About a year and a half ago, my wife met a really cool lady while doing community theater. Her boyfriend turned out to be a computer nerd, like me. In that year and a half, my wife and this woman grew very close, having similar interests and character. Although I tried to befriend the boyfriend, he always seemed distant. We knew, from his girlfriend, that he had had a "bad" childhood. We just never knew how bad, I guess. Yesterday at six AM, their house was raided by a fifteen man task force including state police, the FBI, and the district attorney's office. Because they had been investigating him for a year, and had the house under observation for a month, they knew they did not need the SWAT team for a flash-bang entrance, as was common in these cases. They were looking for child pornography, and they found it. Not "barely legal" stuff, two to six year olds, in violent and incestuous situations. He admitted guilt, at least according to the police, who questioned him away from his girlfriend. Yes, I realize that could be an interrogation tactic, but he also never protested his innocence to her, and seemed to know exactly why the raid was happening.

The raid was professional and the police were amazingly courteous. They found about an eighth of pot and quite a bit of paraphernalia, and asked whose it was. She admitted that her mom is an old hippie and had left a bunch of bongs there, but the rest was hers, that she used to calm herself down because she had hyperthyroidism, which is true. They let her keep everything and joked that, after this, she'd probably need it. The police doing this kind of work probably look on pot like they look on jaywalking, technically illegal, but not worth their time. They had a list of specific files that had been downloaded and came prepared with the utilities to scan any electronic device or media on the premises. The fact that he used Linux didn't phase them for a second. She gave up all the passwords she knew. As soon as they found the first match, about an hour and a half into things, he was cuffed and taken away. The raid lasted another three and a half hours after that, as the police methodically searched for additional evidence.

She had class, and needed her laptop, so they scanned that and gave it back to her right away, but she couldn't go to class because, if you leave the scene of an investigation, you can't come back until they are done. Which meant she couldn't go buy cigarettes, either, she was out, and none of the police smoked, the poor thing. So she pulled some hair out, strand by strand. The police had a rookie with them they assigned to her, probably like "Watch what we do and make sure she doesn't freak out." They set up two tables in her driveway. Anything potentially dangerous was brought there, as well as electronics and media. Other things were opened, searched, and placed on the floor. They took all hard drives and electronic components. They searched stacks of blank CDs, looking for any hidden amongst the blanks. They took all hand labeled CDs. They felt all cushions carefully, but not finding anything, did not rip them open. They opened all boxes, jars, bags, etcetera, and searched them.

I know all this because we spent about five hours last night going over it with her. If you ever have a friend go through a traumatic experience, this is the best thing you can do for them. Just listen, as they say the same things over and over again. Heck, when they slow down, ask questions to get them going again. Encourage them to show their feelings about it, too, if they cry or rage or shake or whatever, so much the better. The earlier you can get them to do it, the better, because (according to some psychological theories as I understand them) during traumatic, emotional events, the rational mind shuts down and disassociates at least a little. The experience is stored in memory as an undifferentiated lump with heavy emotional triggers attached. If it isn't processed, anything associated with the event can trigger strong emotions, once again causing the rational mid to shut down a little. Having one's rational mind shut down all the time is sub-optimal. She is going to clean up, move all his stuff to storage, and smudge the place with sage, which normally would earn an eye-roll from me, but this is exactly the place for that ritual. It's not magic, it's psychology.

The thing is, she had broken up with him the week before, and it was under consideration for a long time, because he just couldn't get his shit together after his dad died two years ago. He hadn't worked in years, he didn't do anything around the house, he just didn't do anything. He never wanted to hang out with me, even though we have similar interests and had fun conversations at parties. She would come home and find him crying on the couch. He doesn't remember much of his childhood, what he does remember is terrifying. His dad was a hoarder, and they were divorced when he was very young. His mom treated him like a boyfriend. His girlfriend reported seeing his mother sit on his lap and stroke his hair. He's thirty five. He had not had sex with his girlfriend in six or eight months.

I knew some of this before the incident so if it seems I rushed to judgment yesterday it is only because so many things suddenly made much more sense in this new light. It is still possible he is innocent of everything. It depends on exactly what they found, I suppose, and they have a year long record of someone, using several different IP addresses which they can now connect securely to him, I believe, viewing a great deal of very disturbing things online. They read the titles and descriptions of all of them to my wife's friend. We had a large bust of a child pornography ring here last month, actual production of the stuff, and the police admitted that there were fifteen additional people being raided here yesterday. I believe he had also recently befriended a young autistic man of twenty four or so who has young children. The police asked if he he had had any contact with people with young children, and his girlfriend told them that he had, and who they were, so they could question them. In retrospect, I'm glad I didn't get closer to this guy. My cousin has young kids and they are over at our house a lot. Again, I'm not saying this man actually did anything to children himself or intended to. But I see a lot of data points that fit a certain class of patterns of human psychological illness here.

So that's about it. That's all I know at this point. My wife and I are glad that we can be there for her friend while she goes through this, it isn't over for her yet, not by a long shot. Her family owns the trailer park (no snickers, it's very nice) where she lives (in a three bedroom double wide that is as nice as my place, and why am I worried about class issues right now?) She may have to testify, that depends a lot on him, I imagine. We don't even know where he is being held. No local police were involved, it was all state and federal. He called and left a message for her, said not to believe anything they said, asked her to pray for him, and asked her to help bail him out. His bail is eighty thousand, so someone would have to some up with eight. There is no way in hell she is going to put up any money. Note that in his message, again he did not directly protest innocence, he said, "Don't believe them." I believe there is a high risk that if he did get out, he would kill himself, which is why I made the comment yesterday. I was empathizing with what I can only imagine a person in his apparent situation must be going through. That's one of my flaws, I can't really shut off my empathy. It makes it hard to be around people sometimes, or even watch certain kinds of movies or television, like the original British version of The Office took me a really long time to warm up to, I always felt too much empathy towards the character Michael Scott to laugh at him. But I'm babbling now, I guess I don't really have anything else to say at present.

Every Sunday, and often on a weekday or two, millions of Americans eat Jewish flesh and drink Jewish blood. As a Jew, this scares the shit out of me.

The people doing this claim theyâ(TM)re faking it; that itâ(TM)s not real Jewish flesh and blood. Yeah, right. Thatâ(TM)s like Rush Limbaugh saying he really isnâ(TM)t a hateful bigot, heâ(TM)s just kidding, hah hah hah.

But let me tell you something: before the Army sends you off to shoot at real people and kill them, they have you practice on human-shaped targets.

CPR and first aid are the same way. You practice on a dummy before you are turned loose to do it on real people.

And kids who torture or kill pets often grow up to be serial murderers.

Do these âoeChristiansâ expect us to believe that after practicing for years, even for decades, on âoetransubstantiatedâ fake Jews, they donâ(TM)t want to sink their fangs into the real thing?

I am not a big fan of Islam, but given a choice between people who blow up a few Jews now and then and people who openly practice ritual cannibalism on Jews all the time, Iâ(TM)ll choose the Muslims any day of the week â" especially Sunday.

Yes, there are "terror babies" among us. But most of them were planted here many years ago by Russian Communist spymasters, not recently by demented Muslims.

One notorious Soviet-planted goon is Sarah Palinsky. Her parents and her husband's parents were secretly transported across the Bering Strait from The Motherland in the 1950s.

Note that Todd Palinsky has agitated for Alaska to secede from the United States, no doubt so that it can rejoin Russia, and Sarah Palinsky has noted, wistfully, that she can see The Motherland from her home in Alaska.

This song -- http://tinyurl.com/Sweet-Ala -- could easily be rewritten as "Sweet Home Mother Russia" and used to help Americans realize that Red states are going to become Red for real.

You see, the nefarious commie plot is subtle. Right now, in Phase One, the main objective is to impoverish the American working class while further enriching the richies. Phase Two, of course, will be the violent workers' uprising. In Phase Three, a resurgent Soviet Union will send troops "to restore order."
Newt Gingrovich, Ron Paulowsky, Rush Limbauvich, and Glenn Beckovits are also leading members of this evil conspiracy.

So, too, is GOP Chairman Michael Stalin (Stalin is "Steele" in Russian).

Please, fellow Americans. Go to the rifle range and hone your shooting skills. Make note of the tea party people, Republicans, and other traitors who live near you, and be ready to exercise your 2nd Amendment rights on them when the day comes, which won't be long now.

And remember, no matter how evil the Richies and their Republican stooges become, We are the country, we will survive!

Face it: we're going to have at least two or three more years of economic decline, and Obama is a DINO who worries more about his image on Fox News than about doing anything that might actually help working Americans, so we might as well have a Congress that agrees with him.

Here's what we'll get if we vote in a Republican Congressional Majority:

• More local and state government layoffs as federal aid to local jurisdication stops
• "Obamacare" gets repealed despite presidential veto; Blue Double Cross and other health care insurers raise rates 50% to celebrate; Columbia/HCA and other Medicare-defrauding pain profiteers rejoice
• Less Medicaid funding; reductions in other medical care for poor people; many deaths due to lack of medical care
• No taxes at all on Paris Hilton, the Walton heirs, and other useless rich parasites, lower income taxes on speculators' proceeds than American Workers pay on their salaries (if you include FICA, which *I* do)
• National parks and other government amenities we take for granted closed or their operations drastically curtailed
• More homeless people as more of the long-term unemployed stop getting any government aid at all
• More crime as more of the long-term unemployed stop getting any government aid at all
• More BS from Republicans about "the free market" and how "fiduciary reponsibilities" are the reason their asshole profiteer buddies keep laying off American workers and sending jobs overseas even as more long-term American unemployed stop getting any government aid
• This George Carlin routine becomes the most popular video on YouTube
• Formation of local Coffee Party groups that hold mass firearm training and target practice sessions at local shooting ranges
• Massive long-term unemployment leads to wave of assassinations of Republican politicians, thieving richies, and Fox News anti-American commentators by laid-off blue-collar workers who have nothing left to lose
• Assassination fear leads to mass resignations by Republican politicians, corporate thieves, lobbyists, and other traitors
• 2012: Election of a strong Democratic majority in Congress and a "for real" Democratic President with balls, possibly Hillary Clinton -- who appoints Barrack Obama to the Supreme Court the next time there's an opening.

Yeah. Let the Republicons do their worst for the next two years. We're Americans. We're resilient. We will survive. And once we totally discredit them, we can get on with the business of moving America into the 21st Century.

 

A Reagan-appointed Republican Federal Judge who owns a bunch of oil company stock has said the government can't stop drilling in the gulf because, you know, just because one rig went blooie doesn't mean others will.

Yeah. And when I was learning to ride a motorcycle about 200 years ago, the old Calif. Motorcycle Highway Patrol guy who taught my cycling class told us that even if the last 1000 blind curves you took didn't hide oil slicks that would lay you out flat, you should still act like there might be a slick or a gravel patch around the next blind curve until you saw otherwise.

This is sort of like the flight instructor's saying, "There are old pilots, and there are bold pilots, but there no old, bold pilots."

This thought pattern used to be called "conservatism." What is currently passing for conservatism in political circles, specifically when it comes to regulating the oil industry, not to mention bankers, investment houses, health insurance companies, and other white-collar thieves, could more accurately be called "moronism."

Judge Feldman and a whole lot of Republicans and loonietarians need to learn about the Dunning-Kruger Effect, assuming they're smart enough to understand it -- which is unlikely.

The codemonkeys of Slashdot have obviously been pounding randomly on their keyboards recently. Here's a thought, if you are going to hire monkeys to maintain your code, you should at least test it before deploying it to your live servers. This hasn't been Rob Malda's personal blog for years, it's a fricken' business. Do you Slashdot employees like your jobs? Do you want them to continue to exist? If so, perhaps you should start treating this like a business and not like a hobby. Quit breaking things.

They made me do it! It was the peer pressure! I... I'm on... Facebook now.

People constantly say "Python is fast enough! If it's too slow, just throw hardware at the problem! GUI applications spend all their time waiting for user input anyway! And you can rewrite performance-critical sections in C!"

So why is it that, running Fedora on my netbook, I can tell -- with 99% accuracy -- which programs are written in C/C++ and which are written in Python?

There's a simple test. If, when I launch the program, nothing happens for up to a minute, then it's probably written in Python. If, when I click on a button in the program, it becomes completely unresponsive for up to five minutes before anything happens, then it's definitely written in Python.

Today's culprit is the SELinux Administration program. Unbelievably, mind-blowingly slow and unresponsive. This is not a good user experience. I don't care how much programmer time was saved by writing it in Python, or how beautiful the code is, or even how well it performed on the developer's high-end desktop monster -- what I care about is how much of my time is being wasted by twiddling my thumbs while this under-performing, over-rated slug of a language chugs away doing simple things inefficiently.

It's 2010. The future of computing is small, low-powered devices, optimised for portability and endurance rather than raw execution speed. I can't throw hardware at this problem. If Fedora wants to be widespread, it simply can't afford to go on like this, getting slower and slower as more and more core functionality is replaced with fundamentally slow code. It's time to start thinking about execution efficiency again, and -- in the absence of a high-performance Python interpreter -- that means Python is simply not an appropriate language for implementing core OS functionality like system configuration tools. If rewriting bottlenecks in C is good enough, then someone needs to start doing that, because right now they clearly aren't.

I just had an interesting revelation regarding freedom. My mom came down with pancreatic cancer about a year ago, and I felt my personal sense of freedom curtailed. Sure, it was only curtailed by my own sense morality and obligation. but it was limited nonetheless. And I noticed, there is only so much freedom I am willing to give up. I was suddenly much more aware of, and resistant to, all the other limitations on my freedom like my marriage and my job and living in a society where I have to wear pants. Then my mom died, and I inherited a house and quite a bit of money. Now that my freedom is far less constrained by finances, or by dying single mother, only child dynamics, the minor impositions of job and marriage and pants obsessed society don't even register.

I've read that the sense of certainty is simply an emotion, a specific analog circuit that engages and drives our logical mind to come up with explanations. Now, through experience, I believe our sense of freedom is another emotional circuit. While in a strictly deterministic world individual freedom does not exist as such, the sense of personal freedom is a very real part of the chain of cause and effect.

(And thus, a personal conundrum is resolved, cognitive dissonance is decreased, and pants are worn.)

Guess I should...

After nearly a decade with the same sig, I've decided to get rid of the Python quote and replace it with something even more combative. I saw it in an Empire: Total War loading screen, heh heh.

"None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license." --John Milton.

Liberty is a social contract, it requires active participation to achieve it. License is "I get to do what I want."

A now-former writer for scholastic, Marc Millot, wrote an article accusing wide-ranging corruption in Obama administration awards of Race to the Top grants, implicating Andrew Rotham of EdSector. Rotham complained that the report was hearsay, which is not true but Scholastic pulled the report and fired Marc Millot anyway. As an advocate for clean government, I've got my fingers crossed hoping for a Streisand effect. Also, some of those need mirrors, ANDREW ROTHAM is trying to take down his own blog entry.

http://www.eduwonk.com/2010/02/hogwarts-on-the-hudson.html/comment-page-1

  More to come later.

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                        <div class="alignleft">&laquo; <a href="http://www.eduwonk.com/2010/02/as-goes-montgomery-county.html">As Goes Montgomery County?</a></div>

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                        <h2><a href="http://www.eduwonk.com/2010/02/hogwarts-on-the-hudson.html" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent Link: Hogwarts On The Hudson?">Hogwarts On The Hudson?</a></h2>

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                                <p>Wow. Jaw meet floor. <a href="http://www2.scholastic.com/browse/home.jsp">Scholastic</a>, a serious publisher in the education space (that produces some good products, for instance Read 180) <a href="http://scholasticadministrator.typepad.com/thisweekineducation/2010/02/millot-three-data-points-unconected-dots-or-a-warning.html">is now allowing its bloggers to call out senior government officials as corrupt on the basis of <em>anonymous third party hearsay and no evidence</em>.</a> We&#8217;ve crossed into a strange new - and unfortunate - world if this is the new norm or somehow even remotely acceptable.</p>

<p><strong>Update:</strong> As you can tell from the now broken link it&#8217;s to Scholastic&#8217;s credit that they&#8217;ve removed the post.</p>

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        <h3 id="comments">13 Responses to &#8220;Hogwarts On The Hudson?&#8221;</h3>

        <ol class="commentlist">

                <li class="alt" id="comment-151201">
                        <cite>steve f.</cite> Says:
                                                <br />

                        <small class="commentmetadata"><a href="#comment-151201" title="">February 5th, 2010 at 4:38 pm</a> </small>

                        <p>seems like a reasonable blog post to me &#8211; he&#8217;s just asking for a bit more transparency to clear up any perception of favoritism. </p>
<p>as he said, it&#8217;s not like it hasn&#8217;t happened before <img src='http://www.eduwonk.com/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_wink.gif' alt=';)' class='wp-smiley' /> </p>

                </li>

                <li class="" id="comment-151218">
                        <cite>Ed Pol</cite> Says:
                                                <br />

                        <small class="commentmetadata"><a href="#comment-151218" title="">February 5th, 2010 at 5:00 pm</a> </small>

                        <p>Steve F.-</p>
<p>The first sentence is:</p>
<p>&#8220;I have now heard the same thing from three independent credible sources &#8211; the fix is in on the U.S. Department of Education&#8217;s competitive grants, in particular Race to the Top (RTTT) and Investing in Innovation (I3). &#8221;</p>
<p>Not implying anything but just asking?</p>

                </li>

                <li class="alt" id="comment-151225">

                        <cite>steve f.</cite> Says:
                                                <br />

                        <small class="commentmetadata"><a href="#comment-151225" title="">February 5th, 2010 at 5:04 pm</a> </small>

                        <p>it&#8217;s a blog, i&#8217;m not sure of the ethics of blog publishing.</p>
<p>but the post is asking whether there is favoritism at the dept of ed? that&#8217;s reasonable in my book and could be cleared up easily through a transparent process.</p>

<p>the ny times uses anonymous sources all the time.</p>

                </li>

                <li class="" id="comment-151233">
                        <cite>Ed Pol</cite> Says:
                                                <br />

                        <small class="commentmetadata"><a href="#comment-151233" title="">February 5th, 2010 at 5:15 pm</a> </small>

                        <p>&#8220;Over the last several months a national education reporter, a senior manager at a national education research organization, and the head of a national nonprofit working in the field all volunteered that the Department&#8217;s senior officials know exactly who they want to get RTTT and I3 money &#8211; in brief, the new philanthropies&#8217; grantees and the jurisdictions where they work. &#8221;</p>
<p>That is a reasonable question but the blog post is not asking whether there is favortism, it is *saying* there is favortism. The first line is &#8220;the fix is in&#8221; not &#8220;is the fix in?&#8221;</p>

                </li>

                <li class="alt" id="comment-151236">
                        <cite>JSP</cite> Says:
                                                <br />

                        <small class="commentmetadata"><a href="#comment-151236" title="">February 5th, 2010 at 5:24 pm</a> </small>

                        <p>Pleeeez! Favoritism at the Dept of Ed? Who&#8217;s the secretary? While he may be a nice man and a class warrior, his position derives from the favoritism we now find problematic.</p>

                </li>

                <li class="" id="comment-151303">
                        <cite><a href='http://ljohnson562@charter.net' rel='external nofollow' class='url'>Linda/Retired Teacher</a></cite> Says:
                                                <br />

                        <small class="commentmetadata"><a href="#comment-151303" title="">February 5th, 2010 at 8:56 pm</a> </small>

                        <p>I feel certain that the taxpayers are about to be fleeced in the name of educational &#8220;reform.&#8221; Let&#8217;s hope someone with the right skills can find out what&#8217;s coming down the pike before it&#8217;s too late.</p>
<p>The Reading First fiasco hurt a lot of children and lined a lot of pockets before the fraud was exposed. I don&#8217;t want to see this happen again.</p>

                </li>

                <li class="alt" id="comment-151305">

                        <cite>Edharris</cite> Says:
                                                <br />

                        <small class="commentmetadata"><a href="#comment-151305" title="">February 5th, 2010 at 9:02 pm</a> </small>

                        <p>Some of the article is here:<br />
<a href="http://www.schoolsmatter.info/2010/02/millot-asks-about-conflict-of-interest.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.schoolsmatter.info/2010/02/millot-asks-about-conflict-of-interest.html</a></p>

                </li>

                <li class="" id="comment-151569">
                        <cite>KL</cite> Says:
                                                <br />

                        <small class="commentmetadata"><a href="#comment-151569" title="">February 6th, 2010 at 1:04 pm</a> </small>

                        <p>Entire article available here:</p>

<p><a href="http://74.125.155.132/search?q=cache:http://scholasticadministrator.typepad.com/thisweekineducation/2010/02/millot-three-data-points-unconected-dots-or-a-warning.html" rel="nofollow">http://74.125.155.132/search?q=cache:http://scholasticadministrator.typepad.com/thisweekineducation/2010/02/millot-three-data-points-unconected-dots-or-a-warning.html</a></p>

                </li>

                <li class="alt" id="comment-151798">
                        <cite>Mary Porter</cite> Says:
                                                <br />

                        <small class="commentmetadata"><a href="#comment-151798" title="">February 7th, 2010 at 6:41 am</a> </small>

                        <p>Clearly, we must applaud Scholastic&#8217;s journalistic integrity for not allowing its bloggers to call out senior public officials. Especially when, as you point out it sells &#8220;a lot of good products&#8221; and the senior official in question is capable of serious payback if the serious publisher were to allow such a breach in respect for senior government officials.</p>
<p>That&#8217;s what journalistic standards are for: to protect our vulnerable senior government officials from unwarrented intrusion into their power to dispense payouts.</p>

                </li>

                <li class="" id="comment-151866">

                        <cite>Edharris</cite> Says:
                                                <br />

                        <small class="commentmetadata"><a href="#comment-151866" title="">February 7th, 2010 at 1:02 pm</a> </small>

                        <p>Two classic moments from film and TV come to mind.<br />
&#8220;I&#8217;m shocked, shocked, to find gambling going on in this establishment.&#8221;<br />

Casablanca</p>
<p>&#8220;Nudge, nudge, wink, wink, grin, grin.&#8221;<br />
Monty Python&#8217;s Flying Circus.</p>

                </li>

                <li class="alt" id="comment-153620">
                        <cite>Marc Dean Millot</cite> Says:
                                                <br />

                        <small class="commentmetadata"><a href="#comment-153620" title="">February 12th, 2010 at 11:27 am</a> </small>

                        <p>I&#8217;ve responded to Rotherham&#8217;s charge starting here at the blog &#8220;Schools Matter.&#8221;</p>

                </li>

                <li class="" id="comment-153652">

                        <cite><a href='http://www.thefrustratedteacher.com/' rel='external nofollow' class='url'>TFT</a></cite> Says:
                                                <br />

                        <small class="commentmetadata"><a href="#comment-153652" title="">February 12th, 2010 at 12:48 pm</a> </small>

                        <p>The saga is being followed by me as well as others. Several bloggers, including me, have given Millot space to respond. Check my blog for updates if you are interested.</p>

                </li>

                <li class="alt" id="comment-154163">
                        <cite><a href='http://ljohnson562@charter.net' rel='external nofollow' class='url'>Linda/Retired Teacher</a></cite> Says:
                                                <br />

                        <small class="commentmetadata"><a href="#comment-154163" title="">February 13th, 2010 at 7:54 pm</a> </small>

                        <p>Mr. Millot:</p>

<p>You sound like a very wise man. You were one of the first writers to predict that Michelle Rhee couldn&#8217;t possibly succeed given her disdain for teachers.</p>
<p>I hope you can continue to expose &#8220;reformers&#8221; who are poised to line their pockets with tax money meant for schoolchildren. Your skills as a lawyer should prove very helpful. Our country cannot afford another Reading First scam. Thank you.</p>

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                        <ul id="recentcomments"><li class="recentcomments"><a href='http://www.billigtflygtilllondon.com' rel='external nofollow' class='url'>Jason Jagow</a> on <a href="http://www.eduwonk.com/2009/12/eliza-krigman-ringmaster.html/comment-page-1#comment-154202">Eliza Krigman: Ringmaster</a></li><li class="recentcomments">ateacher on <a href="http://www.eduwonk.com/2010/01/five-strikes-and-youre-out-plus-houston-we-have-a-problem.html/comment-page-1#comment-154181">Five Strikes And You&#8217;re Out! Plus, Houston We Have A Problem&#8230;</a></li><li class="recentcomments">ateacher on <a href="http://www.eduwonk.com/2010/01/five-strikes-and-youre-out-plus-houston-we-have-a-problem.html/comment-page-1#comment-154178">Five Strikes And You&#8217;re Out! Plus, Houston We Have A Problem&#8230;</a></li><li class="recentcomments"><a href='http://ljohnson562@charter.net' rel='external nofollow' class='url'>Linda/Retired Teacher</a> on <a href="http://www.eduwonk.com/2010/02/hogwarts-on-the-hudson.html/comment-page-1#comment-154163">Hogwarts On The Hudson?</a></li><li class="recentcomments"><a href='http://www.churchcoaching.org/' rel='external nofollow' class='url'>Coach for Awakened</a> on <a href="http://www.eduwonk.com/2009/08/reinventing-ed-school-2-coaching-dosagestyle.html/comment-page-1#comment-154107">Reinventing Ed School 2: Coaching dosage/style</a></li></ul>

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<li><a href="http://www.thedemocraticstrategist.org/strategist/" target="_blank">The Democratic Strategist</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.slate.com/?id=3944&#38;cp=2120447" target="_blank">The Has Been</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.tnr.com/blogs/the-plank" target="_blank">The Plank (TNR)</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/linkset/2006/04/03/LI2006040301493.html" target="_blank">Think Tank Town</a></li>
<li><a href="http://volokh.com/" target="_blank">Volokh Conspiracy</a></li>

<li><a href="http://www.usnews.com/usnews/politics/whispers/whisphome.htm" target="_blank">Washington Whispers</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.opinionjournal.com/federation/" target="_blank">WSJ&#8217;s Blog Federation</a></li>

        </ul>
</li>
</ul>

<P><h2>EduReading</h2>
<br>
<!-- Publications Section -->

<table width="290" border="0">

<tr>

<!-- Publication Spot 1 -->
<td class="publications" valign="top"><a href="http://www.hepg.org/hep/Book/5"><img

src="http://www.eduwonk.com/graphics/Collect_Barg_120x147.gif" width="120" height="147"

border="1"><br>Collective Bargaining in Education: Negotiating Change in Today's Schools</a><br>
<font color="#000000" size="-2">Edited by Jane Hannaway and Andrew J. Rotherham</font>
<P>

<!-- Publication Spot 2 -->
<td class="publications" valign="top"><a

href="http://www.educationsector.org/analysis/analysis_show.htm?doc_id=358299"><img

src="http://www.eduwonk.com/graphics/challenged_index_120x147.gif" width="120" height="147"

border="1"><br>Why Newsweek's List of America's 100 Best High Schools Doesn't Make the Grade
</a><br>
<font color="#000000" size="-2">By Andrew J. Rotherham<br> and Sara Mead</font>
</td>

</tr>
<tr>

<!-- Publication Spot 3 -->
<td class="publications" valign="top"><a href="http://www.hepg.org/hep/Book/39"><img

src="http://www.eduwonk.com/graphics/teacher_quality_120x147.jpg" width="120" height="147"

border="1"><br>A Qualified Teacher<br> in Every Classroom</a><br>
<font color="#000000" size="-2">Edited by Frederick M. Hess, Andrew J. Rotherham, and Kate Walsh</font>
</td>

<!-- Publication Spot 4 -->
<td class="publications" valign="top"><a href="http://www.democracyjournal.com/article.php?ID=6535"><img

src="http://www.eduwonk.com/graphics/DemocracyJournal.gif" width="120" height="147"

border="0"><br>America's Teaching Crisis</a><br>
<font color="#000000" size="-2">By Jason Kamras and Andrew J. Rotherham</font>

</td>
</tr>
<tr>

<!-- Publication Spot 5 -->
<td class="publications" valign="top"><a

href="http://www.ppionline.org/ppi_ci.cfm?knlgAreaID=110&subsecID=900030&contentID=3344"><img

src="http://www.eduwonk.com/graphics/SpecialEd_120x147.jpg" width="120" height="147"

border="0"><br>Rethinking Special Education For A New Century</a><br>
<font color="#000000" size="-2">Edited by Chester E. Finn, Jr., Andrew J. Rotherham & Charles R. Hokanson, Jr.</font></td>

<!-- Publication Spot 6 -->
<td class="publications" valign="top"><a

href="http://www.educationsector.org/analysis/analysis_show.htm?doc_id=385844"><img

src="http://www.eduwonk.com/graphics/EXPCutScoresCover.gif" width="120" height="147" border="0"><br>Making The Cut: How States Set Passing Scores on Standardized Tests</a><br>
<font color="#000000" size="-2">By Andrew J. Rotherham</font></td></tr>
<tr>

<!-- Publication Spot 7 -->
<td class="publications" valign="top"><a

href="http://www.brookings.edu/reports/2008/1016_education_mead_rotherham.aspx "><img

src="http://www.eduwonk.com/graphics/MeadRotherhamCover.gif" width="120" height="147" border="0"><br>Changing the Game: The Federal Role in Supporting 21st Century Educational Innovation </a><br>
<font color="#000000" size="-2">By Andrew J. Rotherham and Sara Mead</font></td>

<!-- Publication Spot 8 -->
<td class="publications" valign="top"><a

href=" http://www.philanthropyroundtable.org/store_product.asp?prodid=210"><img
src="http://www.eduwonk.com/graphics/TeacherExcellenceCover.gif" width="120" height="180" border="0"><br>Achieving Teacher and Principal Excellence: A Guidebook for Donors
</a><br>
<font color="#000000" size="-2">By Andrew J. Rotherham</font>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
<P>
<ul><li id="linkcat-5" class="linkcat"><h2>Education Blogs</h2>

        <ul class='xoxo blogroll'>
<li><a href="http://americanedreview.blogspot.com/2010/01/teaching-as-leadership-live.html">American Ed Review</a></li>
<li><a href="http://ascd.typepad.com/blog/" target="_blank">ASCD</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.assortedstuff.com/" target="_blank">Assorted Stuff</a></li>
<li><a href="http://teachingquality.typepad.com/building_the_profession/" title="Secondhand NEA smoke?" target="_blank">Barnett Berry</a></li>
<li><a href="http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/Bridging-Differences/" title="And lemme tell you another thing about those punk reform kids today&#8230;" target="_blank">Bridging Differences (Meier and Ravitch)</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.publiccharters.org/media/blog" title="But do they like charter schools?" target="_blank">Charter Blog (NAPCS)</a></li>
<li><a href="http://charterschoolpolicy.org/yes/" target="_blank">Charter School Policy Inst. Blog</a></li>
<li><a href="http://dormont.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Chez Dormont</a></li>

<li><a href="http://thecite.blogspot.com/" title="A blog on Course materials, Innovation, and Technology in Education">CITE Blog</a></li>
<li><a href="http://athenslearning.org/blog/" target="_blank">College Ready Blog (Athens Learning Group)</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.burkescarbrough.com/" target="_blank">Conversation Starters</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.coreknowledge.org/blog/" title="Bring on the classics! Panic At The Pondiscio holds forth!" target="_blank">Core Knowledge Blog</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.erinoconnor.org/" target="_blank">Critical Mass</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.curriki.org/xwiki/bin/view/CurrikiBlog/">Curriki</a></li>
<li><a href="http://d-edreckoning.blogspot.com/" title="You&#8217;d better bring evidence " target="_blank">D-EDreckoning</a></li>
<li><a href="http://dcteacherchic.blogspot.com/">D.C. Teacher Chic</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.dangerouslyirrelevant.org/" target="_blank">Dangerously Irrelevant</a></li>

<li><a href="http://www.cobranchi.com/" title="Homie Central" target="_blank">Daryl Cobranchi</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.abcte.org/blog/" target="_blank">Dave Saba (ABCTE)</a></li>
<li><a href="http://daveshearon.typepad.com/" target="_blank">Dave Shearon</a></li>
<li><a href="http://dcedublog.blogspot.com/" title="Education dysfunction central" target="_blank">DC Education Blog</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.dfer.org/posts/blog/" title="Should be as redundant as &#8216;Republicans for lower taxes&#8217;, but isn&#8217;t yet" target="_blank">Dems for Education Reform</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.newamerica.net/blog/early_ed_watch" title="Sara Mead tells you what it all means for little kids" target="_blank">Early Ed Watch</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.earlyedcoverage.org/" title="Colvin saves education journalism" target="_blank">Early Stories</a></li>
<li><a href="http://learningmatters.tv/blog/news-desk/" title="Daily education news summaries and links" target="_blank">Ed Beat</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.ediswatching.org/" title="He&#8217;s five and he likes school choice" target="_blank">Ed is Watching</a></li>

<li><a href="http://ed-policy.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Ed Policy Blog</a></li>
<li><a href="http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/edbizbuzz/" target="_blank">Edbizbuzz</a></li>
<li><a href="http://blog.centerforpubliceducation.org/?paged=2" title="The Center for Public Education Blog">EDifier</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.varpartners.net/%3fpage_id=101" target="_blank">EdReformer Blog</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.edspresso.com/" title="Vouchers yes! Dems no!" target="_blank">Edspresso</a></li>
<li><a href="http://educatedguess.org/blog/" title="The Educated Guess is a forum on education policies in California and Silicon Valley.">Educated Guess</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.educatednation.com/" target="_blank">Educated Nation</a></li>
<li><a href="http://educationnext.org/blog/" title="The Ed Next empire expands to the blogosphere">Education Next Blog</a></li>
<li><a href="http://blog.eduflack.com" title="He wants you to look good!" target="_blank">EduFlack</a></li>

<li><a href="http://eduoptimists.blogspot.com/" title="The blogging Goldricks!" target="_blank">Eduoptimists</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.edwize.org/" title="Teacher union voice!" target="_blank">Edwize (UFT)</a></li>
<li><a href="http://eponymouseducator.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Eponymous Educator</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.essentialblog.org/" title="Authentically good!" target="_blank">Essential Blog</a></li>
<li><a href="http://extracredit.wordpress.com/" target="_blank">Extra Credit</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.edexcellence.net/flypaper/" title="Petrilli &amp; Friends" target="_blank">Flypaper (Fordham)</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.edexcellence.net/fordhamfellows/blog/" title="Young, brash, and prolific!" target="_blank">Fordham Fellows</a></li>
<li><a href="http://thetrenches.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">From The Trenches</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/custom/blogs/education/index.html" target="_blank">Get Schooled (AJC)</a></li>

<li><a href="http://www.daytondailynews.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/dayton/education/index.html" target="_blank">Get On The Bus (Dayton Daily News)</a></li>
<li><a href="http://gothamschools.org/" title="24 hour-a-day coverage of the vipers&#8217; nest that is education policy in NYC" target="_blank">Gotham Schools</a></li>
<li><a href="http://blogs.greatschools.net/" target="_blank">GreatSchools Blog</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.grumpyprofessor.com" target="_blank">Grumpy Professor</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.newamerica.net/programs/education_policy/higher_ed_watch/blog/" target="_blank">Higher Ed Watch</a></li>
<li><a href="http://hipteacher.typepad.com/schoolblog/" target="_blank">Hip Teacher</a></li>
<li><a href="http://ithoughtathink.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">I Thought A Think</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.learningalternatives.net/" target="_blank">IALA</a></li>
<li><a href="http://mspappas.preknow.org/" target="_blank">Inside Pre-K</a></li>

<li><a href="http://insideschools.org/blog/">Inside Schools Blog</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.eiaonline.com/intercepts/" title="Education&#8217;s union man" target="_blank">Intercepts</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.ivygateblog.com/" target="_blank">IvyGate</a></li>
<li><a href="http://jaypgreene.com/" title="TV reviews, education commentary, and vouchers for everyone!" target="_blank">Jay Greene</a></li>
<li><a href="http://drcookie.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Jenny D.</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.joannejacobs.com/" title="Come for the excerpts, stay for the comments!" target="_blank">Joannejacobs.com</a></li>
<li><a href="http://gwu-kindlingflames.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Kindling Flames</a></li>
<li><a href="http://kitchentablemath.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Kitchen Table Math</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.pbs.org/teachersource/learning.now/" target="_blank">Learning Now (PBS)</a></li>

<li><a href="http://www.publicschoolinsights.org/" title="The Blob Blogs! But guaranteed at least 75 percent tendentious - or your money back!">LFA &#8211; Public School Insights</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.linkeducation.org/blog" title="Education social networking" target="_blank">LinkEd</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.matthewktabor.com/" title="He&#8217;s pissed and pointed" target="_blank">Mathew K. Tabor</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.pbs.org/teachers/mediainfusion/" target="_blank">Media Infusion</a></li>
<li><a href="http://stsg.wordpress.com/" title="Good luck with that!">Meeting the Turnaround Challenge Blog</a></li>
<li><a href="http://mikerosebooks.blogspot.com/">Mike Rose&#8217;s Blog</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.speedofcreativity.org/" target="_blank">Moving At The Speed Of Creativity</a></li>

<li><a href="http://bgenglish.blogspot.com/index.html" target="_blank">Mr. B-G&#8217;s English Blog</a></li>
<li><a href="http://msfrizzle.wordpress.com/" target="_blank">Ms. Frizzle</a></li>
<li><a href="http://education.nationaljournal.com/" title="Eliza Krigman plays ringmaster for a three ring educircus!">National Journal&#039;s Education Blog</a></li>
<li><a href="http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/NCLB-ActII/" target="_blank">NCLB Act II (Ed Week)</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.letsgetitright.org/blog/" title="Now seen mostly on milk cartons" target="_blank">NCLBlog (AFT)</a></li>
<li><a href="http://schoolnerdblog.blogspot.com/" title="She&#8217;s smart, snarky, and teaching! (And she&#8217;s missed!)" target="_blank">Newoldschoolteacher</a></li>
<li><a href="http://boardbuzz.nsba.org/" title="In the first place, NSBA made this blog" target="_blank">NSBA&#8217;s BoardBuzz</a></li>

<li><a href="http://nyceducator.blogspot.com/" title="He fiddles, and burns" target="_blank">NYC Educator</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.usnews.com/papertrail/" target="_blank">Paper Trail (USN)</a></li>
<li><a href="http://parentalcation.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Parentalcation</a></li>

Unions not only destroyed many once-proud American businesses, but also promulgated such evils as a 40 hour workweek (remember that?), health and safety regulations on the job that have saved many workersâ(TM) lives, paid vacations, and the now-discredited idea of defined-benefit pensions, plus a particular horror this country used to value called âoejob security.â

And letâ(TM)s not forget that pesky minimum wage.

We need to finish rolling back all the damage unions have done to the U.S. so we can compete with China and India. American workers have been spoiled by having things like indoor plumbing, electricity, telephones, and cable TV. Once we get them to roll back their living standards to the dirt-floor hut level common in the countries that are now eating our economic lunch, we will return America to its former state of greatness, where millionaires had hordes of servants (which we need because of the stress our fortunes cause) and children started working at age 8 instead of lollygagging around in schools all day.

Another institution we may want to consider bringing back is slavery â" except that weâ(TM)re more racially enlightened now that we were in the 18th and 19th centuries, so we wonâ(TM)t deny this opportunity for lifetime employment to non-black people but will extend it to all.

Never forget: America is a Christian nation, and slavery is mentioned in the Bible but unions are not.

God bless America!

by Lazlo Toth, American

(at least, I *think* that's what the scrawled signature said.)

So I served a guy a restraining order today. He'd beat up my friend a couple times, gave him a concussion the last time. So my friend got a restraining order, but he's a waiter and this is the dead time of year for that in Santa Fe, and he doesn't have the money to pay the sheriff to serve the papers. So I volunteered. This guy is a punk ass gangster wannabe who hangs out with a crowd of (snicker) Santa Fe toughs. But they kicked the shit out of my friend in public a couple times, and they are cracked out of their heads a lot of the time, so yeah, I was a little scared. But it was the right thing to do, and the fact that you have to pay someone to serve a restraining order sucks balls, so I had to do it. I had to track the fucker down, too, because he didn't show up for work tonight. He was off at some bar with his friends. I walked right up to him, made sure it was him (I've never met the guy), handed him the papers and walked out, calm as you please.

My hands are shaking a little bit now, though.