In Your Easter Bonnet, With All The Frills Upon It

I Was A Catholic. Now I'm A Cheesehead.

Last weekend, I turned Catholic for about two hours and I pulled hard for Notre Dame to upset the Kentucky Wildcats in the NCAA Elite Eight.  It almost happened, but Kentucky lucked out with a two-point win.

So we're down to the Final Four later today, and my favorite team is still ABK -- Anybody But Kentucky.  Around 8:30, I'll undergo a cheddar-ific transformation and turn into a Cheesehead for two hours.  I will root for Wisconsin to knock off Kentucky.  



ABK!  ABK!

"I'll Have A Bourbon Over An Astronaut"

A new ad campaign for Suntory whiskey features elaborate cocktail ice "cubes" produced by a 3-D printer.  They're not really cubes, they're pagodas, guitars, the Sphinx, the Statue of Liberty, sharks, Michelangelo's David, and many more.  They are real ice.

How about one in the image of the Wicked Witch of the West?  "I'm MELTING!"

Congressional Republicans Examine Obama's Iran Nuke Deal

Perfectly Sensible

Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback will sign legislation to allow anyone to carry a concealed firearm without any permit, license, or training of any sort.  Anyone.  No restrictions, no rules.  Nothing.  Have gun, will pack.

Said Brownback:  "Responsible gun ownership is a right inherent in our Constitution, and our belief here in Kansas is that someone who's able to obtain a gun by any means possible -- retail purchase, black market, theft, or just borrowing the pistol from your dad's sock drawer -- is obviously a responsible adult who can be trusted to walk around in public with that gun hidden in the waistband of his sweatpants.  There really can be no debate about this."

Brownback went on to say that anyone who can snag a set of car keys is obviously a responsible driver, anyone on the sidewalk with an open bottle of Jack Daniels is obviously a responsible drinker, and anyone who stayed at a Holiday Inn Express last night is obviously a neurosurgeon.

Great job, Kansas!  In-friggin-credible!  Should I ever feel the need to drive from here to Colorado, I think I'll go by way of Saskatchewan.  

Teacher-Bashing

After a grade- and test score-inflation scandal, eleven black teachers in the Atlanta public school system were convicted of racketeering.  Racketeering!  A conservative white Fulton County judge refused to release them on bond and threw them in jail immediately, pending sentencing.  He called them "convicted felons."

Isn't this just a bit extreme?  Racketeering charges are normally reserved for serious organized crime and RICO offenses, like extortion, bribery, money laundering, etc.  But now a school teacher can go to Leavenworth for changing a grade?  WTF?

For over 25 years, University of North Carolina professors engaged in academic fraud for the benefit of the basketball team.  No one is in jail.  Lloyd Blankfein, Jamie Dimon and the rest of the Wall Street wizards tanked the economy and caused the worst loss of personal wealth in history, and no one is in jail.  But a teacher changed a D into a B?  Toss him in the slammer and throw away the key.

Let's not excuse the behavior, but before we start filling our prisons with teachers, let's also think about why it happened, and almost certainly will again.  It's not an incident exclusive to Atlanta.

Conservative political forces want education to be a free-market business opportunity, and have therefore long been opposed to public schools in general.  They never hesitate to point out the "failures" of public education.

Toward that end, they've set up a high-stakes game of near-constant student testing and achievement measurements, designed to show us the winners and the losers.  The kids take the tests, but it's the teachers who're under pressure to "perform" by having their kids hit the magic numbers.  Then they take a page from the corporate playbook and incentivize the whole damn thing:  Paying bonuses to teachers whose students exceed the "standards."  Making job security dependent on children's test scores.  Threatening the very existence of "under-performing" districts.  (Gosh, which ones might those be?)  It turns the teacher's job into a perverse contest, ala Glengarry Glen Ross:  First place, a new Cadillac.  Second place, a set of steak knives.  Third place, you're fired!

That some teachers succumb to the pressure and resort to unethical shortcuts is not really a surprise, is it?

When conservatives get all misty about the good old days that were so much better than today, I hope they appreciate that their favorite school teachers of the golden yesteryear never had to put up with today's level of shit.  Not that long ago, parents yelled at the kid who brought home a bad report card.  Today, they yell at the teacher and blame the school district.

I worked in adult education in the business world for many years -- job training, sales training, product training, etc.  You can lecture and test and demonstrate and theorize and show videos till the cows come home, but the biggest variable, the most important factor in determining success on the job is the person whose fanny occupies the chair.  Teachers are essential, but it's ultimately up to the individuals being taught.

This isn't Lake Woebegone, and we can't all be above average.

Not Just Another Day In Voter Suppression

As in virtually every other state, students from outside Ohio who attend colleges in Ohio may register to vote as residents of Ohio if they so choose.  It's been that way for years and has never caused a problem.

Nevertheless, Republicans in the Ohio Senate tried to stuff a little voter suppression measure into the current transportation budget.  They wanted to require that out-of-state students who register to vote in Ohio must also obtain an Ohio drivers license and vehicle registration.  Such requirement would necessitate an expense to these students of $75 or more.  Approximately 115,000 students would be impacted by the measure.

Does this have anything to do with transportation?  Hell no!  With establishing residency?  Hell no!  With making it more difficult for a small bloc of likely Democrats to vote in Ohio?  Hell yes!!!

The transportation budget bill landed on Gov. Kasich's desk today and guess what he did?  Kasich used his line-item veto power and scratched out that blatant attempt at voter suppression.  I still don't trust the Wonder Guv as far as I can spit, but I must say I'm pleased.  He did the right thing today.

That's today.  Tomorrow, who knows?  Republicans know full well that low voter turnout is always in their best interests, especially if those who don't show up are young people, college-educated people, women, African Americans/Latinos/non-whites, old people, and low-income people.

That's why they'll continue to "fix" the non-existent problems of voter fraud and residency.  They'll keep fixing it until the only people allowed to vote are those who sit on the boards of Fortune 500 companies.