Meanderings

Someone I know avoided deploying to Iraq in the heat of the conflict by overstating and then milking a back injury. This is not someone I see often, but when I do see him the situation is such that I need to be.....diplomatic. It's been several years since the event, but I still seethe when I see him or even think about it because he sent someone else into harm's way because he lacked the courage to go himself. The civilian voice in my head tells me, "Let it go, nothing you can do will change it and it was some time ago anyway." My Ranger voice tells me that the guy is, "......Expletives Deleted.....," and there is no getting over an act like that. I may see him soon and need to think through my response ahead of time.

The Fifth Stanza

Energetically will I meet the enemies of my country. I shall defeat them on the field of battle for I am better trained and will fight with all my might. Surrender is NOT a Ranger word. I will never leave a fallen comrade to fall into the hands of the enemy and under no circumstances will I ever embarrass my country.

I will stand in public and recite this stanza, Mr. President.

Will you?

J'Accuse

I just finished reading a short book of poetry written by Israeli author Ahron Shabtai and translated by Peter Cole called, "J'Accuse". It was a challenging read for me, not because the material was unfamiliar or complex, but because the point of view as so very different from my own. Shabtai is a man who deeply loves his country and is harshly critical of his government's policies. He is an idealist who sincerely believes that Israel's best course of action would be to demilitarize, throw open the borders of the Territories, and to embrace those who shout for Jewish blood.

While I can empathize with his revulsion at the violence (he mentions only violence against Arabs, but it obviously goes both ways), I cannot comprehend the thinking that would assume a positive outcome for Israel if his way were made national policy. To me this is analogous to the United States inviting Al Qaeda and Taliban members to reside here so that they can see that American's aren't so bad.

No, some relationships are not reconcilable and romanticizing about a Disney ending to the Israeli-Palestinian tensions is, just like Disney, the stuff of fantasy.

MSFT CES Swan Song

What message is being sent by Microsoft's final act at the Consumer Electronics Show? Does it mean that they've given up on innovation? Will they be satisfied from here on out with incremental updates and tweaks to their software and services rather than continuing to push for world changing innovation? I guess time will tell.

I wonder....what will your footprints look like when your walk on Earth is over?

More thinking on Lamentations.... As I read more about the background of this book, the overwhelming sadness of its events consume me. Though the author is not explicitly identified, scholars believe that the book's author is the prophet Jeremiah. How desolate must he have felt to have watched his enemies destroy his beloved Jerusalem, desecrating all that was holy, enslaving his people, and rejoicing in their suffering. Though he knew that this was a fulfillment of God's promise to punish the idolators, witnessing the destruction was clearly heart wrenching. Also noteworthy is Jeremiah's uncertainty in his plea to God to restore his people to him, "unless you have utterly rejected us and are angry with us beyond measure." Clearly he doesn't know if his people will ever be forgiven or if this is God's final condemnation. How alone must he have felt to have contemplated the notion of Divine abandonment? Particularly as a prophet who had previously had such a close relationship with God - the growing reality that God has turned away must have been overwhelming. I cannot imagine the loss he must have felt.

We received the MISD annual report over the weekend. Looking at he statistics I saw something that I hadn't noticed before. Across the board, about 90 percent of our students passed the state standardized test (The MSP) in 2011. If you consider that 10 percent of our students qualify for special education support, which typically requires a 1 year or more differential between the student's assessed performance and their grade level expectations, this implies that MISD has very nearly a 100 percent effective pass rate on the MSP. Not bad for a little suburban school district.

One of my mom's favorite Bible study activities was to simply close her eyes and open her Bible and begin reading. This evening I did that and landed on Lamentations, Chapter 5 verses 20-22. These are not popular, feel good Sunday school verses that smiling teachers send home with Kindergarteners, but they are instructive nonetheless. They read, "Wherefore dost thou forget us for ever, and forsake us so long time? Turn thou us unto thee, O Lord, and we shall be turned; renew our days as of old. But thou hast utterly rejected us; thou art very wroth against us."

This is the punishing, Calvinist God of the Old Testament who would smite his own followers for generations because they didn't toe the line. The sorrow in the verses that precede these is palpable. Verse 15 says, "The joy of our heart is ceased; our dance is turned to mourning." Though this was written thousands of years ago, couldn't these same words have been written in modern day Darfur? Mogadishu? Or Calcutta? How many generations of people in these tragic places have seen little but sorrow and pestilence? Do they feel as if God has punished and then abandoned them? How does one have faith in places like those?

The Fall of Life

People I know are dying. Like the first leaves that catch a late summer breeze and float away, they are departing this life for whatever follows. It began in late 2009 when my mom passed away. Her death was timely. She had been sick for a long time and her body finally gave in to her many maladies. Last year marked the deaths of two guys who should have lived forever, Vince Lopez and Mark Jansen. This fall we lost two amazing women, Carrie Budd Naas and Suzanne Pierson Dunbar, both in their 40's, both to cancer, and both with two pre-high school aged children.

As I've tried to reconcile these deaths, I've grasped for a metaphor that would help me to understand the question, why now? This evening it came to me. I've reached the fall of my life. By fall, I mean autumn, not fall as in "The Fall of Rome".

In the fall, some of the things that were once vibrant with color begin to dim. Other things reach their full potential in the fall and only then are they able to share the full measure of their gifts with the world. And, unfortunately, some things die in the fall - especially some of the flowers that bloomed most brightly in the spring and summer their lives. This is the natural order of things and it helps me to understand, why now.

When someone reports a crime, particularly a violent crime, it is assumed that they are telling the truth. If that is the case, how is it possible for us to provide the accused the presumption of innocence?

Kabbalah teaches that human creativity works very much like the Divine energy that created the Universe. First there is Will - the desire to create. Next, Emanation, the emergence of the idea. After that, Creation, the beginning of a plan. Then, Formation, the construction of the product. Finally, Materialization or Actualization, having a completed project.

Sometimes Mom hated my inquisitiveness. This would be one of those time. With the recent loss of two friends, I've heard people reassure their children, and each other, with the thought that the departed will look down on them from above. If there isn't supposed to be sadness or sorrow in Heaven, how is it possible for people to look down here from up there. Certainly a Heaven's-Eye view of Earth would be very saddening, especially if one could see their loved ones experiencing the pains of growing up and not being able to counsel, comfort, or guide them. I don't know where I am on this issue quite yet. Still thinking.

In between bouts of writing, I flipped on the TV. Cruising the channels I watched a show about a Navy EOD team in Afghanistan, portions of the film "The Deer Hunter, and a program on the Inspirational Channel called Camp Meeting. The Camp Meeting program was interesting because the focus of the preacher's sermon was how God fulfills his promises to believers. The preacher worked his way, step by step, Scripture by Scripture laying out the evidence before his congregation. Along the way, he tossed out personal anecdotes of blessings that he had received in his life; moments in which he had been in desperate straits and God sent him miracles. The momentum build was palpable as the preacher exhorted his people to, "Stand in Faith against the Enemy, and open your arms to God's blessings."

Then the hook...

These blessings can only be activated through sacrificial giving. As Jesus sacrificed himself for mankind, we are called to uplift the Word of the Lord through our sacrificial gifts. Not comfortable donations, People of God, sacrificial gifts. (With the unstated implication that the greater the sacrifice, the greater the reward - either here or in Heaven). Then his final testimony: He was a simple country preacher and was down to his last $42.00. He had a family of 6 to feed, a broken down station wagon, and little hope on the horizon. He had nothing in his pockets, but he had his faith in his heart, so he took out his credit card and made a gift of $1000 to a preacher at a local revival meeting. Within 5 days a man showed up on his doorstep with a check for "thousands of dollars", two days later a woman contacted him and asked if she could bring money by his home to help out his family. Within two weeks he experienced abundance unknown to him before this time - and it all began with his sacrificial gift.

He closed his message with a quiet hymn as the ushers moved briskly up and down the rows collecting from those congregated in that place. I'm sure there was grocery money, rent money, and diaper money placed into those collection bins. Money that was earmarked for prescriptions, birthday gifts, and bus fare, all placed in the collection in anticipation a "Great Movement of the Spirit."

I hope they get it. Mom certainly didn't and no one had more faith than she.

What is Average Anyway?

In my math class we have a measure that we call the Bandini Line. This is the score that students must surpass to achieve a passing grade on their assignments. The name comes from a fertilizer commercial that aired in Southern California in the mid to late 1970's in which a skiier stood atop a gigantic pile of cow manure (Bandini Mountain) and unsuccessfully attempted to ski down. He face planted in the manure and that was the humor in the commercial. It was pretty low brow, but to a Junior High School boy it was the funniest thing ever.

In my math class the goal is to avoid the skiier's fate by remaining above the Bandini Line, which is 80 percent.

With the Bandini Line at 80 percent, it means that the average score on a quiz is typically in the range of 84-87 percent. Some students do not reach Bandini and some students surpass the quiz total by doing bonus questions which award them extra points. Now think about that for just a minute. In order to be "average" in my math class the students need to 84 percent on math assignments that are, at a minimum, one grade level ahead and usually 2 or 3 grade levels ahead. That's really hard, and quite an academic achievement. That means that the "average" student in my math class performs above the 90th percentile nationally. This isn't to boast, it is simply to point out the imprecision of the notion of average.

The reason that I bring this up is that earlier this school year, standardized testing results were sent to parents that included a bit of data that compared their child's score to their peers in our community. Some parents where quite distressed when they read that their child scored in the 12th percentile in a particular academic area when their teachers had been reporting all year that they had been doing fine. How is this possible?

It is possible when a lot of kids do very well on a test and their scores are very tightly grouped. If the mean score on a test is 84 percent and the standard deviation is 3 percent, that means that 2/3 of the students scored between 81 and 87 percent. It means that 96 percent of scores fall between 78 and 90 percent; so a student can fall in the 75th percentile nationally and in the 4th percentile locally.

It means that average is a very nebulous thing to define.

 

Duty? I Don't Think So.

Yesterday, the president of my local teachers union sent the membership an email that said, in part: "I also want to thank all the people who attended Tuesday's General Membership meeting.  In order for a union to be effective, it requires all its members to be engaged. Voting during elections and turning out for General Membership meetings are the basic obligations for everyone. The MIEA leadership will continue to work toward setting up structures that enable all members to meet their basic duties next year."

Excuse me, but my obligation to the union ends with the dues that are taken from my paycheck each month. I have no duty to attend meetings, vote for board members, campaign for democrats, or do anything else to support union activities. With my non-involvement I understand that my voice will not be heard, but I am quite clear that what I would have to say would not be welcomed in their meetings anyway. I also understand that non-participation means that I forfeit the right to complain about the quality of their representation. I am fine with that as well, just don't lecture me about my so-called "duty" to the MIEA.

This morning I received a bulk email from the President of the State Teacher's Union (who was a teacher and union leader in my district for many years). Here is a direct quote from the email:

"The governor came out with an ugly budget in December. Every program in the state was cut, including education. Then Washington’s economy was hit by the tsunami in Japan, unrest in the Middle East, rising oil prices and continued high rates of unemployment. All total, the state is projected to take in nearly $1 billion less than what the governor planned on just three months ago."

Don't these comments sound remarkably like the concerns that the unions excoriated the Republicans for making when they (the unions) were lobbying for Obamacare? It's a bit different when it's your ox that's getting gored, isn't it?

All of that has given renewed energy to misguided attempts to save money in the state budget by putting all K-12 educators into a new state health insurance plan. While nothing is certain yet, this idea intrigues some legislators. Based upon incomplete and oversimplified information, those legislators want to replace our health care program -- one that is administered by our members -- with a new, risky and unproven plan. The proposed takeover would sweep all K-12 employees into a new state-run plan, whether you are a WEA Select Plan member or not.

What does that mean for you? Potentially, your benefits would drop and out-of-pocket costs would rise -- maybe as much as 14 percent. Your current doctors and healthcare providers may not be part of the new system. You would have no choice in your health care options. Any programs or money your local has bargained beyond the state allocation would be gone. And while the state auditor projects the state would save $90 million, our experts suggest the cost to the state would be more than $450 million.

These Are the Three Countries Who Don't Use the Metric System [Metric]

Ugh!
Sent to you via Google ReaderThese Are the Three Countries Who Don't Use the Metric System [Metric]









As a reminder, these are the three countries who don't use the incredibly sensible metric system: Liberia, Myanmar and of course, the United States of America. U-S-A! U-S-A! Hell, we should all form some sort of alliance! Non US-people, feel free to tell us why we're dumb for not using the metric system. [Wikimedia via ZME Science] More »






Sent from my iPad

There is a rumor afoot that the losers (and I use that word factually) at the south end of the Island are once again trying to manipulate the rules of the All Island Track meet to reduce competitiveness and thereby eliminate the dominance of the Lupine Monster from the North. More to follow as this develops.

Joe Biden: Impeach a President Who Takes Us to War Against a Nation That Didn’t Attack Us

Sent to you via Google ReaderJoe Biden: Impeach a President Who Takes Us to War Against a Nation That Didn’t Attack Us**Written by Doug Powers
As you’ll see below in a Hardball interview back when the famous leg thrill was just a glimmer in the inseam of Chris Matthews’ slacks, in 2007, Joe Biden argued that the president had no constitutional authority to launch an attack without congressional approval against a nation that hadn’t attacked or threatened imminent attack on the United States. Biden also insisted that doing so is an impeachable offense.
Sheriff Joe agreed with Dennis Kucinich in those days, but ever since then Biden’s legal opinion has evolved with stickleback-like speed:

(h/t HAP)
**Written by Doug Powers
Twitter @ThePowersThatBe

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Serious Eats Slide Show

For you folks in SoCal....

http://www.seriouseats.com/2011/03/best-cheap-sandwiches-in-los-angeles-14-sandwiches-we-love-for-6-and-under-slideshow.html#show-147893