Bonkers, Blather, Blunders, & Buffoons #16

In Minnesota, under new rule provisions, reportedly required in order to be certified to teach in that state, one must accept several stipulations (appears to be 20 of them, to be exact) dealing with race, gender, bias, oppression, etc.  A couple of examples of these current/future teacher expectations: “The teacher understands how prejudice, discrimination, and racism operates at the interpersonal, intergroup, and institutional levels.  And: “The teacher understands the impact of the intersection of race and ethnicity with other forms of difference, including class, gender, sexuality, religion, national origin, immigration status, language, ability, and age.”  Again, these were only two examples of the 20 spelled-out expectations to be accepted and followed completely.  Seems pretty clear that teacher candidates who do not believe that racism is “systemic” across America, and/or who are politically moderate or conservative, need not apply.  Add to that a separate policy recently released that, in the event of an employment slow down within the schools, necessitating reductions in staff, white teachers will be laid-off first!  One would think that might be challenged in court! With schools around the nation reporting the need to attract more teachers, these policies would not seem to be an effective magnet for drawing more candidates to Minnesota.

Now, one Chicago high school will reportedly introduce and test a new race-based grading system “to adjust classroom grading scales to account for skin color or ethnicity of its students.” This move was deemed necessary because “traditional grading practices perpetuate inequities.” Hopefully there will be some published follow-up at the end of this school year to see how well this new approach worked.  This is equity vs. equality of treatment, with equity appearing to triumph, at least on paper. A concern, of course, is how softening grading expectations for certain student categories will impact the comparative performance of those choosing to pursue further education beyond high school.

Meanwhile, next door in North Dakota, the Fargo Board of Education voted earlier this month to cease reciting America’s Pledge of Allegiance prior to their meetings.  Said the Board VP: “Given that the word ‘God’ in the text of the Pledge of Allegiance is capitalized, the text is clearly referring to the Judeo-Christian God, and thereby it does not include any other faiths…”  Therefore, said he, that made the Pledge a “non-inclusionary act.”  And there’s more: “The statement that we are ‘one nation under God,’ is the Judeo-Christian God, (making it) simply an untrue statement.  We are one nation under many or no gods.”  There were other reasons given for the supposed inappropriateness of our Pledge, which is exactly what one does when digging deep to find, assume, or invent, reasons for not doing something.  By the way, the vote was 7-2 in favor of not reciting the Pledge. Thankfully, the article indicated that “the vote had no impact on the Pledge of Allegiance being said in the (Fargo) public schools.”

At the University of Virginia, the editorial board of the student newspaper there has reportedly urged that the image and name of Thomas Jefferson “should be removed from the university’s buildings.”  Jefferson, of course, was a key figure in the founding of America, and the person, by the way, who founded the University of Virginia! The writer of this account, in the New York Post, reminded readers that “the outburst of statue-toppling and other iconoclasm in 2020 was not an isolated event.  It was an eruption of a trend that is now going on all the time.  It was only last fall that our own council members here in NYC voted to remove Jefferson’s statue from the City Hall because he apparently no longer represents ‘our values.’  Of course, using today’s ‘values’ to compare with those in place centuries ago makes absolutely no sense, at least among the non-wokies.

Today, it seems, few students seem to know much more about Thomas Jefferson than the fact that he was a slaveholder.  No real credit given to the reality that he was a truly great American. Blame that void on poor or ‘woke’ history instruction in our public schools or the lack of valid U.S. history entirely.  This still-true reminder from years past, from former President Ronald Reagan: “Today this country is forgetting what we did, and so, of course, we are forgetting who we are.”  This negative attitude today, among too many within the younger, naïve, or brain-trampled generations, about Thomas Jefferson, and others among our great founding patriots, is the fault of improper, incorrect and/or erased, historically-valid education within our schools. Period.

Now, if you happen to be walking the sidewalks of Kalamazoo, Michigan, you might want to pay attention to where you step.  Reportedly, the City Commission there voted last month to “water down” some crimes from misdemeanor to civil infractions, including “littering, public defecation and urination.”  The stated rationale was that misdemeanors, like felonies, “come with a permanent (mark) on somebody’s record.” So, it seems as if, in Kalamazoo, pooping or peeing in public, may now result in merely a slap on the, ah, … wrist.  By the way, as you might wonder or correctly guess, local business owners weren’t at all happy about this change!  It’s “one small (careful) step for man…..”

With fall and winter on the way, it’s now reported that our Strategic Petroleum Reserve level has been reduced to its lowest level in forty years!  Reduced by Mr. Biden with the naïve notion that doing so might reduce that price of gasoline at the pump (which it may have done by just a few cents).  Worse, it’s reported that close to five-million-barrels from our Reserve were apparently sold to other nations, including China. No word yet on whether or not our Reserve, meant to help the nation during a major, damaging, natural or human-enemy-caused tragic event, is being refilled (at higher fuel costs), or simply left at an inadequate supply level with federal fingers-crossed!

Wrapping up this edition of Quad-B, our U.S. Energy Secretary, once again joining the administration’s acapella repetitive-choir, pushing sun and wind as the only answer to our ‘energy’ needs (versus reliable, always available, and domestically abundant oil and natural gas), has now publicly stated that this administration’s Jolly Green Giant energy push will perhaps provide “the greatest peace plan the world has ever known.”  Oh my gosh, my golly, it’s time for naivety and holly, plus still more foolishness from the administration’s seemingly ever-overflowing fountain of bravo sierra.  Wind and solar, that is, green energy, as the foundation of a world “peace plan”?  How insultingly simplistic when talking about something so critically important today as possible ways to potentially end land-grab, expansionist wars around the world.

The only bona fide, realistic peace plan for America in today’s threatening world is a powerful, respected, and feared national military force, intelligently and firmly led by a solid-spined, respected and feared, commander in chief.  So, we can cut the put-on-a-happy-face, sunny-day, tea party crap, and get back to adequately funding, equipping, supplying, recruiting, training, and fueling the very best fighting force in the world.  Do that first, and do it immediately!  Only then can we get back to rationally talking about world peace, and, then, if we must, back to the discussion about ‘clean energy’ (unless nuclear!) vs. our trustworthy, comparatively-clean, American-produced, fossil fuels that will, in all likelihood, be the backbone of our nation’s energy requirements for decades to come.

(Minnesota’s new teacher policies via powerlineblog.com, John Hinderaker, 6-21-22; Chicago high school grading scale change via breitbart.com, Penny Starr, 5-31-22; Fargo school board forgoing reciting the Pledge via foxnews.com, Kewlsey Koberg, 8-10-22;  UVA students against school founder, Thomas Jefferson via nypost.com, Douglas Murray, 8-25-22; Kalamazoo decriminalization via theblaze.com, Carlos Garcia, 7-22-22; Strategic Petroleum Reserve level drained via dailywire.com, Ben Zeisloft, 8-19-22; Energy Secretary peace plan via foxnews.com, Andrew Mark Miller, 8-20-22).