uncool2pillow

Obviously, that's meant a little to a lot tongue in cheek. I hope a lot because we shouldn't equate passing a law with firing rockets at our political opponents.

I am talking about educating our entire nation, not those of just people wealthy enough to afford private education. I have no problem w/ private education, and am even open to the idea of vouchers just so long as any school receiving money through vouchers is held to all the same expectations and regulations as public schools are. Are there private schools paying six figure salaries to math and science teachers who might otherwise be working for google or dell? No. Private school succeed, to a large degree, because parents choose to send their kids to them. Even Catholic schools in roug

I don't see this as anyone's fault. Just the sad economic reality. American labor can't possibly compete with foreign labor and maintain a reasonable standard of living. Laws prohibiting moving jobs overseas would ultimately be worked around, so many (Jules makes a good point) of the manufacturing jobs leave. The best solution is to do exactly the opposite of what's happening in Wisconsin. We need to ensure we have the best educated workforce in the nation. That's not cheap. The uncomfortable part of this for me as a teacher is to admit that my field (social studies) isn't as competi

Some of the rehearsal footage wasn't bad. He had a really nice Tweedy/Westerbergish rasp going. This was way too high-pitched pop/emo. I haven't watched the show in 4-5 years. Not missing much.

Good businesspeople (read, "smart rich people") create economic demand through creating and marketing desirable products. Ergo, rich people create jobs.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aHnFIaLp_ys

Why the hell were you in an Abercrombie & Fitch?

Bob Mould's not playing?? Wha???

That stinks. Beltmann, your posts have really made clear how the leaders of Wisconsin are pissing away the state. I am lucky enough to not have had these horrible compromised forced upon me. I brought some on myself when my twins were born, but that's another story. Rest assured, the colleague I reference is making these choices out of sheer laziness and ambivalence. She (nearly all of the teachers in my building) teach 5 sections of around 25 students each. The other English teachers do an incredible amount of rich writing instruction.

I have no plans to go into administration. I've worked for mostly great ones. As one of them put it, "A principal's job is to, every day, deal with the issues that are the major headaches in a teacher's day." My principal has done a great job keeping great teachers in the classroom. Unfortunately, to get rid of some of the not so good ones, he's had to follow the path of least resistance: ship them off to other schools, push into early retirement through by making their teaching responsibilities unbearable, and, like I said before, counseling the younger ones out of the profession. He's f

I like this post a lot! I've got to take issue with this one. I think I know where you're coming from. Lazy, incompetent teachers are often driven from the profession because their level of competency creates a classroom environment that is almost impossible to tolerate. I teach with an incredible group of teachers. Most of them give blood, sweat, tears, intellect, emotion, compassion, and massive sacrifices to their personal lives to be great teachers. But there are a few who are lazy and no good. For example, I work with a 7th grade English teacher who hasn't assigned a writing as

Beltmann, I was wrong to say that public employees haven't shared in the sacrifice. It's just that in my own personal experience, I've seen many more friends and family from the private sector hurt harder than those in the public sector.

Truth!

Absolutely not! I think the rest of your post is pretty much on target, but I have in no way endorsed the end of collective bargaining, nor would I. The only reason I waded into this thread is because I thought the original post I responded to had some pretty bad reasoning that needed to be pointed out.

Duck-billed catechist said, rightfully, that this situation is not the fault of public employees, but the whole credit default swap system. Lots of other innocent people have paid the price for what happened. Public employees can't be the only ones who are immune from the economic collapse no matter who's to blame. Tax revenues are down and it's not just because of lower tax rates, but lower tax revenues due to less money being pumped into the economy.

Keep an eye out. 20% is probably just the first step. I imagine there will be things @ least 50% off before it's all said and done. I am sure they'd rather take a small loss on what they sell their inventory for rather than pay to ship it off to other stores or dump it entirely.

Don't forget, this recession has caused plenty of private sector workers to give much more than a pound of flesh.

Sonny Rollins is still around, but I'm going to mention him, because he's old and I am very glad I got to see him 12 years ago.

I have no opinion about the specific issues in Wisconsin. I am a fiscally conservative public employee who has benefited from collective bargaining rights. I am, in no way defending the bill in Wisconsin OR the position of the protesters. I just think there are several weak points in this post. 2. The federal deficit has little to to with the state deficit. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are incredibly expensive, but not really tied to a state's deficit. 3. Who CARES how the Packers feel?? Oh, wait, it's Wisconsin. Of course people who became millionaires in part through collective

I saw the Glass Spider tour too. Holy crap, was that bad. Did catch the Sound & Vision tour which was simple & elegant and featured Adrian Belew on guitar.

John Lee Hooker Bo Diddely Replacements Pixies Bowie (seems to be retired)

I didn't realize that Tim Tebow sings for Mumford & Sons until the Grammys. I was disappointed that my children's favorite, Justin Roberts, lost to Pete Seeger for best children's music album. It's something like Seeger's 6th Grammy and he should have many, many more, so I'm glad he won, but JR's Jungle Gym is full of great melodies and performances that anyone of any age can appreciate. Probably linked to this vid before, but it's freakin' awesome. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jTpHAbuEQac

Woot!

Springsteen was freakin' awesome in that.

Don't know when this was taken. I think he's aged well, as long as he avoids the stupid make up look. And what's up with 80s indie music icons who are gay going bald and growing beards??