I'd Rather Be Lucky Than Good

Inspired, no doubt, by the timeless wisdom of well-known socialist "Lefty" Gomez, and prompted by John Kerry's promise to engage in coast-to-coast ass-kicking, the BumperStickerist explains why he backed Bush in 2004:

I finally admitted to a liberal friend the obvious truth - I voted for Bush because he's both pure evil *and* the luckiest bastard on the face of the earth. I mean, seriously, look at just a couple key events:

Bush joins the Texas ANG - Kerry joins the Navy Reserves.

Bush completes TANG training for jets, flies jets, volunteers for Vietnam only to be told that the pilot skills he has aren't needed.

Kerry joins the Swift Boats at time they were patrolling off coas - the duty changes to river patrolling, Kerry gets shot at by people intent on killing him and his crew. Kerry leaves by choice after three months.

Advantage: Bush

Bush skates through the last two years of his TANG duty, but does so with such foresight as to bury almost all traces of his duty record leaving only notes from a dental record exam.

Kerry works as an admirals aide for the balance of his active duty stint - but manages to get caught on tape during a meeting where assassination is discussed, travels to Vietnam while on Reserve status to meet with the enemy, has his Silver Star citation ammended twice times, publishes an anti-war book that's later debunked.

Advantage:  Bush

Bush:  Sat for 6.5 minutes after hearing about the 9/11 attacks in a room with a bunch of kids, a teacher, and a camera crew.

Kerry:  Sat for an hour, stunned to the point of inaction, in a room full of adult elected officials with no camera present.

Advantage:  Bush

Bush: Able to surround himself with a cadre of people able to engineer election fraud on a massive scale in Democratic-controlled precincts undetected, destroy two huge buildings in the middle of a major US city without any actual, you know, evidence left behind, destroy our basic Constitutional rights in pursuit of his neocon vision of a Unitary Executive and still have the energy to clear brush from his ranch while on vacation.

Kerry:  Can't get the balloons to release on cue.

Advantage:  Bush

There comes a point where you just marvel at the timing of events in favor of Bush and the way the Democrats clusterfuck their way through life and decide 'fuck it - Bush'

Seriously, if the Left can't defeat the Evil that is Bush, how the hell can they be trusted to defeat actual Evil?

Go, Balloons!  And Go, Tall John!

Comments

[Semanticleo]

So it's better to be lucky AND stupid?

[Tom Maguire]

So it's better to be lucky AND stupid?

We await your voice of experience.

[Semanticleo]

As your attorney I advise you to begin drinking heavily.

[lurker]

No, ali-cleown, it's better to be lucky and smart.

Advantage: Bush.

[clarice]

O'Neill responds to "kick ass" Kerry:

[quote]John Kerry recently volunteered that he was prepared to “kick [the Swift Boat Veterans’] ass from one end of America to the other” and that he would “demolish” us. He ought to take a Christmas cruise to Cambodia to calm down. Maybe he could take a side trip to tour “Genghis Khan” ruins.

It is a little difficult to imagine Kerry (“I voted for it before I voted against it”) kicking the most decorated living serviceman, Bud Day, a Congressional Medal of Honor recipient, or our salty commander, Adm. Roy Hoffman, anywhere. Perhaps Kerry had in mind using a “Rice Fanny Grenade” as he did by mistake on himself shortly before leaving Vietnam. If so, based on the record, he is in far more danger than anyone else.

Kerry and his friends certainly seem to show much greater anger and hatred toward us than toward the murderous al Qaeda terrorists. This is actually a positive thing. Based on his record of switching to adopt the North Vietnamese position in 1971 and (after voting to send our kids to Iraq) proposing to cut and run in Iraq, it is likely that Kerry will be endorsing our positions by 2008 and (in his words) “Swift Boating” himself. If not, it is OK. After living for 34 years with his claim that our comrades, living and dead, were like the army of Genghis Khan, we will always remember and be grateful for the support of the American people in 2004. Nothing he will ever say can demolish that or will speak nearly so loudly[/quote]

http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=17043

[Lew Clark]

But Bush still has cleo on his ass. I had a boil on my butt once. But, it got better. Maybe we can spread triple action ointment on cleo.

[Al Pete]

It's witty, insightful commentary like Sem's that drove Air America into bankruptcy. He's cracking up at his own shtick while bystander's look on with blank stares. Chirp, chirp.

[Semanticleo]

Is there a problem?

[richard mcenroe]

Luck has nothing to do with it. Once again the world underestimates the omnipotence of Our Dark Master Karl.

[lurker]

So, ali-cleown had no problem driving Air America into bankruptcy?

[Other Tom]

Cleo seems unaware that Bush has a higher IQ than Kerry, and had better grades at Yale. There's a reason why Kerry, a Yale graduate and decorated veteran, could not get into any of the better law schools: he's quite slow of wit, and had a low SAT score as a result. Bush has a Harvard MBA.

Advantage: Bush

[sammy small]

Maybe the Reps should set up a fund to help "Magic Hat" Kerry run again in 2008. Wouldn't you just love to see him in another ass kicking contest with the Swift Boaters. I wonder how his tales of heroism would evolve over the last 4 years.

[Dave in W-S]

Perhaps over the course of the last 4 years, he has managed to locate the rest of his military records and is prepared to dazzle us with the sheer heroics documented therein.

Or perhaps not.

[JorgXMcKie]

John F'in Kerry is the One-Legged Man in this ass-kicking contest, I reckon.

[Verner]

I just want Kerry to keep it up.

moveon.org! Daily Kos! Bush Lied! Arianna Huffington!!!! Joe Wilson!!!!!! More more more!!!!

The Republicans will pick up five more house seats by the time they're done.

PS Zsa Zsa Huffington's disgusting remarks about the Kurds last night have earned her an everlasting place on my S##T list.

[topsecretk9]

My little boy sixth grader has just been suspended for 2 days in the second week of school...and this is rich...he is boy A. Boy C was asking a few boys to put him in a choke hold (I guess to show off his abilities to get out of a choke-hold) My Boy A declined, but then asked a Boy C to put him in a choke hold definitely show off his wrestling prowess of getting out of a choke hold. Boy C put him in a mild choke-hold and using his technique my Boy A emerged free of the mild choke-hold. Then Boy B comes along and puts my Boy A in a very strong choke hold, apparently to the point my Boy A can't breathe, after struggling Boy B releases my Boy A and my boy falls to the ground, coughing a bit, catching his breathe and stands up and begins to laugh -- he said he was laughing and saying "What just happened"

At this point, yard duty lady freaks out and quote from quasi-unqualified Principal "was shaking, yard duty lady was just shaking, shaking, shaking she was so upset when she brought them in...your son couldn't breathe!!!!"

So Boy C is suspended for mild choke hold, Boy C is suspended for 3 days and my Boy A is suspended for 2 days for, I kid you not, "Putting himself in a dangerous situation"

I understand safety and all that, but A- this school has outlawed running - well indiscriminate running -- running ONLY on grass and ONLY is soccer or kickball - NO tag or just say RUNNING!

Why are we neutering our boys? and don't you think 2 days suspension is a bit much for this? Would an orange vest and trash pick-up at recess for a week seem like a better idea (OH the schools are prolly afraid they will get sued it child gets a paper cut on trash duty)

Interested in what guys think? (not to hijack, but Kerry is an example neutered guy to me)

[Rick Ballard]

TS,

A choke hold applied by jerking the forearm against the windpipe can crush it. It's actually considerably more dangerous than a schoolyard fist fight - which would draw the same suspension or worse.

In general - yes, the schools are doing their damnedest to emasculate boys. But this instance is somewhat different with respect to potential consequence. Running on concrete has never been allowed (to my knowledge) in schools. Slick soles and concrete just don't work well together.

[topsecretk9]

Rick...do you think the victim, albeit willing, of a choke-hold should be suspended? I don't and I do think the punishment for all 3 was a little woman hysterical and over-the-toppish. I realize it can be dangerous and I am not saying they shouldn't be in ANY trouble, but I guess I think 2 days away from school is a bit much, particularly in that they weren't combative or fighting, just dumb. I happen to think 5 days of trash or so other humiliating task during their free recess time would serve them better.

Also, I can not recall any time I was forbidden on the blacktop or from playing "tag".

[topsecretk9]

from RUNNING on the blacktop, I mean.

[hrtshpdbox]

TS,
I think it's outrageous, but typical of the nonsense I've seen over and over from the school system. Your kid did nothing wrong, but is made to feel that he did by the authority figure (the school) that has very few clues about anything. You can handle it any way you want, of course (like just quietly telling your boy that this is a good lesson in how there's sometimes no sense in the world), but in the same situation I'd bring my son with me to see the Superintendant, complain bitterly and none too politely about the injustice, then stomp away, muttering about my attorney. I've always found that it's helpful to let the schools think I'm a little crazy - the kids of the "normal" parents endure more of this crap.

[clarice]

ts--My son was a very well-bahved kid..when he got his first reprimand, I guess he was sure I'd yell at him. I kissed him and said "mazel tov", you're human and we all make mistakes.

I don't know much about choke holds, and I've no reason to believe Rick is misstating it when he says it's dangerous and the teachers had reason to set an example so the boys won't do it.
Kiss him. Tell him you understand though don't agree with the school, but what he did was pretty normal behavior and you still think he's a great guy.

[Rick Ballard]

TS,

On blacktop isn't the same as on concrete. I can't remember ever being admonished for running on blacktop. I was thrown out of every school I attended prior to college for brief periods and various reasons - only one time each, if I remember correctly. Always for rough housing or fighting and I'd classify what your son was doing as rough housing (by your description), victim doesn't quite work. Two days seems excessive but I wasn't there and you didn't mention whether the playground supervisor was experienced. If she was experienced and got that scared perhaps a chat with her is in order. I was never exactly precise in my explanations to my parents concerning the circumstances that caused my brief vacations.

[lurker]

Let
s hope Bolton is very LUCKY!!

[clarice]

Why am I not surprised Rick?HMMM

Andy McCarthy goes after McCain, Graham on the prisoner treatment issue. http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=YzM4MGUyNWQ5MDQ1YzIwNjA5NGU5YTQ4OTU1OGE5Mjc=

[BumperStickerist]

I've got an 11yo boy - I think a 2 day suspension is excessive, but, were it my kid, I'd dopeslap(1) him for putting himself into the position because, as Rick said, it's dangerous.

(1) dopeslap - an open handed slap of middling force applied to the back of the head of a male child administered without anger. The force should be enough to kill a housefly but no so much as to cause a subdermal hematoma.

The best effect is achieved when the dopeslap administration is accompanied with phrase 'What the hell were you thinking?"

[clarice]

I'd be embarrassed to be the mother of a kid who had a perfect conduct record. Honestly. It bespeaks a lack of spirit.

[Rick Ballard]

I wish I had thought of that one when explaining certain misadventures.

The McCarthy piece is very good. McGraham are going to fold on this.

[hrtshpdbox]

dopeslap - an open handed slap of middling force applied to the back of the head of a male child administered without anger.
Yeah, it might not physically hurt, but it's gotta sting a kid already unfairly stigmatized. You pay taxes to the school, right? A lot, right? But whatever they do is OK with you, a day's after-school detention wouldn't be enough - it's alright that he'd get to sit around for two days alienated from his peers? That's just? My own son, when 13 years old, went to a school football game. Another kid, who my son didn't go to the event with, had brought a foam air-pellet pistol to the game and was waving it around, shooting it in the air, etc. Eventually someone told the school Security about it, and the kid caught wind that the jig was up, so he said to my son "hold this for a second", which my (very dumb, at that moment) son did - he put it in his pocket. Kid who brought the "weapon" and admitted that it was all his own doing, expelled for a year; my son, who'd never been in any sort of trouble at school (and who has ADD to boot) expelled for half a year (not to mention handcuffed and arrested, though the police dropped the charges and told us that it was as absurd of a situation that they'd seen in a while). The school's no-tolerance tough-guy policy was and is complete BS, and my initial assumption now, whenever I hear anything about the school doling out discipline, is that the school is in the wrong.

[topsecretk9]

-- I was never exactly precise in my explanations to my parents concerning the circumstances that caused my brief vacations.--

Got it all straight from a hysterical principal, who after repeating 10 or so times how the yard duty was "SHAKING" that my son was choked, she then began to rattle on that she was just explaining to my son how odd it was that he had been selected to go on an exchange program in Australia and either she didn't choose her words carefully, but then questioned whether the program had made a bad choice in choosing him??..and then repeated that sentiment in various forms until I finally broke in and said "What IS the bottom line here?"

Um, um, um ...oh yes, he will be suspended for 2 days for putting himself in a harmful situation.

I appreciate the seriousness and it was dangerous and dumb, I thwapped him in the back in the head much and his life is a bit sucky with lots of chores including house cobweb duty, cleaning toilets and garbage cans as well as all homework and only reading for breaks for the next week BUT

I think 11 years-olds are dumb when it comes to horsing around and I think suspension is over-kill.

[hrtshpdbox]

she then began to rattle on that she was just explaining to my son how odd it was that he had been selected to go on an exchange program in Australia and either she didn't choose her words carefully, but then questioned whether the program had made a bad choice in choosing him??
It's utter crap, it makes my blood boil. I wouldn't be able to restrain myself from telling her that the school made a bad choice in choosing her to teach.

[hrtshpdbox]

off

[barrydauphin]

Today in the WSJ Letters to the Editor John F. Kerry discussed how terrible it was that Valerie Plame's cover was blown by the evil Bush Administration and how evil, evil they must be. I guess he writes letters to the editor but doesn't actualy read the papers.

[clarice]

TS--It is my experience that kids have a unique opportunity in elementary school (often in upper school as well) to learn how to manage in situations where the people above them in the hierarchy are stupid . It's a valuable life experience.

Yes, the school over reacted, the comments about the field trip were uncalled for (and you should tell your son that)

Yes. I was a horrid mother. I even gave my son an undated excuse letter so that if it was a beautiful day and he didn't feel like wasting it in suck your brains out diddle, he didn't have to pretend he had a stomach ache.)

[clarice]

Italiacto

[topsecretk9]

hrtshpdbox --

Sheesh...see, I understand the zero tolerance thing, but it just sure takes the heart and soul out of a community...I mean, I'd LOVE to peak in the past of some of the administrators...geez my dad and a bunch of his friends blew up a school toilet with a cherry bomb...they all got in big trouble, but the principal ALSO took a ride over to his house and talked with he and his parents - as the principal had known my dad's family for quite a while and had the discretionary chip most comtemporaies do not have these days -- good kid, good family, dumb mistake-- and no suspension just a ton of detentions and allowance money to pay the school back,

[BumperStickerist]

Yeah, it might not physically hurt, but it's gotta sting a kid already unfairly stigmatized. You pay taxes to the school, right? A lot, right? But whatever they do is OK with you, a day's after-school detention wouldn't be enough - it's alright that he'd get to sit around for two days alienated from his peers? That's just?

To finish the thought, I'd probably dopeslap him, say 'don't do that again' and then take him out to Dairy Queen.

Also, the decision about the timing of the dopeslap is dependent on the condition of the kid. You never dopeslap a kid when he's genuinely upset.

Lastly, as my father was dopeslapped by his father, and I by mine, so have my sons been dopeslapped by me for being ... well, dopes.

It's become sort of a legacy thing among the males of the clan - not so much a cycle of violence, but more a family tradition - like baptism or leaving the seat down.

-

[topsecretk9]

Bumper-

Believe me, I dopeslap and also say "Whatsa matter you"

Heartshape--

--It's utter crap, it makes my blood boil. I wouldn't be able to restrain myself from telling her that the school made a bad choice in choosing her to teach.--

Interesting, as she lost her entire 4th, 5th and 6th grade staff this her, except for one teacher....things that make you hmmmm. She had to scramble to fill them even calling in a old retired sub.

She's really pissed off everyone at the school including many once devoted PTA'ers for manipulating the money from the PTA's intention to honor teachers requests to her desire for new carpet...

[topsecretk9]

oops, her = year

[topsecretk9]

BTW Bumper...your OnTopic explanation for backing Bush is a hoot and evil genius too!

[topsecretk9]

--Yes. I was a horrid mother. I even gave my son an undated excuse letter so that if it was a beautiful day and he didn't feel like wasting it in suck your brains out diddle, he didn't have to pretend he had a stomach ache.--

Clarice? You are the bomb!

[Thomas Morrissey]

The Dope Slap, I know it well.

TS9,
That woman sounds like a loon, I could see a suspension for a full blown fistfight,but that is just silly.

He's being punished for being a normal boy.

[clarice]

Yes, he is.

[Soylent Red]

JF'nK is never going to get out from under this until his records come out. And for all his talk of ass kicking, this is really all a theoretical exercise anyway.

There will be no ass kicking without a nomination, and there will be no nomination.

Kerry was a weak sister placeholder candidate until Hillary had been sufficiently groomed. Even Dems were holding their noses voting for him. The best he could muster was capturing the "He's not Bush" vote. Take away Iraq and Bush beats him by 20% (which, I might add, speaks to W's level of commitment on Iraq).

With the stench of defeat all over him, the Dems won't chance him again. Certainly not against a rockstar candidate like McCain or Giuliani.

Or (be still my heart) Newt. Can you imagine that series of debates? Talk about an ass kicking.

Nonetheless, I hope he does give it a whirl. His ego needs another round of deflating.

John F'in Kerry is the One-Legged Man in this ass-kicking contest, I reckon.

I thought that Kerry was Bob Kerry.

TS9:

As a chronic childhood discipline problem, I have to side with Rick. Just plain bad sense on your son's part. But I will qualify that by asking- how many kids are pillars of good sense?

Even though as an adult I can see the over reaction in suspending him, undermining the school's authority might be asking for trouble as well. Fine line to walk, but a valuable lesson as well.

I will give you the words that my father, himself a quasi-delinquent in his day, gave to me on one such similar occasion: If those in authority over you can't or won't lead you correctly, lead yourself correctly.

Of course he also once told me that if I was going to get into trouble, at least make it spectacular.

No offense meant by this but, I'm so glad I don't have children.

[Semanticleo]

'What the hell were you thinking?"

What the hell makes you think he was
thinking?

[Sara (Squiggler)]

My son was hyperactive and bright, a lethal combination. When he was in 2nd grade, he got in all kinds of trouble for pitching a hardball in the classroom to a friend that sat on the other side of the room. I got called away from work to come to school to deal with this "extremely serious" disciplinary problem. I sat there in the principal's office with her and with the teacher and had to hear all kinds of terrible things about my child, with a recommendation for drug therapy and counseling.

I requested that they allow my son to come in and tell his side of the story. Turns out that they were given some kind of spelling quiz. My son finished his and did exactly as he'd been told by the teacher before the quiz. She told the class that when they finished the quiz they could put their pencils down and find something interesting to stay quietly busy until the whole class finished. My son looked at me and said, "Mom, she said we could do anything we wanted, we just had to be quiet. I was quiet."

What made me so mad was that this was a very young child who was processing words at face value and instead of punishment, it would have been a good time to explain good choices and bad choices and the dangers of hardball throwing indoors, etc.

The other thing that made me mad was being put in the position as the parent of having to discipline my child for something that was decidedly stupid because the teacher was too incompetent to know that you can't tell a 7 or 8 year old boy that he can do anything he wants and then punish him for doing exactly that. Kids get enough mixed signals without setting them up.

[clarice]

Hmm--I seem to have a particular fondness for bad boys.
(We haven't heard from PUK yet, but if he wasn't confined to the cloakroom regularly for pranks, I am no judge of character.)

[topsecretk9]

Nope, I am sorry guys (boys)..it was dumb, but it's also what eleven years do, dumb stuff...I'd be OK with it if every other physical activity the boys do wasn't micro-managed to the point of not being any fun...I'm also surprised that more men aren't just pissed about the bias towards girl behavior in schools these days and forcing boys to suppress their natural physical tendencies not only in the classroom, but at recess when they could work it out a bit with out a yard duty screaming in a bullhorn! Bullhorns on school yards, it's insane!

During assemblies that parents are invited to (and the ones were not) the children cannot clap or talk, when directed they are told to use their "silent signal" to show enthusiasm - which is to hold to fingers in the air. That's their "clapping". Isn't there an "ism" that would describe this?

Last year my son wrote an anonymous letter to the principal. They put notices up an after-school art club was starting and when he mentioned to a little girl he was going to join it, she told him, "You can't, it's for girls only"...

(of course I cringed, particularly with all the Title IX crap I have to be rah rahed to in forms the beginning of the year)...his beef? When they boys asked if they could start a sport thing they were told they couldn't because it wouldn't be fair for the girls...he said "I don't care if they have there all girl art club, but why can't we then have our sport club?" Good point, write a letter.

I am "this" close to just putting him in an all boys school where at least they let boys be boys, but are still -uniformly- strict.

Also, I bet dollars to doughnuts, if the principal were a man, he would have not A- freaked out to the point of hysterics and B- realized that while stupid and dangerous, absent a conflict or it being combative, a humiliating but sans suspension would be more effective and proportionate.

[topsecretk9]

--Also, I bet dollars to doughnuts, if the principal were a man--

That is of course, if he wasn't young enough to have attended this kind of schooling, the PC sissifying kind.

[topsecretk9]

I'l also add, this is the first time my son has ever been in any trouble at school. He has always been low-key by nature and a very good student and every teacher has told me a really good boy in class. He, to do this day, gets worked to tears if he accidently forgets a book or assignment page, frantically hightails it back to school on his bike and then writes sticky notes to himself to not forget again (without me saying a word!)

[Soylent Red]

Silent signals? Bullhorns?

Yes TS9, pull your son out of Aldous Huxley Middle School and put him under the care of nuns.

Do it yesterday.

[clarice]

Boys school, now. Or any place away from fingers in the air to show enthusiasm. Good grief!!
Niters.

[JM Hanes]

Suspension is cheaper than detention. It also irritates parents which is an added attraction. Never fear, however, it's rarely a stigma where peers are concerned, quite the opposite. Do you ever hear anybody talking about how they never posed a disciplinary problem growing up because they were just soooo good?

Thank God I caught my charm bracelet in the fire alarm switch one day, because otherwise I'd have nothing to talk about at all. Got to stay home though, any time I wanted, as long as my grades weren't dropping. How cool is that?

[JM Hanes]

P.S. Nobody who gets the shakes should ever be charged with supervising a playground!

[JM Hanes]

BumperStickerist:

Don't know if you're lucky, but you get major props on good.

[topsecretk9]

Oh JMH...I grew up at the beach, anytime one of the boys was suspended they hoped on their skateboard and laughed all the way to the beach, only to stop off home and grab their board since their parents were at work.

----

Another weird thing, anyone able to translate this? Google language translator only likes one word

====

ÁREA TECNOLOGÍA DE LA REHABILITACIÓN ACRÓNIMO ENTIDAD/ES IMPORTE DEL PROYECTO SOLICITANTE/S DE LA AYUDA (€)

[Soylent Red]

Something about the acronyms for area technology projects affect the ability to get aid.

Something like that. It's some form of Spanish.

[MayBee]

During assemblies that parents are invited to (and the ones were not) the children cannot clap or talk, when directed they are told to use their "silent signal" to show enthusiasm - which is to hold to fingers in the air.

This is seriously the stupidest thing I have ever heard. I thought zero tolerance policies were the stupidest, but this waaaay wins.

[topsecretk9]

Well is goes like this:

column 1
ACRÓNIMO
DEL PROYECTO

Column 2
ENTIDAD/ES
SOLICITANTE/S

Column 3
IMPORTE
DE LA AYUDA (€)

[topsecretk9]

oh, and the graph title is:

ÁREA TECNOLOGÍA DE LA REHABILITACIÓN

[JM Hanes]

Can't translate it, but if a guess might get you started:

1. Name/Title of project
2. Requesting party/parties
3. Assistance needed, or Reason for assistance or What assistance/aid will accomplish?

Sounds like it's requirements for requesting assistance with some sort of conflict resolution? OTOH, it could be clues in a scavenger hunt for all I know....

[Soylent Red]

Ah. I didn't realize it was in columns. That's why the syntax was all crazy.

AREA REHABILITATION TECHNOLOGY

column 1
ACRÓNIMO
DEL PROYECTO

Acronym of Project

Column 2
ENTIDAD/ES
SOLICITANTE/S

Identity/ties of Solicitor/s

Column 3
IMPORTE
DE LA AYUDA (€)

Amount of aid

I can only assume that this is from some sort of Spanish language site looking for requests for grants.

I guess I learned more than "cerveza" and "el baño" after all...

[topsecretk9]

Grasseeyass!

Sorry I scewed up the synfax, sscavanger hunt after all.

[JM Hanes]

Not just the synfax either. LOL!

[Patton]

Part of the Plame timeline that has been completely forgotten is that the Democrats VOTED to go to war with Iraq in OCT 2002, as demanded by Ted Kennedy and the Democrat leadership.

So Bush's state of the union in 2003 in NO WAY swayed any Democrats votes for the war, unless once again Bush is capable of time travel.

[Bob]

Looks like the http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap_travel/20060914/ap_tr_ge/malaysia_islamic_tourism>Muslims of Malaysia are using the same PR firm J F'nKerry uses for this little ad campaign!

"Tourists from other countries should be encouraged to visit Muslim countries so that they will get to know Islamic countries better," Malaysian Tourism Minister Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor was quoted as saying late Wednesday during a visit to Moscow.

Did you know he served in Vietnam?

Another absurd idea for the "You can't make this Shit Up" folder!

[Pofarmer]

TS9

You are making one hell of an argument for homeschooling.

How do you keep boys from running on the playground? Two finger Salute for Enthusiasm? That will get modified a little with time, I'd imagine.

I was never suspended that I can remember, but got into my share of minor scrapes. Geez, what a bunch of ninnies at that school. The PTA needs to have a visit with the school board.

[Purple Avenger]

We used to make "flame throwers" in school that would operate using a sheet of crumpled up flash paper stuffed down a tube and ignited by a model airplane glow plug/battery. You could get a very satisfactory (albeit very short lived) fireball out of one of them.

I suppose I'd be led off in leg irons and handcuffs today for such antics.

[capitano]

O/T

For only the 2nd time in the past 20 years, Bob Novak just offered another opinion with which I can agree. On C-SPAN:

"David Corn is a nasty piece of work."

[clarice]

Speaking of teaching your children how to fight fascism, the great Oriana Fallaci died .

[Barney Frank]

Whether a sixth grade boy is capable of generating sufficient force to crush another's windpipe is not my area of expertise.
I can however state that if that is the level of danger at which boyhood activity should be restricted I would have spent most of my youth sitting in my room building model airplanes rather than blowing them up.
Off hand I can remember throwing a green tomato through a passing motorist's mirror, shooting a pellet through the kithchen ceiling, a .22 bullet through the dining room ceiling, being attacked by various bulls, bees and dogs after taunting them, a schoolyard scrap or two, repeatedly jumping a yawning chasm between the house and garage roof, nearly losing an eye in a stick fight, plunging my pocket knife deep into my thigh and many other escapades which the fog of time has fortunately clouded over. Now when I got caught doing these things I indubitably got the dopeslap, usually with my dad's size twelve slipper and delivered by his 6'4" frame, but suspended for receiving a choke hold? A trip to the principal maybe. Suspension? Come on.

Let boys be boys or our daughters will end up living at home til they're fifty cause thay can't find a man who doesn't want to borrow their eye liner or who thinks a prize fight is the season finale of American Idol.

[Richard Aubrey]

When I was in the sixth grade, we had a recess game called Red Rover.
We--boys--would form two lines facing each other.
One side would call, "Red Rover, Red Rover, let Billy come over". Billy, from the opposite line, would charge and attempt to break through the linked arms. If he succeeded, it was a point for his side, if not, for the other side.
And then reverse.

We would return from recess happy, dusty, bruised and ready to sit still for a few moments.

Imagine that today.

[Sue]

They have removed from schools anything that might danger a child. Except for liberals that indoctrinate them. ::grin:: Anyways, you can't blame the schools. It is the parents that file the lawsuits that the schools have to worry about. Children are no longer children. They know way more at 6 than I did at 12. Thanks to television, movies (VCR/DVD), internet, video games, etc. Face it guys, we are living in another world. And I would guess our parents thought the same thing.

[Sue]

They have removed from schools anything that might danger a child.

They have also removed the need to check your work. Endanger a child...

[Ari Tai]

I remember looking up the performance statistics on the interceptor that Mr. Bush piloted. Seems half of them fell out of the air by the time they were decommissioned (and took a goodly number of their pilots with them).

This was the era of the "right stuff" (and lots of death in that community, not all that different than what happened in WW2 with his dad and his dad's band-of-bronthers).

Mr. Bush (jr.) has the humility (more likely class) not to talk about it, unlike JFK2 (or even JFK1, for that matter).

[Tom Maguire]

dopeslap - an open handed slap of middling force applied to the back of the head of a male child administered without anger.

Has this been cleared by Colin Powell and John McCain?

During assemblies that parents are invited to (and the ones were not) the children cannot clap or talk, when directed they are told to use their "silent signal" to show enthusiasm - which is to hold to fingers in the air.

This is seriously the stupidest thing I have ever heard. I thought zero tolerance policies were the stupidest, but this waaaay wins.

So I guess we know which finger you would be holding up.

[PeterUK]

Topsecret,
Youre boy was simply not doing it right,left forearm against the windpipe,palm outwards thumb down,right hand on the back of the head palm out thumb down,tell him to go back and do it again,I'm sure one of the teachers will help demonstrate.
I don't know,modern education,all ethnic dancing and Kumbaya,don't even teach them how to do a proper choke hold.

[Lost My Cookies]

No running on Concrete?

All we had was a parking lot, and we all wore loafers. To this day I have no skin on my knees.

[Ric Locke]

K9,

ENTIDAD/ES SOLICITANT/ES

Means "Entitit[y|ies] Requesting" or "Entities Making the Request/Solicitation"

So yes, it's a form to fill out requesting aid.

It also probably isn't Mexican, since Mexicanos use capital letters ("majusculos") as an excuse not to use accents. Somewhere south of Panama, is my guess.

Regards,
Ric

[cathyf]

One of the things I really liked the first time I walked into my kids' Catholic school was how relaxed things were. At an assembly, kids sit with their class on the bleachers, unless they want to go sit with their parents, or they have some role and need to be somewhere to do it. There are no assigned seats of areas -- the class who gets there later just picks an open spot where they can all fit. Somebody needs to go to the bathroom, they get up and go. The kids are expected to behave, and they do. The kindergarten teacher says, "Ok, everybody follow me," and starts off without a backward glance, and sure enough, the kinders line up and follow right behind. (Ok, the teacher does have a tendency to skip :-).

One time I was joking with the principal that we should have a parish fundraiser of collecting a nickel from every kid who uses the bathroom during Sunday mass. We'd be rolling in the dough! She laughed, and then pointed out that the kids don't go to the bathroom during school masses. She said, "I tell them that they need to go to the bathroom before mass, and the only reason they should be getting up during mass is to throw up!" She said this with the sort of glee that 2nd-3rd-4th graders use to discuss puking, farting, etc. -- in other words she cracks the kids up, and then they do what they are supposed to.

My grade schools (2 public, 2 Catholic) were all way more into rules. Much more of an explicit aura of threat in all of them. My high school education, though, was at the hands of highly subversive nuns. My favorite story involved a math teacher who had this little slide-rule-like gadget called E-Z Grader that converted between scores and percentages. She was always joking with the students about how she would be lost without it. A group hatched an elaborate practical joke where they were going to kidnap E-Z Grader and hold it for ransom. They had all the ransom notes made up by cutting letters out of magazines. They had planned the heist for a day when we would have an assembly -- they would grab it after everybody left for the assembly and the hallway was deserted.

Well, this was the one day that, for no particular reason (premonition?) the teacher locked her door. So here's this group of girls, standing there looking utterly flumoxed, and Sr. Ann the principal walks by. She's about to tell them to hurry, they'll be late, but seeing their faces, says, "What's going on?" Well, the girls were so disconcerted by their plans going wrong that the whole story just came tumbling out. The principal started laughing, looked around, pulled out her keys, said "Ok, I'm in!" and unlocked the door.

[clarice]

Sounds like that school loves kids. I once persuaded a Board to hire a head ..she was right for the school for many reasons, but I especially liked a story about her I found at her prior school. A teacher had had it with her class and sent them all to the head's office. When she realized what had happened she burst out laughing.

[cathyf]

When my son was in second grade the teacher was starting to teach subtraction. She goes through the explanation, then tries to get the kids to answer some questions to get them following along. So she asks them whether to put the bigger number or the littler number on the top. My son raises his hand and says, "Well, you can do it either way -- you just get a negative number if the smaller number is on top." At which point another boy chimes in with, "And if you subtract a negative number, that's like adding the positive number." And a 3rd says, "If both numbers are negative, you can do the arithmetic backwards and then put in the negative sign at the end." The teacher threw up her hands and sent them all to the principal's office. The principal (the same one who had the "only if you need to puke" rule) laughed and laughed, and the four of them sat there and chatted about subtraction for about a half hour until the teacher sent somebody down to fetch them to go back to class.

I actually didn't hear the story until months later because my son was convinced that he had gotten in trouble and the teacher was really mad. The 2nd grade teacher's husband is the contractor who built my addition on my house. (small town) He told me the story with great mirth!

He has always been low-key by nature and a very good student and every teacher has told me a really good boy in class. He, to do this day, gets worked to tears if he accidently forgets a book or assignment page, frantically hightails it back to school on his bike and then writes sticky notes to himself to not forget again (without me saying a word!)

Sounds like my kid. He's always complaining about how everything is a catastrophe and he's sure he's screwed everything up, and he's gonna flunk. The closest he's come to flunking is the occasional A-minus (*gasp*) He's student council president this year, and he's teaching a weekly class in computers for the teachers. So I guess as a juvenile deliquent he's pretty much a failure...

[easysez]

Frodo Failed ! Bush has the RING !

[Cecil Turner]

No running on Concrete?

Might explain Rick's repeated suspensions. We ran on all surfaces (and, perhaps as a result, got caught relatively infrequently).

[JM Hanes]

"He's always complaining about how everything is a catastrophe and he's sure he's screwed everything up, and he's gonna flunk."

LOL! It doesn't stop either. My daughter has been battling the administration at Columbia because they won't let her do two masters degrees concurrently -- so she can get on with her life's work in Africa sooner, rather than later. [additonal bragging deleted] If you tapped my phone, you'd think her life was one long looming disaster. On the plus side, it means she still calls home to worry her way through the labyrinth.

Of course, I laugh now, but raising children who march to different drummers can be really tough. I wish I could say I won more of the battles I fought with the schools they attended. I wish I could say I fought all the battles I should have, too. I often felt like my main job at home was damage control. You know that the things that make it hard can be the very things that will ultimately make it better, but you still end up riding the roller coaster right along with your kids anyway.

My relationship with other parents was sometimes fraught with tension too, because I decided to adapt my approach to my children instead of demanding the reverse. As a single parent for a chunk of that process, I found those choices doubly difficult. Ironically, the end result was that I knew more about who was sneaking out at night or who was selling dope or screwing around than a lot of their own parents did and it made a very real difference. In retrospect, I only regret my own ambivalence about departing from conventional child rearing wisdom and wish I had done so with more confidence. If you're paying attention to your kids, you should trust your instincts.

[MA Boyd]

I went to school in Houston at San Jacinto HS (late 50's, early 60's). We were a bunch of hellions. We did everything from putting snakes and frogs in teacher's desk drawers, to puting Jello on a teacher's chair seat. By we, I mean, I never did the Jello thing, I was the snake expert. I snuck a diamond back water snake (non-poisonous) into math class and turned it loose. Our math teacher was also our Bio teacher, and after the pandimonium died down a little bit, he went over and gently picked the 3 ft snake up and walked over to me and said "please take this poor snake outside". He had me pegged! I would have been suspended permanently these days.

The school was not air conditioned. They had the windows open and those 6 ft tall ocillating fans on stands to move the air around. When the teacher left we were supposed to be reading. Some of us guys would take our books and sit in the windows where it was cooler. One guy had a .410 shotgun with no stock disguised as an umbrella. He'd give the teacher 5 minutes to get down the hall and then nail a pidgeon from the window. He never got caught and we all thought it was really funny.

He wound up running a professional painting Co. and had 6 or 7 kids.

Hey, and I went on to get my Electical Engineering degree and serve in the USAF 4 years. And a year at DaNang RVN.

[maryrose]

T S9;
I agree with Soylent-transfer him to parochial school. The most he would have gotten was an after school stint cleaning blackboards and sweeping the hall. The principal way over-reacted and probably assumed he was fighting and now most schools have a zero tolerance rule. The aide on the playground over-reacted She should have called you privately and explained the situation or gotten between the 2 boys and separated them and then had them sit out the rest of recess. Ridiculous reaction.

[maryrose]

JMHANES:
Sounds like you did a great job raising your daughter to be independent and think for herself.That's quite an accomplishment.

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