Droning Bill Ayers

Saw an interesting comment on the web today regarding Obama's supposed authority to kill American citizens with drones. What the author wanted to know was, under the Obama targeting rules, would  Nixon been justified in killing Bill Ayers?

Winter in Pennsylvania

January blossoms

Why Schools Don't Work Anymore

The media never tell you why American schools don't perform. They complain about lack of funding, low expectations, poverty, discrimination, lack of parental involvement, teachers's unions, lack of minority role models. But they never do tell you about the low quality of students. The media acts like all students will perform the same if only  they had the same opportunities. But as any parent knows, all children perform differently. They have different abilities. And today's students have lower abilities than public school students did in the past.

Ken Burns Has Race On The Brain

I just watched a video on Vimeo featuring Ken Burns supposedly talking about the concept of story in documentaries but actually talking about race. This guy has one and only concern--and it's always the same one--race. Now, if he wants to devote his life to this issue that is certainly his right. But he shouldn't pretend to be giving us an insight on story technique when what he's really shoving at us is  another thinly veiled lecture on the eternal monstrous racism of whites.

There is actually one thing I do like about Ken Burns films. He does do great camera work.

Zimmerman Apologetics

I'm trying to think of all the mistakes the media (repeatedly) made in the Trayvon Martin shooting. The list so far:

1. Zimmerman was white (actually he was a mestizo--half white, half Hispanic)

2. Zimmerman weighed 220 pounds (he actually weighs 170)

3. He was bigger much bigger than Martin (Martin actually was bigger than him)

4. He called Martin a "fucking coon." Additional audio analysis showed that he actually said was it's "fucking cold."

5. He ignored an order from the dispatcher not to follow Martin. The dispatcher didn't even make a suggestion to him. It was merely an observation. It certainly never rose to the level of an order. And even if the dispatcher did give him an order, so what? Since when are we obligated to follow the orders of police dispatchers?

6. He didn't have any injuries (actually he had cuts to the back of his head and a broken nose)

7. It was Martin screaming for his life on the tape (it now appears it may have been Zimmerman).
8. Zimmerman was a racist (actually a year previously Zimmerman walked the neighborhood distributing fliers calling for justice for a homeless black man whom, he felt, had been unfairly pummeled by the police)

9. Zimmerman was a self-appointed vigilante. Vigilante means someone who takes the law into his own hands. Zimmerman appears to be a public-spirited volunteer who went out of his way to turn his concerns over the cops.

10. He was a fanatic who called the 911 emergency number 49 times in one month. (Actually it was 49 times in seven years, about once every two months).

11. He was a police wannabe. Is that, I wonder, anything like wanting to be a social worker wannabe, a nurse wannabe, a pastor wannabe, a politician wannabe, a community organizer wannabe? In short is it bad to want to have a career in public service?