There aren't any hotly contested elections in my district, so I hadn't been paying particularly close attention to the local races. It wasn't until lunch today that I sat down to take a close look at the material I'd been accumulating, to make sure I could head into the booth as a reasonably informed voter. Nothing tremendously surprising emerged, but I was intrigued by one school board race (for what it's worth, both candidates are 40-ish women; political affiliations aren't indicated in school board races):
Incumbent: graduate of SLAC, BA in government, senior-level position in fairly generic information business. Talking points focus on "raising achievement for all students" and dealing with nuts and bolts issues such as finding classrooms, teachers, etc. for a growing school population despite budgetary constraints. Nothing all that exciting, but sounds like she knows her stuff.
Challenger: "classes taken" in [very generalized elementary basketweaving] at [solid local community college]. Work experience includes decorating the inside of houses and the outside of people (at least that's how I translate "image consultant"). Begins by criticizing standardized testing [okay, you've got my attention there], then goes on for several sentences about the importance of "motivating students to learn." Talks a lot about "vision" and "inspiration," and ends with a motto with "baby" in the middle, and a verb on either side that, as far as I can tell, has nothing to do with education (but might possibly be a nod to budget issues).
Call me an elitist -- and an uninspiring one at that -- but I voted for the incumbent.
Right now, it looks like the Corporate Shitbag Party will regain the house....which probably means a return to the cruddy politics of 1994-99. Which means that if we want any resemblance of sanity, these people need to be destroyed: more "wide stance" exposes, John Boehner in Rocky Horror regalia, Sarah Palin crushed by a Russian tank. We can ruin these gibbering fucktards if we are ready to display the WILL.
ReplyDeleteThere's no hate quite like liberal hate.
ReplyDeleteExcept Neocon hate?
ReplyDeleteWell, it sure wasn't the conservatives who brought us Outcomes Based Education, now was it?
ReplyDeleteTake an informal census of the teachers and administrators you know: How many are lefty, and how many righty? Notice a disparity? Of course you do.
The answer's obvious: Lefties rule academia from Kindergarten to Grad School, and academia's broken because they broke it.
Stop living in denial.
That wasn't hate; true hate is when I say that all Republicans (even just the registered GOP voters) should be shot in the head, including their wives and children. But then I have a labor camp system planned for those people in Siberia, so they can be spared (and properly Russified.) Just as Austrialia was where Albion sent its trash, so Siberia should be the proper home for the Fox viewer.
ReplyDeleteBut where else am I supposed to watch my Simpsons reruns?
ReplyDeleteUnder my plan ("Operation Grandslam") a subcomponent will be that Rupert Murdoch will be stripped of his assets and be deported, penniless, to Australia.* After this occurs the government will then seize the Fox network, nationalize it, and strip out the crazy element. The Simpsons will continue on as if nothing happened - "Fox and Friends", however, will either show Maoist propaganda films or switch to an all-lesbian sex talk show, I haven't decided.
ReplyDelete_____________________________________________
* Notice I spelt it correctly....it's funny that Keener shows no interest in the millions of Americans I am willing to condemn to lives of hard labor and the most brutal Berlitz lessions possible - nope, he's only interested in the show whose best episodes are already available on DVD.