Interview 6 (half way there)

All of Europe faced a crossroads with the Reformation. I chose as a person to be interviewed a lesser known reformer, but one that had tremendous impact then and even today.


Menno Simons1496 - 1561
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Menno Simons is the most notable leader of the "Radical" Reformation.
Born to dairy farmers in Witmarsum, Holland, Menno distinguished himself as a Latin scholar throughout his schooling. Equipped thereby to read scripture for himself (there were no vernacular translations at this time), he nonetheless did not become acquainted with the bible until two years after his ordination to the Roman Catholic priesthood. His seven-year pastoral ministry found him performing customary parish tasks, as well as achieving extraordinary feats of drinking and card-playing!
Little-by-little doubts as to the truth of transubstantiation dismantled the theology he had held since childhood. A German preacher lent him a book that stated believers' baptism alone to be found in the New Testament. When a Dutch tailor, Sicke Freerks, was beheaded because he had been re-baptized as an adult, Menno wondered what could be so important about baptism. Having ransacked the teaching of the Magisterial Reformers on infant baptism, he concluded there were no grounds at all for it. Baptism, he believed now, represented everything about one's understanding of the faith, the nature of discipleship, and the Christian community's fate before the world.
Frustrated in his attempts at a gospel-renovation of the Church of Rome, the Spirit-infused man departed in 1536. Dutch sympathizers asked him to be their shepherd -- whereupon he was re-baptized (hence the term "anabaptist", "ana" being Greek for "again") and re-ordained. For the next 25 years he (like Luther before him) lived with a price on his head. While Luther at least could exercise a ministry in a friendly political environment, Menno's ministry had to be clandestine on account of political hostility. He and his people were harassed by Roman and Reformed authorities alike.
Mennonites maintain that the New Testament does not permit Christians to kill other humans under any circumstances. Amazingly, Menno himself died of natural causes at age 66, badly disabled by arthritis. [wikipedia]

Question: A) How hard a decision was it for you to break from the Catholic Church? B) Why did "Believer's Baptism" become so important to you? C) How hard was it for you and your followers to live by a non-violent, pacifism tenet? D) What do you think of the Amish/Mennonite split that has occured in the U.S. today?

Sunday Soapbox

I will continue posting on the twelve people I would like to interview on Monday. All my research is on the computer at school, and though its only a couple of blocks away and I could retrieve it I think I'll wait. Give me hours and hours of doing nothing but watching students take tests and it's either think deep philosophical thoughts or let your mind go blank. With all due respect to one of my interviewees, I'm not into nothingness.

Of all the posts I've written in some time the one that seems to have generated the most interest is the one on Freud's tripartite persnona (superego, ego, id). When I visited Micheal Prescott's blog this week he also had a post on egoism that generated well over 40 comments (nice to have that many readers who acutally leave comments), but then he's more of a mainstream author than this humble blogger.
I only mentioned the Freud's use of those three words in order to fully explain the definition of the IDIOT as that word is used as a synonym for stupid. The definition I used I learned from reading Thieves in High Places by Jim Hightower. An early victim of Karl Rove's scorched earth political policy.

Since the tripartite persona (a phrase mentioned by a commenter from my fair city) has generated such interest I have pondered it in my mind for the last few days. The following (if anyone is still reading my stilted prose) are my thoughts.

The power of three:
In the post on Buddha it mentioned that he lived a life of luxury, then of privation and he came to the conclusion that the middle path was the way to enlightenment (my summation). The stoics in Greco-Roman philosophy called it "The Golden Mean" Starting with Zeno and encompassing a slave Epictetus and the Emperor Marcus Aurelius the emphasis was on avoiding pleasure in order to reduce pain. Maybe they suffered from too many hangovers after all that wine drinking?
Christianity, by way of post exile Judaism developed the concept of Spirit, Soul and Flesh. So really in essence Freud just put in his psychological gobledygook what just about everyone else for thousands of years have already known. I've even read that psychologists are trying to digitize the concept of evil. At what point does a person get so caught up in his (pleasure, flesh, id, pick a term) and his or her actions become so damaging to others that it becomes evil. Maybe that's the weakness of the dual concept of Zoroastrianism and Judaic-Christian-Muslam thought. There's only Good and Evil, without a ballancing word or thought. There Ahura-Mazda or Ahriman, God or Satan. Would Christ as intercessor and forgiveness act as the ballancing agent? I think as Christian perhaps Jews and Muslims would find a similar ballancing agent as well (food for further thought) Are there any Zoroastrians left alive or has Der Decider's Crusade in Iraq wiped them all out?

Leaving Philosophy -- More of Bruce's specialty than mine. I turn to history for an explanation.
At the rood of the tripartive persona is culture and civilization. A hermit living alone in a cave can't be either good or bad, righteous or evil, civilized or barbarian. He is by necessity living only for himself, but harming no one else. The above mentioned concepts only apply once there is a grouping of people. Humans as a whole don't do well as solitary individuals, we are by nature social animals and we view as good or bad what one persons actions have on the others around him (it's stilted to be politically correct here, I'm a man and am going to refer to the generic person in the masculine pronoun to fuss over this is to miss the point of the discussion).
Hunter gatherers live by one set of natural laws. Their existence depended on taking what they could find, and by protecting their territory from other groups of people as strongly as we would protect our refrigerator from a stranger that wonders in and starts grabbing the food in it. If you look at the taboos or laws developed in nomadic and semi-nomadic cultures placed in the context of their existence the laws make sense. Most of the early law givers like Hammurabi and Moses had very harsh penalties for the least littl infraction. Being lazy and drunk -- death, Playing around with another man's wife -- death, murder -- death. Nomadic people have a bare existence style of living -- anyone not pulling their weight, but eating more than they were contributing could make everyone starve to death. Starting a blood feud over a woman or a brawl that got out of hand could result in killings for generations (the Jews and Arabs are still at it). What is amazing though in looking at different nomadic societies each tribe faced with the same circumstance still behave differently. In exploring the Pacific Europeans found some islanders friendly and open to trade and others fierce and deadly. What makes one group of people open to outsiders and others become cannibals and head hunters? Did the cannibals think of themselves and evil?
The Spanish pat themselves on the back for stopping the indigenous population of Mexico and Peru from human sacrifice while killing off millions with disease and enslavement. But in their mind the Aztecs and Incas got the better bargain -- eternal life by becoming Christian.

Summation:
What is the Middle Path, the Golden Mean, the soul? What defines the difference between altruism and hedonism?
Every culture or society defines their own, yet there is still within all of us regardless of culture, society or history a concept of light and dark, right and wrong, good and evil. I think of that line being the suffering of others.
Is it right for the CEO of a corporation that just lost 70 million dollars in the last year to pocket 25 million dollars in salary while laying off thousands of workers?
Is it right for the people of this country to pay three Trillion dollars over the next one hundred or more years, and ruining or costing the lives of millions of people to win a war, when the leaders haven't defined the word win?
Has our country fallen into the deepest darkest pit of depravity when the Attorney General refuses to admit that torture is torture, and the President vetoes a bill making the military and CIA abide by their own manuals?
Where is the SOUL that should be ballancing (remember our concept of checks and ballances) these behaviors?

Conclusion:
I see America's soul being fought out in this election.
John McCain sold his soul to evil when he advised Bush to veto the anti-torture bill. How bankrupt has the man become who was himself once a victim of torture to now embrace it. Stockholm syndrome does not apply. It is his overwhelming desire to become President and that the only way he thinks he can do it is to embrace the barbarians in the Republican Party's ultraconservative thinktanks. I see no Spirit or altruism in the Republicans -- their Bible has become Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged, an oath that all her disciples should take: "I swear by my life and my love of it -- that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for the sake of mine."
Hedonism and anarchy defined in a nutshell. "I've got mine baby because I've got the biggest gun, or lawyer, or judge --you're on your own don't bother me."
And how can those that want to plaster John 3:16 all over the airwaves support this anti-sacrificial philosophy by pointing to the person who made the ultimate sacrifice?
They can't even get the oath fully realized because how can you fight a war to enrich Daddy Warbucks without asking others to sacrifice and die for it? How can those CEO's make their millions without putting half their labor force out of work?
They don't see themselves as evil any more than the Pacific Island Head Hunters, but the world is no longer isolated and has the luxury of allowing cultures or political parties to prove thier virilty by the suffering of others.

With all the fighting between Obama and Clinton they represent the path out of the anarchy and destruction caused when Der Decider let slip the dogs of war. (my apologies to Shakespear), but that won't be enough. Congress needs 60 seats to be filibuster proof. When I see the long lines of voters and read that in a recent poll Dubbya's approval rating is down to 17% I see the SOUL of America reassurting itself. We The People are coming around, but it will have to be in such great numbers to offset the Thieves who stop at nothing to steal elections.

Interview 5 oops out of order

Socrates (469 - 399 BC)

In his use of critical reasoning, by his unwavering commitment to truth, and through the vivid example of his own life, fifth-century Athenian Socrates set the standard for all subsequent Western philosophy. Having served with some distinction as a soldier at Delium and Amphipolis during the Peloponnesian War, Socrates dabbled in the political turmoil that consumed Athens after the War, then retired from active life to work as a stonemason and to raise his children with his wife, Xanthippe. After inheriting a modest fortune from his father, the sculptor Sophroniscus, Socrates used his marginal financial independence as an opportunity to give full-time attention to inventing the practice of philosophical dialogue.
For the rest of his life, Socrates devoted himself to free-wheeling discussion with the aristocratic young citizens of Athens, insistently questioning their unwarranted confidence in the truth of popular opinions, even though he often offered them no clear alternative teaching. Their parents, however, were often displeased with his influence on their offspring, and his earlier association with opponents of the democratic regime had already made him a controversial political figure. Although the amnesty of 405 forestalled direct prosecution for his political activities, an Athenian jury found other charges—corrupting the youth and interfering with the religion of the city—upon which to convict Socrates, and they sentenced him to death in 399 B.C.E. Accepting this outcome with remarkable grace, Socrates drank hemlock and died in the company of his friends and disciples.

Questions: A) Do you approve of the Socratic method as it is practised today? B) Do you think the charges you were convicted of were just? C) Why didn't you fight harder in your defense?

D) How does it feel to be considered the Father of Western Civilization?

Interview 4

St. Barnabas [no picture available]
Barnabas (originally Joseph), styled an Apostle in Holy Scripture, b. of Jewish parents in the Island of Cyprus about the beginning of the Christian Era. Acts (4:36-37) favours the opinion that he was converted to Christianity shortly after Pentecost (about A.D. 29 or 30) and immediately sold his property and devoted the proceeds to the Church. The Apostles, probably because of his success as a preacher, surnamed him Barnabas, a name then interpreted as meaning "son of exhortation" or "consolation".
Paul the Apostle, made his first visit (dated variously from A.D. 33 to 38) to Jerusalem after his conversion, Barnabas stood sponsor for him and had him received by the Apostles, as the Acts relate (9:27), Paul went to his house at Tarsus to live in obscurity for some years, while Barnabas appears to have remained at Jerusalem. The event that brought them together again and opened to both the door to their lifework was an indirect result of Saul's own persecution. In the dispersion that followed Stephen's death, some Disciples from Cyprus and Cyrene, obscure men, inaugurated the real mission of the Christian Church by preaching to the Gentiles. They met with great success among the Greeks at Antioch in Syria, reports of which coming o the ears of the Apostles, Barnabas was sent thither by them to investigate the work of his countrymen. He saw in the conversions effected the fruit of God's grace and, though a Jew, heartily welcomed these first Gentile converts. His mind was opened at once to the possibility of this immense field. It is a proof how deeply impressed Barnabas had been by Paul that he thought of him immediately for this work, set out without delay for distant Tarsus, and persuaded Paul to go to Antioch and begin the work of preaching. Despite opposition and persecution, Paul and Barnabas made many converts on this journey and returned by the same route to Perge.
Paul and Barnabas decided to revisit their missions. Barnabas wished to take John Mark along once more, but on account of the previous defection Paul objected. A sharp contention ensuing, the Apostles agreed to separate. Barnabas sailed with John Mark to Cyprus, while Paul took Silas and revisited the churches of Asia Minor. Little is known of the subsequent career of Barnabas. [Catholic Encyclopedia]

Questions: A) How hard was it for you to see Paul surpass you in leadership of the early Church?
B) What would have happened if you had not split off from Paul on the second missionary journey? C) Did you write the book of Hebrews?

Interview 3

Marcus Porcius Catō Uticensis (95 – 46 BC), known as Cato the Younger (Cato Minor) to distinguish him from his great-grandfather (Cato the Elder) was a politician and statesman in the late Roman Repuclic, and a follower of the Stoic philosophy. He is remembered for his legendary stubbornness and tenacity (especially in his lengthy conflict with Gaius Julius Caesar), as well as his immunity to bribes, his moral integrity, and his famous distaste for the ubiquitous corruption of the period.
Cato is remembered as a Stoic philosopher and one of the most active paladins of the Republic. His high moral standards and incorruptible virtue gained him praise even from his political enemies. After Cato's death, both pro- and anti-Cato treatises appeared; amongst them Cicero wrote a panegyric, entitled Cato, to which Caesar (who never forgave him for all the obstructions) answered with his Anti-Cato. Cicero's pamphlet has not survived, but some of its contents may be inferred from Plutarch's Life of Cato, which also repeats many of the stories that Caesar put forward in his Anti-Cato. (Wikipewdia)

Questions: A) Why were you so blind to the damage your stubborness caused all of Rome? B) How could you and the Optimates have been so deaf to the cries of misery from the population of Rome you policies created? C) How could a defender of The Republic refuse to compromise when that's the very nature of representative government? D) When you finally committed suicide did you feel any remorse for all the lives lost and property destroyed because you could not permit Caesar to have a triumph? E) Can you look back now and see all the destruction done throughout history by those who followed Caesar's footsteps?

Interview 2

Interview 2: The Buddha

When Siddhartha Gautama was born, a seer predicted that he would either become a great king or he would save humanity. Fearing that his son would not follow in his footsteps, his father raised Siddhartha in a wealthy and pleasure-filled palace in order to shield his son from any experience of human misery or suffering. This, however, was a futile project, and when Siddhartha saw four sights: a sick man, a poor man, a beggar, and a corpse, he was filled with infinite sorrow for the suffering that humanity has to undergo. After seeing these four things, Siddhartha then dedicated himself to finding a way to end human suffering. He abandoned his former way of life, including his wife and family, and dedicated himself to a life of extreme asceticism. So harsh was this way of life that he grew thin enough that he could feel his hands if he placed one on the small of his back and the other on his stomach. In this state of wretched concentration, in heroic but futile self-denial, he overheard a teacher speaking of music. If the strings on the instrument are set too tight, then the instrument will not play harmoniously. If the strings are set too loose, the instrument will not produce music. Only the middle way, not too tight and not too loose, will produce harmonious music. This chance conversation changed his life overnight. The goal was not to live a completely worldly life, nor was it to live a life in complete denial of the physical body, but to live in a Middle Way. The way out of suffering was through concentration, and since the mind was connected to the body, denying the body would hamper concentration, just as overindulgence would distract one from concentration. [Wikipedia]

Questions: A) If you had been born into poverty, then become rich and found yourself in a pleasure filled palace, would you have been as easily influenced by the music teacher?
B) You had the choice of being great in your lifetime or influencing the world for all time. Why did you choose the eternal over the immediate? C) What would you think of our technological age? D) How would you evaluate Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs?

Interview 1

Interview 1
I came across a Meme on Michael Manning’s blog on the 12 people you would like to interview. I thought about limiting it to 12 people, but for a historian that’s really kind of difficult. So I limited it to one category and chose 12 people within that category. My category was: People or societies that faced a pathway choice and how that has affected the rest of history.I don’t think they will all fit on one posting. One at a time would be easier on the reading public.

1. Mo Tzu (470-391 B.C.) [no picture available] is a curious figure among the early giants of Chinese thought. Unlike most of the other names he is associated with (Confucius, Lao Tzu, Mencius, Chuang Tzu, etc.), Mo Tzu, born Mo Ti, seems to have been of low birth, possibly the son of a slave. He was a thoroughgoing eccentric, as famous for his dress and manners as his thought. His direct legacy, Moism, died out fairly quickly; in spite of this, his thought is enormously influential for all Chinese thought to follow. He despised Confucians with a passion, regarding them as uptight, egotistical, pretentious, upper class, and characterized by a mindless devotion to empty rituals. Despite this animosity, Mo Tzu shared with Confucius an overwhelming concern with government; his life was literally spent moving from feudal court to feudal court trying to talk some ruler into living by his philosophical teachings.
Unlike Confucius, Mo Tzu did not shy away from talking about religion and heaven. At the heart of his thinking was the belief that all human beings were fundamentally equal in the eyes of heaven; differences between human beings, such as status, wealth, or position, were artificial and man-made distinctions. The equality of humans before heaven mandated an overriding ethical principle for people to that human beings suffer.
“Humane men are concerned about providing benefits to the world and eliminating its calamities. . . . When we come to ask about the causes of the calamities (war, poverty, etc.) that people suffer, from what do these calamities arise? Do they arise from people loving others and benefiting others? Certainly not. We should say that they arise from people hating and injuring others. If we should classify one by one all those who hate and injure others, will we find that they are partial or universal in their love? Certainly, we'll find them partial in their love. Therefore, partial love is the cause of all the human calamities in the world. Partial love is wrong.” [Wikipedia]

My questions to Mo Tzu would be: A) Are you surprised that your teachings would still have such an impact on China even though Confucianism, became the official philosophy?B) Do you think the teachings of Christ mirror much of what you taught, and could that be why Christianity has always found such fertile soil in China? C) Do you approve of the premise of American government that all men are created equal and that everyone should have equal opportunity? D) What correlations do you see in current American society with the Chinese society of your day? E) Or do you see a better correlation to China under Communism? F) Did Mao's teaching mirror yours more closely than Christ's?

Royalties

Received my second royalty check from my publisher yesterday. A pittance to be sure against the expenses so far in marketing and travel to promote Optimus, but it is reassuring that somewhere out there people are actually buying it and hopefully reading it.

Testing week

This week decides my school's fate for the next few years. No Child Left Behind consequences may take effect next year if we don't make AYP (don't ask me what that stands for, who can keep up with government alphabet soup?). Nobody has mentioned what those consequences will be other than more teacher training. Which is what the students that can't make proficiency really need -- staying home while teachers get lectured on how terrible we are.
Students that don't make proficiency will have to take remediation classes instead of electives. In order to accomodate this we've had the debate over the A/B roll over or 4 X 4 block schedules. With a faculty of 200 teachers the vote was 43 -- A/B, 41 -- 4 x 4. I could dropkick all the stupid teachers that didn't vote across the Rio Grande river right now. I've already posted the difference between the two schedules so I won't rehash that. With my electoral luck lately George W. Bush just might get elected to a third term of office. (I've noticed a few international bloggers checking out this site, and may not be aware of our increasingly meaningless Constitutional guidelines, the last thought above is hyperbole.)

Self Defense

A big news story broke here the last few days with a twist this morning.
An Iraqi vet found a guy in his garage trying to steal his vehicle. The robber ran off and the veteran followed him for four blocks finally shooting and killing him. Yesterday the veteran was sentenced to two years in prison.
The fur started to fly. Having been besieged by e-mails and phone calls, this morning Governor Richardson has called on the judge to reconsider the sentence or he will commute it.
Now I'm not a real big fan of Judge Pat Murdock. We went to the same junior high and high school, he was a couple of years ahead of me graduating in the same class as Bruce, but we played in the band together for a number of those years.
Many years ago a car dealer in town stopped paying the insurance premiums for it's employees and did some other dubius financial accounting. The owner of the dealership pled guilty to fraud and embezzlement and Pat Murdock gave him a suspended sentence so he could keep the dealership. Governor Gary Johnson then pardoned him and the dealer was the manager of Johnson's reelection campaign. The poor employees who had paid their part of the health insurance permium got stuck paying 100% of their medical bills receiving nothing financially or judiciously. So as you can see I don't think much of Pat Murdock as a judge. He should have thrown the book at the car dealer, or at least made him pay restitution. I can't figure out how the crook is still in business.
Saying that, I agree with Judge Murdock on this one. In fact he was rather lenient at a two year sentence he could have given him up to ten years. As much as some people might admire a veteran running down a burglar and killing him, it's not a good thing for the community to have people running through neighborhoods shooting guns, what if one of the shots he fired and missed had killed someone eating breakfast or sleeping in their beds? It's not a good thing for a man to chase down an unarmed man and kill him regardless of the provocation, and just because a man is a veteran does not give him liscence to break the law once he gets back.
Deadly force is only permissible in self-defense or the defense of someone else. If a police officer had shot and killed this man under the same circumstances he would be facing the same charges.
I'm not sure if Judge Murdock will change the sentence, it would be a blow to the legal system if he does. Governor Richardson will then most likely commute the sentence to probation or even pardon him. That's his constiutional perogative, and he will most likely be praised for doing it and score political brownie points.
The law should not be subject to popular opinion.

Soap Box

I have my students doing a practice essay to get them ready for next week. So while they're diligently writing about the importance of voting I just could not resist writing down my views on Ralph Nader.

First the definitions:

Superego -- giving, loving, sacrificial part of being human
Id -- self-centered, lustful, me me me, part of being human
Ego -- The part of every person that ballances Superego and Id.

Most people find a ballance between the sacrificial and the selfish aspects in their lives -- they have a healthy ego. For some reason when we talk about the most selfish we say they have a big ego, or are egomanics. Actually they have a big Id.

I explained all this to focus on the word Id. It's a greek word meaning self and the greeks had it as the root to another word. This word described someone who was highly intellegent, but was so self-centered that they could not see how their actions damaged the community as a whole. They called these people idiotes. The English word is IDIOT.

Which brings me to Ralph Nader. The poster child for the word IDIOT? He's not illiterate or ignorant or even stupid. No one doubts that he's quite intelligent. He just has a huge Id.
He wrote a book about an unsafe car and got fifteen minutes of fame forty years ago and he can't let it go.
In 2000 he ran for President on the Green Party ticket. Normally this would have made little difference, but that wasn't a normal year. That was a year when the votes he pulled away from Al Gore in critical states helped get George Bush elected. The party and person who are politically opposite of what Nader stands for.
Now why did Nader continue to run in 2000 knowing how close the election was and that if he endorsed Al Gore, a strong environmental advocate, it would tip the ballance to him?
HE'S AN IDIOT.
He can't to this day see the damage done to all the things he stands for by Bushco. Or how the rest of us have been damaged by this decision.
His presidential campaign didn't matter in 2004. His candidacy then was a joke, and now it's past being a joke and is just plain pathetic.
He squandered his one opportunity to make a difference in 2000, but his Id got in the way.

A Normal Week

Starting to feel human again after a fairly quiet weekend.
Starting to try and find Mom an apartment close by for her to move in either April or May. She's going to fly E and S (he's been out there, but flew back here Sunday) out there so they can drive her with her car and a U-Haul. Things are changing rather fast on this. Her last post on her blog leaves little doubt of her decision.
E, girlfriend and her two-year-old are moving out (hopefully) in a couple of weeks. They're sharing a two bedroom apt with girlfriend's brother and sister which makes the rent manageable. It'll give her child more playground room as it's been too cold here for him to get outside much, dogs and cat might miss the attention he give them, then again maybe not.
I have one more normal week of teaching. Next week starts testing -- testing in mornings, regular classes in afternoon. We're voting on the schedule change today -- they did put the 4X4 schedule on the ballot, I guess I wasn't the only one to complain. No way to know how the vote will turn out. My guess is we'll do a modified schedule change of this years schedule (adding a 30 minute remediation or study hall period) to the school day and then wait to see which way the district will jump the following year. I can live with that, the AB schedule could make me dive off the deep end.
Watched the Oscars last night. Pretty lame, the Stewart guy they had MC'ing has the world's worst delivery on jokes. They all fell flat. When they were showing the clips for Best Picture and they showed the one for No Country For Old Men my eyes popped out. It was a car's view of driving east on Central Avenue towards the old First National Bankbuilding at San Mateo here in Albuquerque. I had to rewind the DVR and show Grinnygranny. "Look Central and San Mateo!" She almost dropped her plastic canvas that she works on while watching TV. The news made quite a to-do about the movie being filmed in New Mexico and getting Best Picture.
It's still kind of new being able to watch a movie and it's not just a picture of a street or mountain or diner or whatever like it is when it's filmed somewhere else, but now that they're filming here it's the recognition factor that catches your attention.
It'll be interesting when the movie Hamlet 2 hits the big screen which they filmed last fall on the campus of my school and how they make it look. The money they poured into the school has sure made a difference this year for the students. New communal furnature, banners in the main building, trophy cases, repainted the walls (school colors are red, white and blue -- they painted the walls grey and blue -- Dallas Cowboys colors) It's really looked nice and that has cut down on the vandalism and graffiti. Starting to get a semblance of school pride. Amazing how little things like this make a difference.

Then last week APS decided to paint the outside of the campus a dark greyish green. It looks awful. Grinnygranny drove by and really fussed (she's a graduate). Bad enough for 30 years it's been concrete grey giving it an institutional prison look (no outside windows to keep vandalism and sand damage down) now it's just plain hideous. I hope the people living across the street complain to the school board and make them paint it something else.
Enough griping. Hope everyone else is having a nice day and week.

Normal

Caugh, hack hack, sneeze, blow nose.
Things are getting back to normal. Grinnygranny and I have had the creeping crud lately, and we both stayed home. I'd prefer we do that when we feel good and can enjoy it instead of just trying to get to feeling better.
Went back to school today, but am losing my voice, quite a few teachers and students around here have the same problem.
Finished my grades and they're all recorded. Only twelve weeks left for this year.
I've been asked to join a pathways team for next year with ROTC, English, Science and my Law class. We'd all have the same students and a common prep to try and keep contact with parents and grades up. If it will increase the number of students in that class I'm all for it.
We're voting on the ridiculous A/B block schedule or staying with our current schedule (modified to include remediation) next week. The 4 X 4 that I spoke up for is not on the ballot.
Right now my inclination is that I'd rather dig a ditch than try to teach on the A/B schedule, but my mind might change between now and when school starts again.

A/B block schedule means all students take eight classes per school year but only take four per day. The classes alternate days so that you have A classes and B classes. Some weeks the A schedule will be MWF and B are TT, then the next week they flip. I'd just love waking up every day and wondering which classes I'm teaching that day. Teachers will teach 6 classes, but only have three to teach each day. This raises the number of students a teacher is responsible for per grading period from 160 to as many as 210. But since you're only seeing half of that on any given day it's under the state law and negoitiated agreement. Still every time a teacher makes out grades and grades papers they're doing so for up to 210 students -- stress levels will rise! Students will have to take 8 count them 8 finals every semester.

The 4 X 4 block schedule has students taking 8 classes, but only 4 each semester. Each semester counts as a full school year of instruction. Teachers do increase from the same 160 load to 210, but they are split up into different semesters so you only make out grades at any one time from 90 to 105 students. Students are only juggling 4 classes at a time and taking only 4 finals each semester.
To me the 4 X 4 is a no brainer as we are being forced to go onto something like this due to requirements to remediate students that fail their standardized tests (NCLB).
Maybe it's because I've already taught on the 4X4, adjusted to it and could easily go back, but the A/B is just plain stupid. Why should we be increasing a students classload by 30% each semester, when the same could be accomplished by a semester decrease of 20%. That a 50% difference in stress level for teachers and students.
Now you know why I hate going to IC meetings. Nobody else there is even remotely reasonable, won't listen to reason, see reason, understand reason if it bit them in the butt, or act on sound reasoning.
Does this make me unreasonable?

I'm Home

Spent a few days in soggy East Texas. Mom's surgery went well, I got miles of walking in trying to find my way around Baylor Medical, all in all I'd prefer chasing a little white ball. After she was released we had dinner at Joe's Crabshack where I could enjoy their Coconut Shrimp. I texted Grinnygranny and Auntypesty and they fussed a little about not being able to join us. Penni and family came over Saturday and she's looking good.
I hate the narrow seating on Southwest's flights. The only good part is the flight is only an hour and a half long of feeling like a sardine. I was not happy with Alamo Car rental and the way they tacked on extra charges when you dropped the car off. The only time I've rented a car so I really don't know how the game is played.
When we got home the Daytona 500 was taping on the DVR so we could watch the whole race. I slept through the first 300 miles, but it doesn't seem anything happens anymore in Nascar until the last 50 miles of bumper cars.
Grinnygranny and Auntypesty had to drool over the Mustang on the new Nightrider series. Good thing Grinnygranny has one or we would be out buying one today. Golly Gee the badguys are from a mercenary group called Blackriver, sound like another mercenary group in the news lately?

Cattle Call

We sit in seats for hours then stand in line like cattle
Waiting for the flight to arrive and begin the usual prattle
Of boarding the jetliner or plane
It's all the same regardless of the carriers name.

We fight for an aisle or window hoping to avoit the middle seat
And turn the nob for air because of the excessive body heat
Hoping and praying for a sleeping or silent neighbor
Instead we get a great big crashing talkative boor

The attendants do their usual routine above the baby's screams
The noise and hustle to get in the air preclude any sweet dreams
The person on the aisle has to use his laptop with elbows wide
The sap in the middle seat gets thoroughly beat in the side

Window seat needs to go potty when off goes the seat belt sign
The other two unfold and clear a path cursing the seating design
They have to resume their seats -- no standing in the aisle
Then wait to let the potty person return with the nervous smile

People try to doze or read or see the clouds and land down below
The sensation is of being really still while the land is moving quite slow
Some look at the wings holding them aloft and watch their twists and turns
Then focus on the engines whose fast moving coils the propellant fuel burns

Then comes the seat belt sign again and the announcement of the descent
A woman sprays her front polluting the whole cabin with her scent
The craft dips down in front and pressure hits your ears and face
Maybe turulence upsets the smooth and gentle pristine flight's grace

The runway looms ahead and with jolt and thud the wheels touch the ground
You feel the engines reverse and slow the missle down, then it turns around
At last the flight is done now just to get out while still safe and sound
Finally all have left the hollow tube which is getting ready for another round.

P.M. Prescott 02/18/08

update

Mom was scheduled to have surgery Thursday and I got all my ducks in a row to take emergency leave so I could go out there. She called Friday and said the doctor couldn't fit her in until Monday so today I cancelled my leave for this week and set it up for next week. She called this afternoon and the doctor has it back on for Thursday. Grrrr
I won't have to take her to get blood work on Wednesday as she's done that today, so I only need to be out there Thursday, Friday and come back on Saturday. One less day of sick leave used, but I hate having cancelled a sub and then having to turn around and request another one for basically the same days. APS doesn't have lots of subs and I could wind up without one. The upside is that I'll be back home for President's day and will be able to get out on the golf course (knock on wood that the weather will be good)
I purposely waited to make travel arraingements until it was definitive, which was a good thing.

Saturday

Right now Mom's surgery is scheduled for the 18th which is President's day. I'll only have to use two days of sick leave instead of three that we were planning. In the meantime she is in a great deal of pain, but still able to take care of herself. She just can't drive while on that much pain medication.
Today is the last day of the Albuquerque Museum's exhibit on Egypt. We had planned on going to see it during Christmas break, but never got around to it, so we're planning on going today. Auntypesty is on call for work so we may go early today or later. Weather wise it's finally warming up.
Still no final count on the Caucus. A bunch of people are wondering why all the other 20+ states had their counts done by Wed. and we have just started the provisional ballot count. -- maybe, just maybe it's the provisional ballots, which other states don't have (as far as I know) that is the problem.
If you scroll down to the bottom of this blog you will see the delegate count to date.

Crazy night

Grinnygranny got home last night and the three of us went out to vote. E left Sunday for Tucson to be with his son, who turned 5 yesterday. Hard to imagine the grandson being that old!
It only took about twenty minutes to vote, but the rest of the voting places were crazy.
In 2006, a high turnout year there were 104,000 votes cast in the entire state, Dem and Repub. This was a caucus and only Dems were voting so it was figured only 30 to 40,000 would vote in the entire state. Rio Rancho is heavily Republican so they only had one voting place -- at the high school.
Numerous voting places ran out of ballots and the line was so long to vote in Rio Rancho it took up to four hours. At the 10pm news they were still voting.
When we woke up this morning Hillary was leading by 120 votes with 153,000+ counted, four counties not tabulated yet and 17,000 provisional ballots which could take three to four weeks to count, as they have to be verified.
We have 38 total delegates to the convention with 10 of them being at large, and the breakdown with the voting this close means the remaining 28 will be split down the middle or the winner getting one or two more than the other, when that's determined.
Ya think people are interested in this election?

Right now it looks like I'll head out for Texas Tues. night, take Mom for Pre-op work up on Wed. surgery on Thrus., and bring her home on Fri. and head home Sat.
Bruce took her yesterday for the MRI and the surgery won't be set until this Friday. We all really hope this settles her back problems down and she won't need any more surgeries.

Ran across this at New Mexico FBIHOP this is the way the state's delegates break down so far.

Three congressional districts get 6 delegates each
6 at-large chosen from statewide vote
3 State leaders (Richardson, Bingaman, and Udall)
12 Super delegates

Right now it looks like districts 1 & 3 are evenly split, and Clinton had the majority in district 2.
That's 3 + 2 + 3 for Obama or 8 district delegates.
3 + 4 + 3 for Clinton or 10 district delegates.
Statewide vote could go either way, but the margin won't be enough to do anything other than split.

Obama would be 8 + 3 = 11
Clinton 10 + 3 = 13

State Leaders and Super delegates are anyone's guess.

It will cost the state millions of dollars to count the provisional ballots to determine if one or two of the At-Large delegates go the other way. Seems like a real waste of money.

Still nearly 200,000 Democratic voters from this state -- that's amazing.

Giant Upset

Giants played a heck of a game.

Mom called earlier and she needs me to go out and help until she gets over this back problem. I'm going to look at taking emergeny leave. Fortunately I didn't need to take any of that kind of leave in August. Not sure how much I can get.

Shock and Shame in Alabama

Just read Scott Horton's piece on the arrest of a 63 year old retired social studies teacher, and member of Alabama's state legislature. The ap story on it is here.
To say the least this hits a little close to home.

What was this woman's crime, other than being an elected Democrat, which seems to be the real crime here.


“We charge that Representative Schmitz’s only substantial ‘work’ was to work her official position in the Legislature to land a job through the postsecondary system,” U.S. Attorney Alice Martin said in a statement.
Schmitz was employed from January 2006 until October 2006 by the CITY Skills Training Consortium, an arm of Alabama’s troubled two-year college system. The federally funded program operated at 10 sites statewide to help at-risk youth referred by juvenile courts develop academic, behavioral and social skills. The indictment claims Schmitz made as much as $53,403 annually as a program coordinator despite rarely showing up and doing virtually nothing for the money.

As Scott Horton replies:

Let’s just pause and look at what’s going on here. A massive federal case has been launched, at a likely taxpayer cost in excess of $2 million, against a social studies teacher, who it is alleged (on the basis of sharply disputed evidence) was not putting in as many hours as she should have in teaching her classes. This has to count as one of the more absurd (if not malicious) cases I’ve seen in recent years. And remember, this is a Justice Department that can’t spare an FBI agent to look into, or a prosecutor to handle, a gang rape case involving Jamie Leigh Jones, or any of the dozens of other cases involving rape, assault and homicide in Iraq. They’re not “priorities.” On the other hand, bringing charges against Democratic office holders has been a very high priority from the day Bush took office, and it continues to be so today.

Fish or cut bait

It's finally come time to choose who to vote for on Tuesday.
This does seem to be the deciding day. I really wanted to vote for Richardson, but he faded to quickly, I admire his stance right now on letting his followers decide on their own who to vote for instead of endorsing one of the other candidates.
I really wish Edwards had been the nominee in 2004 instead of Kerry. He would have stood a much better chance of winning, then, but now he's just remembered as being on the losing ticket.
I've tried to keep an open mind concerning Hillary and Barak. I'm on record as having my doubts concerning Hillary, and that post just a little over a year ago had a well known magazine asking to post a condensed version of it in their Letters section, which I reluctantly agreed to allow them to print. (My book was just coming into print, and if the religious bookstores connected me with that magazine it would have been trouble -- the bookstores aren't interested in my book as there's not enough profit margin for them)
I agreed with Ariana Huffington that Hillary's votes on getting us into Iraq didn't make her the best candidate, and I have fervently hoped a better alternative would catch the attention of Democrats, but it hasn't happened.
I liked Barak being intelligent enough to know going into Iraq was a mistake, but it's easy to make statements like that when you're not in the frying pan of the Senate at the time. The "I told you so," position sounds better when your own neck is on the line. There is much I admire in him, and I was leaning towards him until the last two debates and the State of the Union address. I have no problem with the two of them squabbling about who sold out to big money? that's politics as usual. It's the "poor picked on me" response he's given since then. Playing the victim card. When you get into the boxing ring of Presidential politics you shouldn't be surprised if you get a bloody nose. That little repartee with Hillary, and potential First Laddie, Bill, making some disparaging remarks are love taps compared to what the Republicans have lined up in their bag of dirty tricks. When he turned away from Hillary Monday night that settled the matter in my mind. He won't stand up to the heat as front runner. Not to say he won't make a good candidate or might be a good President, but not right now.

My breadown why I'm voting for Hillary -- reluctantly up to now, but from this point on with full support.

• She's felt the blast of the Republican open hearth furnace for nearly twenty years and is still standing. Gore melted, Kerry melted, could anyone else face the viscious attacks to come and still have a chance to win? I don't think so.
• She's a shrewd politician. All of her votes in the Senate have been calculated for this election. She knew she only had one window of opportunity to grab the brass ring, and she's poised to take it.
• Everyone agrees Bush is leaving one hell of a mess. Constitutionally, economically, militarily, diplomatically. Who better to work with Nancy Pelosi (Speaker of the House) in getting the work done. She won't be going into Washington and spendiing the first two years learning the ropes. She can hit the ground running, and that will be exactly what is needed.
• She is electable. If it comes down to namebrand in the minds of voters Clinton trumps McCain or Romney.

Do I agree with her on every issue -- no, that's why I liked Kucinich first, then Richarson, then Edwards, but they're no longer options.

What would make, to me, a winning ticket.

Clinton/Obama -- the dream ticket. Reagan picked Bush even after DaddyBush called his Trickle down theory "Voodoo Economics" so it can be done. I think all Democrats would like to see, when the nomination is decided, the two kiss and make-up. Hillary will most likely offer, but it's to be seen if Barak is capable of playing second fiddle. In this scenario the real dream ticket would also see Bill Richarson as Secretary of State, and John Edwards as Attorney General. If you're going to clean up the diplomatic and judicial messes we're in right now those are the guys to do it.

Clinton/Richardson -- second choice. Not a bad ticket, but not as unifying. It could alienate black voters, but bring in more Hispanic voters.

I've read lots of bloggers fussing about the role of Bill Clinton, that he'll be the one really President, blah blah blah. Sorry I'm married and that makes me about as expert on women as any man can possibly be, and I know what Hillary will do when she's elected President. She'll hand Bill a list of Honey-do jobs.

Honey see about cleaning up the lawn of the White house, those roses in the rose garden need more fertilizer.

Honey run down to Bed Bath and Beyond and get new linens for the Lincoln Bedroom.

Honey go make a bunch of speeches supporting my policies and keep bringing in the big bucks.

Honey why don't you start a fundraiser for my Presidential library?