Slamming Shut the Open Door

Twenty of the 28 Florida Community Colleges have been moved to “State College” status which makes them 4 year colleges and gives them the right to grant bachelor’s degrees. This move which was accelerated by the Republican administration led by Rick Scott leads to the dilution of the original mission of community colleges, namely to provide open access to all citizens of Florida at a reasonable cost. Budgets have been cut for several years by the same politicians and new expenses have been added. One of the “recommended” ways to make up the lost dollars is to cut developmental programs in all areas and put unprepared students in regular classes with “tutors” to help them get up to speed. Everyone who knows anything about under prepared students knows that this may only work for the border line students, not the critically under prepared.
The same government is also wholesale privatizing “public” education and paying for it by taking money from the public schools and giving it to the private schools. Not surprisingly the private schools “cherry pick” the better students leaving the less able to struggle in underfunded public schools.
The same government has already reduced public school teacher’s job security, and reduced or eliminated tenure from public Universities. Next year tenure is slated to be axed from the community colleges.
Several sources have discussed the gutting of education by Republican governments since the mid 1970’s. Attacks on curricula, denigrating science, implementing testing programs without budget increases to meet the demands of the tests, trying to abolish departments of education at both the state and national levels are still ongoing. The reason posited by the people researching the climate of educational attack? Dumb down the population so the crap the “enlightened” capitalists (the free market will cure all ills) pump out to increase profits and reduce costs can slide by a public without critical thinking skills. The deep religious core beliefs of many Americans make the swallowing of the whole thing easier since strong religious beliefs predispose a person to accept assertions without proof.
The thing that worries me is that there is no ground swell of outrage at the dumbing down of our children’s education. Maybe, just maybe, 40+ years of this relentless assault has begun to produce the desired results. If you aren’t even the least bit worried, then the case rests with you.

This presidential election, the Republican Party wants you to vote for “Proven Success”, namely their candidate and his inherited wealth. You think a black child born to a single mother on food stamps who got to be the President of the United States isn’t “Proven Success”? You gotta be nuts if you think inheriting wealth is a greater measure of success than the struggle of the POTUS. And you may just be a victim of the dumbing down of America.

Image: http://glossynews.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/fox-news-dumbing-down2.jpg

Cornhole? You Gotta be Kidding!!

Back to the BBQ.
Into the evening, and into the beer, a couple of friends asked me if they could get a game from their car and set it up to play. What game is that, I asked. Cornhole they replied. Cornhole? You gotta be kidding sez I. They described a corn bag tossing game. I asked them if they knew what the name of the game really meant, and both sincerely said they didn’t. In my best professorial manner, I told them. After the blushing subsided, they decided to leave the game in the car, and from now on call it “Toss the Bean Bag”
I don’t make this stuff up friends. If you don’t know what this is all about, just look up the slang version of the term.
Image and Information: http://www.playcornhole.org/

THE CATS IN THE CRADLE

As is so often the case with me, a thought to write about hits when I hear the words to a song I have heard a thousand times before.
Sal and I are getting ready for a BBQ for her faculty and staff, and about 110 answered the RSVP. Pandora is providing the beat for the work getting ready. Then, JC, (the other JC, Johnny Cash) came on with “The Cats in the Cradle”. I stopped and listened. Damn, I though, that’s me. Well maybe not completely but it did go home. My boys grew up without me around much. Divorce does that sometimes. I didn’t want it or like it. They turned out not “just like me” as the song goes. They are happily married the first time out and getting on well with their lives. They live in distant places, and we see each other infrequently, not enough. They both have very busy and different lives and I am proud of them.

The chance to be the soccer dad and the scout dad and the cry-on-the-shoulder dad passed long ago, and I wish it were otherwise. But it did and as you all know well, you can’t go back. Retirement is fast approaching, and with that we will have some time to go where they live, and maybe hang out for a bit. Not to be intrusive, just to be with family.

My point in putting this out there? A lesson for all you newly childrened families. Do your best to be there always for your kids, and take the time to throw a ball and go for a walk or swim. And if the worst happens and you are separated from them, try to keep close. You never get that time back.

Image: http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2620/4167768923_6ee14ec4dc.jpg

But the Bible says . . . .

Tennessee legislature votes to allow teachers to introduce evidence contrary to the collected opinions currently considered correct by scientists. Specifically mentioned are evolution and climate change (global warming). Not the second law of thermodynamics. Not the shape of the earth or the position of Earth in the universe. Just those two. You wonder what is wrong with presenting dissenting evidence. Nothing at all if, and this a great big if, the science is not settled.

Science only works when hypotheses are tested and counter tested until everyone, or nearly everyone, agrees with the assertion under review. Nobody ever said that everybody with a brain and mouth could validly challenge any scientific idea. Challenges must come from a source that knows the details of the assertion from many aspects and sees a flaw. Bubba in west Tennessee has no credibility when he says “Personally, I don’t think the earth revolves. I can’t feel it or see it. That’s just bulls**t.”  But, when Bubba says “Those tracks aren’t deer, they are hogs”, he may just be right. See? Nothing wrong with challenging a proposition. Just be sure the challenge comes from a source that should be credible in the area of the proposition.

Evolution and climate change are settled science. The “t’s” are crossed and the “I’s” are dotted. The challenges in Tennessee come from conservatives and religious people asserting opinions without the credentials to support them. When anybody starts an argument about science with “The Bible says - " the discussion stops there. There is NO SCIENCE in the Bible folks.

What this is in fact is another thinly veiled assault by the conservative right on science. And another shameless tactic of the conservative Republican machine to con ignorant people into voting for them. Again. And it will work. Again. The damage done by the evolution deniers is only to young minds, making them forever small and bigoted. The damage done by the climate change deniers are worse: We will all suffer and die due to their moronic lack of foresight.

Pity

Image: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-rzAZU63cLcFiouPbjhH7Bc8DqyM1dHeurJjwmnzDOjPha8_QmDqKEPGjzpYYPxCvjUJZAsAPk0VDzXZ53SLb7WCnLZv9veEAJiT5ilJoinnX7CWnf1NrJXGirPArhGEwdKFpFecUb3s/s400/we+can+quote+the+bible+too.jpg

The Knack – and How to Get It

When this great film came out in 1965 I was in the middle of another identity crisis and needed something to get me started on the road to social contact again. I watched Michael Crawford learn to overcome his shyness by using a sort of talisman: a pair of leather gloves. It worked for him and I thought “Hmmm. Maybe. Just maybe.”

Now, finding leather gloves in Miami isn’t that easy, especially in the summer. And I wanted black thin ones at that. I went on a quest and eventually found a pair of comfortable calf gloves with just the right look and fit. I put them on, hopped on my motorcycle and BOOM!!, a new man emerged. I found that I didn’t have to keep them on to have them work. Just show up wearing them, carefully remove them and put them in a pocket. Kind of like a blankie or binkie. I mean it really worked. Even I was amazed at me. Then one fateful day I lost them. Or more precisely couldn’t find them in time. And to my even greater amazement nothing changed. The inoculation held.

The next iconic crutch I thought I needed was a white lab coat. My first full time job as a professor included lectures in a very large lecture hall. And me without my gloves. So, I put on a white lab coat and marched into the hall, confident but scared. It went well. I thought the coat gave me a cachet I needed to be “the man”. Of course I was wrong again, and after a year or two forgot to wear the coat to class and was fully in control and respected.

So the point? I am guessing that generations of students that have been in my classes would never have guessed that underneath the calm and self-assured surface lurked an insecure soul. I don’t know how “normal” this kind of behavior is (my son-in-law could and hopefully will let me know) because I have never discussed it with anybody(except Sally of course). I suspect it is not unusual. And BTW, what prompted this is a Beatles song. I was listening to oldies the other day and the line “I get by with a little help from my friends” struck a chord. A thought came unbidden: “My friends in those days were a pair of gloves and a lab coat.” Of course I had some human friends too.

Sweat, Starve and Die with the rest of us

Be grateful you live in a country that still has a freedom of speech tradition. Nothing that “is” cannot be changed, and the slippery slope of security sometimes lets freedoms we love slip as well.

So what prompted this? A 17 year old Egyptian Christian boy has been sentenced to 3 years in jail for insulting Islam. Three years for expressing his opinions. In Egypt. He put a cartoon or two on his Facebook page that poked fun at Islam. Several Christians not related to him or his opinions were killed in the riots that followed, and many Christian homes were destroyed. These acts of terror were done in the name of peaceful Islam. Peaceful my ass.
I know, the Koran does not encourage this kind of outrage, but it doesn’t do much to stop it either. Many Muslims in the world are extremely intolerant of any religion or philosophy that is different from their own narrow constructs. Not all, but many. God help us all if the fundamentalists among them ever gain world power.
Ah, but the same is true of all fundamentalists, isn’t it? Give them power and the first thing they try to do is eliminate every idea that doesn’t fall in line with their beliefs. Look at the laws passed in several states to ban or severely limit a woman’s right to control her own reproductive processes. There is no natural law that requires a woman to have multiple births at the risk of her own life if she chooses not to. There is no natural law that guarantees the right to free speech either. The state laws that attempt to restrict personal actions are based on a fundamentalist idea that their reading of their holy book should be imposed on all of us.
I ask all my Christian friends to think a minute about the imposition of their belief on others. Think how you would feel if you had a fundamental Islamist government who arrested you for your beliefs, and killed you for publicly speaking out against their Prophet? Not so good huh? Well basically that is what you are trying to do here. Legislate your beliefs to control everybody.

Don’t like birth control? Then don’t use it. Don’t approve of abortions? Then don’t get one. Don’t approve of stem cell research? Then refuse the life-saving treatment that it provides. Don’t believe in man-induced climate change? Then sweat, starve and die with the rest of us.

1. http://news.yahoo.com/egypt-sends-christian-student-jail-insulting-islam-163455405.html
Image: http://atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/atlas_shrugs/images/danish_cartoon_protest.jpg

Climate scientists and smear campaigns

The article exclusive to CNN by Michael Mann details the more than decade-long assault on reputable scientists as they work their way through the research on climate change. The science is solid and scary: we are in for a very long rough ride. The klaxon has been sounded warning of the role human activity plays in the process.

Still there are people, mostly industrialists and politicians who insist that the problem isn’t real, or isn’t our fault (so don’t do anything about it) or is a “natural” event (so don’t do anything about it again). Anything but agreeing we have screwed up the world and now are poised to totally ruin it. And they have a receptive audience for their ravings. Not surprisingly the majority of this audience are Americans in the conservative wing of the Republican Party. Many of them also conservative religious followers. The logic and reasons for this are obvious but fodder for another essay later.

My point here is this: The people who expound on the falsity of the climate science will suffer just as much as the rest of us, and they, their children and grandchildren, along with the rest of us will be ruined by the coming avalanche of destructive global climate changes. By denying the process they are not gaining immunity to the outcome. On the contrary they are guaranteeing a swifter and deeper crisis.

I wish I would be around to see them wringing their hands and screaming “SOMEBODY DO SOMETHING!!

And Who Might That Be?

CNN citation: http://www.cnn.com/2012/03/28/opinion/mann-climate-change-email-attacks/index.html?hpt=hp_t2

Image: http://mariovittone.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/drowning.jpg

Hate and Hope

Somewhere along the way I think some of us may have missed the point. In the fuss over Obama’s mentioning that if he has a son he would look like Trayvon Martin a bigger truth was lost: to some bigot, every son looks like Trayvon. Not the color or the dress, but the stereotyped image of whomever they hate. Young white kids, yellow kids, red kids, brown kids, queer kids, different kids of all kinds; it doesn’t matter to the “eye of the beholder”. If you hate a group you hate their kids too. And kids make an easy target.
So don’t think your kids are immune because they aren’t exactly like Trayvon: they are not. All our kids are at risk in a society that tolerates the levels of hatred we seem to tolerate. At the core of hatred there is fear. And I must admit I fear for my kids every day. And I hate the people that hate them. Not enough to kill them, though. That probably distinguishes us from “them”. They hate and kill, we just hate and hope.
It may be that using the term “hate” is not quite what I mean. What I don’t mean is being consumed by hatred. What I do mean I don’t quite know. When I think of homophobes, anti-Semites and retardophobes (maybe just coined a new word, not PC but understandable) and all the other -phoebes in the world I feel pity for them because of the wonderful people they will never really know, and I feel sorry for the hatred that burns within them, and I feel afraid that they will strike an innocent. So maybe hatred isn’t the right word. Revulsion? Disgust? Maybe just plain hate would be easier. Another sad truth is that some of us also look like Zimmerman sometimes.
Image: http://newsone.com/files/2012/03/million-hoody-march-trayvon-martin.jpg

A Very Good News Day!!!

This has been a Very Good News Day. Earlier I got a link from Steve (http://www.earthzine.org/2012/03/22/utilizing-nasa-eos-to-identify-and-monitor-bioaerosols-dust-storms/  with the news of a great NASA project that he and Kevin completed. Lots of kudos from the pros in the field. And just now an email from Zarko telling me he has won a prestigious award at FSU, beating out 8500 other professional student competitors. He called it the "the top researcher and excellence award here at FSU."
So Three out of Three for a home run day.
Of course I am proud of these three grads, and proud to have been in some small way a part of their education and professional preparation. And I am proud of all the others out there, many on Facebook, who go to work every day and change the world. You know who you are.
But more than that I have a prediction: In the next several years or couple of decades you will hear of more world class accomplishments from the grads of the 80's, 90's and 2000's as they get their professional traction and rise ever higher. I can't wait. The jury is out on the students that didn't have Search, McWilliams and other dedicated teachers putting the wind in their sails (sometimes hot wind, I know). I hope they do as well as "our" grads. They have a tough race though.
Am I proud or what?And humbled as well. You see, these three have gone way farther and achieved way more already than I have. It is the old "help them over the fence, but never climb it yourself" situation. So fly, guys, and enjoy the ride. Us old voyeurs will be right up there with you in spirit.

Image: http://besomebodyblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/Graduation-is-just-the-beginning.jpg

Where it the other Outrage?

Afghanistan politicians outraged by the moving of a presumptive killer of 16 being  moved out or the country. Muslims around the world, interestingly not here at home, are outraged at the killing of the 16 innocents. So am I. But you kknowwhat? Shit happens.

What I want to know is this: where is the Muslim outrage at Bashar Assad killing more than 8000, read that EIGHT THOUSAND innocent men women and children is Syria. All or nearly all Muslims. No outrage that I can find. And what about all the Korans that are blown up and burned in the homes shelled by the Syrian tanks? Outrage? Naw.
So what we have here is situational outrage. As long a Muslim is killing Muslims or Christians or anyone else, no outrage. But let one soldier kill one Afghani or Iraqi or any other Muslim, or accidently profane a holy book and they go berserk. Killing innocents, their own as well as ours. So it seems that the United States doesn’t hold the exclusive on Morons. We have ours (birthers or Obama causes gas prices) and they have theirs.

It is really time for the world to come together to stop the merciless killing in Syria, and the people that need to step up the the plate are the Muslim countries of the Middle East. Not us. Them.

Image: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg25bKKlWbODOq2tEI-Xk6AOYUry7ALnqisxnsFDJMkkXWfQUak6qd7y-PoVqRoWEgJIXoOwyax7l8yxdn621ShQQVSnBHH0OIj7yqutaX-M5Yex4pW004AKw2xJUB8nm6ZYwvmlZ3rNZUK/s400/head+in+the+sand.gif