Forget Slavery: Even Too Uncle Tom for Conservatives?

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Even a few white conservative radio hosts became uncomfortable and pushed back against my saying that slavery happened a ga-zillion years ago and it is time for black America to get over it. Apparently, they considered such a statement coming from a black person too Uncle Tom-ish for even them. Their retort is “Surely, you must admit that being African American in America is challenging.”When my reply is, “No, it is not.” their reply is, “Thanks for coming on the show Lloyd. And we’ll be right back.”

I am in my sixties and America has come a very long way since my youth. Mary, my beautiful awesome white wife of 38 years and I began dating over 40 years ago. We caught heck from both sides; severe push back from our families. We were chased in our car by a car load of angry white boys. On another occasion, we were waiting at a traffic light when a white man got out of his car, cursed at us and spat on our car. A white landlord revealed to me that her black maid advised her not to rent to us because any black man who dates a white woman is no good.

Then, there was the time at a family restaurant, a white man approached our table and smashed a beer bottle on my forehead and fled the restaurant. I was not severely injured and he was later apprehended. Back in those days, being black in America had its challenges.

Today, in terms of living a happy and fulfilled life; achieving one’s American dream, racism is not serious enough to block anyone. As a matter of fact, America is the greatest land of opportunity on the planet. I am extremely grateful to God for blessing me to be born an American. Cut the victim crap and go for your dreams.

Is racism alive and well in America? Absolutely, on both sides. People have a variety of prejudices. Is racial prejudice in America prevalent enough to stop anyone from achieving? No.

The Bible says “As a man thinks in his heart, so is he.” Wow, what a powerful truth, able to empower or destroy you. If you see yourself as a victim, you are. But, if you see yourself powerful and free, you are.

Can someone please explain to me how viewing themselves as victims of slavery empowers black Americans today? It does not, quite the opposite. Liberals love to lay the serious economic and moral problems devastating the black community at the feet of white America and America’s sin of slavery. This mindset weakens black America because it places their salvation in the hands of someone other than themselves; contingent on white behavior and intervention. Are we slaves on a national plantation waiting for our masters to better manage our lives?

A'Lelia_Walker

A’Lelia Walker, millionaire black businesswoman.

Throughout American history there are countless inspiring tales of blacks using their will to succeed. Born in 1885, A’Lelia Walker was a black businesswoman. She was the first self made female millionaire in the United States and also one of the first black millionaires.

Imagine Miss Walker’s life had she obsessed about slavery and reparations.

My black college buddy Joe Ford was a wonderful role model; focus and determination. Joe had every excuse to fail. He lived in a Baltimore ghetto, raised by his grandmother and spent a year in jail for stealing.

A black tech school teacher taught Joe how to earn a living painting signs. Joe and I were students at the Maryland Institute College of Art. It was the 70s. Black power was the rage. All of our black college friends where heavily involved in the movement, successfully pressuring the college to allow the Black Panthers to rally on campus. Joe did not have time for any of that stuff.

No matter how hard our black associates tried to convince Joe that whitey had stacked the deck against him, Joe refused to embrace their hopeless self defeating victim mindset. He worked and studied hard. After graduating college, Joe drove a school bus, putting himself through grad school at Cranbrook.

Joe Ford was the first black art director hired at W.B. Doner Advertising Agency in Baltimore. I was blown away. I do not know if Affirmative Action got Joe in the door. I do know that Joe Ford was and still is reliable, responsible, thorough, talented and professional.

As a Christian, I believe my success or failure is totally in the hands of God and me. This mindset is empowering. Thus, I refuse to embrace a self sabotaging victim mindset. I feel a bit resentful when white conservatives say while they appreciate my independence and self reliance, it is challenging to be black in America. First of all, how would they know? And secondly, their assumption has the distinct foul odor of condescension.

The most powerful thing advocates for black America can do to help them achieve their American dream is to stop reenforcing a victim self image; forget reparations and blaming others.

I am delighted to report that over the years, blacks have branched out to become successful in every area of the American experience.

A victim mindset keeps many black Americans down, dependent and enslaved to government. Advocates for blacks must push self-reliance, education, hard work and responsible choices.

These conservative principles build real self esteem, not living in the ancient past whining about slavery and demanding handouts.

Florida’s Answer to Common Core Test Cheating in Miami-Dade?

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By the Florida Department of Education’s Office of Inspector General and the Miami-Dade Office of Inspector General’s refusal to investigate possible and suspected test cheating at Crestview Elementary School in the Miami-Dade School District, they may have given the citizens and taxpayers of Florida a glimpse into the strategy to handle the onslaught of test cheating due to transpire with the new Florida Standards Assessments (Common Core): Pass the buck, skip any Office of Inspector General, and let the ultimate arbitrator be a department(s) of the offending school district.

A reasonable person may very well assume that as the State and Miami-Dade County Public Schools were caught off guard by the test cheating scandal of Adobegate at Miami Norland Senior High School that they colluded to create this tactical response of passing the buck and delay and deny and that this is their response and the lesson they learned from Adobegate.

Why can’t their response be to acknowledge the problem, deal with the perpetrators in an appropriate manner, and ensure that this problem never arises again?

The complex answer seems to be, given the State’s and M-DCPS response to Adobegate, that cheating is quietly condoned as the solution to the overwhelming burdens and unrealistic expectations posed by Florida’s version of the Common Core and its impact on teacher evaluations, contractual status, and salary.

The FLDOE took no action as of yet against the individuals involved in Adobegate or Miami Norland Senior High School, and M-DCPS in a bizarre twist fired one of the accused cheaters, Mr. Emmanuel Fleurantin, and reinstated the other, Mrs. Brenda Muchnick, at Norland last January.

When one reads that document and theDepartment of Administrative Hearings brief, issued by the School Board Attorney on January 8, 2014, justifying Mr. Fleurantin’s termination, one can reasonably conclude that Mrs. Muchnick is equally culpable and a reasonable person would think her employment was up for termination as well.

A reasonable person may well conclude that the disparity in punishment between Mr. Fleurantin and Mrs. Muchnick suggests a cover-up; the illegal and retaliatory actions taken against me are meant to keep Miami-Dade and Florida teachers quiet and to keep the truth from coming out and to prevent exposing other like improprieties throughout M-DCPS and the State as they arise in the future.

Furthermore, the inaction of federal and state officials to investigate encourages such misdeeds and criminal behavior and shortchanges teachers, students, and the general public alike.

On the heels of Adobegate, Miami Norland Senior High School led the state in FCAT invalidations, 13 total, the following school year (2012-2013).

Given Adobegate in 2012 and leading the State of Florida in FCAT invalidations in 2013, a fair-minded person may well conclude that the only thing the students at Norland are learning are how to bilk the Federal and State governments out of test performance incentive funds.

Florida school districts and the FLDOE do not want to see the disastrous results that befell New York State and Kentucky.

After Mr. Guthrie disclosed information to me about suspected test cheating at Crestview Elementary, I forwarded those concerns to Education Commissioner Pam Stewart later that evening.

After further correspondence with an employee of the FLDOE OIG, I got the following response: “Thank you Mr. Colestock.  Our office will close this correspondence as information only.  Should you have any further questions, please contact our office.”

She also directed me to disclose these concerns to M-DCPS, which I did as I submitted and official complaint to the Superintendent.

Apparently, the school district is not interested as I was emailed a memo that the Miami-Dade Office of Inspector General declined to take action and deferred investigation and handling to the District’s Office of Professional Standards and the Office of Assessment and Program Evaluation.

Both entities report to Enid Weisman, the Chief Capital Human Officer for M-DCPS, who is responsible for disciplinary practices in Miami-Dade County Public Schools.

She led the effort to remove me from Norland; fired Mr. Fleurantin while reinstating Mrs. Muchnick at Norland though they both were charged by M-DCPS with the same offenses word for word

The principal of Crestview Elementary, Mrs. Sabrina Montilla, was only one of a handful of principals that gave a campaign contribution (page 6) to Mrs. Weisman’s mayoral campaign.

A reasonable person may ask if giving Mrs. Weisman a campaign contribution negates impartiality of any District-led investigation and gives her an unfair advantage and indicate that the foxes are investigating the incident at the hen house.

The State defers to the District; the OIG says no dice; and now we expect the principals and District administrators to police themselves.

At a minimum, the Miami-Dade OIG should undertake the investigation of Crestview akin to the thorough investigation it undertook at Norland; however, given the District response and a lack of

impartiality, the FLDOE should conduct an exhaustive investigation and uncover the truth.

As it currently stands, the Florida taxpayer has to subsidize test cheaters ($250,000 for Norland’s cheating; $45,000 for possible Crestview cheating) and unresponsive Offices of Inspector Generals at the state and school district level.

It should be an either or proposition in favor of the latter and not the former.

However, if the FLDOE and school districts turn a blind eye to test cheating and do nothing, state leaders should assist the taxpayer and shutter the offices of FLDOE and school district OIGs and/or shift that funding to teacher salaries and/or school libraries.

Given the horrid track record of Common Core exams across the country and past instances of cheating in Miami-Dade County, the State of Florida needs to have an ethical and a responsible approach to future instances of test cheating as it surely will arise in the near future as it has in Georgia, Texas, California, and recently in Pennsylvania.

Moreover, Florida politicians need to have the courage and morals to act accordingly, like those in the aforementioned states, especially Georgia, and put the perpetrators of test cheating where they belong – in prison.

Men of Ideals 

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“You Jews are always complaining of your own suffering, but you get fat off the poor, cheat the simple, exploit the virgin, pollute where you’ve exploited – America is one Big Jew! We are soldiers fighting a war. We are not criminals and we are not vandals but men of ideals.”

Such are the words spoken by a Muslim-Palestinian terrorist in The Death of Klinghoffer, an American opera based on the 1985 hijacking of the passenger liner, Achille Lauro, by the Palestine Liberation Front, and their murder of a wheelchair-bound, stroke victim – the Jewish-American passenger Leon Klinghoffer, on holiday with his wife and daughters.  However, the words came from the mind of librettist Alice Goodman, an anti-Semitic, Jewish apostate-turned-Anglican priest, who found an “artistic” channel for her own animus, hatreds and biases.

Commissioned by five American and European opera companies and the Brooklyn Academy of Music, the composers have turned a heartbreaking event into musical entertainment.  The story is of a malevolent crime of Islamic jihad (a crusade to kill for conquest), presented with consideration for the villains and indifference to the innocent victim.  There is something deeply perverse – nay, depraved – in producing this for showbiz, as I see our once-great civilization sinking into the depths of a fascistic Islamic evil.

It is said that there can only be peace when the Muslims stop revering death the way Jews revere life.  Islam’s militaristic, expansionist, religious, oppressive ideology revolves around subjugation, mutilation, and death – all that is antithetical to our Western civilization.  As a nation we debate about length of prison terms, the death penalty, humaneness for animals, yet there are some will create, perform, and view a callous, political murder as “theater,” as well as provide a venue for slowly Islamizing the American psyche.

Surely, the Muslim Brotherhood would agree with Goodman, composer John Adams, theater director Peter Sellars, and general manager Peter Gelb, that this jihadist show be produced despite protests.  They prefer that we Americans remain silent about the Holocaust; Mohammed’s slaughter of Jews in Mecca and Medina; attacks against Christians in Africa, Indonesia and Europe; Spain’s “Golden Era” of humiliation and punishment; to the constant attacks and massacres of Jews long before the Jewish state became an alibi.  We must remain silent to protect the guilty as they continue to terrorize, spill blood and display severed heads – and whitewash their psychosis.

Have the Jews always complained of their suffering?  They have done more than just complain!  They have built memorials and museums so that others may learn the nature of evil through history rather than through personal experience.

However, when the Palestinians complain to the United Nations of a fictitious apartheid and a fabricated disproportionate war, they reap millions of dollars in benefits – more than enough to sustain their victimhood status and generous proceeds for generations to come.

While the Jews endured and remembered, they sought no revenge but used their energy to build a nation out of desert and malarial swamps – to a state of leadership in technological advancements in science, medicine, publishing, music and art, and more, in 66 brief years – the same number of years it took the Palestinians to create a culture of hate and death, where they abuse their children so that, in turn, they will victimize others.

The opera takes the position of the Palestinians against Israel, but the rhetoric quickly turns to hate of all Jews – and Americans.  Do the Jews get fat off the poor and cheat the simple?  As the labor of Americans – and Jews, specifically – improve their country and raise the standard of living for all citizens, they are among the most generous in the world (tzedakah) – their names noted for endowments to science, medicine and the arts.  The Jewish two percent of the American population is responsible for 30 percent of America’s most generous donors!  Israelis and Americans are among the first responders to disasters around the world, and Israel’s hospitals are renowned for their advanced medical treatment of all, including Palestinians.

On the other hand, Islam’s Five Pillars of Faith include alms-giving (zakat), the obligatory charity based on accumulated wealth, which is meant to ease the economic hardship for other Muslims and to eliminate inequality for followers of Islam only.  “It is not permissible to give Zakat to a non-Muslim…” (Umdat al-Salik, h8.24); neither do they provide help to other countries.  Zakat must be given to Jihad.

Goodman’s accusation of “exploit the virgin” is not merely a vicious lie, but pure projectionism, as no children suffer as much as those under Islam. Despite their perpetual state of threats of war – or perhaps because of it – Israelis are among the happiest nations in the world.  They work to improve their own lives, and the government provides superior defense, protection and shelters for their citizenry.  Additionally, ten years ago, Israel began integrating disabled youth into the Israel Defense Forces  (IDF), allowing these children to overcome their limitations and help prepare them for independent life in Israeli society, the community and the workforce – while they and their parents reap the rewards of joy and pride in accomplishment.

By contrast, under Islam, young girls undergo female genital mutilation (not a safe surgical procedure, but mutilation).  In war, Islamic combatants use children as human shields to increase their death toll to gain sympathy from the United Nations. Child labor was used to construct the underground terrorist tunnels, which also increased the death toll, and children are taught at a very young age to behead a kafir (infidel).  Further, throughout the Islamic world, since the days of Mohammed, they continue the practice of kidnapping girls and boy and raping and selling them into sexual slavery. Daughters may suffer honor killings by their own parents, or endure servile marriages.  All children, and particularly the vulnerable disabled, are intimidated into suicide bombings; their parents are rewarded with $2,500 per martyred offspring.

Finally, the operatic rant claims the terrorists to be neither criminals nor vandals, but men of “ideals.” Although undefined, the ideals are a worldwide caliphate, a “one-world order,” where the same rules of Sharia apply to all.  Therefore, Judaism, Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism, and all other religions must be obliterated and their adherents converted to Islam or killed.  Once converted, women are relegated to a status inferior to men or be beaten or killed.  If a child “dishonors” a parent, the child may be killed. If a Muslim converts out of Islam, the apostate must be killed.  If a male or female is accused of adultery, he may be killed and she stoned to death.  Antisemitism is inherent in Sharia, a practice based on Mohammed’s genocidal behavior when he eradicated the entire Jewish population of the Arabian Peninsula.  Jihad is warfare to spread Islam – or kill those who will not submit to the “religion of peace.”

“We are soldiers fighting a war,” says Goodman (a misaptonym, at best) through the assassin. She gets it. She understands that these words and the entire opera may incite riots in the streets to burn synagogues or attack and kill Jews.  It is not her concern that this “art form” might encourage the Muslim Student Unions to increase their attacks on Jewish students on campuses. Her use of inflammatory words of “suffering,” “cheating,” and “exploitation” have a purpose, and she, Adams, Sellars, and Gelb, agree on the purpose.  Immersed in their hostility toward religion, Americanism, and our Constitution, they have found a way to exalt in our destruction.

Heaven help us.

A Different Opinion on Smart Meter “Phobia”

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Recently someone sent me James Tracy’s blog on an editorial written by the Palm Beach Post “Smart Media Phobia Sad, But Don’t Cut Power” regarding FP&L’s smart meters. The Palm Beach Post circulation covers the area for which FP&L maintains its headquarters. Essentially the editors feel that the Internet is a blessing and a curse because people, other than them, don’t know how to interpret data and they are reading things other than the mainstream media and are being “misinformed”. We apparently repeat these misunderstandings until they sound like “fact”.

The editorial goes on to repeat industry propaganda about how one can be continually exposed to smart meters for 375 years and that would equate to a 15-minute cell phone call. Dr. Tracy, in his blog post, details all the science he has previously provided FP&L that refutes such nonsense. I decided to call out the Palm Beach Post on other false information in their Op-Ed. Most likely they won’t print it, but luckily we have alternative media to by-pass their censorship power.

My response sent to the Palm Beach Post editorial was as follows.

Editors of the Palm Beach Post:

I am the lead petitioner in the action against the Florida Power & Light (FP&L) smart meter opt out fees currently before the Florida Public Service Commission (FPSC). I read your editorial published September 4, 2014 and shook my head, as it is nothing but another corporate propaganda piece that spreads misinformation.

First, I take exception to the insinuation that I suffer from “lack of training to parse data”. I am a CPA and trained auditor. I know how to research, source and interpret data. I also have a background in the regulatory process having worked 11 years for a telephone company. I have handled complicated transactions such as the AT&T divestiture to the planning and implementation of Sarbanes – Oxley regulations for a multi-billion dollar company. I have spent about 10 hours per day, 5 days a week for two years reading every governmental and industry report on the smart grid and smart meters. My computer is now overloaded with downloads.

Second, it is not a fact that “the vast majority of FP&L’s approximately 4.6 million customers have “adopted the new technology without a second thought”. The truth is the vast majorities don’t even know they have a smart meter or what it does differently. But what is true is that the claims of the smart meter giving people information to help manage their energy are a lie, as the current information provided to customers is useless. This can be supported by FP&L’s disclosure that the vast majority of customers have yet to even access their silly Energy Dashboard. But I am sure the editors of this paper do so every day, correct?

Third, the biggest lie in your is this statement “The facts are clear: Smart meters lower everyone’s utility bills by reducing the need for trucks, fuel, and meter readers. They reduce the length and extent of power outages. They pose no credible threat to health.”

Smart meters do not reduce the length and extent of power outages – smart technologies (sensors on equipment like transformers and substations and smart switches on feeders) do provide this benefit.

Regarding your statements of “credible threat to health”, where have we heard that phrase before? Ah, yes, the tobacco industry used that phrase for decades quite successfully, didn’t they? Now let’s look at the credibility of FP&L’s lead consultant on smart meter health, Dr. Peter Valberg. He claims that there is no “credible” science that shows RF harm. Your readers should know that he also testified on behalf of Phillip Morris in their light cigarettes deceptive marketing case. His testimony essentially stated that light cigarettes were just not being smoked properly, and also that the tobacco studies performed by Philip Morris were consistent” with what was known to the outside scientific community. No deception, right? How “credible” is this guy? Your readers can decide but they should also do an internet search on the BioInitiative Report before they make their decision.

But most importantly, smart meters have not lowered your bills – not one penny – they have actually increased them. Let me count the ways:

First, the old meters had a net book value (NBV) of $75 million and an estimated useful life of approximately 36 years. FP&L wrote off $101 million (includes cost of removal) when they threw the perfectly operational old meters in the garbage. The annual depreciation charges for these meters were around $7 million per year ($249 Million Gross value/36 yrs). The approximate annual return on investment FP&L received on the NBV of $75 million, using 9.48% pre-tax cost of capital was $7 million.

Contrast that to now. The smart meter project capital is $645 million with an estimated useful life of 20 years (and if you believe the 20 yr life, I have a bridge in Brooklyn I can sell you). This equates to depreciation charges of about $32 million per year ($645M/20yrs). The return on investment FP&L will earn on this new smart meter capital will be about $61 million per year ($645M at 9.48%), decreasing by about $3 million each year to reflect the lower NBV from depreciation.

Second, FP&L current rates are based on a 2013 test year and the 2012 rate case settlement agreement keeps the rates the same until at least 2017. The 2013 test year reflects an overall net Operations & Maintenance (O&M) cost of $3.4 million for the smart meter project. (Funny, in 2009 they estimated that the year 2013 would produce a net O&M savings of $20 million. I guess the project is overrunning its budget.) FP&L recently testified that once the project was completed in 2013 there would be about $40 million annual net savings in O&M.

When rate case settlements are made they are made for a period of time. Each party looks at that period of time to determine if anything needs to be considered and factored in before the final settlement is agreed to and finalized. FP&L raised its hand high, saying, look over here, I have new plants coming on line in these outer years and we need to raise rates to recover our investment and such was granted. But did FP&L raise their hand or did the FPSC insist that the smart meter savings of $40 million, which would start to be realized during that period, also be accounted for? No. FP&L was not required to reduce the rates in the outer years to reflect the savings.

Third, lets not forget to count all the new costs that are being incurred that did not exist with those old analog meters. Now you have communication costs to send the data wirelessly back to FP&L, cyber-security costs, software license and maintenance fees, data storage costs, big data consultants, settlements on fires and property damage, more equipment to be damaged in storms and the list goes on.

So Palm Beach Editorial Board, please disclose to your readers your facts to support your claim that smart meters have lowered our utility bills. The miscellaneous tariffs for all these activities – service connects/disconnects, reconnects for non-payment – are EXACTLY the same as they were when FP&L didn’t have smart meters. FP&L’s 2013 test year also included significant manual meter-reading costs as they still had over 800 thousand meters left to install in their assumptions and those costs are still baked into our current rates.

Your readers can decide for themselves, if FP&L, who made NO disclosure in their rate case settlement agreement that they planned to file these smart meter opt out tariffs (despite smart meters being an issue in the rate case), is deserving of an additional $2 million a year in revenue from these customers when they are keeping the $40 million in savings for three years and overcharging smart meter customers for truck rolls they are no longer performing. Is FP&L violating the rate case settlement agreement by trying to change rates for services already provided at the date of that agreement?

From my vantage point – if they are deserving of the $2 million in additional revenue because the project is over and we need to recognize a new ‘cost of service” – then it is only fair to re-price all activities affected by this fact and reduce the rates for all customers by $40-45 million.

There is no financial payback for me as I have sunk tens of thousand of dollars into this effort and countless unpaid hours of time. I do so for two reasons – 1) the many “Friedman’s out there who have no voice and are being harmed by this product and 2) to expose the illegal coordination and fraud/deception that took place between FP&L and FPSC as it pertains to this project.

The documented audit trail of deception is as long as the distance from my house in Venice to Tallahassee. Quite frankly, the conduct of our FPSC that I discovered on this journey is more disturbing than FP&L’s. I will take that item up with our state legislators when they return to Tallahassee for the next session.

Obama: Amnesty ‘the right thing for the country’?

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I thought they were hiding in the shadows.

In an interview with NBC reporter Chuck Todd, President Obama stated his immigration decision (Amnesty) will be made affecting millions of illegal aliens following the 2014 elections is THE RIGHT THING FOR THE COUNTRY! 

Which country is he talking about; one where the poverty level illegal aliens are encouraged by their government to leave to alleviate their problems in a banana republic because he certainly cannot mean the United States and its citizens.

If he does mean the United States then he has not a clue as to the damage illegal aliens and amnesties have caused here with them occupying nearly one third of all prison cells, driving down American worker wages, overcrowding our schools and sucking on the government welfare teat.

How about a little history lesson.

The first amnesty ever was promised to be the only amnesty and grant green cards to less than one million seasonal farm workers that morphed into a total of approximately 5 million granted legal status between 1986 and 2000 through a total of 7 amnesties or amnesty adjustments. So less than one million turned into five million while a one time ever amnesty deal grew to a total of seven.Of the five million granted green cards only two million ever became naturalized citizens! Two other promises made in 1986 and never kept was to mandate all workers be legal workers and to secure the border.

The result today is chaos and anarchy with untold millions of illegal aliens fueled by republicans working to fulfill employers wants for cheap labor, American workers and American society be damned, while the Democrats push for ever more illegal aliens to fulfill their dreams of a European style welfare socialist state.

If one of you in Washington including Obama can explain how another unconstitutional Executive Amnesty Order encouraged on by anti American open borders groups and some in Congress can be construed in any to be the right thing for the country let’s hear it.

When I speak of the right thing for the country I am referring to the citizens of the United States of America.

What is High Stakes Testing – and Why Hasn’t it Worked?

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There seems to be a lot of confusion about just what we mean by “high stakes” testing.  Many people think it’s the same as the tests we used to take…like final exams.  In the “old days” when schools worked, certified teachers taught in accredited schools and the teachers gave final exams and evaluated the body of student work to produce a grade which was entered in the report card.  The accumulated student portfolio was used along with one national test like the SAT or ACT to enter college.  But today, it is a completely different story.

“In general, “high stakes” means that test scores are used to determine punishments (such as sanctions, penalties, funding reductions, negative publicity), accolades (awards, public celebration, positive publicity), advancement (grade promotion or graduation for students), or compensation (salary increases or bonuses for administrators and teachers).

We are rewarding and punishing schools, districts, teachers and students based on outside test results. “You get what you reward” is an oft heard phrase.

It makes sense that accountability works, but only within the scope of attainable expectations.  For instance, I can reward someone 5’ tall millions of dollars to beat a 7’ tall NBA player at basketball and it is nearly impossible for him to attain that goal no matter how hard he tries.   I can punish him when he fails, and there is no positive result from either to the 5’ tall player.  There would be an enormous negative effect, deflating the ego of the 5’ player and discouraging them from trying at all.

What have we done to our kids to get better scores?  We have eliminated electives to focus on the basics.  We have many times gone so far as to eliminate recess in elementary grades to accommodate more testing.  We have spent 40% and more of class time testing and reduced learning time.  We are reducing time spent on classics and classical education to make them focus on new math and upside down history where America is the imperialist enemy.

Teachers are being paid bonuses or fired based on test results of their students.  Here again, they do not necessarily control the results which determine their future.   They don’t choose the curriculum.  They don’t choose or create the tests.

Study after study shows that parental involvement is the key, and that those from single parent homes or low socioeconomic levels generally do not respond as well in school.  Many areas have large numbers of student who do not even speak English as they begin school.

Teachers today are limited in controlling their classroom discipline or curriculum.  They are now “paced” and unable to slow down or speed up to match the learning levels of students under Common Core guidelines.  Scripted lessons reduce their ability to teach and inspire students at the individual level.

Under current convoluted “VAM” scoring, teachers learn their fate many months after school ends and often they are scored on students they never even taught.  No wonder they are stressed and pass this along to their students.  They do endless pretests and focus solely on teaching to the test which will influence their future.

Schools and school districts are rewarded and punished financially based on student scores as well.  The district brings pressure to the Principals who bring pressure to the teachers who bring pressure to the students.  All are stressed out to the point they are SICK of school, literally and figuratively.

But Incentives, both positive and negative, can only produce limited variations in performance.  It is the system that produces greater change. As a Silicon Valley entrepreneur, we used statistical quality control to improve our results by examining the process. One major concept was:

Rewards and punishments (accountability) only work when people are measured on the elements they can control.

Let’s look at the empirical results of the increase in accountability standards since the advent of the USDOE:

doedataonfunding

Chart courtesy of Cato Institute. For a larger view click on the image.

What this frenzied focus on testing has done is escalated costs dramatically while results have not improved.

Testing company rewards must be considered as well.  They are rewarded when government doesn’t trust teachers and schools and uses tests that are mostly duplicates of tests already administered by the districts.  They are rewarded when children fail.  Retests cost money, too.   Pearson PLC, Bill Gates, Jeb Bush and others promoting Common Core are the selfsame recipients of the billions of dollars in their own “High Stakes” game of political control.

In summary, what we have done is decreased learning time, added layer upon layer of complexity and bureaucracy, tied the classroom teachers’ hands, and paid billions to political cronies to test our kids to death and drive out the love for learning in our schools.  The testing machine has crushed potential and subverted our schools to become propaganda delivery systems.

Imagine if we returned to a time when certified teachers were focused on unleashing the highest potential in each individual child to be whatever they aspire to be?

RELATED ARTICLE: Florida Teacher takes a stand, refuses to give standardized test

This Picture Says It All — Hey Al Gore you can take your Hockey and Stick-it

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Sorry Al, but this pictures says it all, well, most of it… anyway.

The U.S. Historical Climate Network, administered by NOAA, produced the below chart. You no doubt recognize there’s been a downward trend in hot days (90 degrees F or more) since the 1930’s.

90degfreq

For a larger view click on the chart.

And, that previous smaller percentage of 90 degree days in the early 1990’s – that was the aftermath of Mt. Pinatubo’s eruption. Volcanic sulfate crystals in the stratosphere reduce incoming sunlight. Wish Mr. Obama would do something to stop those volcanic eruptions.

You’ll also notice the decline in hot days from 1940 through the late 1970’s. Remember the 1974 magazine articles (Newsweek, TIME) about the coming Ice Age?

I realize I’ve shot myself in the foot here. What can I offer in the next column that’s any more convincing? More words?

Dr. Swier does a lot to turn my stuff into something readable. I thought I’d help the poor guy out by offering a column that’s mostly a picture. After all, since a picture is worth a thousand words, there’s less work to clean up Savage’s stuff.

Hat tip to Stephen Goddard.

RELATED ARTICLE: There Are Now 52 Explanations For The Pause In Global Warming

EDITORS NOTE: The featured image is courtesy of Mashable.com.

Obama and Arabs Find a Common Enemy — the Islamic State

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For a larger view click on the map.

Given all the mutations that the Middle East has gone through thanks to the emergence of al Qaeda during the resistance to the Soviet takeover of Afghanistan, watching what is occurring now with an even more fanatical group calling itself the Islamic State (ISIS) and proclaiming itself the new caliphate has proven even more lethal and more feared.

Royal Saudi Air Force

The closest thing to a caliphate has been the assertion of al Saud, the royal family that runs Saudi Arabia who has long claimed to be the protector of Islam’s two most holy sites, Mecca and Medina, and of the true form of its expression, the strict Wahhabi interpretation. Were it not for its oil, the royals would have had to live off the earnings from the hajj, the visit to Mecca that all Muslims are required to make at least once in their lifetime.
The Saudis, despite having at least 250 U.S. and British advanced fighter aircraft, have typically avoided engaging in combat; the type that will be required to destroy ISIS. Instead, it gave $100 million to the United Nations Counter-Terrorism Center, but the latest news is that al Qaeda linked Syrian rebels from the Nusra Front battled U.N. military peacekeepers encamped on the Golan Heights on August 30, forcing some to escape to Israel. The UN’s peacekeeping role and its ability to deter wars are hardly notable.

Oil made the Middle East’s despots and monarchs wealthy, but former despots have been removed in Egypt, Libya, and Tunisia, while Syria’s has been engaged in what started as a civil war and became a magnet for the group that broke away from al Qaeda, espousing an even more fanatical interpretation of Islam.

Now Middle Eastern nations that have been enemies, like Saudi Arabia and Iran—one Arab, the other Persian, one Sunni, the other Shiite—have found themselves equally threatened.

This common enemy has caused other relationships to alter. Turkey which has been in conflict with the Kurds remained silent when Syrian Kurdish militias helped rescue the Yazidis who were driven from their homes by ISIS. Al Qaeda’s Syrian component, the Nustra Front, now finds itself at war with ISIS.

Even the Egyptians found themselves on the same side of the Israeli battle with Hamas, destroying many of the tunnels built from their nation into Gaza. They now both share a distrust of the United States.

Indeed, the United States is virtually without any friends left in the Middle East, at least at the level that previously existed. This is entirely the result of Barack Obama’s astonishing talent for picking the wrong side in events there.

His criticism of Israel defending itself against thousands of rockets from Hamas in Gaza has eroded what friendship existed after his criticism of its settlements and rude treatment of its Prime Minister. The Egyptians were offended by his support for the Muslim Brotherhood that took over after Mubarak was deposed. The Brotherhood was so dictatorial and so awful a military coup was required to remove its leader and it is now banned in Egypt.

Iraq is responsible for its own problems, having put a Shiite fanatic in charge as its prime minister along with its refusal to permit a contingent of American troops to remain. Now, unless the new prime minister—the choice of both Saudi Arabia and Iran—can unify what’s left of its government and work with the U.S. to destroy the Islamic State, Iraq could cease to exist along with Syria.

Other players in the region include the Gulf States of Qatar, a supporter of ISIS; Bahrain, and the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, and Oman. The UAE recently joined with Egypt to conduct air strikes in Libya on armed Islamic terrorist groups there. Reports of the attacks were sketchy at best. Libya has been in turmoil since Muammar Gadhafi, its former dictator, was deposed in 2011.

The Islamic State has been able to do what no previous entity ever had. It has united the many different nations in the Middle East, each of which is responding in what it deems its own best interest while studiously trying to avoid direct military engagement.

Persian Iran, however, has put troops into Iraq to fight it.  At some point other Arab states will have to, but Saudi Arabia and all the others, Europe included, continue to wait for the United States to lead.

Barack Obama is the most confrontation-adverse President to have ever held the office and the only one who has ever had warm feelings for Islam. It took him eight days and three tries to actually say he wanted to “destroy” ISIS.

Obama must surely be under intense pressure because he has been increasing the bombings and the number of troops on the ground in Iraq.

What Obama tells the nation regarding plans to destroy the Islamic State is likely to fall far short of anything that will achieve that goal. This is why he is already talking about how long it will take. This is a job he wants to leave to the next President.

© Alan Caruba, 2014

Republican Tim Scott Doesn’t Run from his Blackness

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In the past, I have been extremely critical of so-called Black Republicans, as well as so-called Black conservatives – and that’s not going to change. Too often they feel the need to check their Blackness at the door under the perverted guise of currying favor with Whites within the party.

These are the type of Blacks that many in the party want to showcase. Getting on FOX News Channel seems to be their ultimate prize of validation. Most of these Blacks have no relationship with our community; and come across as so extreme that no one takes them seriously, other than FOX. Yet, many of these Blacks have become the public face of Black Republicans.

But South Carolina senator, Tim Scott, is everything a true Black Republican could and should be. He is Black and proud of it. His Blackness is what he is; his values are who he is.

South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, an Indian-American, appointed Scott to fill the U.S. Senate seat that was vacated by Jim DeMint in 2013, making him the first Black senator from South Carolina and the first from the South since 1881; Republican Blanche Kelso Bruce of Mississippi had been the last.

Prior to his appointment to the Senate, Scott was elected in November 2010 to represent South Carolina’s 1st congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives, the first Black Republican from the state since George W. Murray in 1897. Scott has also served in the South Carolina General Assembly (2009-2011) and on the Charleston County Council from 1996-2008. He and Corey Booker (D-N.J.) are the only two Blacks serving in the U.S. Senate.

To his credit, Scott has not bought into the ridiculous notion that you can’t be Black and Republican, too. I have never heard him make the asinine statement that “I am not a Black senator, I am a senator who happens to be Black,” as though he was just walking down the street and “Blackness” suddenly jumped all over him.

He realizes, like we all should, that his Blackness doesn’t define who he is, but rather the values and the choices he makes for his life. Unlike many Blacks in the past, he has willingly embraced the opportunities to speak to Black audiences anytime the national party has asked him.

Scott fully embraces opportunities presented by the national party to expand the base of the party; while being very cognizant that his first obligation is to the people of South Carolina. They are not mutually exclusive goals.

Scott has made it a point to visit all eight Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) in his state. He actively embraces and seeks opportunities to meet and engage with Black voters of South Carolina whether they vote for him or not.

Several times a year he goes undercover and works low-wage jobs so he can learn what his average constituents go through. He does all this with no media fanfare or staff. Here is how the Washington Post reported on one such encounter, “James Copeland, who recently worked alongside Scott at a Goodwill store in Greenville, S.C. When Copeland – an African-American – was told of Scott’s identity, he responded positively. Oh, wow, I thought he was just some guy off the street. He was really speaking on my level. I felt like I can relate to him. I’d vote for him. Absolutely.”

Another major criticism I have made about Black Republicans is their refusal to hire Blacks on their staffs. This is not the case with Scott. His office is like a mini-United Nations. He actually has Blacks who have authority to make things happen. By doing do, he is opening doors for them to be future powerbrokers within the party.

Two months ago, Scott authored a non-binding resolution in the Senate promoting diversity in hiring. According to Scott, “The ultimate goal of the resolution was to hopefully heighten awareness of the opportunities to create the workforce of the future, today.” Republican senators, Rand Paul of Kentucky, Marco Rubio of Florida, Deb Fischer of Nebraska and Rob Portman of Ohio all signed on as co-sponsors.

While these actions by Scott might seem small in the larger scheme of things, they are not. In the past, figures such as Senator Ed Brooke (R-Mass.), Secretary of Transportation Bill Coleman and Assistant Labor Secretary of Labor Art Fletcher were Republicans who never comprised their blackness. In recent years, however, it has almost a requirement that a Black Republican distance himself from his race to move ahead in the party. Scott may represent a long overdue shift in the other direction.

Through his actions, Scott has proven that Black Republicans don’t have to check their Blackness at the door. Being Black and Republican is not an either/or proposition; but rather a both/and proposition. Now, if we can just get more party members to understand the importance of what Scott is doing.

FP&L’s Smart Meter Woes: Billing for Services Not Performed & Threatening Shut Offs to Disabled Veterans

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Billing for Services Not Rendered

It was a busy time last week fielding phone calls from irate FP&L customers. In June 2014, FP&L began billing customers who did not want a smart meter installed on their home for what they call “NSMR” fees (Non-standard Meter Rider). The fees consist of an upfront one-time payment of $95 and monthly payment of $13.

Why the calls? Well part of that $13/month fee is the cost of FP&L sending a meter reader to actually read the meter so the customer can be billed properly. Several customers I spoke to are pretty irate because the bill they received was “estimated”. That means FP&L did not come out and read the meter. Upon calling FP&L customer service they were told that FP&L is within the Florida Public Service Commission rules to issue estimated bills up to 6 months. Despite cries of foul play, FP&L refused to issue them any credits.

The FPSC Order No. PSC-14-0036-TRF-EI clearly states on page 9, that of the $13.00 monthly fee, $6.81 is for a monthly manual meter reading and $.05 is the associated meter reading OSHA and V Accident costs. One would think that if FP&L does not roll that truck and employee to your home, they should be obliged to credit you the $6.86 since they did not perform the work, no? Apparently, not!

I guess that is something for me to take up at our protest hearing scheduled for September 30th in Tallahassee. Perhaps others will come with signs “No work, No Charge”.

I did check with this customer and there are no access issues for his property, that is, no locked gates or ferocious dogs. This customer also just got his second estimated bill. Twice billed for services NOT rendered.

FP&L Threatening Shut-Off to Disabled Veteran

Some people who refused to take the smart meter are also refusing to pay the extortion fees. They are paying for their electricity, but are not paying the opt-out fees. Well, collection notices and shut-off threats have started to go out causing more anguish.

One customer, Irving Friedman, an 88-year old disabled WWII veteran, who is also recovering from recent heart surgery, received his threatening shut off letter. When his daughter called FP&L on his behalf and explained his medical conditions and also stated that his electricity portion was paid in full she got nowhere. It was only a call to a reporter at the Palm Beach Post and that reporters’ phone inquiries to FP&L that made FP&L back off from their threats to shut off this veterans electric.

FP&L now states they will hold off any shut-offs for those withholding payment of opt-out fees until the FPSC makes a decision on the tariff case pending. That decision should come out some time in November.

Time to tell your lawmaker to let the Export-Import Bank expire!

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Mac Zimmerman, Director of Policy Americans for Prosperity, in an email states:

Members of Congress have finally returned to Washington after a month-long vacation, and they’ll be deciding extremely soon whether or not to put an end to the wasteful, corrupt Export-Import Bank.

AFP activists have been leading the charge for months against the Export-Import Bank, and as our elected officials prepare to make their final decision, now’s the time to get all hands on deck to put an end to Ex-Im.

Video – “Break the Bank!”:

By paying foreign companies to buy American exports, the Export-Import Bank tilts the playing field away from mid-sized and small businesses in favor of large, politically connected corporations. Eliminating the Export-Import Bank would level the playing field and allow U.S. companies to compete for business on their merits rather than the strength of their political ties to the bank.

Not only does the Export-Import bank interfere with the free market, it also jeopardizes billions of taxpayer dollars. According to MIT, the bank is actually losing $200 million a year. These risky loans and poor accounting practices are harmful to taxpayers, who are left footing the bill. In fact, taxpayers have already bailed out this bank once before at a cost of $3 billion.

America deserves an international trade policy that is based on free-market mechanisms, not paying foreign companies to buy exports from large corporations with political connections.

EDITORS NOTE: To send a AFP prepared e-letter to your elected officials asking that they let the Export-Import Bank expire  you may go here.

What “International Community” is Obama Talking About?

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The U.S. and Iran have been adversaries since 1979 when it seized our diplomats and held them for 444 days. In the wake of the Cold War, Russia has assisted Iran develop its nuclear program and has joined its war on the Islamic State. The U.S. has joined the conflict, making Iran, Syria and Russia our allies in a world where such relationships are changing so fast it is hard to keep up with them.

A Sept 5 Debka File report regarding recent air strikes by Syria on two meetings of Islamic State officers, noted that “The twin Syrian air offensive coincided with the opening of the two-day NATO Summit…the information about the two Al Qaeda meetings at Raqqa and Abu Kamal could have come from only two sources: U.S. surveillance satellites and aircraft, or Iranian agents embedded at strategic points across Syria.”

The Israeli news agency concluded that the success of the air strikes reflected “the widening military and intelligence cooperation between the United States and Iran in Iraq and Syria.” So maybe there has been a bonus of sorts from the U.S. negotiations with Iran regarding its nuclear program? The other component is the fact that Iran does not want a hostile Sunni Islamic State emerging in Iraq on its borders. It is more likely this is a short-term alliance.

Meanwhile, at the NATO meeting in Wales, Secretary of State John Kerry identified what he called a “core coalition” of ten nations that could help the U.S. go after the Islamic State (ISIL) terrorists. The seven he named were Great Britain, France, Germany, Canada, Australia, Turkey, Italy, and Poland. Of these, only Turkey is Islamic. There was no mention of Iran or Syria, both of whom are playing a significant role in the fight against ISIS.

“There is no containment policy for ISIS,” said Kerry. I suppose that’s better than wanting the ISIS threat to be “manageable” as the President recently said at the same time he said he had “no strategy” at present to deal with ISIS. Meanwhile, on Labor Day Vice President Biden, was saying the U.S. was going to follow ISIS “to the gates of hell” to destroy them.

If there is some confusion in the minds of Americans about what the White House is actually doing or not doing, its mixed messages suggest they have as little idea as the rest of us.

A Sept 5 Rasmussen Reports poll said “Voters show even more support for continued airstrikes in Iraq against the radical Islamic group ISIS despite a second public beheading of a U.S. journalist in retaliation for those strikes. Nearly half now support sending U.S. combat troops to fight ISIS.”

The President is fond of referring to “the international community” but that is essentially a meaningless phrase and has been for a very long time. Individual nations act in their own interest and if that coincides with other nations, they are allies. The result is that, over longer or shorter periods of time, the alliances change in response to various active or potential threats.

During World War II the U.S. was allied with the Soviet Union to destroy the Nazi regime but as soon as the war concluded we entered into a long Cold War until it collapsed in 1991. These days Russia represents a threat to the Ukraine and former Soviet satellite nations in Eastern Europe.

People may regard the United Nations as “the international community”, but in reality it is the most corrupt international community on Earth and its policies are heavily anti-American and anti-Israel.

At a Sept 2 press conference by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, (OCHA) Israel was slammed for “an unprecedented scale of destruction in Hamas” without a word about the thousands of Hamas rockets fired against Israel from Gaza. The OCHA spokesman made no mention of the estimated 200,000 dead in Syria resulting from its civil war or the persecution and slaughter of Iraqi Yazidis, Christians and other minorities. Apparently they lack the attention of those engaged in “humanitarian affairs.”

The UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) is home to 12,000 employees and totally devoted to just one “refugee” group, the Palestinians. As Claudia Rosett of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies noted, despite caches of rockets found in UNRWA facilities or the intent of Hamas to destroy Israel, “UNRWA has become so enmeshed in the workings of Gaza that it effectively functions as a support service for the interests of Hamas, the Palestinian terrorist organization that rules the territory.”

Not to be outdone, the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, on August 29, accused the United States of “racial profiling” and “the excessive use of force by the law enforcement officials against racial and ethnic minorities” mentioning the death of Michael Brown of Ferguson, MO.  Among the nations represented on the Committee are Algeria, Russia, China, Pakistan, and Lebanon, nations where racial and religious discrimination thrive.

Why the U.S. continues to contribute taxpayer dollars to the United Nations defies any explanation. We can function in the diplomatic sphere without it, but it might well fail for lack of U.S. funding.

According to the Heritage Foundation, as of 2012 the U.S. “was assessed 22 percent of the regular budget, which is nearly $567 million in gross contributions…The U.S. is assessed more than 180 other U.N. member states combined and 22,000 times more than the least assessed countries. Together, the top 15 contributors pay over 81.4 percent of the U.N. regular budget. Moreover, under U.N. rules, the 129 member states that contribute less than 1.3 percent can pass the budget over the objections of the countries paying over 98 percent.”

As for the NATO coalition to which John Kerry made mention none of these nations has the military capacity to destroy ISIS that the U.S. possesses. Indeed, the European members are trying to deal with the threat that Russia poses in the Ukraine and form Soviet satellite nations.

Rarely mentioned has been the failure of many NATO member nations to allocate sufficient funding to their military. Several have a serious internal Islamic threat from Muslims who are citizens. The British just announced plans to crack down on any citizen who went off to join ISIS or who may be returning from battles in Iraq or Syria.

There have been vast, complex changes occurring in the Middle East. As former Ambassador Chas Freeman noted in a 2013 speech to the National Council on U.S. Arab Relations, “The simple world of colonial and superpower rivalries is long vanished. The notion that one is either ‘with us or against us’ has lost all resonance in the modern Middle East. No government in the region is prepared now to entrust its future to foreigners, still less to a single foreign power.”

“Americans no longer command the ability to shape trends in the Middle East,” said Freeman, and “Almost no one now expects us to do so…for better or ill, the states of the region have seized control of their own destiny.”

Turns out, most of them are depending on the U.S. to rid them of the Islamic State and even former adversaries like Iran are willing to work with us to achieve that objective. If recent polls are any indicator, we will be back on the Iraqi field of battle with “boots on the ground” and at least half of the population understands why and supports it.

The Islamic State, a self-declared caliphate, is the true face of Islam. It even scares Muslims.

© Alan Caruba, 2014

An Open Letter to Cardinal Timothy Dolan — Choose Gays or God!

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In response to the news that the St. Patrick’s Parade in New York would now accept “gay” groups in the parade and that Cardinal Timothy Dolan would serve as Grand Marshall of the parade, Catholic Citizens of Illinois has sent an open letter to Cardinal Dolan, which is re-published below.

Catholic Citizens of Illinois
106 Calendar Court, PMB #122
La Grange, IL 60525-2325

An Open Letter to Cardinal Timothy Dolan

September 5, 2014

Cardinal Timothy Dolan
Archbishop of New York
1011 1st Avenue
New York, NY 10022

Your Eminence,

We were dismayed and discouraged to read that the St. Patrick’s Day Parade in New York will now include organizations that openly oppose the Catholic teaching concerning human sexuality. After years of resisting the pressure from gays and big donors as well as the pretense of public support, the parade committee has caved in to their bullying and unreasonable demands. Additionally, we are disappointed that you have agreed to be the Grand Marshall of the parade.

We are fully aware that there are good and holy people with homosexual inclinations that are striving to live chaste lives in accordance with the teachings of the Catholic Church, which we are all called to do.  However, no one can deceive themselves that the national and international “gay” organizations are striving for that lifestyle.  One need only look at the “gay” pride parades around the world and see the public nudity and simulation of sex acts to know that they are portraying  an “in your face” demand that such acts be normalized and that we approve of them.

We understand your deference to those who are on the planning committee for the parade and your efforts to not be “judgmental.“ However, we ask you to put aside those concerns, knowing that your primary duty as Cardinal is to act as a “Shepherd of the Faithful,” secondary in authority to that of the Pope.

We implore you to withdraw as Grand Marshall of the St. Patrick’s Day Parade because of the great probability of misunderstandings, confusion and scandal among the faithful. It is likely that many will believe that the Church has changed her teaching that homosexual acts are “disordered” and “can never be approved” and even worse, they may assume that you support such acts. Does the statement of Jesus about scandalizing little ones no longer apply?

We write this letter to you as faithful Catholics and we look to you to give the example of what a true Shepherd must be. We offer our prayers that the Holy Spirit will inspire you and guide you in this important decision.

Sincerely,

Mary Anne Hackett, President
For the Board of Directors and Members of
Catholic Citizens of Illinois

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Is Islam the Enemy?

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Muslims beheading Americans. Syria: Muslims killing Muslims. Boco Haram: Muslims killing Christians. ISIS: Muslims killing everyone. Al Qaeda: Muslims killing Westerners. HAMAS – CAIR – Muslim Brotherhood…

What is going on with ISLAM?

On September 11, 2013 I delivered a “controversial” speech in Venice, Florida on the necessity to define the enemy, in order to defeat the enemy, or else there will be more September 11, 2001 disasters. In this presentation I, in a non-politically correct fashion, state unequivocally that the root problem of Islamic terrorism is – ISLAM.

I make a distinction between a Muslim, as a human and the totalitarian, supremacist system of theocratic Islam. This presentation created quite a bit of debate, discussion and maybe even some new thinking. Watch it as a prelude to the activities of September 11, 2014 and make up your own mind.

New York Times admits Obama not born in U.S.?

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The New York Times, in a back handed way, has joined the Obama not born in the United States movement. In the September 8th, 2014 New York Times crossword puzzle the 6 DOWN hint is: First president born outside the continental U.S.

The answer is OBAMA.

08 Sep 14 New York Times Crossword Solution

Image is courtesy of NYTCrossword.com.

NYTCrossword.com states:

“6. First president born outside the continental U.S. OBAMA
Despite rumors to the contrary, I am pretty sure that Barack Hussein Obama II was indeed born in Hawaii. President Obama was born on August 4, 1961 at Kapi’olani Maternity & Gynecological Hospital in Honolulu, Hawaii. He is the first president to have been born outside of the continental US.”

A July 2014 Rasmussen poll on conspiracy theories found forty-one percent (41%) of Republicans believe Obama is not an American citizen, compared to 21% of unaffiliateds and 11% of Democrats. Just over 20% of Republicans and unaffiliated adults also are not sure, but only seven percent (7%) of those in the president’s party share that doubt.

Has the New York Times joined with those who believe Obama is not an American citizen? We report, you decide.