This week is a short table, but it’s all good, right?
WTF?? 1. When did the educational system become afraid of children? I’m not talking about the 17 year old 300lb linebacker who threatened to beat the hell out of the teacher, or another student, after school. I’m not talking about 16 year old girls driving each other to suicide and murder with their malicious sense of self-importance. We’ll be talking about a 6 year old who, after breaking a school rule, was handcuffed over a chair. Last May, Ja’Briel Weston, a 6 year old at Sarah T. Reed Elementary School in New Orleans had an argument with another student over a chair. Like all children do, from time to time – they squabble and argue over things of seemingly no importance to anyone but themselves. Lil’Bee does it all the time. I’m sure you kids do, or did, too. But with zero-tolerance policies in hand, and school security outsourced to private contractors, we end up with a child treated like a hardened criminal who just shanked a prison guard. All I can do is shake my head, and wonder, when did the educational system become so deathly afraid of children? The Southern Poverty Law Center has filed a class action suit against the school, where this type of treatment of young children has been routine for some time. I hope they win, and I hope they go after any other school that shackles young children to anything. We can only hope that young Weston learns of a different path, has a different experience soon that shows him that school is not a jail but a place and could free his mind so that he can overcome his fear and loathing of his oppressors, for that is exactly what they have become. This is not education, this is sanctioned oppression, and I find it intolerable. Treat a child like a dangerous felon long enough, and guess what that child will eventually become?
WTF?? 2. Watch the NRA flex its muscles. As I’ve said before, this is an organization that presents a clear and present danger to the republic. If you still have any doubt, read the following from the New York Times:
Beyond Guns: N.R.A. Expands Agenda
By ERIC LICHTBLAU
WASHINGTON — Fresh off a string of victories in the courts and Congress, the National Rifle Association is flexing political muscle outside its normal domain, with both Democrats and Republicans courting its favor and avoiding its wrath on issues that sometimes seem to have little to do with guns.
The N.R.A., long a powerful lobby on gun rights issues, has in recent months also weighed in on such varied issues as health care, campaign finance, credit card regulations and Supreme Court nominees.
In the health care debate this year, for instance, the N.R.A.’s lobbyists worked with the Senate majority leader, Harry Reid, to include a little-noticed provision banning insurance companies from charging higher premiums for people with guns in their homes.
The N.R.A. worked out a deal last month exempting itself from a proposal requiring groups active in political spending to disclose their financial donors. Its push this spring for greater gun rights in the District of Columbia served to effectively kill a measure — once seemingly assured of passage — to give the district a voting seat in Congress.
With a push from the N.R.A., a popular bill last year restricting credit card lenders came with an odd add-on: It also allowed people to carry loaded guns in national parks. And the gun lobby put potential supporters of the Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan on notice this month that a vote for her would be remembered at the ballot boxes in November.
The N.R.A.’s expanding portfolio is an outgrowth of its success in the courts, Congressional officials and political analysts said. With the Supreme Court ruling last month for the second time since 2008 that the Second Amendment guarantees an individual the right to have a gun, the N.R.A. now finds that its defining battle is a matter of settled law, and it has the resources to expand into other areas.
When the N.R.A. had a narrower range of targets, it relied on a core group of political figures and met with stiffer resistance from vocal gun control advocates in Congress and outside groups. It now has freer rein to leave its mark politically on issues that once seemed out of its reach.
“The last two years have been a disaster for us,” said Representative Carolyn McCarthy, a New York Democrat and a longtime advocate of increased gun control. “A lot of members are just afraid of the N.R.A.”
On Monday, the N.R.A. began broadcasting advertisements urging senators to oppose or filibuster the Kagan nomination. But the group’s top priority is still finding ways to use the Supreme Court ruling in cities, states and courts nationwide to overturn more restrictive gun laws and establish gun rights measures.
N.R.A. officials say they are determined to protect gun rights even if it means using the group’s $307 million budget and membership of more than four million gun owners to influence ancillary issues. (editor’s note: don’t forget those more than 4,000,000 members outnumber 2 to 1 ALL law enforcement and active military – ALL of it).
“What you’re seeing is a recognition that support for the Second Amendment is not only a very powerful voting bloc, but a very powerful political force.” Chris W. Cox, the N.R.A.’s chief lobbyist, said in an interview last week at the group’s Washington office, a few blocks from the Capitol.
He pointed to the debate this spring over loosening gun laws in the District of Columbia after a 2008 Supreme Court ruling found the city’s gun ban unconstitutional. At the time, advocates for district voting rights saw their best chance in many years to gain a voting seat in the House, but they abandoned their own proposal after gun rights supporters attached a provision weakening local gun laws.
“I honestly don’t care about D.C. voting rights,” Mr. Cox said of the legislative maneuvering. “I care about reforming D.C. gun laws, and we’re going to use voting rights or any other vehicle at our disposal to address what we consider a blatant disregard for the Constitution.”
The N.R.A. was just as aggressive last month in getting Congressional Democrats to carve out an exemption tailor-made for the group to exclude it from the so-called Disclose Act, requiring disclosure of donors, rather than risk a defeat of the whole bill because of opposition from Republicans and conservative Democrats supportive of gun rights.
“They shot holes in the Disclose Act with such precision and force that it would make an N.R.A. member proud,” said Kenneth Gross, a Washington lawyer who specializes in lobbying issues.
But the group’s muscle has generated tensions with some gun owners themselves, who do not like the idea of the N.R.A. straying into areas outside its core base and aligning itself with Democrats as it broadens its agenda.
The headline on a recent blog post from a rival faction, the Gun Owners of America, singling out the N.R.A.’s exemption from the campaign finance bill, captured the sentiment: “The N.R.A. Sells out Freedom to the Democrats.”
A point of contention on both the left and the right is the N.R.A.’s close working relationship with Mr. Reid, the Senate leader who helped get a number of pro-gun rights measures included in broader bills.
That relationship has led some gun rights supporters to lobby against the idea that the N.R.A. might endorse Mr. Reid in his tough re-election campaign this November in Nevada.
The N.R.A. is not tamping down speculation. While Mr. Cox said the group had not decided on any endorsements, he pointed to what he considered an unattractive alternative if Mr. Reid loses and the Democrats hold power. “I’ll give you four words: Majority Leader Chuck Schumer,” he said.
Mr. Reid, for his part, does not run from his support for the N.R.A. His office noted that he had been a longtime “champion of the Second Amendment.”
One reason for the group’s greater political leverage is that battles in Washington are so closely fought now that powerful interest groups hold more sway even if they can only deliver a handful of votes.
Paul Helmke, president of the Brady Center to Prevent Handgun Violence, said in pursuing an ambitious legislative agenda, President Obama — who has been largely silent on gun issues — and Congressional Democrats must either work with the gun lobby or risk losing votes. “They basically end up saying, ‘We’re willing to capitulate to the N.R.A. to get the greater good of whatever passed,’ ” he said.
That approach bothers him and Ms. McCarthy, who first came to politics on a pro-gun-control platform after a gunman with a semiautomatic weapon killed her husband and five others during a rampage on the Long Island Rail Road in 1993.
Ms. McCarthy said the group drew its power from its money — it has donated more than $17.5 million to federal candidates, mostly Republicans, since 1989, and spent millions more in lobbying — and the fear of political retribution.
“I’ve told the Democratic leadership, if you give in to them once, you’re going to see every piece of legislation with a gun amendment added to it,” she said. “But it’s put the leadership in a very difficult position because they know they might not get their bill passed.”
N.R.A. leaders say they plan on broadening their efforts.
“I think we’ve done it better than any organization in the country, to be honest,” said Wayne LaPierre, the N.R.A.’s executive vice president.
If that doesn’t make you sit up and wonder just what that sociopathic “organization” is capable of, given the right stresser event, then I don’t know what will. I’d like a shout-back from all my loyal readers: What do you think would be an event that just tips the NRA into calling its “reserves” into “active duty” against the country itself?
For this potluck, I only have one Strikes My Fancy dessert item on the menu, and it’s Meatloaf. He has a new CD out called “Hang Cool Teddy Bear”, and it’s pretty darned good – especially the track “Running Away From Me” which is suprisingly catchy. Some of Meatloaf’s stuff sans Jim Steinman was…mediocre, at best. This new one isn’t with his old partner Jim (who wrote the songs on Bat out of Hell and BOOH 2 and 3), but it was produced by Rob Cavallo, who produces Green Day, and I can recommend it for the song-writing and reasonably good rock-opera’esque feel.
The following is from “Bat Out of Hell 2: Back Into Hell”, and it’s an oldie but a goodie. Enjoy!
Tags: 6 year old handcuffed in school, Bat Out Of Hell, Hang Cool Teddy Bear, Meatloaf, NRA
WTF Bee there’s no excuse for that.None.People will say the rules gave the contractor no choice,yada yada yada.Bullshit! Anyone saying that is an asshole.No room for debate, it’s common sense.That little girl was traumatized. Hell just yelling at a sensitive child can be traumatic.Being handcuffed at age 6? The cuffing itself bad enough, but a large (to the child)uniformed adult doing it by force will have a lifelong effect.
WTF The NRA now extending it’s lobbying activity? One more reason to ban all lobbying.Objectively under present rules they have a right to lobby in their area of expertise but should not use their power to push a (rightist in this case but applies to either side)political agenda.
Baby Oso loved this song when she was around 8 years old. Brings back wonderful memories.
A couple years ago, police in a Portland suburb strip seaarched a group of 11 year old girls over a missing music CD. Zero tolerance with zero compassion is zero education.
I figured why not just go all the way and initiate the death penalty for everything regardless of age. In this era of worrying more about political ramifications that common sense, office holders always vote for harsher punishment and zero tolerance despite the age of the offender. The average tea bagging moron, even the average disconnected and apathetic American will only remember the guy who says he’s tough on crime at the ballot box while forgetting 6 year old girls that were handcuffed to chairs.
I hate to admit it, but every time I read about the NRA’s ruthless tactics, my first thought is: Why in the F$%! can’t any liberal organizations do this? As much as I dislike some of these conservative organizations — the NRA, Bible groups that want to bring us back to the fourth century — you’ve gotta admit, they do their homework. They figure out exactly what it’ll take to get a certain law passed (or defeated), and then they do exactly that.
4 million people (number of NRA members) is a small percentage of the population. There has to be a lot more people than that who want health care for all, a financial system that won’t drag us into another global meltdown, decriminalization of victimless “crimes,” among other things. Think what could be accomplished if more people copied the NRA’s methods.
I’m I too late for supper?
1. That six year old should have been tazed. Nasty child. How else could she be f**ked up enough to become another lemming in the crusade.
2. Instead of trying to be funny here I got to go with Tom on this.
I know were Democrats and such but we have to learn how to organize. I saw that at tea party rallies around me last summer.
They wouldn’t let anyone else talk. Just shout them down.
3. Ehhh Meatloaf, I’d have to be drunk..and maybe stoned. Good excuse to get that way.
I absolutely agree with you on the first topic, Bee. The zero tolerance thing is asinine in the extreme. A kid can’t bring an aspirin from home without being charged as a drug abuser. Elementary kids can’t play cops and robbers or cowboys and indians because their fingers/guns show horribly violent tendencies that must be squelched completely. Far better to emasculate the young boys before they grow up to be violent predators. What the hell is wrong with people? I have no problem spanking a child that instigated a play ground fight, but cuffing a 6 year old because of an argument?!?! That is absolutely ludicrous!
As for the NRA, while I understand your point, I would submit to you that their stance against a SCOTUS candidate that is going to be adverse to objectively adjudicating on 2nd amendment issues absolutely falls in their domain.
I do share the distress of their unwillingness to share donor lists, as all organizations that lobby should be required to do.
As for Meatloaf, brings back good memories!
WTF?? 1. When did the educational system become afraid of children? Shackling a 6-year-old is unnecessary and inexcusable. Whoever did it is dumb, untrained, badly trained or some combination of those things. I want to be clear on that first because I don’t want what I’m about to say to be mistaken for condoning anything like that.
“All I can do is shake my head, and wonder, when did the educational system become so deathly afraid of children?”
It probably happened around the time so many teachers were demonized by the radical right as being parasitic, incompetent bureaucrats. The right would have you believe the demonizing was solely because of disappointing educational results. In fact, it had more to do with the fact so many teachers belong to a large, generally Democrat-supporting union — tantamount to devil worship, in their view. Demonized teachers realize they become easy pickings when their name hits the media in a bad-PR story.
The demonizing coincided with and maybe helped create an increasing trend in society of parents taking their little darling’s account of things over the teacher’s. The teacher says li’l darling smacked another child so hard the kid swallowed tooth and has a swollen face. Mama then asks, “Li’l darling, did you smack that kid?” L’il darling, looking down at his shoes, says, “No, Mama, it musta been somebody else. I was memorizing my times-12’s when that happened.” Whereupon Mama says to the teacher, “You better get yourself another culprit. Li’l darling says he didn’t do it, and he never lies to me; I don’t allow it.”
Not always, but too often when bad things happen involving their students, teachers find themselves getting little or no benefit of the doubt, much less proactive support, from parents, their principal, school board or community. Lacking support, it becomes easier to turn a student getting out of hand over to a uniformed guard and let that person suffer whatever fallout occurs.
WTF?? 2. Watch the NRA flex its muscles NRA executives and lobbyists are used to high pay and lots of perks and amenities. That means they must shake up the membership early and often with scary stories about this proposed law or hysteria about that intolerable restriction, to keep their gravy train on track — and their elite lifestyle grand
However, their task has become more difficult in recent years because there has been a veritable drought of tough federal gun legislation. They do go after D.C. and Chicago-type municipal gun laws. But those just don’t play into the 4 million’s paranoia the way, say, a federal ban on privately owned Vulcans would.
So, the only thing for them to do is broaden the NRA into an all-purpose right-wing lobbying outfit. That way they can tie expansion of gun rights to a host of other issues, thus blackmailing Democrats who want to get anything passed into doing the NRA’s bidding. This is not a giant step for the NRA, given that it’s been a component of the Republican Party for 40 years or more.
What gets me about this kid getting treated so harshly and insensitively is that if a student told a teacher they were being bullied, the teacher would tell the student they had to work it out with the bully. We know all too well where that can lead.
Ah yes – the NRA. Talk about insensitivity. Their annual convention was scheduled for Denver the weekend immediately following the Columbine shootings. The governor, the mayor, and numerous other officials and groups pleaded with Charleston Heston, already senile, to cancel but he refused at first. Finally they agreed to cut back – hardly a show of sympathy. I still cry when I think of that time and I hate this group with a passion I have for none other.
Oso How could baby Oso NOT love that song?:) And yeah, there will be all sort of excuses flying over shackling that 6 year old boy come trial time. I’d like to see that school used to set an example to other schools now NOT to deal with young children.
TomCat: I think I remember that, and remember that I was steaming mad over it, too.
Truth101: Yep, you’re speakin’ truth again, that’s right.
Tom Harper: Sometimes I think that too, to tell the truth, because at least they would be a hell of a lot less dangerous overall. Fact is, herding liberals is like trying to herd cats, because we just don’t herd well. That’s always going to be a big problem with the left. That and most of the left is scared of the right with their 40 guns on the living room wall.
Tim Tazered…(chuckle)
T. Paine: It’s not their adversity to a SCOTUS nominee that bothers me. What bothers me is what the hell do we do when their leadership goes off the deep end and mobilizes those 4,000,000 members, who outnumber ALL law enforcement (including college police) and active military (including coast guard) 2 to 1? That’s what bothers me.
SW: You just might have a point there about the teachers lacking support – because they sure as hell don’t get much, do they?
Leslie: Yep, I remember that, and it made me ill.
Bee, fear not, my friend. Most NRA members are members because there are not other organizations capable of sticking up for our 2nd amendment rights as effectively as they are.
A vast majority of these good folks are not mind-numb drones that are going to march if the NRA tells them to overthrow the government etc.
I am a member myself and know many a good person that only wants to protect America and its Constitution as members too; not overthrow it, ma’am.
Hubby is as liberal as they come and till he met me was a member of the NRA. He is not now after I brainwashed him about how they donate mainly to the republicans. Now he gives money to different places that I have no idea what they are other than they concern themselves with guns. I don’t like them, so I don’t take anything to do with that part of his life.
WTF, shackling kids. I cannot talk about abuse of kids because it sends me to dark places in my own mind, I don’t want to go. Since I deal with kids that have gone through this, it makes it twice as bad for me. Abuse of anything whether it is animal, or humna especially a child, sets me right up to losing my shit.
How did the NRA become so powerful? If anyone has read the 2nd Amendment, it deals with militias which is obsolete in today’s world given that our military is something like twice the size of the next 30 countries combined. I could do some research but I don’t think I need to here, it’s some astounding fact. How did we go from a well-armed militia to allowing AK 47’s in every home and almost unlimited gun rights?
I’m not an objective person about gun rights. I would outlaw them all (and yes I get that if we outlaw guns, only outlaws would have guns) but I would outlaw god too…