Words most abused by the right

June 5, 2013

Morgan Freeberg had a great idea, but mislabled it.  I’ve started a corrected list here, below.  More corrections will need to be made, and a few additions will be in order.  I already added a tiny handful.  To start out all the links go to Morgan’s site, so I can’t vouch for any of his definitions.  Feel free to suggest explanatory links for any work or phrase, in comments.

First draft,”Words Most Abused by the Right”:

  1. Tolerance

    Tolerance t-shirt design from Northern Sun

    Tolerance t-shirt design from Northern Sun; t-shirt will certainly tick off members of the Right Wing.

  2. Fairness
  3. Equality
  4. Vote
  5. Democracy
  6. Capitalism
  7. Free market
  8. Economics
  9. Jobs
  10. Family
  11. Marriage
  12. Contraception, and Family Planning
  13. Inclusion
  14. Science
  15. Open-minded
  16. Egalitarian
  17. Stereotype
  18. Oppressive
  19. Non-threatening
  20. Diversity
  21. Everyone
  22. Skeptic
  23. Nuance
  24. Progressive
  25. Constitution
  26. History
  27. Science
  28. Religion
  29. Environment
  30. News
  31. Journalism
  32. Hate speech
  33. Tea Party
  34. Abuse
  35. Torture
  36. Greed
  37. Assault (weapon/rifle/gun)
  38. Wealthy
  39. Any tangible noun that ends with “ist,” or intangible noun that ends with “ism.”
  40. Undocumented
  41. Working (family)
  42. Worker
  43. Labor
  44. Right(s)
  45. Ethical
  46. Transparent(cy)
  47. Landmark
  48. Theocracy
  49. Common sense
  50. Safety
  51. Fascist/ism
  52. Communist/ism
  53. Socialist/ism
  54. Mainstream
  55. Forward

Morgan also “cross-posted” his list at House of Eratosthenes and Right Wing News.  Hilarity ensues, I’m sure.

Leave a Comment » | Humor, Politics | Tagged: , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

Dallas hearing on Texas redistricting tomorrow, June 6, 2013

June 5, 2013

I get e-mail from Sen. Wendy Davis:

Texas State Sen. Wendy Davis, D-Fort Worth. Dallas Observer image

Texas State Sen. Wendy Davis, D-Fort Worth. Dallas Observer image

I wrote to you last week about the Special Session that Governor Perry has called to address redistricting. As you know, state leaders have dropped their challenges to the Senate district map, meaning that the current makeup of Senate District 10 should remain unchanged for the remainder of the decade. This is wonderful news for our community. We’ve faced this redistricting battle for the past two years and have finally earned an important victory that continues to hold us together.

Unfortunately, Governor Perry is also insisting that the Legislature adopt the interim congressional and State House maps, which include features that a federal court ruled are in violation of the U.S. Voting Rights Act. The people of our district certainly know how important it is to have fairly drawn maps that allow voters to elect the leaders of their choice. All Texans deserve that.

You have a chance to speak out against the unfair congressional and State House maps.

I hope you will join us tomorrow for a public hearing with the House Select Committee on Redistricting. It’s vital that we make our voices heard. Let’s tell our state leaders to keep Senate District 10 intact and then to draw fair congressional and State House districts.

PUBLIC HEARING – House Select Committee on Redistricting
Thursday, June 6 – 2:00 PM – 1401 Pacific Avenue, Dallas
 

The Committee will hear testimony from any member of the public until 7:00 PM.
Once again, I understand that this is extremely short notice. I wish that there were more opportunities for the people of North Texas to have their say on this critical issue, but this may be the only chance that we get. If you are able, please come stand with us in the fight for fair maps.

Your friend, and proudly, your state senator,

Wendy
Wendy Davis

Will you be there?

English: Seal of State Senate of Texas. Españo...

Seal of State Senate of Texas. Wikipedia image. (Are those dots the Illuminati dots Gov. Perry insisted on?)

It’s a lousy place for inexpensive parking, so you may want to take the train — it runs within a couple of blocks of the hearing site.  But it’s a vital topic.

One wearies of the Texas GOP ramming their views down the gullet of citizens as if voters were just geese to be fattened for foie gras.

More:

Leave a Comment » | Democracy, Democracy in action, Politics, Texas, Texas Lege, Voting, Voting Rights Act | Tagged: , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

Holding teachers accountable, in reality

June 5, 2013

Scott McLeod at Dangerously!Irrelevant put together a video, with computer voices to protect the innocent naive genuinely ignorant and proudly stupid.

Teachers who watch this may cry as they watch America’s future slip away into the Tide of Mediocrity™ we were warned about, which NCLB mistook for high water.  Turn it up so you can hear the full sound effects.  That’s the level of mediocrity rising as the “official” fiddles.

W. Edwards Deming researched and wrote a lot about organization managers who don’t really have a clue what is going on in their organizations, and who lack tools to measure employee work, because they lack an understanding of just what products are, what the resources are that are required to make the desirable product, and how to processes that make those products work, or could work better.

That’s education, today.

Should teachers be “held accountable?”  Depends.  Effective organizations understand that accountability is the flip-side of the coin of authority.  Anyone accountable must have the authority to change the things that affect product, for which that person is “held accountable.”  Texas schools lose up to 45 days a year to testing — that may drop as the TAKS test is phased out, but it won’t drop enough.  45 days is, effectively 25% of the school year.  If time-on-task is important to education as Checker Finn used to badger us at the Department of Education, then testing is sucking valuable resources from education, way above and beyond any benefits testing may offer.

Today, Texas Governor Rick Perry has proposed laws sitting on his desk that would greatly pare back unnecessary testing.  A coalition of businessmen (no women I can discern) with a deceptively-named organization urges Perry to veto the bills, because, they claim, rigor in education can only be demonstrated by a tsunami of tests.

What’s that, you ask?  Where is the person concerned about the student?  She’s the woman with the leaky classroom, who is being shown the door.

Why is it those with authority to change things for the better in Texas schools, and many other school systems throughout the U.S., are not being held accountable? If they won’t use their authority to make things better, why not give that authority to the teachers?

Check out McLeod’s blog — good comments on his video there.

More:

Fitzsimmons in the Arizona Daily Star

Fitzsimmons in the Arizona Daily Star

2 Comments | Education, NAEP, TAKS, Teacher Evaluation, Teachers, Teaching, TEKS, Testing, Texas | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell