An ultra-conservative's views on this and that

31 December 2014

2014

It's been an interesting year for all, and a terrific one for me, my wife, and the new addition to our family.

Happy New Year to all.  May 2015 bring you joy and happiness.
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16 November 2014

Legacy

Tonight, I welcomed my son into the world.

Yesterday evening, my wife and I headed to the hospital to induce her into labor.  Originally, we were supposed to go around 8 in the evening.  We set out early, because snow flurries and slick roads made the journey to the hospital interesting.  On the way, we got a call from the hospital:  Not yet.  It seems some other woman or women had gone into labor ahead of us.

So I turned the car around.  Back home.

We relaxed and watched a movie while waiting for the hospital to call and clear us to come on in and get my wife admitted.  The call comes.  So once more on to the slick roads.  Snow sticking a little bit more.

We get my wife admitted and settled in the room a little bit before midnight.  Monitors put on.  Medication applied.  We settle in the for the night.  I wake up frequently to the sounds of the nurses adjusting the "belts" on my wife.  I had forgotten sleepwear, so I slept in my long underwear.

The next morning, they put in the epidural drip and my wife's OB checks the progress.  Slow going.  During the day, nurses and OB notice the fetal heart rate drop with every contraction.  As afternoon approaches, we're given the decision to make:  Try and deliver naturally, or go with a C-section.  We opt for the latter.

Around 6 in the evening, they prep my wife for surgery and give me scrubs to put on.  My wife is wheeled into an OR and I'm directed to wait in an empty room.  The minutes I was there felt like hours.  My mind ran worrisome scenarios that only heightened my anxiety.  I noticed a book on Bible verses and pick it up.  I can't remember what I read, just that it comforted me in those nerve-wracking minutes.  When I entered the OR, I was calm.  The nurses found me a stool to sit on so I could keep my wife calm.  We settled on our child's middle name.  The first name had been decided for a couple of weeks.

My wife's OB calls me to stand up and look over the screen to see my child, and to tell my wife what I see.  And I see it, clear as day:  I excitedly tell me wife (though from behind my surgical mask, I'm not sure how much expression there was on my face):  "It's a boy!"

I remember tears of joy in my eyes at that moment.  It's an emotional experience that defies description.  One has to become a parent to know it.  I think to myself about the journey to this moment:  My own childhood, growing up in Florida, Arizona, and Germany.  My time in college.  Working in Minnesota.  Moving to Iowa.  Meeting my wife.  Our wedding day and honeymoon.  All those events that led me to this moment, cutting the umbilical cord and holding my son.  A son.  He'll carry the last name forward.  I sit on the stool by my wife and show her our son.  Tears well up in our eyes.

I accompany the nurse on the elevator down to the nursery, where my son gets tagged like merchandise in a department store.  He and I share a few private moments after he's been weighed and measured:  7 lbs 6 oz.  21 inches.  I tell him:

Hey there, little guy.  I'm your Daddy.  Your Mommy and I are very happy to finally meet you!  I can tell already that you're going to be a heartbreaker.  You're going to get your way quite often with Mommy.  I'll tell you right now that I'm going to be a little tougher on you.  But it's because it's my job.  I'm here to protect you.  To teach you what it is to be a man.  To be strong.  To stand up for yourself.  To teach you not to be fearless, but to conquer your fear.  To give you advice, even when you don't want to hear it.  To help you learn from my mistakes without having to make them yourself.  I'm here to also teach you compassion, generosity, and forgiveness.  But for now, I'll start with teaching you about love.  Love is simply this:  I will do anything, my son, to keep you safe, even give up my own life.  I hope it doesn't come to that, because I look forward to spending the rest of my life getting to know you.
So as I sit here in my wife's room with both her and my son asleep, ready to take him back to the nursery for the night, I glance out the window as another midnight approaches.  It's Sunday, so the traffic on the highway is sparse.  A thin layer of snow still covers everything.  And I still don't have any sleepwear.  But at this moment, I don't care.  I beam at my sleeping son and think how much different my life has become in the last 24 hours.  Yesterday, I was just a husband.  Today, I'm also a dad.



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15 November 2014

Paid Maternity Leave - Why?

I've seen a lot of friends linking to articles on social media recently, about how the U.S. is the only industrialized nation that doesn't require employers to offer paid maternity leave to employees.

My first reaction is...so what?

Yes, I'm sure that sounds heartless. But I guess I've never been one to demonstrate my largesse with someone else's money.

Lost in the emotion of this issue, I think, is the notion of getting something for nothing. Why should an employer be forced to pay for an employee who's not working, whatever the reason?

There are many companies that offer some form of paid maternity leave already. I'm guessing their accountants have determined that the company can mitigate the financial loss of paying an employee to be a mother or father instead of working, with the benefits being that it helps the employer recruit and retain good employees. It's a similar notion behind paying for an employee's health/dental insurance, vacation time, and short-term and long-term disability. These are all benefits tacked on top of an employee's salary to help attract and retain high-quality employees.

So why does the government need to bring the force of law and mandate employers offer a perk? Especially now, as the country slowly climbs out of a recession, as the country sees high unemployment (I'm talking about real unemployment, as opposed the number that just measures the people who haven't yet given up looking for a job).  Why does the government need to mandate that employees get paid for having a kid?  Was that in the terms of employment when the employee was hired?

It shouldn't surprise me that the Obama administration should want to invade and nullify the contract, implied or formal, between employer and employee, given the administration's prior disregard for contract law.  I'm just hoping for a little more justification on why businesses should be forced to pay for their employees to have kids, other than lots of statistics about how other industrialized nations offer this and a general railing about the unfairness of the situation.

Wait a minute, who ever said that life was fair?

The thing is, if the government can show studies about how offering this benefit increases employee productivity and retention for employers, if they can show the businesses that offering paid maternity leave has short-term and/or long-term benefits for the employer's bottom line... wouldn't the businesses already be offering paid maternity leave?  The thing is, those studies exist, and some businesses have calculated that they can offer the benefit while staying solvent (Rule #1 of running a business is making sure you stay in business!)

With the Affordable Care Act, the law saw employees laid off or reduced from full-time positions to part-time positions so employers could stay afloat.

Consider this scenario, should paid maternity leave be mandated:  A couple with both people working consider having a baby much sooner, considering now someone else is paying the bills while they are off work, instead of waiting to get a little more savings built up and/or a better paying job so that they can weather the financial hardships of caring for another human being for the better part of 18 years.

So what happens if the business that employs the mother or father folds under this hardship of being forced to pay for this couple, and every other couple who decides to have children earlier?  Now the employer's money is gone, and the new parents are left to fend for themselves before they were ready?  Do they go on welfare?  Does the parent still employed have to find a better-paying job (with the possibility of longer hours away from his or her child), or worse, take a second job?

What about single people?  Or childless couples?  They weren't the same financial drain on the business.  Why should they suffer the economic consequences or this law?

I remember seeing a story a few years ago, about France's unemployment problems, and how French politicians toyed with the idea of allowing an employer to dismiss employees in the first two years of their employment for whatever reason.  Labor laws being what they are in France, it's very difficult to fire an employee, so businesses are reluctant to hire someone who might not be a good fit for the company.  See the law of unintended consequences playing out here?

Anyway, the French politicians considered the legislation, and the population, with their ingrained sense of entitlement, damn near rioted.  They couldn't see past the short-term benefits of having a guaranteed job and see the long-term negative of how the policy served as a barrier to employment in the first place.

Paid maternity leave, forced on businesses by the government.  Just another example of the staggering economic illiteracy you get when the president hasn't demonstrated the business acumen to run so much as a lemonade stand.
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31 October 2014

Cowardly commenters

Last month, I mopped the floor with a liberal on Newsbusters, using the facts as my broom handle.

Here's his comment that triggered my response.  Names have been omitted to protect the galatically stupid:

The Star Tribune is now owned by a rightwing billionaire, but for years its political content has been managed by stealth conservatives who "balanced" the Strib's op-ed pages with movement conservatives and centrists in lieu of liberals. The Strib has been owned by investment groups since the '90s and toes the .1%'s line.
No one who knows anything about the ownership of American news media believes the hard right's asinine "liberal media" talking points anymore. If it was once true, it hasn't been the case for well over two decades. The media is wrapped around the Right's little pinkie, and someday the more honest conservatives among you will admit to this.

 My response, with bullet points.  See, there are sometimes I enjoy bashing someone over the head with examples that do fit their generalizations:

The Star Tribune is now owned by a rightwing billionaire,
Who bought it after the Star Tribune found a surefire way to lose money: Alienate roughly half of your potential readers with the likes of Lori Sturdevant, Doug Grow, Nick Coleman, and the despicable Steve Sack.
who "balanced" the Strib's op-ed pages with movement conservatives and centrists in lieu of liberals
Liberals like the names mentioned above? By the way, what is wrong with balance in the op-ed section? Successful media acknowledges a diversity opinion among potential readers/listeners/viewers (* ahem * Fox News Channel)
If it was once true, it hasn't been the case for well over two decades
Which is why (REDACTED) hardly ever has examples of media bias-- Oh wait...
The media is wrapped around the Right's little pinkie, and someday the more honest conservatives among you will admit to this.
Yes, we've got the media so wrapped around our pinkie, that:
- in 2000, the media called the state of Florida for the Democratic presidential candidate when the polls were still open in the panhandle, a traditionally Republican-dominated part of the state.
- in 2004, a reporter tried to discredit a sitting Republican president with documents that couldn't be authenticated
- in 2008, reporters spent more time vetting a Republican vice-presidential candidate than they did the Democratic presidential candidate.
- in 2012, in the aftermath of the Aurora, CO movie theater shooting, and ABC News' Brian Ross identified a James Holmes who was a member of a Tea Party chapter in Colorado. He had no confirmation this was the shooter and had to retract his comments when it turned out he had the wrong Holmes.
- in 2012, a debate moderator committed an arguably-unethical act in backing up the incumbent Democrat during a presidential debate. Worse yet, she got her facts wrong.
Just a few examples of how the Right has got control of the media. /sarc
My little citation of examples of how the media is not controlled by the right wing earned me accolades from some of my like-minded commenters.  It's not why I do it, but it's nice to get the virtual pat on the back every once in a while.

Now, unlike some, I don't spend every moment on the comment boards.  I figured if my debate opponent had a response, he would respond to me, which would translate into an email notification.

The thing is, he didn't respond to me.  He responded to someone else and "refuted" my examples:

1. Al Gore won Florida but didn't have the guts to fight the fix that was in.
2. George W. Bush walked away from duty but because of a Republican operative's ability to make the argument be about a side issue, Bush wasn't held accountable for going AWOL.
3. Sarah Palin adopted her youngest child. No clue what that was about but she's active in a crazy church and is never held accountable for her truly extremist views. I grew up in rural Iowa so please don't tell me hers are rural views because that defames all rural people.
4. ABC is a very Republican friendly network. I'm sure Ross was punished for slipping up.
5. Sorry, can't unpack that one. I need a name or a date or something to go by.
I comment under my own name and I am proud to be an American, but it shames me as an American when otherwise good Americans think democracy requires vote suppression like in Communist countries.
The biggest shock to me after moving to Minnesota in 1988 was that 1) the Star Tribune was not the liberal newspaper I thought it was, just another pro-corporate, pro big business daily; 2) that the Star Tribune kept visibly moving to the right, yet the insults from the hard right just grew more vicious even as they grew less factually based; 3) that the Star Tribune evolved into an outright Republican newspaper, yet still was abused by MN Republicans who by then had moved all the way into the John Birch Society camp (and I grew up reading John Birch Society literature and do know it when I read it).
The MN Republican party is now bankrupt having elected leadership that talked hard right but governed as kleptocrats and borrowed what they could not raise. They couldn't beat Al Franken (seriously, how hard was that?) because they couldn't do better than to run a former Democrat who had his suits paid for by an Iranian businessman.
But I will vouch for Ultra. He sounds exactly like a MN Republican: unwilling to let facts get in the way of his beliefs. Sadly, MN will keep reelecting people like Al Franken until such time as MN Republicans start trying to win instead of insisting on ideology first and foremost.
Of course, this happened a month ago, so I missed the whole exchange and comments on the thread are now closed.  He and I have both gone on to comment on other blog posts.  But when I saw this today, I smiled and shook my head.  I shouldn't be surprised.  And this blog doesn't get the visibility of others.  So this response is less for any audience, but more a catharsis for me.

Let's dissect this:

 1. Al Gore won Florida but didn't have the guts to fight the fix that was in.
The thing is, he didn't.  You have no proof.  And by the way, what does this have to do with media bias?  Try to stay on topic, please.

2. George W. Bush walked away from duty but because of a Republican operative's ability to make the argument be about a side issue, Bush wasn't held accountable for going AWOL.
Again, where's your proof?  Dan Rather and Mary Mapes levelled accusations against a sitting Republican president with documents that couldn't be authenticated, especially when it looked like they were typed in Microsoft Word in 2004, and not like they were typed in 1973 on an IBM Selectric typewriter.  Once again, however, my point was about media bias.  You seem to want to debate historical events.  It's possible Bush was AWOL.  But the thing is, you can't prove it!  Neither could Dan Rather or Mary Mapes, which is probably why they fired/forced to resign:  They made inflammatory accusations based on shoddy "evidence."  Journalists must be held to high standards.

3. Sarah Palin adopted her youngest child. No clue what that was about but she's active in a crazy church and is never held accountable for her truly extremist views. I grew up in rural Iowa so please don't tell me hers are rural views because that defames all rural people.
Good Lord, do you have a learning disability?  My point was how the media spent so many resources trying to dig up dirt on Palin in Alaska, when they couldn't be bothered to look into Obama's past.  I said nothing about her children or her views.  Further, I didn't say anything about how Palin's views reflected rural values, or anything like that, but maybe my super-secret straw man filter wasn't on.  By the way, I have visited rural Iowa, and I can confidently express this:  You don't speak for rural people, either.
4. ABC is a very Republican friendly network. I'm sure Ross was punished for slipping up.
Really, you're sure?  That's your defense?  Isn't he still working at ABC?  Seems to me his punishment wasn't severe enough.  Like I said, journalists should be held to high standards.  When your job has the potential to endanger a person's like or livelihood, a suspension doesn't necessarily cut it.

5. Sorry, can't unpack that one. I need a name or a date or something to go by.

Well, if you'd responded to me, I could've clarified my example for you:  I was talking about CNN's Candy Crowley and when she moderated one of the debates between Obama and Romney.  In a blatant unprofessional move, Crowley interjected into the debate to correct Romney and side with Obama.  Turns out, Romney had his facts right, and Crowley was mistaken.  Even if it went the other way, she should have not stepped out of her role as a debate moderator.  She gave Obama an unfair advantage in the debate-- he should've been the one to correct Romney!

Then there was this gem:
I comment under my own name and I am proud to be an American, but it shames me as an American when otherwise good Americans think democracy requires vote suppression like in Communist countries.
I'm sorry, what was the point of this?  Was this a dig at me?  Does my use of a pseudonym negate the validity of the points I made?  Maybe I've seen enough stories of people exercising their free speech rights and getting subjected to various forms of retaliation.  Why does it matter to you?  Did I thwart your plans of trying to make the debate personal?  Good, because debates shouldn't be about the people in the debate, they should be about the ideas.

By the way, who brought up vote (fraud) suppression?  I mean, besides you?  Once again, you're probably lucky I didn't see your response until it was too late.  I'm not sure your psyche could withstand the public trouncing.

The biggest shock to me after moving to Minnesota in 1988 was that 1) the Star Tribune was not the liberal newspaper I thought it was, just another pro-corporate, pro big business daily; 2) that the Star Tribune kept visibly moving to the right, yet the insults from the hard right just grew more vicious even as they grew less factually based; 3) that the Star Tribune evolved into an outright Republican newspaper, yet still was abused by MN Republicans who by then had moved all the way into the John Birch Society camp (and I grew up reading John Birch Society literature and do know it when I read it)
 Where to begin?  If this guy thinks the Star & Sickle is a right-wing newspaper, I'm guessing he thinks Lenin was a moderate!  By the way, I read his crack about MN Republicans moving all the way into the John Birch Society as "Republicans to the right of Arne Carlson, the only Republican governor the DFL ever halfway liked."  And he grew up reading JBS literature, huh?  Funny how he can't distinguish from viewpoints to the right of William F. Buckley, and the viewpoints of the Tea Party, which is as far right as the S-T could (theoretically) go.  Or does my opponent think the Star Tribune should look a little bit more like the Worker's World Daily?

The MN Republican party is now bankrupt having elected leadership that talked hard right but governed as kleptocrats and borrowed what they could not raise. They couldn't beat Al Franken (seriously, how hard was that?) because they couldn't do better than to run a former Democrat who had his suits paid for by an Iranian businessman.
The thing is that Norm Coleman did beat Al Franken.  On election night.  It wasn't until the recount produced a statistically unlikely reversal under the supervision of SoS Mark Ritchie, a politician whom was supported in his run by ACORN, an organization that "accidentally" ran afoul of various laws, including those pertaining to voter registration, more than once.  And I'll point out that Coleman was an incumbent U.S. Senator running for re-election against Franken.  Coleman had won in 2002 after populist Paul Wellstone died in a plane crash five days before the election, and the DFL scrambled to put Walter Mondale in his place.  The polls showed Wellstone in the lead, and voter sympathy should've made it a landslide for Mondale.  But then there was that memorial-turned-political-rally that so disgusted voters that they voted for Coleman out of spite.  Coleman's bad fortune in 2008 was the wave of anti-Bush sentiment among voters.
But I will vouch for REDACTED. He sounds exactly like a MN Republican: unwilling to let facts get in the way of his beliefs. Sadly, MN will keep reelecting people like Al Franken until such time as MN Republicans start trying to win instead of insisting on ideology first and foremost.

Seems to be the first rule of debate if you're losing as badly as this guy:  Attack your opponent!  For the record, asshole:  Yes, I did live (past-tense) in Minnesota.  Yes, I tended to vote Republican.  No, unlike you, I'm not only open to new facts and information, but I'll actually cite them when making my argument.  The only "beliefs" I hold are related to my faith.

And pardon me, but stuff your unsolicited advice:  What is it with leftists and their need to advise their opponents on "how to win"?  Evidence to date shows running Republicans as Democrat-lite is a consistently-doomed approach.  In 2010, we saw what happens when the GOP runs on its principles (not ideology, moron:  Ideology implies the gulf between Republicans and Democrats as akin to Capitalists and Marxists).


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05 July 2014

The thing about rights...

... is that they're not absolute.  Your rights only extend so far as they do not interfere with my rights.

It's amazing how the entitlement mentality in today's United States has overridden the ability to show some critical thinking on this topic.

Let's say you're a Sandra Fluke-type woman who can't afford to pay for your own birth control.  Like a self-entitled slutty little brat that you are, you demand your employer pays for it.  Worse yet, you demand the government make your employer pay for it.

First off, I'd like to thank Ted Kennedy for the 40-year-old notion of HMOs that, like so many well-intentioned liberal ideas, had the opposite effect in reality.  Once upon a time, if you got sick, you went to the doctor, the doctor treated you, and you paid the doctor.

But about poor people?  What about expensive medical treatment?  Enter the HMO.

Now, when you visit the doctor, there's a bean counter between you and your doctor.  Medical procedures must follow the Golden Rule:  The HMO has the gold, so it makes the rules about what procedures will be paid for.

Now, your doctor can tell the HMO to beat it, that he/she won't treat patients represented by accountants.  Problem is, the HMO has sold the snake oil of collective bargaining, as pertains to medical costs, to not just you, but everybody in town.  The doctor has no choice:  He/she must treat patients belonging to the HMO or close up shop.

Now the idea of a collective bargaining unit makes some sense if your doctor was charging you an arm and a leg to treat your arm or leg.  But here's the deal:  Medical procedures sometimes do cost a lot of money.  It cost the doctor a lot of money to go through med school.  It cost a lot of money for the company making the IVs, syringes, and gauze to make sure it's all sterile and high quality.  Guess what?  The HMO nickle-and-dimes the doctor?  The doctor will try to recoup the cost of the procedures the HMO won't pay for by increasing the cost of the procedures they will pay for.

Secondly, somewhere along the time, someone with the same good intentions decided it would be smarter if employers, instead of paying you money that you could use to purchase health insurance, that your employer, with its vast resources, took some of the money from payroll and purchased a group health insurance plan.  Along the lines, a law was passed that a for-profit company with more than 50 employees was required to purchase group health insurance.  So now, the government has put a bean counter and your boss in the room with you and your doctor when you're making health care decisions.  The bean counter has some input on what the HMO's money will be spent on.  The employer, with its financial clout, can at least contractually negotiate with the HMO as to what the employer will pay the HMO to cover.  You?  You have the option to pick one of 2-3 group health care plans your employer has funded, or you can keep the money that would be deducted from your paycheck and purchase your own insurance.  Or if you are a healthy person with an occupation that doesn't raise your risk of injury, you can roll the dice and forgo health insurance, opting to pay as you go.

Now as the entity with the money, the employer will make financial decisions based on a variety of things, including economics and morality.  The Supreme Court has ruled that, just because a Christian man or woman starts a business does not mean he/she has forfeited their right to free expression of their religious beliefs.  You come along and tell your employer that you want the company to subsidize your sex life.  Specifically, you want them to subsidize it so you engage in consequence-free behavior, especially when your birth control fails (or you neglect to use it properly) and you need the chemical or surgical equivalent of absolving you of your responsibility.

Your employer, if run by someone who places more value on the quality of life than you have shown, are well within his/her rights to tell you to pound sand and pay for chemical/surgical responsibility-absolution yourself.  When you think about it, does your employer necessarily want to encourage abdication of personal responsibility in its employees?  Wouldn't the next step be abdication of professional responsibility?  Couldn't that potentially cost your employer his or her business in the event of a lawsuit?

The thing about rights:  Your employer, being owned and run by people with the same rights as you, has a right to free expression of their religion just the same as you.  It's in the Bill of Rights, which means its constitutional law.  It's further supported by federal law, specifically the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.  The ACA mandate on employers being required to cover birth control, including abortifacents, was a mandate enacted by the Department of Health & Human Services, at least one step removed from being passed into law by Congress (the ACA was passed by Congress, affording power to HHS that I do not agree is constitutional, but that's a topic for another discussion).  Guess what?  When an executive-branch mandate conflicts with federal law at best, the Constitution at worst, the mandate loses.



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13 June 2014

Media Matters lies by omission

If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes....

Media Matters for America, the supposed liberal watchdog of the conservative media, criticized Charles C. Johnson's debunking of the Everytown statistic of 74 school shootings since the Sandy Hook school shooting in Newtown, CT.

Let's start with Everytown's statistic, the 74 shootings since Newtown.  This was their methodology:
Data: Incidents were classified as school shootings when a firearm was discharged inside a school building or on school or campus grounds, as documented in publicly reported news accounts. This includes assaults, homicides, suicides, and accidental shootings. Incidents in which guns were brought into schools but not fired there, or were fired off school grounds after having been possessed in schools, were not included. This list includes incidents meeting the above criteria that were brought to our attention after our School Shootings Analysis was issued on February 10, 2014. Incidents were identified through media reports, so this is likely an undercount of the true total.
The last sentence gets me.  Likely an undercount?  With our if-it-bleeds-it-leads news media?  Not likely.

So, the methodology includes firearm discharges in the school buildings, or just on school/campus grounds.  Like in the parking lot.

Here's the list that Everytown compiled:

#

Date

City, State

School Name

Type
1. 1/08/2013 Fort Myers, FL Apostolic Revival Center Christian School K-12
2. 1/10/2013 Taft, CA Taft Union High School K-12
3. 1/15/2013 St. Louis, MO Stevens Institute of Business & Arts College
4. 1/15/2013 Hazard, KY Hazard Community and Technical College College
5. 1/16/2013 Chicago, IL Chicago State University College
6. 1/22/2013 Houston, TX Lone Star College North Harris Campus College
7. 1/31/2013 Atlanta, GA Price Middle School K-12
8. 2/1/2013 Atlanta, GA Morehouse College College
9. 2/7/2013 Fort Pierce, FL Indian River St. College College
10. 2/13/2013 San Leandro, CA Hillside Elementary School K-12
11. 2/27/2013 Atlanta, GA Henry W. Grady HS K-12
12. 3/18/2013 Orlando, FL University of Central Florida College
13. 3/21/2013 Southgate, MI Davidson Middle School K-12
14. 4/12/2013 Christianburg, VA New River Community College College
15. 4/13/2013 Elizabeth City, NC Elizabeth City State University College
16. 4/15/2013 Grambling, LA Grambling State University College
17. 4/16/2013 Tuscaloosa, AL Stillman College College
18. 4/29/2013 Cincinnati, OH La Salle High School K-12
19. 6/7/2013 Santa Monica,CA Santa Monica College College
20. 6/19/2013 W. Palm Beach, FL Alexander W. Dreyfoos School of the Arts K-12
21. 8/15/2013 Clarksville, TN Northwest High School K-12
22. 8/20/2013 Decatur, GA Ronald E. McNair Discovery Learning Academy K-12
23. 8/22/2013 Memphis, TN Westside Elementary School K-12
24. 8/23/2013 Sardis, MS North Panola High School K-12
25. 8/30/2013 Winston-Salem, NC Carver High School K-12
26. 9/21/2013 Savannah, GA Savannah State University College
27. 9/28/2013 Gray, ME New Gloucester High School K-12
28. 10/4/2013 Pine Hills, FL Agape Christian Academy K-12
29. 10/15/2013 Austin, TX Lanier High School K-12
30. 10/21/2013 Sparks, NV Sparks Middle School K-12
31. 11/1/2013 Algona, IA Algona High/Middle School K-12
32. 11/2/2013 Greensboro, NC North Carolina A&T State University College
33. 11/3/2013 Stone Mountain, GA Stephenson High School K-12
34. 11/21/2013 Rapid City, SD South Dakota School of Mines & Technology College
35. 12/4/2013 Winter Garden, FL West Orange High School K-12
36. 12/13/2013 Arapahoe County, CO Arapahoe High School K-12
37. 12/19/2013 Fresno, CA Edison High School K-12
38. 1/9/2014 Jackson, TN Liberty Technology Magnet HS K-12
39. 1/14/2014 Roswell, NM Berrendo Middle School K-12
40. 1/15/2014 Lancaster, PA Martin Luther King Jr. ES K-12
41. 1/17/2014 Philadelphia, PA Delaware Valley Charter HS K-12
42. 1/20/2014 Chester, PA Widener University College
43. 1/21/2014 West Lafayette, IN Purdue University College
44. 1/24/2014 Orangeburg, SC South Carolina State University College
45. 1/28/2014 Nashville, TN Tennessee State University College
46. 1/28/2014 Grambling, LA Grambling State University College
47. 1/30/2014 Palm Bay, FL Eastern Florida State College College
48. 1/31/2014 Phoenix, AZ Cesar Chavez High School K-12
49. 1/31/2014 Des Moines, IA North High School K-12
50. 2/7/2014 Bend, OR Bend High School K-12
51. 2/10/2014 Salisbury, NC Salisbury High School K-12
52. 2/11/2014 Lyndhurst, OH Brush High School K-12
53. 2/12/2014 Jackson, TN Union University College
54. 2/20/2014 Raytown, MO Raytown Success Academy K-12
55. 3/2/2014 Westminster, MD McDaniel College College
56. 3/7/2014 Tallulah, LA Madison High School K-12
57. 3/8/2014 Oshkosh, WI University of Wisconsin – Oshkosh College
58. 3/21/2014 Newark, DE University of Delaware College
59. 3/30/2014 Savannah, GA Savannah State University College
60. 4/3/2014 Kent, OH Kent State University College
61. 4/7/2014 Roswell, NM Eastern New Mexico University-Roswell College
62. 4/11/2014 Detroit, MI East English Village Preparatory Academy K-12
63. 4/21/2014 Griffith, IN St. Mary Catholic School K-12
64. 4/21/2014 Provo, UT Provo High School K-12
65. 4/26/2014 Council Bluffs, IA Iowa Western Community College College
66. 5/2/2014 Milwaukee, WI Marquette University College
67. 5/3/2014 Everett, WA Horizon Elementary School K-12
68. 5/4/2014 Augusta, GA Paine College College
69. 5/5/2014 Augusta, GA Paine College College
70. 5/8/2014 Georgetown, KY Georgetown College College
71. 5/8/2014 Lawrenceville, GA Georgia Gwinnett College College
72. 5/21/2014 Milwaukee, WI Clark Street School K-12
73. 6/5/2014 Seattle, WA Seattle Pacific University College
74. 6/10/2014 Troutdale, OR Reynolds High School K-12

So Charles C. Johnson analyzed Everytown's list, courtesy of the Blaze:

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2014/06/10/wow-journalist-attempts-to-debunk-anti-gun-groups-list-of-school-shootings-in-america-since-sandy-hook-heres-what-he-found/

The Blaze article has screen captures of 33 tweets where Johnson disputes the Everytown classification of the shooting that made the list as a school shooting, such as shootings that took place in the parking lot.  At 9 pm.  Involving a dice game and a 19-year-old.

http://abc7news.com/archive/8992648/

By the way, in that incident, police aren't even sure the victim was shot on school grounds, or fled there after being shot.

But then there's this one:

ELIZABETH CITY, NC-Two teenagers are charged in the off-campus shooting of an Elizabeth City State University student.
University police responded to a large crowd outside Williams Hall gym just before 8:00 p.m. Thursday. Investigators determined a student was chased by the four men, who aren't ECSU students, to a public street, Hoffler Street, and was shot there.
Police spotted the suspects' getaway car on William J. and Helen Muldrow Way, near Griffin Hall and the Thomas-Jenkins Building where University Police is housed.
The student remains hospitalized in stable condition.
The two people inside were taken by City police and warrants for attempted first degree murder were obtained for two 17-year-olds: Rayshaun Maurice Baum and Kahari Hopson.
Police say neither of the suspects are ECSU students.
The student remains hospitalized in stable condition.
Wait a minute, the student was chased onto a public street and shot there.  Everytown has already violated their own methodology!


Oh, wait, here's an actual shooting at a school while students were on-campus:

http://wreg.com/2013/08/26/three-men-arrested-in-deadly-north-panola-high-shooting/

(Panola County, MS) Investigators in Panola County have made arrests in the Friday night football shooting that took the life of a North Panola High School student over the weekend.
What’s more disturbing is how investigators say the incident started, and they say it may not end soon.
Three Panola County men face capitol murder charges in the weekend shooting at a football game between North Panola and Tunica.
But what’s more disturbing, authorities say, is this murder’s ties to increased gang activity.
The murder of 15-year-old Roderick Bobo has Panola County authorities vowing law enforcement saturation to fight a growing gang problem they say is responsible for the teenager’s death.
District Attorney John Champion said, “It doesn’t get any more serious than what we’re looking at right now, because our schools are supposed to be a haven for safety.”
Champion said football games are supposed to be fun and safe.
But he blamed some kind of grudge between two gangs for the gunfire, which killed Bobo and wounded two others, that erupted at the football game.
Oh, gang-related.  So not some loner with a gun shooting indiscriminately, but criminals in a criminal organization targeting someone with ties to criminals in a rival criminal organization?  Well, hell, background checks will definitely help with that!

So, anyway, MMFA decides to "debunk" Johnson's debunking.  As part of this debunking, they said:

How Everytown reached the 74 school shooting figure is no mystery. On its website, the gun safety group clearly explains its methodology: "Incidents were classified as school shootings when a firearm was discharged inside a school building or on school or campus grounds, as documented in publicly reported news accounts. This includes assaults, homicides, suicides, and accidental shootings."
 Ok, two things here:
  1. Everytown published a shocking statistic about how there's now been 74 school shootings since the shooting in Newtown, CT.  In the fine print, they define school shooting using a broad definition.  It's likely most people will never read the fine print after their emotions are whipped up into a frenzy by the big, scary number.
  2. I've already demonstrated that Everytown violated their own methodology.  They're either did it deliberately, or they were sloppy in collecting their data.  Either way, MMFA excluded part of the methodology when refuting Johnson.  Why?
MMFA's Tim Johnson continues:

The right-wing media has sought to debunk this statistic in order to downplay the prevalence of school shootings. Criticism of Everytown's graphic began on June 10 with a lengthy series of tweets from conservative journalist Charles C. Johnson that purported to debunk many of the 74 shootings as "fake shooting[s]."
Shootings that Johnson believed had been mischaracterized as school shootings included incidents where, in his own words, "A gunman ran onto campus, was chased by police, shot student accidentally," "Honors student shoots self in front of class," and, "Northwest High School principal shot by her ex-husband on campus":
At which point MMFA's Johnson cites the three (just three?) oh-so-offensive tweets from Charles C. Johnson.

Now let's analyze the three MMFA chose for its attempted refutation:


Ok, the first one:
FORT PIERCE — A female student at Indian River State College was shot and injured as a gunman and police traded fire Thursday in the parking lot of the college’s campus, a college spokeswoman said.
The student was injured as police converged on the armed man in the parking lot of the Treasure Coast Public Safety Complex on the college’s campus at 4600 Kirby Loop Road in Fort Pierce.
Michelle Abaldo, the college’s director of institutional advancement, told WPTV NewsChannel5 the woman got in the line of fire and was injured in the shoulder. Abaldo said the gunman was not a student.
So, a person in the commission of a crime runs onto a college campus, exchanges fire with the police, and an innocent bystander is caught in the cross-fire.  Again, how would background checks, metal detectors, and the usual knee-jerk reactions from the gun-grabbers have prevented this?

Next:
CINCINNATI -- After an honor student shot himself in the head in front of classmates Monday morning, the La Salle High School community is shocked, puzzled and hurt.
Oh, so he shot himself?  As in a suicide attempt?  While tragic, how does this qualify as a school shooting?  Other students, teachers, and faculty in the gun-free zone were not the target.  The shooter was targeting himself, which, frankly, he can do anywhere.  If he's doing this at school, it's to make a statement and/or attract attention.

Lastly:

CLARKSVILLE, Tenn.- Almost two weeks before school starts, the assistant principal at a Montgomery County high school was found shot to death.
Pamela Cooper was found shot to death in her ex-husband's pickup truck Monday night.
On Tuesday, authorities in Montgomery County caught Andrew Cooper, a Northwest High school economics teacher and boy's basketball coach.
Cooper was charged with killing Pamela Cooper, assistant principal at Kenwood High School.
The pair taught at local high schools in Clarksville, where the shooting has had a huge impact on the community.
Andrew Cooper had succeeded longtime basketball coach Willard Ross, who retired in 2006. In June, Ross was shot and killed as he worked in his family's fireworks stand in Clarksville. A grand jury indicted two suspects for his shooting death.
As the community continued to heal from Ross's death, now residents are trying to make sense of Cooper's death.
"She was dedicated to our kids," said Kenwood High School Principal Hal Bedell. "She was kind, compassionate."
"She had a great heart and there's going to be a lot of kids who are going to be devastated by this," Bedell said.
Pamela Cooper had been assistant principal at Kenwood for nearly three years. She began her career as a biology teacher at Northwest High School.
"I don't know how you describe it, it's just unreal," said Kate Lewis of Northwest High School.
Lewis said most people were aware that they divorced last year, but were unaware of any problems. The couple was very involved in the community and focused on their careers. Pamela Cooper was in the process of getting a doctorate.
"We'll pull together and we'll get through this together," Bedell said.
Administrators at Kenwood High School said they will help investigators by providing any information that they need.
Schools in Montgomery County start Thursday, Aug. 9.

Alright, I have to give MMFA's Tim Johnson credit on this one:  Johnson's tweet is not supported by the link in one aspect.  The news story does not explicitly state the pickup truck was on school grounds.  So I used this thing called Google and found the follow-up story here:

http://www.newschannel5.com/story/6830572/hs-basketball-coach-charged-in-wifes-killing

WOODLAWN, Tenn. - After almost 17 hours of being on the run, police have caught Northwest High School basketball coach Andrew Cooper.
He was wanted for the shooting death of his ex-wife Pamela Cooper.
Montgomery County Sheriff's deputies said Monday night Andrew Cooper, 44, kidnapped his ex-wife from her home, tied her up and put her in his truck. He drove a short distance when witnesses said he shot and killed her.
Deputies caught Cooper hiding in a ditch near the woods off Lylewood Road in Woodlawn.
As he was cuffed and strapped to the stretcher the Northwest High School Basketball coach sobbed, but didn't say much.
Andrew Cooper was treated at Gateway Medical Center in Clarksville for dehydration and released around 4 p.m. Tuesday.
He was taken straight to the Montgomery County Jail where he remained Tuesday night without bond.
Cooper will have his first court appearance Wednesday morning.
He was arrested about three miles from where investigators found Pamela Cooper.
The Montgomery County Sheriff's Office was called out to investigate a shooting, which happened before 7 p.m. Monday night in the 3400 block of Lylewood Road in Woodlawn.
According to Ted Denny with the Montgomery County Sheriff's Office, a felony homicide warrant was issued for Andrew Cooper early Tuesday morning.
Officials said Pamela Cooper's body was found inside Andrew Cooper's pickup truck. She had been shot multiple times in the head.
Neighbors called the sheriff's office after hearing a man and a woman arguing. They claimed to hear screams for help and then a gunshot. When officials arrived on scene, they found Pamela Cooper dead.
Pamela Cooper was the assistant principal at Kenwood High School. Andrew Cooper is the men's head basketball coach at Northwest High School. 
Witnesses told investigators that they saw Cooper head for the woods after the shooting.
Officers were called in to search on foot and from the air. Police believed Cooper had been hiding in the heavily wooded area.
Andrew Cooper succeeded longtime basketball coach Willard Ross, who retired last year. Ross was shot and killed in June as he worked in his family's fireworks stand in Clarksville. A grand jury has indicted two suspects in Ross' killing.
There was no word Tuesday night about funeral or memorial service arrangements for Pamela Cooper.
Wait a minute, I'm confused:  Where's the school where the shooting took place?  Here's a hint:   IT DIDN'T!  It is by definition NOT A SCHOOL SHOOTING!

MMFA, if you're going to attempt to debunk a debunking, at least try to use a story where the shooting was at least on school grounds.

The only tie-in this murder has to a school is that the murderer and his victim were both employed at a school.  If a couple of people who work at the same place go to a bar, get drunk, and get into a fistfight, is it workplace violence?

By the way, we have another violation of Everytown's methodology.

Not sure, who's sloppier?  Everytown, for including such incidents that either stretch or violate their own definition of school shootings, or Media Matters For America, for failing to double-check their facts before attacking Charles C. Johnson for questioning the narrative?
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12 May 2014

Gender gap

As I walk around the office, my introverted nature causes me to notice the footwear of others.

What I see is the women,  as summer arrives, are wearing flip-flops & sandals.

The men?  Wearing sneakers, dress shoes,  or boots, the latter option being necessary for work at our test facility.

And what do I take away from that?  That of the work population here, the women would rather work in a comfortable office environment,  instead of having to wear uncomfortable and sometimes bulky PPE and work in the test facility.   Question:  should the men who are willing to work at the test facility be paid more, for the relative risks and discomfort?

If the answer's no, then why don't I see more women at the test facility?

Bueller?  Bueller?

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04 April 2014

"She could see Russia from her house"

The Chatty Cathys are at it again.  It's bad enough when they talk about every subject known to mankind and start early with their riveting discussions on Fridays, but this morning, I heard this gem:

"Well, she could see Russia from her house"

Oh, for crying out loud, Sarah Palin NEVER SAID THAT!

Know the old adage "It's better to be thought a fool than open your mouth and remove all doubt?"

Probably not, since they're mostly millennials.  In addition to that, they're morons.

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04 February 2014

Chatty Cathys, part VII

9V batteries, story on how two thrown into trash shorted together and burned someone's house down.  How my colleague on the other side of the cube wall hates 9V batteries.

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01 February 2014

Calling from the future

Test
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15 January 2014

Chatty Cathys, part V

Smart watches, the aluminum panels on the new Ford F-150, remember when Saturn cars had plastic body panels that cracked & fell off in cold weather?

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