Tax Reality

My son broke his ankle last January. This was followed by a series of economic hurdles that included having to pay $5000 out of pocket just to get admitted to the hospital. After the surgery-two plates and sixteen screws-my son missed nearly two months of full time work. It was simply impossible for him to do his job as a high end bike sales rep. He couldn't drive. He couldn't stand up all day. But his company held his job and created opportunities for him to contribute. The end bill was around $45K for surgery and two and a half days of hospitalization.

This is where the trouble began. The nurses and doctors didn't wean him from the IV pain meds until he was being wheeled out the door. Because I teach school and had already missed several days to care for him, his older brother picked him up. My son suffered outrageous withdrawals, for which nobody seemed to have answers. He endured the agony for four days. Then we began getting bills. Although the hospital that the surgeon used had the brand name of a hospital on my son's insurance, because it was 51% owned by the doctors working there, we had to haggle to get the amount covered. We had no choice really. He broke the ankle on New Year's Day and the longer we waited, the worse the recovery would be. There were only two doctors from a list of 20 given by his insurance who could see him. Likewise, we had to either choose the facility offered or risk waiting two to three weeks. Now I ask you, does that sound like prudent and immediate care? But I digress.

Fast forward to this week. All my son's papers were in order (sounds menacing doesn't it) for filing taxes. He did get compensation from his company's accident insurance policy to cover his out of pocket expenses. He still ended up missing two months of work and had to make up for lost income. But when he went to file taxes, he was told that the compensation he used to pay off the hospital and doctor would be TAXED. So even though he ended up spending 12% of his annual gross income on medical bills, my son, who work retail, who has only recently made enough to afford to move out and live on his own, will owe money. When he told the person doing the taxes effectively that he would not be filing, she replied "but you make more than lots of people."

This is how conservatives are made.

I Do My Job-Why Can't Other People Do Theirs?

A valid question.
I'm a high school teacher with all the job responsibility and paperwork that entails. I make lesson plans,  grade projects, call parents, go to meetings, make arrangements for competitions, collect permission slips, and on and on and on. I do this year in and year out.

We got a coordinator that we share with theater and dance.
She's handsomely paid.
For what I am not sure.
I call and she's never in her office. She allows her pet teacher to run meetings which means every event is designed to fit nicely with that teacher's schedule and not necessarily ours. This year, because this teacher wanted to win all the top places in our district show, they had the once a year, district, high school art show in late January. Never mind that we just got a new crop of classes and kids. Ignore that our regional show is coming up shorting. Forget that we have GRADES due-and all of that in the same week.

Fast forward to now. Teacher in question did win all top prizes-I'm not sure how when my kids got first in painting and first in drawing, but whatever. And Monday is Open House and Eighth Grade Roundup where we talk kids into taking art-and our "art coordinator" decided it would be a good thing for us to take down the show in the 90 minutes between school getting out and the event. We physically cannot do it. It takes 30 minutes just to drive over there and another hour or so to take down the art then 30 minutes to get back. That means no break from 7:30 am until 9:00 pm.

I already have high blood pressure. I simply cannot continue doing this kind of thrill kill schedule.

Here We Go Again

So once again radical Islamist decide that they are the arbiters of what free people can think, feel, write or draw. That this happened in France should be no surprise-they've been trying to remove all religion from their midst becoming a secular society by banning religious jewelry and only consolidated Islamists into a unified force. The moral of this story is appeasing bullies does no good.

This is not the first attack in Europe. A bus was targeted in London. A British soldier butchered by Islamist terrorists on the street. A bombing in Madrid. The thing that is different is that in every case the European response was to cower and allow sharia to grow. It is the same sick liberal mentality that refuses to see the Boston Marathon Bombing, the Ft. Hood shootings or the Navy Yard shootings for what they are-raw Islamic terror attacks.

It is deeply disturbing when I see Islam growing in suburban areas. While I would love to think these mosques are innocuous as the local Presbyterian church, I don't see the members of that synod throwing firebombs at shopping malls, Indeed, no other religion right now has exhibited such unbridled and unwarranted attacks as those who claim Muslim heritage. From Somalia to Indonesia random acts of violence on innocent people for the sole cause of not being Muslim make this appear to be the actions of some type of delusional madness.

Is that what Islam preaches? Violence? Hatred? Death?

And what is more, have the apologists in Europe-and here in the U.S-FINALLY gotten the message that the only way to end this is to seize control of these Muslim nations and take away their power? It's either that or somebody is going to end up flat and glassy and glowing.

The Illustrated Star

My husband and I have been married for 32 years. We've been together nearly 40 years. Neither of our families was wealthy. HIs family had so many kids and my family just never seemed to accumulate wealth. I went to college on a Pell Grant. My husband went to college for one year because his Dad was a self made man and believed if people wanted college they would pay for it themselves. Nobody gave us anything because nobody was in the position to give us anything. We never asked.

Our first Christmas two months after we married was bittersweet. We lived in a small, bug infested suburban apartment and we were so strapped for cash we couldn't afford a tree. I guess Christmas was on a Friday or Saturday because two days before Christmas we found a medium sized tree in the dumpster. We took it home, put it in water. I borrowed old (and probably hazardous) lights from my parents, bought pressed glass ornaments from the dollar bin at Pier One and our tree was set-except for the star. My Christmas trees have always had stars. The star signaled the shepherds and wise men. The star signaled hope and gave direction. I went and dug out my colored pencils and drew a star. The star was flat, made from thick scrap illustration board from my class. But I drew it so that it looked three dimensional. It has been on our tree for 32 years.

Our Christmases came and went. I started each child on a collection of ornaments. Mike had cars. Bobby had puppies. Christi had cute little animals. As they grew, the collections grew. And then the kids moved out, married and now have their own Christmas trees with their own pieces of our Christmases on them. I will never have a designer tree. Oh yes, they're beautiful and make wonderful backdrops for the holiday photos, but my trees and my ornaments are little pieces of my memory. Memories don't always conform to fashion. And they shouldn't.

When I look at my kids, none of whom are wealthy or in prestigious careers, but who are good people who work hard and pay their bills, it makes me fear for them. It seems that virtues like honesty and honor, trust and faith, love and respect are no longer part of the fabric of the American Dream. Fame, notoriety, provocative behavior and greed seem to trump the sweetness of what used to be goals. I'm not sure who speaks for my children anymore. They have no champions in their corner. All I can cling to is that time changes everything and life is more a roller coaster ride than a road. Let's hope this pendulum swings back before we lose more than just Christmas, but our souls.

Recreating the 1960's

It seems to me that lately we have a generation-the grandchildren of those who marched in Selma and who fought for civil rights for all people-intent on reliving and recreating those years. While I understand the legacy of slavery 150 years ago resonated in the dissolution of families and culture, there's nobody alive now who was a slave or a slave owner. Most of the victims of Jim Crow laws are quite elderly and unless I'm unaware of it, the openly racist tactics of pushing people of color into second class status have been over for quite awhile.

We have programs designed to help minority students acquire a high school diploma and even to advance to college and professional schools. So why are so many students failing to take advantage of the system set in place to help them achieve? We've culturally simplified the tests-we even offer a safety net of tutoring, retests and mentoring programs to help the historic underachievers. Here's a little secret some people may not know-Anglo kids fail too. And they have far fewer safety nets in place. The idea that being white somehow protects you is a joke and half to these kids.

So we move the most recent unpleasantness. Like the Trayvon Martin case, the Michael Brown case was tried in the court of public opinion by those who have social and political agendas. In both cases, evidence was misrepresented by reporters who should have known better. In a similar way, agents and provocateurs used both of these cases as leverage to get the locals to open their wallets. Be careful when someone claims to be here to help-ask who they are helping beyond themselves. As the result of this false "evidence" rioting was promoted and occurred. The end result of this has yet to be seen, but there's no doubt that some businesses and their associated jobs will go away. This means that as the result of rioting Ferguson will have fewer job opportunities and is almost guaranteed to drop in terms of the ability to sustain itself.

The complaints of the 1960's were discrimination in housing, in education and in jobs. With fewer businesses, there's less tax revenue meaning the schools get less money. Few businesses also means fewer jobs and more people on welfare. It's almost as if this was the endgame for the entire situation was to create more poor, minority people. When you look at the protests, they are based on complaints that are legally flimsy. While nobody wants someone killed, neither do citizens want petty thieves and bullies wandering the streets. For all the public complaints about Michael Brown's death there have to be those who know the real background. Brown was kicked out by his parents and by his grandmother-that's not what happens to "gentle giants". Brown had to make up high school credits after graduation. That's not what kids with a bright future do. That is what kids who have a history of disrupting classes, bullying peers and skipping school do. So why are so many so willing to protest? I'm not saying all cops are golden, but it seems like certain cases have been hand picked by DOJ and the media for some purposes beyond the peaceful promotion of racial equality.

Who is pulling the strings on this and why?

Subjective Judgement: A Comparison

When we look at the instance of Darren Wilson shooting Michael Brown, judgement seems to line up largely according to political lines. Of course those who had seen the shooting, who had no dog in the hunt and who gave anonymous testimony were probably the most accurate in terms of what happened and when. But the rest of the "witnesses" seem to cling to what they want the story to be even when it is refuted by evidence. They would never tolerate that kind of treatment of one of their own. So it breaks down into a game of "Who's The Hypocrite?"

Twitter also plays these games. I like twitter-probably a little too much. It's a good way to get information quickly and allows for a free flow of back and forth if you choose. Twitter is not the only site that has this kind of dubious ambiance, but it's the best known. My biggest problem with twitter is the nagging tattle tail enforcement of their "rules". Twitter's "rules" seem to change at will. And enforcement of those rules is based on whichever little meathead is in charge of the site at the time. For example: The New York Times published the address of Darren Wilson opening up not just him, but all of his neighbors, to attack. The two writers who did this hid behind a cloak of arrogant journalistic hubris. A few hours later two other websites posted the writers' addresses-one in Chicago and the other in New Orleans. I copied them and posted them AS DID MANY OTHER PEOPLE. My account was suspended. 

Keep in mind that tax rolls are public records. While I didn't do the heavy lifting of sifting through tax rolls, I don't think suspending my account makes sense when other subsequent people posted them as well and seemingly were not banned. Furthermore, if it is wrong for me-a private citizen who COPIED addresses from two other blogs then why is it not wrong for these self-important trumped up reporters to post Wilson's address exposing him and his neighbors to violence? What kind of game is twitter playing here? If they want to be the arbiters of what is right and wrong, fine. But by God do not get on a high horse over distant reporters' addresses when you allow them to point out a man who's life is in danger by publicly issue threats from the New Black Panthers. If it is wrong for one, it is wrong for all. I am willing to abide by that, but are the New York Times or Twitter?

Today

Today is better.
I am not going to subscribe to the notion that the wave election of last week is the cause but it certainly helped. It's nice to know you aren't alone in your angst. That we now have some government paid clown telling us what Tea Party types always assumed-that ACA is not sustainable and that the data given to the CBO was all lies-finding out the Ivy League "expert" quoted by one and all on the DNC thinks we are a bunch of inbred boobs pretty much dooms him to a limited income and future.

I started painting little four inch canvases for the holidays. I play to put a loop of ribbon on them and sell them as the school bazaar for money for competition. Maybe then some of my students will compete....maybe. Anyway, painting has altered my mindset for the better. I got a big canvas and I have my drawing ready. It's time to paint.

Tired

Perhaps it is the world we are living in.
Perhaps it is my age.
I am tired.
So tired that if I could I would quit.
It isn't that my job is any more difficult than it was before. Nor is it that I am incapable of doing my job well. But I am losing my grip. I notice that I miss having a walk on a cool October morning. I don't have time to bake, to sew, to draw. I don't have time to clean. My house is a disaster area because between my "full time" job that lasts days on in and my husband's pieced together quilt of part time work, nobody is at home in any amount of time. Dustbunnies are flourishing under my bed. What laundry I wash and dry seldom gets folded and put away. The cursory cleaning I do of the kitchen and bath keeps the Health Dept at bay, but in reality it creates a lonely world because I am too embarrassed to have anyone come over.
I am so tired.
I am so sad.
Sometimes I am scared. The world has become a scary place. It's safer and more secure when you are the World's Cop than when you are the World's Piggybank. I love how nations that revile us are so quick to stick out their hands. In the meantime, here at home we have a president who seems disinterested in the heavy lifting of governing. He leads an alphabet soup of  Federal agencies and offices that seem to be nothing more than organized theft and spy rings intent on stealing from and spying on people like me. I see my kids struggle. They put off buying homes. They put off having kids. And these are the very people who should be parents. In the meantime ignorant inbred folks breed like bunnies assured a Federal handout will come with every new kiddo.

What has happened to us? When did we allow small groups to dictate to the large ones? When did we replace rule of law with the rule of who is loudest? I watch the news and the protesters in Ferguson are little different than those mobs that call themselves ISIS in Syria and Iraq. They only want their views expressed and they're willing to kill and main anyone who dares to have a different view. This is not the way it used to be. And it's not the way it should be. What has happened to us?

Welcome to Ebola Central

I live in the Dallas area. My son and daughter in law live mere blocks from the first Ebola patient, less than a quarter of a mile from the other. They are all of the same age, hang out at the same restaurants, bars and theaters. There's hookah bars, open air fruit stands, dog parks, and more all within the same area both nurses lived. And my son and his wife are there.

The head of the CDC says they can't catch Ebola from casual contact. But then they make all workers wear hazmat suits. We have a county judge, who is incidentally up for reelection, literally tramping through the contaminated apartment without any protective gear. He says he does it because "that's the way I would want my family treated. " Bullshit. He did it because there's a camera there. And since then, this local weasel who got his positions through Democrat party manipulations in the county, Clay Jenkins has sought publicity at every turn. In the meantime, after his little show for the press, he goes home to his family including a nine year old daughter that attends public schools in Highland Park. Imagine the fear of other parents not knowing if their child will be the one who picks up the virus thanks to this man's selfish behavior.

But it's more than that. I am genuinely sorry Mr. Duncan died. Nobody should have to suffer that fate. But since he KNEW he had been exposed and LIED to come here, I think we can pretty much write off any of his fiancee's claims to anger at his treatment. There is now a story floating that Duncan didn't tell the nurse the first time that he had been in WEST Africa, just that he came from Africa. Dallas is in the middle of the nation. It's simply not unreasonable to think that such a disease would show up in New York or Miami or Atlanta before Dallas. There are also reports that in the early stages the mild fever before the full onset can be controlled with Tylenol. So even the CDC's touchless temporal scans would not suffice to find the sick person. It's like a particularly gruesome version of Where's Waldo.

I went to the State Fair-a large gathering. I've been feeling queasy all day. Perhaps it's simply psychosomatic. Perhaps it was the heat. I refuse to  limit my life because of something brought here through carelessness and selfishness. But having said that, I find myself using hand sanitizer frequently. I send kids to the nurse for the least thing. I call my kids daily to the point that I can hear their eyes rolling. I know the weakest-the elderly and the very young-are often the targets of this disease. I worry about my Mom who at 85 is already battling enough chronic disease. I worry about my grandson who has just started preschool and could be exposed through sheer ignorance to this disease. I ache with worry.

And in the meantime, the market has had its fourth down day, rumors are that Soros is selling short, we have a government more interested in circling the wagons than solving the problem. Between the CDC, IRS, NSA, EPA I'm truly not sure what will be left after Obama leaves office. Let us pray.

What's Wrong....

I've posted so many blogs about these issues. Many of them interlock which makes them so much more difficult to fix. But I personally need to outline what has happened so that I can deal with the scope of what this administration has accomplished in regards to altering our way of life.

1. Bribes: Before the heat of the election had even cooled, people were being offered "easy money". The most obvious form of this was "Cash for Clunkers." This poorly designed program was said to be created to get older, less environmentally sound vehicles off the road. The funded amount was supposed to last at least two months. I don't think it even lasted two weeks. The problem is that people traded in older PAID FOR and ended up taking new cars, using the bonus as downpayment and ended up with more car payments. The last thing low income people need is MORE DEBT, but that's exactly what Obama created. What is more, those older cars were very often good enough to drive to work, but rather than recycling them for parts or using parts from these cars to replaced damaged cars, all they did was crush the cars making them essentially useless except as scrap.

Other bribes include bonuses for hybrid cars, bonuses for buying homes in certain key areas, bonuses for teaching in Title IX schools and so on. It sounds like free money, but they all come with strings attached and a cost.

2. Obamacare: I refuse to call this the "Affordable Care Act" because nothing about it is affordable. It was pushed by DEMOCRATS onto Americans under the mistaken cause of providing insurance for the uninsured. If you care to look at recent stats there are almost exactly the same number of uninsured people in this country now as there were five years and several billion dollars ago. ACA was designed as a method of surreptitiously taxing the middle class via insurance so that the money could be used as a kind of slush fund for the Obama administration's agenda. Agreements were made to deny tort reforms, which are proven to lower costs of medical care, in order to get the Trial Lawyers' Association's support. Agreements were made behind closed doors with Big Pharma by the DEMOCRATS to prevent any competition from overseas pharmaceutical manufacturers driving up the cost of medicine. And then to make sure all bases were covered, they added a tax on all medical devices which also drives up bills. Most of us who have insurance are seeing much higher premiums and deductibles that make the concept of insurance almost laughable because most people can't afford to pay the deductible. Add to this mess the sneaky way the increases in premiums and cancellations are being held mere days after the midterm elections and you have a hot mess.

3. Corruption: Oh let me count the ways.
-Fast and Furious-Now former AG Holder is still in contempt of Congress, still hasn't testified and still holds the record for being the most obnoxious recent resident of the hot seat.
-Benghazi-We don't know who called the stand down. We don't know why. We haven't heard from any of the survivors (although I think a book is coming out soon). We have a White House obviously stonewalling. I seriously don't think it's Hilary. I think Valerie Jarrett is Soros' agent in place and she's doing a great deal of the heavy lifting. This probably explains why Obama never reads his security briefings anymore.
-IRS-Really....seriously....a building full of accountants and lawyers-people who love paper more than life itself-and they lose documents? Nobody believes this. Nobody. Not even the people claiming to believe it.
-NSA-Ongoing and hi-did you find those letters I lost last month?
-Snooping on journalists-you'd think this would piss off the media. After all, Obama has developed a reputation for aloofness only equaled by Richard Nixon. He refused them access to public events, he has them locked in closets, beaten by security guards, chased by Secret Service and yet still the mainstream media loves him like an abused puppy. Please media-get help.

Pray for the Children

As a teacher I have a tender spot for children, small animals and babies of all breeds. When I was young, I was hopeful. I thought there was a future where I could have a home and children and a job I loved. It wasn't unrealistic because most people were capable of achieving those modest goals. I am not sure what happened along the way, but I feel a great deal of sadness when I look at my own children. What kind of world have we given them?

My kids are the ones you don't read about in the newspaper. We are not rich so they couldn't be spoiled. They participated in school activities, cared about their grades, sought college or at least some training. As young adults they worked at jobs. Some of them were not the deluxe careers sought by some young adults, but it paid the rent and the bills. My kids have struggled. Despite college degrees, the jobs are few and far between. This group more than any other has borne the brunt of economic savagery wrought by this administration. While the president claims to love the middle class, he dines and golfs with the one percent he claims to hate.

I just got off the phone with my daughter. Married two years, she works two jobs to the tune of 12 hours a day. Her husband works with autistic children and has just finished his Masters. They can barely afford their bills and money woes are taking a toll. She has already told me that she sees no way they can ever afford children, much less a house or any of the other rites of passage. Their problems started when her paid off car was hit by an uninsured driver. She was forced to buy a used car which right now are where new cars were just a couple of years back. There is no other way for her to get to work. She is very sad.

My oldest son, newly married, just moved into a small older duplex. He and his wife are trying hard to save money to buy their own home, but just yesterday a driver ran a red light and hit my daughter in law's paid off Toyota because as the other driver said " I didn't think I had to stop at this intersection" (There's a light there.) This comes on the heels of my son being hit by a guy in a Chrysler who was too busy fiddling with his phone to stop at the light. So they too are stuck with two car payments and no way to avoid the additional expense.

My youngest son, 25, has only recently been able to afford to move out. The rents in this area are ridiculous unless you want to live in a war zone. As it is his expenses are claimed to the penny with insurance, gas, food and child care rising every month.

This is what happens when you have people in power more concerned about agenda over efficiency. I look at the young faces in my class and I wonder what the future holds. Our borders are insecure-rumors persist that ISIS is gathering in Juarez, the cost of everything is rising and it seems that the administration is more concerned in starting a civil war than in running the country. All I can do is pray. I raised my kids to be good people and they are good people. They deserve better than this.

Using Children for Extortion

The story unfolding along the southern border of the United States is not new to those of us who live there. For years there has been a steady stream of undocumented workers who are here illegally. The popular chant is that they only come to work. That should explain the erosion of wages that are occurring under the Obama regime. Oh sure, they talk a good game about "living wages" that are unsustainable for most small businesses, but continue to ignore journeymen plumbers, electricians, machinists and carpenters that are simply priced out of the market by a surge of unchecked workers who may or may not be qualified to build your home. (As an aside, in the chichi upper class environs of McKinney TX a few years back, a custom builder was found to have used uncertified workers -most likely illegals-to wire houses. Only later when houses started having fires were the houses discovered to have been not up to code. This was hushed up with out of court settlements)

So those problems along with identity theft, spikes in uncompensated claims for emergency,fire, police, water, energy and housing have added to the economic burden of the region.

Even the most liberal among us were beginning to say enough is enough.

Then they sent children.

Americans are decent people. Unlike many other cultures we don't demand our children quit school and start working at an early age.  Most people seek to help children as witnessed by campaigns like Feed the Children, Toys for Tots and other independent programs that do not exist anywhere else in the world. Our tenderness is our Achilles heel. Cartels-which incidentally indulge in many other crimes beyond drugs such as human trafficking, smuggling, brand encroachment as well as bringing people here illegally. So someone (I'm still reserving judgement as to whether this was precipitated  to stampede Congress to make a snap decision on immigration) started and effectively spread a rumor regarding amnesty-something that our president was slow to refute. We have facilities full. If a hurricane, tornado or other disaster hits the region, Texas, Oklahoma and surrounding states will have few options for housing the survivors.

My final thoughts are these: What loving parent places their toddler in the arms of a coyote? It makes no sense. It's just too pat a story. What other criminals and even terrorists have managed to elude our grasp because the Border Patrol was changing diapers? Our softness is setting us up for failure.

Shameful

Of all the things I have seen, the extortion of the elderly and their families has to be among the worst. Insurance companies terrify them into purchasing policies that are essentially worthless. Doctors ignore their complaints rather than investigating concerns. But among the worst of the worst is the housing and care industry for the very oldest among us.

My mother was hospitalized last week. She is scheduled for skilled nursing (rehab) for three weeks. Right now she can walk with a walker, but we have no idea what other things she can do for herself. She lives on social security from my Dad-just enough that she doesn't qualify for Medicaid. She has no savings-Merrill Lynch purged her accounts of that when they bought out BofA. She has no investments, no cache of jewels, no hidden wealth. And yet the cost of finding her safe living accommodations is over $3500 a month. That's more than my takehome pay after taxes. While my Dad was stationed in Sasebo and Nagasaki immediately after WWII, because it wasn't "wartime"

She can't live with us-our one working bathroom isn't accessible. The other one is a mess of leaky pipes that we can't afford to fix. We have no money. She has no money. There's no programs to help her or us. Oh...and on top of the $10,000 taken out of our checks we had to pay $600 more in taxes this week.

The Hits Just Keep On Coming

So we begin the year with my son's catastrophic ankle break. Two plates and 16 titanium screws later, he' still hobbled. My other son was hit when a guy in a big car ran a red light. My son had two witnessses and the police officer say it wasn't his fault but we had to lawyer up because the other guy's denying it. Last week my husband came down with pneumonia and then Friday I came down with acute brochitis. Later Friday my 84 year old mother calls 911 rather than me and ends up in a hospital half way across town because they're the only one that honors Humana. Seriously...could  I please have a break?

Ft. Hood-Deja Vu

I guess being a big military base and in Texas makes Ft. Hood a giant target. I have to wonder if things would have been different today, and back in 2009, if the Clintons had not actively campaigned to remove working weapons from all on base military except MP's. The Navy Yard shooting also could have been mitigated if the shooter KNEW there would be ten guns pointed back at him for every one he pulled out. 
The bottom line is this-we are training young men and women to shoot weapons and do so responsibly. Shouldn't we at least trust them to have them on their own base? Frankly from this perspective it looks like the Clintons were early adopters for hamstringing our military and making them ineffective. 

BTW, if ANYONE dares to say this guy was mad about congressional lack of action on immigration, I will go nuts. This is just the kind of drama ridden prop the Left needs to create to shove through another inane and costly bill like the poorly titled "Affordable" Care Act.

Our prayers go out to the men and women of Ft. Hood and to those who find themselves safer overseas than at home.

Why Administration Micromanagement is Driving Teachers Nuts

I have taught for a long time. I know what I am doing. I am open to new methods, new technology, new ideas, but I do not need an administrator repeatedly and without warning, throwing new things at me. We have a chief administrator that would change the color of the sky if he could do so. Change for improvement is great. Change for the sake of change (and the sake of career grandstanding) is not.

In the past year we have changed:
-The online gradebook
-Online attendance
-Method of purchasing supplies
-Vendors
-Attendance policies
-Grade policies
-Computer hardware (PC to Mac based)

When looking at a list of stressors, too much change in anyone's life is bad. Is it any wonder that we are seeing a Conga line out the door of retirees. What is more, younger teachers are actively seeking employment in other districts and other professions. You would think after seeing the Gallup polling data from teachers (God knows this administration love them some data) they would see the almost palpable frustration over how we have to deal with things on a daily basis. Just in feelgood actions of placing severely disabled kids into regular classrooms with no aid, no resources, no support at all, leaves teachers wondering about the validity of what we do. What good is it to create a curriculum when nobody is held to those standards. You can walk into any high school in my district and find different procedures in play. It makes no sense that we hold our kids in school A accountable for work that school B ignores.

I guess at some level my school administrative staff sees there's a problem. But their solution is to offer just more of the same. Now and for the rest of the year, we will be giving up one planning period a week to essentially vent. Knowing the people in charge and how they can sometimes not take criticism well, how much of a psychological relief will this be?

Spring Break

I remember Spring Break as being the time my brother and I would spend clamoring to be allowed to swim although the temperatures were barely above 70 degrees. There was something inextricably wound in my soul with vacation and swimming. Now I don't venture into anything cooler than a hot bath, but that's age for you.

I've spent the majority of my Spring Break cleaning up. When I was a stay at home Mom, I was able to clean and my house was reasonably neat. Now my house is a disaster that I'm just too tired to care about most of the time. That's sad. I watch ads on TV and wonder whatever happened to that woman that couldn't get the ring off the collar of her husband's shirts. Now most cleaning seems to center for whatever reason around cleaning bathrooms. It's as if women have become so disengaged from the drudgery of what B.F. Skinner called "huzzifry" that we don't give a flip if our kitchens, living rooms or dens look like the scene of an episode of Hoarders as long as our toilet bowls sparkle. It's like the bathroom being clean is our last hold on civilization.

I've also spent the Spring Break organizing a luncheon for my daughter in law to be-a wisp of a girl who looks like a Disney princess but can shoot like Annie Oakley-and a rehearsal dinner. The combination of the two will cost as much as the reception, but then maybe that's the way it's supposed to be. She's a lovely girl and I want her to have nice things.  The down side is looking for an appropriate dress for me. At my current size that's not easy and it's clear that despite my attempt to lose weight, that's just not going to happen before the wedding.

With all this excitement it has also become clear that I don't want to work anymore. I am not anticipating the rest of the year with glee. There's just too much uncertainty and instability going on in my district. We have a superintendent who seems to have a need for attention. As a result, we are indulging in a variety of questionable cutting edge techniques that are costly and of varying levels of value. I need five years to retire with full pension. In five years I don't know what this school will look like. Color me fearful.

Funny Old World

The world works in funny ways. My son broke his ankle (three bones) and dislocated it. It was just short of a compound fracture.I posted about how the hospital called less than 24 hours before the schedule surgery to demand in full the deductible from my 24 year old son. He works retail. I remember when he was so proud to have his own insurance-to help out, to be independent. The brutal comment of the hospital business manager was "we can POSTPONE your surgery until you come up with the money." I still feel fury at that comment. Would they say the same thing to a woman dialated to ten cm in the ER or a gunshot wound victim? Or would it be that because my son like so many others innocently got insurance which amounts to a license to pick pockets in order to make up for what so many others do not pay? Is that the intent of Obamacare??

Sorry, blood pressure up, I have to take a moment.

Anyway, as I said before, the world works in funny ways. After three weeks off the job, but still on crutches and in a cast, my son went to work. He was talking to customers as he does (which is why he's the top salesman)and a man asked about his leg. The whole story came out while the customer listened. The man asked "What hospital was this at?" and my son gave the name. As it turns out, the man was the head of public relations for the entire hospital system. He was appalled at how my son was treated and he gave my son his card and told him "I'm sorry you were treated like that. That's unforgiveable. If you have ANY  problems with the billing or the other issues with the hospital, call me." It's nice to know some people still care about their jobs.

In the meantime, I live in what amounts to a thrift store masquerading as a house. My husband is so afraid of losing any money that he thinks everything has a value, even a 30 year old refrigerator. The only place I have to do anything is a TV table that holds my laptop. I can't paint. I can't sew. I can't really cook. All I can do is exist. I have to hope that this same funny old world holds some lucky twist for me.

Lockdown

Today my school had a lockdown. No, it wasn't a drill. Some idiot called the school claiming to have put a device in a rehearsal hall. They also claimed there were armed shooters waiting for evacuation and that he had the detonator in hand. I don't know who it was or why they did it, but I am sick and tired of these weak minded droolers pulling this kind of stuff. Needless to say it's exam week. In addition the director of the organization targeted in the phone call had canceled a spring trip because the students had not practiced, were distracted on their phones and tablets in rehearsal and generally seemed disinterested in the performance part of the trip althought anxious to miss four days of school to attend. Allegedly, students were mad at this director, but I say more power to her. We have kids who are born into such a huge sense of entitlement that they believe the "deserve"  trips, banquets, awards, scholarships, what have you, simply because they exist.

After an hour cowering in the dark corner of a locked computer lab, I am NOT in a happy mood. After a year in which teachers seem to have no back up while administrators cower at the demands of parents, I'm really at my wit's end. This is not why I signed up for the job.

My Letter to The White House OR Why Obamacare Doesn't Work

This is a copy of the letter I wrote to the White House and President Obama. Of course I doubt he will read it. But I am hoping others do read it as a cautionary tale.

"Let me tell you what ACA has done for us. My son, who is 24 and works full time and has had insurance from his work for nearly a year, broke his ankle. It is a complex break and dislocation. He went to the ER and they demanded $250, which I didn't question. But then the surgeon we called demanded $1400 up front. Last but not least, the hospital said that if my son couldn't come up with $1500 up front, that they would "postpone the surgery until he had the money." He works retail, he has to be able to walk or at least move. It would take him months, maybe years to save that much. This is what is happening. This is your fault. You and the Democrat have lied to us. And kids like my son are suffering and will suffer. The only people who benefit are those who are uninsured who will skip their bills. I am so disappointed."

The last six days have been stressful to say the least. ER visits usually are. My youngest son has worked so hard to get out of debt and to be responsible in paying for child care and such. He was finally looking at moving out. Then this. An accident. But he has insurance so that makes it alright.....right? No. Think again.
I didn't really think much when the ER wanted $250 up front. That's a normal think with ER visits, then you get billed later. But when after visiting with the orthopedist (and after having to hear the absolute agony of my son as they struggled to reduce the fracture which was not done properly at the ER) we got a phone call demanding $1400 up front and then the call from Baylor Hospital demanding the full amount of the deductible up front, this poor kid broke down. How are people ever supposed to get out from under debt when the costs of insurance along with the cost of deductibles rising? The irony is that if he was indigent or irresponsible, he would end up at Parkland or John Peter Smith and get the same services for a billing payment or even free.

Buying insurance is for saps. Why do we do it? It seems to offer few benefits and more liabilities. And the mumbo jumbo gibberish of the insurance jargon is enough to drive Ben Franklin insane. My blood pressure was already high. Luckily I am able to help out-but I know others that are not. What of those poor kids with $10,000 deductibles on their insurance? How will they pay? This isn't even the first week of January and it's already ugly. It's going to get uglier still.

People, I've been saying this since 2009, Obamacare is a trap. It is not about less expensive care or even more accessible care-it is a surreptitious tax on those that work to subsidize those demographic populations the ruling party find to be more deserving of services.

This is a Rant

Every year I become struck more and more at how entitled younger generations assume themselves to be. They don't pay supply fees, feel others should subsidize them or even that teachers should magically be able to pay for all materials out of their own pockets. Even more, these same students often believe that they should not be held to the same criteria as others. They blame teachers, the schools and indeed everyone but themselves for failure.

While I do have some diligent, intelligent and courteous students, today I was faced again with what I can only call rank ingratitude. I teach an AP Art class. My students have deadlines every three weeks. Sometimes, if a student is struggling or has bitten off more than they can produce, I have been known to extend deadlines. In one particular case a young man slept through the first three weeks of class. Parents were called, but no return calls were made. The second three weeks I did the student the favor of listening to his case and extending deadlines on the first work. Needless to say, all subsequent work was late up to the day of the semester exam, which is a portfolio for this class. Rather than twelve pieces, this student had nine. He said he couldn't find work from earlier classes so I cut him a break and gave him an 80 on the portfolio rather than the 70 he deserved. I also accept work that was weeks late for a late grade to avoid zeros.

So imagine my frustration when this same student comes striding in after school complaining about my favoritism to other students and demanding to know why I was so hostile to him. I admit it, I lost it. I had had to confirm grade changes with my principal in order to give the student credit for late grades and as a result his grade jumped from a 60 to a 72. And after extending deadlines, working to get him a passing grade, he accuses me of favoritism and hostility. I told him he needed to get out of my class if that was his opinion. I have beggared myself to get supplies for kids. I have done without things to get kids enrolled in elite schools, writing recommendation after recommendation. While a few express thanks, more and more I am getting the impression that too many kids are gaming the system through intimidation or extortion to get higher grades. I'm tired of the ingratitude.

The Obama Shutdown

 Unemployment among young people in Greece hit 55 percent last week. We're on a similar track — bloated federal bureaucracy, unsustainable social programs, unprecedented millions of Americans on the public dole and more debt to come — it might be time for the young to stop listening to the music of the pipes on their electronic devices.-John Kass, Chicago Tribune


No shutdown is good for the economy. In Kass' column he cast a justified pox on both their houses. That being said rampant and unchecked government spending doubleplusungood for the economy. Right now we have a stalemate. It seems that leadership in both parties were taken aback by the lucid and accurate statements of Senator Ted Cruz. He is making the case that many of us have wanted to hear for years now. It's upsetting applecarts in Washington and that's a good thing. That's good because we have a government made up of people who have been there for decades and who merely visit their districts. These people no more represent their constituents than Miss American represents all American women. The Founders never envisioned that anyone would want to spend a lifetime in Washington, so they didn't write in term limits. I think that the sluggish and thuggish quality of what passes for leadership in Washington begs for term limits.

"A NYT researcher managed to register at 6 a.m. on 10/1. But despite more than 40 attempts over the next 11 days was never able to log in.Her last several attempts were a blank screen."
-----on Affordable Care Act in the New York Times

As for the shutdown, like the sequester, this is an Obama construct. He has chosen why and where pain will be inflicted. And he's doing this so that average Americans develop both a fear and gratitude for what Government gives them. This is not what the Founders envisioned. The Founders saw representatives as the voices of the People. The People were the boss. Now we have elitists in both parties who want to tell us what we're going to think, say and do. And they are doing this in direct conflict with constitutional rights and provisions.  

Do you trust your healthcare to the same folks who shutdown the EBT cards this weekend?

We have had 17 shutdowns in government, the most recent being only a few days. That this has lasted so long so far demonstrates a few things. First, it demonstrates that Obama WANTS a shutdown in much the same way he wanted sequester. Jack Lew of the recent claim not to know how many had enrolled in Obamacare the first week (it was 51,000) was the speaker in this column: from Forbes. The shutdown, milked by the White House for political affect, gives ample cover for the disastrous and laughable failure of his much ballyhooed healthcare website. Given the various public examples of the unworkable nature of this program along with the reasons why it is failing which is documented in The New York Times of all places there is plenty of cause for delay. But Obama seems to be delaying on the shutdown not because of the defunding attempt, but because to inflict more problems onto the system would shut it down through natural attrition.

 “The extent of the problems is pretty enormous. At the end of our calls, people say, ‘It’s awful, just awful.’--on the Affordable Care Act, New York Times

I don't believe that Ted Cruz minds being the lightening rod for this debate. Washington insiders underestimate him. I've talked with him, he's a nice guy, but makes no mistakes in his political stance. In a way, after hired hecklers showed up at a conservative meeting, I think he's somewhat amused at the antics of the Left. Given the vitriol being spewed by the likes of the Washington Post and New York Times I have to wonder how close to a nerve he's hitting. But as Senator Cruz himself said, " 

“The nice thing is, the left will always tell you who they fear, 

and they fear you, the American people.” -@SenTedCruz

And Again, It's Not The Guns

So once again we see a public place shot up with a large number of fatalities and injuries. Once again we have a media intent on playing the Gun Control card. They have already falsely stated that the shooter of the Navy Yard used an AR15. He did not. They have tried to connect this discussion by citing Newtown and Aurora, two evil incidents where deranged individuals killed innocents for what appears to be no reason at all. Politicians want you to believe that guns are the problem.

Guns are not the problem.

Under guidelines signed more than thirty years ago it has become almost impossible for even loving families to have mentally ill, violent and threatening members involuntarily detained. Many of the first victims of the violent mentally ill are the same family members who make excuses for them. Indeed that appears to be what happened in both the Gabby Gifford's shooting and in Newtown, where families were unwilling to admit their members were a danger to themselves and others. In both cases outsiders, teachers, peers, coworked knew that the individuals were escalating their behavior. In Aurora and in this case with the Navy Yard shooter, the individuals were either under treatment on their own recognizance or scheduled for treatment but still left out in the general population as in the case of the Aurora shooter.

Guns are not the problem.

We are discovering that the Navy Yard shooter had a violent history. He had anger problems where he self admittedly blacked out in Seattle, and a neighor in his Ft. Worth apartment who was terrified of him. Even his friends admitted he would start drinking at 9:30 in the morning, drink huge quanitites of liquor and play violent video games for days on end to the point where friends had to bring him food after two days straight of playing. These are not normal behaviors taken individually and as a cluster demonstrate someone who is seeking to quiet voices and self medicate. In short. the Navy Yard shooter was deranged and dangerous but under current law could not be denied employment or freedom because of these issues.

Guns are not the problem.

While I would agree that people with criminal intent or those who are seriously mentally impaired should not be given access to guns or other weapons, does anyone really think that someone under the pressure of delusions will let mere legalities stop them? I notice politicians wringing their hands in regards to this situation. I am curious if proximity is the issue because these same political creatures seem ready to label the Ft. Hood shooter as "workplace violence." I notice that these same political creatures ignore the slashing attack on several Houston students by an equally insane individual. The killing of innocents is always an evil act done by evil individuals. Using a gun does not make this more or less so.

Guns are not the problem.

So what is the common thread? A shooter in Tuscon, noticeably insane allowed to roam free until someone gets hurt. A shooter in Aurora, noticeably deranged, allowed to go about his day because it's just not politically correct to question odd behavior. A shooter in Newtown kills children after years of public and private schools accommodating what was probably escalating violence and manifestation in his actions. Now a former military man with a history of violence, mental illness and behavior oddities kills people. With the current laws in place the mentally ill are medicated and released. The public is not allowed the luxury of discrimination but must endure their behavior in public places as demonstrated by many confrontations encountered with the homeless and mentally ill. Nobody can do anything until someone gets hurt. And even then all politicians want to do is blame guns.

Guns are not the problem.

A Teacher's View At 57

While I'm a teacher and this reflects a teachers sensibilities, I think what I have to say applies across our society. I'm tired of change. I know-change is "good for the soul." And certainly change that improves or amends is desirable. But what I am seeing is a society that is so fluid in its affections that change has become the norm. This constant state of change is creating individuals that are insecure in all aspects of their lives and is resonating in the things we see in the classroom.

Let's begin with toddlers. One of the first things someone told me as a young parent is that children need parents to give them both roots and wings. Roots means stability. It means having a family you know, not a parade of insignificant others trailing through your life. It means having your vaccinations when they are required. It means knowing that your parents will focus more on reading and playing with their children than they do with their cell phones or game systems. When I read stories like one locally where a toddler drowned while a woman was playing games on her cell phone, I have to honestly wonder where our priorities lie?

As children get older, too many parents substitute things for time. I'm sorry, I was a working Mom and a stay at home Mom during my younger years. I am not saying this to put a guilt trip on Moms who increasingly have to work outside the home to make ends meet, but....your children need you. And that need doesn't go away because you are too tired, too frustrated or too busy. In schools we see far too many kids raising themselves. And it's not just the kids of low income and middle income families. Too often people get so wrapped up in the acquisition of things, especially things with prestigious labels. Unless you program your child to only seek the most au courant labels, kids don't care if their clothes and toys come from Macy's or Target. And many times the things they claim to want are really just their way of getting your attention. I had to laugh when in a Big Bang Theory episode Leonard claimed to have built a hugging machine when he was a child to substitute for his very frigid mother. But then I think, how many kids just need someone to sit and listen. When I was a stay at home mom, I would have friends of my own kids show up even if my kids weren't there. They asked for help with homework, they wanted a snack, but more than that they wanted someone older and more powerful to listen to them.

As a teacher I see change for the sake of change far too often. Change this system, tweak that one, alter another. In the past year we've changed our grading system, curriculum, school hours, attendance system, three different principals and dress codes. I don't have a problem with improving what we've already got to make it better. But far too often a new crew of administrators get in power and simply change things to make it appear they are doing something. They have little regard for how change impacts down the line. It's difficult to monitor enthusiasm for the start of a new school year knowing that once again the rug will be pulled out from under us. If classroom teachers have one thing we agree on it is this-let us do our jobs. Stop interfering and imposing unnecessary and distracting programs on us. My career is heading toward retirement, possibly sooner rather than later. I'm still a good teacher and I will continue to do my job to the best of my abilities, but I have to wonder what will happen after teachers like me leave the system. I'm simply not seeing the kind of structure kids need. And all the technology in the world won't make up for a system that is so distracted in its own right that we can't capture the attention of our distracted students.

Best Column Ever (An Excerpt and Link)

Just a bit of one of the best columns I have read in a long time. This puts in a nutshell everything that many of us have been saying for a long time. I'm just putting an excerpt, but use the link below and read the entire column. And please, share it.


"...One of the strangest things about the modern progression in liberal thought is its increasing comfort with elitism and high style. Over the last 30 years, the enjoyment of refined tastes, both material and psychological, has become a hallmark of liberalism — hand in glove with the art of professional altruism, so necessary to the guilt-free enjoyment of the good life. Take most any contemporary issue, and the theme of elite progressivism predominates.

Higher education? A visitor from Mars would note that the current system of universities and colleges is designed to promote the interests of an elite at the expense of the middle and lower-middle classes. UCLA, Yale, and even CSU Stanislaus run on premises far more reactionary and class-based than does Wal-Mart. The teaching loads and course responsibilities of tenured full professors have declined over the last half-century, while the percentage of units taught by graduate students and part-time faculty, with few benefits and low pay, has soared.

The number of administrators has likewise climbed — even as student indebtedness has skyrocketed, along with the unemployment rate among recent college graduates. A typical scenario embodying these bizarre trends would run something like the following: The UC assistant provost for diversity affairs, or the full professor of Italian literature, focusing on gender and the self, depend on lots of graduate and undergraduate students in the social sciences and humanities piling up debt without any guarantee of jobs, while part-time faculty subsidize the formers’ lifestyles by teaching, without grading assistants, the large introductory undergraduate courses, getting paid a third to half what those with tenure receive.

The conference and the academic book, with little if any readership, promote the career interest and income of the trendy administrator and the full professor, and are subsidized by either the taxpayers or the students or both. All of the above assumes that a nine-month teaching schedule, with tenure, grants, sabbaticals, and release time, are above reproach and justify yearly tuition hikes exceeding the rate of inflation. The beneficiaries of the system win exemption from criticism through loud support of the current progressive agenda, as if they were officers with swagger sticks in the culture wars who must have their own perks if they are to properly lead the less-well-informed troops out of the trenches."

Read more: http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2013/07/08/liberal_apartheid_119115.html#ixzz2YSjPuxpz
Follow us: @RCP_Articles on Twitter

Is Your Cell Phone a False Idol?

I was sitting in church, reflecting on the sermon and how it applied to the week that had passed and the week to come when I noticed the teenager in front of me clutching her cell phone. At various times I noticed she flipped through messages and sent a couple of texts. Then it dawned on me-are our cell phones the “false idols” warned of in the Gospels? A false idol would lead a person to behaviors that were not good for the rest of the society in which they lived. A false idol would encourage these behaviors with rewards like power or fame or wealth. For ages we were led to believe that false idols included golden statues or even money and the things it can buy, but those things are not worshiped necessarily. Try taking a cell phone away from a teenager and be ready for a fight.

                It isn’t that I dislike technology. If my microwave did nothing else but make popcorn quickly and do a baked potato in under ten minutes it would be worth it. But I do not find myself staring at the microwave with adoration. I do not feel the need to upgrade my microwave unless it stops working entirely. I like my television and I even appreciate being able to get photos of my grandson via my computer or phone. For all the good that technology can do it is a good servant, but a bad master.  Some things are acceptable as long as you don’t let them take over your life. What concerns me, especially as cell phones become more common even in middle and elementary schools, is children who have become so entranced by their phones that they have trouble disengaging. This is especially true with  young tweens who have no basis for comparison. I have observed that some of the students with the most academic challenges have the most electronic gear in school. Coincidence?

                I admit that I am what would be called a late adopter in terms of cell phone use. I didn’t get a cell phone until my daughter was heading to college which was almost ten years ago. Now cell phones have become so familiar to me that the one day I headed off to work without it, I felt uneasy. In previous times I was quite capable of going to work, to the store or even out of town without the need to be constantly connected to a cell phone signal. It is as if cell phones have become our technological security blanket, like a lucky charm that will protect us from all evil. Many parents who get cell phones for very young children make the case that it’s for security or safety. Just like pagers back in the 1990’s, cell phones have become a virtual substitute for knowing what your kids are doing.

                Why do we need this constant validation of our worth? It’s similar to the number of friends one has on Facebook or any other social media. In a way it seems to be more like gaming the system to give the appearance of popularity over real popularity itself. While I carry my cell phone in my purse, most days it is turned off when I’m at work. Compare that to my students who are far more engaged in the latest Tweet than in what is going on in the classroom.  Even when asked to put away phones, students will surreptitiously text at will. Students have been known to stream videos, play games and do almost anything other than the work at hand.

That distraction gets down to an even more serious issue. The lure of popularity and the dissolution of civility have led to more access to outlets to bully and denigrate others. There are people who make it their business to relay every negative piece of gossip, who make up lies and who alter photos or take photos with the sole intent being to pick on peers or teachers in the school in 140 characters or less. Students have uploaded photos of tests and assignments. When is the last time you checked your child’s phone or Ipod?

Most parents avoid checking their teens’ phones under the assumption that as long as they don’t run up the bill everything is okay. Actually, there are some very serious adult things going on with teens and cell phones. With internet access students can gamble or even download inappropriate images, videos and games. Cyberbullying and Sexting have become a serious issues even in students as young as middle school. Finding salacious images of a peer or sending such images of one’s self or others could lead to some daunting consequences because if the other student is young enough it could be labeled as child pornography. Such images tend to live forever on the internet. This is also true of images of students partying or engaging in inappropriate behavior. Those kinds of images can haunt a person for life. It can result in loss of scholarships, jobs and relationships. Even when these facts are brought forth, many teens believe their identities are cloaked in secrecy. All it takes is having a friend ID you on Facebook to make everything crystal clear to anyone who wants to see the image. This doesn’t even touch on the far more common occurrence of rampant cheating.

If it seems I am picking on teenagers, it’s because they are the most accessible demographic for such activity. That doesn’t exonerate adults. I have heard cell phones go off in meetings, at weddings and even at funerals. It seems that the veil of civility has been ripped away by the need to be engaged at all times. I have been sitting at dinner at a social occasion and watched as one or another person at the table spent time flipping through texts and emails rather than engaging in actual person to person conversations. I have heard from twenty-somethings that phones have become so invasive that when they go out all phones are placed face down on the table and the first to pick up their phone before leaving has to pay for everyone. Last, but not least, there are the carpool Moms and Dads who swear they drive well while texting. Having been behind you as you swerve all over the road, driving alternately too fast or too slow, I can assure you that I’ve seen drunks on Dallas North Tollway that are driving better than you.

Probably the saddest thing I have seen is when I have taken my grandson to the playground and noticed young mothers gazing fixedly at their phones while their children take risks that could lead to serious harm.  Watching a toddler trying to get Mommy’s attention away from Angry Birds is simply pathetic. How many accidents involving young children could be avoided if the adult in charge would simply put down the phone or disengage from the computer? This points to a sobering reality that many of us are addicted to our phones and that addiction is leading to antisocial, unsavory and even dangerous behaviors. My theory is that unless you are a transplant surgeon or the patient on the transplant list, you probably are not so important that you can’t set down the phone for a real person to person conversation. So once again I ask, is your cell phone a false idol?

               

Change

Change, they say, is good for the soul.
But change just for the sake of change is nothing more than a type of bullying imposed by those who want to demonstrate their power. We've seen this on a national scale with the various issues crammed through Congress with little concern over the opposing views. We are now seeing this worldview unwinding as their more egregious and illegal actions come into sight. Way to ingratiate the press Obama by tapping their phones.  But I digress

In my own small corner of the world, this has been a year filled with change. New online gradebooks, new attendance programs, new protocols and now an entire new mandate. See our district is experimenting on children under the guise of advancement. Next year first graders will get IPads rather than books. Desks and tables have been replaced with couches and beanbag chairs. The new paradigm is that teachers are facilitators and children will magically learn on their own. This is what passes for New Age educational memes. This year we were treated, at no small cost, to a program that was essentially glorified Venn diagrams that we were supposed to use to train our children to think. I have no doubt that last summer top administrators attended a lovely catered open bar affair that promoted how this silly program would increase our "good data". Each binder probably cost upwards of $200 and when you multiply that by the total number of teachers in the district, the cost is ridiculous. Most of those binders have not been opened since last August and for good reason-those of us who use various graphic organizing systems have been doing so for years and don't need a silly binder to teach us how to do it.

Next year, despite the fact that my district has shunned Apple products for years, we will convert to all Apple products. The problem is that existing programs do not work with Apple. Our foreign language class programs and listening labs won't work. Flash doesn't work. And years and years of material that have been shaped and honed will not work with this program. This puts experienced teachers at the mercy of both learning a new system, new programs and having to continue to teach at a higher level. The irony is that three years ago I wrote a grant for Apple computers and printers only to be told that if I got the grant, they would not provide support. So I changed the grant request. I got the grant and now those PC computers, with Photoshop and other graphics programs I need in class will be replaced by Apple Airs which will not have these programs available. Add to that the removal of teacher's printers in our classrooms and it is forcing a situation where already overstressed teachers are now having to reinvent the wheel. My district has more electives teachers leaving than the entire region does in comparison. I have five years before I can retire. I'm hoping their overspending on hardware we don't need just for the sake of change will result in the need to buy out teachers at the upper end of the payroll so I can leave earlier.

Soft Targets

We have plenty of protection for politicians. They are well defended by layer upon layer of private and military and quasi-governmental strongarms. So bully for the politicians. But what about the rest of us? In a perfect world Sheriff Andy and Constable Phyfe would be right around the corner ready to talk down bad guys in thirty minutes. The real world isn't quite that cut and dried. People who live in rural areas, small towns and even in remote gated resort style retirement communities often have to rely on whatever muscle is available. If they can't afford to hire private security firms, they count on local constables and the sheriff. It's not that crime doesn't happen in small towns, it's just that with a smaller population, it's not as likely. Why have a fully staffed police force if you seldom need it?

This is the "why" behind the gun issue. Most folks who have guns know how to use them. They are every bit as much of a tool as a tractor, a truck or a harvester. Farmers and ranchers living in remote areas know that some fools try to eak out a living making meth or stealing equipment and they know that the law isn't going to get there in time. Most folks who own weapons respect them enough to care for them and not wave them around like idiots.

 If you want to know who is in the most danger of having a gun tragedy not directly related to crime, look no further than the very same cities that have the strongest gun laws. These cities often have the largest amount of crime, largely because an unarmed population gives criminals power over people. Single women, living in places that due to their low income are not as safe often feel that to protect themselves and their kids that they buy guns, sometimes unlicensed, stolen guns, just to have peace of mind. These women often work two jobs, leaving young kids alone at home. One of them finds a gun and tragedy strikes. But it isn't the gun that causes the problem-it's the crime and the unwillingness by politicians to admit that we have a real problem when it comes to gangs, and the mentally ill, and in keeping bad people locked up.

There are those who honestly believe that taking away guns will make us all safer. Just the actions of the last week have refuted those claims. A crazy man wielding a craft knife attacks 14 in a Houston community college, a pressure cooker laden with bearings placed by persons unknowns kills three and injures many in Boston. Neither incident featured a gun. Both incidents were the product of people actively seeking soft targets-places where they can attack unimpeded by police or other officials. We've seen this happen over and over-every school shooting from Columbine to Newtown-every mall shooting. Aurora features Holmes as a known crazy who was supposed to get "counseling" but who instead was allowed to be free long enough to amass a startling amount of weaponry. Lanza had a mother who, bless her heart, was blind to the monster her son had become until it was far too late. Every time, it's another seriously deranged person, allowed to roam free because we the PC public are not to judge, ever.

Political correctness will kill us yet. The imposition of attitude that insist we can't call people out for obvious features, attitudes or behaviors is allowing all kinds of criminals and crazies have free rein to act out in dangerous and sick ways. Just this past week's unwillingness by the media to say that the guys who probably placed the explosives was more likely than not Middle Eastern continues to play into this "oh we're not biased" game. Like it or not, for all of Napolitano's tapdancing, profiling grandmothers and seven year olds is not going to stop these problems.

Soft targets will continue to be hit by a variety of actors because the artificially imposed sensibilities of the Left won't allow them to recognize a perpetrator when they see them. The Leftists are the ones who rail about single women who lock their car doors when they see a group of young minority males-but they ignore the stories when a single woman is attacked by a similar group. These same Left leaning groups support every manner of "freedom" by any number of groups in escalating order of radicalism, but never seem to see the impact made when members of those groups victimize others economical, physically or emotionally. As a nation we used to have a fairly clear view of who our friends were and who our enemies were. I guess the old Pogo cartoon was right "I have met the enemy and he is us."

The Stark Economic Reality of the "Affordable" Healthcare Act

Teachers' health insurance usually runs from September 1 to August 31 of the following year. Such is the nature of our contracts that we straddle the years economically. Teachers were the first to feel the surge of rising premiums back in 2011. I told the tale often, how the premiums were going up 15%, how the deductibles were rising, how the care was more limited. I was laughed at metaphorically. Online by the bloggers and tweeters and in real life by friends and families. "Oh you're just a teacher. You don't understand" was their dismissive comment.

Last Fall I issued another warning. Rates were rising again, another 15%. Deductibles rose from $2500 to $5000. And copays were eliminated forcing me to pay $135 out of pocket for even the briefest of office visits. There were simply times I was sick and could not afford to go to the doctor. Yet...I was insured! On top of that, strange pricing came into play. A prescription would be $35 one time, $5 the next. Generics and name brands played tagteam as the insurance formulary changed often day by day. A mammogram using my insurance would be $379 out of pocket, but without insurance would be $179. I couldn't even afford to schedule a long overdue colonoscopy.

Today I was in a meeting with the head of our HR department. The topic was next year's premiums. My district subsidizes $350 a month toward the cost. Even at that, this year my insurance premium was $491 a month. Starting in September, it will be $691 with a $10000 deductible. So unless I need to go to the hospital, why bother having insurance at all? My policy will never pay. On top of that Flexible Spending Accounts are limited by the Federal government to $2500, so I can't even shelter enough to cover my deductible. Health Savings Accounts are limited as well and come with all kinds of IRS warnings that would make it possible that just being prudent would mean an IRS audit.

Obama assured us he would "bend the cost curve". Pelosi told us we had to vote on the bill to see what was in it. It seems that three years later, the truth is coming out and it is not pretty. Costs are going up-and they're going up a great deal. I think the euphemism used by our HR department was "substantial". I know young teachers with kids who were literally in tears at the cost. Even with a pay step, I will make less take home pay next year than I did five years ago. We are teachers, we are middle class, we are supposedly the people Obama claimed to care about. But with rising costs to everything thanks to his energy policy and the higher cost of business overall both cost of living and employment are in peril. For all you folks that voted for this type of government, what the hell were you thinking? There ain't no such thing as a free lunch. There never was.