My old school chum Leah informed this dummy that my archives aren't "click-able", and she's right! Sorry about that. Well, but this is just another glaring example of my ability to learn by "trial and error"---mostly by the LATTER, naturally. You'll all be happy (yeah, who am I kidding, right?) to know that I have just fixed the problem. Of course, knowing me, I've probably botched something ELSE in the process. Will my blog turn out okay? Will I have somehow enabled Al Quaida to use my blog to spam the federal government into submission? (audience gasps in horror). Tune in tomorrow to see another thrilling episode of (trumpet fanfare) A Born Accident! Same time, same channel, no commercials---just a lot of baloney.
Thursday, September 09, 2004
Tuesday, September 07, 2004
Wednesday, September 01, 2004
HUBRIS-It's All About Us
Sigh. I hate to admit it, but we Americans are notorious for our cock-eyed optimism, which wouldn't be so bad if it weren't linked to our depressing tendency to see everything revolving around US. Worse yet, we even believe God is ALWAYS on our side, regardless, and we have a president who's willing, nay, EAGER to prove that we can do anything we want, nyah, nyah. Yes, I know this kind of delusional thinking didn't start with Dubya, but he's become the epitome of American Hubris ever since his self-righteous rantings over 9/11. His annoying I-know-everything-so-shut-up attitude seemed to blossom into full-blown I-am-the-instrument-of-Divine-will mode after he finally allowed himself to be FOUND following the attacks that day; seems our Fearless Leader went incommunicado for 24hrs, flying hither and yon while Cheney did the President-thing in D.C. until he calmed down. Whether or not he knew in advance about the planned attack is moot at this point. What matters is that he went ballistic, literally, and took the whole Congress with him. So we bombed Afghanistan, and for what? Osama "escaped" in the end. The 9/11 terrorists were almost to a man Saudis, but with our dependence on oil we couldn't bomb THEM, chas v'sholom. Where Osama is now, I can make a guess at, as probably the only safe place in the region is Saudi Arabia. Sigh. So, failing to capture HIM, Dubya fell back on Saddam and so on...
Sorry, but I'm sick of this we-know-what's-best-for-the-world attitude. I'm old enough to remember JFK's famous "Ask Not..." Speech, and how we failed at being "world policemen" the FIRST time around. We at least had the TROOP strength back then to back up that rhetoric, but now? And American news is a disgrace. It's not just Fox, cheering on Dubya mindlessly, but ALL our "news" outlets, I'm afraid. How much of our news is devoted to NON-American events? Not much at all, and when it is the events are at least RELATED to American concerns. I would guess that a good 80% of world news is simply IGNORED by American reporters and their editors, simply because they assume we'd get bored with it. And you know what? They're probably right. We, for the most part, DON'T want to know what's going on elsewhere, because we believe IT'S ALL ABOUT US! Are we brain-washed or just brain-DEAD? Sigh.
Okay, so Tocqueville warned about this shortly after the Revolutionary War, so what? Up until WWI we pretty much hadn't the means to do a lot of global damage, and even by WWII we lagged behind many of the other industrialized nations, but after we emerged unscathed (remember, almost all of Europe was destroyed by bombing, and Japan as well) we suddenly "saw the light". God WAS our "co-pilot", Americans seemed to conclude, and WE had to protect the world against "God-less Communism", ad nauseum. So began almost 60 years of what was dubbed The Cold War, when we embarked on an insane campaign to "contain" Communism and we and the USSR nearly nuked the planet. Under Reagan, it got suicidal; nuclear war was not only declared "do-able" but downright respectable, with the morally repugnant doctrine of "strike first" being embraced enthusiastically by Pentagon and Congress alike. Thank God the USSR fell apart before our Hollywood Warrior (already showing the first signs of incipient Alzheimers) had a chance to push "that little red button". And then? Remember that "Peace Dividend" we were all supposed to enjoy now that "God-less Communism" would become capitalist and democratic? Uh huh, we did our "father knows best" arm-twisting routine on the former Soviet bloc, and did more harm than good. Some of the former Soviet states succeeded, but most did not. Russia became "democratic", for a while, then elected Putin, who's reputed to be curtailing these "democratic" tendencies quite well.
So go ahead---accuse me of hating America. It's the usual response when any of us questions the current political dogma, especially when the Republicans are running the country, it seems. Unfortunately, I'm not. If you'll recall the Bill of Rights, we still have Freedom of Speech---not much anymore, but some, thank God. And I DO thank God, too. Of course, HE seems to have been appropriated by the GOP (dubbed "God's Own Party) since Reagan, along with morality in general. But then, when you have God as your co-pilot, I guess it means He not only forgives you in advance but APPROVES of everything you do, regardless. Must be a nice feeling, knowing that--- sort of like what those Muslim fanatics must feel as they blow themselves up.
And that, my friend, is hubris-in-a-nutshell. Think about it.
Sorry, but I'm sick of this we-know-what's-best-for-the-world attitude. I'm old enough to remember JFK's famous "Ask Not..." Speech, and how we failed at being "world policemen" the FIRST time around. We at least had the TROOP strength back then to back up that rhetoric, but now? And American news is a disgrace. It's not just Fox, cheering on Dubya mindlessly, but ALL our "news" outlets, I'm afraid. How much of our news is devoted to NON-American events? Not much at all, and when it is the events are at least RELATED to American concerns. I would guess that a good 80% of world news is simply IGNORED by American reporters and their editors, simply because they assume we'd get bored with it. And you know what? They're probably right. We, for the most part, DON'T want to know what's going on elsewhere, because we believe IT'S ALL ABOUT US! Are we brain-washed or just brain-DEAD? Sigh.
Okay, so Tocqueville warned about this shortly after the Revolutionary War, so what? Up until WWI we pretty much hadn't the means to do a lot of global damage, and even by WWII we lagged behind many of the other industrialized nations, but after we emerged unscathed (remember, almost all of Europe was destroyed by bombing, and Japan as well) we suddenly "saw the light". God WAS our "co-pilot", Americans seemed to conclude, and WE had to protect the world against "God-less Communism", ad nauseum. So began almost 60 years of what was dubbed The Cold War, when we embarked on an insane campaign to "contain" Communism and we and the USSR nearly nuked the planet. Under Reagan, it got suicidal; nuclear war was not only declared "do-able" but downright respectable, with the morally repugnant doctrine of "strike first" being embraced enthusiastically by Pentagon and Congress alike. Thank God the USSR fell apart before our Hollywood Warrior (already showing the first signs of incipient Alzheimers) had a chance to push "that little red button". And then? Remember that "Peace Dividend" we were all supposed to enjoy now that "God-less Communism" would become capitalist and democratic? Uh huh, we did our "father knows best" arm-twisting routine on the former Soviet bloc, and did more harm than good. Some of the former Soviet states succeeded, but most did not. Russia became "democratic", for a while, then elected Putin, who's reputed to be curtailing these "democratic" tendencies quite well.
So go ahead---accuse me of hating America. It's the usual response when any of us questions the current political dogma, especially when the Republicans are running the country, it seems. Unfortunately, I'm not. If you'll recall the Bill of Rights, we still have Freedom of Speech---not much anymore, but some, thank God. And I DO thank God, too. Of course, HE seems to have been appropriated by the GOP (dubbed "God's Own Party) since Reagan, along with morality in general. But then, when you have God as your co-pilot, I guess it means He not only forgives you in advance but APPROVES of everything you do, regardless. Must be a nice feeling, knowing that--- sort of like what those Muslim fanatics must feel as they blow themselves up.
And that, my friend, is hubris-in-a-nutshell. Think about it.
Sunday, August 29, 2004
Dumb, Da Dumb, Dumb, DUUUUUMB! or Oopsimath Strikes Again!
Yes, your typical American ill-literate here has to confess to a whopping big blooper---I totally forgot that Hebrew, as nearly every other language on this planet, genders its words either masculine or feminine. So "shoteh" (masc.) becomes "shotah" (fem.) when used to describe ME. Or any other female, naturally. Sorry. Big round of applause for Shira, who caught my mistake and emailed me. Now, if I can just figure out how to correct this entire blog without deleting it...
Aha! Didn't screw up AFTER all. Now, for some random brain-droppings (love George Carlin)...
The Republican National Convention/Coronation is adding a significant layer of hot air over the usual smog-laden NYC this week, so expect to see a temperature inversion by early next week from all that gas, proving that conservatives are RIGHT when it comes to their claim that hydroflurocarbons are not promoting global warming---well, ALMOST right, at any rate. With all the protesters busy throwing their "I Wanna Be On TV" tantrums, the place looks like a scene right out of Chicago 1968. In fact, the protesters look like the same ones THERE, except that they've gone gray and wrinkled. Sigh. Oh, to be young, slim, and hip again. About the only thing I still have of those three is "hip(s)", unfortunately. There's just something vaguely disgusting about the sight of a bunch of old geezers parading around like they were still Peaceniks in the 60's. And nothing ever changes. The protesters still claim kazillions more than what's reported on the news, the cops complain about how they're soooo over-worked and under-appreciated, the newscasters make ominous-sounding noises about this election being an earth-shattering event (did the earth move for YOU, too?), and in the end we all get screwed. Well, figuratively speaking, thankfully.
My conclusion? Try to take criticism gracefully, and get off your tuchus and vote!
Aha! Didn't screw up AFTER all. Now, for some random brain-droppings (love George Carlin)...
The Republican National Convention/Coronation is adding a significant layer of hot air over the usual smog-laden NYC this week, so expect to see a temperature inversion by early next week from all that gas, proving that conservatives are RIGHT when it comes to their claim that hydroflurocarbons are not promoting global warming---well, ALMOST right, at any rate. With all the protesters busy throwing their "I Wanna Be On TV" tantrums, the place looks like a scene right out of Chicago 1968. In fact, the protesters look like the same ones THERE, except that they've gone gray and wrinkled. Sigh. Oh, to be young, slim, and hip again. About the only thing I still have of those three is "hip(s)", unfortunately. There's just something vaguely disgusting about the sight of a bunch of old geezers parading around like they were still Peaceniks in the 60's. And nothing ever changes. The protesters still claim kazillions more than what's reported on the news, the cops complain about how they're soooo over-worked and under-appreciated, the newscasters make ominous-sounding noises about this election being an earth-shattering event (did the earth move for YOU, too?), and in the end we all get screwed. Well, figuratively speaking, thankfully.
My conclusion? Try to take criticism gracefully, and get off your tuchus and vote!
Tuesday, August 24, 2004
Opsimath Versus Oopsimath
I was browsing some of the other blogs and came across one called Verbivore, which had a "Word of the Day" section with the word "opsimath" listed and the definition "one who begins learning late in life". I loved it! Naturally, being of a warped mind, I immediately saw its relevance to me. Of course! I was always a Late Bloomer, but now I have a SCIENTIFIC term for it. How wonderful. Now I can converse with my shrink and casually drop these little bon mots when describing my struggles with daily life. Only in my case, I feel the word should be modified somewhat, as I not only learn "late in life" but not very gracefully, either. So, I propose "oopsimath", meaning someone who is not only a late bloomer but a KLUTZ as well. (For you who may not know this wonderful Yiddish word, it simply means "one who is not well-coordinated") And just think of all the possibilites! Why, the list is endless. Take "woopsimath", for instance---which could describe Dubya's penchant for imperialism. Or "swoopsimath", for John Kerry's handling of the Swiftboat controversy. Or how about "snoopsimath", for journalists in general? I think I'm onto something here! Must call Merriam-Webster immediately, as they'll undoubtably want to include these new terms in the next edition of their dictionary!
Okay, okay, so I'm not that funny. See what you come up with and get back to me.
Okay, okay, so I'm not that funny. See what you come up with and get back to me.
Thursday, August 19, 2004
WHAT IF?
I just had a disconcerting thought. What if the "No Child Left Behind" Act is actually intended, not to improve education, but to destroy all the gains made under IDEA (the "children with disabilities"Act)? Mind you, I don't agree with all the provisions of Special Ed, but there are a great many conservative Republicans who absolutely loathe IDEA (and no, I'm going to resist making a wisecrack about Bush and "ideas" in general). I should tell you straight out that I have a learning disability ( which I may have mentioned before, but I'll risk boring you again), but there were no provisions for Attention Deficit Disorder, etc, when I attended school back in the fifties and sixties. If you couldn't learn, you were labeled Mentally Retarded and placed in either a special class or school; most parents opted to institutionalize a child, out of social pressures and fears of ostracism. Sad, very sad. Babbitry ruled then, I'm afraid.
My problems were mainly ADD and an inability to learn math. The first made me impulsive, immature, etc, but the second impacted my prognostic tests negatively---SO negatively that my IQ score was once thought to be a measly 93. As IQ scores are believed to fluctuate up or down about ten points, you can see that something like THAT on my school records didn't endear me to many teachers. Mathmatical Reasoning, as it was known then (and may still be, for all I know), was a test-able quantity that pretty much defined intelligence. I tested poorly, so obviously I didn't have much "intelligence", as the conventional wisdom went. In order to go on to college, you needed an IQ of at least 110, the "experts" said. Many years later, at 42 ( having been out of college---which I managed to finish---since 1972), I learned my son had ADHD and, as these things are usually hereditary, I was tested myself. It came as a shock to find that my IQ had actually increased, from 93 to 119! Now, if my math isn't TOO bad, that's about 27 points, right? A "standard deviation" is only 15 pts. , and I'm not going to go into the Bell Curve Theory here. Suffice it to say that a standard deviation is the MOST an IQ is supposed to fluctuate, and NEVER in an individual that old. Again, correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe that's basically the formula even today. I took one of those IQ tests on the internet a month ago, and came out with a score of 122. Hmmm.
Getting back to my main point, Special Ed isn't so great, but without it we'd have lots of perfectly intelligent kids being shuffled off to institutions. My son, who will be going to college soon, was a "graduate", for want of a better term (actually, I can think of several, but they're not printable), of a Special Ed program here in NH, but his education came straight out of my husband's checkbook, not from what he "learned" in public school. God knows, I can't blame his teachers for lack of trying, but Congress has been reneging on their agreement to fund 40% of Special Ed ever since 1973. Conservatives have been screaming about "unfunded mandates", and over the years I've seen and heard many ingenious (and ingenuous) arguements for abolishing them (the mandates, not the Conservatives. Sigh, if only the latter COULD be abolished).
Now for the scary part. What if, as I said above, this NCLB Act was meant to be a kind of "backdoor" attempt to abolish IDEA by making Special Ed impossible? Think about it. This law relies on nationwide school testing, which is stupid but I won't bore you with the details here. Kids with learning disabilities have problems with tests; some, like my son, never learn to write legibly, and others have problems with processing information fast enough to finish on time. These are REAL issues, folks, not just some "Liberal Propaganda"(as I'm sure you've heard Rush Limbaugh bloviate about on his radio show). When these kids take tests that rely on a specific amount of time in which to answer questions, they fail---often miserably. In the past, it was customary for schools to test these students separately, applying the time rules as specified in the state's special ed guidelines. Yes, I often thought that time was extended a bit too much for these students, but now I see that I might have been wrong; with nationalized testing, many schools will be forced to test special ed kids no differently than the rest, which will result in many schools being ranked poorly. Naturally, parents will be furious, and I can hardly blame them, yet I have to wonder if anyone will realize just WHOSE "fault" this is. Not the poor special ed kids, surely. They will be blamed, though, as they have in the past. What next, then? It frightens me. It should frighten you, too.
My problems were mainly ADD and an inability to learn math. The first made me impulsive, immature, etc, but the second impacted my prognostic tests negatively---SO negatively that my IQ score was once thought to be a measly 93. As IQ scores are believed to fluctuate up or down about ten points, you can see that something like THAT on my school records didn't endear me to many teachers. Mathmatical Reasoning, as it was known then (and may still be, for all I know), was a test-able quantity that pretty much defined intelligence. I tested poorly, so obviously I didn't have much "intelligence", as the conventional wisdom went. In order to go on to college, you needed an IQ of at least 110, the "experts" said. Many years later, at 42 ( having been out of college---which I managed to finish---since 1972), I learned my son had ADHD and, as these things are usually hereditary, I was tested myself. It came as a shock to find that my IQ had actually increased, from 93 to 119! Now, if my math isn't TOO bad, that's about 27 points, right? A "standard deviation" is only 15 pts. , and I'm not going to go into the Bell Curve Theory here. Suffice it to say that a standard deviation is the MOST an IQ is supposed to fluctuate, and NEVER in an individual that old. Again, correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe that's basically the formula even today. I took one of those IQ tests on the internet a month ago, and came out with a score of 122. Hmmm.
Getting back to my main point, Special Ed isn't so great, but without it we'd have lots of perfectly intelligent kids being shuffled off to institutions. My son, who will be going to college soon, was a "graduate", for want of a better term (actually, I can think of several, but they're not printable), of a Special Ed program here in NH, but his education came straight out of my husband's checkbook, not from what he "learned" in public school. God knows, I can't blame his teachers for lack of trying, but Congress has been reneging on their agreement to fund 40% of Special Ed ever since 1973. Conservatives have been screaming about "unfunded mandates", and over the years I've seen and heard many ingenious (and ingenuous) arguements for abolishing them (the mandates, not the Conservatives. Sigh, if only the latter COULD be abolished).
Now for the scary part. What if, as I said above, this NCLB Act was meant to be a kind of "backdoor" attempt to abolish IDEA by making Special Ed impossible? Think about it. This law relies on nationwide school testing, which is stupid but I won't bore you with the details here. Kids with learning disabilities have problems with tests; some, like my son, never learn to write legibly, and others have problems with processing information fast enough to finish on time. These are REAL issues, folks, not just some "Liberal Propaganda"(as I'm sure you've heard Rush Limbaugh bloviate about on his radio show). When these kids take tests that rely on a specific amount of time in which to answer questions, they fail---often miserably. In the past, it was customary for schools to test these students separately, applying the time rules as specified in the state's special ed guidelines. Yes, I often thought that time was extended a bit too much for these students, but now I see that I might have been wrong; with nationalized testing, many schools will be forced to test special ed kids no differently than the rest, which will result in many schools being ranked poorly. Naturally, parents will be furious, and I can hardly blame them, yet I have to wonder if anyone will realize just WHOSE "fault" this is. Not the poor special ed kids, surely. They will be blamed, though, as they have in the past. What next, then? It frightens me. It should frighten you, too.
Wednesday, August 18, 2004
ME
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