Monday - March 25, 2013
Diabolical Stupidity
“Ah, so sorry Senor, the machine she got stuck, and made an extra 250,000 uniforms by mistake. Not to worry, we sold them all for cheap to my cousin Pedro to cover expenses.”
(CNSNews.com) - U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has granted uniform contracts to VF Imagewear, Inc., an apparel company that relies on manufacturing sites in Mexico for a “significant percentage” of its occupational garments.
The latest contract with the company was awarded on Dec. 20, 2012, to make “uniform and insignia items” for the CBP at an estimated cost of $6,157,997.57, and a ceiling of $8 million.
The CBP, which is responsible for protecting America’s borders, told CNSNews.com that items from VF Imagewear, a subsidiary of VF Corporation, are manufactured in a number of locations, “including Mexico.”
“There are no domestic preference regulations or statutes applicable to DHS/CBP that would prohibit the manufacture of uniform items in Mexico,” the CBP said. “In fact, United States obligations under International Agreements require that the Agency accept items manufactured in Mexico.”
Well, there you go. Effed up regulations and treaties we get the short and dirty end of the stick on. But this is wrong. No, it’s far, far beyond wrong. This is past even typical thoughtless pig-headed stupidity. This smacks of “not enforcing laws we don’t like”. Of subverting the system from within, man. This smells almost like treason. It has the same kind of smarmy stench to it.
Sure, NAFTA and other treaties say we have to buy things from those other companies. But you do your research first, and then you award the contract under the Stimulus Plan, putting Americans back to work. And you have a little talk with the owners of the company ahead of time, just to make sure you have an understanding. No outsourcing this one. No offshoring. No importing. Here, you want an import contract? Here’s the shoelaces contract. Go get them from Honduras.
Effing government. It’s like they’re TRYING to fail. To weaken America. To leave us weak and exposed.
Posted by Drew458
on 03/25/2013 at 10:29 AM
Filed Under: • Government • Mexico • Stoopid-People •
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Permalink • the virgil vigil
Ach crivens, it’s snowing like mad. Damnation. Pull up the weather channel ... storm Virgil, snowing on nearly the whole northern USA, from Minneapolis to Maine, south to Gary and Richmond. Looks like it will be over in a day or two at most, and the prediction is about 3” for us. Worse for others; west Jersey gets off easy in the winter.
But this sucks. I was going to do outside stuff today. And I did a really nice window cleaning on one of those offices I do yesterday, to help get them ready for inspection. And now the mall’s rock salt throwing monster will come by and splatter salt dust and anti-icing spray on everything. Probably before they even open the doors Monday. Screw it. I’m billing them anyway. Took me over an hour and a half to get this winter’s mess off the glass.
Blech. Ok, have another cup of coffee Drew, and adapt your plans.
Posted by Drew458
on 03/25/2013 at 09:20 AM
Filed Under: • Miscellaneous •
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Permalink • so who is it that’s stealing and selling bread while the civilians go without?
I thought for a change you might find this of some interest.
I’m sure there was news wherever you are, that there has been a chemical attack on some village about a week ago. Each side blames the other but, surprise, surprise, even the ‘rights’ fanatics have claimed that it wasn’t the govt. of Assad that did it. Since then, I haven’t seen or heard a word about it. So, did it actually happen? And should we care? Well I’d say yeah cos if by some insane chance islamists got their grubby hands on chemicals, that does not bode well for us. And by us, I mean the UK cos we are a lot closer to things here than you are in LA these days.
Anyway, this piece has nothing to do with all that. But it does point out that should Assad fall, islamists are there and ready and active and will want to take over.
And they could.
There is a good 3 minute video at the link. I couldn’t embed it here.
Syria: Islamist Nusra Front gives BBC exclusive interview
By Paul Wood BBC News, Aleppo
After many hours of waiting in the pitch black and freezing cold for the bakery to open, the crush of men at the head of the queue started drumming on the doors in frustration.
An activist was explaining to me how the bread shortage in rebel-held parts of Aleppo was another crime to be heaped on the head of Bashar al-Assad.
He was waved away by a stout matron in a hijab and long black coat.
“Don’t blame Bashar. What’s happening to us is of our own making,” she said as, behind her, Free Syrian Army (FSA) fighters struggled to keep order.
It is widely believed in Aleppo that the bread shortage was caused by the FSA stealing flour to sell elsewhere.
An FSA officer confirmed as much when I asked him if this had been done by individual fighters or was ordered by commanders to fund their operations.
“Both,” he said, “including my own brigade.” He added, ruefully: “We are all thieves.”
It was a joke, and his men erupted in laughter, but he meant it seriously, too.
‘Syrian mujahideen’The beneficiaries of this are the hardline Islamists, especially Jabhat al-Nusra, or the Nusra Front.
They have now taken over distribution of flour to bakeries in rebel-held areas of Aleppo.
None of the FSA brigades - all accusing each other of looting - trusted anyone else, the officer told me.
The Nusra Front is outside the FSA and has a reputation for discipline and honesty. It is also a jihadi group behind most of the suicide bombings in Syria and as such is on a US blacklist of terrorist organisations.
Posted by peiper
on 03/25/2013 at 06:12 AM
Filed Under: • muslims • Terrorists • War-Stories •
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Permalink • it’s a different assad. col. riad al-assad wounded
BBC WORLD NEWS
Syria rebel commander Riad al-Asaad wounded by blastCol Riad al-Asaad has regularly appeared with rebel fighters on the ground in Syria
A rebel military commander in Syria is reported to have been wounded by a bomb blast in Deir al-Zour province.
Activists said a device exploded next to a car in which Col Riad al-Asaad, long head of the Free Syrian Army (FSA), was travelling in Mayadeen.
There were conflicting reports about his fate, but an FSA spokesman told BBC Arabic that he had lost a leg.
Col Asaad once led the armed rebellion against President Bashar al-Assad, but his position was gradually superseded.
In December, more than 260 leaders of the main FSA units from across Syria agreed at a meeting in Antalya to a unified command structure.
They elected a 30-member Supreme Military Council (SMC), which then chose Gen Salim Idriss as the new chief of staff.
Col Asaad said he had not been invited to the meeting by the foreign powers which organised it, adding: “They want people who obey orders.”
The former Syrian Air Force commander, who defected in July 2011, nevertheless remained a prominent figure in the armed uprising, regularly appearing with rebel fighters on the ground in Syria.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based activist group, reported that Col Asaad had been conducting a tour of the eastern town of Mayadeen on Sunday night when a bomb exploded near his car, wounding him in the leg.
An FSA spokesman confirmed to BBC Arabic that Col Asaad had lost the leg.
a UK-based activist group
Gee .... what a shame that whole group couldn’t have been standing right on top of that bomb.
Posted by peiper
on 03/25/2013 at 05:43 AM
Filed Under: • Middle-East • Military • War-Stories •
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Permalink • Sunday - March 24, 2013
Rumors!
Assad Shot By Bodyguard? Dead?
Difficult to track down, rumors of Bashar Assad being offed are swirling around the Middle East. Hardly getting a mention in US, EU.
Unconfirmed reports of Syrian President Bashar Assad’s shooting highlight chaos in country
Assad was supposedly shot by his Iranian bodyguard Saturday night, with at least one website saying he had been ‘assassinated.’ But other online updates by Arab and Israeli media say the report was untrue.
http://www.nydailynews.com/rumors-assad-shooting-highlights-syria-chaos-article-1.1297939
http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2013/03/breaking-assad-shot-by-iranian-bodyguard-hospitalized-in-damascus/
I can’t find anything on the Israeli news sites either.
Maybe it’s just a pipe dream. But look what happened to Hugo ... probably dead for days before the “real” word got out.
Update: According to Arab media http://www.eltira.org , Bashar al-Assad would have been seriously wounded by gunfire last night Saturday, March 23 by his bodyguard but Iran is not dead. Il serait actuellement hospitalisé, entre la vie et la mort, à l’hôpital Shami de Damas dont les rues adjacentes ont été fermées. He is currently hospitalized, between life and death, Shami Hospital in Damascus which the streets were closed.
Information exclusive (en France) : Selon des informations publiées dans la presse arabe (puis republiées dans la presse israélienne ), des informations que les journalistes affirment avoir « vérifiées », le dictateur syrien Bachar el Assad aurait été tué ce matin par un de ses gardes du corps. Proprietary information (in France): According to reports in the Arab press (and then republished in the Israeli press ), information that journalists say they have “verified” the Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad was killed this morning by one of his bodyguards. Un important dispositif de sécurité a été mis en place à l’hôpital du Damas. An important safety device has been set up at the hospital in Damascus.
Maybe we can blame the French ...
http://jssnews.com/2013/03/24/bachar-el-assad-aurait-ete-tue-par-un-garde-du-corps/
Posted by Drew458
on 03/24/2013 at 04:57 PM
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Permalink • Saturday - March 23, 2013
The Mysteries of Nature
I live surrounded by deer. I see them all the time. Every day, all year long. Singles, pairs, small groups, herds of 20 or more. They are everywhere. They come right up on the patio and peek in the windows. They graze on your lawn in the middle of the afternoon. They run across the roads and scare the bejeezus out of drivers at dawn and dusk. And they eat everything. You can not plant a tree nor have a garden unless it’s got a really sturdy 8’ fence around it, and even then you cross your fingers and hope. We are overrun.
And I’ve lived here for well over a decade. So I thought I’d seen it all when it came to deer. I’ve seen them in rut, I’ve seen the baby fawns still wet and wobbly. I’ve seen them eat, play, eat, sleep, eat, hide, eat, ... you name it. If there are 3 trees and a bush here, odds are there is a deer hiding behind them.
But until this afternoon I had never, ever, seen does fight. I didn’t even know they could. Or did. While yelling at each other! Go figure. Do does have a pecking order, like chickens? Beats me. And why fight now? It isn’t anywhere close to mating season. It’s almost fawning time.
I was heading down to Flemington about a quarter to five this afternoon, going down our main road to the corner. There’s a bit of woods off on the right, about an acre. And a little scrap of scrub brush right across from the corner, a little thin triangle of land between the highway and the entrance ramp that is the west end of our connecting road to town. I doubt if it’s a quarter of an acre, but I know that more than half a dozen deer live in there most of the winter, under the eye of an 8 point buck. The sun was out a bit today, and it was maybe 40°; nearly warm for this early in Spring. And the does were a-frolic.
So driving up to the corner I saw this movement in that bit of scrub land in front of me, some gray-brown motion behind the gray-brown tree trunks and leafless gorse bushes. And in a little clearing there, I saw 5 deer having a fight. Well, two fighting, and three watching. Damnedest thing I ever saw.
No, this is not my video. Somebody else shot it, in late summer, over in PA. I didn’t get any pictures; I was just too amazed. But I’ll tell ya, the two deer in that video are amateurs. The does I saw were up on their hind legs ducking and weaving and running about, easily 30 seconds at a time. And the hoof fight was at least twice as fast as the two half-hearted contenders pictured above. I mean, man, it was on!! And the bleating! I knew deer could vocalize. You hear them in the fall when the rut kicks in, and sometimes you hear the mommy does calling to their fawns. But these deer were cussing a blue streak and having a major hissy fit on each other. I just sat there in my car with the window open, watching and listening for probably a full minute. A car pulled up behind me and didn’t beep; they were watching too. Then it was over suddenly, and the combatants went their separate ways. Some lifetime I’m going to learn to carry a camera with me everywhere, charged up and ready at hand. I could have had some neat video.
Posted by Drew458
on 03/23/2013 at 10:10 PM
Filed Under: • Animals •
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Permalink • RCOB
I’ve been reading the White In Philadelphia articles and several related posts. I can’t do it anymore. Can’t write about it. It just makes my head explode. I am tired of being silenced but I know the utter futility of speaking up. BRA. It’s real.
No kidding, the shoe is on the other foot, almost completely, has been there for a VERY long time, and the situation is only getting worse as the shoe gets bigger and kicks harder. Now it even excuses murder. And even mentioning that the shoe exists on that leg is a huge social sin. So yeah, white folks just walk away and pretend it isn’t there, then look at real estate even further away from the urban areas. And that’s about all I can say without a tirade. Very tired of all of it.
There is a lot of reading here, a good hours worth or more. If you haven’t seen these already, please read them in order. And form your own opinions.
http://www.phillymag.com/articles/white-philly/
http://articles.philly.com/2013-03-20/news/37846909_1_philadelphia-magazine-robert-huber-racial-insensitivity
http://www.thinkinghousewife.com/wp/2013/03/white-in-philadelphia/
http://www.thinkinghousewife.com/wp/2013/03/white-in-philadelphia-cont/
http://www.americanthinker.com/2013/03/white_and_wrong_in_philly.html
http://articles.philly.com/2013-03-18/news/37789774_1_philadelphia-magazine-black-people-first-blacks
http://stuffblackpeopledontlike.blogspot.com/2013/03/being-black-in-philly-web-dubois-knew.html
What it all boils down to is simply this: White people in America don’t owe black people anything – but the truth. And in speaking the truth, we see how quickly black people utilize the old “racism” card in attempting to stifle speech, because the narrative of ‘racism’ must be controlled.
It is a one-way street, where a continuous pile-up on white people must occur, with no rebuttal allowed or tolerated. And yet, as W.E.B DuBois pointed out in his book on blacks in Philadelphia at the end of the 19th Century, nothing new or out-of-the-ordinary is occurring in Philadelphia in 2013. What say you about DuBois’ comments on blacks, Mayor Michael Nutter? Should his writings be reviewed by the Human Rights Commission of Philadelphia?
perhaps a little related, or a rare drop of hope in a sea of despair:
http://www.bizpacreview.com/2013/03/19/lloyd-marcus-stop-making-excuses-for-your-black-idol-56343
Posted by Drew458
on 03/23/2013 at 03:23 PM
Filed Under: • Racism and race relations •
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Permalink • Saturday’s Red
American Actress Lauren Ambrose (clicky)
Whovians can probably figure out what this implies: I’ve finally run out of patients waiting for the new season of the Doctor, and am trying to get my fix watching old Torchwood episodes. Problem is, my cable company thinks Season 4 is Season 1, and they aren’t even showing the 2006-2009 shows. But at least the 2011 season has Lauren Ambrose, and no matter how icky the plot lines get I just can’t help smiling every time she comes on screen. Which is quite often. So I’d call it a good Amy Pond replacement therapy. However Jack is being extremely gay. Spartacus gay.
Posted by Drew458
on 03/23/2013 at 03:05 PM
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Permalink • On The Cusp Of Greatness
I’ve posted a couple times over the past year or so on my digital pal John Jay’s work on his little wildcat cartridge, the JJ’s Brit (trademark asserted). He brought the early 1950’s .30/.280 British cartridge back to life, modified it a bit for more modern specifications, and built a test rifle for it on a shoestring budget. I helped him work out some of the specs and with load development. Finding himself quite satisfied with the performance of the little round, he then went parts shopping, and with the help of a gunsmith or two, has made the cartridge fit and function in the AR rifle platform. This is quite an accomplishment, because that rifle was not built for a cartridge with the “standard” head diameter of 0.473”. It’s too fat to fit the original boltface. Good thing that the AR rifle has thousands of aftermarket parts to fit it, and one of them was a larger diameter bolt that he made work. The result is that he has created a perfectly useful deer hunting cartridge for this modern sporting rifle, one that also just happens to give better long range performance than the 6.8SPC, the 6.5 Grendel, the .30 Remington AR, and scads better long range whack than the original 5.56 NATO. In other words, he has found a viable solution to the old “poodle shooter” problem. Outstanding.
In a fairly short 18.5” barrel, the JJ’s Brit (trademark asserted) with either the 120gr or the 130gr bullet outperforms the 123gr 7.62x39 Soviet cartridge, pushing both at least 200fps faster than the Russian round, and since this is a 7mm bore, both bullets have better sectional density (SD) and better aerodynamics (BC or Ballistic Coefficient). The 130gr bullet rivals the SD of the 7.62 NATO’s 168gr bullet, which means it will penetrate targets nearly as well at equal velocities. But with far less cartridge weight, and only about half the recoil. This means he has found a solution to the MBR (Modern Battle Rifle or Medium Battle Rifle) challenge, creating an accurate little round that should be combat effective to 500 meters or a bit further. Nice. Darn shame no one in authority wants to hear such things.
Ballistics calculations show that the 130gr bullet retains 1000 lb/ft of energy to 355 yards, and keeps 750 lb/ft out to 490 yards. Put plainly, it’s a 400 yard deer hunting cartridge and a 500 yard military cartridge. The 120gr bullet is similar. The 63gr SS109 military load for the 5.56 NATO round carries 1000 lb/ft to only 142 yards, and 750 lb/ft to 270 yards. The current issue M885a1 “Enhanced Performance” load might give another 30 yards advantage over the SS109 but that’s about it. The JJ’s Brit (trademark asserted) [hey, that’s what he calls the damn thing, parenthesis and all! I suggested just calling it the .280 JJ, but he likes his naming better] is far superior to that.
And this is the short, low pressure version of the cartridge. Seating the bullets further out and using a 2.55” OAL gives lots more room for powder, and when mated to a 22” or longer barrel and loaded to the same pressure point can give another 150fps, which translates into another 50 yards at equal retained energy levels. Taken up to magnum pressure levels (63K psi) you can glean another 100fps. Either of these approaches makes it a bit much for a military MBR round, but gives you a very nice 450-500 yard deer rifle cartridge, which is quite a bit further than most hunters can accurately shoot. So the power is there if wanted, but it isn’t really needed. And if you don’t want it, the 2.55” version makes the same velocity as the 2.25” version at considerably lower pressure, which means less wear on the rifle barrel. Not that that matters in this spendy day and age.
We always knew the cartridge had power to spare. The real challenge of this project was making it fit in an AR, and now he’s done that part too.
Nice work John. Now if we can just convince Keltec to build a downsized version of
ooh, I want one of these!
Posted by Drew458
on 03/23/2013 at 11:12 AM
Filed Under: • Guns and Gun Control •
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Permalink • Friday - March 22, 2013
TV Is Tacky. Yeah, So?
Not sure how to respond to this one ...
The popular CBS reality show “The Amazing Race” is under fire for featuring an episode set in Hanoi, Vietnam, where contestants go to a B-52 Memorial, which is the wreckage of an American bomber plane shot down during the Vietnam War, to find the next clue in their televised round-the-world journey.
In the episode, the twisted metal of the downed plane is treated as any other prop, with a bright ‘Amazing Race’ ‘Double-U-Turn’ signed planted in front of it, signifying to contestants the next phase of their scavenger hunt.
The show also had contestants learn a song that was performed for them by children in front of a portrait of North Vietnam communist leader Ho Chi Minh, with subtitled lyrics that included “Vietnam Communist Party is glorious. The light is guiding us to victory.”
“It’s like One Direction,” one contestant said of the performance, referring to the popular boy band.
“How did it not cross the producers’ minds that this might offend the men who fought in Vietnam and the families of those who died there?” Fox News’ Greg Gutfeld said on his late night show “Red Eye.”
Fox News contributor Bob Beckel agreed later on the news program “The Five.”
“I’m so outraged by this I can’t believe it. CBS is idiotic; they’re stupid,” Beckel said. “To have people go to a memorial where Americans died, then you ought to get off the network.”
Well Bob, perhaps I disagree with you on this too, along with everything else you say. We once were at war with this country, the North part in those days, and we did bomb the daylights out of the place. And while we lost bombers, they lost probably a thousand times more people. So I’m not terribly surprised that such a memorial exists. Granted, a chunk of wreckage in the middle of the street is a tad tacky. A bit on the raw side as memorials go, even for cost-conscious commies. But in another way, it’s extremely real; here’s a chunk of enemy aircraft that maybe fell to earth right on this spot. 40 years after the war you try and see both sides. But yeah, using it as a waypoint for the racers may not have been the smartest idea, IF they didn’t pause for a few seconds to comment on what was in front of them. That war was long over by the time any of them were even born. I’m sure there was some other statue, park, or architecturally unique building that would have worked just as well.
And learning to sing a song in the difficult local language sounds like a decent little challenge. Too bad that the network allowed themselves to be played by the local political commissars. If we wanted to hear songs praising Uncle Ho, we’d listen to Jane Fonda.
So half up, half down IMO. Could’ve been done better, sure could’ve been done worse. But outrage? Not really. Or am I seeing this entirely wrong? Opine away; it’s what the comments are for!
Posted by Drew458
on 03/22/2013 at 11:19 AM
Filed Under: • History • Television • TURD WORLD • War-Stories •
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Permalink • Little Big Gun Joins The Fray?
May Take 700 Jobs And Split
Colt Firearms has been in Hartford Connecticut since the very beginning. These days Colt sells almost all it’s production to the government. Anti-gun hysteria in their state is making them yearn for some Red State local. Colt is one of the smallest of the Big Name gun brands, but their joining the Screw This We’re Moving movement is pretty ground shaking. If Colt goes, Remington (over in Ilion NY) might just follow. All the big firearms companies started out in the northeast. They pretty much were the Industrial Revolution at first. Many of the companies have been in place for well over 100 years.
Colt’s Manufacturing, the company that has made the iconic gun dubbed “The Peacemaker” for more than a century, could pull up its Connecticut stakes after coming under fire in the national debate over the Second Amendment.
President and CEO Dennis Veilleux said the pro-gun control climate that has taken hold in the wake of the Sandy Hook school massacre and other firearm attacks has left him feeling unwelcome in the state his company has called home for 175 years. Proposed laws being debated by the Legislature and pushed by Gov. Dannel Malloy include a new gun offender registry, an expanded assault weapons ban, ammunition restrictions and a ban on bulk purchases of handguns. Veilleux said those measures have put Colt and its nearly 700 employees in the crosshairs.
“At some point, if you can’t sell your products … then you can’t run your business,” Veilleux told FoxNews.com. “You need customers to buy your products to stay in business.”
Veilleux, who wrote an op-ed that appeared in The Hartford Courant this week in which he raised the prospect of leaving the state, said the company doesn’t have any such “definite plans.” But if Malloy follows through on his promise to ban the purchase and sale of AR-15 rifles, the centerpiece of the company’s business, he said leaving could become an option.
Veilleux, 47, said Colt is “constantly approached” by other states to relocate. Several red state governors have made no secret of the fact they covet firearms makers, an industry that by some measures contributes $1.7 billion annually to Connecticut’s economy.
While dozens of small firearms and related companies have come out saying that they will no longer sell their products to a government that they feel is repressive, only one other firearms maker has threatened to move ( Baretta ). One accessory company, Magpul, is actually in the process of moving.
Among other products, Colt makes the M16/AR15/M4 rifle, primarily for sales to the government. The company has a long history of bending to government pressure, which lead to civilian boycotts in the mid 90s, which in turn lead to Colt splitting the company into a civilian market division and Colt Defense, a government market division. Colt Defense is by far the larger of the two.
Posted by Drew458
on 03/22/2013 at 08:17 AM
Filed Under: • Guns and Gun Control •
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Permalink • Dead Pigs Rising
The number of dead pigs recovered in the last two weeks from rivers that supply water to Shanghai has risen to more than 16,000.
The government in China’s financial hub said Thursday that 10,570 carcasses have been pulled from its Huangpu river. That is in addition to 5,528 pigs plucked from upstream tributaries in the Jiaxing area of Zhejiang province.
Authorities give daily updates assuring the public that tests show Shanghai’s water is safe, but no official has given any full explanation about the massive dumping of pig carcasses.
Hog farmers have told state media that the dumping of swine carcasses is rising because police have started cracking down on the illicit sale of pork products made from dead, diseased pigs.
Wait a second, did I read that right? Yes, yes I did. The ONLY reason that the farmers are ditching the infected rotting carcasses in the river is because the Pork Police are coming after them. Otherwise they would continue to sell the disease riddled flesh to their own countrymen, with no regard for anyone or concern about health risks.
Posted by Drew458
on 03/22/2013 at 07:58 AM
Filed Under: • CHINA in the news •
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Permalink • Thursday - March 21, 2013
Oh Noes, Spare Der Po Widdle Feeewings!
filed under: Leftists Gone Wild!
A Massachusetts principal has been criticized for canceling his school’s Honors Night, saying it could be ‘devastating’ to the students who worked hard, but fell short of the grades.
MyFoxBoston.com reports that David Fabrizio, principal of Ipswich Middle School, notified parents last week of his plan to eliminate the event.
“The Honors Night, which can be a great sense of pride for the recipients’ families, can also be devastating to a child who has worked extremely hard in a difficult class but who, despite growth, has not been able to maintain a high grade-point average,” Fabrizio penned in his first letter to parents, the station reported.
Fabrizio also said he decided to make the change because academic success can be influenced by the amount of support a student receives at home and not all students receive the same level of emotional and academic support at home.
Academic success influenced by the amount of support at home? Who is this talking, Obama? “You see that A student? She didn’t earn those grades herself. Oh no. Her parents, family, neighbors, and local government had a part in it too!”
Buncha crap, all of it. Oh how tewwible, the other loser kids might have their pwecious self esteem bwuised a widdle bit! Oh noes! So screw over the few who actually bothered to hit the books. Gosh, this sounds a bit like the standard philosophy of gun control, doesn’t it?
But I will give the Ipswich school system a little credit: at least they had an honors ceremony in the past. Trying to peer back through the mists of time, I’m pretty certain that my school - especially my middle school - had no such thing. No ceremony, no gold stars, no bumper stickers. Not even a mimeographed list thumb-tacked to the bulletin board. Your grades were your business, and your parent’s. Possibly the computer printed report cards came with a little H in column 17 or something. We didn’t “graduate” from middle school or even elementary school either. You graduated from high school, and that was it.
I recall that my high school had a National Honor Society chapter, and that I purposely did not join it because at 16-17 I was trying desperately to fit in, and NHS was pure Dork Squad, where the foreign kids and the band kids went. Social kiss of death. And our report cards there were all in letter grades, so it amazed me how they selected the Valedictorian. Heck, a whole bunch of kids had solid 4.0 I think, and we all got the “tougher” Regents diploma ... not that the high school had honors night or even a posted list of “H” students either.
PS - Ipswich must have replaced their school with some kind of Einstein Challenge network. IIRC, just opening the books once a week or so was enough to garner a C+ in my school system; doing that and turning in most of the homework assignments got you a “B”. B+ if you stayed awake in class and asked or answered a question or two a week. It’s not like getting A grades was all that hard. Matter of fact, it was damn easy. So easy that I never ever learned how to study until I was a junior in college. And my town had a nationally recognized award winning school system. Although it’s possible that came about after my time there. Beats me; all I know is I took every single Regents level class they offered other than foreign languages. We didn’t have AP classes in those days.
Posted by Drew458
on 03/21/2013 at 02:30 PM
Filed Under: • Democrats-Liberals-Moonbat Leftists • Education •
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Permalink • atypical for Drew
Posted by Drew458
on 03/21/2013 at 12:44 PM
Filed Under: • Eye-Candy •
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Once Again, The One And Only Post
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Tracked at iHaan.org
Thｅ advantage to having a guide with you is thɑt an expert will haѵe very first hand experience dealing and navigating the river with гegional wildlife. Tһomas, there are great…
On: 07/28/23 10:37
The Brownshirts: Partie Deux; These aare the Muscle We've Been Waiting For
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The Brownshirts: Partie Deux; These aare the Muscle We’ve Been Waiting For
On: 03/14/23 11:20
Vietnam Homecoming
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On: 03/20/21 07:00
meaningless marching orders for a thousand travellers ... strife ahead ..
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[...] RTS. IF ANYTHING ON THIS WEBSITE IS CONSTRUED AS BEING CONTRARY TO THE LAWS APPL [...]
On: 07/17/17 04:28
a small explanation
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Tracked at yerba mate gourd
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On: 07/09/17 03:07
DISCLAIMER
THE SERVICES AND MATERIALS ON THIS WEBSITE ARE PROVIDED "AS IS" AND THE HOSTS OF THIS SITE EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMS ANY AND ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF SATISFACTORY QUALITY, MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, WITH RESPECT TO THE SERVICE OR ANY MATERIALS.
Not that very many people ever read this far down, but this blog was the creation of Allan Kelly and his friend Vilmar. Vilmar moved on to his own blog some time ago, and Allan ran this place alone until his sudden and unexpected death partway through 2006. We all miss him. A lot. Even though he is gone this site will always still be more than a little bit his. We who are left to carry on the BMEWS tradition owe him a great debt of gratitude, and we hope to be able to pay that back by following his last advice to us all:
It's been a long strange trip without you Skipper, but thanks for pointing us in the right direction and giving us a swift kick in the behind to get us going. Keep lookin' down on us, will ya? Thanks.
- Keep a firm grasp of Right and Wrong
- Stay involved with government on every level and don't let those bastards get away with a thing
- Use every legal means to defend yourself in the event of real internal trouble, and, most importantly:
- Keep talking to each other, whether here or elsewhere
THE INFORMATION AND OTHER CONTENTS OF THIS WEBSITE ARE DESIGNED TO COMPLY WITH THE LAWS OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. THIS WEBSITE SHALL BE GOVERNED BY AND CONSTRUED IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE LAWS OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA AND ALL PARTIES IRREVOCABLY SUBMIT TO THE JURISDICTION OF THE AMERICAN COURTS. IF ANYTHING ON THIS WEBSITE IS CONSTRUED AS BEING CONTRARY TO THE LAWS APPLICABLE IN ANY OTHER COUNTRY, THEN THIS WEBSITE IS NOT INTENDED TO BE ACCESSED BY PERSONS FROM THAT COUNTRY AND ANY PERSONS WHO ARE SUBJECT TO SUCH LAWS SHALL NOT BE ENTITLED TO USE OUR SERVICES UNLESS THEY CAN SATISFY US THAT SUCH USE WOULD BE LAWFUL.
Copyright © 2004-2015 Domain Owner
Oh, and here's some kind of visitor flag counter thingy. Hey, all the cool blogs have one, so I should too. The Visitors Online thingy up at the top doesn't count anything, but it looks neat. It had better, since I paid actual money for it.
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