Does the adult who monitors them work for free?

What will a couple of nine year olds do if they can get their hands on some weapons grade janitor tools?

When I was a middle school teacher, we had an annual day trip for our seniors to a dude ranch which ended in our "prom."

When we arrived the students debarked the buses, and after a quick orientation, were dismissed to go to activities, i.e. swimming pool, pool table, horse shoes, horse riding, volley ball, lounging around, etc.

When I was "making rounds" the desk told me that a group of student had checked out archery equipment and gone out to the range. I ran out and when I got to the range they had chosen sides and were having a "bow and arrow fight." For one of the very few times in many years of teaching, I blew my whistle!

Anyway, what Newt (he was a teacher?) forgets, is the application of Murphy's Law to education. He would farm out nine year olds to work in nuclear plants. What could go wrong?

--imm

I'll give you my take on it all. Because that's all I've got.

Drum circles are about rhythm, which people have in varying degrees. When a rhythm is going, anyone can join in. Ability, above that of finding the beat, is irrelevant, and everyone contributes to the collective effort. Really great drummers get to show off their skills against a background of steady, but evolving rhythm. Everybody rocks. Everybody grooves. Kumbaya.

We've had kids as young as 5 sit in. Some demonstrated great precocity. And a single person usually can't derail the group. Sometimes players will introduce other instruments. Flutes and recorders are most common, I've brought my guitar.

But what's it really all about. Some people use rhythm to discharge anxiety. (Some use other means.) Drumming, dancing, playing an instrument are all methods that can be used to productively channel anxiety. Those kinds of people, confined to a park, will find each other, and get to drumming, as sure as gamblers would start a poker game. As I kid I drummed on desks at school, pots and pans at home, garage bands later. Drum circles are great fun, and are pretty much anarchistic. Perhaps that's why they appear so easily out of OWS groups.

The rub for me, and perhaps them, is that drummers can be hard to tune out, especially when they go on 24/7. The drums command attention, but they are not shouting truths; I think they're a distraction for the movement, not necessary but inevitable, given the density of people and the low threshold for drum circle "music." People love to make music.

I think limiting the hours, or to marches makes sense. Otherwise a drum circle is like a corporation. It can't die.

--imm

I was looking at the attack on California pot dispensaries. A friend recently said, "They always send out those letters. They never follow through."

Nevertheless, the JD has threatened to go after the landlords, confiscate the property -- that's booty, folks. So even if the threats are empty, who wants to take the chance? Why must they go after pot heads, medical or not? It goes against Obama's campaign promises. Is this a jobs-welfare program for justice types who would have no one to prosecute?

How about these ALEC written laws to "keep out the vote" in the Republican controlled states? Why isn't the constitutional professor using his communication skills and his justice department to help people who want to vote? (He never mentions ALEC. Why?)

And why is he a supply sider who goes along with the "job creators" scam? And his health care "solution" was limited to things already done by Republicans. The wars, the banks, the schools, the environment, pipelines, labor -- all follow Republican policy.

So what has Obama done that's Democratic, or liberal? (Note: Ending DADT extends the right to die or be disabled protecting the interests of the rulers. How about ending DOMA? Too progressive? Trite social concessions that cost little, and constitute a bone tossed to the base, are exceptions that prove the rule.)

So what am I missing?


--imm

He said it. At least six sources here. Quotation marks abound. Hint: "Adjustments" don't mean increases.
http://www.kaiserhealthnews.org/daily-repo...

--imm

Consider this thought experiment: How best to implement right wing, oligarchic, corporate objectives in the US? Things that even GW Bush could not accomplish because the majority did not trust his ass. You need stealth, -- such stealth that even the stealth is undetectable. Because this job cannot be done without the cooperation of the victims.

So it falls to a Democrat, who is unassailable. Being a minority is helpful (woman or a Jew could also do the job) because, past incredulity, a layer of protection is automatically provided that questions the motives of questioners. Being "moderate" (read reasonable) placates some criticism from the left. ("He's thinking 47 moves ahead. We don't understand this brilliance.") And there is the occasional liberal gesture, mostly for gays these days. Oh, and he acknowledged there are atheists once or twice. Not much for women, the poor, immigrants, workers, education. Nothing against military and prison industrial complex. Supply siders get respect. Hard to be worse than Bush/Cheney on regulation enforcement. There's always budget cuts.

Occasional liberal feints are made. This is chess, after all. The hero always gets defeated somehow, but the end goal of retaining the base, is actually advanced, because credit is given for apparent effort, even in defeat. Even for bad play.

The president never does anything to remedy the overarching economic and social problem we face: wealth and income disparity. This disparity, sometimes represented by the Gini Index, is the worst it's been since 1929. After that crash, and recovery, Gini was low (good) until Vietnam. Since then government has morphed gradually into an organism that transfers wealth to richest few. By tweaking a percent here and there, they have pretty much looted the country, and are down to selling off the assets. But there is always more to take, they think.

Obama, since taking office has not done a thing to slow that conveyor belt that delivers the wealth of the people to the very few. And he has kept the support of the people that should be opposing him. That is the objective of the game, to preempt opposition from the left.

It's ironic that a main obstacle to the corporate Republicans is the tea party. They oppose the things that Bush Republicans would "grudgingly tolerate," seeing as how it's coming from a Kenyan.

I don't have an answer. We're kind of boxed in and stuck with this situation. We don't have any moves. You could say we're in "check mate."

--imm

I treat all people the same. I also treat all fantasies the same.

Last week a heard someone tell a group it was a scientific fact that the human soul weighs 21 grams. Is it respecting his belief to ask for the evidence? He couldn't say where he heard it.

Should I tell him it's based on the discredited research of a nursing home doctor named Duncan MacDougall in 1907, who weighed seven dying patients, and their beds, on a livestock scale, with statistically invalid results. Nevertheless it was published in a journal. It was never replicated. It's totally discredited.

As it is, I won't press the issue with him because when I asked him where Adam's son found a wife, he said, "That's where evolution comes in." I see no point in discussing anything rational with this person.

Would you call that respecting his belief?

--imm

I went to the article you linked to. It wasn't about science. It left questions unanswered. Like these brain centers that are excited by heroin and cocaine, are they dormant during, say -- orgasms? And if not, what are the implications?

My larger point is that technology has altered our consciousness. You could say we have created a physical environment in which we are psychological misfits. We are marvelously flexible and extensible, but bending and stretching creates stress, so to speak.

Creating an unenforceable cell phone standard for teenagers, is not as good as banning them from school buildings. The cell phones I mean. (Let's reassign TSA types to doing something useful. And no touching.)

It's distressing to us, not to them. It's characteristic of a generation. It's like tattoos. Didn't they say this about rock and roll?

--imm

Money spent on weapons is a negative multiplier on the economy. The goods and services it represents are subtracted from normal circulation. You build a tank, if it's not used, its money down the hole. If it is, it's destruction of assets, lives and economies. If you build a bulldozer, it's jobs, infrastructure and commerce. You make roads, parks, communites, and factories.

War also leads to long term expensive obligations, such as to the wounded, who not only are removed from participation, but become a burden on their families and communities. Being dead is not any better, but less expensive. We are still paying off the Vietnam War, the maiden heist of the military industrial complex.

--imm

Only their top students are represented in competitions. Usually It's USA against Shanghai, not all of China.

When I was teaching math in middle schools, they introduced an educational game called "24." Four students sat at a bridge table. One turned over a card from a deck which displayed four numbers. The object was to order the numbers and add operators such that the expression would evaluate to 24. The first student to figure it out slapped the card with a hand, and recited the expression. Point scored. (Example: For numbers 1,1,3,7 an expression would be: (1+7) x 3 x 1. )

The kids liked the game. So the schools formed teams. At the first "meet" the kids from Chinatown blew everybody away. All their kids had memorized every card so they could "slap down" on every play, and then look at the numbers afterward. They (or their coaches) had discovered a flaw in the game, as there were finite cards. Most of the kids lost the taste for tournament play, but for those who memorized the cards, it became a game of Slap Jack where every card was a Jack. In short, a contact sport. Interest in tournament play languished. The kids who memorized the cards also memorized the answers. They may or may not have had the chance to build the expressions, which was the point of the exercise, not Spoon!.

Some of the reasons should be obvious. From pre-natal nutrition to home libraries, some kids are prepped to do better. You know that reading scores correlate most with property values. I have taught students that, if they could get to sleep at all, would surely have been awakened by gunfire in the hallways some time during the night. School was a bit of sanctuary for them, but they weren't focused on learning.

I had a student who was very smart and went on to a prestigious high school. He came back to visit and said he wasn't being challenged. For this, I was ready. "Jack, (not his name) you are one of the smartest people to come through here. And teachers represent a variety of people. At some point you are going to be with a teacher that you perceive is not as smart as you. How do you handle it?"

Another student was a kind of misfit that I got interested in astrophysics. She was a terrific kid and classic "ugly duckling." She hated high school and didn't return her junior year. A year later, I was in a summer workshop at a city college and she was there. She had talked herself into an early admission and was thriving. Last message after that, she told me about how thrilled she was to meet Freeman Dyson(!!) in person at a lecture. How do kids like this affect our numbers?

Fact is, the graded classroom system we use everywhere, does not serve the best interests of the students. Most of what I learned was outside the classroom. I had better than average support systems. There was a lot of peer education. We "hung out" at the library. There are lots of methods that are intrinsically motivational. Sitting for exams ain't the best.


--imm

I have owned a Browning Hi-Power (P-35) 9mm for more than 30 years. It's one of those great combinations of beauty and utility, like the Brooklyn Bridge, or Hoover Dam, that defines the industrial age.

The venerable gun, the last design of genius John Browning, holds 13 rounds in the magazine, and you can have one "in the pipe." I have never had any intention to use this gun for personal defense, or hunting, or against any living thing. I was indifferent about guns until a friend took me out "plinking" in the desert. Plinking is shooting at random targets, like pebbles and twigs. Sometimes we bring along dispensable items like rotten fruit, and other things that will display nicely when shot.

Loading a P-35 magazine requires a strong thumb. You don't want to spend range time loading magazines, or have to load them in the wilderness, so I bought extras, about ten of them over the years. At a gun show, I bought a magazine that holds 20 rounds and another that holds 30. I have used each of them once, and then relegated them to the "museum" section of my possessions. They are mostly useless. By protruding from the grip, they hinder good handling, and make shooting uncomfortable, and impede accuracy. Carrying any gun that size concealed is a chore, with a big magazine, you may as well have a sling.

To those who want to ban them, I won't miss them, except when I whip them out for show and tell with people I think would be interested. Mine are legal, anyway. (Fetish-fetishists junior psychoanalyst section.) I am skeptical about those who say the carnage would be less if the ban was in effect. Who knows what this amateur would have scored with a normal magazine and better aim? A trained fighter can swap magazines in a second, while covering you with a round in the chamber!

I think that limiting magazine capacity will have little effect on the body count. A national mental health initiative would work, well, it would.

--imm

--imm

This teacher had questioned her class about why they thought Jesus was in the synagogue when he was twelve. They made several wild guesses and she revealed it was to prepare for his Bar Mitzvah. "You mean he was Jewish?"

The next day the teacher was called in to the Mother Superior's office. "I've been getting a lot of calls from parents. Did you tell the students that Jesus was Jewish?"

"Well, that's the truth, isn't it?"

"That's the problem. Now I'm stuck with having to explain that to all the parents."


--imm

I know it's all silly. I thought it was cute that he was using one clause to nullify another. Confession: I thrive on irony.

Disclaimer: I did say he was an idiot, and I didn't take the trouble to carefully note what I would call "the ravings of a loon." Did I miss something? I mean, it's Chuck Norris! Fire meet crowded theater.

Consider the story of "The Pretzel."

An American Olympic wrestler had made it through to the final round, and was about to face the Russian champion. His coach prepared him. "You have a good chance kid, unless he gets you in his special hold that's called The Pretzel. Once he applies The Pretzel, it's all over, no one has ever escaped it."

"Gotcha coach. Watch out for The Pretzel"

The American wrestles the Russian, holding his own, and then the Russian gets him into The Pretzel. The coach, fearing the inevitable, turns and walks away. Suddenly, he hears a blood curdling scream, and turns to see the Russian fly through the air and land on his back, to be pinned by the American.

Later, the wrestler said, "I was OK, but he suddenly put The Pretzel on me, and I thought it was over. Through the pain, I opened my eyes, and I saw a pair of balls -- right in front of me. I gathered all my strength, and bit down hard on those balls."

"And that made the Russian let you go?"

"No, but you'd be surprised how strong you become when you bite yourself in the balls!"

Reading this about Chuck made me think about this story. Hope you liked it.

--imm

I'm from New York. And in New York we have something called sarcasm. It was invented in Brooklyn in 1932 by Leo Gorcey.

I submit that my statement about "role models" in the post above is so idiotic that no intelligent person could take it seriously. Please read it again. Why would you even bother with someone who could assert that seriously? Edit to add: Does an unemployed person really need a rich role model to demonstrate how to not spend money?

Nadin, we've engaged before, but perhaps not memorably. I've been around a long time and not felt the need to use the <sarcasm> smilie when dispensing wit, (though I have used it sarcastically.)

You are still one of my favorite DUers.

--imm

Are you referring to their social structure, or their technology?

I'll agree that most real hippies were no more enlightened than anyone else. In fact, they are all around you. A lot of them voted for Reagan. Some say that if you ever left the couch, you weren't a real hippie. My test was peace and tolerance. Long hair, beads, fringes, helped to identify. It became a style. Not totally bad.

I would submit that the intellectuals and drivers of the movement, Ginsburg, John Lennon, Woodie Guthrie, Pete Seeger, Phil Ochs, Abbie Hoffman, Mario Savio, etc., were not on the side of the elites. The contribution of the hippies, at least was to alert people that the elites were not your friend. The backlash -- moral majority, silent majority, war on drugs, and southern strategy, combined with the inevitable swing in styles (back to clean cut) left the promises unfulfilled.

As to the "entire hippie message," I think it goes something like *sex and drugs and rock & roll* and furthermore to promote "good vibes" and to avoid "hassles." This requires stepping up our level of civilization. We have to do it, as automation increases the productivity of workers and eliminates meaningful work.

--imm