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!

Please Make Them Go Away!!

Tomorrow, is the day… like a wedding, can’t wait for it to finally be over so life can go on again…. But there is one last thing to do.

Look at the Republican Party. The only reason Romney is doing well, is because he pivoted in the first debate, and became a liberal. His past track record had almost pushed him to the point of no return, until he reinvented himself upon that first debate stage. In other words, Romney is now the more liberal candidate, if one just looks at what he has said since October 4th.

However the old message is still prevalent in Delaware’s Republican exoskeleton. Kovach who once was considered a decent person, is now a compromised decent person. Kevin Wade, is nothing more than a word to rhyme with suede. Jeff Craig wants us to believe that if you can run a 16 X 40 foot retail outlet buried in the middle of a Fairfax strip mall, you can run the entire state’s government. Greg Lavelle believes that if you trash your opponent hard enough, you will get elected. Cathy Cloutier believes that no one gives enough of a hoot, making it so simple that she can be endorsed by the pro choice and pro life movements in the same election. Evan Quietsch believes the United Nations has set up a secret outpost somewhere in the woods of the 11th District, and that his challenger is the Manchurian Candidate who is actually from Manchuria. Rick Jensen has to ignore 99% of a story to make his case in support of any Republican who shows up on his show. Dori Conner, is running “Go, Go William Penn” down in Cavalier Country. NCCE Blake has to put stickers on his campaign signs, that say “I’m not Tom Gordan.” Then there is DelawarePolitics.Net, which although it has great people, they all get their orders from Homer Simpson. There is Brian Pettyjohn who, whenever his name gets mentioned, reminds one of the Lollypop Guild soliciting a hooker on the side of the Yellow Brick Road… And then, there was Two Timing Booth, kicked out for…. oh my. Don’t even get me started on Bodenweiser…. And above all this mess, flies the green faced witch on her magic broom, saying 2014, 2014…..

What happened? Siegler, is this what happens when you put the NRA actually in charge of something?

From top to bottom this party is (I’ll bend over backwards and be very nice here)…. dysfunctional… It is time for it to go away….

I heard a caller put it very well on Al Masciti this morning. Business needs representation. With this party they don’t have it. What they do have is Jack Markell, Chip Flowers, and Beau Biden, working with them as well as representing “we the people” who simultaneously do the necessary work for these businesses as well as us who depend on their health to live well ourselves…..

Delaware works better as a single party state than as a two party one…. Why? Simply put, everyone is an individual again. There is no reason NOT to work with someone who’s viewpoint is different from yours… It is called “compromise” and with today’s Republican Party from the top down, that compromise gene is simply not in their chromosomes……

Now here is my argument… Any vote for any Republican, weakens our state. I’m guessing we need an 85/15 democratic majority to permanently make this party go away…. I’m worried that many in Delaware may not vote this time because our national election is a foregone conclusion, and really, there is no reason to suspect or worry that any Republican will win….

Here is why you must… Your vote against the Republican Party, is needed to make it be gone forever….. We need single party government now more than ever… WE need cooperation between workers and businesses, and only one party, the Democratic one, can provide that.

Some say we need another voice to balance out one party rule… We will have them. 21 separate voices in the Senate, and 45 separate ones in the House, but only if they are all Democrat … Every person is an individual, and every person has to represent their district. There are some conservative districts, there are some progressive districts. but it still will take a majority to get anything passed.

At least if there is only one party, they will get things done the old fashioned way. The conservatives will express their needs, the progressives will express their needs, and some type of compromise all can live with, will get hammered out….

That can’t happen if there are Republicans anywhere in government to mess things up…..

So do your civic duty… Vote Democratic or Libertarian, or any another candidate…. Just make Republicans go away…. I used to like watching cartoons on Saturday… Now, that I have to watch them 365 days at 24/7, it is too much…. (Now, where’s that Advil?)

Make them go away.

Republicans FAIL As A Delaware Third Party

With Sandy’s approach, words of warning went out to all campaigns.. Get your big signs down for the storm.  Feel free to put them up after the storm blows by.  Everyone got an email.

Democrats were in full force, and in New Castle County, not one Democratic sign was left standing…  By noon all  were stored for safe keeping…

There were no libertarian candidate’s signs.  As dedicated citizens, the libertarian team scoured the county and by noon, their signs were all stored for save keeping.

The one Jill Stein sign I’d seen, was gone.  Secured by the Green Party….

In fact the only signs up as darkness approached,  were those of Alex Pires, which is understandable,  it being a one man operation, and those of the Republican line up, which apparently has even fewer supporters.

It looks like Kansas,  at intersections now, with only Republicans contesting a one man operation….

If the Green Party and Libertarian party can mobilize faster than the Republican, it is time to stop calling the Republican Party a “major” party.

Even the Wizard of Oz had more going for it than today’s Delaware Republicans, who with their daily bumbles are rapidly creating a new definition of the English word pathetic.

2000

This is post number 2000.

The only real significance is it is 150 posts more than where Tommywonk stopped exactly one year and fifteen days ago…

If some future historian looks back, I can only guess they may kindly make some note of the quality of thought that underlies these efforts, but my guess, is no one will ever notice…

Irregardless, as long as the urge to put thoughts down for others continues, we will go on. As usual, with no goal, no direction, and no ulterior motive. Probably upon reflection, my biggest surprise, right here, right now … is that I still enjoy it so much, and can’t wait to jot my thoughts down, click the button, and send them off to where ever cyberspace and the vast internet ocean, lets them drift….

For each of you who have become regular over the years, … thank you friend…

Of Course Mother Nature Hates Republicans!

Many of the areas hit by the storm had also been hit by Irene. In New Jersey’s Hamilton Township, Tom Jacobsen also recalled heavy spring flooding and a particularly heavy winter before that.

“I’m starting to think we really ticked off Mother Nature somehow, because we’ve been getting spanked by her for about a year now,” he said while grabbing some coffee at a convenience store…..

OF COURSE YOU DID, DUMMY. YOU VOTED FOR REPUBLICANS!

Religion Grows In Sussex County; It’s Just Not the Religion Our Backwood’s Preachers Envisioned

The story goes that Warren Buffet, rather worried about his investments early 2008, wanted to talk to God… God told him to use his phone and he’d send him the bill… He got and paid the $333 million dollar charge. His investments flourished, too… That would be the end of the story, except he was down in Sussex County recently, following up first hand on a corporate case being processed out of Georgetown… once again, he asked God for the right to call, and agreed to accept the charges… When he got his bill, he was fuming… He was only charged 25 cents… “God”, he said, “you ripped me off on that first call, big time!”… God said, “Warren, don’t you get it? In Sussex County, that’s a local call…”

Local call or not, Sussex County is weighing in on whether to say a prayer before County meetings or to not… Here are a few takes on that policy: one, two, three, four……

As someone who grew up where prayers were always said before football games and county meetings, it isn’t a big deal…… That is, as long as everyone agrees it isn’t a big deal. You don’t see prayers before meetings conducted in New York.

Not because New Yorkers are heathens, but because in New York, you have a multiplicity of religions, so praying a prayer from one of them, is a slap in the face for all others…

Why it’s even an issue in Sussex County is because the Positive Growth Alliance, has been building condo’s like ants, and lots of people who did not grow up in Sussex County, now live there. Many have different ideas of religion than those who’ve always been there all their lives…

If everyone believe in the same version of God as does David Anderson, then of course, duh, why are we even arguing about it… Of course we’re going to pray to God to guide us through this meeting.. That’s what He’s for!

Suddenly, thanks to Rich Collins and the Positive Growth Alliance, we have tons of people who do object to having David Anderson’s version of God, one who dislikes Homosexuals, and one who casts pox on Democrats, one who believes married people should have sex only when they have children, one who believes sex between animals is immoral, one who believes taxes are caused by the devil, one who believes that nature was made to bulldoze and pave with a combination of petroleum and gravel. … one who believes that oil companies have the divine right to pollute oceans, one who believes that animals were made for us to kill. … one who believes a national religious holiday should fall on the first day of deer season.. one who believes pick up trucks and baseball caps are proof that homosexuality is a sin,… on who believes killing someone with a gun is not a sin, but taking that gun away for the safety of others is…

(yes, I’m having fun and talking tongue in cheek)…

The point I’m making is that Sussex County is changing; and it is changing mostly thanks to Rich Collins and the Positive Growth Alliance.

Can you make new citizens join the current religion? If so, then by all means, just like the days of old, they will see no qualms in having a tiny prayer before the meeting.

But if they don’t want to join that religion, then, to force one group of religious people to impose their prayers on others, is not American…In fact, it’s kinda creepy…

If in an effort to show fairness, the Sussex County decided they would do prayers from all religions in alphabetical order, when they came to “B” and hit Buddahism, giving an Buddahist prayer before the session, most of those in the audience would be saying WTF! This is our nation, why do we have to listen to such crap…

Which is… exactly what those Buddahists think, who have opened a business in Millsboro, and have come before the county to ask for a variance on something or other that is in their antiqued code….

So… If it is unnatural for a Baptist to suffer a Buddahist prayer, it is equally unnatural for a Buddahist to sit through a Baptist prayer…

It’s not about one religion being right and the other wrong. It’s about who the citizens are that make up Sussex County. If you want to blame anyone over this controversy, the blame solely lies with those who built up Sussex County and brought in all these new people to begin with… Now that they are here, we have to make Sussex County as fair to them as New York, is fair to us, when we take our business up there……

Positive Growth, huh? Depends on your version of positive I guess………….

Let’s “Just Do It”

I’m calling on all readers to step up to the plate.

I have begun boycotting all Happy Harry’s. I’m using Rite- Aid.

I don’t see how anyone who loves Delaware, can stomach walking into any Happy Harry’s right now.

We are asking all to sacrifice. Many out there lost jobs and have no choice but to sacrifice. And we have a company that will not take a 2% reduction in the payment of medicaid benefits?

Well, FUCK THEM. FUCK THEM WHERE IT HURTS. They are getting 0 dollars of my money, and my money is going directly to their competitor…

Any legislator who dares walk in to a Happy Harry’s had better pray no one inside has a camera phone. Because their picture will be posted on this site for eternity.

Any political officials who dare do the same, had better think twice before venturing through those doors. We cannot afford to let some spineless or forgetful official represent our constituent’s interests.

I am calling on Jack Markell and Matt Denn to step up to the plate and issue a directive that NO STATE BUSINESS will be conducted through any Happy Harry’s establishment. All of that must now go to Rite Aid.

I’m calling upon John Kowalko and House Speaker Gilligan to demand that no business and request that no citizen of this great state, the first state of this nation to ratify the Constitution that made this awesome nation possible, walk through those doors.

I’m calling upon hero Karen Peterson, to demand that Walgreens rescind their order or that punitive legislation directed solely towards that one company, will be passed by both houses before this July 1st deadline…

I’m calling on Delaware’s Insurance Commissioner to show her critics that she indeed has spunk. I’m calling on KWS to prove her balls, to stand up to, organise, and carry this boycott forward from her bully pulpit, and not sit back and allow her critics to justify their accusations…

I’m calling on the Progressives of Delaware (PDD), to stand solidly behind those supporting this boycott. They have led on everything good for Delaware so far. They need to support this as well.

I’m calling on the mouthpieces of all three of Delaware’s political parties, to support the statewide boycott of Walgreen’s Happy Harry’s. For one, it needs to be effective, and two, the results need to be devastatingly severe to prevent any other uppity out of state corporation, from attempting similar processes.

(and as a personal FYI, if you own stock in Walgreen’s, dump it immediately, for it’s value will only go down, down, down, as word of this boycott leaks…. this is damned serious: kavips says: get out now).

Send Walgreen’s this message. You want to be petty. WELL FUCK YOU. We’re not wishy-washy Washington state. We’re far too serious and just to busy to play childish games. We have an 800 million deficit to take care of…

To step up the pressure, I am asking every citizen to consider picketing in front of every Walgreen’s owned Happy Harry’s to demand that they rescind their order.

I’m calling on all labor unions to likewise organise and set up pickets outside every Happy Harry’s in this state to demand that Walgreen’s rescind their policy which is unfair to all working people. Any company these days that is willing to blackball American citizens over a piddly 2%, deserves to go bankrupt as fast as possible. They deserve to go bankrupt. Deserve.

I ask Darlene Battle to organise all of ACORN and rapidly hand out petitions asking all of Delaware’s citizens to boycott every Happy Harry’s in this state and take their business elsewhere, Rite Aid is willing to work with this state. Give them your business!

So that’s what I’m asking. I want every Delawarean who still has some love for this state, to take their business elsewhere… Show them we will not back down. Rite Aid can take care of all our pharmaceutical and beauty needs. Screw Walgreen’s Happy Harry’s.

For every dollar spent in a Happy Harry’s from this point forward, funds the coffers of an enemy of the state of Delaware.. Every penny given to them, is a hundred dollars taken from us over time in our future…

So look Walgreens! If you want to play games, go ahead and play them. You are about to enter the marketing nightmare Delmarva Power lived in last year and about to suffer very similar consequences…

But you obviously didn’t research this state well before you came to your decision. For you left yourselves are far more open and vulnerable. Delmarva Power suffered severly even though most Delawareans did not have a choice; but with you, it’s two blocks down the road. We don’t have to give you money.

You should reconsider and fire the person accountable for the idea. Hell, it’s only 2%.. You’re paying more than twice that on the interest covering the financing you used to buy and expand the Happy Harry’s franchise… Let’s see how well you do with NO money coming in…

Delaware deserves better than anything Walgreen’s Happy Harry’s can offer. It’s time we stand together and prove it once again, that we are not called the “fighting Blue Hens” for nothing….

240 pm: Un. Fucking. Believable. Bill fails to come out of committee. 2-4. Voting no are DeLuca, Simpson, Cook, and Adams. Yes votes are Blevins and Sorenson.

Thanks to Mike Matthews for updating us on this controversial topic. From his direct and unfiltered account, it is obvious that more people feel compelled to support human rights, then feel the need to sequester them… Unfortunately the minority opinion has more votes in the committee hearing the merits of this bill..

Again, a minority of bigots have held up progress on the issue of human rights.. Today, those bigots are:

Senator Tony DeLuca: District 11 Newark Southeast

Thurman Adams: District 19 Bridgeville

Nancy Cook: District 15 Kenton

Gary Simpson: District 18 Milford

In a sense of fairness, if I misjudged your motives, you are certainly welcome to offer the explanation of your vote to keep this important bill off the floor of the Senate…. It is so easy to do, that even one of your staffers can do it for you….

But be forewarned, failure to offer your counter argument here on these pages, will in the realm of public opinion, only serve to solidify the charges made herein against you….

Actually I didn’t make them… Your own actions on May 13th, at 2:40 pm did that for you.