John Bel Edwards Ready to Buy Teacher Votes for 2019

After listening to Governor John Bel Edwards rant and rail about Louisiana's fiscal cliff all spring, and after listening to Louisiana politicians wrangle over a single penny for months, now things have changed.  Now we are looking at an election year and Edwards wants to buy teacher votes to ensure his re-election in 2019.

The budget crisis gripped the state all spring and into the summer: old people in nursing homes got letters of eviction; every program imaginable was threatened with loss of funding from TOPS scholarships to food stamps.  Eventually, after scaring everyone in the state to death, legislators agreed on a 4.45% sales tax rate to save the day, plus some other shell game moves.

The crisis averted, the governor now looks toward re-election in 2019 and where else to start loading his votes but on the backs of teachers. This plan worked so well for him in his initial run as his wife, a former music teacher, appeared on television asking all of her brethren to vote for her husband because he knows what teachers go through.  He believes in teachers, she said.

That may be so, but we still have John White as our State Superintendent of Education and because of that we still have canned, scripted lessons in our classrooms and for that I hold John Bel Edwards responsible.

Granted, Edwards did not hire White; that distinction belongs to Bobby Jindal.  And Edwards has at times seemed interested in questioning White's job security:

In a renewal of tensions, Gov. John Bel Edwards said Wednesday his office is reviewing state Superintendent of Education John White's job status.  

Edwards, in his statewide radio show, said White should have faced state Senate confirmation during the 2017 regular legislative session, which did not happen. "He needed to be confirmed to continue to serve," the governor said. "We are looking at that situation."  

Edwards, an attorney, said the issue may need to be litigated but that he was not prepared to make an announcement.

That was over a year ago.

Efforts through the courts to remove White have failed due to lack of standing; the efforts have not come from Edwards who, according to the court, is one of only four people who could challenge White's contract.

As a teacher, it's probably not in my best interest to criticize John White, but as a human being I do think that the current curriculum that White has implemented across the state is a failure, a mess, and is dangerous to the future of our students.

I know students who used to love reading and love English who now hate it.  This is true.

I will never, ever be a fan of a canned, scripted curriculum that strips autonomy from teachers, that removes the teachable moment from the classroom, that requires teachers to read from scripts, annotate thick binders of scripted teacher notes, produce said annotations on demand, display canned PowerPoint slides, or that requires students to read the same non-fiction speeches and texts over and over and over and fill out the same graphic organizers over and over and  over for each one.

I could go on, but I'll stop with that.

And for this, I hold John Bel Edwards responsible.

It is almost without exception that each election cycle the politicians use educators and first responders as pawns to get themselves back into office.  The only time anyone ever seems to care about paying teachers or police officers an adequate salary is during an election year.  Otherwise they threaten old people with loss of health insurance coverage and terrify college kids with loss of scholarships unless they get more tax dollars with which they can continue spending lavishly on pet programs.

It's no wonder I've lost my taste for political blogging.

I don't know who is running against Edwards yet, but I'll be looking their way and listening to what they have to say about curriculum in our public schools.

They can keep their bribe money; I just want my classroom back.


Further Reading:
Louisiana's Future First Lady Donna Edwards has her Husband's Ear on Education Issues (NOLA, January 5, 2016)
Louisiana House Approves Compromise Sales Tax (NOLA, June 22, 2018)
With Cuts Near, Edwards Says Time for Solutions is Now (U.S. News, June 18, 2018)
What is a Scripted Curriculum and How Flexible is it? (SIGIS, May 30, 2018)
The Effects of Student-Teacher Relationships: Social and Academic Outcomes of Low-Income Middle and High School Students (Opus; NYU, 2013)
Meet John White (La DOE)
Teacher Slams Scripted Common Core Lessons that Must be Taught Word for Word (Washington Post, November 30, 2013)

Because You Need to Laugh

I Am Not a Smart Geek

Most people are probably a lot more technologically savvy than me, and if you scoff at my technological ignorance it really won't hurt my feelings.  I can screw up something as simple as an iTunes account so badly that it takes a genius to unscramble it and get it back to something resembling normal.

That's were SmarterGeek comes in.

Let me explain.  Briefly.  The adult child that lives at home (going to school) upgraded to the iPhone 6.  We use the same Apple ID ( I know, I know...) and didn't realize that in order for me to NOT receive his incoming text messages (never a good idea) we simply had to uncheck one of the devices in the settings on the phone.  Before we figured that out, however, we attempted to set up a new Apple ID for him and somehow erased the original Apple ID (mine).  This seems like it would be okay -- just use the new one, right?

No.

The problem got ugly when my iPad began prompting me to verify my iCloud account.  My password didn't work, of course, because that Apple ID was no longer in service.  I couldn't log out of it because I had to log into it in order to log out of it.

You see the problem.

The new phone was working great, but my devices were freaking out.  Many of my apps were inaccessible because of this Cloud issue and of course nothing would back-up.

So I tried to fix things, we reset passwords and reset the reset passwords; we tried to go back to how it was originally, before the phone upgrade.  The mess got worse and Apple disabled the account.

I vented on Facebook about how awful Apple is (and it was never Apple's fault) and my friend Rex at SmarterGeek said, "Call me.  We can fix this."

I could never have fixed it without his services.  Never.  We spent most of yesterday on the phone -- first so he could untangle the mess and diagnose the problem, and then we had to eventually do a conference call with Apple because the original email account had to be rescued.  I couldn't have even called Apple myself because I didn't know how to tell them what the problem actually was or how to tell them what I needed.  Rex anticipated a couple of issues that we were able to straighten out before they were problems.

In the end, my devices are back to normal and working fine (I think!).  The kid's devices are working fine too, except that he has to delete and re-install some apps because they were purchased under a different Apple ID and now they won't work.  We need to figure out a way to get his music onto his device, too, but in light of what we just went through, these seem like minor problems.  He's a little out of joint about it all because a couple of his apps were gaming apps where he had attained certain "levels" (no, not Candy Crush!), and he's disgruntled about having to start over, but hey, you can't have everything.  He's got a new iPhone 6, after all.

Anyway, all this is to say, if you ever need tech services, call SmarterGeek.  There isn't much he can't do, from what I can see.  What I most appreciated is that throughout the whole process I was in stressed out, panic, hair-on-fire meltdown mode and Rex was very calm and not alarmed in the least, which helped me calm down a little; his confidence that he could fix this was reassuring.

So, I'm sharing this in the hope that maybe I can avert a similar mess for someone else, and if such a mess occurs, know that there is hope and someone out there who can fix the problem!

And always, always, have your own Apple ID.

Shreveport Police Storm the Wrong House and Draw Down on Innocent Citizen

UPDATE #2: 11/1/14:  I've received some emails asking about the status of this investigation; there is no update to share yet.  I can only say that we have filed a formal complaint with the Internal Affairs Department of the Shreveport PD and we are awaiting the outcome of that investigation.  Beyond that I don't want to say anything else; I want to let the investigation take place without putting the officer or the PD on trial here.  

The comments on this post have been vigorous and interesting.  Please remember to refrain from insulting each other!  Be nice!  And remember, not all officers are over-zealous like this one.  Most are doing good, honest work.  

I'll update more details when I can.  Thanks.

UPDATE:  The Shreveport police administration is actively responding to this investigation in a positive manner and have been in contact with us.  I'll update with what I can when I can, but please know that we do support the Shreveport police department and the officers on the job.  This was a bad situation and hopefully an isolated one.  Thank you for your support.

As the wife of a retired police officer, I appreciate more than most people the dangers that police officers face on a daily basis.  It's a dangerous job and most people wouldn't do it.

That being said, I had my first encounter with an over-zealous police officer last night and it scared the ever living hell out of me.

Scene:  Saturday night, about 8:30.  Steve and I are sitting in our living room with the World Series on television.  Kansas City was leading the Giants 4 - 1.  Steve can't stand listening to Joe Buck so the sound was turned way down.  He was working on his computer and I was reading a book on my iPad, and all three dogs were sleeping around us.

We have relatively new neighbors in the house directly behind us and these people have small children.  Lately the weather has been cool, turning to fall, and the evenings pleasant so the children are often playing out in the backyard, squealing and screaming as kids will do.  Yesterday their father was out there with them doing some home repair because I heard saws going and some hammering.   The kids don't bother me; I'm glad kids play outside and are not stuck in front of video games.

As Steve and I are watching the game, we can hear the kids playing and screaming; he asked me if I heard that because he wasn't sure what he was hearing; it could have been on the TV, which as I said, was turned way down.  I confirmed that I heard the kids screaming and we went on about our business.

About 15 minutes later, about 8:45, Steve looks up from his computer and says, "Hey, there are police outside, I mean RIGHT outside."  He could see the lights flashing through the blinds.  He got up and peeked out the blinds and saw patrol cars, and he saw officers with flashlights running down the driveway that cuts between my house and the neighbor's house: it's a wide double driveway that we share.

I stood up from the couch to look and as I crossed my living room I saw officers with flashlights running between my house and the neighbor's house on the other side.  One was shouting "It's back here, it's back here!"

I said, "Steve, they're over here now," and pointed to the window.  About that time there is a fierce pounding on my front door and lights pointed at my house.  "Open up!  Open up right now!"  Pounding, pounding on the door.

Steve tells me to grab the dog (the Lab who is very protective, but not barking) opened the front door and starts to ask what in the world is going on when this cop with his gun drawn and aimed at Steve's chest starts screaming "Get back!  Get back!  Who is screaming in this house?  Who is screaming!"  The cop props one foot on the threshold-step and continues screaming at us.

Steve raises his hands in an open gesture, the way you do when a cop is aiming a gun at you, and said, "What are you talking about?  Nobody is screaming in here!"

The cop, with the gun still aimed at Steve, looks at me and yells:  "Who else is in this house, who is doing that screaming?!"

I said, "Nobody is screaming in here!  It's those children behind us!  We have kids living behind us and they play in their backyard!"  And Steve is saying "We're just sitting here watching the baseball game!"  And the dog is standing there, who I've never managed to grab because this happened so fast, but he isn't barking or charging at the cop, thank goodness.

Steve tells him, "I'm a police officer, I'm a retired Bossier City police officer; we are just sitting here watching baseball!"

At that point the cop turns his gun so he's no longer aiming it at Steve but still has it in a firing grip, he turns to the officers standing behind him and in the driveway, and says "It's the house behind, on the other street!"  and takes off running.

Steve hollers after him, "What's your name!" and the officer gives it to him.

We closed the door in stunned silence.

We stared at each other, in silence, and then the fear and adrenaline hit me.  I started shaking and trembling and could not stop.  I sat back down on the couch, got back up, Steve is dumbfounded and then furious.  He gets on his cell phone and calls to speak to a supervisor and I walked outside on the back deck to see if I could hear anything.

I saw flashing police lights and the neighbor's back flood light was still on.  I heard a stereo playing, maybe from their house, maybe another house.

I went back inside and Steve was still on the phone demanding to speak to a supervisor.  He finally got a lieutenant to come to the house to talk to us; he came within about thirty minutes and he had Mr. Over-Zealous Cop with him.  We had the door open, watching through the storm door for the lieutenant to show up and we saw Mr. Over-Zealous walking the supervisor through the run down the driveway and down the other side of the house, explaining what they did.  Then Mr. Over-Zealous walks back to the street, crosses his arms, and leans against his patrol car watching us as we speak to the supervisor.

In the end, the whole thing was terrifying.  I know it could have been much worse; I kept thinking what if my dog had jumped at the cop?  He would have shot him.  What if the cop thought Steve was making a threatening move?  Would he have shot him?  He was definitely drawn down on him.  What if my 22-year old son had come out of his room, walked around the corner into this scene - would he have shot him?  What if Steve and I had gone out and my son was home alone to face this craziness?

The what-ifs kept me up all night long and haunt me.

Like I said, I know it could have been worse, because no shots were fired in this case, and you certainly read about incidents that have gone wrong all the time.

I blame all this on the over-militarization of the police force.  Officers dress like SWAT teams now in all black or in riot gear with cargo pockets all over them.  What happened to first assessing the scene before you draw down on a civilian?  What happened to knocking on the door and saying, "Hey, we've got a noise complaint and just need to be sure everything is OK in here."   And if he really thought someone was in mortal danger, why just take our word for it before running off to terrorize someone else?  When they were running between the houses, we had open windows (actually OPEN windows, as well as open blinds and curtains) and any officer could have looked inside or listened to see what was going on before drawing down on us.

I know police work is dangerous and I know that domestic calls are often the most dangerous.  I appreciate the difficulty of their job.  But with any job, your first responsibility is to do no harm, to avoid making any situation worse, and to act responsibly.

It is my own personal opinion that this officer is a menace and should not be on the street.  He very easily could have done something very, very bad last night.

Grande Vente Wrong

Please don't try to justify this by showing me all the times any other president didn't do a snappy salute:



This is just insulting.

Period.

The Natural

I stand corrected; I said last week that Obama has no cajones, but I was wrong.  He's got to have some huge stones to say this:

"Part of this job is also the theater of it," Obama said, adding that "it's not something that always comes naturally to me. " 

Seriously?

Legal Insurrection nailed it:

Nope, he's not into theater or stagecraft at all:

Remember, he's not interested in photo ops.

Nope, he's got no sense of theater whatsoever,  All those doctors rushed right over to the Rose Garden in their lab coats, right?

Good grief.

He's so delusional it's just dangerous.

Bergdahl Returnes to Duty: NOT The Onion

Is this a joke?  

When I saw this story this morning, I thought I was reading The Onion.

Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, who was a Taliban prisoner in Afghanistan for five years, will reportedly return to duty as early as Monday. 

Bergdahl, 28, who was freed in May in exchange for five hardened Taliban prisoners, will resume his military career at the Army North headquarters at Fort Sam Houston in Texas, The New York Times reported. 

Since returning to the U.S. on June 13, Bergdahl has received therapy at the base.
Bergdahl is expected to live in a barracks and have two soldiers help him readjust to military life, Defense officials told The Times.

There must be a whole lot about military procedure that I don't understand.  

In an older, more normal time, I would just assume that this guy is in protective custody and ongoing therapy on the heels of an intense debriefing; it never occurred to me that he would ever "return to duty."  

I would have thought the brig and a court-martial would have been in order unless, perhaps, the testimony of his fellow soldiers, his own emails of promised desertion, and his odd behavior while in Afghanistan raise no red flags whatsoever.

But, these are certainly not normal times.

Nothing in the headlines is normal anymore.

What is normal?

Talking to Liberals About the Hobby Lobby Decision

This is why you can’t talk to liberals:

In the wake of the Hobby Lobby decision this week, The Daily Kos posted this article which showed up in my Facebook feed the next day with the comment, “Okay Bible-thumpers, answer me this:”; the title of the Kos article is “What if a Muslim Company Used the ‘Hobby Lobby’ Decision to Impose Its Values on White Christians?”

Always up for a challenge, I clicked on the article thinking I would read it and then respond to the Facebook query. 

The first line of the article says:

The slide towards American theocracy was nudged one more step forward by today's Supreme Court decision in support of the "freedom" of corporations with "religious" beliefs to restrict the rights of their employees. In essence, religious "beliefs" trump the obligations, rights, and responsibilities that come with being members of the polity and a broader political community.

That sentence alone was as far as I had to read. 

Absolutely no one’s rights were restricted by the Hobby Lobby decision.  Period.  Anyone that wants them can still go out and purchase abortifacients if they want to.  The Hobby Lobby decision did not ban the drugs. 

So, I responded to the person who posted the article in my feed, I'll call her Miss Liberal, and simply said:

“The first line of the article says the decision ‘restricts the rights’ of the employees, which is erroneous.  No employee rights are restricted.  They can all go buy whatever abortifacients they want.  The decision just means that the employer is not forced to buy them.  Because the first line is a lie, the rest of the article means nothing.”

Am I wrong?

The response I got from Miss Liberal was:

“It does restrict the rights of employees that you do not comprehend does not make it erroneous” [sic]

(We’ll leave the issue of her grammar aside; I'll quit putting [sic] out there; you get the idea)

I don’t usually take the liberal bait, but I was a passenger in a car zooming down the interstate and had nothing else to do besides look at cows, so I thought, “Why not?”

I wrote:

“What rights are restricted?”

Response:

“Insurance was created as a way for employers to pay you less this allows employers to pay you less and give you less access to healthcare because they don’t BELIEVE in certain medications and what things they might be used for What and Why my doctor prescribes me medication Is no one’s fucking business except mine and my doctor’s.” 

Uhhhmmmm, okay.  I’m shaking my head on that one. 

Unwilling to get drawn into the weeds on the origins and purpose of insurance, I’m sticking to my original question; I wrote:

“But can women still buy abortifacients?”

Simple enough, right?

Miss Liberal’s response:

“It’s none of your business what my doctor prescribes me”

(Apparently Miss Liberal doesn’t believe in end punctuation.)

Again, trying to keep her on the path, I wrote:

“Not talking about you – I mean women in general.  My point is that benefits and rights are not the same thing.  Nobody’s rights have been taken away.”

Clear enough?  I’m trying to be non-hostile here, and to keep her on the original question. 

Miss Liberal’s response?

“you cannot see the forest for the trees.”

It’s killing me not to critique the grammar, but I persevere.

It’s at this point that she begins to copy/paste her comment about “Insurance was created…”.  Twice.

So I said,

“Is a person forced to work for Hobby Lobby?  Does one still have the choice to choose a job with the benefit package they want?”

Miss Liberal:

“you’re an idiot”

She copy/pastes the insurance comment again.  It’s getting funny now, really. 

So I try one last time: 

“So you can’t tell me what rights were taken away from me yesterday?

Miss Liberal:

“no.  I just did.  Twice.  but you don’t have high enough order thinking skills to understand it.  I’m sorry, honey.  I’ll keep thinking on how to break it down for you.”

I can’t stand it anymore so I’m ready to get out of this dialogue.  I said:

“LMAO, okay.  But you don’t have the higher order thinking skills to explain what single right the Supreme Court stripped from women yesterday.  You’re assuming insurance is a ‘right’ rather than a benefit.  A woman still has the ability to purchase the same drugs as before the decision.”

Miss Liberal:

“again I am sorry you cannot see what I’m trying to say it’s not thinking skills, kiddo it’s communication skills  talking to idiots takes a lot of work”

My final comment:

“Amen to that.”

I left the conversation on that one. 

The next comment that showed up in the feed was from one of Miss Liberal’s liberal friends who posted a vulgar picture of a woman’s spread legs and a one-fingered salute at her vagina with the caption:  "A message to Republicans from women voters.”

And the next comment (because I continued to lurk a bit after I quit commenting) was from another of Miss Liberal’s friends:

“This guy screaming about ‘abortifacients is cracking me up!  What a loon!   Lol!”

And yet another shows up and begins to complain about “the All-Male Supreme Court” who “has implanted their demon seed into the minds of conservatives everywhere…”

Oh, my.

I can’t even begin to go there.  By the end of the dialogue they had everything but UFO's in there.

I know better than to try and talk to a liberal; I really do.  But, like I said, I was killing time on the interstate and this one just looked so easy.  Low hanging fruit.  Obviously I never did get Miss Liberal to answer the question as to what constitutional right was taken away, or even restricted, by the Hobby Lobby decision.  The usual liberal M.O. is to resort to profanity and insults, in my experience, but I guess I still keep hoping I can get through to one or two of them every now and then. 

Not this time, I’m afraid.

I Think I Can Save the Government $2.7 Million...

It's really easy after you read this:

The Department of Health and Human Services is spending $2,797,979 on a study that brings television to more than a dozen remote villages in Vietnam to study its impact on their culture and reproductive behavior. 

“In cooperation with the Vietnam government, we have selected 14 villages in a remote, mountainous area of Vietnam that currently lacks electricity,” according to the grant description for ‘Television and International Family Change: A Randomized Experiment.' 

“Treatment villages will receive televisions and generators with gasoline to operate the televisions. Control villages will not receive generators or televisions.”   

I think the key word in that title is "Randomized."

Next thing you know these poor people in remote Vietnamese villages will be hooked on Downton Abbey and Honey Boo Boo and then who knows what will happen.

They're only getting four channels:

“One is really a news channel, one is a sports channel, one is a mix of entertainment and a little bit of education. For example, ‘if I was a farmer, what should I feed my pig to make my pig healthy?’ kind of things, and then the fourth channel is also a mix of entertainment and news,” Jayakody says.

If only I got channels about pigs on my DirectTV, but no, I get Wives With Knives and Rodeo Girls.  I try to ignore my television most of the time.

Apparently we have no other pressing needs here at home for $2.5 million bucks.

Please Watch This Viral Video

I'm working 16 hours today y'all so no time to post anything profound or any deep analysis on anything but - please, do me a favor and watch this video:



And then go here and watch Glenn Beck's interview with this woman.

I'm literally drowning in work, paperwork, absorbing new initiatives, making new manipulatives, writing lesson plans, monitoring senior projects, responding to parents, attending meetings, and trying not to get the flu.

Watch Karen Lamoreaux's video and interview and let me know what you think.  I really want to know.

It's Not Really Welfare, It's a "Transitional Living Fund"

The always entertaining Sheila Jackson Lee thinks we need to stop calling welfare what it is:  welfare, and call it something less demeaning, like "transitional living fund."

That's a great solution and probably why the people of the great state of Texas have kept her in office since 1995.  You don't like something, just change the name.  Problem solved!

So, for example, instead of saying she's a "brainless idiot" we could just say that hungry zombies won't bother with her.

Ignorance

Not to get into all my personal business here but I just want to take a moment to note the ignorance of the VA.

I'm doing a homeowners refinance to take advantage of lower interest rates; my interest rate will be about half of what I'm currently paying.  This part is good.

With this refi money I'm also going to replace some windows with energy efficient double-pane vinyl windows.  This part is good.

One of the reasons I'm replacing windows is that my current wooden windows have some rotting wood around them and rather than replace this wood, I'm just going to replace the windows.  This part is both bad and good.

To approve the loan, or refinance, the VA says I have to replace the wood.  Then if I want to rip it out and replace it, I guess that's my business.  Bad.

Just seems to me that it's dumb to replace and repaint wood that I'm fixing to rip out.  

Waste of money.  

Idiots.

Why is Ron Burgandy's Memoir in Non-Fiction?

I don't mean to be dense, but can someone explain to me why Let Me Off at the Top by "Ron Burgandy" is in non-fiction on the NYTimes best seller list?

If it's a "memoir" by a fictional person, shouldn't it be classified as fiction?

What am I missing?

This Obamacare Letter Should Go Viral

This woman's letter ought to go viral.  What's happening to her is happening all over the country as people struggle to make their way through the Obamacare landmine only to discover they are totally screwed:

My family’s journey with securing our new insurance under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) started on October 1, 2013. I have decided to write this letter to let the American people know what it has been like for us. We are a family of four, with two little boys’ ages seven years old and three years old. My husband and I have had full time jobs for 6 years and 13 years respectively. We have been with the same two companies for those years. We are a middle class family; we own our three bedroom two bath house, we own two cars, and previously provided our own insurance for the four of us. We have coverage through Individual Blue from Blue Cross Blue Shield of Alabama until 12/31/13. Our premiums have been $380.00 a month, which also included dental coverage for all four of us. 

On October, 1, 2013 we received our letters like other Alabamians about our new premiums and plans for 2014 from Blue Cross Blue Shield (BCBS) of Alabama. When I opened our letter to say I had sticker shock was an understatement. Our premiums for the Blue Saver Silver would now be $753.26. This included the ACA tax but did not include the additional $75.00 we would need to pay in order to keep dental for me and my husband. So we would need to pay total $828.26 to keep health and dental insurance for the four of us. This payment is roughly $64.00 less than what we pay for our mortgage each month. I was outraged that anyone thought we could afford this. Sure we have some savings, but with that price tag we would whittle it down to almost nothing very quickly. I consider savings as a rainy day fund, a start to saving for the kid’s college, our retirement, etc. I never dreamed in a million years we would need to use it to pay our insurance premiums each month – how in the world could this help the economy too?

Read the whole thing.  It's a nightmare.

Graphic via R.J. Matson

Crunchy or Smooth?

This all depends on what kind of jelly it was and if it was crunchy or smooth peanut butter  Via The Des Moines Register:

A man was arrested Friday after an angry confrontation with his brother over his eating habits, according to a police report. 

The two brothers, in their 50s, live together on Des Moines’ East Side. 

The victim told police that his brother, Jerome Davis, “made three peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and ate them in the living room. Within the next hour, the suspect made another 3 of these peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, bringing his total consumption of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches to six. This angered the victim…”
The victim confronted Davis about over-eating, which quickly escalated. “Both victim and suspect began yelling about the other being lazy and ‘eating again,’” police reported. 

Davis then pulled out a folding knife and held it to the face of his brother, threatening to cut him, according to the report.

Best comment from the Des Moines Register site:  "Imagine if he had six Steakumm sandwiches."

Indeed.

Cabin fever or just hungry?

Nothing Says "I Love You" More Than A Shrub

It must be tons of fun being the significant other of Gina McCarthy or any of the other EPA regulatory wonks.  Nothing says "I love you" more on Valentine's Day than fake flowers and a card made from scrap paper:

On one of the busiest days of the year for florists, the EPA says Americans should consider buying long-lasting silk flowers, potted plants, or live bushes, shrubs, or trees that can be planted in the spring. 

And instead of visiting the card shop, consider sending electronic valentines -- or recycled cards, the EPA suggests. 

“This Valentine's Day, show your love for the earth by sending recycled-content greeting cards. Consider making new cards from scrap paper or by attaching new backs to the fronts of old cards -- this can be a craft project for family and friends that helps everyone reduce paper waste while saving money!"

I'm all for recycling, but seriously, do we need these endless nanny-state suggestions?

Other suggestions for "February fun" including buying clothes from recycled soda bottles on President's Day.
What's next?  Toilet tissue wedding dresses for spring brides?

(Photo credit: Wedding Resource Blog)

Shock Study! Texting and Driving is Dangerous!

In a shocking study sponsored by The National Institutes of Health and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, there is now evidence that texting and dialing while driving increases the risk of crash:

A sophisticated, real-world study confirms that dialing, texting or reaching for a cellphone while driving raises the risk of a crash or near-miss, especially for younger drivers. But the research also produced a surprise: Simply talking on the phone did not prove dangerous, as it has in other studies.

Seriously?

We needed a study for this?

Do you just love the prose?  "A sophisticated, real-world study...".

Can't we just concentrate on transgender kindergarteners or something?

Loose Thoughts on Shopping and Cultural Annihilation

I hate shopping.  Totally, one-hundred-percent hate.

I set out today into the grand metro-plex that is Shreveport/Bossier City to find one Texas Rangers t-shirt.  I also had to pick up a birthday gift for my grandson but that part was easy.

I looked for this Rangers shirt yesterday at WalMart.  No go.  We also looked at Dick's Sporting Goods yesterday.  Nope.

Today, first stop was Target.  It is not possible to buy a Texas Rangers t-shirt at Target in Shreveport, but you can buy a Hello Kitty microwave (pictured above).  WTH kind of sick mo-fo would put Hello Kitty in a microwave and who would want this in their kitchen?  What's the big fascination with Hello Kitty anyway?  Whhaaaaa....???????

My next stop was Academy Sports where, again, it is not possible to buy a Texas Rangers t-shirt, however, a helpful clerk advised me to "try the internets."  Blast!

To St. Vincent's Mall!  There are "sports" stores in there!  You can buy all the LSU gear, New Orleans Saints gear, Louisiana Tech, and Dallas Cowboys crap you want there, but no Texas Rangers anything.

However, you CAN buy a bottle of Justin Beiber's Girlfriend perfume:

Oh.my.god.  Need eye bleach.

Between that and the ProActive Acne Care talking kiosk which scared the ever loving hell out of me, I couldn't get out of there fast enough.

I gave up and went to wash the Jeep.  Car washes are safe.

Then I got a message from a friend directing me to Fantastics! at the Boardwalk in Bossier City who, I'm told, sells Texas Rangers gear.

I fortified myself with two tacos from Taco Bell and set out for the Boardwalk.  Let me just point out that the people who design parking garages are sadists on crack.

I found this store, Fantastics!, and walked in, full of optimism.

The heavens opened up and the angels sang:

There they were.  So many from which to choose!  It was wonderful!  Blues, reds!  Jerseys!  T-shirts!  Shorts!  Tanks!  Caps!  Texas Rangers stuff everywhere!

I grabbed a Darvish t-shirt, paid for it, and got the hell out of Dodge.

Like I said, I hate shopping, and I don't do it often.  From what I saw today, Texas Rangers aside, we are on the verge of cultural annihilation.  The abyss looms.  Justin Beiber, Hello Kitty, cheap tacky plastic flip flops from China and Taiwan, beaded and studded iPhone covers, talking kiosks, and in-the-middle-of-the-mall-massages?

It's all enough to send one to "the internets" when any shopping must be done.

Free Chicken Saturday With Concealed Carry Permit

As the 2013 Louisiana legislature prepared to take up several gun regulation proposals, a local fast food fried chicken place has weighed into the debate by offered a free meal to concealed carry holders.

Chicken Express owner Randal Neel says it was the busiest Saturday he's ever had.  Via KSLA:

But it's not just about business. Neel says it's his way of taking a stand as a gun rights advocate, and making a statement as the Louisiana legislature considers more than a dozen bills that have been filed dealing with gun regulations. "It feels really good to be able to stand up for what you believe in."  

Here is the proposed legislation the Louisiana legislature will be considering this session.  Most are geared toward protecting gun rights but a couple are not.  One bill would allow off-duty law enforcement to carry firearms in schools, another in bars; one concerns mental illness regulations, another covers the protection of concealed carry information.  Barbara Norton's bill would make it against the law to have an unsecured weapon in your home.  It always makes me nervous when they want to regulate what I do in my home.

KSLA has video of the free chicken day here.

Of course, a more paranoid person might wonder if DHS is lurking in the parking lot taking pictures of everyone...

Probably not.

(Photo credit:  John Jeter)

The Sip Heard Round the World

This is what we've come to?

After Barack Obama stands before the nation and vows to send us spiraling further into debt with a multitude of new programs that miraculously won't cost a dime and all anyone can talk about is Marco Rubio taking a sip of water?

Never mind that the proposal to raise the minimum wage to $9.00 will increase unemployment.  I mean, if I have a small business and I have ten employees, I'm going to cut back to eight if I can because I can't afford to keep ten anymore.  If I have a business with enough employees to force me into Obamacare, I just got an incentive to cut a few of them back.

But for goodness sake, let's don't talk about that!  Let's talk about Marco Rubio taking a sip of water!

Drudge, in his own way, pushes back:

Because it's okay when liberals drink water.  Just not Republicans.

Obama made no mention of Benghazi and his massive failure to protect those Americans, respond to their call for help, or even hold accountable those responsible.  But who cares?  Marco Rubio took a drink of water on national television.  From Politico:

Obama vowed to expand the federal government's role in federal education - as if holding states hostage by forcing Common Core on them was not enough.  Most states have been compelled to accept the pitiful Common Core curriculum in order to be considered for federal grants and monies.  National education standards are, in fact, unconstitutional but this president has coerced the states to adopt them.  Shame on them all.  But what difference does it make?  Marco Rubio was thirsty.

The New Yorker:

The New Yorker breaks down the moment into microseconds:

By the second minute of Marco Rubio’s official Republican response to the President’s State of the Union address last night, it was clear that the Senator’s body was betraying him. His lips caught each other in the way they do at moments of stress, when we are suddenly confronted, after long lapses of unthought, with the actual mechanics of speech. Under the hot lights, Rubio’s mouth went dry. A few minutes later, sweat trickled down his right temple, and he moved his hand instinctively to wipe it away. The dry mouth persisted, and, at times, his eyes flashed with a kind of pleading and mounting desperation: the speech was less than halfway over, with words and words to go. His hands, already large in the frame when he kept them low in front of him, flashed a few times to his lips. And then back to his temple.
By the eighth minute, he seemed to have adjusted, and it looked as if he might push through to the end. But then, three minutes later, he made a gamble and reached for a water bottle offscreen: he lurched down to his left and fumbled a bit, making a terrifyingly intimate moment of eye contact with the audience before taking a quick sip from an unfortunately tiny bottle and then ducking to put it back.

In his speech, Obama continued his partisan politics by blaming Republicans for sequestration and just about anything else that he can get away with, but he accepts no responsibility for anything.  Disgusting.  But at least he didn't take a drink of water on the national stage!

At least Rubio has been a good sport about it.  He's been chugging water on the news shows all day long today.

Good grief.  Don't we have anything else to talk about?

The only winner here is Poland Spring.

No wonder this country is going down the tubes.