Day: August 19, 2013

Categories
Express Yourself

A Letter To My Next Girlfriend

Dear Someone,
I use someone because I probably don’t know your name at this point in my life.

Take no offense; Don’t be angry and come at me with a knife!

So…yeah you and me huh? That’s pretty sweet right?

Dam I’m four lines in and I already came down with writers block

That’s nuts because I usually can always seem to talk

Since I always talk a big game

Say I have no shame
Don’t care if you use “I dare you” with my name

But when I talk to someone I like

I clam up air tight

That’s how you know I ain’t feeling right (in a good way)

Have no fear though that shyness will easily thaw

It’ll give way to thing’s that’ll make you laugh or go “awww”

 

So what’s this letter about you ask, as do I in all honesty

Well keep reading and then you’ll see

It’s about me as the next paragraph will show

It’s also about you, I just wanted you to know

 

I don’t know what you’ll know about me at this stage

Probably some good things, hopefully nothing that’ll put you in a rage

I’m very open about myself though, I have nothing to hide

There’s no “I’ll tell you another time” or any story I’ll push aside

I wonder if you’ll know my favorite color is orange but I love to wear black

Or that I love my Lakers, basketball, and miss hearing “T-Mac to the rack!”

Maybe you’ll know I actually have a decent fashion sense (#HighFashion)

Or that I never shy away from giving my $.02

 

What about you? There are so many questions I can sit here and ask

Writing them all down though………dam that’d be quite a task

Have we been friends? Best friends? Or total strangers who just met

If we were total strangers let me say..”Finally a fish in the net!”

(Referring to that “plenty fish in the sea saying. Okay, not funny? Okay..)

Ah so many questions I could ask but it’s 1am and I’d love to sleep tonight

Instead of having my brain work in overdrive, blasting through all the red lights

 

Well whoever you were to me and whenever you do read this, let me just say

I’m happy you’re with me and not some other guy

I obviously like you, enjoying hanging out, and talking as well

I can’t say where this will go or how it’ll work

All I can say is to just kick back and let life run it’s course

 

Good night,

Justin

Categories
Featured News

Family of Autistic Boy Receives Hate Letter

It’s easy to voice your ignorant and heartless words when hiding behind “ANONYMOUS”…..
The typed, one-page letter refers to the young boy as a “nuisance” and a “wild animal” before suggesting the family move or “euthanize” the child.The police have been contacted and should they have grounds, charges will be filed against the letter’s author.

Here is the letter:

SOURCE: CityNews

 

Categories
Politics

Meet The New Member of The Obama Family

Meet Sunny. Born in Michigan in June 2012, and arrived at the White House today. Sunny is a Portuguese Water Dog and the proud new member of the Obama family. Move over Bo!

Categories
Education

Thanks To Republicans, 57,000 Children Cut From Head Start Program

Just the way the Republicans planned it.

Head Start programs across the country eliminated services for 57,000 children in the coming school year to balance budgets diminished by the federal sequester, cutting 1.3 million days from Head Start center calendars and laying off or reducing pay for more than 18,000 employees, according to federal government data scheduled for release Monday.The latest numbers, based on the results of “reduction plans” Head Start grantees submitted to the Department of Health and Human Services, fall short of earlier predictions by the Obama administration that 70,000 children would lose access to preschool because of the mandatory 5 percent cuts. But the cuts will still affect tens of thousands of poor families across the country who rely on Head Start for early learning programs, day care and a network of social services and medical care.

The numbers aren’t as bad as some early projections; Virginia, Maryland and D.C. lost about 1,700 spots total.

The initial administration projection was based on “a worst-case scenario” in which all reductions would focus on children’s access to Head Start, said a senior administration official who was unauthorized to publicly discuss the matter, because the information had not yet been released. In reality, grantees had some flexibility in how they cut their budgets as long as they maintained quality and prioritized children’s health and safety.Some Head Start centers focused on cutting administrative and support services, such as transportation. Others chose to shorten the school year or the school day. The latest figures show that 18,000 program hours will be cut next year by centers that will start later in the day or end earlier.
Categories
Education

The Common Core Follies

You know it’s late August because the school stories are coming fast and furious. And speaking of furious, how about the reaction to the Common Core standards that are supposed to prepare our schoolchildren for work and college? In New York, where the scores declined in the debut year for the standards, the knives came out to excise the Common Core and implement…well, that wasn’t clear. Teachers, parents and administrators from both sides of the political spectrum were worried about what the test score said about what students learned, and a few were so angry that they threatened charges.

This points to the problem inherent in using test scores to evaluate…anybody. Teachers didn’t have the time, or the training, to fully implement the standards into their lessons. Students didn’t have time to learn the material and were tested on material they didn’t learn in a format that was alien to many of them. It was also the first year of the tests, and in most first years, scores drop.

The assumption, though, is that the Common Core standards are testable, or at least worthy of teaching. Why is it that every student has to go to college, or be college-ready? Clearly, and it is crystal clear to educators, not all students will go to college, and many who are there won’t finish because higher education is not for them. I understand that this is educational heresy and that I am swimming in dangerous waters. After all, the classes that I teach are considered college preparatory. My standards are based on the assumption that students should be analytical learners who can write coherently and synthesize what they’ve learned. In that sense, the Common Core has caught up to me. But unlike the Core, I understand that not all students will reach readiness by the time they graduate from high school and that many of them will not succeed in an institution of higher learning. So, in a sense, I am preparing them for something they will not use. That’s a waste of time and resources.

In addition, the tests will be administered on computers and only computers, the assumption being that all students have the same competency with technology. What of students who don’t (and I know of plenty of them)? What happens when it is the technology itself, and not the student’s knowledge, that is the problem? And what happens when it is the school district’s inability to purchase technology equipment or schedule adequate rooms or provide quiet places for testing that is part of the problem? These concerns have been waved off by some states, including New Jersey where I have been the wavee. How does that help evaluate students and teachers.

The Common Core Standards, like other previous attempts at measuring student growth, are devoted to the essential education problem: that of trying to have every student master the same material by the same date and to be evaluated in the same way at the same time. When are we going to realize that this has not worked and will not work adequately in the future? It’s even more vital that we get this right now, because teachers’ jobs are on the line. Politicians don’t understand this. Teachers do, but unfortunately, we are being shut out of the system for reasons that have nothing to do with pedagogy and everything to do with union politics and the unending search for those terrible teachers we keep hearing about.

There will be more about the Common Core in the school year to come, but keep in mind that any lockstep program is going to have problems. We are experience the latest one.

For more, go to www.facebook.com/WhereDemocracyLives and on Twitter @rigrundfest

Categories
Politics

Greenwald’s Partner Detained – Whitehouse Denies Involvement

The White House said Monday that it was not involved in the British government’s decision to detain the partner of Glenn Greenwald at Heathrow Airport over the weekend.

White House spokesman Josh Earnest said the detainment of David Miranda, who lives with Greenwald in Brazil, was “a law enforcement action that was taken by the British government.”

“The United States was not involved in that decision or that action,” said Earnest, who acknowledged the British government did inform the United States that the detention was likely to occur. 
“There was a heads up that was provided by the British government,” Earnest said.

The White House spokesman said that he was unaware of any conversations Miranda had with British authorities.

Earnest said that he could not “provide any insight” into whether the U.S. would be briefed on information gleaned during Miranda’s detention, and refused to comment more broadly about whether the White House was concerned by his detention.

“This is a decision they made on their own,” Earnest said.

Earnest did not rule out that the U.S. had obtained information from Miranda’s electronic devices. 

Miranda was held for nearly nine hours, and had electronic equipment, including his cellphone, laptop, camera and memory sticks, confiscated by British authorities.

On Sunday, Greenwald, the journalist who revealed top-secret National Security Agency surveillance programs, called the detainment of Miranda “a profound attack on press freedoms and the news gathering process.”

Categories
Featured Racism racist

Former President of the Clowns Association: Rodeo Incident a “Sad Day” for Clowns

Judy Quest, past president of Clowns of America International: It was a sad day in the clown world when a “clown” at the Missouri State Fair put on a mask in the likeness of President Barack Obama and wore a broomstick attached to his behind to perform in a rodeo in America’s Heartland. …

As someone who has performed as a “real” clown for 32 years and has taught the craft to hundreds of clowns, I would like the world to know that we have a code of ethics that we adhere to so that our life of making the world smile goes on without hurting people. …

What of the children who were in the audience and being taught to respect our president and government? What of every person in the audience who hates racism?

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