AFRAID It Might Turn "Political"
Another f**king coward on the taxpayer dole.
This time from a Minneapolis area high school.
A national tour which featured decorated veterans from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan had to cancel its planned appearance at Forest Lake Area High School yesterday after school principal, Steve Massey, suddenly pulled the plug on the visit.
Massey, the school principal, said the decision to cancel was prompted by concerns that the event was becoming political rather than educational and therefore was not suitable for a public school.
Massey said the school had gotten a few phone calls from parents and others, and some of those callers indicated that they may stage a protest if the event took place.
So if a public school is handing out condoms and parents protest, the school is portrayed as "courageous" for standing behind the power of the state and telling parents to, basically "shut your piehole".
But if a few non-parents call and threaten to demonstrate, pro-American events get canceled?
The principal's explaination--caving in to a few at the expense of the majority--most probably was copied from a NEA (National Education Association) press release.
Most likely titled, "What to do when your school is threatened by patriotism".
"The event was structured to be an academic classroom discussion around military service. We thought we'd provide an opportunity for kids to learn about service in the context of our history classes," Massey said. "As the day progressed, it became clear that this was becoming a political event ... which would be inappropriate in a public setting.
"We decided to cancel," Massey said. Organizers of the National Heroes Tour then scrambled to relocate the event to the American Legion building in Forest Lake. The visit, which U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Stillwater, had been scheduled to attend, is sponsored by Vets for Freedom, a national organization run by Pete Hegseth, a 1999 graduate of Forest Lake Area High School who served with the 101st Airborne in Iraq in 2005-06.
"I think it's extremely unfortunate that a school would bow to the political pressure of outside groups and not bring in a veterans organization," Hegseth said. "Are we saying that patriotism and duty and honor have no place in our public schools?" So far, the tour has visited one school, albeit a private school.
The Forest Lake HS stop involved about 150 social studies students--and was closed to the public--and the media. The last-minute change left Hegseth wondering how many people would actually show up today.
Why did the 101st Airborne vet have to assure the principal "not to advocate about the progress made in Iraq and Afghanistan"?
Want to send the principal an email letting him know what you think?
Read the rest of Minnesota High School Cancels War Vets Program at DBKP.
by RidesAPaleHorse & Mondoreb
image: RidesAPaleHorse
Source: Forest Lake event canceled; too political
DBKP.com - Bigger, Better!.
Death by 1000 Papercuts Front Page.
GANGSTERS
1929 Members of Al Capone's gang killed rival gang members in the St. Valentine's Day massacre.
WAR!
1945 8th Air Force bombs Dresden.
2003 In a dramatic showdown, major powers rebuffed the United States in the U.N. Security Council and insisted on more time for weapons inspections in Iraq. Earlier, chief U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix told the Council his teams had not found any weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.
TERRORISM
1975 Bomb explodes at annex of Amsterdam metro station.
1979 Adolph Dubs, the U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan, was kidnapped in Kabul by Muslim extremists and killed in a shootout between his abductors and police.
1985 Hostage CNN reporter Jeremy Levin is released in Beirut.
1998 Authorities officially declared Eric Rudolph a suspect in the bombing of a Birmingham, Ala., abortion clinic and offered a $100,000 reward.
2007 Challenged on the accuracy of U.S. intelligence, President Bush told a news conference there was no doubt the Iranian government was providing armor-piercing weapons to kill American soldiers in Iraq, and he said he would fight any attempt by the Democratic-controlled Congress to cut off money for the war.
DISASTER
1989 Union Carbide agrees to pay $470 million damages for Bhopol disaster.
FATWAS
1989 Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini issued a fatwa, calling for the death of Salman Rushdie, author of The Satanic Verses.
WATERGATE
1971 Richard Nixon installs secret taping system in White House.
FRUIT
1889 1st trainload of fruit (oranges) leaves Los Angeles for the east.
COMMIES
1956 Khrushchev denounces Stalin at USSR Communist Party Conference.
PATENTS
1803 Apple parer patented by Moses Coats, Downington PA.
FRACAS
1779 James Cook British explorer, murdered by natives in fracas with Hawaiians.
JEWS
1349 2,000 Jews burned at the stake in Strasbourg France.
DRUGS
1959 $3.6 million heroin seizure in New York NY.
BUSINESS
1924 IBM Corporation founded by Thomas Watson.
EDUCATION
2001 The Kansas Board of Education reversed its 1999 ruling and restored evolution to the state's science curriculum.
MARRIAGE
1952 Comedian Joey Adams marries gossip columnist Cindy Heller.
1995 Roseanne weds bodyguard Ben Thomas.
MURDER
1943 Frieda Reiss French 11 month old baby, murdered in Auschwitz.
CARTOONS
1921 Skeezix of "Gasoline Alley" discovered on Wallets' doorstep.
POLITICS
1859 Oregon became the 33rd state in the United States.
1912 Arizona became the 48th state in the United States.
BORN
1894 comedian Jack Benny was born Benjamin Kubelsky in Waukegan, Ill.
1913 Jimmy Hoffa Teamsters leader who disappeared in 1975.
BIRTHDAYS
TV personality Hugh Downs is 87. Actress-singer Florence Henderson is 74. Country singer Razzy Bailey is 69. Jazz musician Maceo Parker is 65. Movie director Alan Parker is 64. Journalist Carl Bernstein is 64. Sen. Judd Gregg (R-New Hampshire) is 61. TV personality Pat O'Brien is 60. Magician Teller (Penn and Teller) is 60. Cajun singer-musician Michael Doucet is 57. Actor Ken Wahl is 51. Opera singer Renee Fleming is 49. Actress Meg Tilly is 48. Singer-producer Dwayne Wiggins is 47. Actor Enrico Colantoni is 45. Actor Zach Galligan is 44. Actor Valente Rodriguez is 44. Rock musician Ricky Wolking (The Nixons) is 42. Tennis player Manuela Maleeva is 41. Rock musician Kevin Baldes (Lit) is 36. Rock singer Rob Thomas (Matchbox Twenty) is 36. Actor Freddie Highmore is 16.
DEATH
1969 Vito Genovese US mafia chief, dies at 71.
1994 Gary "BB" Coleman blues vocal/guitarist/producer, dies at 47.
2003 Dolly the sheep, the first cloned mammal, was euthanized because of incurable lung cancer.
February 14, the 45th day of 2008. There are 321 days left in the year. Today is Valentine's Day.
image: unbsj
Sources:
* Today in History
* Today in History
Death by 1000 Papercuts Front Page.
Cash Advance Loans
We saw this little ratings widget at Simply Jews and it intrigued us. So we headed over to Critics Rant to check it out.
We decided to put Death By 1000 Papercuts to the test. As the title says, "What level of education is required to understand your blog?" We wanted to know!
Below is what we found out:
So now we can't get through the door because our head is swelled three sizes.
And if you are a regular reader, give yourself a pat on the back: we write to our readership. So far, no one's had any trouble reading or understanding us. Not sure how accurate the widget is, but we're not going to question it.
At least one of us ran out and bought a book on quantum mechanics.
The next time someone looks down on you for reading or commenting about Dog the Bounty Hunter. Or they think your web-surfing is low-brow stuff.
Just smile as you're walking away and mention that you read "Genius Level" articles everyday at DBKP.
by Mondoreb
Death by 1000 Papercuts Front Page.
This is a contemporary American story if ever there was one; if only because it's hard to imagine it occuring at any other time in American history.
It says a lot about our country today. What it says is up for grabs.
"Sex Offender Seeking Seat on School Board"
A Horatio Alger story--kinda--from the Denver Post:A Delta school board candidate says his criminal record has been overstated publicly and is relevant only because it shows he overcame daunting barriers to become successful.
It turns out that 'sex offender' wasn't the only thing in Haig's past.
Dale Haag, 48, is a registered sex offender who also was convicted of starting a fire in Sioux Falls, S.D., that killed two women when he was 17. But a supporter said Haag's rough start in life makes him uniquely qualified to be a board member of the Delta County Joint School District.
Haag, who is very open about his past, is undeterred by an onslaught of bad publicity and said he will not change his focus of strong discipline and encouraging more parental involvement.
"I'll tell you up front, I've got zero to hide," he said.
He turned out the way he did - going to 10 juvenile correctional homes and institutions before burning a Sioux Falls halfway house on Oct. 23, 1977, when he was 17 - because he didn't get the discipline he needed, he said.
Kids need to be told: "You need to sit down and shut up and read," he said.Haag said he was angry at the world when he intentionally left a lit cigarette in a couch at the halfway house, intending to destroy the furniture but not kill anyone.
"The next thing I know, people were screaming and everything was crazy," he said.
At first he was praised as a hero because he helped people escape the blaze, he said. But days later, he failed a lie detector test and was charged with murder.
Haag, who is a salesman, was released from a South Dakota prison in the early 1980s and became a health care aide at Hope Haven, a group home in Doon, Iowa, in the mid-1980s, he said.
He was convicted of assault with intent to commit sexual abuse after he touched a 19-year-old developmentally disabled woman at the group home for the disabled.
The plucky candidate explains his sexual offender conviction thusly:"I pinched her in the boob and patted her on the butt. It was a flirtatious situation. She knew what she was doing," Haag said. "It was blown way out of proportion."
Haig had at least one supporter, a mother. Here she gives her reason for supporting the unfortunate Haig.
The case was marginal against him at the time, he said, adding that it was overblown because at the time he was on parole for first-degree manslaughter in the arson case."We don't have anyone on the board who has been where he has been: someone who was lost in the system," said Beverly Ray, 40, who has two children in the district. "I look at what he has done in the last 10 years, and I'm going to judge him on that."
Next, the election was held. People went to the polls and chose their school board. From the Grand Junction Sentinel:
Haag Loses School Board ElectionDale Haag, a registered sex offender who also served nine years in prison for manslaughter in the deaths of two women in South Dakota, lost his bid for the Delta School Board but received 38 percent of votes cast.
The people of Delta had spoken.
Haag received 2,197 votes to 3,599 for his opponent, incumbent Bob Tweedell.
Haag said he was disappointed with the results but will continue to go to school board meetings and serve as an at-large member of the school district’s accountability committee. He added he wasn’t sure how publicity about his past, which was made public last week, affected the race.
Only in America and only today. No matter what you think of Dale Haag, shocked, hopeful or other, you have to admit one thing.
It will make you scratch your head.
by Mondoreb
& Little Baby Ginn
Death by 1000 Papercuts Front Page.
There once was a time when the favorite villain in any movie was the Nazi. In the 50s and even into the 60s, Nationist Socialists were everywhere on the screen.
Today's evil-doers?
Human beings.
Human beings are consuming resources, something they were doing long before today's teachers consumed enough resources to obtain a teaching license.
The Soviets had their political education commissars, responsible for the idealogical indoctrination of their pupils. The hapless teachers mentioned below would perhaps have qualified as commissars.
A sad tale of a poor clueless school district and their poor clueless charges.Third-grade teacher Debbie Robles made her acting debut before a packed auditorium of youngsters at Rancho Elementary School in Novato. She bombed.
-Sigh.-
Playing the villain in a school assembly Wednesday aimed at educating the students about global warming, Robles - dressed in a witch's black attire and prancing around the auditorium as "Queen Carbon" - drew the biggest response from more than 500 students who attended two "Curb Your Carbon" assemblies.
"My own daughter Hannah asked me, 'Do you have to be my mother today?'" Robles said.
Teachers, parents and volunteers helped organize the assemblies and participated in the skits to help raise awareness about global warming and what people can do about it - exchanging traditional light bulbs for compact fluorescent bulbs, for example.
School officials distributed more than 500 CFLs last week.
Source: Marin Independent Journal
60+ years after World War II and the Nazis are still the villains.
Only this time, they're disguised as techers and having their students perform the global warming goosestep.
by Mondoreb
[hat tip & graphic: RidesAPaleHorse]
Back to Front Page.
