The Road We Really Traveled

President Obama's 8-minute re-election infomercial, produced by Davis Guggenheim (Waiting for Superman, An Inconvenient Truth) and narrated by Tom Hanks, gets the Mystery Science Theater 3000 and Pop-Up Video treatment (simultaneously!) from Andrew Klavan and Bill Whittle.

Anti-Bullying Speaker Bullies Christian High School Kids

Returning to the subject of "Liberal" intolerance for dissenting opinions, a supposed anti-bullying activist bullied a bunch of Christian students at a national conference for high school students interested in journalism.

As many as 100 high school students walked out of a national journalism conference after an anti-bullying speaker began cursing, attacked the Bible and reportedly called those who refused to listen to his rant “pansy assed.” 

The speaker was Dan Savage, founder of the “It Gets Better” project, an anti-bullying campaign that has reached more than 40 million viewers with contributors ranging from President Obama to Hollywood stars. Savage also writes a sex advice column called “Savage Love.” 

Savage, and his husband, were also guests at the White House for President Obama’s 2011 LGBT Pride Month reception. He was also invited to a White House anti-bullying conference. 

Savage was supposed to be delivering a speech about anti-bullying at the National High School Journalism Conference sponsored by the Journalism Education Association and the National Scholastic Press Association. But it turned into an episode of Christian-bashing.
Rick Tuttle, the journalism advisor for Sutter Union High School in California, was among several thousand people in the audience. He said they thought the speech was one thing – but it turned into something else. 

“I thought this would be about anti-bullying,” Tuttle told Fox news. “It turned into a pointed attack on Christian beliefs.” 

Tuttle said a number of his students were offended by Savage’s remarks – and some decided to leave the auditorium. 

“It became hostile,” he said. “It felt hostile as we were sitting in the audience – especially towards Christians who espouse beliefs that he was literally taking on.” 

Tuttle said the speech was laced with vulgarities and “sexual innuendo not appropriate for this age group.” At one point, he said Savage told the teenagers about how good his partner looked in a speedo. 

The conservative website CitizenLink was the first to report about the controversy. They interviewed a 17-year-old girl who was one of students who walked out of the auditorium. 

“The first thing he told the audience was, ‘I hope you’re all using birth control,’” she told CitizenLink. “he said there are people using the Bible as an excuse for gay bullying, because it says in Leviticus and Romans that being gay is wrong. Right after that, he said we can ignore all the (expletive deleted) in the Bible.” 

As the teenagers were walking out, Tuttle said that Savage heckled them and called them pansy-assed. 

“You can tell the Bible guys in the hall they can come back now because I’m done beating up the Bible,” Savage said as other students hollered and cheered. “It’s funny as someone who is on the receiving end of beatings that are justified by the Bible how pansy-assed people react when you push back.” 

From Savage's "It Gets Better" website:

THE PLEDGE: Everyone deserves to be respected for who they are. I pledge to spread this message to my friends, family and neighbors. I'll speak up against hate and intolerance whenever I see it, at school and at work. I'll provide hope for lesbian, gay, bi, transgender and other bullied teens by letting them know that "It Gets Better."

Apparently that pledge does not apply to people with whom Savage disagrees, particularly Christians.

The irony and hypocrisy of Savage's statement should be obvious to anyone with a brain, but this is the part that gets to me the most.  Savage justified his treatment of Christian high school kids by stating, "It’s funny as someone who is on the receiving end of beatings that are justified by the Bible how pansy-assed people react when you push back.”

By claiming that he was "pushing back" against the students who walked out, he accused them of "beatings that are justified by the Bible".  He presented zero evidence to support his claim.  In other words, he simply assumed that these Christian students administered "beatings that are justified by the Bible" to their gay peers.  In other words, he judged those students before he knew anything about them.

In other words, he pre-judged them.  This is known as prejudice, AKA bigotry.

See how that works?

When Theories Trump Evidence

Have you ever known anyone who insists that Communism is a wonderful system, despite all the evidence - particularly the piles of hundreds of millions of dead bodies - contradicting their theory?

I have.

Without exception, they always reply with some variation of the following statement when I point to that evidence: "But they didn't do it correctly".

My reply to that excuse is always the same.  It doesn't matter how an idea works in theory.  All that matters is the results of its application in real life, and Communism applied in real life always, without exception, results in misery, poverty, repression, oppression, a complete loss of civil liberties and millions of people murdered by their own government.

So, why do some people continue to sing the praises (or at the very least make excuses on behalf of) Communism?  Bill Whittle explains that some people are just so personally invested in a theory, that no amount of evidence will change their minds.



This explains why most of the people I've met who still think Communism is a good idea, or at least not all that bad, were in college.  Ideas have consequences in the real world.  Academia shields people from the consequences of their ideas.  It shields people fro the real world.

There's a good reason for that.  People become gun shy after facing negative consequences brought on by their ideas, so they get stuck in an intellectual rut.  By protecting people from the consequences of their ideas, academia encourages people to think big.  But that protection is supposed to be temporary.  People are supposed to leave the academic cocoon, apply their ideas in the real world and face the consequences.

Those who stay in the cocoon never learn the lessons that experience alone can teach.  Which is fine.  Until they take that lack of experience to the White House.

Homemade Almond Butter

Taking a break from infuriating subjects like politicians who refuse to do their jobs and teachers who suck at theirs, here's a far more cheerful post on homemade almond butter.  I followed these instructions.  I didn't take photos of the process, so I'll use the ones from the website where I found the instructions.

I roasted a bag (almost 16 oz) of raw almonds in the oven at 350 F for 15 minutes.  I stirred them once around 8 minutes in.  I don't know if it's necessary, but I placed the almonds on wax paper, just like the instructions said.  Roasting is non-essential, but it makes the almonds tastier.

I poured the toasted almonds in our Cuisinart food processor and cranked it up.  I did this in the garage, by the way, because our toddler was taking a nap.

At first, the food processor ground the almonds into a powder.  I poured in a little honey for sweetness.  Periodically, I had to push the powder down from the mixing bowl's walls with a spatula.  Eventually the grinding extracted the almond oil and turned the mixture sticky, then creamy.  I suppose you could make it as chunky or creamy as you want.  The entire process took about 30 minutes.

My almond butter!

Aimee and I had apple slices dipped in almond butter tonight and they were scrumptious!

Why go through all that trouble, as opposed to just buying some Jiffy?

First, peanuts are legumes, not nuts, and like all legumes they contain anti-nutrients that prevent people (though not animals actually designed to eat them) from absorbing the nutrients in them.  Second, most store bought peanut butters contain all kinds of vegetable oils, which aren't healthy either.

Almonds don't have those problems, and they contain lots of mono-unsaturated fats.  Unfortunately, they also contain lots of Omega-6 fatty acids, but hey, nobody's perfect (Omega-6s are necessary, but I get plenty from all the eggs I eat, and Omega-3s are more difficult to get).  Besides, it's a snack, not a meal.  Next, I think I'll try cashews, which are much lower in Omega-6s and much higher in Omega-3s.

Also, it tastes way better than peanut butter.  I don't think it even needed honey.

Finally, I read a Popular Mechanics article years ago (which I unfortunately can't find now) in which the author advised avoiding tools that only do one job.  Aimee and I planned on buying a nut grinder until I found a discussion board where most of the members said a food processor works just fine.  I'm glad I didn't waste our money.  I'm sure nut grinders are great, but they only do one job - grind nuts.  Food processors have about a million different uses.

Why Democrats Refuse to Do Their Job

Speaking of infuriating enlightenment, watch DNC chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) explain why Democrats in Congress have refused to do their job for almost 2,000 days.  Warning: you may want to have a barf bag handy.



Nauseating, isn't she?  Don't you wish you could simply refuse to do your job and continue to collect a fat paycheck and lavish benefits and perks?  Probably not.  You're probably a decent person.

Why We Home School (Continued)

Aimee brought this to my attention.

The father of an autistic New Jersey boy whose alleged humiliation at the hands of school staff was caught on tape is demanding his son's teacher be fired, but the state teachers' union said her voice is not on the recording. 

Stuart Chaifetz sent his 10-year-old son Akian to the Cherry Hill school with a hidden microphone, which allegedly recorded staff in teacher Kelly Altenburg's classroom berating the boy and calling him a "bastard." A video Chaifetz made describing the abuse along with audio went viral. The district claims it took action against "the individuals involved" in the incident, but won't say whether Altenburg is one of them. Multiple adult women's voices can be heard making inappropriate and even cruel comments on the tape, which Chaifetz released as part of a viral video blasting the district. 

"It was hell ... They were destroying my son," the father said of the February incident.

 As usual in cases of teacher misconduct, the teachers' union protected the teacher.

"The teacher’s voice is not on that recording," said NJEA spokesman Steve Wollmer. "It’s not her voice. It’s a teacher aide and somebody else. 

"If she had been heard making those statements, I am sure she would have been terminated," he added.

Seriously, Mr. Wollmer?  You didn't hear Ms. Altenburg actively calling a disabled child a "bastard", so therefore she doesn't deserve to get fired?  How about the fact that all this happened in her classroom and she never did anything about it?  Who is responsible for Ms. Altenburg's classroom if not Ms. Altenburg?

This story illustrates a problem endemic with all American public schools.  Teachers' unions, in collusion with local and state governments, make it almost impossible to fire bad teachers.  John Stossel brought attention to that fact in his 20/20 special, "Stupid in America".

Here's a copy of the flow chart that demonstrates how to fire a bad teacher in New York.  Click on the image to see it in its full horror.  Not every school district is as bad as NYC, of course, but they all make firing bad teachers unnecessarily difficult.

If Ms. Altenburg didn't get fired, what did happen to her?

Like many bad teachers, she got shuffled to another school.

Chaifetz claims district officials told him a teaching assistant he identified as Jodi Sgouros was fired immediately after administrators listened to the recording in February. But he says he received no word about any punishment meted out to Altenburg. Wollmer told FoxNews.com Altenburg has been reassigned to another school in the district.

The teaching assistant, who is not protected by tenure was rightfully fired.  The teacher, who is protected by tenure, received zero discipline and went off to terrorize another group of kids.

The documentary, "Waiting for Superman", highlighted this practice.  There's even a name for it - "The Dance of the Lemons".



What happens in any organization when sub-standard personnel receive promotions and pay raises on schedule and excellent personnel receive no reward for their excellence?  Everyone involved becomes demoralized.  Those who do excellent work leave in search of employers who appreciate their excellence, and the sub-standard personnel stay because nobody else wants them.  The system breeds mediocrity at best, and usually worse.

In short, you end up with the current American public school system, which spends more per student than any other country, yet...

Out of 34 countries, the U.S. ranked 14th in reading, 17th in science and 25th in math.

Every time other parents ask me why we home school, I cite those statistics.  Without exception, and right on cue, they always reply, "Well, my kids attend a great public school".  My question is; compared to what?  Did you shop around?

Invariably, the answer is "no".  School districts assign kids to a school based on their address.  Parents rarely get a choice in the matter.

Think about that for a minute.

People who spend hours on the internet researching something as trivial as a DVD player to ensure they get the best value for their money will then allow some nameless, faceless bureaucrat to tell them where to send their kids for their education, and simply trust that the bureaucrat made the best choice for their kids, even though the bureaucrat's never met the kids and makes his/her decision based on nothing remotely related to the kids.

Why the hell do parents do that?  What is more important to you; your kids' education, or a DVD player?

Americans are taught since childhood (mostly by their teachers), that teachers are heroes and martyrs sacrificing their time and talents when they could easily find far more lucrative employment.

Bull crap.

Who do you think makes up teachers' unions that bribe politicians to deny parents school choice?  Who do you think invented the concept of tenure and devised that ridiculous flow chart to protect bad teachers from getting fired?

Teachers do/did!

Still, it's not the teachers' fault.  They're simply doing what all people normally do - protecting their own interests.

It's the parents' fault.

That's right, I said it.  It's your fault, Mom or Dad.  If you sit passively by and let public schools provide your child anything less than a world class education, it's your fault.  If you don't demand school choice for yourself and your kids, it's your fault.  If you vote for politicians who care more about the money they receive from teachers' unions than your right to choose where to send your kids based on what you believe is best for them, it's your fault.

So, what are you going to do about it, Mom or Dad?

EDIT: If you're up for a little infuriating enlightenment, I highly recommend John Stossel's entire "Stupid in America" series (Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3), "Waiting for Superman" and "The Lottery".

Mining Asteroids

From the New York Times:

On Tuesday, a new company called Planetary Resources Inc. will unveil its plans to mine asteroids that zip close by Earth, both to provide supplies for future interplanetary travelers and to bring back precious metals like platinum.
...... 

He was quick to add that the company’s business premise was not as impractical as it might sound. Because an asteroid is devoid of air and its gravitational pull is negligible, getting there is relatively easy. Unlike landing on the moon or Mars, a robotic mining spacecraft would not need parachutes or a large engine to fly up to and attach itself to a small asteroid.
...... 

“There are probably about 1,500 near-Earth asteroids that are energetically easier to reach than the surface of the moon,” Mr. Anderson said.
...... 

Platinum — which is used for jewelry, electronics components and automobile catalytic converters — fetches about $1,500 an ounce these days, so a single spacecraft would not have to bring back a lot of it for the enterprise to make money. More common metals like iron could perhaps be used as raw materials in space factories, churning out spacecraft and other structures.

I've thought for years that mining asteroids sounded like a good idea.  Many asteroids are full of metals that are extremely industrially useful, but relatively rare on the Earth's surface.  Because of those two factors, they're also expensive.  Even so, I've doubted that mining asteroids could be economically viable.  Hopefully I'm wrong about that.

As I wrote earlier, the private space race is now in full swing.  This shouldn't surprise anyone.  The people who explored the ends of the Earth did so mostly in search of profit, not as part of some giant government bureaucracy.  It stands to reason that space exploration should be the same.