Caffeinated Thoughts

Dan Savage the “Anti-Bullying” Bully
Sarah Palin Was a Prophet About Obama’s Education Takeover
An Unprecedented Grassroots Organization: King Announces 550 County Co-Chairs in Iowa 4th Congressional District Race

Posted: 30 Apr 2012 05:00 PM PDT

In case you haven't see this here is the video of the speech that the "anti-bullying" advocate Dan Savage gave at the National High School Journalism Conference sponsored by the Journalism Education Association and the National Scholastic Press association. He was supposed to give a talk on bullying, but CitizenLink reports students were given an off-topic rant which led to a 100 or so students walking out as he mocked them as being "pansy ass." You can watch his unfiltered comments below.

I’ve said numerous times that bullying needs to be addressed, but this is an example of how an important message has been hijacked. Unfortunately Mr. Savage and his program, "It Gets Better" has been endorsed by numerous celebrities, companies and even President Obama – see video below.

I’ll say again, bullying is wrong. It needs to be addressed with all students. But this linking suicide with bullying is making the reaction seem normal when it is anything but. I've written enough on that topic and don't need to do so again.

Joe Carter at The Gospel Coalition writes about why this incident should matter and gives details about Savage's past that should make us ask why this guy is being taken seriously:

Despite being an "anti-bullying activist," Savage has a reputation for being a reprehensible bully who uses some of most disgusting tactics imaginable against people he hates. In 2001, during the Republican primary in 2000, Savage traveled to Iowa and became a campaign volunteer for Gary Bauer. During the trip, Savage became sick—"I had the flu in a big way"—and decided to use his illness as a bioweapon against Bauer and his staff. He boasts that he,
". . . started licking doorknobs. The front door, office doors, even a bathroom door. When that was done, I started in on the staplers, phones and computer keyboards. Then I stood in the kitchen and licked the rims of all the clean coffee cups drying in the rack."…
….In 2010, he garnered widespread acclaim for his "It Gets Better" campaign, an effort to prevent suicide among gay youth by having LGBT adults convey the message that the lives of these teens will eventually improve if they embrace their sexuality. The effort has been supported by dozens of influential politicians (Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton), celebrities (Justin Bieber, Tom Hanks) and corporations (Google, Apple). The message is a worthy one—no young person should be bullied, much less be driven to suicidal angst over it—but the inescapable fact is that for those who follow Savage’s advice, heterosexual or homosexual, it won’t "get better."
"Our bodies are our own," he has said, "they’re ours to use, abuse, and since we’re all going to die one day, they’re ours to use up." Savage’s message to teens and young adults is that before they end their lives they need first to experience diseases, divorces, and drug overdoses. Your bodies are still young and supple, he implies, it would be a waste to shuffle off this mortal coil before you have a chance to trash it.
What is most depressing is not Savage’s message—that is standard hedonist propaganda—but rather the respect he is given despite being an amoral cretin. Savage is no longer just a guy who writes for the weekly tabloids. Now he’s taken seriously by political leaders, business executives, actors, and pastors. His influence extends from Hollywood to the White House….

Be sure to read the whole post. Pat Dollard posted a video of Rick Tuttle, the journalism advisor for Sutter Union High School being interviewed by Fox News' Steve Doocy. He said as an educator he came to the speech thinking his students were going to here about bullying prevention, but instead some of his students were bullied themselves.

What little moral authority Dan Savage could be considered to have before this speech should now be considered gone.

A side note: I won't address every issue that Savage brought up in his diatribe, but his comments on Philemon and how the Bible addresses slavery were simply ignorant. I've studied and preached on that book of the Bible numerous times. Paul was not encouraging slavery, quite the opposite. He was advocating for a runaway slave, something that was unheard of in the Roman Empire. It is obvious as well that Dan Savage is ignorant of history as the slavery in Israel can not be compared to what we saw pre-Civil War. Also, the Bible does not advocate slavery and in fact, again showing his ignorance of history, the first abolitionists were in fact Christian. During the Roman Empire the people who first spoke out against the carnage in Coliseum which would pit slaves against one another (many gladiators were slaves) were Christians. So if he's going to go on a rant it would be great if he'd at least get his facts straight.

Sarah Palin Was a Prophet About Obama’s Education Takeover

Posted: 30 Apr 2012 10:15 AM PDT

By Maggie Gallagher

Sarah Palin was the first to recognize the problem: By participating in President Obama's signature education initiative, Race to the Top which pushed the Common Core standards, Alaska would lose control over its own curriculum.

On May 31, 2009, then-Gov. Palin announced Alaska would adopt a "watch and wait" attitude:

"If this initiative produces useful results, Alaska will remain free to incorporate them," Gov. Palin said, adding that "high expectations are not always created by new, mandated federal standards written on paper. They are created in the home, the community and the classroom."

Texas Gov. Rick Perry, to his credit, was the next to recognize a federal boondoggle when he saw one: "I will not commit Texas taxpayers to unfunded federal obligations or to the adoption of unproven, cost-prohibitive national standards and tests," Gov. Perry wrote in a Jan. 13, 2010, letter to U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan.

In the ensuing two years, it's become clear that Perry and Palin — two core conservative figures whose intelligence is routinely mocked by liberal "sophisticates" — were brilliantly prescient, indeed prophetic.

Common Core Standards turn out to be like Obamacare — you don't really know what's in it until after you pass it and are mired in its tentacles.

Today, even more states are waking up to discover that they have lost control of both curriculum and costs for a program that is untested and unlikely to improve student performance. A February study by the Pioneer Institute conservatively estimates that Obama's Common Core Standards will costs the states at least $16 billion — money that could be used to promote education in other ways.

This past week, Education Week's blog published a review of criticism for Obama's Common Core initiative. The shocking thing is how many liberals are now acknowledging Common Core comes at a high cost for little or no return. Tom Loveless of the Brookings Institution, for example, wrote, "(T)he most reasonable prediction is that the Common Core will have little to no effect on student achievement." Joanne Yatvin, a past president of the National Council on Teachers of English, writes, "Taken together, the standards and the criteria project an aura of arrogance and ignorance in their assumptions about how and why children learn."

Four education experts came together at the Heritage Foundation on April 17 to comment on more problems emerging with the Common Core Standards. A blog post describing the expert panel, titled "Why States Should Hop Off the National Standards Bandwagon," states:

"When 'states signed on to Common Core Standards, they did not realize … that they were transferring control of the school curriculum to the federal government,' explained Sandra Stotsky, 21st Century Chair in Teacher Quality at the University of Arkansas' Department of Education Reform.

"Theodor Rebarber, CEO and founder of AccountabilityWorks, explained, 'States did almost no cost analysis' when they signed on to adopt the Common Core Standards, although Rebarber noted, the Pioneer Institute report he authored conservatively estimated the overall national cost for implementing Common Core at a hefty $16 billion.

"Jim Stergios of the Pioneer Institute warned that the standards create 'a disincentive to innovators long term.' Federal involvement in curriculum, as attorney Kent Talbert of Talbert and Eitel explained, may even be illegal because three federal laws prohibit 'federal direction, control or supervision of curricula, programs of instruction and instructional materials … in the elementary and secondary school arena.'"

A pivotal moment in the history of American education will quietly occur on May 11 in Charlotte, N.C., when the board of the influential (and under fire) conservative American Legislative Exchange Council will meet to decide whether or not to accept its own education task force's recommendation of model legislation blocking implementation of Obama's Common Core.

"We eagerly anticipate that the ALEC Board will affirm the task force vote," said Emmett McGroarty, who works with the American Principles Project, which co-sponsored the Pioneer study and which lobbied for model legislation at ALEC. (Full disclosure: One of my projects, the Culture War Victory Fund, is also housed at APP.)

Obama's Common Core Standards violate federal laws in order to take over control of curriculum, on behalf of an unproven education initiative that leaves states $16 billion in debt.

Sarah Palin and Rick Perry are proven to be prophets. ALEC, you know what to do.

Maggie Gallagher is co-founder of the National Organization for Marriage.

Originally posted at American Principles Project

An Unprecedented Grassroots Organization: King Announces 550 County Co-Chairs in Iowa 4th Congressional District Race

Posted: 30 Apr 2012 07:30 AM PDT

(EARLY, IA) – Congressman Steve King (R-Kiron) today announced that his campaign for re-election in Iowa's 4^th Congressional District has over 550 county co-chairs. The organization covers all 39 counties making up the district.

"Iowans from every county in the 4^th District are stepping up to send common sense Iowa values back to Washington," said King. "These county co-chairs have joined my campaign because they know I won't duck the issues, I share their values and I am committed to working for the people of the 4^thDistrict. I look forward to taking their voice back to Washington."

The unprecedented organization reaches all 39 counties that make up Iowa's 4^th Congressional District, including counties not previously represented by Congressman King. This grassroots organization is believed to be one of the largest in Iowa's history.

"It is no secret campaigns are won at the local level," said King for Congress Campaign Manager Jake Ketzner. "With this robust organization in place, the King for Congress campaign is prepared to go county-by-county, precinct-by-precinct, to secure the votes needed to send Congressman King back to Washington."

You can read the entire list of co-chairs here.

Horoscop

marți, 1 mai 2012

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