral for this 2020 attempt to enrich his students’ virtual learning experience. Doing this during Covid was also praiseworthy, but nonetheless, that is not the reason for his honored spot in my Sunday piece.

Once a corporate marketing specialist, Lee has been teaching in Washington public schools for the last nine years. “My first call to teaching was when I volunteered for the ‘Big Brother Big Sister’ program while working in the private sector,” he explained. “There, I would read to my little brother twice a week. I liked it so much that I sought out to become a teacher.

“I enjoy making meaningful connections with students and pushing them academically forward. My greatest joy is seeing them grapple and learn a concept … Through teaching, I found my life’s passion.”

Like a lot of individuals Jonté Lee had student loans, and he owed a fair amount on these loans. Lee’s original student loans comprised $16,574 in 2004, $25,413 in 2005, and another $25,413 in 2006, totaling to just over $67,400 by graduation. With late fees and two deferments, said Lee, his principal balance was $88,339.90 exactly. Between 2008 and 2018, Lee paid roughly $400 a month in loan repayments, without a fixed interest rate or loan consolidation. But by May 2018, he had only paid off $33,067 of the principal balance, and at some point he decided that this situation needed to change.

Lee recalls his biggest challenge as having to change his attitude toward money. He felt embarrassed by the amount of debt he had accumulated.

He said, “I know what it is like to wake up in the middle of the night with a suffocating feeling of fear. I know what it is like to have my credit card swiped and pray that it goes through,” he confided. “For 12 years, I beat myself up about my student loans because I knew that some of that money did not go towards schooling. It went towards me having a good time.”

Jonté didn’t complain. He didn’t whine for someone else to pay off the debt he had accumulated. Instead he went “full throttle.”

“I worked extra jobs,” the teacher explained. “I taught additional classes after school and during the summer … I also drove for Uber and took on extra project jobs that involved teaching.”

“Working multiple jobs was exhausting and there were moments where I wanted to quit,” he admitted. “My original intent was to pay off my student loans in eight months … I had to readjust.”

After one year of careful planning and immense hard work, Lee officially paid off his outstanding $57,000 debt. He did the right thing, paying off his entire loan with hard work and a lot of sweat.

Truly Jonté Lee is a laudable individual.

4/10/22

These days just about everyone is suffering from high gas prices. Granted those who do not drive very much and those who drive electric vehicles are not suffering, but who are those people? Obviously those individuals are the ones who can work from home, and/or those who are affluent enough to be able to afford an electric car. Can the hoi polloi work from home? … ‘No!’ Can the common man afford an electric car? … ‘Hell no!’ Yet our Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg is apparently not aware of this disconnect.

From Blazemedia:

“Last month, “Mayor Pete” made headlines when he said (in all seriousness) that the obvious solution for dealing with insanely high gas prices is to just go buy an electric vehicle. Maybe Mayor Pete doesn’t realize that most of us can’t afford to buy a new car at all, let alone an EV that costs “roughly $10,000 higher than the overall industry average,” according to Kelley Blue Book.”

Since I have been recently accused by some of being too harsh and biased against Democrats in high governmental positions, I decided to reconsider my position on Buttigieg’s apparent uninformed thought process. Maybe “Mayor Pete” was misquoted or perhaps he was up all night with the new babies, and thus did not realize what he was saying.

But no …!

Again from BlazeMedia:

“Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg has doubled down on his out-of-touch messaging to Americans who are struggling to pay skyrocketing prices at the pump. He has let Americans know that we all need to get used to ‘wild price hikes’ until we ‘achieve a form of energy independence that is based on clean energy.’”

After listening to him say this, one consequently might ask, “Why is someone that is so out of touch with reality in such a high government position?” 

Err, … the answer is obvious! Look at who appointed him … J.B., who is as out of touch as “the Mayor.” On 3/31 Biden had an equally atrocious statement from the White House where he touted his plan to tackle the problem of high gas prices.

Biden explained:

“Under my plan, which is before Congress now, we can take advantage of the next generation of electric vehicles, that a typical driver will save about $80 a month from not having to pay gas at the pump.” 

In response to this absurdity, Twitter exploded:

“A ‘typical driver’ with an average credit score financing a bare bones Nissan Leaf will have a car payment of around $560 a month. So a net ‘savings’ of -$480 per month,” tweeted writer Jim Jamitis.

“The old man and his whole staff is way out of touch,” read another very popular response.

“These people live in a totally different world than the average citizen. They just don’t get it or else they do get it and keep pushing it hoping it comes true,” replied one critic.

From my perspective, OMG! “Out of touch” is much too kind!

And finally, a question to myself: “Should I continue to reconsider my so-called ‘biased positions’ on these high government bureaucrats?”

“Nē quaquam rūrsus!” (Translated from the Latin … “never again!”)

4/9/22

Is what we are seeing in the U.S. the front end of a pendulum swing? In the past when the pendulum has swung left, what followed was an opposite reaction, and the opposite reaction was more intense than the initial pendulum swing. For instance, Jimmy Carter’s pendulum swing gave us Ronald Reagan. Clinton’s presidency gave us George Bush. Obama gave us Trump, and now Biden will give us … Who?

I bring this up now, because I question whether or not this same pendulum principle applies to social issues. 

The recent election of Virginia’s new Governor was certainly a response to some school boards’ treatment of concerned parents, and the former Democratic Governor basically taking the side of the school boards and against the parents. (What a dummy-head! Going against parents is not a wise thing to do.)

In Florida, Disney has strongly come out against protecting innocent young children from sexual indoctrination and innuendo. In this situation, parents are strongly for the new Florida law. I hope there is a big reactive pendulum swing against Disney, and Disney pays a big price for its extreme leftward stupidity. (Only a dummy-head corporation would go against the wishes of parents.)

The NCAA is apparently for “men” competing in, and subsequently winning women’s swimming competitions. What part of being a dummy-head here, does the NCAA not understand?

And finally, some school teachers as well as some “school clubs” they are affiliated with, are not only encouraging children to transition to a different sex, but are telling the children not to tell their parents. Here I hope that the reactive pendulum swing goes into overdrive. Referring to these despicable teachers as “dummy-heads,” is actually doing a disservice to every day “dummy-heads.” Not only should these teachers be immediately fired, but they should be forever forbidden from ever teaching again. I sincerely hope that a ferocious pendulum swing hits them right between their legs.

Perhaps it was put best by Cuban American school choice advocate Hamlet Garcia: “The Democrats have made the biggest mistake of their lives by messing with our children, indoctrinating our schools, They have turned their most loyal voters into their worst enemies.”

Nowadays it is becoming much easier to identify “dummy-heads,” as even though their symbol is a donkey, in reality they are a horse’s ass.

4/8/22

For those of you who are Joe Biden fans you may have to put that bag over your head again. after you read the following.

What I am going to describe is the result of either Ineptitude, Ignorance, or Ignominy, or perhaps a combination of all three. If you are like me, you have a good idea what ‘Ineptitude’ is. Likewise, you have a good idea of what ‘Ignorance’ is. But ‘Ignominy,’ … not so much.(As I was looking for a third ‘I’ word, I happened on ‘Ignominy.’ It is a noun which means “disgrace; dishonor; public contempt.”)

A friend sent me the following. I was surprised as I had no idea of the magnitude of what I am going to relate to you. The first thing that I thought was if the President has access to this same information, why is he not acting appropriately on it. Why?? 

Is it his ‘Ineptitude?” Very possibly, as he is not the sharpest knife in the drawer.

Is it his ‘Ignorance?” Again, very possibly, as I can reasonably guess that he is only aware of what is spoon fed to him.

Or is it his ‘Ignominy?’ Does he actually hold the U.S. in that much public contempt?

About 6 months ago, there was a news program on oil and one of The Forbes Bros. was the guest. The host said to Forbes, “I am going to ask you a direct question and I would like a direct answer; how much oil does the U.S. have in the ground?” Forbes did not miss a beat, he said, “More than all the Middle East put together.”

The U.S. Geological Service issued a report in April 2008 that only scientists and oil men knew was coming, but man was it big. It was a revised report (hadn’t been updated since 1995) on how much oil was in this area of the western 2/3 of North Dakota, western South Dakota, and Extreme eastern Montana. It’s a formation known as the Williston Basin but is more commonly referred to as the ‘Bakken.’ A recent technological breakthrough has opened up the Bakken’s massive reserves, And, we now have access of up to 500 billion barrels … yes, “billion” with a ‘B.’

And because this is Light, sweet oil, those billions of barrels will cost Americans … hold your breath, grit your teeth, or grab your Depends if appropriate … just $16 PER BARREL! For those of you not paying attention that is almost $100 per barrel less than the price of oil today!

To conclude:

We have more oil in our own country, than all the other proven reserves on Earth.

Here are the official estimates:

8 times as much oil as Saudi Arabia

18 times as much oil as Iraq

21 times as much oil as Kuwait

22 times as much oil as Iran

500 times as much oil as Yemen

And it’s all right here in the Western United States!

James Bartis, lead researcher with the study says we’ve got more oil in this very compact area than the entire Middle East, more than 2 TRILLION barrels – Untapped. “That’s more than all the proven oil reserves of crude oil in the World today,” reports The Denver Post.

So again I ask, “Where is Joe on this?” Which of the three ‘I’s’ is it?

4/7/2

On the CDC’s most recent COVID Data Tracker an interesting trend appears. This comprehensive set of data will not be believable to those who are pro-vaccine, and whose mantra is some form of “the anti-vaccers are dumb and stupid.” 

A conundrum! From the Data Tracker … The number of Covid cases, Covid deaths, and Covid hospitalizations are all impressively down compared to January of this year. (Detected infections are down to less than 30,000 a day from the high of over 800,000 a day in mid-January, according to CDC data. The seven-day average of currently hospitalized had dropped to about 11,000 on April 1, down from nearly 150,000 in January, though, according to the CDC, the vaccines still lower the risk of severe disease.) Similar trends are now being seen in Great Britain and Ireland.

To me the decreasing case numbers are not surprising as winter is over and Spring has begun. However what is surprising is the data from different counties in the U.S.

Counties with the highest rates of vaccination against COVID-19 are currently experiencing more cases than those with the lowest vaccination rates. To repeat, this is from data collected by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

From Epoch News:

The 500 counties where 62–95 percent of the population has been vaccinated detected more than 75 cases per 100,000 residents on average in the past week. The 500 counties where 11–40 percent of the population has been vaccinated detected about 58 cases per 100,000 residents on average in the past week.

The least vaccinated counties tended to be much smaller, averaging less than 20,000 in population. The most vaccinated counties had an average population of over 330,000. More populous counties, however, weren’t more likely to have higher case rates.

Even when comparing counties of similar size, the most vaccinated ones tended to have higher case rates than those least vaccinated, and this held up in a myriad of different county populations from over a million to from 100,000 to 200,000.

Now I am not presupposing that the CDC data is 100% correct. No data actually is. Nonetheless, the consistency of this data is straightforward and convincing.

So what is the explanation for this apparent CDC conundrum? 

The most likely reason is that the vaccines lose their effectiveness over time. If this is the answer to the conundrum, then why are ‘those that know best’ recommending more boosters? President Biden, ostensibly, got his second booster a few days ago, and certainly all of the sheep should follow right along with the sheep herder, shouldn’t they?

On the other hand, could it be that natural immunity is the major reason that the unvaccinated are now doing better than the vaccinated? If this is the reason, could it be that not receiving any boosters or further boosters, and getting Omicron would be the wise choice for most individuals?

4/6/22

For whatever reason recently I have again started to listen to country music. Not just any type of country music, but more specifically country oldies, as are played on Sirius XM’s Willie’s Roadhouse. I realize that most of you are not particularly attracted to the country oldies, and Democrats in general are not fans of country music, but so be it. One of the reasons I like this genre of music has to do with the stories that these songs often tell. The other morning I heard a country oldie that was about a family mourning the loss of a loved one from a drug overdose. Right then I thought about the sadness experienced by family members when a tragedy like this occurs. I have to admit that right then I thought nasty things about those s.o.b.’s who are drug traffickers, as they are in a large part, ultimately responsible for these tragedies.

To put things into perspective, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 105,752 Americans died from drug overdoses from October 2020 to October 2021, and consequently similar sadness was likely experienced by over 100,000 families in the U.S. 

For those who aren’t aware, Fentanyl is now the leading cause of death in Americans aged 18 to 45 years old, and Fentanyl is now flowing torrentially into our country like water in a dry riverbed after the first big rainfall of the year. Most of this Fentanyl comes across our open southern border, but those in charge of our border security either are not aware of this problem or, more likely, just do not care. FYI: At our southern border, Customs and Border Protection are confiscating record amounts of fentanyl coming across from Mexico. For example, CBP seized over 11,201 pounds of fentanyl from October 2020 to September 2021, which is a 41 percent increase from the year before. That is enough fentanyl to kill 2.5 billion people or the entire U.S. population over 7 times Furthermore, the Fentanyl seized represents but a small percent of that which is successfully illegally transported across this border. 

Once this Fentanyl makes it into our cities and rural communities, it is the drug traffickers who are then responsible for local distribution.

Recently Rep. Bob Latta (R-OH) proposed to advance H.R. 6184, also known as the Halt All Lethal Trafficking of Fentanyl Act.

The goal of the bill is to permanently place fentanyl-related substances into Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act, making it illegal to sell the molecularly-altered fentanyl substance manufactured by criminals. Fentanyl-related substances are currently temporarily under Schedule I. The bill is in response to the record number of drug overdoses in the United States stemming from fentanyl pills and other drugs laced with fentanyl. 

On 4/1/22 more than 200 House Democrats voted against H.R. 6184 … and no, this is not an April Fool’s joke. House Democrats’ opposition to the Halt All Lethal Trafficking of Fentanyl Act reportedly stems from its provision for mandatory-minimum sentences for fentanyl traffickers. ( I guess we all have our priorities!)

If your local House Representative voted against passage of this bill, perhaps a phone call from you on this matter would be appropriate.

Moreover, if more House Democrats listened to Willie’s Roadhouse, perhaps they would have more empathy for drug overdose victims and their families rather than fentanyl traffickers.

4/5/22

Last week I wrote about Joe Biden comments on and after his Europe/NATO trip, and especially on his answers to questions from Peter Doocy after he had returned to the U.S. Amazingly, Joe adamantly denied making statements that were caught on video. Basically, I said that President Biden was either a liar, extremely forgetful bordering on senility, or not in charge. (See “www.californiacontrarian.com” on 3/31/22) 

Well under the guise of honesty, I must tell you that one of my most frequent readers thought I was being much too tough on Joe Biden … “give him a break!” Further pointing out that he may well have been jet-lagged, and may have been flustered and nervous taking live questions from reporters. (questions that required ad lib answers that were not written on notecards.) Actually under that same guise of honesty, I will freely admit that both may have been true. He was probably jet-lagged, and he was probably flustered by having to actually answer questions, but, come on … “what the hell was he doing answering questions if either of the above were influencing his ability to provide straight forward truthful answers?”

Why didn’t he just fall back on one of his old standbys, as he has done multiple times in the past … “they told me that I was not supposed to answer answer any questions.”

And “no,” I was not being too tough on him! 

He is supposed to speak for the U.S.! Looking like a fool, jet-lagged or not is not really good for anybody, not the U.S, not our allies, and certainly not J.B. himself.

I bring this up today because of something that I read in a column by Marc Thiessen in the Washington Post

MARC THIESSEN: “I have a slightly different take than a lot of people on this. I think the walkback of Biden’s comment is much worse than the comment itself. First, it made Biden look incompetent, and second of all, it made America look weak. The idea that what he really meant to say was Putin shouldn’t be allowed to exercise power over the region? Everybody knows that’s not what he said. They heard the plain words of the president.”

 A slightly different take, indeed. Nonetheless, this ‘different take’ doesn’t change my conclusion in my 3/31 blog. If anything, Theissen’s opinion just further strengthens my view that Joe Biden is actually not the one in charge!

4/4/22