Random Notes from a Crank

I got this image and quotation from some dude's Bluesky posting. It's true. 

Poltico has a good article about how gas prices are hopefully a major issue that voters take into account when they vote in the midterms: "A 'Sleeper Issue' in Red States This Fall: Diesel Prices." 

I've written about this important issue in a previous post: "Musing of the Moment: US Debt, Gas Prices, & Inflation." 

I agree with the professor quoted in the Politico article about how the Democrats are not seizing on this issue like they should. They need to talk less about "oligarchs and the billionaires" and more about pocketbook issues related to high gas prices, inflation, and food safety. 

Keep it simple stupid: Talk about affordability issues. 

MAME: Making America More Expensive

I'm in Week 2 of my basic writing class that I'm teaching, and based on the results of my second reading quiz, I can already tell who has a strong chance of passing the class and who is more likely not to pass. 

Reading what I assign, paying attention, and coming to class on time make a difference.

Random Notes from a Crank

Jennifer Berskhire has a great article in The Nation that anyone who cares about public education should read. It's titled "Why Teachers Are Dropping Out." 

Because of a confluence of low pay, exploitation, shitty benefits, attacks against teacher unions, and stupid cultural battles about what's being taught in classrooms that is aided and abetted by Fox Faux News and other right-wing media outlets, I worry about the teachers we're losing in public education. 

Then again, having witnessed the sorry state of social studies education my daughter has gotten in her high school, some of those folks' teaching practices (or lack thereof) need to be examined. They wouldn't know squat about critical race theory and would only hazily understand it. Unfortunately, as the stereotype goes, the social studies faculty all too often are an intellectual backwater of coaches. 

The crap going on in Iowa in regard to K-12 education, for example, is ridiculous. And other nonsense like that is happening in other states. 

Meanwhile as Russia's invasion of Ukraine goes on, the ratings leader of Faux News, Tucker Carlson, is a darling of Russia's state-run propaganda machine: "How Russia Is Using Tucker Carlson In Its Propaganda." 

Musing of the Moment: Stop the Idiotic Parental Overreach

Leonard Pitts Jr., the renowned columnist for The Miami Herald, has a great opinion piece that everyone who cares about K-12 education should read: "Let's Respect Teachers as the Trained Professionals That They Are, Shall We?" 

As he states, "So here’s my modest proposal: How about we respect educators as the trained professionals they are? How about we trust their judgment? How about we stop requiring them to reach consensus with those who have not the first clue? If a parent feels their child can’t handle some challenging material, fine: empower that parent to opt the child out of the lesson — not to deny the lesson to everyone else."

I am so tired for ignoramus parents and dumb-ass school boards trying to dictate what is and what is not being taught in schools because of their snowflake sensibilities or idiocies. 

The extreme example of parental and politically motivated overreach is the idiotic proposal in Iowa that proposes to put video cameras in every public classroom. 

Big Brother wants to watch. 

If you think there's a teacher shortage now, if more of this nonsense about banning books and doing surveillance on teachers continues, the problem is only going to get worse. 

Random Notes from a Crank

I had hoped that with the retirements of Brett Favre and Peyton Manning that I wouldn't have to see them on commercials as much. Unfortunately, those two bozos are shilling for all kinds of products. How disappointing.

As someone who consistently has to endure people equating "grammar" with "writing," Doug Hesse's article, "We Know What Works in Composition," should be spread to others as liberally as possible.  

One of the books Santa brought me is Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz's An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States. It's a helpful, powerful, eye-opening history book that is accessible to most readers. Dunbar-Ortiz puts together strains of thought and incidents I had suspected fit together, but I never put together. Her "settler colonialism" thesis makes sense and coheres with how settlers squatted on and stole Indian land and waged genocidal "irregular war" against Native American tribes. In the recent chapter I just read, she explains why the 2nd Amendment was so crucial for taking indigenous peoples' land because without a large standing army, the military relied on volunteer militias to kill natives. This book pairs nicely with Zinn's A Peoples' History of the United States. 

One of my early birthday gifts was Squirrel Solutions Seed Saver 200. I got it today and filled it up with cracked corn. I'm hoping I see more blue jays and woodpeckers with that seed. My other bird feeder was consistently being knocked down those furry rodent bastards, and this new feeder has a spring within it that covers the feed holes once the squirrel puts its weight on it. I haven't witnessed the feeder schooling a squirrel yet, but I'm looking forward to it. Knock on wood.