"Gonzo" Skip Gates

First, Obama did himself and the nation NO favors by answering the question received on the Skip Gates & Cambridge P.D. (CPD) incident.

Onto the incident. Through all the reports I think some things are able to be stipulated and this is how I think this went down:

Gates tried breaking into his own home with some help from a driver. Woman saw two men trying to break in the back door of house, called the CPD.

Gates got in the house, the driver left. I'm sure at this point, with all this annoyance with getting into his own house without his keys, Gates was already frustrated and ready to pop.

CPD roll up to the house, and ring the doorbell. An already agitated Gates is quick to get snippy and not wanting to show some ID because it is his house. Reluctantly shows his ID to CPD, with either the tacit implied notification that the CPD would then go away, or the CPD told him they just needed to see his ID and they'd be on their way (you know the old cop trick of asking just to see one thing, then it's another one thing, then another...). I think it's entirely fair for them to ask for his ID and for them to run a background check on a car computer of via dispatch. Just because your address is a match on your ID, doesn't mean you're always allowed to be there. Think restraining orders.

When the CPD doesn't go away, Gates already agitated, tired, wanting to go to bed, loses his cool; He begins shouting at the CPD because he feels he's being persecuted and thus, starts to make a scene.

Thing is, he is inside his house; Where it seems you can legally yell and be completely obnoxious to a cop. At some point the CPD walks out of the house...hold on...this was either on their own accord, or they asked Gates to take the discussion outside according to some reports...my guess is the former. Therefore, I think Gates, still angry as piss, follows them out of his house to finish giving them a piece of his mind.

I think this was a case of racial profiling. However, NOT by the CPD, but by the woman who phoned into the CPD in the first place.

Gates, in my view, clearly overreacted to epic proportions. However, when the CPD found out who he was, they should have left him alone. Walk away.

Both sides have tremendous egos, but the CPD had an obligation to walk away. That was their only misstep.

Teaching & Discrimination

A N.J. substitute teacher who underwent sex-reassignment surgery is quitting her substituting efforts in the two districts that she was working.

I remember this story and being impressed with the districts but, extremely wary of the prospects Ms. McBeth would truly face once the bright lights were off the situation and the cold hand of discrimination took hold.

The two districts were: A. Eagleswood, B. Pinelands Regional. Before the operation McBeth received 15 to 18 assignments a year in Eagleswood, and 16 to 20 a year in Pinelands Regional.

Since she has had the reassignment completed, McBeth has only gotten 2 assignments from each district over the course of two years.

What do the Superintendents say? Deborah Snyder, the Eagleswood schools superintendent, said the district has hired a permanent substitute to report to work each day and fill in as needed. She also noted that the district turns to its list of certified teachers. Only after that is exhausted does it call subs from the local hiring list that included McBeth. The Pineswood Regional Superintendent declined a comment.

Okay 2 quick points of rebuttal:

1. Hiring one (Snyder said "a") substitute does not fill all your need across a district, even if it's a small district (enrollment in 2007-2008 is reported to be 142).

2. Knowing people who hire/call for substitutes, when you find a good substitute for your school that your employed teachers like, you put them at the top of your list and they become one of the first people you call.

As a teacher I can say the only thing worse than having to be out a day and prepare lesson plans for a substitute (yes, I write my plans out a week ahead, but it's often in short-hand, and when you have a sub you have to make everything clear), is to come back to your classroom the next day and hear reports of how awful the sub was.

Healthcare Heartache Healing

Fixing our health care system is a hot topic that has the potential to make massive positive changes in the lives of perhaps hundreds of millions of Americans, and make the health care system run more efficiently and effectively for all. For the Record: All the bitching about government bureaucrats running health care from Washington is bogus argument, when private bureaucrats in for-profit insurance companies are deciding whether you can get even the most simple treatments for a cold sore.

Many solutions are being put forth by many well-meaning, and some not-so-well meaning people (*cough* big pharma *cough*).

The buzz if out there that we will not be able to snag a single-payer type of health care system. While, I am not inclined enough to cleanly give an opinion that I would feel firm about (yes, I realize this fact hasn’t stopped me in the past, nor will it in future), I am posting here to attack one idea that has been floated out there, something that Obama and his administration seems to embrace. I believe I recall him touting this idea during the campaign, so I would bet this will be in any health care legislation passed.

This idea is reflective of a pattern seen in my field of choice: education. The prevalence of using test scores of students to “reward good teachers” is unfortunately become a reality in some districts, or is on track to become as such.

Now we have the following idea in health care from the USA Today: “Reward doctors and hospitals not just for how many procedures they perform but how well their patients fare.” This idea sounds fantastic! I admit I liked it initially at first, but upon further reflection and analysis, there are significant drawbacks in my opinion that do not necessarily address some problems within health care.

Two other quick hits from the article:

“One of every four heart failure patients and slightly less than one in five heart attack and pneumonia patients land back in the hospital within 30 days, data show.” – A clear hazard of running a health care system for profit & having literally no focus on prevention. As people who have these problems aren't sufficiently supervised post-op and are often sent home too early.

“…patients have higher death rates at hospitals in the nation's poorest and smallest counties, compared with those in larger, more affluent areas.” – Similar to the problem w/ testing in education. (Yes, there are those examples of poor, inner city schools who are shining and getting a great %age of their students to pass their standardized tests, but they are far from the norm. Moreover, those who say the teachers at the other school in the inner city who aren’t able to get good testing schools are “failing” really don’t get the pathology of the inner city student and inner city life (I don’t either, given I am a white boy from middle America)) But, the bigger, better hospitals that have more money to pay the best doctors are, of course, more likely to have better a lower death rate.

Not only are the doctors more likely better and more experienced, those areas with more affluent socioeconomic status are also more likely to have healthier patients to begin with. Even more so, they are more likely to follow doctor’s orders via prevention (eating/exercise habits), and they are more likely to be able to follow doctor’s orders.

By instituting this policy, it would cause these already struggling hospitals to struggle even more when they don’t get MORE government funding. The system in America continues to be ass backwards. Two examples:

1. The credit industry charges lower interest rates to the rich who can easily make their payments, while they screw low-income people with ridiculous rates and make it incredibly hard for them to gain equity and capital.

2. Some proposals in education "reform" include hitting those failing schools whose students don't pass those stupid standardized tests with lower government funding.

Finally, there was also a report out yesterday noting the rate of mistakes made every year in hospitals by doctors and other staff that cause injury or even death. We MUST insist on further funds to encourage young people to encourage them to go into doctoring and nursing (just like Obama has discussed doing for education). There is an incredible shortage of doctors and nurses, and we haven’t hit the big boom from those damn Baby Boomers yet. These people are often overworked because there is such a shortage, and any legislation should give allowances for these grants and also some mandatory working hour limitations. I would argue most hospital mistakes are made because the people are ridiculously tired and have too many patients to keep track of. They need relief and we should demand they get it.

Pathetic Palin Pontification

Ahhh, yes. The soon to be ex-Governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin, is making news because of her quit job.

Speculation as to the cause for this sudden leaving of thy office has ensued. From: She's going to run for Resident. To she's leaving politics altogether.

Clearly, she got her ass kicked and beat up pretty harshly by the media, during and after her VP run. However, she asked for it by getting into that spotlight. I think the woman is seriously misguided in her views, and she's a bit of a lightweight, but I refuse to believe she was so obtuse to not be aware of what she was subjecting her family to when she accepted the Old Geezer's invite to be on the ticket. That said, no one can prepare for the glow of national Presidential politic spotlight.

She could pull a John Edwards after his 2004 run: He studied his ass of an boned up on issues for a solid two years, before fucking a campaign staffer and nearly becoming the next Gary Hart.

She no doubt will make the lecture circuit rounds, and her book will be coming out. This will allow her to get some cash.

She may be making this move in anticipation of a 2012 run, since she's really the only star in the Republican party at this point. Romney, Pawlenty, Jindal, Newt, none of those are sexy to a wide national population in my view. There are other lesser knows as well.

If she is going to make a run, which I don't think she knows yet, she's continuing to make mistakes in her public appearances/statements and/or official actions. Her personal attorney apparently has fired off a letter warning the press on printing 'defamatory material' related to the investigation into whether she embezzled funds during the building of a sports arena in her home town. This action, will undoubtedly call for coverage, which has been largely silent in MSM papers thus far.

Not to mention her "press conference" to make her quitting announcement appeared to be hastily put together, like the dress of the Argentine woman S. Carolina Gov. Sanford was screwing.

Moreover, her quitting because she had some rough patches, should come up if she so chooses to make a run. She wanted to be the VP behind an old geezer who was doomed to die from the stress of the job, and then assume the Presidency. The President of the United States has to make some tough calls, tough decisions, and they can't quit everytime they get some coverage in the press that *in my best whiny and babyish voice* "isn't fair!" She clearly doesn't have the stones, the grit necessary for the job. Quitting an Alaskan governorship that, like Bush's Texas gig, is a fairly simple state to Govern, shows tremendous weakness and a lack of professionalism, and fortitude needed to be a President. She thinks the coverage was tough this time when she was the VP, just wait til she announces her run for President, and the press has MONTHS to dig up all the dirty shit she must have stashed under a stack of mattresses somewhere.

Paling seems desperate in her attempts to keep her name in the news, when she should be doing exactly the opposite. The more Americans hear from her these next two year, the less they will like her. She can go campaign for other Republicans, which I am also sure she will do, in order to build up some cache, and more importantly, favors. But, no more of this national news crap. She needs to lay low if she has any chance.

For she can only play the poor baby I'm a woman card so many times. Too often, she'll look like the lightweight she is, but worse, she'll look overly emotional. And as much as the middle-aged American conservative male may have wet dreams about having their way with her hot ass, they will not vote for her if she is perceived as an emotional train-wreck waiting to happen.

I think she will test the waters and will run, and may even stay in it towards the very end in the 2012 Republican race to lose to Obama. But, there's no way she gets through the Republican gauntlet without doing some serious homework.

Three Convenient Arguments/Issues

1. Life really does start the minute the sperm enters and fertilizes the egg.

- As a pro-choice advocate, people of my ilk tend to argue that life doesn't begin until the child breaths after coming out of the birth canal. This is clearly balderdash, and anyone with a brain knows that life begins at fertilization. The argument goes that even though the egg is fertilized, it cannot have sustainable life outside of the womb. This is true, but it's still a VERY young human being.The proverbial bubble boy from a Seinfeld episode is a human being, he doesn't cease to be a human being simply because he can't live outside his bubble (much like a womb).

2. Violence on TV really does do damage to youngin's.

- As a massive free speech advocate, being the one issue I would be willing to die a fiery death for, I have always argued the position that television has no effect on young children when they are watching it. However, I have always believed this is false. My problem, and why I support those who argue this falsehood, is censoring television is NOT the right answer. Proper parenting is.

3. Whether or not being a homosexual is a choice really doesn't matter.

- Liberals and activists for homosexuals generally argue that being gay is not a choice. I happen to think this argument is moot. However, I support those who make the argument that being gay isn't a choice, it's ingrained at birth. This is the only clear way to battle the religious whack jobs in this country.

Change & Hope Continue in Mississippi

James Young, the new mayor of Philadelphia, Mississippi, knows what it was like to be harassed by the KKK. Philadelphia is the home to one of the most notorious civil rights events in US history: The assassination of three civil rights workers who were registering black people to vote back in 1964.

For the first time, this town has a black mayor. Change is a slow mo-fo, but when it comes, it is very sweet.