Don't I look like Obama?

 

Blog Love

Chiba has a lovely post about his daughter:

My kid's friend invited her to the Disney On Ice show at the Patriot Center this morning. It fell to me to deliver her to her friend's house. I meant to get up at 7, get her up immediately, get her ready to go, and leave at 8. Naturally, I overslept. Woke up at 7.30 with a start and went looking for my kid.

She was sitting at the table, eating her breakfast. Bagel, yogurt, and a cup of milk. She got it ALL by herself. I was so proud of her. It's a pretty big step for a kid to move into some semblance of self-sufficiency like that. She was even already dressed. I nearly cried.

Sniff

just because you're paranoid...

This afternoon, I found myself in the strange position of wanting to write a post defending Sarah Palin.

I know, very strange. Until now, I've considered her candidacy, and especially her interviews to be a train wreck that I wanted not to watch but couldn't help tuning into with horrified fascination.

Well, I read an article this afternoon, from Fox news, which was condemning her and it made me think twice about whether or not she was really so bad.

Imagine my surprise when I get home, prepare to write a long post defending her and I look for the article online only to see that it has completely disappeared!

My guess is that Fox suddenly realized that one of its reporters had refused the kool-aid and yanked the story.

Here's the (dead) link to the story: Conservatives Begin Questioning Palin's Heft

I will print my defense of Palin when they put their article back online.

Update: the link has now disappeared from the google news listing, but, as of 7:28 Sunday night, was still on Digg:

My head just exploded

After reading this:

" . . . where it is the taxpayers looking to bail out. But ultimately, what the bailout does is help those who are concerned about the healthcare reform that is needed to help shore up our economy. Um, helping, oh -- it's got to be all about job creation too. Shoring up our economy, and putting it back on the right track. So healthcare reform and reducing taxes and reining in spending has got to accompany tax reductions, and tax relief for Americans, and trade, we've got to see trade as opportunity, not as a competitive, um, scary thing, but 1 in 5 jobs being created in the trade sector today. We've got to look at that as more opportunity. All of those things under the umbrella of job creation. This bailout is a part of that."


And the video is even worse, because Palin says this blather with such conviction.

In related news, Palin has decided to evade conviction in Troopergate by employing the Chewbacca defense

Trying to avoid work

copied from Chiba

* Put your music player on random.
* Post the first line from the first 32 songs that play, no matter how embarrassing the song.
* Let everyone guess what song and artist the lines come from.
* Bold the songs when someone guesses correctly.
* Looking them up on Google or any other search engine is CHEATING!

1. See a man standing over a dead dog
2. These twenty acres and one [june meal?] from the alabama trust
3. Maybe you wanna give me kisses sweet
4. Flying in silver bird across the sky
5. She's got her ticket
6. Meet me where the river turns
7. Yo, looking back on the boogie when cats used to harmonize?
8. You call me the rock, I can rock you all night long
9. Give me back my broken life
10. I was not created in the likeness of a pod
11. Sorry, is all that you can say
12. Elevator going up! In the cleaning corridor of the 51st floor
13. Well now its two, there's two trains running
14. There I was one night, just a normal guy
15. There's something happening here, what it is ain't exactly clear
16. I sincerely miss those heavy metal bands
17. Baby Baby baby, what's it going to be?
18. I got the cocaine to keep me the cocaine to keep me home
19. Untie these strings from my heart
20. Unburdened of their passengers the taxis have all scattered
21. Now along about 1825 I left tenessee very much alive
22. Now I don't I used to Now I'm in Now I don't
23. I think I lost it let me know if you come across it
24. I drew a picture of you you and your anchor tattoo
25. When your weary, feeling small, when tears are in your eyes
26. Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us
27. When you seem like days to me, no time on my hands
28. Sleeping, always sleeping, you so sleepy you can't even hold your head up
29. Yo yo what's up, yo gimme some of that gangsta ass shit, yo know what I'm saying
30. Our fingers touch upon my lips, its a morning yearning, morning yearning
31. Hey baby I ain't asking what you do
32. Blackbird singing in the dead of night

Housebreaking the Students

In Socrates Wake directed me to this article, which has a wonderful line about teaching:

“My view is that you really fall into a trap when you start allowing what you believe about your students to dictate how you teach your discipline,” he answered. “Too often these days we end up setting up our courses in light of what we believe about our students and we end up not teaching them. At best, we end up housebreaking them.”

I'm not sure I agree with the sentiment, although the principle is sound. In general, we cannot say that a student has successfully learned, for example, how to write, unless he attains an absolute level of proficiency. This measure must ignore what level they started at. While our students arrive in the class with a variety of backgrounds, skills and talent, they should leave the classroom with some uniformity of proficiency.

It is derelict in the extreme to excuse poor students because "they started off too weak".

That being said, we must first meet our students where they are, not where we would like them to be. I may have a goal for the end of the semester, but I cannot begin the semester losing half the class because I speak in ways incomprehensible to them or use terms that they don't understand.

I, however, would love to explore ways to avoid housebreaking my students.

My beautiful election enters its dark phase.

Peggy Noonan is well on her way to becoming my favorite columnist. Today's piece just put it over the top for me. I mean:

Bambi is playing Chicago style.

There's a musicality to that line that has been resonating with me all morning.

Noonan also has voiced a thought I've been having for almost a year now:

A final point. Do you ever have the passing thought that the presidential election doesn't matter as much as we think? Whoever wins will govern within more of less the same limits, both domestically and internationally. A New York liberal leaning toward Mr. McCain told me this week he has no fear that Mr. McCain may be a more militant figure than Mr. Obama. We already have two wars, "we're out of army." Even if Mr. McCain wanted a war, he said, he couldn't start one.

The funny thing about this idea is how vehemently my friends, both liberal AND conservative react to this idea.

The Good War?

This article (hat tip:Andrew Sullivan) reinforces my concerns with our next president, whoever he may be.

While I recognize the national interest in nailing down areas of civil disorder in order to prevent anti-American terrorist from gaining toeholds and training grounds, I wonder whether we could do more good than harm by waging war to control the areas.

Obama has been much more forceful than McCain on sending more troops to Afghanistan. I worry that, bad as Iraq has been, its nothing compared to what a protracted conflict in the tribal areas between Afghanistan and Pakistan could be.

Are we going to end up looking at the Bush years with nostalgia? I shudder to think.