For steering federal money to banks that her husband has shares in and was a former board member.

Posted by: doubleplusundead at 02:15 AM | Comments (14) | Add Comment
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I am both unsurprised that this is a kindergarten teacher, while simultaneously horrified,

Kolowith’s students learn about the explorer’s significance — though they also come away with a more nuanced picture of Columbus than the noble discoverer often portrayed in pop culture and legend.

“I talk about the situation where he didn’t even realize where he was,” Kolowith said. “And we talked about how he was very, very mean, very bossy.”

Very, very mean and very bossy.

Nuance.

Moar,

Although lessons vary, many teachers are trying to present a more balanced perspective of what happened after Columbus reached the Caribbean and the suffering of indigenous populations.

By balanced they mean radical Marxist, Progressive or other vigorously anti-Western interpretations of the history of Columbus and the Western discovery of the Americas. 

“The whole terminology has changed,” said James Kracht, executive associate dean for academic affairs in the Texas A&M College of Education and Human Development. “You don’t hear people using the world ’discovery’ anymore like they used to. ’Columbus discovers America.’ Because how could he discover America if there were already people living here?”

Of course we don't, because most teachers are educated by professors who teach from a position of hostility toward traditional Western thought, interpretation and philosophy, and many teachers aren't educated well enough to recognize that and adjust.  Then there are those that do recognize that, but agree with the underlying philosophies and play along.  The public school system is mostly built around progressive philosophical concepts, so you have that as well.  Then obviously most textbooks and workbooks are designed by people from a higher education background, who are for the most part leftists.  Which is why we get the stupid, "How could he discover it if there were already people there?" nonsense.

In Texas, students start learning in the fifth grade about the “Columbian Exchange” — which consisted not only of gold, crops and goods shipped back and forth across the Atlantic Ocean, but diseases carried by settlers that decimated native populations.

And Europeans picked up and brought back syphilis from the Americas, educators need to quit acting like Westerners waged biological war on Native Americans.  They're bacteria, parasites and viruses, they spread with human contact, except in Madagascar, where they close their damned port every time someone sneezes, it's biology, it happens, especially in an era where people didn't really understand how the spread of disease worked.  I'll also note that the dean I quote above parrots this bullshit on the second page.

They won't teach these kids that the Natives gave Westerners nasty diseases too, because they're taught to teach that America is the bad guy,

In McDonald, Pa., 30 miles southwest of Pittsburgh, fourth-grade students at Fort Cherry Elementary put Columbus on trial this year — charging him with misrepresenting the Spanish crown and thievery. They found him guilty and sentenced him to life in prison.

“In their own verbiage, he was a bad guy,” teacher Laurie Crawford said.

See what I mean?

America, Marxism's bad guy,

And unfortunately, they'll keep getting away with this too, there's more of these jackass antics in the second page of the article.  People focus on the leftist bullshit spouted about Columbus, but that's only because the material taught is so out of control.  It's still the same leftist bullshit throughout the year, it's just slightly more subtle.  People just don't realize it because most haven't been taught anything about historiography, and that includes people with history degrees. People are not taught anything about how to identify bias in historical works (and yes, that includes your gradeschooler's textbooks), how to recognize cultural styles and biases, sources and their validity, how to separate historical fact from historical interpretation, how to recognize what schools of thought those interpretations and biases came from, and I'm sure I'm missing others, but you get the point. 

Parents need to gain a better understanding of what is going on in school classrooms.  I don't expect grade schoolers to understand these things, but parents do need to learn about this stuff at least on a rudimentary level so that they can review their student's books and what they did in class, and push back as needed.

Posted by: doubleplusundead at 07:41 PM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
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Of course it's not Obama's war, it's America's war.
Who are they talking to?

Even the people who want to give up (cough* George Will* cough) aren't calling it "Obama's war".

H/T The same place you saw it, Hot Air headlines.

Posted by: Veeshir at 12:18 AM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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I used to spend most of my online time at the Emperor's site, that's where I spent my days commenting.

It got a little rough a few years ago and since I'd been surfing mostly at work, I've avoided it. Too many "rope, tree, politician, some assembly required" comments.
I still think he has one of the best commands of invective and does a diatribe that makes me not want alexthechick to find his blog, I'm still hoping for pics.

In this post he unloads on Rinos, but that's not why I linked it.
It's for this aside to Allah's love
As an aside to Meghan: I went to biker rallies before you were even born, yet it never once occurred to me that it made me more “hip.” What I did observe was that starry-eyed young groupies showing up to gain “street creds” were incredibly easy lays. Those were the days. Apparently they haven’t changed. The supply of gullible, easy and easily forgettable fucks hasn’t diminished. Good for you, girl.


Bwahahahahhaahahhahhahhahhahaahhahaha.
Bulls-fucking-eye. Maybe Allah needs a bike.
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Posted by: Veeshir at 04:55 PM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
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Now Obama want's the left to shut up too. He has big Change to bring and everybody just needs to shut up and listen to him.
Quote
President Obama told Senate Democrats he wished "left-wing groups" would back off.

"Okay, that's funny, but why is this in Bipartisan Fail?" you ask?
Quote
The President discussed how the current tone and culture in Washington made it more difficult than it has been in the past to work in a bipartisan fashion. In particular, he singled out Republican Senators who are trying to work in a bipartisan fashion even in the context of a vocal minority in their party who doubt that the President was born in the US

He loves the birther stuff because he can ignore issues (Just like the freaking 90s), and he has some GOP critters (gee, I wonder who.) to help him do it.
They're just haggling over how much the gov't is going to take over right now.

The GOP seems to have no idea that people are angry that they taking over healthcare, not how much.
I wonder if any townhall meetings they have will wake them up.
Probably not, they'll just stop holding them or they'll be invite only.

Posted by: Veeshir at 11:08 AM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
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In case you missed the full monty of Specter-Sebelius townhall goodness, check out Panzramic for seven (seven!) videos.

Oh hellz yeah.

(doubleplusundead) Dear God, I could watch this all day...

Posted by: JoeCollins at 12:18 PM | Comments (8) | Add Comment
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1000 people working on developing the missile defense program get shitcanned. 

Posted by: doubleplusundead at 04:27 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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Dunno, but the mere mention of David Brooks' thigh is a stronger vomit inducer than a bottle of Ipecac,

Posted by: doubleplusundead at 11:06 PM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
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From A- to BBB, due to their inability to address the state fiscal disaster.

Posted by: doubleplusundead at 10:21 PM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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Among Democrats who are aware of both Benedict Arlen and Joe Sestak, 52% of them favor Sestak.  On one hand, as much as I despise Specter, Sestak may be an even bigger scumbag, but on the other hand, HAHAHAHAAAAAAA!!!!!  How'd that betrayal work out for you, Arlen?

Posted by: doubleplusundead at 09:13 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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No, seriously, the reaction to the ad is ridiculous, man up, er, nancies. If you want to argue that it was an ineffective or stupid ad, fine, but why all the squirming and panicking about how the media is going to spin this?  Why do we spend so much goddamned time wringing our hands about the fact that the media and the left are going to distort and twist what it is conservatives or GOPers say?  The ad isn't sexist, man up and say it, and slap down any leftist who says otherwise. 

But we won't, because we're way too willing to let the left set the terms of the battle, I can lay any money that tomorrow morning we'll watch the same Beltway douches squirming nervously and apologizing to Stephanopoulous or David Gregory or whoever, like we do every time we see something like this.  Really folks, it's four simple words, and an understanding that we can't continue to let the left define the terms of battle and the battlespace and expect to win. 

I keep going back to this, but I really think conservatives need to take a step back, and watch the NRA and gun nuts (and I say gun nuts in the most positive manner) to see how political fights are waged.  If you've followed the Second Amendment debate, or have gone back and learned about the evolution of the debate, you'll come away with at least some sense of how to fight the fight and win.  They don't back down, and on those occasions where they NRA doesn't step up, local activists step in and make things happen. And they're always on the attack now, gun control advocates can't seem to get any traction outside of a few Marxist havens like NY and CA.  And you'll notice, when you see Wayne LaPierre or some other pro-2nd advocate arguing, they don't let the media or Bradys define the terms of the debate.

Even in what is theoretically a politically impossible place for pro-2nd activists to see victory, they're still racking up wins, such as the bill allowing concealed carry in national parks.  The Bradys and VPC are completely demoralized, Josh Sugarmann and Paul Helmke have quit issuing press releases, they now issue lamentations.  The media screeches impotently, gun nuts point and laugh. 

Conservatives would be wise to step back and learn how to win political and culture wars from the NRA and gun nuts.

Posted by: doubleplusundead at 01:25 AM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
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Of course, we all knew this was coming. 

Gonna be interesting to see where this goes.  I've gotta think that this isn't going to happen, because there are 49 other states, and many counties, cities and towns (or townships if you're in PA) that are struggling to keep their debt under control.  Other than those in CA or solidly Marxist districts, the congresscritters know that the next election cycle is going to be ugly for those that support something like this.  They know the bailouts are unpopular, and porkulus is less so. 

The other problem with bailing out California is obvious, the second we do it, every other state and local government has absolutely zero incentive to spend responsibly, and those people who do the right thing anyway are going to grow extremely resentful of those that don't control spending. 

Posted by: doubleplusundead at 11:22 AM | Comments (15) | Add Comment
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Hell, we should be marching on Sacramento with pitchforks and torches.

Posted by: Sean M. at 07:43 PM | Comments (7) | Add Comment
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It just took coming from some retarded backbench GOPer from Alabama, referring to Chuck Schumer as "that Jew."  I'd note that a conservative blogger was the one who broke the story, according to the article.  Before the left cranks the OUTRAGE!!! to eleven, they may want to consider the rank anti-semitism that is spewed daily on their own sites, and of course the DNC's own Jew-baiting shenanigans.  There are countless reasons to despise Chuck Schumer, that he's Jewish isn't one of them.

Posted by: doubleplusundead at 10:57 PM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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Posted by: Alice H at 04:25 PM | Comments (7) | Add Comment
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On the march in America

To begin with, the legislation threatens the voluntary nature of Americorps by calling for consideration of “a workable, fair, and reasonable mandatory service requirement for all able young people.” It anticipates the possibility of requiring “all individuals in the United States” to perform such service – including elementary school students. The bill also summons up unsettling memories of World War II-era paramilitary groups by saying  the new program should “combine the best practices of civilian service with the best aspects of military service,” while establishing “campuses” that serve as “operational headquarters,” complete with “superintendents” and “uniforms” for all participants. It allows for the elimination of all age restrictions in order to involve Americans at all stages of life. And it calls for creation of “a permanent cadre” in a “National Community Civilian Corps.”

 

But that’s not all. The bill also calls for “youth engagement zones” in which “service learning” is “a mandatory part of the curriculum in all of the secondary schools served by the local educational agency.” This updated form of voluntary community service is also to be “integrated into the science, technology, engineering and mathematics curricula” at all levels of schooling.

Posted by: doubleplusundead at 09:33 AM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
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Obama administration said to be dissatisfied, wanted to be at 25% at this time.

Posted by: doubleplusundead at 11:20 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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*Everyone groans: Baaaaank ruuuuuuun*


Very good!  See, I knew you could do it!

Oh, and the reason I'm saying this is that the FDIC is heading toward insolvency.  Have a nice day!

(h/t-Slublog)

BTW, here's what a trillion dollars cash looks like.

(h/t Allah, *Sorry Vinty, too interesting not to link!)

Posted by: doubleplusundead at 12:26 PM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
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Because if we're gonna hand out tens (hundreds?) of trillions in goodie bags to try and buy votes, we're gonna have to cut back on other things, and defense systems are probably going to be one of them.

Posted by: doubleplusundead at 10:42 PM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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There's an interesting article in the Boston Globe about the stimulus bill and the rising anger by those who are not behind on their mortgages (ie the 93%) who are now going to be paying for those who are. Let's start with that, if you listened to the news, you'd think that it was 7% who are up to date and 93% who are not. Seeing the actual numbers is really interesting. There was also a study that showed that the default problem is pretty much concentrated in five states.

There's some fascinating discussions in the column, including a point blank admission by a supporter of the bailout that it's not fair but that something still needs to be done.  That's a position that I don't think is the best, but, hey, bonus points for copping that it sucks for those who are stuck with the bill.

For further discussion, including my being the heartless bitch y'all know and don't actually hate, below. 
more...

Posted by: alexthechick at 01:52 PM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
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