Justice denied (or hopefully only delayed)

                Ok, ok, we've seen the news articles, we've heard the killer's  911 call,  we've heard the cell phone calls to the girlfriend, we've heard the agony of the bereaved parents, and we've seen the face of vigilantism in Sanford, Florida. What is in some ways more troubling is the massive lack of professionalism and appropriate action by the man in charge of law enforcement in Sanford Florida, the Chief of Police.   Let's  try something really hard - putting yourself in his shoes; not now, but earlier.

                You're the chief law enforcement officer in a town  (and I'll phrase this delicately)  not exactly famous for its harmonious race relation record. I lived in Orlando, and was aware that there had been ongoing issues in Sanford.  You're also the Chief in a town of about 50,000 people. Without knowing for sure, I'll bet there aren't daily homicides in Sanford, therefore any shooting death should be significant enough to warrant notifying the Chief any time of day or night. Add to the fact that it is the shooting death of an unarmed 17 year old by a neighborhood watch captain (self appointed) patrolling with a gun. Pile on that the shooter had called  911 and had been told that he wasn't to follow the kid, Top it off with the shooter having made disparaging comments to the 911 operator regarding the kids in general and this one who happened to be Black.  Any of these should have thrown up a red flag causing immediate notification of the Chief. Collectively, they ought to have required the Chief's immediate  personal presence and the assignment of the department's best homicide  detective. A call to FDLE also might have been in order. What did we get?  A narcotics officer, who listened to the shooter and apparently bought his story of self defense, releasing the shooter.  The Chief's thought process during all this must have been truly wondrous. Not only was the initial investigator a narcotics officer, he was one with several racially related complaints in his jacket. I have instructed many young men in the use of deadly force (guarding Submarines with Nuclear missiles on board) . Skittles was never a valid reason to shoot,  neither was race or age.

                Florida's "stand your ground law" gets some credit for this disaster as well. It was probably what emboldened this already identified loose cannon (see his previous 911 calls, and the fact that he ignored the operator in this incident) to think he could shoot one of "them" and get away with it,  which, to date, he has.  The stand your ground law is great if everyone has the presence of mind and the discipline of a policeman. Most don't.  When all this is laid to rest, along with Trayvon Martin, if the current Chief of Police in Sanford is still so employed , and Zimmerman is still not in jail, justice will not only have been blind, but deaf,   dumb and mentally handicapped as well.  I cannot in my wildest stretch of imagination conceive of  a similar result if the chief had been, for example, Val Demings  or another Chief of similar common sense and awareness of the potential significance of this case.

Help Wanted

3/20/2012

HELP WANTED: salaried position (although  all new hires will frequently be treated as hourly employees)

REQUIREMENTS:  Baccalaureate degree with some post graduate training. Expertise outside degree area in management, motivational speaking, Psychology,  long term planning and human relations. Applicants should pay for their own fingerprinting and drug testing, and then apply at their local School Board office.

JOB DESCRIPTION:  The successful applicant will be able to multitask in a formal workplace setting 36 to 40 hours weekly plus an average of 10-12 hours working at home, frequently more, depending on work location and clientele. The successful applicant will be required to utilize limited resources, frequently bought out of pocket, applying them to a widely variant quality of input raw material to produce a product with characteristics dictated by persons who know nothing about the business.  Testing of said product will be required, with a standard level of function required regardless of raw materials input.

OPPORTUNITY FOR ADVANCEMENT:       Most hirees will remain in the same job level and description for the duration of their career, with only seniority raises, although the latter are now under scrutiny in many work locations.  During the first three years of employment, employees may be terminated by their immediate  supervisor for any number of reasons (including personal), none of which are  reviewable, appealable or contestable.     

CAUTIONARY INFORMATION:  Many outside the field consider themselves expert even if barely literate in the literature, pedagogy, or methodology. These will frequently be elected officials. Since this profession is compensated from public funding, be prepared to be blamed for waste, incompetence and to be the first target of budget cutters. In many  circumstances, management will appreciate your efforts and "have your back"; in other cases, your manager may be someone who wasn't competent at your job and was promoted to their Peter Principle level of incompetence.  You will be their shield, Judas goat and cannon fodder.  You will  also work with some colleagues who are burned out/incompetent/or lazy. Some, but by no means all,  workplace  organizations may  protect this deadwood, for whose inadequacies you may sometimes be blamed.   

BENEFITS: Although billed as a perk, the two month "break" will be the time you work the summer  job because of the low pay. Incentive pay, if available is usually determined by persons outside the individual worksite, and highly dependent upon the quality of  input raw materials, over which, as previously stated,  you have no control.

COMPENSATION: Depending on degree held, as much as $38,000 starting salary, but over the course of a 30 year career, this will probably not double even adjusted for inflation.   This remains open ended however, as at any given time, 37% of your colleagues will be contemplating leaving the profession, and 20% will quit after five years.  Finally if you decide after all the caveats to accept this job, and if you find it to be your calling, you will find it difficult to retire, because the intangible truth is, that for many of your clients, you fill the role of mentor, teacher, parent, shoulder to weep on, and you will love some of them and be the only stable influence in their lives. It's the hardest job you'll ever love.

I know how Rodney Dangerfield felt

                                        How about a Little respect!

Did you ever wonder....  This is for all my friends in Public Education and for some who aren't but...!

        It would be presumptuous of me to listen to an engineer in a field not of my cognizance and then ignoring his expertise, tell him how he should have done his job, or that his opinions regarding his field are wrong. It would be grossly incorrect for me to tell my dermatologist  how to do  her job or what to prescribe. It would be inappropriate for me to correct someone who has been successful in their chosen field, a field other than mine, on matters related to their expertise.   All these things being true, why does every non-professional  under the sun think they know how the professional  educators  should do their jobs?

                 I was asked very recently to help a young teacher who is struggling with teaching a subject where I am an acknowledged  master teacher with far above average success rates on Advanced  Placement exams. The young teacher responded to my offer to assist in any way I could. I went to the Villages Charter School (carpeted hallways, wallpapered corridors with chair rails!) This high school accepts the best of the best in the area, built with assistance from The Villages corporate coffers and open to the children of their employees. My expectation was that I would see an environment better than the public high school at which I until recently taught.

                Here is what I found when I met with the young teacher in question. They (the teacher) were hired to coach a major sport, not for their academic prowess (by their own admission) and thrown into the Advanced Placement briar patch immediately, in a subject they had never taught at any level.  The exam in this subject is 50% multiple choice and 50% essay, and the kid knew they were in trouble because  "with basketball and all..."  The students, as of early March hadn't written any essays and had been given no instruction on how to do so!  The teacher, and according to them the students as well, hated the text and  recognized its bias. I was told that it was ok, because they are getting a new text. I asked which one and the answer was "I don't know."  I responded "What text did you tell your department chair you wanted?" The response floored me.  "We don't have department chairs for subject areas and no one asked me about it."  Not surprisingly, the pass rate for the course last year  (pass defined as at least a 3 on the exam) was under 20% even though class sizes were between 9 and 11 per class!!!

                I was stunned at the lack of support and left the teacher after about 90 minutes with about 10 gigabytes of supplemental materials  on writing, as well as PowerPoint presentations in areas of interest for review.  My professional educator friends will instantly recognize all the problems in what I have just described.    

  I was telling some friends about the experience. The first, a retired educator, was appalled and urged me to contact the principal, which I declined to do, because obviously  it's not that important or things would be different. Two other persons (consummate professionals in other fields) acted as if I were picking on the school, and just being critical (I know not why I would do that). One asked me  how then could I explain the high success rate of the school in getting students into the schools (mostly state universities)  to which they applied. Apparently this was the point at which I, the professional educator, simply had my head up my ass, so I explained  that  1: The students are bright kids and probably have great SAT/ACT scores   2: They also have high GPAs because the teacher realizes where the fault is and gives mostly "A"s.  3. State Universities in Florida and elsewhere look at GPA, SAT, and AP courses taken, with the national AP exam pass rate a relatively minor  concern. 

      Of course they get into good schools and they deserve to! They also deserve a chance to get the 6 college credits  most schools award to those students passing the APUS History exam with a 4 or 5. If you convert two one semester courses to dollars, these kids are being cheated of opportunity by a charter school which gets freedom from some state regulation on the premise that they will do it as well or better than a regular public school. They aren't, at least as far as this course is concerned.  I find it offensive that any organization should be held above valid critical analysis and the critic become the problem. Nothing ever gets fixed that way.  Of course what the hell do I know? After all, what use is 32 years teaching experience, 20 of that in public schools, a Master's degree and two bachelor's degrees, since obviously anyone can do it!    

Organic Schmorganic!

                                                               Organic-Schmorganic!

                Did you ever wonder  why large "up-scale"  grocery stores (no names, but they rhyme with Whole Nudes and  Trader  Schmoes) place their "organic" produce in a location  other than beside the conventionally grown stuff?  Throughout this piece I will place the word "organic" in quotes, since the definition is nebulous and there is little or no specified testing in place to insure it's even adhered to.  Could it be that the "organic" stuff just looks so much funkier that the stores don't want them side by side for comparison, since no one comparing them side by side would choose the "organic, especially at the higher price? 

                It can't be nutrition- a recent British study categorically refutes claims by the "organicists" to the nutritional  high ground. Of course, this sent a shudder through the advertising industry, the true apostles of all things "organic,"  since they've been selling  "organic" like Snickers Bars for years. So, if "organic" isn't more nutritious , not safer,  but is a lot costlier, why buy it? Well, if I'm an American parent with means , what better way to show it by buying the "right" food at the "right" place? For some folks food is a status symbol - yeah, I know, but  isn't who you are a better index of worth than what you eat? After all, conventionally grown food is too plebian,  accessible to everyone,  but organically grown foods that are priced two to three times the normal price "must be better because they cost more - right?"  Never mind that organically grown food has been shown to be an inefficient use of soil and labor -  that actually just contributes to the "organic" mystique.  Ain't nobody buyin' organic food with food stamps, right?  (insert Church Lady "superiority dance" here)

                Claims of safety are even more ridiculous when we consider that China, that paragon of food safety (remember the dead pets?)  ships essentially 100% of  its "certified organic" produce to the USA , which accepts virtually all of it under a system which substitutes record keeping and documentation for actual testing! When done (which is seldom, and not mandated by the government), actual testing rejects 25 times as much Chinese produce as Canadian produce. One quarter of Chinese "organic" produce tested showed traces of pesticides banned in the US, yet Chinese "certified Organic" commands twice the price of conventionally produced crops (here in the US that is, the Chinese in China don't give a  s**t  and won't pay more!).

                It would be laughable if not so pathetic.  Here's the rub - those most likely to "buy organic" are generally the more highly educated in society - the ones that should understand  that Ammonia, Nitrogen , Potassium, etc.,  are elements. they are atomically  the same in a bag or in a bovine colon! What is also in a cow's waste (that  darling of "organicists" - manure!) is E-coli and other potentially dangerous bacteria.  The theory is that  applying  manure, rock powders, rotted vegetable matter,  fermented fish wastes and crab shells, etc, etc. to the soil is better in many ways.   There are several sometimes fatal diseases  associated with "organically grown" crops which  can stem from not only bacteria in animal wastes, but from molds and fungi in some composts. There is no (as in zip, zilch, nada) study showing risk associated with pesticides used as directed, yet in the last year alone people died from E-coli associated with "organically grown"  lettuce. Yuck, who knows what's in that stuff? Give me nice clean responsibly used chemical fertilizers every time. I know what I'm getting and my food doesn't have insect holes, rotted spots or  toothmarks  and doesn't rot after a day in the fridge!

Imagine if you will, (yeah, I'm going to pick on California, since it's an easy target) the grown up surfer, worried about buying organic since "It's better, bro."  At the same time he and the kids go surfing in a bath of cosmic radiation, hold a microwave emitter to their heads several  hours daily, text while driving and don't wear seatbelts.  We routinely panic about insignificant health risks  and just as routinely ignore very significant ones (see above) if it's more convenient to do so. Similarly, consumers routinely obsess about insignificant health risks that have never even have been shown to occur (pesticides, fertilizers) and ignore real health risks such as food borne  illnesses caused by E-coli and Salmonella in animal wastes.

                You want to know the real difference between "organic" food and regular food?  "Organic" food costs a lot more. Period. Many people seem to think that "organic" food is healthier  than  regular food...not true at all. In fact, it may actually be less beneficial. Studies have found that that there are no benefits to "organic" food at all, and it's essentially impossible to differentiate taste. Nutrients in foods come from the soil. Whether the plant is "organic," or not,  has nothing to do with that. But here's the real scoop.  "Organic," like its sister scams "all natural " and "Lite,"  is an ad man's  nocturnal fantasy - relatively undefined and undefinable with tremendous snob appeal and no burden of proof.  here's a flash - raw milk  is "natural" and can give you tuberculosis, "Lite" margerines are just a molecule or two away from paint and plastic, yet many Americans use them vice butter, which as actually food !   Give me my  salad with nice wax coated cucumbers and hot house tomatoes and regular lettuce - hold the E-coli!       

Live from God's Waiting Room

                                                          Live from God's Waiting Room

This, word for word, is excerpted  from a letter that ran in the Villages Daily Sun on Tuesday, March 13.

".........Our country's fear factor will be eliminated, making us into subservient, mindless needy people, but everybody will be happy and all go to food stamp heaven. You see, our President is beholden (sic) to Planned Parenthood and you should be too, he says.  Proudly, he promotes Planned Parenthood, which introduced inappropriate sexual deviant behavior to our schoolchildren to get us prepared for a new Earth and a new heaven where there will be no separation of Church and State....."

                You can't make up shit like this!  This is, admittedly a wing nut with several threads badly damaged, but it speaks to the absolute dearth of logic, reason and sanity being shown by some  modern Conservatives. William F. Buckley , with whom I almost always disagreed, is surely spinning in his grave over this piece of brain dead blathering.  Classifying family planning as "inappropriate, sexual deviant behavior" is  Limbaugh/Palin/Santorum  worthy. Most residents here East of Eden are not even close to this level of lunacy, but every once in a while, while perusing the morning paper, you get one, like this drivel,  that makes you flush your sinuses with coffee. 
      It's also worthy of note that there are absolutely no counterbalancing even Centrist columnists represented. The usual weekly fare includes several minor conservatives, plus Oliver North and Ann Coulter. Many of the good people here (of which there are many) simply don't use critical thinking skills to evaluate current issues; and it's not their fault. They were never taught to think critically. Being raised in the 50s, individual thought was stifled  (see McCarthy, Joseph).  Many are of a generation which voted like their parents, went off to war like good little boys, and came home to live the American dream with a company they would work for for 40 years and retire. Vietnam drove the wedge even deeper, and most supporters of that debacle don't seem aware that most of the principal architects of that war later acknowledged that it was a hideous mistake (see Robert Macnamara's "The Fog of War")
      It'll be interesting to watch the political currents  here as the demographic continues to change. Already, there are signs of change; in the Christmas parade, there was a float for the Gay and Lesbian club, which ten years ago would likely have been stoned (or some other archaic  Mid-eastern form of righteous wrath). In fact, ten years ago here in The Villages, most homosexuals closeted themselves as a social necessity. This year there was enthusiastic applause. I got several very positive responses to a letter to the editor I actually got published.     
     It's a slow process, but hope springs eternal that "Someday all God's children, Liberal and Conservative, traditional and alternative, hard rock and Barry Manilow can find sufficient  mutual consideration to  talk with, rather than yell at ,  each other" (the previous sentence draws from both Dr. King and Richard Nixon, as I am an equal opportunity kind of guy. And I do believe that's all I have to say about that (for now)   

My son suggested I do this, vice rant in vain on Facebook. I like the idea. Don't know how much I'll post, so check it out periodically. Feedback of any kind is always welcome, but be constructive, don't make me flame your ass into a streaming pile of mystery meat.

     This from the brilliant, if somewhat strange, David Cross

"I’m assuming that cows, like people and dogs, have varying degrees of intelligence. So at some point there was a cow of superior advanced intelligence running around a slaughterhouse somewhere that had figured out what was going on. That death was imminent, and all their masters were not benevolent nurturers but rather evil murderers luring them to their deaths. But he couldn’t communicate this to the other cows because all the other cows were of average cow intelligence—i.e., stupid. Maybe even the cow was smart enough to know that he was just a cow and would never be able to impart the sense of urgency needed to escape because cows are stupid. Must’ve been maddening. Also, I wonder if we’d be less prone to eating beef if the noise a cow makes sounded less like “moo” and more like “help.” Probably not. They’re delicious."

"Liberal media"

When Al Gore proposed launching a progressive TV network, a Fox News executive told Advertising Age (10/13/03):

    "The problem with being associated as liberal is that they wouldn't be going in a direction that advertisers are really interested in.... If you go out and say that you are a liberal network, you are cutting your potential audience, and certainly your potential advertising pool, right off the bat.”[7] Furthermore “an internal memo from ABC Radio Networks to its affiliates reveals scores of powerful sponsors have a standing order that their commercials never be placed on syndicated Air America programming that airs on ABC affiliates…. The list, totaling 90 advertisers, includes some of largest and most well-known corporations advertising in the U.S.: Wal-Mart, GE, Exxon Mobil, Microsoft, Bank of America, Fed-Ex, Visa, Allstate, McDonald's, Sony and Johnson & Johnson. The U.S. Postal Service and the U.S. Navy are also listed as advertisers who don't want their commercials to air on Air America.”

Yet in an op-ed piece today, 80 yr old Thomas Sowell (maybe the only black conservative columnist they could find) cites the "Democrat controlled media" WTF? Fox themselves deny it.

Maybe it's just me (probably is), but aren't the clips of the recent cadidates' debate evocative of the occupants of the monkey house as they fling feces at one another? (don't worry, Bachmann and Perry don't know what "evocative" means, and Santorum thinks feces is snack food!