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How Fitting

There’s been some discussion here over the last couple of days about some of the problems with education, and more specifically the distractions from learning that exist in the school systems. And today my trusty reader finds this article…

Thursday night, the future student body got together at Hardin Valley Elementary in hopes of finding something they can all cheer for at Hardin Valley Academy, the high school being constructed next door.

The school’s principal also fielded questions from the students. Many were curious about what extra-curricular activities would available.

Things like a girl’s volleyball team and a football team will be just like normal, but the football team might not have enough seniors to go varsity right away.

Still, the mascot debate had everyone’s attention.

I have an idea…

What about The Sheep?

And in related news…
I was eating breakfast this morning in our yucketeria and overheard a table full of co-workers talking about the big election high school football game tonight. Their conversation was interrupted when they paused to watch a Fox Infotainment story about birth control being dispensed at a Maine middle school. Only one guy at the table had a comment, but it seemed to sum up everyone’s opinion, “That’s not the school’s job.”

I agree. Now back to high school football…

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Ron Paul’s Supporters Are Pretty Witty To Boot

From the Wall Street Journal, Ron Paul’s supporters give some hilarious answers when disclosing their employers.

Paul’s third-quarter financial disclosure report is sprinkled with supporters whose self-descriptions of their occupations are unusual, to say the least. Wade Talkington of Panama City, Fla., who donated $1,000 to Paul, lists his occupation as “tax slave to the Federal Govt.” Erik Hovden of Olalla, Wash., is the “Head slacker in Chg” at Simpson LLC, and housewife Pamela Schuberg of Moorpark, Calif., a $2,300 donor, lists her employer as “our children.”

I really like this. I think I’ll list my employer as “DROP TABLE Employer;” Just to see if the gov’ment code monkeys are on their toes.

Sorry. Nerd joke.

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Some Shameless Pimping For WidgetBucks


Earn $$ with WidgetBucks!
I try to keep advertising to a minimum here for loyal readers by doing a few things. First of all, no ads in my RSS feed for subscribers, although there will be one at the end of this one as an example. Secondly, I only put adsense in the middle of older posts after they are archived and not very likely to be read by loyal readers. Thirdly, I try to keep ads unobtrusive (in the sidebar, end of posts) for my regular readers. Lastly, I try to keep them limited only to things I think my readers may actually be interested in.

So, mainly, I’m advertising to other bloggers. Because no one seemed interested (and it was pretty ugly), I’ve replaced the web hosting ad that was in the margin with a link to WidgetBucks (net gain of 0 ads). WidgetBucks is pay per click advertising that works pretty much like Adsense. Contextual ads show up on your site based on what you write, and you are paid for each click you receive. Just another ad network? Not really. They give you $25 just for signing up as a publisher! Also, you can get paid through PayPal, which is nice.

Honestly, ads don’t do very well on this site, but that’s okay. I have more fun with this site than any of my others that actually generate (very little) revenue. So the WidgetBucks link is not one of their ads, just an affiliate link to their site. That’s right–there’s something in it for me if you choose to go there and get $25 from them.

I’ve posted an actual WidgetBucks ad at the end of this post so you can see how it looks. I’ve been running them for a few days on a couple of my other sites, and they’ve done reasonably well, outperforming Adsense in some cases.

Oh, by the way, I’ve also added my latest del.icio.us bookmarks in the margin, if you are interested in what I’m reading outside of here.

Anyway, the ad is below (please don’t click it unless you are actually interested in what is shown). Of course, you can choose different colors, sizes, and styles.

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(Hopefully Short) Life In Prison

From the KNS

A Knox County sports referee who used his position to lure child molestation victims into his home will die in prison.

Hopefully this death will be administered by the most sadistic son of a bitch in the penal system. Bonus points if it occurs within the first week, lessening this walking fart’s burden on the taxpayers.

Good riddance.

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So What Is The Purpose of Schools?

Taylor the Teacher makes some good points about our education system…

If schools are for parenting, dietary management, public safety, sex ed, driver’s ed, football, lifelong memories, values, morals AND learning, that changes the equation significantly.

If schools are about learning only when learning doesn’t confict with the culture war, get in anyone’s political path, or become too expensive, then the equation is even more drastically changed.

If they are about all of those things plus learning, but we’re going to keep saying they’re about learning, schools are a farce.

But learning still rocks.

The political issues aside, I think the biggest problem lies in kids’ attitude toward school in general. Many see school as all of things Taylor mentioned besides learning. Many more view the completion of their 12 year sentence in the public indoctrination education system as the sum of education of their lives. After that, they’ve “finished”.

Where does this attitude come from? My guess is either their parents, or the schools themselves, who have to tout themselves as the end all beat all of intellectual development in order to justify their place in our communities. Winning football games seems to go a long way in being considered a quality school as well.

Taylor is right. Learning does rock. And learning starts at birth and ends at death. The 12 years between ages 6 and 18 are just a small piece of a real education.

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There Should Be A Law

For those of you who are not yet convinced of the dangers of smoking and have not yet written your state representative a letter of thanks for deciding on your behalf which private businesses can allow smoking, this story should change your mind.

In the vehicle they inhaled fumes from a can of compressed air normally used to blow dust from computers or photographs.
…
When one of the women lit a cigarette in the vehicle, the fumes ignited, burning the couple, DeBusk said.

This could have been avoided. All we need to do is outlaw smoking in private vehicles. That way people will be forced to either step outside of the vehicle to smoke after huffing, or will be compelled to huff outside so that they can smoke immediately.

We must do everything within our legislative power to make huffing safe….for the children!

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Barbie Cummings Trooper Indicted

The KNS tells us that former Tennessee State Trooper who received a favor from Knoxville based porn star Barbie Cummings will be prosecuted, even though the work she performed was pro bono…

James Randy Moss turned himself in to Wilson County authorities in Middle Tennessee this morning to face a sealed indictment on charges of official misconduct, tampering with evidence and official oppression.

I’m a little surprised that Barbie Cummings doesn’t still have her blog going, or if she does I can’t find it. She really could have made a big splash with this story if she’d played it right. I thought from the beginning it was just a clever stunt on her part to get her name out–no such thing as bad press, right?

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I Were Wondering the Same Thing

I came across this Mother Tongue Annoyances post by way of Kat Coble at Music City Bloggers. I’m taking a big risk linking to this blog, fearing that Tim W. may visit here and rip a new grammar hole in me.

Ach! This usage of was grates me so intensely because in my opinion it makes the speaker sound so powerfully ignorant. Not necessarily “low-range IQ” ignorant, but “blissfully unaware of the standard rules of English grammar” ignorant. We must recall that the adjective ignorant derives etymologically from the Latin ignorantia (“Not aware”).

This is one RSS feed to which I’m sure I’ll be subscribed for a while. I haven’t had a chance to dig through the archives to see if he’s already written an article on “people who try to look smart but really show how ignorant they are when they use ‘I’ instead of ‘me’ as the subject of a verb”. You’ve seen and heard it many times I’m sure…

“Tim gave a grammar lesson to Chris and I.”

Hopefully, he’s already addressed conjucating “be” as well.

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Cliff and Claire Huxtable Would Be Proud

In last week’s poll I asked readers to choose which Cosby kid they think they are most like. 33% chose Theo. 25% chose Rudy, and another 25% chose Denise. Sondra and Vanessa got 8% each.

I’m sure Theo won the poll mostly because he was the only male choice. He doesn’t really have much else to make you want to be like him. I mean, he wasn’t very smart, he was P-whipped by Justine, and his best friend’s name was Boner. Wait, that was Mike Seaver from Growing Pains. Anyway, I’m not surprised Theo won.

Sondra and Vanessa? I don’t get why anyone would vote for them. Lame-o McFlame-o. Vanessa was super whiny, and Sondra, while very smart, was married to that putz Elvin.

I can see why Denise did well. She’s a free spirit, and I’m down with that. She’s also the prettiest of the four girls, and was responsible for the whole family getting to meet Stevie Wonder. Definitely fun to hang out with, but still not my choice.

I chose Rudy. Cute and funny. What more could you ask for?