Thanksgiving Rules!

Slowly emerging from my self-induced pie-coma, I count my blessings (though I cannot count the pieces of pie that I've had in the past few days and thank goodness for Lipitor.)

Thanksgiving is light years better than Christmas. The fact that retailers have not been able to shanghai Thanksgiving with mass commercialization and exploitation allows families to celebrate together without having to defer quality time (and massive quantities of cash) to shopping--what our fearless "family values"-laden leader has previously referred to as "every patriot's duty."

First Impression of the NYSCATE Conference

Just returned from the first day of an educational technology conference (NYSCATE). I figured since it was in my own backyard (Rochester) it would be worth a gander. Let's just say that I'm glad I didn't have to pay for lodging, or I would feel rather ripped off.

Like most conferences, many of the presenters are hocking their wares. The pavilion was likewise chocked full of vivacious vendors waiting to pounce on anyone brave enough to run the gauntlet. Now I expected a good deal of the sales pitches to be geared toward district level techno-geeks, but there were slim pickings for actual teacher level stuff.

There seems to be a gaping chasm between those who are novices integrating technology in the classroom and those who are fluent in techno-geek babble. One of the few presentations today that I thought would be fruitful turned out to be so elementary, I felt as though I could have easily shown the presenter a few tricks. A colleague of mine also voiced his frustration at this lack of intermediate level training. Yes, we want to be innovative and seamless in our intergration of technology, but we don't want MS techno-geek degrees.

One of the things that struck me as incredibly insane that has repeatedly come up in discussions is the topic of acceptable use policies, etc. Many teachers are reluctant to challenge old world thinking and the techno-despots that erect numerous additional hurdles that instructors must overcome. It seems that few principals have a good grasp of the issues involved, and quake at the possibility of parental complaints.

You Just Gotta Love Molly Ivins!

A colleague beat me to the punch the other day, tacking the latest Molly Ivins article to the bulletin board in the copier room at school. Molly has a way with metaphors, check out A Rotting Dead Chicken. I was in tears I was laughing so hard.

For some reason though, I think Molly may be too optimistic about the American public's learning curve. Of course George Will would say that my comment was exactly what he was referring to in his recent piece, Validation by Defeat:

"As the American public has become more educated, American intellectuals have become more disparaging of the public's intellectual incapacities and moral shortcomings. In 1940, more than half of the U.S. population had only an eighth-grade education, or less. Now that 85 percent are high-school graduates, 53 percent have some college education and 27 percent are college graduates, it is an article of faith among the progressive intelligentsia that the public is becoming increasingly obtuse, bigoted and superstitious."

Yep, that's how I see the majority of Americans, though I would also add "apathetic" to the list.

US and Russia to Start New Arms Race?

Nestled under the wing of a B-52, an X-43A in a file photo from NASA

Maybe that will distract the public from the unnecessary and senseless bloodshed in Iraq. And perhaps we can just forget about those pesky terrorists with their low-tech methods...

NASA is wetting their pants over the most recent successes with their development of a new genreation of jets (the X-43A ramjet) which may hit speeds of Mach 10.

[Note: For what it's worth, Da Vinci Code author, Dan Brown lists on his website facts that he incorporated into his novels. He claimed that before he wrote Angels and Demons, there existed a vehicle named the X-33 that could travel at Mach 15. If so, what's all the excitement about the X-34A?]

Not to be outdone, in Moscow Putin countered with hype over the Russians' new and improved nuke delivery system, which is projected to circumvent anticipated anti-missile counter-measures.

I don't know who's footing the bill for either boondoggles, but it's obvious that neither the US or Russia should be trusted with WMDs either.

Meanwhile in Iraq, there are photos of troops riding in Vietnam-era aluminum coffins designated as M-113s, and didn't we hear of reports of troops without body armor? It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out where King George's priorities are!

Resignations Galore!

Well King George's royal entourage suddenly has many vacancies. I was still rejoicing over the resignation of Attorney Generalisimo Ashcroft-who decided that being big brother was just too exhausting. Rumors were confirmed that we now have further reason to celebrate as the Secretary of Education Rod Page (of No Child Left Behind infamy) has resigned; so too, the secretaries of energy and agriculture.

Far and away the biggest cabinet member to resign was Colin Powell, King George's reluctant, yet dutiful, point-man on the WMD propaganda campaign at the United Nations. Much discussion has revolved over his differences with others inside King George's inner chamber of power. I guess my question is if Powell was really at odds with the administration's misguided decisions, why didn't he resign? Oops, almost forgot, this adminstration didn't make any mistakes...It will be interesting to see if there is a kiss-and-tell book in the works.

Elsewhere, the CIA leadership is also in a tailspin. It seems as though it's getting more than a facelift, judging by the number of heads rolling out of Langley. Hard to know what to make of it. On one hand we wonder, did Tenet et al fail America? Too much complacency in the old boys network? Does the CIA really need to make radical changes to its intelligence gathering? I'm sure that Porter Goss is going to screw up whatever coherence is left in the upper echelons (and in the process destroy morale) to put his mark on the agency.

On the other hand, having a little experience working with blind administrators who only see what they want to see, did King George only half-listen to Tenet's briefings? In fact, did King George dictate to Tenet what was supposed to use as his security mantra?

The probable answers to all of these is affirmative, but it will have to wait until at least Christmas break for me to read up on it. I look forward to reading Imperial Hubris by "Anonymous" who recently identified himself as John E. McLaughlin, the CIA's freshly resigned deputy director.

Suggested Readings in Honor of Veterans' Day

As an English teacher, I cannot resist steering readers and students toward powerful literature relevant to Veteran' Day. Probably my favorite poem regarding war is "Dulce et Decorum Est" by Wilfred Owen. A few other good readings include: Grass by Carl Sandburg, poems by Randall Jarrell, Siegfried Sassoon, Norman Mailer's classic novel on WWII, The Naked and the Dead, and on the Vietnam travesty, Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried, and Michael Harper's powerful poem "Debridement".


Dulce Et Decorum Est

Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs
And towards our distant rest began to trudge.
Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots
But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots
Of gas-shells that dropped softly behind.

GAS! Gas! Quick, boys!-- An ecstasy of fumbling,
Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time;
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling
And floundering like a man in fire or lime.--
Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light
As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.
In all my dreams, before my helpless sight,
He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.

If in some smothering dreams you too could pace
Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin;
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,--
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est
Pro patria mori.

This Veteran's for Peace, Bring the Troops Home

I still don't understand the argument that if you are a former member of the military, you must be hawkish. I don't buy that, nor do I buy the prevailing opinion that if you support the troops, you wouldn't question our fearless leader. What does it mean to support the troops anyway?

Putting some cheesy magnetic ribbon on your vehicle? Flying the Stars and Stripes in your front yard. Just more commercial patriotic hype!

Talking about superficial patriotism: at my school there was a special certificate of appreciation handed out to each veteran during classes. Not a bad thing for stimulating class discussion on the origins of the holiday, etc. But this pales in comparison to the memo I received about two weeks ago. On a day the Federal government had set aside for rememberance and thanks, I was scheduled for training in a new program that our school district has launched. Needless to say, I'm not attending.

I don't know what it means to support the troops. The entire year that my brother-in-law was involved with his National Guard unit in the Iraq conflict, I was overcome with helplessness every time reports came out regarding the war. The Bush administration turned a deaf ear to its own citizens, as well as to the international community, what else could be done to change the rush to war? When my brother-in-law finally returned, I cried with relief. Yes, he was safe, but his unit lost two members in the conflict.

Unfortunately, many more must cry in grief. Last week, a local soldier, Brian Baker was killed in Baghdad, leaving behind a widow pregnant with twins, and a step-son. And news today reports that another local marine has literally lost an arm and a leg for Bush's folly.

The Doubleplusungood Price of Newspeak

Precision Weaponry? Oh, how gullible we are! Rumsfeld reassured the world (for the umpteenth time) that "collateral damage" is not a major problem. Gee, I wonder if anyone told this poor child that "you'll be the beneficiary of the war on terror"?

Photo by John Moore/Associated Press
A four-year-old with shrapnel wounds was brought to an American military hospital in Baghdad. (Source: NY Times)

King George Rushing into Fallujah

With grimacing King George wielding his new "man date" the war to save face must continue. The joint US-Iraqi attack of Fallujah is under way despite the possibility of operations being compromised by a company commander deserting after receiving battle plan briefings. Anne Garrels reported over the weekend that commanders had dismissed concerns of this most recent development, stating that he was a Kurd.

Sunday morning blues (ad nauseum)

Aaaaaah! There I was sitting in the kitchen drinking my Sunday morning coffee, trying to clear the last strands of sleep from my foggy head. I admit I wasn't thinking clearly, I was vulnerable, and my hand reached for the discarded Newsweek that I had refused to read earlier in the week. You know, the one with King George sporting his flirtatious victory grimace looking for a "man date."

Ouch, talk about a downer. Thank goodness for a local NPR commentary by Walter Simpson to pick me up a little. In general, our collective ethnocentrism really blinds us to the fact that we cohabit the world with six billion "foreigners." Some day Americans will realize that we can't just kill'em all if they don't things "our" way...(I hope.)

Dissent is Patriotic

Four more years of playing Russian roulette with foreign policy, public education, human rights, civil liberties, and the environment. Four more years of hypocrisy from the religious right and their moral values rhetoric. Four more years of flag waving rednecks joyously howling that America kicks butt...and accusations that speaking out against American foreign policy is subversive.

Speaking out is perceived as not supporting our troops...I disagree. Not speaking out is negligent. If more people would stick to their ideological guns, our youth would not be sacrificing their lives for the wild ambitions of the militant goose-stepping Right, and their circus of searching for WMDs and fabricated Iraq-al Queda links.

Thankfully, I think I've finally snapped out of my post-election funk... let's face it, Kerry was just a decaffeinated King George. He was already pandering to the foreign policy hawks. Knowing that New York was solidly in the non-Bush electoral tally, I had no regrets voting for Nader.

Bottom line: Despite the pleading by many on the Left for Nader to abandon his campaign, his was the only platform that condemned the invasion of Iraq and called for an immediate withdrawal from our military occupation of Iraq.

I'm still irritated with the primaries, as a New Yorker, there wasn't much of an option. Dean was on the ballot-though he had already bowed out after his raging political faux pas, and Kucinich was deemed too far left. The others were sitting the fence regarding Iraq. Too bad the anti-war campaign peaked too early...let's hope that Bush doesn't have the huevos to take on another preemptive military campaign with the blood of America's youth.