My Beauty Best Teacher

On my drive home from work today I listened to an interview of Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin (Democrat, Wisconsin) on the Ed Schultz Show (1310AM in Detroit). The good Congresswoman described what was happening in Wisconsin as an attack on the rights of workers that was beyond the pale of what is acceptable politically in America. She said that this was an attempt to silence workers at the bargaining table and make it so that they would be treated with disrespect at the bargaining table. Let's address both of these questions by asking two important questions.

What is a Right?
According to natural rights philosophy, on which our nation is based and built on, rights are claims that we as people have to certain things because those things have always existed and will always exist, no matter which state governs us. Even without states, in a state of nature, people would still have the right to live, the right to live in freedom, and the right to keep and own property. These rights could not be taken away by any government, although they could be violated, because government does not provide these rights or create them- rather, these rights are created by God and given to everyone since we are all made in God's image. Or in other words:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness... That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed...

Note that rights are clearly not privileges that are granted to certain groups in society by government. If that is the case, than these privileges could easily be taken away, in which case they were never a 'right' but rather a 'grant'. Clearly this is the situation in Wisconsin, where the government granted to certain groups in society certain grants of power which it now can no longer afford to give and so is taking those grants away. This situation is nothing at all similar to any sort of patriotic fight, but is instead just selfish and short-sighted angry grabbing after power that was once granted but now is being taken back.

Even when discussing rights, Congresswomen Baldwin had trouble because she knows on a deeper level that she doesn't know what she is talking about. She jerks back from any mention of where these 'worker' rights come from or how they are in reality 'rights' and not just privileges granted to politically favorable groups by government. She instead just repeats that they are rights and that these rights only belong to government-approved union workers and that everyone should stand with these favored groups and protect their rights. It is surprising that voters put her in office when she has clearly failed to study or think about these important issues, even though she went to college and law school where natural rights philosophy should have been taught. It appears all she learned from her law school was how to go about suing people and spin falsehoods.

Who does Labor sit down with at Bargaining Table?
Public labor unions like those in Wisconsin who would lose their special privileged rights that they had been given by Democratic governments of the past would be forced to sit down in the future with elected officials and taxpayers and determine what their future benefits would be. Congresswomen Baldwin and Ed Schultz both talked about the need for unions to negotiate with evil businesses who did not care about working conditions or workers pay because they were only after profits for their shareholders- but this is clearly not the case when public employee unions negotiate with elected officials and taxpayers, who are not driven by profits, who are responsible to voters if they mistreat workers, who would be liable to large lawsuits if they had poor working conditions, and who are put into office by citizens to represent citizens to hire those people to work for citizens. They are not 'hostile' any more than the average public would be 'hostile' to unions, and if the average voting public is 'hostile' to unions, that is an indication that unions have been 'hostile' to the interests of the average voting public.

When it comes down to it, when pushed and goaded by the fascist thug Ed Schultz, Congresswomen Baldwin fell back on class warfare and tried to argue that what had put her state in such financial trouble were not the generous salaries, pensions, and benefits that workers had bargained from the state over the last several years, but rather tax cuts to the rich or tax breaks to job creators that were given in the last month, and that her state should have just continued to pass the bill on to future generations and papered over the debt with trickery and shell games. After all, that's what she encourages the national government to do with her votes in Congress- she votes in favor of massive deficits that are passing huge debts and liabilities and obligations down on our children and grandchildren, and she does this all while pretending that she is not selfish and short-sighted and a tool to Big Labor.

For more information on natural rights philosophy, check out Two Treatises of Government and A Letter Concerning Toleration.

Ben Hinson writes:

No doubt, there are many many brilliant minds in Africa, but the platform for them to showcase their mental capabilities in the arenas of philosophy, objective argument etc in most cases does not exist...It is a reality that the economically disadvantaged are less attracted to the value of knowledge for its own sake and more attracted to what brings economic gain, and for good cause, after all a hungry man is an angry man. But focusing solely on material gain and not qualitative values leaves a void that ultimately affects leadership, morality and a society's standards.

More here

Ben Hinson writes:

No doubt, there are many many brilliant minds in Africa, but the platform for them to showcase their mental capabilities in the arenas of philosophy, objective argument etc in most cases does not exist...It is a reality that the economically disadvantaged are less attracted to the value of knowledge for its own sake and more attracted to what brings economic gain, and for good cause, after all a hungry man is an angry man. But focusing solely on material gain and not qualitative values leaves a void that ultimately affects leadership, morality and a society's standards.

More here

Big Government reports about a new human rights curriculum that was recently introduced to middle schools and high schools all across New York. So this is what your tax money goes to- this controversial curriculum that promotes leftists values was funded and designed by the taxpayer-supported Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice & Human Rights and the teacher-dues supported New York State United Teachers union. These two groups came together and used precious education resources to create lesson plans for teachers that focus on corporate “greed,” landmine awareness, Chinese labor camps, and abolishing the death penalty.

The general agenda of this program is typical teacher-mumbo jumbo speak that seeks to hide a real leftist agenda of dumbing down students while they learn to submit to learned authority. It says that the goal of Human Rights Education, or HRE since it quite obviously needs an acronym to shorten it into an unrecognizable subversive element, is to:

Explore the development of protected human rights from a historical perspective as well as present-day declarations, conventions and covenants and the continuing evolution of human rights knowledge, the various challenges to the full enjoyment of human rights, and the factors that contribute to human rights abuse, and develop critical understanding of real life situations, questioning the barriers and structures that prevent the full enjoyment of rights and freedoms.

Yeah, I like human rights too- the kind of human rights that we are all born with, such as the right to live and not be aborted or killed, the right to live in freedom and make choices as we see fit on a range of issues from healthcare to what we eat, and the right to keep and own property free from government interference and seizure. I like human rights such as the right to speak freely without the government interfering in it, the right to carry a firearm able to deliver deadly force to those who would take my rights from me, the right to be secure in my possessions from snooping government agents, and other rights guaranteed to me by the US Constitution.

Browsing through the so-called 'Human Rights Education' curriculum, I get the sense that students who follow it and learn from it are not going to respect my human rights because they, in all their great wisdom, will feel that other people's human rights are not being protected or supported or fully embraced until I lose all my rights and am reduced to the state of an animal, hunted because of my conservative beliefs. The HRE education is hostile to the US Constitution, hostile to the Bill of Rights, and hostile to natural rights philosophy, instead embracing the Universal Declaration of Rights, embracing a strong government that will redistribute wealth, and embracing communist philosophy.

The fact that tax-payer supported institutions helped build this curriculum and the fact that schools are implementing it makes me sick and once again hammers home my points about education being a universe that is dominated by liberals and leftist views. Although I am a strong supporter of public education, if my students went to a school that implemented this sort of garbage I would pull them out and homeschool them rather than expose their minds to this sort of pollutant trash that is the Speak Truth to Power curriculum.

For those who are interested, check out Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling or The Underground History of American Education: A School Teacher's Intimate Investigation Into the Problem of Modern Schooling.

UPDATE: Welcome readers from Doug Ross! Wander around my site and enjoy some of my blog entries- I'm sure you'll see I have a real niche in the blogosphere that you are sure to enjoy!

Via Big Government, Bill Ayers Apostle Appointed White House Education Initiative Director:

Jose Rico has been named the new director of the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for Hispanics, a key position that could help close the achievement gap between white and minority students. But if his history is any indication, his influence may do more harm than good.

Perhaps most troubling is Rico’s connection to unrepentant domestic terrorist Bill Ayers and communist radical Mike Klonsky through the Chicago-based “Small Schools Workshop.” The “Small Schools Workshop” was founded by Ayers and Klonsky. According to a U.S. Department of Education biography, Rico worked for the Small Schools Workshop some 6 years... Rico’s CPSalumni.org bio... describes his time in Chicago working as a “community organizer.”

...Does it matter that an apostle of anti-American radicals like Ayers and Klonsky is now in such an influential position? Is it unfair to judge him by the company he kept for six years of his professional life? Perhaps his academic record will show a positive impact on students and could overcome any shocking associations he has?

Sadly, that’s not the case. During Rico’s tenure as principal of the Multicultural Arts High School, student performance was 584th out of 640 high schools in the state. And despite its low teacher-to-student ratio (less than 14-1) and Ayers/Klonsky-inspired “small school” philosophy, Rico’s school managed to produce a paltry 56% graduation rate. The Chicago Tribune reported the school “did not meet federal education standards.”

Why appoint someone with such a dismal track record to such an important position? Apparently Chicago connections (Rico is also a personal friend of Michele Obama) are more important that his professional performance. Being an apostle of Obama’s personal friends Ayers and Klonsky apparently doesn’t hurt, either.

Some of you may know that I have personally met Bill Ayers, and that that experience may have indirectly led to me losing my first job in education. I had a long interview with Larry Elder on this issue last year, and I've posted a briefer version of my experience on my blog (see my post My Experience Meeting Bill Ayers).

Jose Rico, as a community organizer who was immersed for many years in the filth that is Bill Ayers educational philosophy, is a poor choice to lead any sort of national initiative, but he likely shares the same educational ideology of Obama, and that is why he was picked. Bill Ayers, who founded and designed the schools that Jose Rico worked in, felt that teachers should use their classrooms to promote radical, leftist, communist values.

And Ayers vision of education is Obama's vision of education. Obama pushes a radical, leftist, communist vision of education that I talked about on my post Break Down Class System in Education by Moving to the Right, not the Left?:

But being the deeply liberal institutions that they are, schools always arrive at the same and incorrect conclusion of how to break down this class system. Schools and the educational world pushes that all students should be equalized by going through education at the same pace (one grade per year), that every student should graduate at the same exact time with the same exact number and sort of classes, that the pace and level of education that is delivered in the classroom should be directed at the average (or even the least) student in the room, that the curriculum that is taught in schools must be exactly the same, that the funding of the school systems should be exactly the same, that classes must be large groups of students all moving at the same pace, and that teachers should be paid the same (or have pay scales that advance the same for everyone, whether they are an effective teacher or not).

The solution that liberals have devised to break down the class system in the education world is a leftist one that attempts to redistribute and equalize effort from those who have it to those who don't- the leftists in education try to use schools to transfer to those students who don't the natural intelligence, curiosity, industry, effort, leadership, communication, writing skills, the right opinions, the right mindset, or whatever that the others students do have. And the result is predictable- an educational establishment that achieves less results with more resources consumed, that falls further behind when measured against the past or other nations, and that does not give students the knowledge and skills to succeed in the future.

President Obama, Jose Rico, Bill Ayers, Saul Alinsky, and others are radical, leftist, communists who should not be in positions of power over our children's education. Help me remove them from their positions and replace them in 2012 by voting against them.

Via RightWingNews I read this piece by Michelle Malkin called The Autoworkers Obama Left Behind that I think is important for you to remember in the face of the propaganda that the Obama administration is going to churn out:

The White House fairy tale about the Happily Ever After Auto Bailout is missing a crucial, bloody page. While President Obama bragged about “standing by American workers” at a rowdy United Auto Workers meeting Tuesday, he failed to acknowledge how the Chicago-style deal threw tens of thousands of nonunion autoworkers under the bus.

In a campaign pep rally/sermon billed as a “policy speech,” Obama nearly broke his arm patting himself on the back for placing his “bets” (read: our money) on the $85 billion federal auto industry rescue. “Three years later,” he crowed, “that bet is paying off for America.”...

...The bailout pain was not distributed equally. It was redistributed politically.

Bondholders standing up for their property and contractual rights got shortchanged and demonized personally by the president. Dealers and suppliers faced closures based on political connections and lobbying clout, rather than neutral efficiency evaluations. And as I first reported in September 2010, in the rush to nationalize the auto industry and avoid contested court termination proceedings, the White House auto team schemed with Big Labor bosses to preserve UAW members’ costly pension funds by shafting their nonunion counterparts.

These forgotten nonunion pensioners (who worked for the Delphi/GM auto parts company) lost all of their health and life insurance benefits. Hailing from the economically devastated Rust Belt — northeast Ohio, Michigan and neighboring states — the Delphi workers had devoted decades of their lives as secretaries, technicians, engineers and sales employees. Some have watched up to 70 percent of their pensions vanish. They’ve banded together to seek justice in court and on Capitol Hill under the banner of the Delphi Salaried Retiree Association.

Through two costly years of litigation and investigation, the Delphi workers have exposed how the stacked White House Auto Task Force schemed with union bosses to “cherry pick” (one Obama official’s own words) which financial obligations the new Government Motors company would assume and which they would abandon based on their political expedience. Obama’s own former auto czar Steve Rattner admitted in his recent memoir that “attacking the union’s sacred cow” could “jeopardize” the auto bailout deal....

...As ebullient UAW officials hooted and hollered on Tuesday, Obama smugly attacked Republicans for “anti-worker policies” and their “same old you’re-on-your-own philosophy.” The Delphi workers know better: One union’s government-subsidized, government-manipulated “success story” is the rest of the workforce’s nightmare.

In Michigan, I daily hear the meme that "Obama saved the auto industry," and it bothers me, because in spite of so many factually wrong aspects of that statement people still believe it and are going to vote on it in November. The truth matters.

It matters that the TARP program was sold to the public and passed by Congress to save our banking industry, and then was turned into a slush fund to bail out politically favored industries and businesses. George W. Bush proposed saving GM and Chrysler, and I didn't agree with it then- there were two many questions as to why those companies were picked to be saved by taxpayer cash, why smaller companies didn't receive bailouts of their own, and the effect that bailing out a few companies would have on the rest of the larger un-bailed out economy. Still, Bush's program was small and would follow established laws and standards for bankruptcy, so it was bad, but not corrupt.

It matters that President Obama then took Bush's program and expanded it and turned it from a 'bailout to save the auto industries' into a 'government takes over GM and gives half of it to the union and gives Chrysler a lot of cash to get bought by an Italian company.' And rather than simply giving the money out as a loan with conditions, like Bush was going to do, Obama and his officials instead made far more daily decisions and played political games with the closing of dealerships and who got pensions- they played political games at a time when our nation was facing a deep crisis. That was gangster capitalism at its finest.

It matters that General Motors Corporation then went bankrupt, taking down thousands of properties and ruining whole communities, while dealerships were shuttered and thousands lost their jobs. This was 'you're-on-your-own' philosophy at work, only now instead of it being free people making free decisions on their own, it was Obama and his officials who decided who would be 'on-their-own' and who would get government help and support. Even today, the company that the government had the most contact with and control over- General Motors- lags its competitors who had less of the stink of government on them and less Obama influence. That matters.

In this coming election, it is going to be hard work to correct those who spin the lie that "Obama saved the auto industry", but we need to, because the truth is out there.

Last week, as part of our 'professional development', a group of teachers were given a tour of the new Model High School in our district. Model High Schools are a new movement, and are based on the philosophy that each child as a unique learner and thus should create their own educational experiences. These schools develop personalized education programs that focus on being fun and creative. They also try to surround students with nurturing adults who support and enable students in their learning. Students do not focus on learning abstract concepts or knowledge, and instead build a curriculum around whatever they are interested in. And they are assessed on standards they themselves set. Subjects that students focus on are 'Urban Culture,' 'Contemporary Art,' and 'Multicultural Literature.' These schools are supposed to be an alternative school for students who do not do well in traditional schools. Oh yes, Model High School is the vision of liberal education.

So we get to the Model High School, and are walking around the building listening to this new sounding language given by three African-American women who run the school. We were told to ask any questions if we had any, so I raised my hand.

"Why do you teach students those subjects- rather than learning about how to sell drugs, reading rap, and admiring a bunch of trash turned into 'art', wouldn't students benefit more by a deeper student of reading, math, and science?" While I was led to believe that no question was stupid (in fact, that was said with breathy belief at the beginning of the question and answer period, as if every question really is equal), you should have seen the glares that were leveled on me after asking that question. It was almost as if I had said that the emperor was wearing no clothes!

They answered with some sort of mumbo-jumbo about how all knowledge is equal and that there are no real truths in the world, instead students focus on the process of learning and discovery.

Oh yeah, my eyes rolled at this one, and even though the tour continued and we started to look at wonderful 'interpretive' art projects (random colors thrown at the paper) that students spent weeks on (rather than learning geometry or US history), I couldn't let that last answer go. So at the next pause in the tour, I asked "What do you mean when you say that students are assessed by standards that they themselves set? Do you really teach them that wrong answers are right?"

The group I was with went dead still with shock. I guess in schools that teach diversity and equality, there is only one view that is better than others, and you are not to question it. I did, and oh man, was the answer I got frosty indeed- "Good grades should come from good ideas," one of the directors told me.

I replied "even if the ideas lack any basis in science or rationality?"

Another director replied- "It is not really about science or rationality- it is about effort- the only thing that really matters in this world is effort anyways."

"Whoa," I said, "Do you mean to suggest that your school rewards effort more so than actual achievement? Do you really believe that if someone works really hard doing something that has little use, or works really hard doing something that could easily be done another way, or works really hard doing something that does not work, or works really hard doing the wrong thing, we should reward that person with a good grade just because of the effort? What about productivity? Efficiency? Correctness? Rightness? Do those things not matter" Apparently, in the liberal world of the Model High School, they don't.

The tour continued on, now with a certain edge in it, as the believes now sensed they had an unbeliever in their midst. I looked around the school with renewed interest, and was surprised by some of the work that was on the walls of the school. Whereas in my classroom, the walls are functionally decorated and convey a business-like approach to learning, the walls of this school were filled with meaningless and empty slogans. "Change," "Hope," "Togetherness," "Effort," "Equality," "Diversity," and "Save the Environment" the walls shouted to students. This Model High School looked less like a place of 'learning' and more like a 're-education camp.'

Once more, I tried to question the directors. At this point, I should have realized that I was now being watched more so than listened to- but I demonstrated the same stupidity here that I did when I questioned Earth Day last month (Earth Day: A Communist Plot?). Since I was no longer being recognized to speak, I simply voiced my question. "The students in this school are here because they were not disciplined- they failed their classes by not handing in work, they didn't study, they didn't try to understand the concepts, and many were insubordinate and disrespectful for teachers. And now your plan to help these students is to enable them, to give in to their demands, to surround them with 'nurturing' adults who put no discipline on them, and who appease them at every turn?"

"Yes, exactly," the directors replied, happy now that I understood their philosophy, that I finally got what they were doing in this school. Oh, and I did- now I understood that this school was meant to create a permanent underclass of slaves to serve the tyrants who ran it. The Model High School really was a vision of liberal education.

from Serenity in Design Blog

Nippy air. Football playoffs are here. One Act play competes today. The Fall Festival is Saturday (and so is the SAT.) Looking ahead to Thanksgiving (where there are 60 people to feed) and then Christmas (some shopping to do.) It is easy to just plain old lose hope.

Lose hope?!?!?

Live through it or enjoy it?
I can go through this time one day at a time and just let it come what may and live through it. Or, I can look ahead, plan ahead, pace myself and go through with a grin on my face and a hidden secret that I've decided to enjoy this holiday season.

I have two teenagers and an elementary age child. These teenagers won't be home much longer. By now I should have mastered how to truly relax and enjoy these times but the truth is, I say on the edge of hyperventilation most of the time. I really do.

Some think teachers have it easy.
So many people think teachers have it easy. A shorter work schedule. Holidays off. And perhaps there are a few souls who do live like this. But then, there are the Mama's and Grandmama's and busy Dad's and Grandad's who teach. Those brave souls who live life full tilt. In addition to our own babies, we choose to adopt the children of others into our hearts and lives and love on them.We decide to help them find their strength and never give up on them even when they've given up on themselves.

I remember when I was in the business world and was bone tired from a conference or event and would drag into work. I'd have my secretary move my appointments, "so I don't have to see anybody" and I'd immerse myself in one of those solo tasks that needed to happen in the quiet solitude of my office with the door closed. As tired as I was, soon, I'd have my music playing and would be making progress on something meaningful to me.

by Hoyasmeg on Flickr

Never alone.
Now, I come into school dead dog tired and I have to make the Herculean effort to get my attitude up, my chins (yes I said chins ;-) up, and my heart up to give 100% to these kids. Honestly, sometimes I wish I could just put on a movie and some teachers do that. But I have things to do and so do these kids. Some say "you do it to yourself" but really, I have to live this philosophy of teaching and be it or I'm just a fake. We do projects and work together doing things that have meaning.

Today is my tough day. I basically have 7 straight periods with my room full of kids - 5 classes and a study hall but during the study hall I also have a class of current event kids to help with a simulation/ game. Last period every kid in high school has study hall so my room will be packed with "Miss Vicki" dropping from their lips like tobacco juice from major leager's mustache.

I won't be a major leager - I'll be major beleagered. But then I have to grade. I stayed yesterday till 5:15 pm grading and just can't seem to get caught up. I like to comment on their blog posts (every one of them) and write notes.I want to give them the chance to do corrections, otherwise, the grade I give is a wasted opportunity to LEARN.

So, here's to you teachers.

You are FAN-tastic and I'm your fan.

I love the old spiritual

"Nobody knows the trouble I've seen
nobody knows my sorrow." 

(great rendition here by the late great Louis Armstrong - good for a listen today)

Somebody knows the trouble I've seen
But you know what, in our case, somebody DOES know the trouble we've seen.
Other teachers, we get it. Sure, every circumstance is different and nobody's trouble is quite the same trouble. But teachers are your best audience. They understand. Lean on them.

Teacher Pyramid by Photographic memories, July 2011

You don't have to be alone all the time. I do think it is wise to steer clear of office gossips especially during the holidays.

You have enough of your own worries, you don't need to have worries of others on your back.


Gossipers are people who don't have enough life of their own so they decide to mess in the lives of others. No time for that, "mess."

But somebody does know.

Make Your Holiday a Jolly-day
So teacher, I'm asking you to give yourself the gift of a good attitude this season. That is the gift that truly keeps on giving because it multiplies back to you. When you give the gift of a good attitude to your classroom, they give it right back. Sure, you've got a lot of work to do but you can do it in a pleasant way.

To some of you, the thought of being jolly in this season stinks. You miss family members or what used to be and you're not happy about going through another holiday alone. You are literally hurting. I'm sorry.

Realize that you may be jolly but that others may be hurting. But the best way, I've found to lift my own spirits is to do something for others. Reach out to another person. Sign up to help at a food kitchen at Christmas. Sign up to DO SOMETHING for another person. There are tons of places on Christmas Day or Thanksgiving Day that NEED YOU.

I have a sign I inherited from my Mom that says "no whining." I have to admit, I have a problem with that sometimes. Especially as tired as I am right this moment at 6:51am getting ready to sprint off to school for a parent teacher conference.


3 Gifts to Give Your Heart This Season
1 - I'm going to decide that I'm going to give myself the gift of a good attitude.
2 - I'm going to avoid office gossips and getting into any gossip myself this season.
3 - I'm going to intentionally reach out and do things for other people this season.

As we say in South Georgia "bless your heart." And remember that a sure fire way to bless your own heart is to bless others.

What is the purpose of art? I'm not an art history or philosophy major, so I don't really know the answer to that, if there is truly one answer, but I can tell you this- I don't think the purpose of art is to promote the state's interests.

At one time, this was believed to be the purpose of art. Many regimes around the world felt that literature should serve the national interest or it had no inherent right to exist (source). These regimes felt that art should be used by a regime to promote their beliefs. In particular, these regimes felt that posters especially could be used as a way to blatantly present the beliefs of their political party party. These people felt that art should be used to convince the people of the beliefs of the state. The posters this regime wanted created were usually simple and got to the point, and it was intended to target the emotions of the people that looked at it (source).

Enough history. Today, Barack Obama is attempting to promote art that does the same thing. Recently a blogger writing at Big Hollywood was invited by the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) to take part in a conference call that invited a group of rising artist and art community luminaries “to help lay a new foundation for growth, focusing on core areas of the recovery agenda - health care, energy and environment, safety and security, education, community renewal.”

The call was hosted by the NEA, the White House Office of Public Engagement, and United We Serve. The call would include “a group of artists, producers, promoters, organizers, influencers, marketers, taste-makers, leaders or just plain cool people to join together and work together to promote a more civically engaged America and celebrate how the arts can be used for a positive change!” There were approximately 75 people participating, including many well respected street-artists, filmmakers, art galleries, music venues, musicians and music producers, writers, poets, actors, independent media outlets, marketers, and various other professionals from the creative community.

Backed by the full weight of President Barack Obama’s call to service and the institutional weight of the NEA, the conference call was billed as an opportunity for those in the art community to inspire service in four key categories, and at the top of the list were “health care” and “energy and environment.” The service was to be attached to the President’s United We Serve campaign, a nationwide federal initiative to make service a way of life for all Americans.

We were encouraged to bring the same sense of enthusiasm to these “focus areas” as we had brought to Obama’s presidential campaign, and we were encouraged to create art and art initiatives that brought awareness to these issues. Throughout the conversation, we were reminded of our ability as artists and art professionals to “shape the lives” of those around us. The now famous Obama “Hope” poster, created by artist Shepard Fairey and promoted by many of those on the phone call, and will.i.am’s “Yes We Can” song and music video were presented as shining examples of our group’s clear role in the election.

Obama has a strong arts agenda, we were told, and has been very supportive of both using and supporting the arts in creative ways to talk about the issues facing the country. We were “selected for a reason,” they told us. We had played a key role in the election and now Obama was putting out the call of service to help create change.

The machine that the NEA helped to create could potentially be wielded by the state to push policy. Through providing guidelines to the art community on what topics to discuss and providing them a step-by-step instruction to apply their art form to these issues, the “nation’s largest annual funder of the arts” is attempting to direct imagery, songs, films, and literature that could create the illusion of a national consensus. This is what Noam Chomsky calls “manufacturing consent.”

So, to summarize, our President, through a group called United We Stand, is organizing artists and giving them guidelines on what sort of art to produce. The art will promote the interests of the Democrats and try to persuade voters to support their views. This is propaganda, and as the group was informed, Obama regarded propaganda as very important, perhaps even calling it "a weapon of the first order".

This website has some good ideas on the sort of posters that Obama would like created. Check it out to get a taste of what is to come under an Obama administration. Oh, and if you haven't guessed it yet, you'll have to click on the links to find out what sort of regimes of the past saw art the same way that Obama does.

The NYTimes on the Global Africa Project:

Bibi Seck stools courtesy of Joshua Bright

...the show presents 200 works by nearly 120 people, teams and collectives. It represents artists, designers, artisans, D.I.Y. improvisers and people engaged in various combinations of those already fuzzy job descriptions, toiling in ways that blur aesthetics, sociology and philosophy.Astoundingly ambitious for a relatively small institution, “Global Africa” aims, in the words of its news release, to explore the “impact of African visual culture on contemporary art, craft and design around the world.”

by Lowery Stokes Sims & Leslie King-Hammond

More here

Jennifer Granholm, the Democratic former Governor of Michigan, is exactly right- the United States can learn a lot of lessons from Michigan's government- lessons on what not to do.

Before the Obama years, many looked back at the Bush years and talked about how bad 4% GDP growth and 6% unemployment were, but to be honest, those numbers were never that good in Michigan, which suffered under a single state recession for much of the 2000's and had low GDP growth rates, high unemployment, and bad numbers on everything else. For many years, the people of this great state were told that the reason why Michigan was doing so poorly was George W. Bush's fault- but from 2009 to 2011 Bush was gone and yet Michigan still led the nation in all of the wrong numbers. The reason why Michigan did poorly as a state from 2003 to 2011 was because during this time our state had a progressive Democrat as Governor who put in place the same policies at the state level that have failed so miserably at the national level as well.

Governor Granholm believed that the government should take money from those who are successful and then use that money to pick and choose winners and losers in the marketplace. Her administration decided that what made a company or an industry a 'winner' was not whether or not it was profitable, whether it provided a good that was valued by society highly (as determined by private investment), or whether it was a stable and sound investment. No, under Democratic officials and Granholm, the decision to use the power of government to anoint an industry a 'winner' was made based on political decisions of whether or not that industry or company donated to the Democratic Party, the decision was made based on whether or not the industry or business was deemed 'cool' and 'hip', and whether not the business or industry provided a good or service that the ruling powers liked, whether it was 'green products' or movies.

Using the power of the government to transfer wealth from savers and producers and successful people to those who are spenders and wasters and unsuccessful has a decided effect on an economy, whether at the state level or the national level- it leads to less economic success, more waste, more inefficiency, less jobs, less tax revenue, and a thoroughly lessened society on almost every level. When property is taken and corrupt decisions are made in the government, a state and a nation are not successful.

Michigan showed the entire nation what would happen if those same policies were enacted at the national level- it was a lesson of what not to do. And yet, in spite of this, much like our national leaders that continue to press on in the face of failure, those who inflicted this awful economy on us have no apologies and hold true to their course. President Barack Obama, much like Jennifer Granholm, will not change in any substantive manner and will not alter his policies if he wins a second term.

Jennifer Granholm is coming out with a new book, "A Governor's Story: The Fight for Jobs and America's Economic Future," and in it she gives our great nation of how not to run a state or government or anything at all.

As is typical in a government which inserts itself into the marketplace and plays political games with citizens, the book talks about all of the political gamesmanship and behind-the-scenes deal-making and continual crisis that marked the Granholm years in Michigan. The book argues that government involvement — tax payer money given away in the name of green jobs and pork programs — is essential to economic growth, in spite of the track record that that philosophy has had whenever and wherever it has been tried. They attempt to argue that because another government has (the Obama administration) has awarded tens of billions of dollars in taxpayer money borrowed on credit from China as loans to various industries in Michigan over the last couple of years, this is some sort of an indication of success for their method.

Granholm says "Smart and active government is really what's needed"- as if a small elite class of unconnected politicians working in a capital will be smarter than the thousands of decisions that free citizens make every day in a free market, and as if a more active government will not crowd out investment and decisions freely made by businessman and force them into making unwise and bad investments.

"If you place no bets, you will lose every time," she said, suggesting that the government should use its extreme lack of information about the market and rely on its lack of personal investment in the situation to gamble away taxpayer money at every political or 'cool' industry or company that comes along. Oh, a couple of those bets will win- even a Democrat finds his way out of a recession every now and then- but on the whole, taxpayers will take it on the chin many more times than not, and Granholm and her cronies will walk away with pensions, paychecks, a nice university position, and a new book.

United States, be prepared- Michigan has shown the nation the way, and don't ever forget- Granholm won a second term of office after her disastrous first term saw her destroy Michigan's economy and ruin many lives.

Detroit News provided quotes and source information.

Pius Adesanmi writes in Sahara Reporters:

The lack of exclusive dependence on illegal slave labor and plantations by the North created a pluralistic conceptualization of the material base of society in that part of the United States. This in turn led to a diversification of the sources of wealth creation and a boundless spirit constantly seeking more diverse ways of societal progress and advancement that would later eventuate in manufacturing and industrialization. Theirs was a philosophy of building society yourself...[continue reading]

Photo courtesy of Sahara Reporters

Lars Thunell of the IFC comments on a changing approach in development philosophy "...More and more development and aid organizations – multilateral banks, foundations, nonprofits – are looking at an entrepreneurial approach to development. They are asking how they can harness the power of private capital, free enterprise, and social entrepreneurship to bring about needed change,” Thunell said. “This is where IFC, with 50 years of experience in this area, can play an even larger role”..."
Via NextBillion

Johann Wingard writes "...East Africa is now actively shedding the yoke of their postcolonial nation statehood - they have experienced first hand that those artificial nation states would never survive without the social glue. For their own unique reasons it was impossible for colonies, arbitrarily lumped together, to survive the rigors of national statehood in a globalizing world, where states group together for economic survival and growth on a geographic basis...The current prospect of an African Union of nation states has an even smaller chance of survival as the real problem is not addressed. The world should now realize that the Africa project has failed and should be scrapped. The world community should join hands with the East African Federation and encourage the rest of Africa to follow their example soon.The philosophy of 'small is beautiful' is the common sense political model to pull the continent away from the abyss of famine, disease and violence it is currently facing...the truth lies in inherent structural faults. The real problem lies in the concept of artificial nation states where egotistical politicians try to convert the population into faceless social zombies and instill an artificial geographic patriotism for their nation state..."
Via The African Executive

I had a fascinating discussion with Stephan Stephensen, CEO of Mingoville, in South Africa this past October. Mobile learning is such an important growth area. We all wish we had laptops in the hands of our students, but the fact is that more of them have and will have mobile phones than laptops.

This generation is engaged with their mobile devices and so I was so excited to talk to Stephan about what they are doing and the agreements his company is signing with some countries and organizations to deploy mobile learning apps to children with their countries.

Mingoville is the "largest free online English lesson website for kids" but now they've developed mobile apps for math. I asked Stephan if he'd let me carry their press release in English for the US because he has partnered with the government of Denmark and several mobile companies to make their math apps free for all of 2011 for the students of Denmark. I want you to hear from his mouth what this means and what this is.

He and I talked for about an hour and the conference with most of that time him not having any idea that I was a blogger. I was impressed with his genuine energy and excitement.  Now, I have lots of friends in other companies and I rarely post press releases -- but I am fascinated with the innovative nature of this endeavor and look forward to seeing if there is an improvement in Math scores in Denmark in 2011.

Most of you know that I've advocated for the effective, well planned use of mobile phones in schools. It CAN Be done. Just because many aren't doing it yet doesn't mean it cannot be done!

"In our hyper-connected, multi-tasking, digital everyday, many of us adults consider the mobile our indispensable umbilical cord to a wwworld in constant flux - and a distraction those times it rings while we’re, after all, busy doing other things.

In Denmark it’s a learning device. For students, in schools, at home and everywhere else. And that’s no fairy tale.

While some countries have a ban on using mobile phones during school hours – as students have been prone to extracurricular excursions such as games, calls, netsurfing, facebooking, twittering and texting – Denmark adopted a “if you can’t beat them, join them” philosophy, and started researching how to put the device to better use in a learning context.

A number of Danish mobile learning games have been developed to that end – so far with subjects ranging from English to math. And the projects are looking to get a flying start, currently one third of all Danish students in primary and secondary school, have online access to a math or English learning programs for PC’s. These students will now also have immediate access to a mobile math app library of more than 100 small apps, teaching them everything from simple addition to the Pythagorean Theorem. These mobile games have been met with a massive positive response from both teachers and students. Teachers have found it easier to maintain student focus on assignments –

“It is no longer teacher-driven, really fun to see how they students show each other what to do, I was at one time quite obsolete”.  Says Mads Remvig, teacher from Danish School

Students have found it easier to comprehend difficult topics in math, with short animated videos to explain them how and what to do. First test seem to indicate that the ubiquity of the phones and the fact that they are both youth culture hotspots and communications hubs, makes students prefer this device over PCs in a learning context. Assignments can be accessed anywhere and anytime, and students can solve them in their own time – while being engaged, apparently.

CEO Stephan Stephensen from Danish e-learning company Mingoville – which incidentally is also the name of the world’s largest online English learning platform, now going mobile – says: “I want to show that it is not just about learning styles, but learning “rooms”. Future teachers will take advantage of several different learning platforms at the same time and in the same room. If learning is an experience – why not use the most influential and effective tool in this respect, since the students already know it and have it? As a bonus, students acquire 21st century skills like dealing with complex problems and finding information fast, while using their mobiles in a learning context”.

As any concerned parent would object by now, what about the squalid matter of mobile payment plans and cost of data use – potentially racking up charges for the students? To preempt any such concerns and constraints, Mingoville partnered up with the major mobile operators (covering close to 90% of the Danish market) to allow free use in 2011, of the mobile data net in connection with students using the www.Skolemat.dk’s mobile math learning apps.

Additionally, the clever Danes have of course considered the digital divide – not only between the mobile haves and the have-nots, but also between those with fancy smartphones and those with clunky clamshells. Consequently, all the learning games have firstly been designed to run on the majority of popular mobiles and platforms, backwards compatible to devices dating back up to 4-5 years.

The Danish government has made it a priority that Denmark gets in the top five best educated nations in the world, and also become a frontrunner in the use of ICT on every level of society. Using the mobile as a learning device helps achieve both goals, in a cost-effective way.

The mobile has several clear platform advantages over traditional PCs and consoles. By its very nature, it’s already a networked computer and an efficient data transmitter. Mobiles can be integrated into the natural flow of instruction more easily than their big-screen counterparts, and can create compelling educational and engaging learning environments for students. Mobiles wide level of installed base, plus low production costs of programs compared to other platforms, makes them attractive to develop on. It’s truly portable, always connected and everywhere. Both size and processing powers makes it ideal for any instructional media, and it’s not hard to envision how this technology can be harnessed on a broader scale to transform learning.

The Danish mobile e-learning experience does not substitute teachers or textbooks – it just makes learning more effective. Once integrated into the natural flow of instruction, mobiles can create compelling and engaging educational environments for learners all over the world. The notion that programs could be tailored to challenge each student according to abilities and styles, and adapt to fast as well as slow learners, opens up a world of possibilities for digital learning on the mobile.

More than 5 billion people have access to mobiles, and 90 % of the globe has mobile coverage. Mobile learning games is an idea whose time has come, and the tech is ripe. Entertainment and serious games are not opposites – but making them work right together is no fairytale but hard work. The Danes have decided to take the challenge to the next step and make it happen, big time. Mingoville is just the beginning."

Increasingly, I think a dominant feature of Obama's Presidency is the lawlessness of it- he does whatever he wants, regardless of what the law says. Bankruptcy law is well developed, but he ignores it and instead resorts to threats and attacks using the office of power he is in. Private companies operate under business laws, but he attacks them to to force them to his will. Environmental law is lawless enough, but even the rules and guidelines there are not enough- Obama as President does whatever he wants, regardless of the law. And now, President Barack Obama is going to pick a Supreme Court Justice. Via powerlineblog:

President Obama made a short statement about the retirement of Justice Souter in which he outlined what he will be looking for in Souter's replacement. He stated, in part:

I will seek someone who understands that justice isn't about some abstract legal theory or footnote in a case book. It is also about how our laws affect the daily realities of people's lives -- whether they can make a living and care for their families; whether they feel safe in their homes and welcome in their own nation. I view that quality of empathy, of understanding and identifying with people's hopes and struggles as an essential ingredient for arriving as just decisions and outcomes.

I'm going to pose this very question to my students in my classroom- what kind of a Justice do they want on the Supreme Court-

A) someone who understands that justice isn't about some abstract legal theory or footnote in a case book, but about how our laws affect the daily realities of people's lives- a justice that has empathy and identifies with people's hopes and struggles (extreme liberal person who is a judge)

B) someone who understands legal theory and is deeply knowledgeable with all the footnotes and cases in our judicial history, and will focus not how how law affects people's lives but whether the law is valid and just- a justice that is learned and experienced in the law (a judge of any philosophy)

UPDATE: For a scary game, imagine that Obama appoints a justice as liberal as Souter became, who given the power and freedom of the Supreme Court becomes more liberal yet. See this fun graph via the New York Times to see the evolution of justices.

In a recent interview with ABC, President Barack Obama was talking about the fee that Bank of America believes is now necessary to charge customers because of recent changes to bank card fees imposed by Democrats in the Dodd-Frank bill':

“This is exactly why we need this Consumer Finance Protection Bureau that we set up that is ready to go," he said. "... (petty government bureaucrats) can stop (the fees being charged by private banks) because if (petty government bureaucrats) say to the banks, ‘You don't have some inherent right just to – you know, get a certain amount of profit. If your customers – are being mistreated. That you have to treat them fairly and transparently.”

I made some changes- I removed the word 'you' that Obama used and replaced it with what I thought he meant, and I removed the word 'it' and replaced it with what the 'it' was.

As you can see from this statement, the President does not believe that privately owned and operated companies in the United States have an inherent right to create wealth. He believes that wealth did not exist before the government was around and does not exist after government is not around- if Obama and a bunch of hard workers landed on a deserted island that was in a state of nature, he would believe that he would be morally correct to take the fruits of the labor of others since they have no inherent right to what their own labor produces. Obama thinks that government has the right to take from others, whether they created that wealth through their own actions or not, because he thinks that wealth and prosperity is created and sustained by government policies, even though all experience hath shown that this is incorrect.

America was founded on different ideals- our nation was founded on the idea that property existed before the government and will continue to exist after government, and that even in a state of nature with no government, people do have an inherent fundamental natural right to the property that they create through their actions. If a bank charges a fee and gets a profit from this, they have every right to keep that profit, as it is their inherent natural right to create and keep property in our nation, free from government intervention and threats of confiscation. Only in tyrannical governments are the rights of life, liberty, and property not protected, and tyrannical governments then are those which have less happy lives, less free people, and are always considerably poorer in property than those nations which have embraced natural rights philosophy like our founding fathers did.

As we all know, in order to support yourself through reason and stay alive in a society, you must be able to own and use the product of your labor- you must be able to create wealth and keep that wealth in order to live and live free. If the tools of your survival and the products of your hard work are subject to random confiscation by the Obama administration, then your life also becomes subject to possible random destruction- or to put it another way, the tyrannical nature of the Obama administration to target businesses as 'enemies' is making our nation more poor and bit by bit making your life more miserable and less rich in goods and happiness and freedom.

Obama is increasingly by his own statements demonstrating his unfitness for the office of President of the United States of America; 2012 can't come fast enough to get rid of this guy.

George Nyongesa writes in The African Executive:

Time is ripe for us to consider a “do it ourselves philosophy” or some form of self help program that focuses on our largest resource: the ordinary people, most often called poor people. This group has been the target of poverty reduction efforts and has been viewed as problems. This mindset has led to disenfranchising the poor from the development process. It is unwise to presume that the poor, be they illiterate, are bereft of inherent skills, experiences and talents that can be useful in building our communities. The same people are our heroes who daily create better livelihoods for their children. They fought colonialism and resisted slavery. How can we suddenly ignore them in our new struggles? These are the days of building economies based on people; not on gold, diamond or oil. The world today revolves on the axis of mind economy. African governments should develop confidence in the ordinary people, quit business, and maximize their citizens’ free enterprise.

"A system of morality which is based on relative emotional values is a mere illusion, a thoroughly vulgar conception which has nothing sound in it and nothing true" Socrates once said. Over the past two years, much of the narrative of the left has been demonstrated to be nothing more than a mere illusion, a vulgar conception of reality that increasingly is proven to be untrue. Once the left seized power on in our nation, on most major policies they have simply continue the policies of 'conservative' George W Bush, who they emotionally railed against for 8 years, while adding to it other leftist policies that are bound to also be proven wrong. Whether it has been continuing the War on Terror, not withdrawing from Iraq or Afghanistan, continuing tax cuts, or keeping in place 'Don't Ask Don't Tell', the left has discovered that while spinning an illusion might fool voters into putting them in power, once in power reality hits and they no longer are able to indulge in their childish fantasies.

Just last week, reality rose up again and once again dispelled a major part of the illusion of the left- that of an evil Gitmo prison holding innocent goatherders that lawless George Bush ran to the detriment of the world and United States.

From The Wall Street Journal's article The Collapse of the Guantanamo Myth:

...For two years, President Barack Obama has pretended that terrorism is a crime, that prisoners are unwanted, and that Gitmo is unneeded. As a presidential candidate, he declared: "It's time to show the world . . . we're not a country that runs prisons which lock people away without ever telling them why they're there or what they're charged with." Upon taking office, he ordered Gitmo closed within the year.

But the president's embrace of the left's terrorism-as-crime theories collided with his responsibility to protect a great nation. Now the reality of the ongoing war on terror is helping to shatter the Gitmo myth and end its distortion of our antiterrorism strategies....

...All of this is having an impact on Congress, which this week voted overwhelmingly to de-fund any effort to shut down the Gitmo prison. It also barred the Justice Department from transferring detainees to the U.S. homeland...

Look, I've been in Michigan, which in 2002 decided to embark on a program of hope and change under Democrat Governor Jennifer Granholm. As she promised and talked, she put in place regulations, taxes, and schemes that resulted in a single state recession and some of the worst economic statistics in the nation. The illusion of her leftist beliefs met reality, and instead of facing that reality, she double-downed on leftist ideas, raising taxes in the midst of a recession, increasing regulation of businesses, attacking productive companies with taxes, and so forth. And the reality was a worse economy.

Reality is what it is, and although it is possible to change reality, you can't wave a magic wand of liberalism at it and hide it in illusions. Obama found on entering office that much of his belief system, much of what the American people bought, was based on illusions and myths. Obama was a child, lacking experience in business or government, uneducated about a great many things including history and economics and philosophy, whose ideas of the world were not reality. But once faced with reality, he has tried desperately to reconcile it with his existing ideas- jamming continuing the war and continuing tax cuts with Obamacare and cap-and-tax- in the hope that he was not completely wrong about almost everything.

But he is- on a range of issues, time is going to demonstrate that it was Reagan who made the economy boom in the 80's, it was the GOP Revolution of '94 that made the economy boom in the 90's, it was Bush who made the economy positive in the early 00's, and that it was Democrats and their leftist policies that drove our economy into recession, and then Obama and his policies that deepened and lengthened a recession into a depression. That's the narrative that's reality.

UPDATE: The following are not myths- they are real pieces of advice for you that you really show follow:

• In the event of that some is decapited, what you do is sit the victim's body in a chair as best you can, balance the head on top of the shoulders, and walk away whistling nonchalantly.
• You should always keep plenty of gauze around the house in case you invent an invisibility potion.
• In the event that someone you know sufferes a stroke, give them an eye-popping orgasm- it is always appreciated, no matter the situation.
• If someone you know is seriously injured, cradle his or her head in your lap and scream, "Why?"
• Make sure your first-aid kit always contains a large, frilly Victorian fan to revive fainting victims.
• If you are a hideous, disfigured hunchback and you see someone who is injured and unconscious, treat the person. Then, as the person begins to wake up, retreat into hiding. The person will always wonder who saved him or her, and the experience will be poignant in a bittersweet way. 
• If possible, try to be the guy who tells the victim, "Everything's going to be all right," while others do the actual work.

In 3QuarksDaily Aditya Dev Sood writes about India's 'Mela Economy'...analogues of our Jua Kali's,Nnewi's ,Suame Magazine's and other under recognized informal networks? :

In the absence of malls and supermarkets, and given the diffuse distribution of the population in the countryside, a system of local weekly markets operates, which cycles through the countryside, so that on any given day you might be able to find a local market less than five kilometers away. You might go there to buy groceries or staples or fuel or essential tools and supplies, but you might also go to sell what was cooking or pickling or spinning or weaving or otherwise in preparation within the house. Most of the buyers at such santhey-s or haat-s or peth-s or similar weekly local markets might at the same time or on other days be sellers. The relationship between buyers and sellers is direct, and in principle at least, reversible. Through the propagation of the charkha, the manual spinning wheel, Gandhi's social philosophy expressly enjoined all of us users to also be creators of value. The village market and Gandhian economy, therefore, follows a decentralized peer-to-peer model, the very antithesis of the modern retail chain, and of late capitalist consumerism in general.

Mela-s are more festive, extensive and intensified versions of local markets, conducted to an annual rather than weekly calendar, often in alignment with harvest cycles. The people must have something to trade and something to trade with, for there to be a reason for a mela. The form of the mela seems to promote a kind of critical regionalism, similar to the wine concept of terroir: the kinds and varieties of goods available can be known on the basis of where they are from, the special techniques were employed in the creation, and the distinctive natural materials of which they are constituted.

More here
Image courtesy Times of India and Global Economy