Tioga Herald

Read Frank Cerabino’s article in The Palm Beach Post (2.6.11):  http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/cerabino-flag-waving-florida-congressman-blocks-troops-bomb-1300256.html?showComments=true&postingId=1301378#commentsList .  Discover how well U.S. contractors are protected by Republicans, but not our young men and women fighting for our freedoms!  About the same attitude Rick Scott and Jeb Bush – and yes, even Barack Obama have about the PEOPLE of this nation – from their ivory-draped, mint-julip, tea-sipping, ivy league towers.  Read on.

Jebbie appeared in Miami the other day with the lawyer from Harvard who sits in the White House. Together the two lawyers expounded on education – like a couple of experts who have been teaching many years and with many years of experience.

Lawyers telling us how we should do our jobs. How about if I were to tell lawyers how to do THEIR jobs? Hmmm!? Like … how about being ethical as a lawyer and revealing to a client that each minute of email read by the lawyer is charged off to the client (who makes a pittance of teacher’s salary) at $200 + per hour! The client suddenly realizes it when receiving bills in excess of $25K!  WOW! Surprise. Lawyers and bankers (who are still reaping the interest rates in paying off this heinous lawyer’s charge from 2003).

How about if I were to charge some unsuspecting student such a rate each time I work one-on-one with a student? And the student knows nothing about it!

Teachers want “accountability.”  Let me repeat this in case stupido supporters of the Obama/Jebbie duo begin to attack teachers. TEACHERS WANT ACCOUNTABILITY! Shall I increase the size of the font?  Oh, yeah, I can’t!  This is a blog editor and is lacking the Microsoft Word capabilities. (Oh!  Should I hold all blog/wiki/software creators and sellers (like Neil Bush accountable?  Why not?) 

Again, I repeat:  TEACHERS WANT ACCOUNTABILITY.  We just don’t want the imposed FCAT accountability of Jeb Bush and (apparently now) Barack Obama. (Background for New Yorkers: FCAT is like the New York State Regents, but is being applied in an unreasonable manner from what I remember the Regents Exam being used in NY).

Does experience count for anything? The experience of someone other than the fat cats with silver spoons and money (Jebbie) and ivy league backgrounds? Does our experience not count at all?  Then go to hell.

At the time Jebbie was graduating U. of Texas at Austin, I was beginning my first year of college. It was a great school, but with all great academic institutions, not everything is perfect. My freshman General Psychology class sucked. There was nearly 200 of us in a lecture hall once a week listening to the professor garble off the parts of the brain, then we would spend the next week reading about some part of the brain and return to class in order to do a FCAT-type test. My grade school and high school with several wonderful teachers who should be mentioned (Mr. Nelson, Ms. Laubauch, Ms. Steinkamp) actually taught us to write college research papers – alongside the Regents Exams of New York. But when I got to my freshman Psych classes each Monday night, I was never asked to put those research and writing skills to work. Instead, I was subjected each week to the FCAT style “listen, read and regurgitate” type exam. In Florida, no one does the reading and research in public schools. Just FCAT.

The first few weeks of the course were terrible because I was flunking these “listen, read, regurgitate” FCAT type exams.  Me!  An “A” student!  Flunking Physiology about the Brain exams in a Psych class! 

Maybe for students with photographic memories, such exams are great. Perhaps that is the narrow view from which Jebbie and Barack (and the ABA, FBA, and other groups) are working from? But for many of us, we learn in various ways. I learned how to take Psych. exams given by Dr. Rust! That’s what I learned from Psych 101 in college! After several weeks of his exams, I learned how to pass those exams, without cheating, too. In fact, I began “ACE” the tests! I was so proud and thought – “look at all this stuff I am learning about PSYCHOLOGY! So, Dr. Rust passes his accountability test and all are happy, right?

Wrong! How much of the brain am I able to remember today? Little to nothing.  I remember the NAMES of the parts of the brain, but I believe I learned those in high school biology in upstate NY. But there is very little from the “listen, read, regurgitate” method of Dr. Rust that I have retained since 1973.  BTW. I learned many of Freud’s and other psychology theories in Developmental Psychology, which was a much different class. We actually WROTE in Dev. Psych. And there were some of the “listen, read, regurgitate” exams, but not every week.

Yet, here is Obama, the “agent of change” standing on a stage in Miami endorsing what Jebbie says. No change. Same old s***. Wimpy damned Harvard-trained lawyer who is unable to stand on his own two feet. Fearful of being attacked by the gop party.

Barrack and Jebbie (as one of my teacher’s spouses calls the Bush Baby Boomer brat with a JD), my colleagues have some far better approaches to teaching General Psychology than what I received in 1973. The problem? Measurement. With FCAT-style exams, it’s easier for a lazy baby boomer coward’s fool to implement such tests. It’s more difficult to measure the learning outcomes from stuff made of – writing about, researching, and speaking about – the elements of Psychology.  It’s easier to create multiple choice, true-false, and even fill-in-the-blanks tests than it is to create rubrics and assessments which measure the “other stuff.” Yet, if we don’t EXCLUSIVELY use the FCAT-style (in NY, they are Regents exams) ONLY, then we are not doing our jobs as teachers and our “merit” should be measured on this!  That is what teachers find objectionable, not the process of being held accountable.  Barack and Jebbie don’t get it. I can understand Jebbie because he never HAS gotten it – even during 8 years as governor! But Barack? What is his excuse? If it is bad advisors, then perhaps he should fire them all and begin again!

To Jebbie and Barack in Miami:  your comments were nothing but HORSE S***! (If Lee Iacocca can use these words in his book about leadership – without the words being censored, then why can’t I?  – as I self-censor). 

And here is more about those with the big fat JD who are (apparently) the only experts in our world today (alongside bankers who reap huge profits from foreclosures and don’t give a s*** about human beings – even when told the father of capitalism, Adam Smith, objected to the same type of banking and finance speculation of 18th-century Scottish bankers did – same things bankers over the past few years have been doing). 

Conservative columnist (yes, I DID say CONSERVATIVE), George Will, identified the problem with education as NOT being whether teachers be held accountable.  Rather, Mr. Will, said parents, administrators, and lawyers  also be held accountable.  That the lawyers should remove their f***ing noses from the business of education and everything else where they drum up problems and ultimately higher costs for our society.  These are costs which eat into corporate profits MORE THAN PENSIONS AND GOVERNMENT TAXES (sorry, but Mr. Iacocca did not use this word I use, even in a self-censoring mode). 

You dolts in both political parties. You dumb fools and cowardly leaders from the snotty bratty greedy selfish Ayn Rand Baby Boomer lot –  for not attempting to solve the problems, but continue to put band-aids on the symptoms of the problems in Florida and America. 

You ignorant leaders suck.  Read Lee Iacocca’s book to find out.  For he says there is one group of people in America who should be held accountable:  the politicians, particularly those in Congress.  And who are most of the politicians today?  Do you really think they are teachers?  Think again.

Silence of sheep!  “Eat your strudel!”  (With apologies to the writers of The Silence of Lambs and High Anxiety).

To all the self-righteous fools who judge and condemn me according to the narrow puritanical religious rhetoric of men (rather than God) and the proof-texting of a Bible, I repeat what my grandmother said to me when I was a kid and acting like a self-righteous fool:  “Judge not lest ye be judged.”

Positive thinking beats self-righteous fools any day.

Cowards.  When I played football, those who refused to put their heads on the line and then buck heads with the opposite side were considered cowards.  I suppose some considered me a coward when I quit the football team to pursue my music.  But I will tell you one thing.  As long as I played the game, I was tough and willing to make certain our back line scored the touchdowns. 

Those in industry and government today who wish to remove collective bargaining rights are cowards.  They refuse to put their heads on the negotiating table line and then buck heads in order to come up with the necessary solutions which come with a non-physical type of “game.”  COWARDS!  Go plumb to hell, you damned cowards.  Read Lee Iacocca’s book about leadership in America.  IT STINKS BECAUSE IT’S MADE UP OF A BUNCH OF LAZY GREEDY PIGGISH COWARDS, particularly the pigs banking and finance who figure they can step all over the American people all they wish to do…. and the lawyers who help them do it. 

And yes, this lazy, greedy piggish cowardly attitude does permeate into unions, too, at times.  It’s shameful whether this attitude is in the board room or the union hall.  But does this mean we toss out the baby with the bathwater?

You American snotty Baby Boomer damned greedy lazy cowards.  Go to hell – to the Republicans in the Wisconsin, Ohio, and other legislatures.  You lazy damned crummy piggish cowards – selfish and greedy.

Rather than correcting the symptom, I have a real novel idea:  let’s fix the problem!  GREED and SELFISHNESS spread by the media and Ayn Rand with her goddamned book, Atlas Shrugged.  I know many atheists who actually have a heart for other people – sometimes acting more like Christians than Christians do.  But not Ayn Rand and Taggart and Roarke (sp?) and the goddamned narrow characters of that goddamn book.  That book is a total disgrace to America – for what it has done to this generation which has embraced that goddamn book – along with a goddamn game called Monopoly.  It’s not a game – these are HUMAN BEINGS we are talking about.  You bratty selfish greedy cowardly leaders.  There is no intrinsic value in a greedy educational game like Monopoly.  Monopoly is a piece of garbage – trash. 

You wish to have RIGHTS, then accept the RESPONSIBILITIES AND RESPECT that goes with RIGHTS.  I am talking about the STUPIDITY of the RIGHTS the Supreme Court just granted to … CORPORATIONS, with NO CONCEPT of RESPONSIBILITIES AND RESPECT.  You idiots.  No social RESPONSIBILITY, just RIGHTS.  No RESPECT for human beings, just RIGHTS to be GREEDY SOBs to their fellow Americans.  The decisions of this Bush Court are as bad as those made by the Court which gave us the Dred Scott Decision way back when.  Stupid jerks.

Give Americans the opportunities to own a piece of the American pie and then watch out because Americans can show the world.  But it’s our own leaders who hold us back with GREED, SELFISHNESS, and MONOPOLIZATION of big CORPORATE CONGLOMERATES.  To those in Wisconsin:  Let’s end this stalemate caused by these jerks who call themselves leaders – NOW!  To those in Ohio, Tennessee, Alabama, and perhaps even Florida and others … end this stalemate caused by plantation owners/obstructionists who call all the shots by shutting down opportunities – through unilateral autocratic decision-making – as they attempt to consolidate their power.

Ah, it’s March!  That much closer to the 3H’s of Florida:  heat, humidity, hurricanes!  Rather have a blizzard any day than a hurricane – and the heat and humidity.

In Florida, is it a lamb or a lion?

Silence = sickness.

Silence = Sickness.

“It doesn’t matter how many people show up here,” Ohio Senate Majority Whip Shannon Jones (Republican) is quoted this morning in The Palm Beach Post as saying.  “”This [bill to curtail collective bargaining rights of public employee unions] is about keeping as many people employed as possible to do the essential services, but having the flexibility to do it when we have more money.” 

Mr. Jones, the coward.  Koch brothers, the cowards.  It’s not about money, it’s about power or creating enough jobs.  It’s about establishing a one-sided autocratic power.  There is money and a good leader would know how to manage the public employee unions WITH collective bargaining rights intact.  Mr. Jones is a liar and lies to the people of his state.  Scott Walker lies and is a coward in front of the people of his state.  It’s not about money.  It’s about power.

These ideas about “business” first.  What about the rest of us, you dictatorial dirty tricks bastards?  You force one way of life upon us, rather than being a good leader which can recognize the DIVERSITY to jobs and work in America.  You lying cowardly bastards – from Fox Propaganda Mouth Organ to Koch Brothers.  You make no room for diversity because you are so selfish and greedy, you have one agenda and you stick to it – as Mr. Jones above has indicated.  You are liars.  You are selfish greedy bastards on the level of Ayn Rand.  You baby boom selfish brats who had everything growing up.  Some of us may NOT have had everything growing up, but we were happy.  And you wish to pull the rug out from beneath those of us who have wished to be teachers and public servants since our youngest days.  I wished to be a teacher BEFORE there were teachers’ unions.  I did not choose this profession because I felt it was some lush job.  And yet, even with a teachers’ union, my life has been hell when compared to the financial stability others have had in life.  I don’t moan and complain about those others who have had it better – that is, until I need to stand up for myself now as Republican jerks wish to yank the rug out from beneath me and my colleagues. 

I am in debt to lawyers which charged me a huge hourly salary when I wished to DISCUSS… nothing else, but … DISCUSS matters pertaining to a divorce.  I had no idea that the clock was running so.  And people of the USA, you think that teachers have is so good?  You lousy bastards who refuse to look at the entire picture.  Look at how much you SPEND on private sector insurance due to the high ROBBERY costs charged by lawyers.  And you dare attack public workers?  You SOBs who do this.   

Florida COULD reduce its shortfall by EQUALLY taxing private business.  Barnes & Noble stores charge a sales tax, but Amazon charges NOTHING.  It was figured that by placing Amazon on an equal footing with Barnes & Noble stores – CAPITALIST FREE MARKETS – the budget shortfalls could be solved.  But no.  It’s more likely Republicans will attack hard-working Floridians than to eqalize the tax rates and bring fairness to taxes.  Where are the judges which evaluate these choices the one-party state imposes?  Checks and balances.

I am upset that MY taxes went to pay for a domed stadium in a city far far away from where I live now.  Why should my taxes be used to fund the homes of millionaire players whom their management – PRIVATE ENTERPRISE – should be able to invest in its own venues, especially considering the amount of money these PRIVATE ENTERPRISE groups rake in.  I don’t wish for the rank and file Floridians to be thrashed about while MY tax dollars go to stadiums.  Yet, it was Republicans who may likely wish to thrash human beings today who supported such measures in the past – and placed us in this mess. 

(Note: the stupidity of Rick Scott of Florida rejecting Federal money for a high-speed rail is not the same issue as public dollars for multi-million dollar sports organizations.  If anyone cares to talk about it, I would do so.  It’s a completely different issue which began when upstate NY 19th-century wealthy people found that business and commerce could be improved overall better by pooling funds for “roads” and “canals.”  In NY, it was the Erie Canal, which was a boom for business in a very large scale and virtually touched everyone.  Stadiums touch only a proporation of the population – those who watch sports and there are many of us who do not).

The Republicans, particularly the tea party – cowards, liars, deceivers, selfish, greedy, money-loving bastards. 

Scott Walker has some working people – selfish and greedy ones – convinced.  What about the Wisconsin woman who has a job, but no union?  Her blog remarks indicate she ONLY thinks about herself.  “Well, things are going well for me in this situation, so why should teachers and others have a union?” These are words of a person who only thinks about herself. Think only about yourself, you emotional witch.  Don’t think about other people and that the situaions might just be different.  Just follow the script of Fox Propaganda Outlet and Scott Walker.  Pay no attention, you baby boomer greedy bitch.  Emotional, but ignorant jerks, who swallow what Jones and Fox Propaganda Outlet all say – never looking into the issue in more detail.  Emotional Ignorance.  And then, if you and your lying cowardly leader (Scott Walker) gets his way, and you are then in a pickle over something, but all your workers’ rights are removed, what are you going to do then?  

This issue about collective bargaining rights is about power, not about the lack of money.  It’s about a bunch of cowardly leaders – like Hitler, the genocide man against people who got in his way – who wish to have absolute power – and absolute power corrupts.  So if we make the changes desired by the Republican scum, we will be back in the same place eventually, perhaps even worse for the Middle Class. 

Adam Smith, the father of capitalism, naively thought, “if we leave humans to their own devices, they will automatically act like Jesus Christ and do what is right according to the words of Jesus Christ.”  Then, Mr. Smith encountered the 18th century banking crisis – the one on a level with what we saw in the USA several years ago.  He suddenly found out about his naive trust in human nature and condemned those bankers. 

THAT is the reason we should have the checks and balances provided by collective bargaining.  We need to maintain two sides in the economy and in politics.

I no longer respect those who make their choices based upon ignorance and emotions which are fueled by Fox.  Fox does not present “news,” it presents one-sided opinions with the sole purpose of lying to those ignorant jerks who refuse to look any further than Fox.  Fox needs to be shut down or called what it is:  a propaganda machine comparable to those created by Hitler of Germany.  Fox is paid primarily by the big corporate oligarchy which intends to establish a one-party autocratic state and destroy all the checks and balances which were created when this nation was founded and those checks and balances more fine-tuned since that time.  Collective bargaining is one of those checks and balances. 

Power corrupts.  Absolute power corrupts absolutely.  If you think it was bad when it APPEARED unions had the upper hand, think again.  In good times, unions still had to face management.  Some may have been a bunch of hot heads.  But now, who are the hotheads?  At least the union hotheads never proposed destroying management – the other side. 

Some of you jerks who base your thoughts on ignorant emotionalism fueled by Fox, think about this.  Just once, use the brains God gave you, rather than the emotions of the “treachery of the heart” – from Satan.  Power seekers on both sides are emotional jerks, too.  But at least when power seeking jerks face each other at a negotiaing table, there are TWO SIDES to help reduce and sometimes curb the corruption of power.

Management unwilling to accept unions are lousy leaders and cowards.  Period.  Every day that a teacher and professor is before a bunch of students, they learn the methods of being fair and firm – because they MUST.  Leaders who wish to toss away unions never learn how to lead – as the very teachers whom they wish to pull the rug out beneath them.  And that does not even address the nurses, police, sheriff deputies, and fire fighters, among others.  You bastard, Scott Walker.  You are a coward.  Same thing about Shannon Jones of Ohio.  A coward and a bastard looking for the easy way out.  Same thing about Rick Scott of Florida.  And many others.  You  are bastards and cowards, looking for the plantation-owner way out rather than to be the leaders you SHOULD be, but now only pretend to be.  You ignore all the other solutions and focus on one:  destroy people.

Fox News = Fox PAC.  Fox News = Fox Propaganda.

The word, “News,” should not be part of the Fox thing.

I truly wish someone would either shut that organization down or else force it to name itself what it is:  Propaganda Hitler / Mussolini Style.

It is irritating to go into doctors, dentists, and businesses and hear Fox PAC blaring it’s loud mouth.  If I want news, I would want CNN on the tube.  Or some organization which is giving me up-to-date events around the world.  I don’t wish to hear the hateful putrid fish emanating from one topic being beaten to death – discussed according to the Republican way.  I wish to make up my own mind on world events.  Just give me the facts.

Why do offices and businesses figure people like to hear the horse s*** emanating from Fox Propaganda?  WHY?  How many times have I asked people in charge of those stores or offices to put something neutral on the tube?  How many times do we have to become angry and let these stupid ignorant ones know that we prefer the news of CNN (not Talk CNN, either) or something more pleasant such as a music station.  Even if I don’t like CMT, I would rather hear CMT than Fox PAC.  Or to hear the music of VH1 – music a bit more neutral. 

One doctor has CNN Health News being piped in.  OK.  That’s fine.  Tips for my health, not politics. 

Screw these businesses and doctors who subject us to the politics of Fox.  Screw them all.  Someone shut down Fox until it broadcasts true news or else changes it’s name to reflect what it really is.  It is NOT NEWS!