Here we go again.

“Rep. Louie Gohmert, a Republican from Texas, said Sunday that he wished Dawn Hochsprung, the principal of the Sandy Hook Elementary School, had been armed on Friday with an M-4 assault rifle to counter Adam Lanza, the alleged shooter who killed 20 children and seven other adults.

"I wish to God she had an M-4 in her office locked up — so when she heard gunfire, she pulls it out and she didn’t have to lunge heroically with nothing in her hands," Gohmert said on "Fox News Sunday" with Chris Wallace.” http://read.bi/V6W9za

Sweet Baby Jesus On A Pogo Stick, in just a few short sentences the Representative of the First Congressional District of Texas managed to pack to so much foolishness in to such a small space of time that he created a black hole of political discussion. No logic, reason, or common sense can escape the field that surrounds this talking point. I can not figure out who is more bone-jarringly stupid, the Representative or the troglodytes that voted for the man.

That this man is in deadly earnest, and I do stress the deadly part of that expression, is depressing. Let’s get this right, by the (ill) logic of Rep Gohmert every Grade School, Middle School, and High School principle should have a gun safe in his or her office and be ready to rock and roll when the bad guy(s) show up. Genius!

So, along with theories of childhood development, teaching strategies, and principles of management and leading, our principal should also take time out of their busy day to get SWAT training. Again, Genius!

But why stop there? Sooner or later those dirty Moo-slems will be dashing through the hallways with their explosive vests and ruining our pep rallies. Best to have that principal pick up some EOD training along the way.  

This kind of thinking is so ridiculous, so thumb-sucking, so bloody awful, as to be unintentionally satirical. Seriously, a gun safe? In a principal's office? Loaded with high-powered semi-automatic, military style, weaponry and ammo? This is the Ne plus ultra of really bad ideas.

But for ideologues like Gohmert, the answer always is more guns deployed to more people. And not only more guns, but more concealed guns deployed to more people. These 2^nd Amendment ultras will not be happy until even toddlers are packing heat.

I keep reading these things. I keep hearing these things. And I keep violating my goody-two-shoes liberal world view and ask myself “what is wrong with these people?” Seriously what kind of warped, perverted, and ultimately self-defeating world view is able to short-circuit common sense and rational thought to come up with the bloody-minded idiocy of a Louie Gohmert?

I find this really scary. I find it appalling. Get a grip guys and gals! Educators are not SWAT team members. That is not their jobs! To give them that job is to expect them to do something utterly antithetical to their profession. These people wanted to educate our next generation, not go Rambo on some malcontent who invades the sanctity of the learning environment. 

Schools are supposed to be safe-zones, a sanctuary from the rough and tumble of work-a-day life. They are not supposed to be armed fortresses. That any one, never mind a member of Congress, would propose they be turned into an armed fortress is beyond ridiculous. What is the next step? Do we mandate that all school hallways be wide enough to accommodate an M1A1 Abrams tank? Do we then mandate that every school then park that tank next to the cafeteria? Yes, let’s, that way no one would dare mess with the hall monitors, right? Nothing like staring down the barrel of 120mm smooth bore cannon to garner some respect from those snot-nosed brats, am I right?

I need to stop, the more I think of what Goober Gohmert said, the angrier I become. That he said this bit of tomfoolery was bad enough. That he was not immediacy slapped down by his host Chris Wallace is worse. That the network that Wallace works for is designed to give air and promote the notions of the likes of Louie Gohmert and other Right Wing hacks and ideologues sets my blood boiling. If I stop to consider that this is just the beginning of the “debate” we will have on gun control, I may just loose what little composure I have left. It is days like this that make me wish the Mayans were predicting the end of the world and not just ending a long count calendar. I am so ready for that big honking asteroid to whip around and do to us what it did to the dinosaurs. I only have one request, please make the center of impact the First Congressional District of Texas.

Schools Continue to be the Front Lines of the Culture Wars; Texas Edition

Cynthia Dunbar does not have a high regard for her local schools. She has called them unconstitutional, tyrannical and tools of perversion. The conservative Texas lawyer has even likened sending children to her state's schools to "throwing them in to the enemy's flames". Her hostility runs so deep that she educated her own offspring at home and at private Christian establishments.

Now Dunbar is on the brink of fulfilling a promise to change all that, or at least point Texas schools toward salvation. She is one of a clutch of Christian evangelists and social conservatives who have grasped control of the state's education board. This week they are expected to force through a new curriculum that is likely to shift what millions of American schoolchildren far beyond Texas learn about their history.

The board is to vote on a sweeping purge of alleged liberal bias in Texas school textbooks in favour of what Dunbar says really matters: a belief in America as a nation chosen by God as a beacon to the world, and free enterprise as the cornerstone of liberty and democracy.

"We are fighting for our children's education and our nation's future," Dunbar said. "In Texas we have certain statutory obligations to promote patriotism and to promote the free enterprise system. There seems to have been a move away from a patriotic ideology. There seems to be a denial that this was a nation founded under God. We had to go back and make some corrections."

Those corrections have prompted a blizzard of accusations of rewriting history and indoctrinating children by promoting rightwing views on religion, economics and guns while diminishing the science of evolution, the civil rights movement and the horrors of slavery.

Snip

Arizona's assault on diversity education is only a small part of the iceberg dear reader.

More at the Guardian UK 

All Trick No Treat

Quentin Patrick, 22, an ex-convict in Sumter, South Carolina shot and killed a trick-or-treater T.J. Darrisaw who came to his home on Halloween — spraying nearly 30 rounds with an assault rifle from inside his home after hearing a knock on the door. T.J.’s 9-year-old brother, Ahmadre Darrisaw, and their father, Freddie Grinnell, were injured but were released after being treated at a hospital.
T.J.’s 9-year-old brother, Ahmadre Darrisaw, and their father, Freddie Grinnell, were injured but were released after being treated at a hospital.
Patrick left his porch light on — a general signal for kids that the house was open for trick and treating. The boy’s mother and toddler sibling were in the car.
Patrick emptied the AK-47 — shooting at least 29 times through his front door, walls and windows after hearing the knock. He said that he had been previously robbed. That may be so, but it is unclear what an ex-con was doing with a gun, let alone an AK-47.

http://jonathanturley.org/2008/11/02/south-carolina-man-shoots-and-kills-12-year-old-trick-or-treater/

Does The Obama Administration Have ANY Learning Curve What So Ever?

Israel is close to reaching a deal with the United States that will accommodate the so-called "natural growth" of settlements in the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories, the Israeli ambassador to Washington has told Al Jazeera.

Michael Oren said on Tuesday that the US had agreed with Israel to a temporary halt to settlement building activity in the Palestinian West Bank and East Jerusalem, rather than a total freeze.

"The agreement was a time-limited halt - or a pause, if you will - to the settlement construction, that would allow for a certain amount of what we would call 'certain life growth' in the territories," Oren said.

Snip

Sometimes the only option for Analysis viz the Mid East is total despair. To limit a Likud government to "natural growth" viz the settlement is to impose no limits at all. This is a favorite con of Likud governments going all the way back to Menachem Begin. It is a loophole that the Israeli government will drive untold number of moving vans through. Sweet Baby Jesus on a Pogo Stick what is Obama thinking?

The Forgotten Epidemic--AIDS Ravages Minorities

THURSDAY, Sept. 11 (HealthDay News) -- The rate of new HIV infections among young gay or bisexual black men is significantly higher than new infections among whites and Hispanics of the same age, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced Thursday.

"The number of new HIV infections among young black men who have sex with men is alarming," Dr. Kevin Fenton, director of the CDC's National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD and TB Prevention said during a new teleconference.

Among black males aged 13 to 29, the incidence of HIV infection was 1.6 times higher than that of whites and 2.3 times higher than for Hispanics, according to findings published in the Sept. 12 issue of the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

Forty-eight percent of new infections among black men were among those aged 13 to 29, compared with 31 percent for whites and 21 percent for Hispanics. This finding highlights the need to reach men at an early age and teach them about HIV prevention, Fenton said.

"There were more new HIV infections in black men who have sex with men between the ages of 13 and 29 than any other group of men who have sex with men, regardless of race or age," Dr. Richard Wolitski, acting director of the CDC's division of HIV/AIDS Prevention, added during Thursday's teleconference.

The reasons why young black men are being infected with HIV at a relatively early age aren't clear. Some factors may include the stigma of homosexuality, lack of access to HIV prevention services, and an underestimation of personal risk, Wolitski said.

In addition, the prevalence of HIV in the black community makes it more likely for someone to become infected, the expert said. Another theory is that many young black gay and bisexual men choose older men as partners, making it more likely for them to become infected, he said.

Snip

For all new U.S. cases of HIV in 2006, white men who have sex with men accounted for 46 percent of cases, followed by gay or bisexual black men, who accounted for 35 percent, and Hispanic gay and bisexual men, at 19 percent.

Women too, especially black women, are affected by HIV. "Compared to women of all races, black women bear the heaviest burden of HIV," Fenton said.

Among black women, the incidence of HIV was 14.7 times higher than for white women. Among Hispanic women, the HIV infection rate was 3.8 times higher than that for white women, according to the report.

Hispanics are disproportionately affected by HIV, Wolitski said. "Hispanics represent 18 percent of new HIV infections while representing 15 percent of the total U.S. population," he said. "Men make up 76 percent of new infections among Hispanics, the majority of whom were men who have sex with men."

In August, the CDC released new estimates of the number of HIV new cases in 2006, in the United States, which now total 56,300 and are significantly higher than the previous estimate of 40,000. "We learned that the HIV epidemic was worse than previously known," Fenton said.

These findings should renew our sense of urgency about HIV prevention, Fenton said. "To be able to end the HIV epidemic in the United States, it is absolutely essential that we reverse the years of increases of HIV incidence among gay and bisexual men," he said.

Snip

Let's hear for Abstinance Only Education! Notice that the cohort with worst statistics is the 13-29 year old black males. Now where would the first part of that cohort be? Perhaps school? And they are being taught what? Garbage, that is what they are being taught.

John McCain and Education

At the NAACP convention John McCain decided to roll out his “ideas” on education. If anything points to the intellectual bankruptcy of the Republican Party it was this speech. Just like every Republican since Nixon McCain suggested that vouchers are the solution for the education crisis.

Republicans endless faith in the free market and in privatization is heartwarming. Even after the manifest failures of Air line deregulation, Bank Deregulation, and Iraq Contractor debacle the Elephants still believe that private solutions are the best public policy. Just put some cash in the parents hands and they will pick the right schools.

Leaving the philosophical debate alone, let us look at the proposal itself. Every voucher plan put forth by the Republican has been woefully underfunded. There is no private school out there that can be had for three to four thousand dollars. Most public schools spend twice that amount per pupil. The question of how cash-strapped parents are going to make up the difference is blissfully ignored. Parents who try to survive on minimum wage jobs would have to spend ¾ of their pitiful salaries on education to get decent schooling for their children.

Vouchers for low-wage earners and the poor are essentially an abandonment of those who are most in need. The under-funded and failing schools of the inner-cities and the rural areas would be further decimated. The Republican plan is really about cutting funding to Education and further impoverishing the rural and urban poor. Do you really think the Elephants are going to raise taxes to really support the $15,000 to $30,000 per student hit a real voucher program would cost?

Going a bit deeper, let us say the Free Market fanatics are serious and are willing to fund the vouchers program. Let us say this is not just no child left behind on steroids; yet another underfunded boondoggle that ends up making the situation worse. Even under these circumstances; that of full funding, vouchers fails. Schools are failing because neighborhoods are failing. They fail because communities are resource poor. They fail because of economic realities on the ground.

Americans have a great faith in education, perhaps too great. Education is not a cure all; even the best funded schools run by the most dedicated educators can not solve the underlying economic and social realities of blighted communities. Great schools can not provide jobs. Great schools can do nothing about chaos of inner-city life, about the poverty, about the desperation, about the despair. Great schools can do little about the desperate realities of rural poverty. All schools can do is perhaps be a ticket out such situations. Even then that only works for a lucky few who escape; it is no solution for the majority that remains. Our educational crisis is a symptom of a much larger malfunction. It is a reflection of our abandonment of those who are in the greatest need. It is an abandonment of our once cherished belief that hard working people deserve a decent reward for the sweat that comes from their brows.

There is a radical solution to the education crisis. We can make our school system the envy of the world again but it requires killing off several sacred cows. The first cow that needs to go to the slaughter house is local funding and control of our schools. Local control is a 19^th Century notion that has no place in the 21^st Century. Far too many localities are just too resource poor to do a decent job of educating the children they are responsible for. Resource rich areas need to support resource poor areas and the only way that really evens out is on a federal level.

Since it is the Feds who will have to foot the bill for any real reform of the school system the Feds have every right to set the standards. Local control will have to be sacrificed and schooling will become much more uniform. Pointy headed bureaucrats in Washington are paying the piper, pointy headed bureaucrats will call the tune.

The second sacred cow to the slaughterhouse will have to be tenyor. Teachers have to be accountable and there has to be a way of dismissing underperforming or burnt out teachers. To be really serious about this the process has got to be de-politicized; again we are talking standards. Teachers have unions because school systems and parents have used and abused them. Teachers used to be hideously underplayed and were placed in horrendous work conditions. Unprotected teachers will again become used and abused by the school systems they work for. We expect so much from teacher yet we pay them so little. With this in mind we have to find a serious way to review teacher performance. We need real oversight. Hint, this does not mean testing; not for the teachers nor for the students. Standardized test only test someone’s ability to take a standardized test. No child left behind has been an absolute disaster because of its fetish for testing. Teachers have been forced to teach to the test. Student bored with the mind-numbing rote learning have been tuning out and dropping out at prodigious rates. No Child has harmed at risk children; the very cohort it was supposed to be helping.

Thus we reach our third sacred cow for the slaughterhouse, the very notion of education itself. We are still locked into a notion of schools as some sort of knowledge factory, of schools turning out a standardized product known as graduates. The thing is children are not widgets’ to be spit out a receiving dock. What is it that we are really trying to achieve with education? What we should be trying to achieve is rational ,informed, citizens. That means they need to know how science works, how economic works, how government works, how math works and how to read and write. Most importantly students must be taught rational thought and logic. Unfortunately this runs counter of parents wishes that children be taught what they believe however irrational that may be. Schools are failing because ideologues of all stripes have forced them to teach garbage. Our schools are failing because or politics are failing. We would rather use our schools as yet another political football than get serious about what we truly desire from our educators. We are ignorant in science because we allow “intelligent” design to be taught. We are ignorant in history because we allow Afrocentrism to be taught. We are ignorant of politics because civics is ignored while we cram our kids full of useless information about state capitals.

None of this is going to be solved by school vouchers. Public schools are part of the commons, of we the people. We as a nation must decide what are core values are, we must decide if we truly value education or not. If we really do value education then we can find the compromises needed to turn our failing schools around. Like most Republicans John McCain values market forces over everything. He does not believe in the public space, in we the people. That is why he wants to privatize the schools. He only cares about the fat cats and big winners in society; not about ordinary people. He is more than happy to see ordinary peoples children end up uneducated surfs in McJobs, the question is are you?