In case you missed it...

Son of Scott Walker: Idaho is the next Wisconsin...

How dare these beautiful children and their parents want something better for themselves...

against the wishes of the teacher's union.

From the MacIver Institute:

Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program, and the students and staff at Messmer Preparatory Catholic School were all targets of an obnoxious protest on Friday, August 26, 2011.

From this report by the MacIver News Service, it is clear the protesters (Union members, socialists, MPS officals, liberal activists) could learn a lot by emulating the behavior of the children inside the school.

The behavior of these protesters is repulsive.  However, the sight of all those beautiful children was a breath of fresh air.  Our government-run schools, warehouses for the uncouth, unkempt, and uneducated, could learn something from the Messmer Preparatory School.

H/T The Blog Prof

Want your children to become good Marxists?...

a public school may be the best place for them.

A young high school acquaintance of mine wrote on her Facebook page,  I hate being white :[ (I'm disappointed in what we did in the past!)   Now where would a 17 year old come up with that?  It certainly wasn't from her parents who I know don't hold that view. Her friends?  Probably not.  The only place left is school.  

Karl Marx said, "The education of all children, from the moment that they can get along without a mother's care, shall be in state institutions at state expense."  He'd be very proud to know how well his "state run" schools are doing their job. 

Schools have ceased to be places where children are taught to read, write, and learn math skills.  No siree.  They are rapidly declining into state-sponsored indoctrination mills.  No prayers are allowed, but "gay" clubs abound.   Teaching about "safe sex" has replaced the McGuffey Reader.  Children are suspended for wearing t-shirts with pictures of American flags, while being encouraged to celebrate "gay pride" and "Muslim Week." 

All of these goings on in our schools is a form of "Cultural Marxism."  Terry, of Abbey-Roads, posted the following video that provides a very good overview of this phenomenon.  

Here's a handy check list for turning your children into Marxists:

• Make sure both parents have to work in order to pay for the house and the two 40K SUV's they couldn't afford.
• Allow them to have a computer in their room away from prying eyes.
• Let your daughters dress like Lady Gaga and your sons like gang wannabees.
• Don't force religion down their throats.  They can make up their own minds when they're adults.
• Make sure they're engaged in several sports programs where there are "no losers".
• Give them unlimited spending money and a car when they turn 16, priming them for an entitlement mentality.
• Tell them at every opportunity how wonderful they are in order to build their self-esteem.
• and by all means - put them in a public school.
• If they are in a public school, don't monitor what's going on - after all, teachers know best  /sarc

More:



Zombie : How a Teachers’ Rally Made Me Anti-Education  Excellent!
H/T to Sentry Journal for the Zombie article.
The Daley Gator:   3rd Graders Indoctrinated In School Budgeting By Milwaukee Teacher
Red State:   Unapologetic Public School Officials Turning Children Into Good Little Comrades
Conservative Hideout:   Quick Hits: Why are Your Children Still in Public School?
The Blaze:   Why Are NY School Kids Being Taught To Emulate Van Jones?

Self esteem run amock...

Welcome Creative Minority readers.  Any friend of Matt and Pat is a friend of mine!

I've spoken before about the deadly results of the self-esteem movement... 

The self-esteem movement creates monsters... 

This morning I watched three videos on The Blaze that shows how young people, having been raised in the self-esteem movement, behave - and it ain't pretty.  The third video is available at The Blaze.

These are nothing more than spoiled and arrogant young people with an overly developed sense of entitlement and a healthy dose of "self-esteem."  Actually, this doesn't look too much different from the union thugs demonstrating.

More:

Dennis Prager: Want to Raise a Good Person? Stop Nurturing Your Child's Self-Esteem

The loony left shows us what civility looks like...

and it ain't pretty.

North Idaho teachers stand around in the rain. Soggy signs say, "Veto 1108"...

fat chance.
 

• Idaho passes teacher merit-pay bill
• Idaho moves to strip collective bargaining rights from teachers...  passed!

After hearing the good news from Wisconsin, I thought I'd add my little tidbit about North Idaho.  On my way from the library to the grocery store I saw many picketers standing around in the rain with signs asking governor Butch Otter to veto bill 1180, curtailing union collective bargaining rights.

Glad it was raining.

I really enjoyed my coffee where it was warm and dry...

In the meantime, the elitist, wine sipping, spiritual but not religious, yuppies of Wisconsin are acting like the people they truly are...

  Do you let your children in a room with these vile people??  Really?

If this is what happens when the "educated" are thwarted, imagine if they cut welfare...

Idaho passes teacher merit-pay bill

which is not breaking my vow of no political outrage for today because this is good news.

My buddy, Rep. Bob Nonini, R-Coeur d’Alene, the bill’s House sponsor and chairman of the House Education Committee, is getting flack but, trust me, he can handle the heat.

Nonini told the House, “Pay for the performance will reward excellence in the classroom.”
He bristled at suggestions that the bill is an “unfunded mandate.” “This is statutory spending,” he said. “That means it gets funded automatically from monies appropriated to fund public schools.”

You go, Bob!

Nonini told the House, “The way we pay Idaho teachers is archaic, it fails to recognize excellence and reward the great teachers we have in Idaho classrooms today.” He said, “Idaho teachers are solely paid on how much education they have … and how many years they have in the classroom.”

The horrors of it all.  Good teachers will be rewarded for being good. 

source

See also: 

Idaho moves to strip collective bargaining rights from teachers...(passed and on the Governor's desk for signing)

Idaho moves to strip collective bargaining rights from teachers...

Proud to call Rep. Bob Nonini, R-Coeur d’Alene, the bill’s House sponsor, my friend. 

BOISE - The Idaho House has given final passage to a far-reaching bill that removes most of teachers’ existing collective bargaining rights, sending the measure to the governor’s desk and marking a big win for state schools Supt. Tom Luna, who proposed the plan.  read the rest

School reform in Idaho and Liberal group pushes for $382 billion stimulus...

to create 8.2 million government jobs over two years.  Now that's just what we need - 8.2 million more lazy over-paid government workers turning our country into a cross between the Post Office and the DMV. 

From the Hill:    Liberal group pushes for $382 billion stimulus 

Speaking the truth sometimes hurts...

Last night I had to attend a confirmation class with a young lady I am sponsoring.  One of my friends, a PE teacher in the local high school, was there.  She made a disparaging remark about Tom Luna, the superintendent of Idaho's schools. 

I took a deep breath and looked her square in the eyes and said. "This may not make you real happy, but I completely support Mr. Luna and the reform measures he has proposed."   The subject was changed immediately. 

Average pay in the Post Falls school district is 45K topping out at close to 60K.  Neither figure includes benefits. 


What is it that Mr. Luna wishes to do that has the teachers so mad?

The highlights:

• add one more student to every class
• teacher contracts would have to be renegotiated every year and bargaining would cover only pay and benefits.
•  give lap-tops to the 9th graders and require them to take some online courses
• eliminate seniority considerations in layoffs and tie teacher pay to performance.

And for this Mr. Luna has received death threats -  Nampa police: Tom Luna threatened, vehicle vandalized.  Civility!


Last Thursday the students at the Moscow, Idaho high school were allowed to stay overnight at the school to show support for their teachers.  I think they would have been better served by staying home and doing some homework. 


MOSCOW (Idhao) - Students at Moscow High School spent Thursday night at their school, to protest against Idaho Schools Superintendent Tom Luna's plan to reform education.  read the rest

Your Tax Dollars at Work...

or not, as the case may be.

The video that circulated yesterday of Wisconsin Senator Glenn Grothman being chased by an angry mob was one of the most disturbing things I've witnessed in a long time.  Where were the capitol police, or for that matter, any police at all?

In today's world the fashionable thing seems to be collecting pay for not doing the job you were hired to do.  From our current president on down, including the Attorney General, Democratic senators, union teachers, and police, it's all of a package.   And it's our tax dollars being flushed down a black hole of incompetence.

Yesterday we witnessed the filthy vermin with their thin layer of civilization peeled back to reveal exactly who they are.  These are ignorant greedy vicious people, living lives of self-absorption.

Listen to how Lawrence O’Donnell of MSNBC tries to slant this interview in an attempt to make Sen. Grothman sound unreasonable.  Sorry, Lawrence - that's what an adult sounds like.



I don't see much difference between this and Wisconsin...

Wisconsin GOP Senator Glenn Grothman chased, trapped by hecklers, saved by Dem. Rep. Brett Hulsey

Filthy vermin!

The really shocking part starts at about 2:50

The east and west sides of Washington state...

are not the same.

I watched the video of Megyn Kelly (link below) discussing the new policing policies in Seattle with an attorney.   It seems the police are being instructed to "go easy" or to even ignore the crimes committed by "minorities."  After all, as the city attorney says,  "the disproportionate number of blacks being charged is a direct result of economic inequalities."  No it's not.  A disproportionate number of blacks are being charged because they commit a disproportionate number of crimes. 

Now, my buddy Mark who lives in Spokane, is a close neighbor to where I live in North Idaho.  For the most part, the people of Spokane are conservative, family-oriented, normal people.  Drive across Snoqualmie Pass to Seattle, however, and it's a different world - one populated with bicycle riding, wheat grass eating liberals.

It appears Idaho will not be proceeding with nullification of ObamaCare, so the time is ripe to move forward with secession.  Mark is lobbying for North Idaho to be returned to it's original boundaries, and to once again become part of eastern Washington.  A lucid (and well thought out) counter-proposal would be for the new Republic of Northern Idaho to take in the beleaguered eastern part of Washington which always ends up being dictated to by the more populated west side wackos. We could call it the Republic of Northern Idawa - or something. 

Just a thought...

‘Shut Up and Be a Good Little Socialist’: Seattle Policeman Blasts City‘s New ’Social Justice Initiative’

At the same time, The Hill reports that black lawmakers (all members of the Congressional Black Caucus) have this to say about budget cuts:

"It's really especially poignant that this year during Black History Month, the Republican leadership has proposed a budget for fiscal year 2011 that will fall most heavily, mind you, on the backs of the most vulnerable in our society: African Americans, Latinos, and poor, those who have been shut out of the American dream," said Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.), who described the cuts as ill-timed and destructive.

Aren't we all tired of this meme?  "If it wasn't for whitey, these poor beleaguered peoples would all be fine upstanding citizens with a good job, intact family, and a bright future."  The truth is, blacks have sold the blacks down the river, as it were.  Look at any city with a high population of blacks. In most cases you will find a corrupt democratic black mayor and living conditions that would rival any third world nation.

There's no wall around those drug infested ghettos.  At any time, they can pull up those pants that don't even cover the crack of their rear patoots and walk right out.  There are citizens lined up on the ghetto border to help them with education or most anything else they may need. 

If, as Rep. Lee says, they are "the most vulnerable in our society", the blame lays squarely on themselves. Blaming whitey has not worked too well in the past, and it's not going to work in the future.  So stop with the blame.   We're your last best hope.

African-American lawmakers blast budget plan as step back for civil rights

Today's Required Reading:

WSJ: A Union Education.What Wisconsin reveals about public workers and political power.

Wayne Allen Root:  Comparing the Life of a Government Employee with the Private Sector 

T.L.Davis: The Badger Rebellion

No Sheeples Here:  "Subterranean" Racist Impulses

The Economic Collapse:  QE3? Several Top Federal Reserve Officials Seem To Think That More Quantitative Easing Is Necessary

and

Pundette brings us some much needed good news:   All's right with the world
 
 I have much work to do today.  Can I trust you all to play nice while I'm gone, use your inside voices, and keep the sand in the sandbox?  Sure I can...

Faith drives the middle class

Michael Barone has an interesting article about why the middle classes would appear to vote against their economic self interests, and does a good job of voicing the reasons why.

Why Support the Tea Party?
Modest-income Americans vote for the national interest, not their self-interest 

What is missing in his assessment is the part faith plays in the life of most of the middle class.  Ordinary people of modest means who have a faith in a higher power are simply more content.  It's as simple as that.

We could be considered people of modest income, and yet in my opinion we live like a king and queen.  We have a lovely home on five beautiful acres with a roof that keeps the rain and snow off of us. We have big decks on both the front and back of the house, equipped with a gas grill and table and chairs for lounging about in the summer.  The kitchen counters aren't expensive granite, but they work just fine for chopping fresh veggies.  We have two functioning toilets, three sinks with running water, and all the electronics and gadgets we could possible want.

We choose not to spend our money on designer clothes, and are not impressed by people who do. We don't need boxes full of jewels, a private jet, or a yacht.  Beyond the basics of comfort, it becomes a matter of degree.  Will an expensive slate roof keep me any dryer than the ordinary shingle roof we presently have?  Will gold faucets squirt water into a sink better than my chrome ones do?

We don't hold any ill will toward people who have more than we do, and most the people I know feel the same way.  It would take a dissatisfied and unhappy person to vote against what was best for our nation in order to hopefully give themselves a bigger slice of the pie. I can vote to tax the so-called "rich" people until they have nothing left, but I'll still have a shingle roof and chrome faucets.

I don't know the hearts and minds of the teachers who are driving the incivility we're seeing in Wisconsin, but on the surface they appear to be people of more than modest means who crave even more.  And they don't care how they get it.  In their case, the taxing of others in order to fund their lives and get a larger slice of the pie seems perfectly reasonable to them.  The rest of us recognize that it is nothing more than redistribution of wealth.

You see, we don't believe we need a bigger slice of the pie.  Because when all is said and done, we're all going to end up the same.  Some of us, however, believe in life after granite counter tops and private jets.  We believe there is a God and our goal is to spend eternity with Him. 

As Mr. Barone said:

A government intertwined with the private sector inevitably picks winners and losers. It allows well-positioned insiders to game the system for private gain. It bails out the improvident and sticks those who made prudent decisions with the bill.

Modest-income Americans think this is wrong. They want it fixed more than they want a few more bucks in their paychecks.

More About Demonstrations and A New Vision for Idaho

Ok - so most everyone wants to go out and protest and thinks I'm a lazy fraud for thinking demonstrating doesn't make a difference. Of course, they worded it very nicely so as not to offend and make an old lady feel worthless - and I thank them.

Then my buddy Mark, over in Spokane, comes along and gets all intellectual on me by bandying about words like "limbic" and phrases like "participatory republicanism" and "existential threat."  Honestly - who talks like that??  Good grief - participatory has at least six syllables.  Anything over three is showing off.

From the Combox:

Wow, that's a lot of Sunday reading that you posted -- thanks for keeping us up to date on the best of the bloggosphere. As for protesting, I think that it can be of some great utility in certain circumstances -- but it often is counter-productive or at most ineffective.

Better is the idea of people organizing for self-improvement, to share ideas, to have gathering -- like the Tea Parties. Not "community organizing" ala Barak Obama, but real, bottom up spontaneous groups forming not to vent but to reform the government through the democratic process and participatory republicanism.

The difference has a lot to do with how limbic the response is. Protests tend to be emotional, a response to something that is viewed as an existential threat, to something that pushes the "fight or flight" mechanisms in our brains. Productive gatherings are less limbic, more rational, more focused on long-term solutions to the problems that are facing us as a country.

Of course, limbic responses and futile gestures aren't simply the provenance of the Left -- I would argue that the Idaho legislature's efforts at nullifying ObamaCare fall into the same category of useless gestures.

Cheers!

Notice at the end of his comment he takes a jab at Idaho's attempt at nullification finishing up with his usual, "Cheers."   Oh yes - he couldn't resist twisting the knife in the backs of the people of Idaho innocently trying to farm their potatoes. 

Since I don't think nullification will work, I'm much more in favor of moving straight to secession and saving a sh*t load of time.  And not the entire state of Idaho either.  This will purely be a movement of North Idaho.

In the future, when North Idaho is it's own country, Spokanites will need a passport to slip across the border and buy their dishwashing soap (phosphates are banned in Washington so all their dishes are really dirty -it's  recommended that you use paper plates when you eat there.)  While they're here they grab some cheap smokes and fill up their gas tanks.   We could even charge them a small fee to cross the border and our country will prosper and our citizens will eat free potatoes.  Hot darn!  This is sounding better all the time. 

The bottom line here, if Mark wants to have a bottom up, spontaneous, productive and rational gathering with no limbics attending, I guess I'll be there (because he's a true buddy - even if he lives in Washington.) 

And speaking of demonstrators:

Police won't boot protesters from Wis. Capitol

The occupation of the Wisconsin Capitol by protesters fighting efforts to strip public workers of union bargaining rights carried on Sunday after police decided not to forcibly remove demonstrators and end a nearly two-week-long sit-in. read the rest

 Filthy vermin! 

Governor Walker has displayed admirable restraint...

by not throwing the protesters trashing the state capitol in jail.



From the Mpls Star-Trib:

Protesters will have to clear out of the state Capitol by the end of the weekend so custodians can clean the building after days of nonstop demonstrations, officials announced Friday.  read it all

The most interesting thing was reading all 101 comments (as of 5:45 pm Pacific time) and finding that approximately 90 of them not in favor of the unions or the people being allowed to sleep in the capitol.  In the Twin Cities?  Amazing!

Keeping it classy in Wisconsin:

Hey Wisconsin. Help me out here...

are those actually members of the house dressed in union t-shirts and colors?  Wouldn't that be highly inappropriate?   And if they're citizens, why are they on the floor of the Wisconsin house causing a ruckus?  Inquiring minds want to know...

Wow! Communists and Socialists Rallying for the teachers in Madison...

 says it all...

Communists, socialists rallying support behind Madison protests

Communist and socialist groups — including the Maoist Revolutionary Communist Party, the Communist Party USA, Trotskyist Socialist Workers Party and the Democratic Socialists of America— are voicing their support for the public-sector unions protesting Wisconsin Republican Gov. Scott Walker’s plans to curtail their collective bargaining abilities. read the rest

 

Doug Ross pares it down to the bare bones...

and we thank him.

Doug manages to put into words what we are all feeling about the unions in this country run amok.

In the blue corner: public sector unions...bought and paid for Democratic hacks...and legacy media,  In the red corner: the American taxpayer.

How many times does the illegality of public sector unions have to be explained to the loony left...

before they "get it?"

I've explained it, as well as many, many others.  The union thugs just keep spewing their nonsense while the taxpayer takes it in the chops.

T.L. Davis trys once again to explain it in words a mental midget should be able to understand.

"Here's the difference between private sector unions and public sector unions, since that seems to be an intellectual stumbling block for most defenders of the debacle in Wisconsin" read the rest

Governor Walker sums it up nicely.  Bottom line?  It's not about the children.




Comment from the Youtube site: 

These public-sector pitchforks aren't aimed at the governor, folks. They're coming for you! If you're in the private sector and you pay taxes, they want more of what you have. It just looks like they're going after the governor but that's because he's the only thing standing in the way between you and the pitchforks. These are people who aren't used to hearing the word "No". Just look at their retirement plans and health coverage. Chances are, it's better than what you're getting..

 Says it all...

Wisconsin teachers just "scraping by" on poverty wages?"

I don't think so.

From the Daily Caller:   Send us the names of Wisconsin teachers complaining about Walker to the press, and we’ll tell you their salaries

More salaries in this article:   Wisconsin’s teachers make a little more money than they’re letting on

 

Not to mention:   Potential Pricetag for Wisconsin’s Protesting Teachers: $9 Million  That would be $9 million of taxpayer money.

 

And in Libya people are being slaughtered in the street while Obama remains silent.  Perhaps he's busy catching up with the first woman after her return from the expensive ski trip. Allow me remind you that while the White House reports that the first woman paid for her "personal" expenses, we the tax payers paid for her plane trip and the accompanying plane with all the cars and whatnot.  Cost?  Several hundred thousand.  Glad they've got "some skin in the game."  When was your last vacation?