Obituaries

Former Philippines leader Corazon Aquino, 76, of cancer.

The uprising she led in 1986 ended the repressive 20-year regime of Ferdinand Marcos and inspired nonviolent protests across the globe, including those that ended Communist rule in eastern Europe.

But she struggled in office to meet high public expectations. Her land redistribution program fell short of ending economic domination by the landed elite, including her own family. Her leadership, especially in social and economic reform, was often indecisive, leaving many of her closest allies disillusioned by the end of her term.

Still, the bespectacled, smiling woman in her trademark yellow dress remained beloved in the Philippines, where she was affectionately referred to as ''Tita (Auntie) Cory.''

''She was headstrong and single-minded in one goal, and that was to remove all vestiges of an entrenched dictatorship,'' Raul C. Pangalangan, former dean of the Law School at the University of the Philippines, said in 2009. ''We all owe her in a big way.''

The Education Wars

It's time for a little truth in disclosure when it comes to Education Public Enemy #1, Arne Duncan:

# At age 44, Emperor Hirohito announced to the people of Japan that he was not divine.

Secretary of Education Arne Duncan is 45. Past time for truth in disclosure.


# When Grateful Dead guitarist Jerry Garcia was 44, Ben & Jerry named a flavor in his honor.

What might be a good flavor for Arne?


# At age 44, George III lost the American colonies.

Arne is about to destroy American public education.


At age 45, George Orwell wrote 1984.

Arne invites the Business Roundtable and Achieve to direct the writing of the Common Core national standards.

# At age 45, Napoleon was defeated at Waterloo.

We can hope for a similar fate for you know who.

Few people in modern history have the potential to do such damage, but Arne is well on the way to becoming one of that elite group.
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Duncan has endeared himself to many teachers.
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Tomorrow marks the first official day of "work" for the new WCSD superintendent Heath Morrison. You can watch a video of him introducing himself and talking about some of his beliefs here.

Note all of the buzzwords like "stakeholders" and other privatizer lingo. He's an Eli Broad Academy "graduate."

He says he looks forward to meeting with people; however, he may rue the day he came out to this "world class school district," aka "wholly corrupt, shitty district."

As I've said very often, more and more school districts are being taken over by privatizers with Enron philosophies, and they found an ingenious way of subverting tenure laws (which say teachers MUST have the right to due process--but teachers like yours truly find due process is a joke, given the criminality school districts pull in administrative hearings--I am still shellshocked over my illegal dismissal and the various criminal acts, including probable bribery, committed by the crooks who spearheaded it) by creating false paper trails or finding some loophole to throw older and/or veteran teachers out so as to not be sued over age discrimination, and younger teachers get denied tenure and thus districts don't have to pay retirement benefits when these teachers don't become vested. In other words, these terminations of thousands of teachers throughout the country are for the most part not as a result of true misconduct but as a result of trumped up charges by administrators who want to save money. The bottom-line philosophy by bottom-of-the-barrel administrators, starting with the principals without principles at individual schools, has infested public education.

This is from a New York teacher, but it's apt everywhere in the country:

Why do they do it? They do it because, as my former principal once said, when I asked her why she would not implement some of the policies we thought would enrich the school for the children, because we "won't pay (her) mortgage." They want position, power and money, at all costs, regardless of what it does to others or how evil it proves them to be. They want numbers: accountability numbers: teachers fired; progress numbers: regents scores and high attendance.None of this proves anything, and teachers, not any other group: parents, students, guidance, school aides, ADMINISTRATORS, within education, are being held accountable for it all.

It's all politics, and I challenge those who believe that the bureaucrats who attack teachers are right to demand that the kids who attend the worst schools simply be transferred to the so-called best ones. You'll see that there is no change. Even the charter schools, which claim to be so successful, have high rates of expulsion of their students. Teachers are only one part of the system, and they should be held responsible for holding up their end, just as much, not more or less, as others.

I've also worked, as you have, though not to the same degree of effort, to get people in power to acknowledge what's going on, with little success. The people who do seem to listen are professors of education and a few of the reformers that can look beyond the "teacher quality" craze and into comprehensive quality in the field, which is what I believe is needed. Politicians, however, don't seem to care.

Anyway, thanks for what you're doing. Too many people are being destroyed, as a result of what's taking place. I have friends on the verge of total collapse, who've had nervous breakdowns, suffer from nightmares, or, because of situations similar to mine, are unable to find work and are near the end of their rope. I vividly remember the line, at the Manhattan UFT, which went around the door and to the elevator, of people appealing their U ratings, crying while on line, mostly all probationary teachers.

People spend years, trying to enter a profession where they feel they might be able to save lives. Instead, they're used as scapegoats and thrown away, by people who lack conscience, values or principles.

Why do they do it? It's the same answer as to why an unneutered male dog licks his balls--it's because they can, and there's nobody overseeing the corruption.
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Misc

This economy has negatively affected most of us, including Michael Jackson's doctor.
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The Education Wars

It's time to sack NYC schools chief Joel Klein, which means he will stay on indefinitely.

There is no question it is the worst, most corrupt school system in the country. However, what is going on there is or will be going on in every single one of the 13,000 public school districts in the country, thanks to "reformers" like Arne Duncan and Eli Broad.
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Teach for America might be a good idea for resume building, but from a cynical standpoint this is just another tool for unscrupulous administrators to undermine current teachers or refusing to hire qualified teachers in order to save a few bucks.

No retirement to pay out, either.
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Misc

An agreement has been reached regarding the custody of MJ's children.
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Misc [Updated]

It's hotter than hell in the northwest, including southern Oregon.

Seattle and Portland are expected to hit record highs. In Medford, which is near the northern California border, it's supposed to be 108 today.

The dogs are going to take the day off from their walks, whether Sam likes it or not. At least in the afternoon.

And yes, in theory you CAN fry an egg on a sidewalk, provided the surface temperature is hot enough:


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I LOVE riding on trains, even as the prices here might be a little steep.
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I always thought "organic" was nothing but a con to lure suckers who think they will live longer or are "helping" the environment.
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There's nothing like being a horse's ass or messing around with one:

Kenley found Vereen behind a barn where the horses are kept and pointed a shotgun at him. Kenley called police on her cell phone and waited for officers to arrive.

"He was very subdued,'' Kenley said. "He was like ... cold. He may have been in shock.''

Kenley said she asked Vereen what he was doing at the barn and that he said he was looking for a bathroom.

"I told him he was full of crap,'' Kenley said. "He apologized and said he didn't mean to hurt me.''

Vereen admitted to officers that he did have "relations'' with a horse on July 19, the report shows. Officers reported that they viewed a video showing the suspect having intercourse with a horse.

Lots and lots of dumb jokes in the comments section.

Some men are so sick and depraved. I wished he'd have met the same fate as that guy in Washington State a couple of years ago, later identified as Kenneth Pinyan.

In case you wanted to know, sex with animals isn't all that uncommon:

In addition to the legal problems, a person such as Robles would likely need treatment to avoid repeated similar behavior, Marks said.

“Typically the people who are involved with bestiality will have a difficult time being aroused by regular sex,” Marks said. “Many people will be very ashamed of it.”

Because of that shame, it is usually an outside force that will lead someone to seek treatment, such as a spouse’s demand or an incident with law enforcement.

“The treatment is behavioral therapy, which in generally involves decreasing the level of the arousal that people would have to this,” Marks said. “It’s hard not to laugh, but it’s a serious condition.”

In case you want to know here is a picture of the rape victim. She is on the left:



The alleged rapist's picture is at the beginning of this section.
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Obituaries

"The lack of money is the root of all evil." Truer words were never spoken, and those words were spoken by the flamboyant Reverend Ike, who has died. Ike, whose real name was Rev. Frederick J. Eikerenkoetter II, was 74

He never recovered from a stroke suffered in 2007.

His critics saw the donations as the entire point of his ministry, calling him a con man misleading his flock. His defenders, while acknowledging his love of luxury, argued that his church had roots both in the traditions of African-American evangelism and in the philosophies of mind over matter.

Whether legitimately or not, the money flooded in, making him a multimillionaire and enabling him to flaunt the power of his creed with a show of sumptuous clothes, ostentatious jewelry, luxurious residences and exotic automobiles. “My garages runneth over,” he said.

If he was a con man, he never hid it. I will always give him credit.

I used to listen to his radio program often in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

"You Deserve the Best":

The Health Care Mess

It's very comforting to know that basically six senators, all from mostly rural states, are holding real health care reform hostage.

We are screwed. Period.
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The Health Care Mess

According to the WSWS, hardly an objective source, Obama's "reform" attempts are hardly a giant leap forward towards true reform, and they target the New York Times' editorial on this issue:

Employing evasion and deception, the Times preys on the widespread discontent with the current state of the health care system to push for Obama’s proposals. It cites the immense burdens which the existing setup places on ordinary people to suggest that things will only get worse and the sole alternative is the cost-cutting overhaul proposed by Obama:

“Premiums and out-of-pocket spending for health care have been rising far faster than wages. Millions of people are ‘under-insured’—their policies don’t come close to covering their medical bills. Many postpone medical care or don’t fill prescriptions because they can’t afford to pay their share of the costs. And many declare personal bankruptcy because they are unable to pay big medical debts.”

This describes the failure of a health care system based on private profit. This—the central issue—the Times completely evades.

Instead, the newspaper shifts the blame onto the so-called “fee-for-service system.” The newspaper writes, “Virtually all experts blame the system for runaway health care costs because it pays doctors and hospitals for each service they perform.”

What experts? The newspaper does not say.

The editorial justifies Obama’s drive to do away with the fee-for-service system by replying to critics who fear that health care will be rationed to cut costs. “The truth is that health care is already rationed,” the Times writes, adding cynically, “No insurance, public or private, covers everything at any cost.”

The editorial in question is here.

Misc

MJ's doctor's Vegas house is being raided by the feds.
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Conjoined twins with a single body and two heads have died.

They could not be surgically separated.

They died after five days.
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A Florida judge has ruled a will on beat generation writer Jack Kerouac is nothing but a fake.

There is something about a death, especially of somebody with assets, which brings out the absolute worst in people.
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I have written a post or two about the so-called "Lomita Black Widow," Sonia Rios Risken, who was said to have masterminded the murders of her two husbands in the Philippines over a period of 19 years, only to be murdered herself. A man who was a close friend of hers and interviewed for CBS's 48 Hours about the case, bail bondsman Henry Hoskins, apparently committed suicide by gunshot a coroner ruled yesterday. He died last week.

Or perhaps not, according to some.

In any case, he was 70 years old.
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The Education Wars

Gerald Bracey takes on Barack and Arne's harebrained attempt to pervert the use of test scores in order to "evaluate" teachers. It's utterly stupid to pin education problems on the people least guilty of it.

Meanwhile, principals and other administrators can do whatever the fuck they want. There's NOBODY around to hold them accountable. School boards don't count, either.

States are rolling over and playing dead on this issue because a) they are desperate for money and b) it is unlikely that people like Bloomberg or the Governator--or Duncan-- have a clue about the abuse they are permitting.

Duncan's enthusiastic championing of a "reform" that has been shown not to work very well--charter schools--can only be taken as an instrument for union busting. If the NEA and AFT won't stand up to this abuse of testing, they deserve to be busted.

As I found in my own experience, unions are basically worthless in defending individual teachers. They are nothing but subsidiaries of the districts.
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The New York City public school district is arguably the worst and most corrupt in the United States. Apparently there were scads of so-called "U-ratings" of teachers, which translated means "unsatisfactory" and threatens teachers with termination if not stripping them of their licenses. This is a notoriously abusive system of an institution which already has numerous abusive public school districts, thanks in large part to "reforms" of the past thirty years forcing privatization models and schooling inept administrators in the worst aspects of businesses. I like this response from a dissent teacher explaining all of those "U-ratings":

On 7/25/09, And how many are bogus? wrote:
> My guess is about 80%.
>
> What's the definition of an "unsatisfactory" teacher?
>
> Anyone know?

Re: 1,554 U-Ratings Given Out in the NYC Schools for 2008-2009

Unsatisfactory Teacher TO THE *AGW'S :
*(Administrators-Gone-Wild)

One who questions.
One who asks too many questions.
One who points out wrongdoings.
One who reports wrongdoings.
One who campaigns for a better way of doing things.
One who doesn't work after work or on Saturdays as much as
they'd like.
One who reports violence or crimes, rather than covering them
up.
One who is out when they are ill, rather than allowing viruses
to spread.
One who tells the truth about the performance of the child or
the school.
One who asserts their rights.
One who defends the union contract.
One who defends the public trust.
One who is opposed to abuse of other teachers, students,
parents, community.
One who files a grievance. One who tries to organize staff.
One who distributes information to help the staff.
One who the principal conswiders a threat because they don't
appear at their parties.
One who is tenured, experienced and/or over 40 years of age.
One who appears eccentric or of with an accent, or with a
cultural or religious difference that the AGW's find
unacceptable.
One who is not content with Everyday Math or The Workshop
Model.
One who's had the misfortune of a combination of illness,
death in the family, religious observances, someone to care
for, etc., which caused latenesses or absences, which
inconvenienced the principal (supposedly inconveniencing the
school).
One who has an either too fast or too slow but deliberate
delivery of a lesson.
One whom the principal wants out so they can stick a friend in
to replace.
One whom a parent or child or other staff member complains
about for standing their ground.
One whom the principal dislikes for any reason whatsoever and
would seek to "gun for", harass, humiliate, belittle, villify,
retaliate against arbitrarily, capriciously and/or
maliciously.
And then there are cases of real incompetence in perhaps 5%.
Polo Colon

Jimbo Eruptions

Former Nevada governor Bob List thinks there is a good chance the dipshit in the governor's mansion may not run for re-election.

My feeling is it all depends on how low his numbers are late this year or early next year, and how much pressure state Republican leaders put on Jimbo to get the hell out of Carson City.

The Blue Dogs

of the Democratic Party are the major obstacle to any meaningful health care reform.

If they supported single-payer, for example, these conservative Democrats would not be re-elected or get big bucks from health insurance interests, but their lack of will guarantees we won't get anything worth a crap out of Congress.

The Senate, of course, is much, much worse.

Misc

Now that Michael Jackson is dead and maybe buried, sleazeball Martin Bashir, whose "documentary" of MJ put the late singer in the worst light possible by insinuating he did something wrong with those kids but help his own dubious career, says this:

Certainly when I made the documentary, there was a small part of that which contained a controversy concerning his relationship with other young people. But the truth is that he was never convicted of any crime, I never saw any wrongdoing myself. And last his lifestyle may have been unorthodox, I don't believe it was criminal. And I think the world has now lost the greatest entertainer it's probably ever known."

So why didn't you say anything THEN?

The comments following the article are worth reading.

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I can't STAND this New Agey "positive" psychobabble garbage which says if you just will yourself to think "positive," good things will come your way.

It's the same crap as the "prosperity gospel" which has polluted Christianity. If you're poor or "unsuccessful," it's your own damned fault.
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The Health Care Mess

Does health care reform mean costs won't be cheaper?
_____

Yes, single-payer is the answer, but unfortunately there is no chance our politicians, most if not all of whom are on the take from the health insurance industry, will do what is right.

The Education Wars

Arne Duncan and his push for charter schools have been dealt a setback.
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The idea of using student test scores to "measure" teacher "performance" is so stupid as to be laughable, especially when you consider kids don't take standardized tests seriously to begin with.

Of course administrators aren't held to any such standards. They already abuse their power as it is, and teachers will be treated even worse with these dumb ideas.

Ohanian says Duncan and politicians like George Miller, a so-called Democrat like Arne, are killing the teaching profession. The profession has already been on life support since the Reagan years. Nobody in his or her right mind would go into this field now with the privatizers and more crooks overtaking the schools.

The Health Care Mess

Ralph Nader weighs in on Obama's "reform" ideas and the opposition to them.

The opposition is the same as it was when the AMA went after Truman's proposals some sixty years ago.

Clinton Interview

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made the rounds of the talk shows today:

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Among the topics was the prospect of voters electing a woman president.

It just floors me that so many countries, third world as well as western countries, have had women at the helm, but not the good ol' (boy) U.S. of A. I won't see it in my lifetime, I'm afraid.

More commentary is here.

Misc

New WCSD superintendent Heath Morrison will need all the help he can get, but I suspect he's like all the rest of these clowns who run our schools.

He will stay a couple of years then move on to a bigger district with more money and perks.
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The infamous "Octomom" will get her wish for a reality TV show by exploiting her kids.
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Alberto Contador won this year's Tour de France. Lance Armstrong finished third.

Obama

needs to cut out with the "bipartisanship" nonsense and start all over again on health care reform:

When will Barack Obama and the real leaders in the House and Senate finally come to the realization that the health insurors and pharmaceutical companies are the bitter ENEMIES of health care reform? My guess is never. Barack Obama has become totally mesmerized by the odd and unachievable concept of "bipartisanship," seemingly unable to understand that it requires Republican cooperation to succeed and he will NEVER obtain it. The House and Senate have become so dependent on insurance and pharmaceutical industry campaign contributions that, with only a few exceptions, they are wholly enraptured in the thrall of their lobbyists.

I am now of the firm belief that Barack Obama needs to withdraw his current proposal and start all over. He has fallen into the same trap that ensnared Hillary Clinton back in 1993. His proposal (or more accurately "Congress's proposal;" Obama has misunderstood the nature of her mistake, ascribing it to White House authoring of the bill rather than to its nature itself) is now so complicated and arcane that it is not possible to decipher whether any given individual will find it to be beneficial to his or her own situation. This is exactly what Hillary did, and although the purpose in both cases was to try to make reform palatable to health insurors, pharmaceutical companies and health care providers, it only made easier for the enemies of health care reform to employ their highly sophisticated public relations engines to kill it. Complexifying it made it easy for the enemies of reform to overstate its costs and raise fears of its effectiveness even while explaining what its impact on anyone would be, which takes many more words than any news sound bite or bumpersticker will permit.

In order to sell health care reform, the benefits must be made apparent TO THE PEOPLE. This is not possible if the whole thrust of your argument is that, for most people, things will remain the same. Why, even Republicans falsely assert that they want to change things. But that's what Obama is doing -- touting continuity rather than reform, and heralding Federal budget savings rather than the savings and benefits that individuals would enjoy, and it has no chance whatsoever to succeed.

Indeed, there is now a very real threat that any bill reported out of Congress will contain a mandate for everyone to have health insurance, but no public option. In other words, it will FORCE all of us to become customers of the health insurors, a situation they greatly desire. This will make things much worse, both in the short term and in the long run, but this seems to be all we will be able to get out of the current effort. It is WORSE than nothing, will take money OUT of the pockets of our least privileged and give it to the enemies of health care reform, and will do nothing in any way to reform the practices of insurors, drugmakers and health care providers that have gotten us into this mess.

The "mandatory" coverage ala mandatory auto insurance coverage will fail. Period.

George Tiller

The late doctor was a far more formidable foe than anti-abortionists ever thought possible.

This part of his biography is interesting, I think:

Dr. Tiller’s career in abortion began with family tragedy.

In August 1970, his parents, sister and sister’s husband were killed when the small private plane his father was piloting crashed near Yellowstone National Park. Dr. Tiller, who had carried his father’s bag on house calls as a boy, left the Navy and returned home to care for his grandparents and wind down his father’s family practice. He and his wife, Jeanne, adopted his sister’s baby son, and he talked of settling into life as a dermatologist.

But he discovered his father had been performing significant numbers of illegal abortions, and before long women began turning to him for abortions, too, often under desperate circumstances. “The women taught him about life in Wichita,” said Linda Stoner, who worked for Dr. Tiller for a decade. The more skilled he became, the more referrals he got, the more he undercut prices of competitors, the more he began to specialize in abortion, making it the main focus of his practice by the late 1970s.

What Is Art?

Whatever "art" is, I wouldn't call it this:







This sculpture is almost as controversial in Medford as the columns:




This one is called "Salmon Flight," and the fish "fly" in the breeze. At least a Rogue Valley artist came up with this one:

There’s something fishy about the
Medford Arts Commission’s latest installation
of public art.

“Salmon Flight,” a 15-foot kinetic sculpture
featuring three fish spinning with the
breeze, was unveiled in the dancing waters
of the Mayor’s Fountain in downtown Medford
on Jan. 18.

The piece is the handiwork of Richard
Jarel, a Rogue Valley-based artist with an
extensive background as an illustrator and
special effects artist for both film and TV.
Jarel, who pieces have appeared in Jungle
Book II and Star Trek movies, has also designed
toys for Mattel.

The Arts Commission tapped Jarel for
the sculpture project in May 2007.

link

This commenter has it right about the columns:

It looks like an aluminum soda can, mangled by the recycling machine. Well worth the money.

And this:

OMG!!! The thing looks like a Wal-Mart version of Stonehenge!!!! What the heck?????

A month after this piece of crap was unveiled, most of the public still hasn't been won over.

Obituaries

Harry Patch, Britain's last World War I veteran, died at the age of 111.

There are no French or German servicemen of World War I still alive, while American veteran Frank Buckles, 108, is still alive and lives in Virginia.

The Education Wars

It has been obvious from the beginning Obama and Duncan are enemies of public education:

Obama outlined three “strategies” for so-called underperforming schools, all of them reactionary. “One strategy involves replacing the principal, replacing much of the staff, and giving the school a second chance,” he said. “Another strategy involves inviting a great nonprofit to help manage a troubled school. A third strategy involves converting a dropout factory into a successful charter school. These are public schools funded by parents, teachers, and civic or community organizations with broad leeway to innovate.” The second and third strategies—featuring “great nonprofit” groups and “community organizations”—indicate that Obama may see a role for religious groups in public education.

Duncan, speaking before Obama, said that Race to the Top would be used to encourage states and school districts to fire teachers. They “must be ready to institute far-reaching reforms, replace school staff, and change the school culture,” he said. “We cannot continue to tinker in terrible schools where students fall further and further behind, year after year.”

Duncan outlined three other funds, a collective $4.8 billion, that will also be awarded only to those states and school districts “willing to turn around their lowest-performing schools,” as Duncan put it.

Obama and Duncan implicitly laid the blame for the problems of public education at the feet of “bad” teachers.

"Race to the Top" is a bullshit idea based on a bullshit premise. Oh, how disgusted I continue to be with politicians who haven't a clue what the real problem is in education, and it isn't with the teachers.

It's administrators because they aren't held accountable; school boards are jokes in the vast majority of school districts.

Here's more about the harebrained scheme.

I Have Been Saying This for Years

about college not being the answer for everybody or even for most people; JOBS are the answer, including bringing back manufacturing jobs to the United States.

The reason for the push to force people to "retrain" for jobs that don't exist is obvious: a huge supply of workers forces wages and salaries downward. A secondary reason to push for retraining is to provide jobs for those who do the retraining.

But there is nothing left for the masses. Not everybody can sell shit, and you have to have be a good liar to be a good seller. I am not good enough for that, and I am not one who can stand rejection day in and day out. Not everybody can do specialized jobs. And forget teaching because that has turned to shit thanks to the privatization mantra and No Child Left Behind.

There is NO substitute for a vital, vibrant manufacturing base, and there is no substitute for vital, EFFECTIVE unions to ensure a decent standard of living for people.

The Health Care Mess

With the Blue Dogs threatening to screw up any kind of meaningful health care reform, who needs the GOP.

In the end, this has little to do with "liberal vs. conservative" but has everything to do with who is more on the take from corporations.

The Education Wars

As if we didn't know this would be one of the results of No Child Left Behind.
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Some sage advice from a Nevada educator talking about the absolutely shitty school system there. It isn't just confined to Clark County or even to Nevada: bad administrators and ineffective unions are rampant throughout the United States.

It is indeed a crapshoot whether a teacher survives in public schools. One rotten, sociopathic principal, and it's all over, not just in Nevada but in every school district in the entire United States. You are blackballed and prevented from ever teaching again.

A snip:

First, the average annual teacher salary, roughly $46,000, is about half what police officers and firefighters make. In the first three years of this decade, as prices were tripling here, teachers received 0 percent (zero) in cost-of-living increases. In fact, teachers' cost-of-living raises for the entire decade have totaled only 16 percent, while police and firefighters have gotten between 35 and 45 percent.

In this derelict academic climate, psychopathic principals have frequently run rampant to create "lasting wounds and damaged schools," to quote Jo and Joseph Blase, co-authors of the book Breaking the Silence. According to one study cited by the Blases, 40 percent of principals nationally are knuckle-dragging troglodytes. In Vegas, this figure is probably closer to 60 percent. Hence, getting in a school here with a good principal is a crapshoot. The odds are stacked against you.

In a revealing speech to our school board recently, Ruben Murillo, president of the local teachers union, said, "We ask teachers to speak up [about working conditions], and they can't because they're afraid of retaliation." Sadly, Murillo's statement was a tacit admission the union has consistently failed its job of protecting teachers from unethical administrators.

One must understand, however, these "unions" aren't real unions at all and are nothing more than subsidiaries of school districts. And the problems with teachers' unions are the same all over the United States.

The Booming Economy

About one in five Jackson and Josephine County (Oregon) residents receives food stamps.
_____

Wall Street celebrated the rise in jobless claims.
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More Cronkite

His memorial service is being carried live by CBS.

Meanwhile, like many other observers, Gene Lyons mourns the end of professionalism which Cronkite's death marks:

Two big things about Cronkite and his times made him different from today's multimillionaire news celebrities. First, he came up as a print journalist, covering ball games, school fires, city council meetings and the Texas state Legislature. He knew a fact from an opinion, how to distinguish a reliable source from the other kind and how to construct an airtight story. He was a news professional, devoted to craft. I suspect he'd have walked off the set rather than devote an entire newscast to a pop singer's death, never mind entire weeks.

Second, Cronkite grasped the purely arbitrary aspects of TV celebrity. Fame never went to his head. In retirement, he conducted a long-running feud with CBS executives he thought sacrificed journalistic values to the star system and bottom-line greed.

"Something is seriously out of balance," he wrote in his 1996 autobiography, "when the top people receive such huge wages while the networks drastically cut their staffs to meet grossly reduced budgets."

The exacting standards that Cronkite and his colleagues established have all but vanished. One of the right-wing noise machine's signal achievements has been to devalue even the possibility of his kind of professionalism. It's all propaganda to them.

We'll not soon see Walter Cronkite's like again.

How true, unfortunately.

The Booming Economy

The class war against the vast majority of American workers continues, as this report shows:

According to a Wall Street Journal analysis of Social Security Administration data, more than one-third of all pay in the U.S. now goes to executives and other highly-paid employees:

Executives and other highly compensated employees now receive more than one-third of all pay in the U.S., according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of Social Security Administration data — without counting billions of dollars more in pay that remains off federal radar screens that measure wages and salaries. Highly paid employees received nearly $2.1 trillion of the $6.4 trillion in total U.S. pay in 2007, the latest figures available. The compensation numbers don’t include incentive stock options, unexercised stock options, unvested restricted stock units and certain benefits.

You bet your ass there should be a surtax.

Do You Want Cheese with Your Whine,

Amy.

She bitches and moans about marriage and all of the benefits going with it and the social pressure to marry, but she does it anyway. So much for "principles."

The ONLY real advantage to getting married is economic, provided both spouses are working. The standard of living is generally higher, but if one of the spouses should be unemployed, there is still wage income in the household to keep afloat. It is MUCH, MUCH, MUCH more difficult economically to remain single.

Not that I am sorry I am, but I have gone through much more difficult times financially because of it. However, I don't care for the lack of privacy tradeoff, etc., that necessarily comes with marriage.

But I am not whining about how society stacks things in marriage's favor, mostly because of society's desire to perpetuate itself through those children produced in most marriages, like dear Amy.

Miscellaneous News

It's bad enough that a little girl was sexually assaulted by a gang of boys, but her parents' attitude is even worse, and there is no cultural excuse argument for the parents' attitude she brought "shame" on the family.

The girl and the four suspects are refugees from the war-torn West African country of Liberia, which, according to investigators, would complicate authenticating names and dates of birth.

Arizona Child Protective Services took custody of the girl after the July 16 incident at the apartment complex after her parents disowned her.

Hill said the parents blamed her for being victimized and bringing shame to the family.

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A woman, 89, and her 45-year-old car with over a half million miles on the original engine are still going strong.

Jesus effing Christ on a cracker. The GOP really doesn't have any issues, and they are still peddling that birth certificate shit.

If the Republicans and their ilk spent as much time criticizing outsourcing jobs and importing H1Bs as they do bitching about where Obama was born, they might not be so marginalized right now.

Obama's Press Conference

I missed Obama's press conference last night, trying to recuperate from my trip to Lava Beds National Monument. Here are a couple of viewpoints of what the president said:

TNR's Jonathan Cohn thinks Obama was honest about health care reform issues.

Patrick Martin of the WSWS believes Obama was being evasive and lying about the issue.

From First Read is this belief Obama's press conference was a crashing bore.

Meanwhile, you can watch the press conference for yourself and decide:

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

The Education Wars

I haven't had a lot of use for Bill Gates trying to impose his nutty ideas about education on the public, but is he really any worse than the assholes running public schools right now?

When you consider the fact so many of these up-and-coming superintendents are now trainees of the Eli Broad Academy, which fills these people's heads with all kinds of privatization nonsense, what hope is there for public education? It's going down the toilet, all by design.

Gates wants to demonize teachers, who have been reduced to be merely soldiers for the corrupt people higher on the chain, but doesn't want to do a damned thing about the real problem, which is structural.

If I had known then what I know now about public education, I would never have gone into the field, or at least never bothered with public school districts.

Susan Ohanian's comment:

Emperor Gates wants to track student performance from early childhood education through high school and college and into the workplace. Yes, let's do it. Let's see which schools produce lying cheats who destroy the social and economic fabric of communities by moving in box stores, defraud stockholders with Ponzi schemes, refuse to pay a living wage, outsource jobs to India and other foreign ports, and so on. And which schools produce social activists, whistleblowers, doctors, lawyers, and teachers willing to work in needy communities.

Ohanian forgets, though, there are lying cheats rampant in the administration of public schools, cheats in taxpayer-financed secure jobs such as principals, human resources superintendents, and school district superintendents. THESE job holders, not those who work in fake "tenured" teaching jobs which only guarantee teachers the "right" to a kangaroo hearing process while being denied true due process, are almost always immune from accountability.

Lava Beds National Monument VI

Lava Beds National Monument V

We didn't have time to go to Medicine Lake, which is a highlight of the area. I would like to go there, and it is accessible from Highway 89 going to Burney Falls.

Lava Beds National Monument IV

Lava Beds National Monument III

Lava Beds National Monument II

Lava Beds National Monument I

Today my brother and I went to Lava Beds National Monument near Tulelake, California. I had never been there before. We visited a number of the lava sites and toured four caves. I ended up getting "stuck" in a crawlspace because my brother got disoriented in the Catacombs cave, but I managed to get myself free and found my way out of it.

First of several parts. I wanted to group the pictures together depending on where we were.

Miscellaneous News

Today's Obituary: Gidget, the "Taco Bell dog," 15, euthanized after suffering a stroke.
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There are no plans to investigate the allegations of sexual assault against NFL QB Ben Roethlisberger.
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I for one am glad to hear this about Dan Rather's lawsuit against CBS.
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Let's hope medical science can help this young woman who suffers from acromeglia.
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If You Want Proof

there has been a class war going on in this country for the past 30 years and the media continues to uphold the war by the elites against everybody else, just take a look at how the media, speaking for those same elites, are treating the tax surcharge on the very rich to help pay for health care reform as something terrible:

In a blitz of interviews Monday and Tuesday, Obama refused to endorse a provision of a House version of his health care plan that would impose a small tax surcharge on the rich. Under the House plan, individuals making more than $280,000 a year or families earning more than $350,000—about 1.2 percent of US households—would be required to pay the surtax. For a family making $500,000, the surtax would amount to about $1,500.

The tax surcharge provision was included in a bill passed by a House committee last week, and within days the head of the Congressional Budget Office issued a highly critical report declaring that Obama’s reforms would not slow the rise in health care costs and suggesting a tax on employee health benefits.

This sequence of events was not accidental. The media, speaking for the ruling class, has been overtly hostile to the tax surcharge, complaining that the provision would unduly penalize the rich.

If you have far more money at the expense of everybody, you should help pay for help. But that isn't the way the current political system operates.

However, nobody bats an eyelash to slash Medicare and Medicaid, programs designed to help people.

The Booming Economy

Once a crook, always a crook.

In an economy and society where thievery, as long as it is white-collar thievery, not the garden-variety kind done by peons, is honored, it is no surprise these crooks do better than ever.

Miscellaneous News [Updated]

Another NFL jock is mired in scandal:

Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger has been named as a defendant in a lawsuit filed by a woman who claims he sexually assaulted her in Reno.

According to online court records, a defamation lawsuit was filed Friday in Washoe District Court. Andrea McNulty is listed as the plaintiff.

Update: For the curious, here is the lawsuit.

Here is the response from Roethlisberger's lawyer. It is very terse.

TMZ raises all kinds of questions about Andrea McNulty.
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I just found out Unremembered, directed and written by my nephew, Greg Kerr, is an official selection at the New Jersey Film Festival this fall at Rutgers.

It's a pretty good film, but a little bit on the offbeat side.
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Reno officials are looking at expanding the city's bike paths, which I think is a great idea.

Cycling (along with other outdoor activities) has kept what sanity I have during these rough times.
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Oops

It appears Governor Sarah Palin has some ethics problems:

An independent investigator has found evidence that Gov. Sarah Palin may have violated ethics laws by accepting private donations to pay her legal debts, in the latest legal distraction for the former vice presidential candidate as she prepares to leave office this week.

She's probably going to need to go on the lecture/book peddling route.

The Health Care Mess

And speaking of the rich, we shouldn't be afraid at all at taxing them more to pay for major reform.

"We," of course, refers to Congress, which in turn is scared to death of offending campaign contributors.

There is no political will.

These arguments make little sense. According to a study by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, very few small businesses would be affected. And small businesses that offer health insurance will see their costs reduced by the health plan. And as my colleague Jonathan Chait has pointed out, The Washington Post is arguing that we shouldn't use an effective means for reducing future deficits to reduce future deficits. If you can figure out the reasoning there, you are smarter than I am.

But I want to take the argument a step further and address the Republican/Blue Dog argument that taxing the rich will--in the words of one clumsily written congressional letter--"kill the goose that will lay the golden eggs of our recovery." I think it's important to realize that during a recession, taxing the rich can speed a recovery as long as the revenue it creates is spent rather than saved. And during a recovery, taxing the rich can help stabilize the economy. It can be a good thing to do in either case.

Judis' arguments are spot-on. But again the problem is these elected officials don't really represent the rank-and-file voters; they represent the tiny number of economic elites in this country whose ideas are ruining it.

Obama's First Six Months

Even though it is still early in Obama's term, some trends are becoming obvious, at least to the WSWS.

Obama ran on the nebulous idea of "change," but it appears much of his term has been a continuation of the same old thing.

The biggest outrage is the fact he has been all too willing to help out the banking interests which plunged this country into an economic hellhole while seemingly treating working people with contempt, i.e., how he has treated the domestic auto industry.

The Health Care Mess

Is Obama's health care reform proposal all what it is cracked up to be? Of course the WSWS finds a lot wrong with it:

As five different Democratic-sponsored plans continue to work their way through Congress, the White House is still hoping a deal can be reached among the various House and Senate versions before the August recess. The possibility of such an outcome appears increasingly remote as the legislation has come under attack from Republicans, a section of fiscally conservative Democrats and a report from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO).

Obama has pressed for the adoption of health care reform as perhaps the key pillar of the first year of his administration. His vision of “reform,” however, is based on rationing of care and cuts in expenditures. According to his views, all medical care should be subject to “cost-effectiveness” analysis.

He has consistently come out against establishing a so-called single-payer system, where the government would operate the health care system. Such a system, he argues, would be highly disruptive to the current system, i.e., a system based on health care for profit. Obama has also insisted that his plan will be “budget neutral” and chiefly paid for through the gutting of the federal entitlement programs for the elderly and poor, Medicare and Medicaid.

Note this about Dina Titus, representative of Nevada's third district:

The two—Dana Titus, from suburban Las Vegas, and Jared Polis, representing the wealthy suburbs of Denver, Colorado—opposed the bill largely due to its inclusion of a one-percentage point surtax on couples with incomes between $350,000 and $500,000. (This would gradually increase to 5.4 percent on earnings more than $1 million.)

With these "Democrats" opposing any meaningful reform, there isn't a chance in hell it is going to happen.

The problem with health care in this country is it is a mostly for-profit system, and health care systems should not be subject to the bottom line. Insurance companies have to be cut out for any meaningful reform to happen. Since almost all of our elected officials have been paid off by contributions, there is no political will to do what is necessary.

The Past is the Present

It's Harry and Louise all over again:

So much propaganda comes out of the anti-health-care crowd these days. All the anecdotes about horrors in Canada and the U.K. as if somehow we couldn't rapidly find HUNDREDS of WORSE stories about horrors with health insurance, pharmaceuticals and health care providers under our ridiculous system for every story from a socialized medicine system they might come up with. They harp on the costs, ignoring the horrible costs we pay now, a higher percentage of our GDP devoted to health care costs than any other nation. They talk about "government bureaucrats coming between you and your doctor," when right now we have insurance company clerks interposing themselves between you and your health care, with personal and professional incentives to deny you that care that would not affect any governmental decision.

We need to come out with some much starker and blunter TV advertising. We need this to counter the anti-health-care propaganda -- which consists mostly of lies or at best anecdotes that are deliberately misleading if technically factual -- that is being so effectively spread by insurance and pharmaceutical companies and Republicans, who act in coordination and with the cooperation of our various TV entities who know which side of their bread is buttered by advertising revenue and campaign contributions.

We need an ad that makes the point that opponents of health care are KILLING AMERICANS by the THOUSANDS, every single day of every week. They are causing injuries to go untreated, causing us pain and suffering by the millions, draining our bank accounts and costing us jobs because our products are so much more expensive than those of our competitors, all to save the rich a few pennies on their taxes and preserve the obscene profits of the insurance and pharmaceutical fatcats.

Our ads need to point out that the big pharma and insurance companies, and the Republican (and some Democratic) legislators they have so effectively bought, ARE KILLING AMERICAN MEN, WOMEN and CHILDREN in numbers far greater than any wars we may fight, far greater numbers than fall to cigarettes or obesity, far greater numbers than we lose to automobile accidents or violent crime.

THEY ARE KILLING US FOR MONEY. We need to drive this point home with as much forcefulness as we can muster. It's the whole point. THEY ARE KILLING US! BY THE THOUSANDS! TO LINE THEIR OWN POCKETS!

We need to say these things. We can give examples of parents who have lost their children, children who have lost their parents, and families who have been bankrupted and who have lost their homes. We need to FIGHT!

Unless people start pressure Congress for health care and insurance reform, the medical industrial complex will once again stop it. And millions upon millions of people will continue to suffer because of corporate greed.

Obituaries

Angela's Ashes author Frank McCourt, who was also a longtime teacher in NYC, of cancer.

I have never read this book, but it sounds like an interesting one.
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Gordon Waller, 64, of the British pop duo Peter and Gordon, of cardiovascular disease.

"A World Without Love":



link

Miscellaneous

A kind person decided to pay a lot of money to keep this puppy from being exploited in a freak show.

The puppy's extra leg will be surgically removed.
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With the death of Henry Allingham of Britain Saturday, Montana man Walter Breuning is now the world's oldest living man.

He will be 113 in September.

There is also some video at the link. He's sharper than people half his age.
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The astronauts of the Apollo 11 moon landing said Obama should aim for manned exploration to other places, including Mars.
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The Education Wars

Is there any doubt Obama and Arne Duncan are enemies of public education? If you think the New York City Board of Education system is bad, just wait until it goes national:

Secretary of Education Arne Duncan's agenda seems designed to alienate middle-class teachers and parents who depend on public schools. His school reform proposals lack a well-grounded sense of why schools fail. His agenda includes the following:

* abolishing elected school boards in more cities and replacing them with superintendents and boards chosen by mayors.
* increasing the number of charter schools to compete with existing neighborhood public and magnet schools.
* linking teacher pay and job security with student test scores regardless of the kids' socioeconomic background or behavior.
* creating a national technology system of tracking student test scores from year to year.
* employing federal grants to pressure school district to adopt the policies he thinks will improve schools.

That first suggestion would make school districts even MORE corrupt than they already are. The problem in education isn't academic but structural, with administrators having unlimited power to do whatever the hell they want, and never mind if it is ethical or legal.

NYC's school system, run by a mayor, is arguably the worst school system in the entire country. Innocent teachers by the hundreds are put into "rubber rooms" waiting for their hearings, which are almost always ruled in favor of the district. Abuse of teachers is rampant by these rogue principals and higher-level administrators. Duncan's "reforms" would do nothing to solve the problem since he obviously believes, as do these "reformers," these mentally- and ethically-challenged administrators are just what school districts need.

Gerald Bracey also takes a dim view of mayoral control of schools.

Note this:

A June 2009 Chicago Tribune article noted that two thirds of all new Chicago teachers leave within 5 years and that half of the teachers in high poverty areas disappear after only three. Hard to have a turnaround with that kind of turnover.

One doesn't get really good at teaching until he or she does it for at least four or five years--it takes time to get good at it, but more and more school districts aren't giving new teachers a chance, unless, of course, they have political connections to the district via nepotism. Note also that few of these teachers stay five years--five years, of course, is when teachers (unless they work in jobs elsewhere in the state) become vested in retirement. The study doesn't mention how many of these teachers who leave do so because they are harassed by uncaring principals although Bracey does mention more than a few were likely pushed out of their jobs.

Illinois, like Nevada and several other states, doesn't pay into Social Security for their teachers. They save money there, and then they never have to pay the retirement for teachers who don't become vested. My district was paying over $500 a month for me in PERS contributions, so think of all of the money they saved in contributions by throwing out a teacher it deemed "too old" to work for them. And then the state pays out less in monthly pensions, maybe just a third or fifth as much (depending on when I collect) than if I worked there until I was 65.

School districts abuse the tenure system by firing teachers for stupid reasons when the truth is they do it to save money once they reach tenure, or they simply deny it to younger, less experienced teachers for the same reason.

Mitch McConnell ALWAYS

makes the Democrats look good, even in their less-than-stellar moments. He's one of the worst people in the United States Senate.

The reason the GOP seems not to care about health care reform has less to do about whether they care about the best interests of people but that they don't want Democrats to succeed with ANYTHING. If the Democrats succeed with health care, then this would marginalize the GOP even more in future elections. It's politics first and foremost with them, with their contributors second, and ideology third.

It has nothing to do with "fiscal responsibility."

The Moon Landing

Leave it to the WSWS to tie the moon program with the military and the Cold War.

Of course this explanation is true. What is interesting about the article, though, is the program stopped in 1972, just at the peak of United States economic supremacy. The country went into decline thereafter:

The dead end of the US space program did not arise because of failures by the scientists and engineers who joined it out of a genuine desire to make a contribution to mankind’s emergence from a planet-bound to an interplanetary existence. NASA continues to achieve technical and scientific advances with a series of brilliant efforts to explore the solar system through robot spacecraft—in the past year alone, a flyby of Mercury, the Phoenix mission to Mars, the continued success of the two Mars rovers landed five years ago, the repair of the Hubble Space Telescope, and preparations for additional missions to the outer planets.

In the final analysis, the successful exploration of space is beyond the capability of any national state, even the richest and most technologically advanced. And under today’s conditions of worldwide economic crisis, whatever remains of the gains of past decades will be quickly lost.

The Health Care Mess

At least this is better than nothing for those who need long-term care, but you can bet the insurance companies are involved somehow.

If not, let's hope this is the first step to getting real health care reform, and not just tinkering around the edges to help the health insurance industry:

Should the need arise for nursing home care, however, payment would climb to at least $100 a day. This partial subsidy would take some of the sting out of nursing home costs. The price per day at a nursing home for individuals who pay privately averages $282.

For low-income people and the thousands more who quickly become impoverished paying for their own home care and/or nursing home bills, the combined state/federal medical program Medicaid picks up the tab. Since the majority of all nursing home patients are indigent, Medicaid outlays for them are an enormous drain on state and federal budgets. The availability of an added $100 payment per day in non-taxpayer dollars under Kennedy’s program would save millions in Medicaid costs.

Only about 10 percent of Americans have bought into commercially offered long-term care insurance, mainly because of cost and complicated terms. Comprehensive plans range in cost from around $1,500 a year to more than $5,000.

The long-term care program has the backing of President Obama as well as about 100 organizations for the disabled, elderly, and workers, along with 80 percent of voters queried in opinion polls.

More Cronkite

Walter Cronkite was celebrated, but not for his more significant moments, such as his remarks about the mess in Vietnam, while Tim Russert was celebrated for being what the current journalistic mob, particularly in the Beltway, do, which is not journalism.

To be fair, though, Russert's premature death was a horrible shock to everybody, and he appeared to be a genuinely good person, a contrast to the hatchet man persona he displayed on Meet the Press. Cronkite lived to a ripe old age and was active until shortly before he died. And one should bear in mind Russert, unlike Cronkite, was NOT a journalist anyway; he started out as a political hack. The fact political operatives like him, George Stephanopolous, Chris Matthews, and Joe Scarborough are even given a forum at all when true journalists are ignored should tell us all how far media standards have fallen. It's now all about infotainment, not about information.
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No sooner is Cronkite's body cold than somebody is wanting to cash in writing a "tell-all" book writing about how mean he was and was never around his children.

Media Follies

I am sure the cable outlets will be very heartbroken when no murder indictments will occur in connection with Michael Jackson's sudden death.

However, some doctors could get into trouble over prescribing drugs improperly.

Sanford & Sin

This scoundrel tries to play the God card in his attempt to keep his office:

I have struggled with how best to convey my regret in letting so many down, and in that regard I realize this column does not do justice to the process of saying “I am sorry.” A hand-written note or phone call would ultimately be more appropriate, but given the number of people I need to apologize to, I write this to begin the journey of trying to get things more right with you and others.

It is true that I did wrong and failed at the largest of levels, but equally true is the fact that God can make good of our respective wrongs in life. In this vein, while none of us has the chance to attend our own funeral, in many ways I feel like I was at my own in the past weeks, and surprisingly I am thankful for the perspective it has afforded.

If you ever have the misfortune of being at this point, whether self-induced as in my case or not, it will give you an indeed amazing perspective on life and on what really matters. I read notes from someone who worked in a sandwich shop I ate at 10 years ago, from 7th-grade classmates, from state employees and more. While there have been lifetimes of lessons learned over the past weeks, three things most immediately come to mind:

In other words, he's going to stay in office, come hell or high water. Screw the people he supposedly represents.

Ensign, Etc.

What is life REALLY like in that C Street place affiliated with "The Family":

Sharlet: The Family began with this idea that God does not work through churches but rather through those whom The Family calls the “New Chosen.” They believe they’re chosen by God. They can’t be expected to pray with the rest of us. They need to pray in private with people of equal status.

When you join one of these prayer groups, you give these men veto power over your life, over every aspect of your life. Wives involved with The Family have said, “In my husband’s life, his brothers come first, I come second.”

We saw that happening with the men Doug Hampton went to see. They were exercising veto power over Ensign’s life.

A lot of us might think that sounds fine, they were helping him stay on the straight and narrow. But when we look at the people exercising this veto power, in particular David Coe, who has been in the news as sort of working with Ensign, you have some really questionable moral authority.

More

More Cronkite

MLK assassination:



What's My Line:




This is the full New York Times obituary.

New Blog Title

Since I don't know where I am going to end up eventually, I changed the blog's title a bit. I am still technically in Reno, however, despite only being there briefly since April 10. I haven't officially moved yet.

The Despicable Peter Singer

strikes again, getting piles of ink in the New York Times about the need to "ration" health care, which in his world means to kill off anybody he deems not truly people.

Why this bastard was ever allowed into the United States, much less allowed a forum, is beyond me.

His attitude towards people with significant disabilites is nothing short of advocating bigotry and killing of the disabled.

A critical look at this article is here.

Miscellaneous Politics

Where there is a golf course, there is sure to be a Dan Quayle, and at this celebrity golf tournament or whatever it is at Lake Tahoe gave him the perfect opportunity to express his opinion about our current president.

Considering the riffraff we have had in the years since Quayle was VP, I am downright nostalgic for some of his wisdom.

Part 1:



Part 2:

The Economy

The federal minimum wage will go up for the third time in three years, to $7.25 an hour.

Of course to really keep up with the rising cost of living, it should be indexed to inflation.

And contrary to GOP lies about raising the wage costs jobs, previous experience shows it isn't true.

Obituaries

The world's oldest man and one of the last World War I veterans, Henry Allingham of Britain, has died at the age of 113.

He was one of the first members of the British Royal Air Force.

Details:

Mr Allingham is survived by Harry Patch, who turned 111 last month and is now one of the last two British survivors of WWI.

Speaking from Fletcher House care home in Wells, Somerset, Mr Patch said he was "very sad at losing a friend".

The other British survivor is Claude Choules, aged 108, who served with the Royal Navy.

Born in Worcestershire, he stayed in Australia after he was seconded there in the 1920s as an instructor to the Royal Australian Navy.

There is video at the link.
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Speaking of the Moon,

there are a few nutjobs out there, the same types who would join something like the Flat Earth Society, who believe the Apollo moon missions were hoaxes:

And perhaps the nation's foremost moon-mission doubter - who was famously punched in the face by astronaut Buzz Aldrin during a combative 2002 interview - still argues that NASA archive video and photographs reveal that the mission was rigged.

"The fact is, this footage is them faking being halfway to the moon. I'm a filmmaker, and it's my job to make fake things look real," said Nashville media producer Bart Sibrel, who publicized his theories in the documentary "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Moon."

Sibrel said he is planning unspecified activities for the 40th anniversary of Apollo 11, but he declined to provide details, saying they are "still in the works."

He contends that the astronauts used a transparency of the Earth, a crescent-shaped piece of black material and other window-camera tricks to falsify film footage of their mission.

Anything to draw attention to themselves.

And That's the Way It Was

I would be remiss if I didn't include CBS News' own report of Walter Cronkite's death a short while ago:

Walter Leland Cronkite was born in St. Joseph, Missouri on November 4, 1916, the only child of a dentist father and homemaker mother. When he was still young, his family moved to Texas. One day, he read an article in "Boys Life" magazine about the adventures of reporters working around the world - and young Cronkite was hooked. He began working on his high school newspaper and yearbook and, in 1933, he entered the University of Texas at Austin to study political science, economic and journalism. He never graduated. He took a part time job at the Houston Post, left college to do what he loved: report.

After working as a general assignment reporter for the Post and a sportscaster in Oklahoma City, Cronkite got a job in 1939 working for United Press. He went to Europe to cover World War II as part of the "Writing 69th," a group of reporters who found themselves covering some of the most important developments in the war, including the D-Day invasion, bombing missions over Germany, and later, the Nuremburg war trials. In 1940, he married Mary Elizabeth Maxwell - known as "Betsy" - and for the next six decades she was the dutiful reporter’s wife, enduring sometimes long separations while he covered the world, and raising three children. Cronkite once wrote about her: ''I attribute the longevity of our marriage to Betsy's extraordinary keen sense of humor, which saw us over many bumps (mostly of my making), and her tolerance, even support, for the uncertain schedule and wanderings of a newsman."

While working for the UP, Cronkite was offered a job at CBS by Edward R. Murrow - and he turned it down. He finally accepted a second offer in 1950, and stepped into the new medium of television. In the early '50s, it was a medium many of the "serious" journalists at CBS and elsewhere viewed with skepticism, if not disdain. Radio and print, they contended, were for real reporters; television was for actors or comedians.

We won't see another one like him.