No Wonder the Students Can’t Add

02 Thursday Aug 2018

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The teachers can’t either.

Almost 2,400 North Carolina elementary school teachers have failed the math portion of their licensing exams, which puts their careers in jeopardy, since the state hired Pearson publishing company to give the exam in 2013, according to a report presented to the state Board of Education Wednesday.

Failure rates have spiked as schools around the state struggle to find teachers for the youngest children. Education officials are now echoing what frustrated teachers have been saying: The problem may lie with the exams rather than the educators.

Teachers in Florida and Indiana have also seen mass failures when their states adopted Pearson testing, according to news reports from those states. Concern about the validity of the Pearson licensing exams is so pervasive that it was discussed at this year’s National Education Association conference, said North Carolina Association of Educators President Mark Jewell.

There are such things as bad tests. There are also ways to beat them if they are a problem. However, that doesn’t explain away the low proficiency rates among the students. This looks like the fruit falling near the tree. Except that, in the woods, gravity operates for free. American taxpayers spend a lot of money on failure. I’d drop some numbers here, but: 1) I’ve done that so many times, and; 2) I don’t want to confuse anyone to the point they have to consult with their ninth grade child…

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See. It should have said, “Solve for x.” It’s 5 cm, by the way…

Mueller’s Tinfoil Hat

01 Wednesday Aug 2018

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We are reliably informed that any and all “conspiracy theories” are the mark of insanity. Therefore, it’s so sad to see what’s become of a once noble swamp critter:

For a look at how Special Counsel Robert Mueller could tie Russian election interference to American citizens, watch the C-word.

Not coordination or collusion, but conspiracy.

One charge in particular — conspiracy to defraud the U.S. — has cropped up in several of the Mueller team’s major cases. The allegation shows up in filings against former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, as well as in indictments of Russian nationals accused earlier this month of hacking into Democratic Party organizations and election infrastructure. Conspiracy charges are significant because they’re building blocks: Once prosecutors allege a conspiracy, they can add more individuals later.

Donald Trump and his circle have long focused on a different buzzword, saying that there was no collusion with Russians, and subsequently that if there was collusion, Trump wasn’t aware of it. Now comes Trump attorney-cum-spokesman Rudy Giuliani. ”I don’t even know if that’s a crime, colluding about Russians,” Giuliani told CNN this week. Trump echoed that in a tweet: “Collusion is not a crime.”

That is at once technically correct and, according to former federal prosecutor Mimi Rocah, beside the point.

“To say there’s no crime of collusion means nothing,” said Rocah. “That label isn’t in the criminal statutes. But that doesn’t matter because the conduct that underlies collusion can be, under certain circumstances, conspiracy to defraud the U.S.”

As of yet, it is unclear which federal agency Mueller and the Russia-Gate conspirators have allegedly defrauded. Candidates include the DOJ, Congress, the Post Office, the White House, and the Treasury.

It’s also unclear how an insanity defense plays out in an enemy combatant proceeding.

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Just sad…

Always Known in Advance

31 Tuesday Jul 2018

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Perrin’s First Law of Terrorism confirmed again.

The UK has a long history with Libyan terrorists.

One would think they’d learn something. And, then, maybe they would not assist the terrorists in entering the UK. Or not.

It turns out the British Navy plucked the Manchester concert bomber from the sea years before he directed his ire at young Ariana Grande fans.

The Manchester suicide bomber was rescued by the Navy from war-torn Libya three years before his pop concert atrocity, the Mail reveals today.

HMS Enterprise plucked Salman Abedi, then 19, from the Libyan coast and took him to Malta for a flight home to Britain in August 2014.

Last May he set off a bomb in Manchester Arena that killed 22, including seven children.

Abedi’s younger brother, Hashem, who is in jail in Tripoli facing trial over the attack, was also rescued by HMS Enterprise.

There was literally that fable about knowing what it was when you picked it up…

bush-viper

How to Survive It.

When 189% Isn’t Enough

30 Monday Jul 2018

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No, this isn’t about Elizabeth Warren’s proposed new minimum tax rate.

Young Charles Donaldson III thinks we as a nation are hoarding the cash in an effort to keep education off-limits to someone.

“America to Me” subject Charles Donalson III used his platform during the Starz docuseries panel at the Television Critics Association press tour on Saturday to call out what he called America’s “hoarding” of wealth, citing examples he saw right there at the conference’s Beverly Hilton setup.

The gap of financial resources is particularly prevalent in the entertainment industry, Donalson added. He’s now a small part of that business, and so is everyone he addressed.

The high school graduate pointed out “all the money it takes just to set up this room,” referring to the Beverly Hills Ballroom. He continued, “Jesus Christ, you know how much food you have out there? Y’all are laughing, but I’m being dead serious right now. You all know how much food it is out there?”

One might wonder how a TeeVee show, spotlighting a school, somehow takes money (and food) away from the school. One may wonder…

Donaldson is a recent graduate of Oak Park and River Forest High (Chicago). It’s obvious the school needs more money. (Isn’t that always the solution?). The district only spends $14,822 per year per student on instructional costs, compared to $7,853 per student state-wide. That, by the way, is where the 189% comes from. This also exceeds the national average. It’s not enough…

For all the money, only 15% of the students get “free” lunches. Maybe that’s what Donaldson was getting at. Maybe Starz could donate some biscuits or something.

Also, for all the money, less than half of Donaldson’s peers are proficient in reading; only 12% understand math. Yet, per the fraudulent national trend, the school graduates 93% of its students. These numbers might explain – to someone who did not graduate from Oak Park – that the money isn’t the issue or, at least, that it is misplaced.

Oak Park is a “Title One” school. That means, well, nothing. In 1994, a useless Congress declared:

it to be the policy of the United States that a high-quality education for all individuals  and a fair and equal opportunity to obtain that education are a societal good, are a moral imperative, and improve the life of every individual, because the quality of our individual lives ultimately depends on the quality of the lives of others.

Declarations like that are meaningless, but they are not cheap. We spend and spend. All measures of progress drop and drop.

Ah well, what’s the point? Nothing college for all won’t surely fix.

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The AP success rate is impressive… USN.

A Den of Vipers and Thieves

30 Monday Jul 2018

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Today news comes of a revenge 184 years in the making, a revenge that could only happen in post-American America. Treasury Secretary Jacob J. Lew has tentatively announced that Harriet Tubman will replace former President Andrew Jackson on the Twenty Dollar Bill as early as 2020. Lew made the decision after shock followed his previous proposal to knock Alexander Hamilton off the Ten Dollar Bill in favor of a woman.

Hamilton is safe thanks to a new hip hop Broadway musical. (Yes, post-American America.) However, he will likely be joined on the new $Ten by one or more famous American ladies. Might I recommend Bonnie Parker. Rumor has it Jackson will be relegated to a supporting role on the back of the new $20. Maybe they will feature a picture of his tombstone.

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A Den of Vipers and Thieves

Politics

29 Sunday Jul 2018

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“Politics” comes from ancient Greek roots. “Poly,” of course, means “many” and “Ticks” are little blood-sucking parasites. Thus, “politics” means: many little blood-sucking parasites. I really wish I could attribute that definition to my own genius but I feel overly honest today.

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Politics

The Second Amendment

27 Friday Jul 2018

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This is a follow-up to some of my recent columns, Posse Comitatus, A Short History of Gun Control in America, and others. The Second Amendment and its subject matter have been in the news recently as part of the never-ending “debate” over gun control. The Amendment has also received special attention from the U.S. Supreme Court twice in the past five years.

My purpose here is to explain what the Amendment means and what most commentators (even pro-firearms authors) miss in their reading and application. Even if you do not own guns or have an interest in them, this issue affects you and your Liberty. Somewhere in the writing process, I realized I should have divided this into several segments. My apologies for the heft of the article. Sadly, I didn’t even get to add in half of what I should – maybe a book is in order? certainly a follow-up’s follow-up.

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The Second Amendment

From TPC: Updates on Stuff

25 Wednesday Jul 2018

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Disturbing stuff:

Pushing the Pedos (CAUTION: this one is a little strong)

 

On June 14, 2018, I dropped the bomb about where all the tolerance, equality, and diversity BS is going … now. The current push of the degenerates is for the normalization of pedophilia. The globos are meeting stronger resistance on this front than perhaps they ever have (thanks be to God). The lettering is a little crowded as is but I hear they want to add a “P” to the LGBTQWTF acronym.

 

More proof comes from the disgusting life and times of one James Gunn, whom I had never heard of until I read Cerno’s story. Gunn seems to be a pathetic creep who was just fired as the director of some sort of Disney trash. *Note: Walt and Roy have been dead for some time now though it’s the company they founded that’s stinking as it decomposes.*

 

Gunn was fired after Mike Cernovich revealed an archive of (since deleted) Gunn Tweets. In those Tweets, the freak … uh … just read a few at the link or below. He says they were all but jokes – 10,000 filthy, disgusting, Satanic, sick, very detailed and very personal, very telling jokes about rape, raping children, and animals raping children. By the way, this is the type of “man” standing in for Walt these days.

 

Okay, the quotes. Saideth the (very likely) pedo-queer:

 

READ THE WHOLE ARTICLE AT TPC.

It’s also interesting that a petition is circulating to reinstate Gunn. Also interesting is FB’s nosedive.

The United States Constitution

25 Wednesday Jul 2018

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The United State Constitution is a historical anomaly. The Constitutions of the several States are as well. Our English predecessors had a Constitution of sorts as did the Romans long before. These are however, rarities. Many nations today have “constitutions” or charters which allege the rule of law, but which in reality are no different from the dictatorships and dominions of old.

Traditionally, most people have lived under one regime or another which ruled by the whims of men and the force they could exert. Ayn Rand discussed this phenomenon, labeling it “Attila and the Witch Doctor.” For the New Intellectual (1961). Attila is representative of the ruling big man, a brute whose law” extends from the barrel of a gun or the tip of a spear. The Witch Doctor is the “holy” man who finds some “divine” reason to justify Attila’s power and also placated the people to avert their suspicion or anger.

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The United States Constitution

Natural Law

23 Monday Jul 2018

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Ninety-Nine percent of lawyers in the United States graduate from law school and practice their profession without much if any consideration of the ultimate underpinnings of the laws, regulations, and processes with which they work. I mean something deeper and more eternal that a mere constitution or the tradition of Anglo-American law. This lack of knowledge is not necessarily their fault. Law schools rarely teach or even mention said underpinnings. Legislatures, executive officers, and courts now operate without the slightest acknowledgment of that from whence they derive their just authority. Most citizens seemed confused about the nature and base concepts of law, rights, and justice generally. This is all forgivable to a fault (especially for the lay audience). Let me tell you briefly about where “law” comes from.

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Natural Law