1672 Laura Bush's new education push

A story in USAToday covered Laura Bush's new focus on programs to rescue young boys. At one point in the interview where the descreasing enrollment of young men in college is brought up, she says:

"I think we need to examine the way we're teaching children from elementary school. Are we asking boys to sit still when they really want to jump around? Is it because boys have fewer and fewer role models because such a large percentage of elementary teachers are women? I suspect those are the reasons."

About 25 years ago I attended one of the gazillion workshops of my career and remember a speaker who believed that young boys do better in spatial and abstract reasoning than girls because they DO NOT have male teachers and thus from an early age have to try to figure out by guessing and making mistakes, just exactly what those lady teachers want. This fine tunes the brain, apparently. Little girls, just have to imitate and follow the rules. That's the only place I've ever heard that idea, and it may be crazy, but there are many more male teachers in the lower grades than there used to be, and boys aren't doing as well.

The theory probably doesn't apply to private, single gender schools where other factors like wealth and education level of parents come in to play.

1671 Ah Judy, we hardly knew ye

There are some key phrases in the memo from Bill Keller, New York Times, to Jim Romanesko (journalism industry news and forum, published by The Poynter Institute) absolving himself and the Times of any credit or blame in the WMD stories preceding and during the Bush administration, or in defending Judith Miller. This message is so full of “shoulda, coulda, woulda,” I’d be embarrassed to have it out there where reasonable people can see it. I've selected a few phrases, and added some of my own under the breath comments. I don't think I could have gotten away with this many excuses in my job. Could you?

what I should have done differently

I wish I had chosen my words more carefully

we wish we had made different decisions

the clarity of hindsight

I wish we had dealt with the controversy over our coverage of WMD as soon as I became executive editor.

It felt somehow unsavory to begin a tenure by attacking our predecessors

a huge new job

get the paper fully back to normal [after the last big scandal of lack of oversite]

I feared the WMD issue could become a crippling distraction [it wasn‘t on my radar because we all believed it]

[it was] a year before we got around to really dealing with the controversy [WMD]

published a long editors’ note acknowledging the prewar journalistic lapses [does not list these lapses]

we intensified aggressive reporting aimed at exposing the way bad or manipulated intelligence had fed the drive to war [does list these points, but now we know why all the negative reporting]

By waiting a year to own up to our mistakes, we allowed the anger inside and outside the paper to fester [this is soooo touchy feely]

we fostered an impression that The Times put a higher premium on protecting its reporters than on coming clean with its readers. [well, you’ve certainly corrected that one, haven’t you, by hanging Miller out there]

If we had lanced the WMD boil earlier [but you didn’t know it was a boil--your paper supported WMD stories, especially during Clinton years]

wish that when I learned Judy Miller had been subpoenaed [what is your usual routine when a reporter is subpoenaed?]

and [wish I’d] followed up with some reporting of my own

under other circumstances it might have been fine [what would those circumstances be?]

I missed what should have been significant alarm bells [finally, some admission of guilt]

I should have wondered why I was learning this from the special counsel [but I didn’t]

This alone should have been enough to make me probe deeper [but I didn’t]

I’m pretty sure I would have concluded [but we’ll never know, will we]

we were facing an insidious new menace in these blanket waivers [huh?]

But if I had known the details of Judy’s entanglement [I try never to ask reporters about their sources or truth of the stories]

I’d have been more careful in how the paper articulated its defense

[there should be] a contract between the paper and its reporters [long list learned in journalism school]

how we deal with the inherent conflict of writing about ourselves [as I’m doing now, badly]

rival publications are unconstrained [everybody’s doing it, especially that mean right wing]

I don’t yet see a clear-cut answer to this dilemma [but please, I don’t want to be fired like the last guy]

1670 Kindergartner's free speech

Can a kindergartner's poster be hung on the bulletin board of the school if he depicts Jesus? Well, after 6 years, the court of appeals has sent it back to a lower court for another look at free speech.

"Antonio Peck, who attended Catherine McNamara Elementary School in Baldwinsville, N.Y., as a kindergarten student during the 1999-2000 school year, included an image of Jesus and other religious elements in a poster created in fulfillment of a homework assignment on the environment.

The student reportedly was expressing his belief that God was the only way to save the environment."

I suppose the school administrators thought the next step would be forced teaching of Creationism, if a 5 year old thought God could save an errant human race from self-destructing.

The three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit in Manhattan remanded the case back to a federal district court Monday [Oct. 17] for further consideration, so I suppose this could end up someday in the Supreme Court, or by the time little Tony graduates from college. WorldNetDaily

The boy's counsel said: ""The school humiliated Antonio when the teacher folded his poster in half so that the cutout drawing of Jesus could not be seen. To allow a kindergarten poster to be displayed for a few hours on a cafeteria wall, along with 80 other student posters, is far from an establishment of religion.

"To censor the poster solely because some might perceive a portion of it to be religious is an egregious violation of the Constitution." " NewsMax

"In the Peck vs. Baldwinsville School District case, the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals joined with the ninth and eleventh Circuit Courts who hold the view that discrimination--even in the public school setting--is unconstitutional.

Conversely, the first and tenth Circuit Courts opine that discrimination in the public school context is permissible.

This split in opinion could land Antonio in the Supreme Court--something which Staver says he would be all for." Catholic News Agency

The child must be white, male, a non-immigrant and non-handicapped, because I didn't see anything about this in the MSM. If you did, just correct me with the link.

1669 Falling behind in math

At Carnival of Education this week I noticed an item on teaching math, always my weak area. But I was happy to see they did it right in the old days, even if I didn't catch on.

". . . in Japan, Singapore and Russia, they do teach math differently. They teach it correctly. They teach content. They teach skills and facts as a foundation upon which understanding will be built. They teach like they used to in the U.S." Kitchen Table Math

Math wasn't required when I went to college, so I took an evening class at OSU in the mid-70s. New math was really BIG then, but fortunately a high school math teacher was teaching the class. I squeaked through with an A- I think.

1668 Where are you safer?

This tidbit comes from Dane Bramage's blog, and I can't verify its source. But it is an interesting thought.

"If you consider that there have been an average of 160,000 troops in the Iraq theater of operations during the last 22 months, and a total of 2112 deaths, that gives a firearm death rate of 60 per 100,000.

The rate in Washington D.C. is 80.6 per 100,000. That means that you are about 25% more likely to be shot and killed in our Nation's Capitol, which has 20 some of the strictest gun control laws in the nation, than you are in Iraq."

Actually, many of the deaths of our military in Iraq have been caused by accidents, not firearms or bombs. This is probably going around in forwarded e-mail and just hasn't caught up to me yet.

1667 What do the Democrats need to do

to take back the Congress, the Presidency and the Courts? Well, a few weeks ago all you needed to do was type in “Democrats need. . .” into Google and you’d find that Democrats were longing, begging even, for some good, strong ideas, values and concepts. But that’s all changed during the Fall of 2005. Bush has stumbled badly and his base is discouraged. And it’s this, not ideas or programs, that has energized the Democrats. It’s really pathetic--from both parties--isn’t it? The Democrats still have no ideas, but they’re smelling blood, and they know how soft and wimpy the Republican voters are. The President of big, bold ideas cracks up when he should be going for the gold. He should be rallying the troops and giving us one of the best courts in the history of the nation. Here’s what one Dem wrote (probably last November):

“I disagree with most of the President’s agenda. As a Democrat that’s no surprise. But I am jealous of Republicans. They have a leader taking bold steps domestically and internationally. Where is the Democratic leader with big ideas? Why am I stuck with candidates who, when faced with these issues, lamely come up with lock-boxes, school uniforms and foreign consultations?” Chris Burke. Raw story. Can’t find a date on this column (I think it is defunct), but it appears to be late November 2004.

Most of these Google headlines are from Democrats like Helen Thomas, Ted Kennedy, Carville, and liberal MSM columnists. A few are from blogs; very few from Republicans.

Do Democrats Need Their Own Gingrich?

The Democrats Need a Spiritual Left

Democrats Need Changes on Abortion

Democrats Need to Support Major Paul Hackett (Iraq war vet)

Do Democrats Need the South?

Democrats Need a New Plan for Social Security

Democrats need a consensus builder for mayor

What Democrats Need to Leave Behind in Order to Win

Democrats need to start acting more like the people's party they once were

Dems need stronger narrative to win

Democrats need a twang

Democrats Don’t Need a New Message—They Need Ideas

Democrats need to come up with some ideas

Democrats Need to Hang on to Values

Democrats Need To Prepare Now For Another Social Security Push By The GOP (too bad that didn’t happen)

Is Harry Reid the leader the Democrats need?

Democrats need fire in belly to save party

Democrats need to be introspective: Kerry was a lousy candidate

Democrats need a strategy

The Democrats will need every black and Latino vote they can get

Democrats need to get over themselves on Iraq

Democrats Need to Rejoin America

1666 Mom, she's just a puppy!

My son's been telling me that about his chocolate lab Rosa for 2.5 years. I don't know what she's eating these days, but she's done wall board and bedspreads. Jelly has a great post about her dogs. Some great photos and text if you feel like scrolling. I have no idea who Jelly is, but she has a cool looking blog.

1665 This is adorable

You can create your own ad. This is really cute and if you're stuck at home with a terrible cold and have nothing to write about except Alka Seltzer Cold Plus, go to the Ad Conceptor and plug in some details. I selected "athletic shoes, plus edgy, plus over 55." A video came on of two guys trying to sell old fogies like me the idea that I needed new shoes. Pretty cute. I don't know if it will replace real ad writers, but it's good for a laugh. Now I'm going to go back and try my hand at fast food. Did you hear that McDonald's is going to start posting nutritional info on its packaging? Where's the fun in french fries if you have to read how much salt and fat they have?

1664 Full coverage

Today's apron styles are so impoverished and lacking. They really don't cover much. I hang on to the aprons my mother made for me. One is actually a remake of a skirt I wore in high school and she took it apart and made it into an apron when I got married. Waste not, want not. By the time she whipped this little number up, Mom had made many formals for her three daughters, a wedding dress, attendant dresses, suits, bedspreads, tableclothes, etc., so she didn't use a pattern.

Another one sort looks like a maternity smock and covers all the way up to the neck in a teal and white gingham check and has big pockets and snaps in the back. The apron is covered with stains from pitting cherries. The clothing it protected has long since disappeared from my closet, but it remains. Stained and fragile, but ready for a day's work if needed. The pattern, which I still have (Simplicity 6809), also has a child's option. Another is reversible--from the color scheme (gold) I suspect Mom made it in the late 60s or early 70s.

I also buy old aprons at resale shops because they are so much better than anything you can purchase new today and have no quotes about the sexy cook on the front. However, most are the hostess style, and I really prefer those with a bodice, because that's where the gravy splashes. Even when I was an adult visiting my parents, my father would remind me to put on an apron if I was doing something in the kitchen.

Anyway, I've found a wonderful vintage apron pattern site. Barb, who calls her blog "Woof Nanny" because she is a pet sitter, has many interesting scanned patterns.

1663 A dog's eye view

Jinky is in New England in the second worst weather they've ever had there. He's doing a running commentary on the trip and compares New Englanders to the people he sees in Hollywood.

"The New England humans look like a different species than the humans in Hollywood or Paris. They smell different too. They're not doused with perfume and the females don't wear as much make-up or high spikey shoes. There’s no weird, expressionless botox look here and the lady human lips don’t look like huge jelly donuts, stuffed with their own ass-fat. The human males here all look like they could build stuff. In L.A., the human males look all like manicured poodles. Even the dogs in New England are ten times bigger. And the dogs here work."

Jinky's account of the fall foliage in New England. Don't miss his story of the Rumanian orphan.

1662 Who's your daddy?

Politburo Diktat is creating a geneology of bloggers. The Commissar is asking bloggers to list

"your blogfather, or blogmother, as the case may be. Just one please - the one blog that, more than any other, inspired you to start blogging. Please don’t name Instapundit, unless you are on his blogchildren list.

Include your blog-birth-month, the month that you started blogging, if you can.

If you are reasonably certain that you have spawned any blog-children, mention them, too."

Well, like Topsy, I just growed and growed. I saw the topic of blogging on misc.writing (Usenet) and noticed several regulars were starting "blogs." MW was getting very nasty and posting there was getting difficult because of trolls and idiots. Then I saw an article in the Wall Street Journal that listed and rated five hosting sites. I noticed that blogger.com was free, and that was in my price range. I think I had occasionally come across blogs in searching the internet, but didn't know what they were. I had probably read Samizdat a few times, and because I know a little Russian knew it meant self-published. Still, I didn't know an ordinary person with little html or coding training could write a diary on the internet at no cost.

My blog-children I know, but most have miscarried after a few entries. They are either too busy, or have nothing to say. The number one characteristic of a blogger is having something to say.

1661 Storms continue up the coast

Some areas of the northeast have had over a foot of rain this month and more is on the way. I suspect the leaf peeper season hasn't been too great this fall. My son-in-law is being sent to Wilma-country in Florida (insurance adjuster) and could be gone for several weeks. He's had a really heavy load this year spending many week-ends in Cleveland helping his parents.

1660 Reasons to marry him

Eddie Renz designs blog templates and lives in Plano, TX. I got to his site by reading his mother's blog Live love laugh. He also has a blog called "Marry me," and is up to reason #77. This is reason #76, "I like to work hard and I will provide for my family, but I will never put my work before my wife and children. I was taught to put God first, Family second, and then make room for everything else." Sounds like a winner, doesn't he?

1659 Hollywood Dog

I've been on the prowl for a Chihuahua (female, puppy, brown) for my daughter. My grand-puppy died a year ago at age 18. I am sympathetic being an old softy about pets, but with my life experience, I know pets give back more than you can give, but that they are animals, not children. So I'm downloading photos and e-mailing breeders and decided to look at a Chihuahua rescue site. From there I find, Jinky, the Hollywood dog who has his own blog and was a rescue dog. In some of his photos he looks sort of Chihuahua-ish and in others I think one parent was maybe a dust mop. This site is a hoot. And it looks to me like Jinky's got a pretty good life. I think he's either got a movie or book contract.

Jinky and Mom

But now if you've finished looking at floating objects, there is a more serious part to this post. The number one killer of dogs is not disease, poisoning or hit-by-car; it is human behavior. People turn their pets out or give them to a kill-shelter when they can't handle their behavior problems, which are usually caused by poor breeding (puppy mills and backyard breeders who sell to pet stores) or neglect or abuse. The rescues (bless their hearts) have no problem placing the "adorables," who are usually young and well socialized. But the geriatric or arthritic or biters, are a real problem. Here's one story from Chihuahua Rescue of a young male rescued from a back yard breeder whose dogs were so in-bred and poorly socialized, that they're having problems finding people who want them, to no one's surprise.

Believe it or not, there is a dearth of prospective adopters who come to our kennel asking for Chihuahuas who bite, hide under furniture for days at a time and have tumors or chronic anal gland infections. However, with patience and careful screening, we do work to find qualified homes for these dogs, as we did with his brother and sister, and, finally BG. The foster home who had taken his 2 sibs, had an opening and was able to take BG and the sire of all three. In comparison of the 3 sibs, 2 of whom had been in a stellar and nurturing home environment since 8 weeks of age and BG who had been at Chihuahua Rescue since 8 weeks of age, BG was actually better adjusted! He displayed less stranger anxiety and was markedly more socialized with humans and other dogs! This is due to the loving and safe environment all dogs live in at Chihuahua Rescue, plus the exposure they recieve to caring, positive interactions with a variety of volunteers and staff. All the dogs at Chihuahua Rescue know that they are loved and cared for and we will never kill them because of a mistake made by humans.

Is Boy George looking for you?

For photos of puppy mills and backyard breeders (you'll find the results in the pet stores and at rescues) go here.

1658 Pork Cracklins

Republican voters are fuming. And they're not just mad at President Bush. They believe, and I agree, their Senators have turned tail and run--run from fiscal responsibility. I can't imagine how that bridge to nowhere ever got passed, but now that it's getting a second look--Tom Coburn wanted to redirect some pork projects to rebuilding New Orleans--and Republicans and Democrats alike screamed like stuck pigs. That Alaskan bridge is going to serve 50 people and cost $228 million, but only 15 out of a hundred Senators had the guts to vote with Coburn and point out the stupidy of it. Here's what Ed at Captain's Quarters says:

"We worked our butts off to get a GOP majority in both houses of Congress for better fiscal management -- and yet in one simple test, only 12 of them vote to support their supposed party platform.

So now we have GOP majorities and capture the White House but can't cut pork, can't confirm conservative attorneys on the Supreme Court, and open up new entitlement programs worth billions of dollars for prescription medication?

Talk about a moment of clarity."

1657 Help is still needed

in Mississippi. As we watch Wilma, these folks still need water and ice. Locusts and Honey.

I've traveled more than I thought

create your own visited states map

I had to remove the map, because it would show in Firefox, but not in IE without messing up the screen. Anyway, I've only missed Louisiana and Mississippi. Arkansas and Oklahoma were added this year--really lovely places to visit and vacation.

Hat tip to Michael Golrick.

1656 Beer and Gambling

Sometimes I get discouraged with Lutheran blogs. I just signed on to a Lutheran blog directory which had a bunch of gambling ads on it. I know sometimes you can't control that depending on what company your blog is registered with, but really, is gambling healthy for anybody? Why are Lutherans pining for the old days of proper liturgy and dress if they are advertising gambling businesses? And they'll have to get back to me--I suppose I could be rejected. Other Lutheran blogs have all that beer stuff and busty women ads. German roots and all that. Smells like something rotting in the barn to me.

1655 The Name Plame and who's to Blame

Returning from Indianapolis yesterday, we were listening to NPR. OK, OK. I know it’s not the most unbiased source in the world, but my taxes support them too! Anyway, the story was the “Valerie Plame” case and who is the only person interviewed? A Washington Post reporter--missed his name. That’s it. No one else.

Here’s what Robert Novak, whose column started it all, said over two years ago:

“First, I did not receive a planned leak. Second, the CIA never warned me that the disclosure of Wilson's wife working at the agency would endanger her or anybody else. Third, it was not much of a secret.”

I still don’t know why he revealed her name in his column when he was asked not to by a CIA official, and I have no idea why Novak didn’t get in trouble, however, he continues (Oct. 1, 2003)

“At the CIA, the official designated to talk to me denied that Wilson's wife had inspired his selection but said she was delegated to request his help. He asked me not to use her name, saying she probably never again will be given a foreign assignment but that exposure of her name might cause "difficulties" if she travels abroad. He never suggested to me that Wilson's wife or anybody else would be endangered. If he had, I would not have used her name. I used it in the sixth paragraph of my column because it looked like the missing explanation of an otherwise incredible choice by the CIA for its mission.

How big a secret was it? It was well known around Washington that Wilson's wife worked for the CIA. Republican activist Clifford May wrote Monday, in National Review Online, that he had been told of her identity by a non-government source before my column appeared and that it was common knowledge. Her name, Valerie Plame, was no secret either, appearing in Wilson's "Who's Who in America" entry.”

So can you leak something that everyone knows? Apparently, in Washington you can. If you’re reporting for NPR, you don’t even have to ask that question.

1654 Worried about Avian Flu?

We'd probably have a drug in place to lessen its affects if it weren't for all the people, countries and politicians who think pharmaceutical companies should be doing pro bono work. We used to have 37 vaccine makers, and now we have 3. So what does the FDA do? Not much. But you can bet it will be President Bush's fault if you or your loved one gets the avian flu. Opinion Journal Saturday's article "Political Virus":

Our political leaders keep telling us to fear the avian flu, and in one sense they're right: We should all be scared to death about how much damage our political leaders will do responding to the avian flu.

Consider Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who declared this month that he hoped concern for "intellectual property" wouldn't "get into the way" of procuring widespread vaccines for a potential avian-flu outbreak. In other words, companies that make vaccines should abandon their patents at Mr. Annan's whim. This kind of hostility to property rights is precisely the reason we now have a shortage of vaccines and drugs to combat this potential pandemic.

Hat tip to Beggar's All, an LCMS blogger.