Conservatives: Voting For Hillary Is Not The End Of The World

As a conservative you have the same duty as every other American to vote for the chief executive you feel is most fit to run the country.

With the meltdown currently going on in the Republican Party after just 3 months post convention, having similar meltdowns spread throughout the entire governmental apparatus during the next four years, seems not like a good idea.

But what happens if you vote for Hillary?

One, you become part of a huge pool of voters she is responsible to and for…

Two, you vote for someone though she may have liberal ideas, has a very conservative morality deeply rooted in family and religious values.

Three, you have voted for the most qualified candidate we have ever had for our chief executive.  John Quincy Adams comes the closest as to being equally qualified based on experience for the challenges the Oval Office throws at its newest inhabitant.

Four, you have voted for a person who’s deepest concern, on which all her convictions lie, is centered upon our children.  From her book 10 years ago she lays down the claim that it is children who in raising, are what makes us civilized.  It is the interests of our children in the future,  which is her North Star, against which she bases all decisions…

Five, you have voted for someone who when not running against Conservatives, is well respected, well liked, and well appreciated by Conservatives who personally know her..

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So you see, despite what you may have been told, despite all the anger fostered against her, she is really not that bad… She is similar to the current president and we have done ok economically under him, we’ve done ok internationally under him, we’ve done ok morally under him…

All the stories of massive upheaval and disruption that would occur when Obama took over, (remember one Congressperson calling him a liar in his first address to Congress?) failed to materialize. Nor will they materialize under Hillary.

With Hillary you know that in four years, or maybe eight, you will have a good chance to run again, perhaps winning the White House… If you can’t, then you obviously need to realign your party in order to do so….  By now, there is no doubt where the problem with your party lies.

Your real enemy are the “crazies” you harbor.  You turned your heads, you looked away, you used them because they gave you votes,  and with Priebus allowing way too many candidates for president (27), you let them consolidate in numbers strong enough to name your chief… To win in the future it should now be obvious, you need to cut them away, then cull Democrats who are only Democratic because they aren’t crazy like your party was, reinstall them back into the fold, and work yourselves back to a majority…

You need Hillary as President to do this.   If you have Trump, or even let him come close, or even give him more than Ross Perot got as a 3rd party,. you will have to contend with crazy and it will kill you…

Vote Hillary,  kick out the crazies, let them become the 3rd party, not you, and try again in four years… It won’t be that bad and you know as well as I, it could have been ALOT worse…

There should be no shame in voting for the best person available… With Hillary, that is all you are doing…

(Plus, if you live in the 8th Senatorial District of Delaware, you need to get out and vote for Republican Meredith Chapman for State Senate….. One of the best things you can do for your future, is to put a non-crazy Republican in office.)

Life is not over; thank goodness this election almost is.. 🙂

 

I’m In It For The Children

 

“I am often asked what I would like to see happen above all else in our country and in our world.

So many things to pray for, so many things to work for,

But certainly my answer would be a world, where all children are loved and cared for–

first by the families into which they were born, then by all of us who are linked to them and to one another.

When we are reminded of the bounty and protection we enjoy, most of us are … grateful.

Our gratitude has its roots in a view of government that dates back to the days of the Pilgrims, and the successive waves of immigrants who came to this country, seeking religious and political freedom, and better economic opportunity.

In this view, government is an instrument, both to promote the common good and to protect individuals rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

There is nothing more important to our future than the well being of our children, for children are at our core==

Not only as vulnerable beings in need of love and care, but as a moral touchstone amidst the complexity and contentiousness of modern life…

Just as it takes a village to raise a child, it takes children to raise up a village.– to become all it should be.

The village we build with them in mind, will be a better place for us all…..

Hillary Clinton — “It Takes A Village”

Your Dead Children Don’t Matter; ‘Long As I Got My Guns

Has the Republican Party truly gone so far out on a limb, that they are truly advocating the right of the insane to keep guns trumps the right of a child to live?

See for yourself….

I simply have to wonder. Why would anyone ever, ever, ever, ever, ever in this lifetime, after living these past 4 years, ever again vote for a Republican? Perhaps because they really don’t know? Your duty is to tell them.

 

Private Schools Fail When Held Up To A Public School’s Standard

 The Public School Advantage: Why Public Schools Outperform Private Schools, published in November by the University of Chicago Press. The authors are Christopher and Sarah Lubienski, a husband-and-wife team of education professors at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign….

The idea that private schools are better is a myth.  Debunked in these pages and elsewhere, many times by the simple analysis of each and every state’s test scores…. Private schools do not, can not, and never have, had the resources to compete on the same scale of effectiveness, as do our public school institutions.

Even in a millionaires’ school, with unlimited financial resources, the lack of depth causes such to fall short when properly compared to the public school system..  It is like when it comes down to the NCAA final, a little Butler will always lose to a big UK…..

Investing in private schools with public money is like investing in Charlie Copeland’s gambling addiction with public money.  Investing in private schools with public money is like investing in Mike Ramone’s gambling addiction with private money. Investing in private schools with public money is like investing in Dave Sokola’s gambling addiction with public money….   It’s bad enough we are losing money in the Racino’s state sanctioned gambling operations…  Much less add on a new layer…… Especially now?

Charter Schools do not teach well, and steal away money from that which works very well.  Why would anyone want to do that?

Call your legislators and at the very least, demand they do something to stop the flow of property tax monies out of our public school system….

There are two solutions.

Ban Charter Schools, and  re-phase them back into the public school system.  Use eminent domain to own the property they are on.

Or fund them outside the property tax revenue stream.  Fund them as are vocational schools by a line item in the general assembly’s fought over budget that says… specific Charter School…. “x” amount of $$$$…….

I’d prefer the latter for Constitutional reasons, but both would get the job done.  That job, is to give our kids the best schooling money can buy….

By putting as much as is possible into our best…. the public education superstructure….. They win, when private schools always tend to lose….

 

 

 

Too Much Testing….

Margaret Allen Middle School (Nashville TN) after 2012 found itself included on Metro’s iZone list of schools performing so poorly they have received grants to extend both the school day and the school year.  During the last school year, Margaret Allen students improved their scores in every tested subject on the Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program.  In 2013, students at her Margaret Allen Middle School made so much progress last year that the school landed on the state’s list of top achievers.

This was achieved using fewer than 10 standardized tests a year.  Another school in the same district (Metro-Nashville), gives 20 tests a year to third graders. The success of this one school, is being pinned on their “data room.”   Whiteboards with the name of every student line the walls. Each student’s test results are posted, along with an individual improvement plan for each child. The “data room” is jam-packed with test results that the principal uses to create custom lesson plans for every child in her troubled school.

Get that?

The principal creates  the lesson plan, customized for each student….

Shouldn’t they be running the school?

Yes, according to a growing number of Tennessee parents who are joining their counterparts in other states in questioning the heavy use of standardized testing that forms the basis of so many education decisions….   The  testing process is sapping the very life out of students, the school, and community spirit.

“It used to be that teachers were glad to see you,” said a parent.  “They wanted to talk to you to figure your kid out, and we as parents wanted to talk to them, to likewise, figure our own kids out..   Now, they are disinterested.  One can tell by their glances towards their computer, that they just want to get our conversation over with, so they can get back to it;  they can keep ahead of these tests that keep coming, and coming.”

So what can be done?

As a commenter in another post here pointed out,  doing one test a year, as in a final, would be sufficient.  It would show what we learned, and what we did not.  Accountability could be exacted from the year to year totals,  just as easily as it is from the beginning, middle, and ending totals.  Furthermore the standardized testing would give ourselves a comparative look between schools, districts, states and nations all of which we are trying to do today.

Obviously no one wants to lose the gains we’ve had;  being enriched with data can improve a bad school into a good one.  However, in this equation, long term damage is not measured, only year to year.  We don’t know how much long term damage too much testing will cause.   But we do know, that spending more quality time teaching, is what is necessary to get children to absorb what they learn.  We do know, that only a teacher who knows and loves a child, will try until they find the correct approach which works with each individual. We must do more to fill in the gaps our focus on testing has caused to rupture, crack, and open underneath our feet.

It Is One Thing To Fire A Teacher Over A Standardized Test. It Is A Completely Different Thing To Make Her Never Teach Again!

The same controversy surrounding Tennessee’s equivalent of SB51, has at least that state’s Democrats fighting for those educating our children .  Not like up here where Dave Sokola and Erica Jenner joined forces and sold the teaching profession out for a couple of pieces of silver.

Think for a second.

If your boss gave you a pop quiz at work, how well do you think you’d do? … Guesses?

The correct answer is: you would do only as well as he wanted you to do.  If he wanted you do do well, he’d quiz you on things you do every day enabling you to pass with high marks.  If he wants you doing poorly, he fills the test up irrelevant questions, that you haven’t thought about in decades (because they are irrelevant); at work you are constantly being bombarded with things that truly do matter..

So we are talking about taking a teacher’s license away because her students did poorly on a standardized test, not by how good or not good the teacher is!

Does the teacher make the test?  Of course not:  the test is made many states away by people who have never stepped foot in a classroom and get paid 6 digit salaries. The tests are untried at the time of taking. They are not last year’s test remade.  No one knows how relevant or non relevant these tests are.

Does the teacher get to know the material on the test so she can teach her students the relevant data?  No, that would be cheating.  The teacher has to guess before hand what will or will not be covered, and then has to teach her best guess.  What if those think tank “specialists” have different philosophies?  Bad scores.

Does the teacher get to interpret the test, to explain the questions in a way the child might better understand?  No, that is considered leading the child.  So if a child can’t understand the question, because they haven’t a Masters or Doctorate degree in education, they fail.

Does the teacher have any control over the test taking environment?  No, if every one stays up late to watch Breaking Bad, and then texts till two in the morning about what happened on the show, and what might happen on next week’s episode.,..  they will do poorly.  To them its some dumb test that doesn’t matter anyway.  They’ll still get promoted…  456 + 789… ah, my head hearts…  let me guess… umm  “{c}”

Imagine lining up all of Delawares School Board and Rodel Foundation officers around the Governor, as he signs SB 51, and taking one photo, then firing all those who blinked, grimace, moved, or otherwise “failed” to properly enhance the photo…..

As their cleaning out their office, you can here Hefferman mutter… “they didn’t even count down. They just took the picture.  If they’d counted down, I could have been ready.”

And speaking of FAILURES.  OH!  MY!  GOODNESS!!!  Rodel’s Vision 2015 has failed to meet its objectives (GOALS) it set for itself back in 2006.  They have had 7 of the 9 years they gave themselves to make it happen. Instead of  firing itself, it announces its name is now Rodel 2020….  But a teacher who’s students blink during 3 hours one day from watching Breaking Bad the night before?  YOU’RE A LOUSY TEACHER!   WHAT A FAILURE YOU ARE!  GET OUT OF OUR SCHOOL!  EVEN BETTER!  GET YOU OUT OF OUR ENTIRE PROFESSION!

That is why this is so stupid. SB51 is so stupid. Everyone who voted for it, without reading it, is so stupid.  Every blog except those who raised awareness against it, is so stupid.  Mr. Sweeney, is so stupid….

I won’t belabor the point anymore.  But firing a teacher for a photo moment, is ridiculous.  Taking away their license for the same should in a proper universe, damn you to an eternity in Hell.

If you yourself personally choose to go to Hell, you will find the following assorted people there to keep you company.

Blevins,  Hocker,  Peterson,
Bonini,  Lavelle,  Pettyjohn,
Bushweller, Lawson,  Poore,
Cloutier,  Lopez,  Simpson,
Ennis,  Marshall, Sokola,
Hall-Long, McBride, Townsend,
Henry, McDowell, Venables,

Atkins,  J. Johnson,  Ramone,
Barbieri,  Q. Johnson,  Scott,
Bennett,  Kenton,  B. Short,
Blakey,  M. Smith, D. Short,
Bolden,  Longhurst,  Smyk,
Brady,  Miro,  Spiegelman,
Briggs-King,  Mitchell,  Viola,
Carson,  Mulrooney,  Walker,
Dukes,  D.E. Williams, Keeley,
Gray,  Outten,  K. Williams,
Heffernan,  Paradee,  Wilson,
Hudson,  Peterman,  Schwartzkopf,
Jaques  Sweeney, Markell, Murphy, Jenner.

Just looking over that list, … I would bet that if this list ever got public, and people could see the likes of the company they’d be spending their eternity with, .. our churches would be overflowing this weekend!…

By the way, can anyone out there possibly tell me when was the last time a doctor lost his license for one case of malpractice judgment decided in court against him? Or one Secretary of Education fired for in his first year statewide test results, in what even the friendly News Journal headline lambasted as: “Disappointing Results”?

GO TO CHURCH!

How Proud! Newark Goes To Williamsport!

Newark National erupted for six runs in the third inning Sunday night, winning the Little League Mid-Atlantic Regional title with an 8-2, nationally televised victory over Pennsylvania in Bristol, Conn.

Little League World Series play begins Thursday in Williamsport, Pa. Newark National will face Iowa, champions of the Midwest Regional, at 8 p.m. Friday. The game will be televised on ESPN.

Will Florida Torpedeo Common Core And Cause the Necessary Implosion?

A group called the Washington Insiders was asked about PARCC and Smarter Balanced Assessments.  This group consists of 70 power brokers, divided up among lobbyists, ex Washington staffers, and corporate heads.  Whiteboard advisors asked the questions.

The Whiteboard Advisors report regularly asks whether respondents think that PARCC and the other federally funded consortium, Smarter Balanced, are on the right or wrong track as they work to design tests for the common standards.

PARCC:
On the wrong track: 73 percent
On the right track: 37 percent

Smarter Balanced:
On the wrong track: 38 percent
On the right track: 62 percent

And here’s how they looked in January:

PARCC:
On the wrong track: 45 percent
On the right track: 55 percent

Smarter Balanced:
On the wrong track: 73 percent
On the right track: 27 percent

Almost a direct flip since January.

Much of this attitude change is because of skittish states pulling out of PARCC.  Respondents said that the cost of the tests and the time involved in taking them pose serious threats to the two consortia. Nearly three-quarters said so of PARCC, while only six in 10 said likewise about Smarter Balanced.

Some cite political expediency; that test cost as a reason for nonparticipation is nothing more than “a cover” for political considerations, for instance.

Speculation has been mounting that Florida would pull out of PARCC or decide against using its tests. Since it has been seen as a leader in PARCC, and has served as its fiscal agent (the key channel for procurement), such a move could exert a more potent influence on public perceptions of the group than losing another state.

Whiteboard’s “insiders” backed up that interpretation; 92 percent said that if Florida quits PARCC, it would have some impact or a very significant impact on the common core. One respondent went so far as to say it would be “nail-in-coffin significant.”

The resignation of Florida school’s chief Tony Bennett—one of common core’s biggest proponents—puts an even bigger question mark over that state’s role in the common-assessment work.

It is highly ironic that on the very day the News Journal pushes that Common Core is overwhelmingly supported by almost all the masses,  it is facing the greatest challenge to its survival of its brief life.

If the home of Jeb Bush and Rick Scott pulls out; it is nail in the coffin significant.

Yee High! Rootin’ Tootin’ Olde Western Shootout In Milwaukee

Caution:  before continuing understand it is dangerous to take one isolated incident and use it to prove a point.  But, oh, this does it so well.

Remember back when people who loved guns more than children were saying (and still do in the News Journal) that gun laws were attacking people who followed the law, and not criminals?

Well, in Milwaukee, a random road rage incident took place between two conceal and carry gun owners. and they drove all over Milwaukee, on and off freeways and through residential and commercial areas, shooting at each other like John Wayne being attacked by a pack of Apaches (indians, not helicopters)…

Both guilty men were sane, law abiding citizens. Both felt with the Zimmerman defense of a corrupt law, they were quite well within the law to kill because of “threats”, and so a ridiculous gun battle reminiscent of the movie Stagecoach took place all over Milwaukee using cars instead of horses….I mean we don’t even show that in movies anymore; that meme died out with the A-Team!

Proving what reasonable people have said all along and the NRA scared certain chicken hearted lawmakers (bock, bock, bock, you know who you are, Bonini & Lavelle) into disregarding…  All gun owners have a crazy streak.

You have to regulate guns. Period.  You just have too because nobody is safe if you don’t! Period.

When you have two reasonably sane human being who would have nothing ever to do with each other, suddenly go berserk for only one, single, solitary reason: they are carrying a gun, then the problem is the gun.

You have to regulate the gun, not the person. Period.

Anyways, since I must confess this sounds like so much fun, (I think paintball car chases would be so awesome) that we should expect quite a few more to copycat  in the very near future.

But remember this:  it was  because they both felt entitled that the law would support them, they took off and performed this act which fortunately did not kill anyone… But it very well could have. The law allowing guns to be concealed and carried, was the principal cause. not the people themselves.

Regulate guns. period.  And don’t listen to the NRA.  They’re full of crap.

Call Your Senator Today

Ring*** Ring***
Hello?

(Oh Hi! Is this Senator Greg Lavelle’s office?)

Why, yes… why yes it is… It is Senator Greg Lavelle’s office…

(Great, for a second with all the dogs howling, I thought I’d gotten a wrong number. Anyways, can I speak to him?)

Well, he’s on the floor right now, giving a speech (they always say that even when they know he is in the bathroom), could I take a message for you?

(Sure, if that is easier, no problem. Do you need my name?)

Why yes, that would be so helpful… And if you could leave a return number, perhaps he might give you the opportunity to speak with him directly…

(Why yes! I’d like that… Ok, you ready? Got a pen?)

Why yes… I do… I actually got a Penn State…

(Huh?)

Oh yes, it’s a pen with the Nittany Lion engraved on it.. That’s why instead of a pen, I said Penn State..

(OK, if you are ready… My name is Ima Gregs-Wurstknightmare.. I hyphenated it when I got married. I thought it was great back then, you know, liberating, but it gets tiring now. Wish I simplified it..)

Oh i love that name… It is sooo forceful… I like it a lot… Ok what do you wish to tell him…

(Tell the new Senator from the fourth district, that if he doesn’t vote to kill HB 165, I’ve got his whole district up here ready to recall him and vote Katz back in… )

Oh, I so hate that bill too. It’s a complete bunch of garbage. Who ever made it up needs to spend some time in an unlicensed, uninspected, and uncertified IRF outside Middletown after his constituents get their hands on him… What a complete waste of time HB 165 is… I’m sure Greg will tell his friend Charlie to shove it, and you certainly don’t have to worry about him being in support of HB 165.. you see, I bought Greg a new collar. He used to have a choker collar, and boy, would his throat hurt when Charlie yanked on it.. But now, it is just leather and exerts a gentle tug… I’m sure Greg won’t care about Charlie now; he’ll be glad to vote his conscience against that piece of garbage… He loves being a Senator so much; he thinks he’s the pope, you know…

(ok, so you are sure Greg will get the message? I don’t have to say it is segregationist? It is unfair to existing charters who have to compete against new ones now who unlike them, get capital funding? I don’t have to say that those students in rural schools will suffer twice as much? I don’t have to say this bill will make Wilmington’s school options separate and very unequal? I won’t have to say that this bill lowers all Delaware students test scores over the next 8 years?)

No, I got that… you already said what we needed to hear…

(And what was that?)

That if Greg Lavelle even thinks of voting in favor of HB 165, then next year he is going to be pummeled with that vote all the way up until Election Day. He is going to be known as the new KKK Grand Dragon, the Puppy Mill owner who sold Mike Vick his dogs, the Grinch who stole Christmas, the Peter Pettigrew who sold Delaware downriver, and that guy, what’s his name, right on the tip of my tongue… use to live on Elm Street, was in the movies a long time ago… Oh gosh, can’t remember him...

(Wow, you hear very well)

Oh we’re used to it. Seems like no one is happy with his votes anymore… Thank you for calling. We’ll be sure to tell him you called to tell him to vote against HB 165…

(Well, thank you for listening so closely.  Look forward to the final result… Good bye! ((click))(click)(click)(click)(click)…

For those in other districts, this is for you… Find your Senator here…

And then once you know his name, go here, and click on his email and you will be directed to his website which has the phone number. If you want to use the email instead,  go ahead…