A Virginia middle school teacher recently forced his students to support President George W. Bush’s re-election campaign by conducting opposition research in class against the Democratic presidential candidates.
The 8th grade students, who attend Liberty Middle School in Fairfax County, were required to seek out the vulnerabilities of Democratic presidential hopefuls and forward them to the Bush campaign.
“This assignment was just creepy beyond belief — like something out of East Germany during the Cold War,” one frustrated father, who asked for his family to remain anonymous.
Friday, March 30, 2012
From The Dustbin - Teachers For GWB?
Hrmmm....
Sunday, March 25, 2012
Saturday, March 24, 2012
Cayden
Yet another in the series of quilts. This one was for my young nephew. He is a bit older now, and a pretty cool kid, too!
Along with other things that keep me busy, yes folks, I'm still quilting. As always, click the pic for a larger version.
This quilt was done from my nephew Cayden. We got to meet him a month early in January. The little shaver was scheduled to stay in the oven until February....which is when this quilt was completed.
having a rough time figuring out what to put with them. I decided to go bold with the dark blue and white materials. I think it came out pretty well.
Here's a closer view of one panel.
Along with other things that keep me busy, yes folks, I'm still quilting. As always, click the pic for a larger version.
This quilt was done from my nephew Cayden. We got to meet him a month early in January. The little shaver was scheduled to stay in the oven until February....which is when this quilt was completed.
having a rough time figuring out what to put with them. I decided to go bold with the dark blue and white materials. I think it came out pretty well.
Here's a closer view of one panel.
Friday, March 23, 2012
Historic Power Grab
I have seen quite a few posts about the supposed power grab the Obama administration is attempting via "natural resources preparedness". As Glenn Reynolds points out, this is nothing new. Presidents...and heck Congress, too...have been exceeding their Constitutionally limited authority for decades.
Thursday, March 22, 2012
Rutherford B. Hayes
In case you missed it, Mr. Obama...or his speechwriters... flubbed a bit of history.
This whole kerfuffle has introduced some entertaining bits flotsam and jetsam.
Lots more here.
Speaking about the need to develop new sources of American energy in Largo, Md., Obama used our 19th president as a failure of forward-thinking leadership.It fact, President Hayes was astonished and impressed with the telephone. For his era, he was a bit of a technophile.
"One of my predecessors, President Rutherford B. Hayes, reportedly said about the telephone: 'It’s a great invention but who would ever want to use one?'" Obama said. "That's why he's not on Mt. Rushmore."
"He's looking backwards, he's not looking forward. He's explaining why we can't do something instead of why we can do something," Obama said.
This whole kerfuffle has introduced some entertaining bits flotsam and jetsam.
Lots more here.
Wednesday, March 21, 2012
Disgusting
I'm not sure which bothers me more. Having the media follow the President's pre-teen daughter on vacation, or having someone black hole the media reports about the vacation.
Both represent trends that are not in the best interests of our nation.
Both represent trends that are not in the best interests of our nation.
Tuesday, March 20, 2012
Even Sluts Deserve Healthcare
While religion has motivated progress in many areas, it has also exercised repressive and oppressive influence from time to time. Which is why I question the wisdom of extending some sort of "religious exclusion" for health insurance.
I suppose that a church could elect to not cover abortions for preachers if church doctrine is opposed to such things. However, they should be compelled to list all of the activities that violate their doctrine and adjust their coverage accordingly. Opposition to alcohol use comes to mind.
But the line I would draw would be at clergy. For those that go in for such things, staff and students ought to be considered sinners along with the everyone else.
For those that don't like it, I suppose that we could move to a national a la carte system that separates employment from health insurance. There are lots of options to be considered.
But allowing religious exemptions? Next thing you know some "church" will refuse to pay their minority staff as much as their white staff and cite Scripture to justify their actions.
Link for the strip below. Thanks to my friends in RACS for the pointer.
And since incendiary language appears to be the only way to elicit traffic and comments, expect more in the future. I respond to incentives!
I suppose that a church could elect to not cover abortions for preachers if church doctrine is opposed to such things. However, they should be compelled to list all of the activities that violate their doctrine and adjust their coverage accordingly. Opposition to alcohol use comes to mind.
But the line I would draw would be at clergy. For those that go in for such things, staff and students ought to be considered sinners along with the everyone else.
For those that don't like it, I suppose that we could move to a national a la carte system that separates employment from health insurance. There are lots of options to be considered.
But allowing religious exemptions? Next thing you know some "church" will refuse to pay their minority staff as much as their white staff and cite Scripture to justify their actions.
Link for the strip below. Thanks to my friends in RACS for the pointer.
And since incendiary language appears to be the only way to elicit traffic and comments, expect more in the future. I respond to incentives!
Hearing Motion
The Singing, Ringing Tree is a very cool piece of art that uses the wind as well as its appearance to make an impression. This sculpture is located near Burnley, in Lancashire, England.
Monday, March 19, 2012
Alyssa
In our continuing series of quilt blogging, we bring the brief tale of Quilt #3.
As my 2.74 regular readers can attest, I took up quilting this year. I have just completed quilt #3 for my nephew, his wife, and their new baby girl. Joe is currently serving in the Marines at Camp Lejune, NC near Jacksonville. He's doing pretty well for himself. I don't know if he is going to make a career out of this, but they seem pretty happy right now.
Following up on my work last summer, I made a baby quilt for the new addition to the family. Once again, I'm using the Log Cabin design. This quilt pattern allows me to run strips of material through the sewing machine rather than having to hand piece everything together. The whole project takes much less time that way.
Seeing as we have a new young lady in the family, I used a bit more pink in this quilt. As always, click for a larger view.
Here is a close-up of one panel:
And finally, here is a close-up of the corner piece:
I had a local stitchography shop machine embroider the logos on a piece of material. I had hoped for more separation so that I could put the chicken, ball, and hooks on a 45° angle. But what I received from them worked well enough.
On to the next one! Only 17 days left until Christmas!!
As my 2.74 regular readers can attest, I took up quilting this year. I have just completed quilt #3 for my nephew, his wife, and their new baby girl. Joe is currently serving in the Marines at Camp Lejune, NC near Jacksonville. He's doing pretty well for himself. I don't know if he is going to make a career out of this, but they seem pretty happy right now.
Following up on my work last summer, I made a baby quilt for the new addition to the family. Once again, I'm using the Log Cabin design. This quilt pattern allows me to run strips of material through the sewing machine rather than having to hand piece everything together. The whole project takes much less time that way.
Seeing as we have a new young lady in the family, I used a bit more pink in this quilt. As always, click for a larger view.
Here is a close-up of one panel:
And finally, here is a close-up of the corner piece:
I had a local stitchography shop machine embroider the logos on a piece of material. I had hoped for more separation so that I could put the chicken, ball, and hooks on a 45° angle. But what I received from them worked well enough.
On to the next one! Only 17 days left until Christmas!!
Saturday, March 17, 2012
Thursday, March 15, 2012
Wednesday, March 14, 2012
Ah The Details
In a continuation of the series on quilts that I have made, we offer the following.
In response to popular request...note the singular usage...we offer the following content for all 5.2 of our regular readers. Also note the recent uptick in readership. I am the envy of every newspaperman in the United States.
As reported a couple of days ago, I finished my second quilt. Two in one year! I hear that is considered to be a pretty decent production rate in certain circles. The photo of quilt number two didn't really give much of a view of the individual panels. Therefore, we offer the following:
A couple of mildly interesting notes about these panels.
First is the green and white striped material. As the larger view shows, I cut half of the strips perpendicular to the striped pattern while the other half were cut parallel to the striped pattern. Aside from making sure that the parallel cuts were as parallel as I could get, I didn't do a lot of fussing around with where the cuts were made.
When I was assembling the panels, the strips cut perpendicular to the stripes were put in place before the ones that were cut parallel to the stripes. The result...I hope....is a sort of optical illusion that makes you think that those two pieces are cut from a single section of cloth.
Secondly, take a good look at the yellow material. You probably ought to click on the picture to get a better view. It looks a bit like clouds in the sky. Look a bit closer and see if you see anything in those yellow clouds.
In response to popular request...note the singular usage...we offer the following content for all 5.2 of our regular readers. Also note the recent uptick in readership. I am the envy of every newspaperman in the United States.
As reported a couple of days ago, I finished my second quilt. Two in one year! I hear that is considered to be a pretty decent production rate in certain circles. The photo of quilt number two didn't really give much of a view of the individual panels. Therefore, we offer the following:
A couple of mildly interesting notes about these panels.
First is the green and white striped material. As the larger view shows, I cut half of the strips perpendicular to the striped pattern while the other half were cut parallel to the striped pattern. Aside from making sure that the parallel cuts were as parallel as I could get, I didn't do a lot of fussing around with where the cuts were made.
When I was assembling the panels, the strips cut perpendicular to the stripes were put in place before the ones that were cut parallel to the stripes. The result...I hope....is a sort of optical illusion that makes you think that those two pieces are cut from a single section of cloth.
Secondly, take a good look at the yellow material. You probably ought to click on the picture to get a better view. It looks a bit like clouds in the sky. Look a bit closer and see if you see anything in those yellow clouds.
Tuesday, March 13, 2012
Why Yes! I Want Somebody To Love!
Just a little bit of fun. Grace Slick probably looked just as good back in the day.
Monday, March 12, 2012
Saturday, March 10, 2012
Rights From Where?
The folks at Hot Air are taking Markos “Kos” Moultisas to task for his ahistoric perspective on Rick Santorum and the source of rights. He apparently believes that our rights are created by our government and that "God" isn't mentioned in the Constitution.
The founding fathers clearly believed that rights existed before any government existed and that they...and we...were creating a government to defend those rights.
This is the underlying weakness among many on the left. They worship government power and believe that the government is therefore omnipotent. The land of milk and honey was created by government fiat!
What many on the left fail to recognize is that individual rights supercede (or should) governmental whims. That is why we have a First Amendment to acknowledge our right to protest the government. Our rights exist despite the best efforts of government, not because of it. Our Constitution exists to restrict government exercise of authority, not to give it ever greater control over our lives.
The founding fathers clearly believed that rights existed before any government existed and that they...and we...were creating a government to defend those rights.
This is the underlying weakness among many on the left. They worship government power and believe that the government is therefore omnipotent. The land of milk and honey was created by government fiat!
What many on the left fail to recognize is that individual rights supercede (or should) governmental whims. That is why we have a First Amendment to acknowledge our right to protest the government. Our rights exist despite the best efforts of government, not because of it. Our Constitution exists to restrict government exercise of authority, not to give it ever greater control over our lives.
Thursday, March 8, 2012
Wednesday, March 7, 2012
Speaking of Quilt Number 2....
In another series of updates, we bring my faithful 2.3 readers....and 59 spam-linkers...the story of my very first quilt. Brought to you via my personal way-back machine, a story from 2007.
Speaking of Quilt Number 2....
....did I mention Quilt Number 1.
My beloved bride. She's number one in my book. So she ended up being number one as far as quilting goes as well. The following photos are of my very first quilt made for the very first person in my life.
Speaking of Quilt Number 2....
....did I mention Quilt Number 1.
My beloved bride. She's number one in my book. So she ended up being number one as far as quilting goes as well. The following photos are of my very first quilt made for the very first person in my life.
Monday, March 5, 2012
Moving Madness V
Another piece from Eddie Boes. This one is at Orthodontic Arts in Lynchburg, VA. Where were all these cool dentists when I was a kid!
Saturday, March 3, 2012
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