It’s snowing here in Northern Illinois. A little more than flurries really, not much, but it is snowing. I don’t think we’ll get any real coverage, but the Shih Tzu leaves tiny pawprints in what’s sticking to the porch. The Siberian, on the other hand, is in his element.
Found this through Lady Jane at A Lady’s Ruminations.
Elvish
To which race of Middle Earth do you belong?
brought to you by Quizilla
The Elves were always my favorites.
Read Who Is Lying About Iraq.
Among the many distortions, misrepresentations, and outright falsifications that have emerged from the debate over Iraq, one in particular stands out above all others. This is the charge that George W. Bush misled us into an immoral and/or unnecessary war in Iraq by telling a series of lies that have now been definitively exposed.
What makes this charge so special is the amazing success it has enjoyed in getting itself established as a self-evident truth even though it has been refuted and discredited over and over again by evidence and argument alike. In this it resembles nothing so much as those animated cartoon characters who, after being flattened, blown up, or pushed over a cliff, always spring back to life with their bodies perfectly intact. Perhaps, like those cartoon characters, this allegation simply cannot be killed off, no matter what.
Go read the rest.
The Dems have made a huge mistake focusing on their hindsight aided clairvoyance regarding Iraqi pre-war intelligence. They seem to have forgotten that we now live in an information age where stuff we say is recorded and stored in a handy dandy replayable format.
occasionally chirping intellectually dishonest positions from the sidelines is one thing, but using them as the centerpiece in the run up to the 2006 elections is quite another.
Am I the only one out there who thinks Bush and company were giving the Dems enough rope to hang themselves on in waiting to “respond forcefully” to the Dems’ dishonest position on Iraq?
From kimsch: No Jeff, you are not the only one. My metaphor was that President Bush was allowing the Dems to dig their holes deeper and deeper…
In Canada November 11th is Remembrance Day. The following is a poem written by Lt-Colonel John McRae (1915):
In Flanders Fields
In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe;
To you, from failing hands, we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
Happy Veterans Day!
Last year, I linked to this post by Chris Lynch at A Large Regular. It’s worth a read again.
To all who have served and all who are now serving our country in America’s Armed Forces:
Thank you for your service.
LaShawn Barber has a great Roundup of Veteran’s Day Posts!
Jeff has a Canadian Remembrance Day post just above.
Here’s my Dad circa 1954:
Florida Senate Bill 522 (.pdf here) will mandate Spanish language instruction for all kindergartners through second graders. Let’s take a look at the bill:
Districtwide Spanish instruction in K through 2; requirements; funding.
The above sentence just describes what is to follow.
–By the 2007-2008 school year, each school district shall implement a districtwide foreign language program to provide students in kindergarten through grade 2 with instruction in the Spanish language which is designed to result in the student’s communicating competently in Spanish at his or her grade level.
Senator Miller does state this is a foreign language. He wants 5- to 7-year-olds to be communicating competently in Spanish at his or her grade level. What about requiring students to communicate competently in English?
Each student in the program must be provided with a minimum of 20 to 45 minutes of instruction, 5 days a week, from a certified Spanish-language specialist.
A minimum of 20 minutes and a maximum of 45 minutes? This isn’t really very clear. A minimum is the smallest acceptable. Senator Miller has specified a range. Also, this is a five day a week program. We need to mandate a five day a week program when subjects such as physical education (much more important to the physical well-being of a child) have been cut back to two or three days a week? Ah, here’s the real reason… Jobs. The bill calls for a certified Spanish-language instructor. Let’s just bloat the system fuller than it already is.
The Spanish instructor and the classroom teacher must collaborate during the periods of instruction.
Who will be “in charge”? The regular classroom teacher or the certified Spanish-language instructor? Will the regular lesson be incorporated into the Spanish lesson, or will the regular lesson just be shunted aside?
The school district may use grant funds or private funds, as well as state funding, to support the program.
In other words, you figure out how to fund this mandate.
I understand that there are quite a few Spanish speakers in Florida. I understand that some children have parents/others in their household who speak only Spanish or speak only minimal English. But how does teaching all children Spanish help this? What about immigrants from Japan, Germany, France, Romania, India, etc? Why should Spanish be the mandated language in a country where most people speak English?
This reminds me of the woman at Kindergarten screening who, when asked if she wanted a bilingual aide, said, “We speak English. We are from Romania.”
Amazing. I first learned of this from Lady Jane at A Lady’s Ruminations. She got it from Drudge. They both quote this from NBC-2. I found two more articles pertaining to this as well as the above quoted bill text.
Article one from the Tampa Tribune quotes Dorothy Carregal, superintendent of foreign languages for Hillsborough schools as saying, “And even if they give us the money, finding the teachers would be very difficult”.
An editorial in the Lakeland Ledger asks: “But where’s the money?”
I decided to wash some down pillows today.
In the course of washing the pillows the washer went off balance, big time. The switch that gets pushed by the pin in the lid broke.
I called the repairman to come by. He was able to come tonight.
While he was here, I asked if he could look at the dryer, because I thought I had smelled that “burnt belt” kind of smell.
He tried to start the dryer, but it wouldn’t turn on. It had worked earlier in the day.
He looked around the back and this is what he found:
here’s another shot:
Praise the Lord that I decided to wash pillows today and the washer broke. If it hadn’t, I might not have called the repairman. If I hadn’t called the repairman, he wouldn’t have found that.
The circuit breaker did not trip. He removed the circuit breaker and capped the wires. He’ll be back on Saturday with a new switch for the washer, a new breaker, new wiring, a new plug and a new outlet.
Praise the Lord our house did not burn down as a result of this.
Praise the Lord!
Trying out Treo blogging. Does it work?
Transcribed from Special Report with Brit Hume (Video) Harry Reid says:
The manipulation of intelligence to sell the war in Iraq, Vice President Cheney’s involved in that. The White House energy policy, that puts big oil ahead of the American consumer, Vice President Cheney is behind that. Leaking classified information, to discredit White House critics, the Vice President’s behind that.
Harry seems to be channeling Howard Dean, who said that Karl Rove was responsible for the Plame lead no less than three separate times during an interview with Alan Colmes of Hannity and Colmes. (see Howard Dean – Alito, Libby and Cheney)
Then he went on to accuse Vice President Cheney of the exact same thing.
Alan Colmes: Are you calling for a broader investigation of the Vice President?
Howard Dean: Well, I’m not so sure about that although if there is such a thing, it’ll be in the Vice President’s office. And I do think there needs to be more investigation in the Vice President’s office. One of the things established by the special prosecutor in the indictment is that Vice President Cheney was the source of Scooter Libbity’s, Libby’s knowledge about who the CIA agent was.
Lewis Carroll once said, “What I tell you three times is true.” This is based on the old adage that “Once is an accident, twice is a coincidence, but three times makes it true.”
The dems seem to think that if they just repeat something often enough, it will be true. They are aided in this by the media, who give them camera time and lap it all up.
If the White House continues to let these assertations remain unchallenged, people will start to believe them. Fight back! Fight back on a daily basis!
