Saturday, November 30, 2013
Friday, November 29, 2013
Thursday, November 28, 2013
Wednesday, November 27, 2013
Stasi Files: The Lives of Others | Journal Reporter
I've been watching the movie "Lives of Others" terrific movie and a must see, as we enter this new NSA world.
Tuesday, November 26, 2013
Monday, November 25, 2013
Song for the night: Genesis - Shipwrecked (1997)
Their lead singer deserved a better fate as this was a really good album.
Sunday, November 24, 2013
Saturday, November 23, 2013
Friday, November 22, 2013
Tired Teachers - What TN teachers really think about new evaluations
“I am tired of trying to plan five different lessons a day that hit 61 different indicators on a rubric, and that’s just to score a rock-solid 3. I am tired of the public being convinced that Knox County is moving in the right direction when I see good teachers at my school in tears at some point during the day on a regular basis. I am tired of having to waste instruction time to give tests every week, whether I need to or not, just to have data,” Hopson says in the video. She’s calm, not impassioned, but the strength of her feeling—and her anger—comes through.
In that video, Hopson is standing in front of empty seats. But by the time the Nov. 6 board meeting rolled around, the room was full of hundreds of people wearing bright red to signify their support. Two dozen educators (and one student) told the board their concerns, over and over, often to raucous, deafening applause from the crowd.
“Why don’t we just manufacture robots instead of students,” one person said. “Even though I love to teach, I no longer love my job,” stated another. “In 28 years, I’ve never ever, ever seen morale as low as it is right now,” said a third. And the final speaker said, “There seems to be no foreseeable end of the assault on public teachers.”
Thursday, November 21, 2013
Wednesday, November 20, 2013
Tuesday, November 19, 2013
Song for the Night: Big Country - Broken Heart (Thirteen Valleys)
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000V64XC4/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B000V64XC4&linkCode=as2&tag=labspai-20
Monday, November 18, 2013
Monday, November 11, 2013
Song for the Night- Pink Floyd: Us and Them
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005NNUKF4/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B005NNUKF4&linkCode=as2&tag=labspai-20
Sunday, November 10, 2013
Saturday, November 9, 2013
Friday, November 8, 2013
Thursday, November 7, 2013
Wednesday, November 6, 2013
Joe Biden Called and Congratulated the Wrong Man for Boston Mayoral Election
After securing a victory in Tuesday evening’s Boston mayoral election, Democratic mayor-elect Marty Walsh fielded congratulatory phone calls from President Obama and outgoing Mayor Thomas Menino.
Missing from that list? Vice President Joe Biden.
But here’s the catch: Biden did call Marty Walsh. Just not the Marty Walsh.
Instead, he called former Sen. Edward Kennedy campaign staffer Marty Walsh, beginning the conversation with “You son of a gun.”
MassLive scribe (and Mediaite contributor) Garrett Quinn reports that, according to staffers, the two spoke briefly before Biden called and left a voicemail on the real Walsh’s phone.
At least he initially called someone involved in politics and not any of the several dozen other Martin Walshes in the Boston metro area.
The “wrong” Walsh took the mixup in stride, telling the Boston Globe that he expects similar calls to come from more officials in coming weeks.
“We’re a dime a dozen in Boston,” he said. “I probably know eight Marty Walshes.”
UPDATE: According to The Hill, former senate staffer Marty Walsh also received erroneous phone calls from Minneapolis mayor R. T. Rybak and DNC Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL).
Originally published: http://www.mediaite.com/online/joe-biden-called-and-congratulated-the-wrong-man-for-boston-mayoral-election/
Missing from that list? Vice President Joe Biden.
But here’s the catch: Biden did call Marty Walsh. Just not the Marty Walsh.
Instead, he called former Sen. Edward Kennedy campaign staffer Marty Walsh, beginning the conversation with “You son of a gun.”
MassLive scribe (and Mediaite contributor) Garrett Quinn reports that, according to staffers, the two spoke briefly before Biden called and left a voicemail on the real Walsh’s phone.
At least he initially called someone involved in politics and not any of the several dozen other Martin Walshes in the Boston metro area.
The “wrong” Walsh took the mixup in stride, telling the Boston Globe that he expects similar calls to come from more officials in coming weeks.
“We’re a dime a dozen in Boston,” he said. “I probably know eight Marty Walshes.”
UPDATE: According to The Hill, former senate staffer Marty Walsh also received erroneous phone calls from Minneapolis mayor R. T. Rybak and DNC Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL).
Originally published: http://www.mediaite.com/online/joe-biden-called-and-congratulated-the-wrong-man-for-boston-mayoral-election/
Tuesday, November 5, 2013
Kevin Cullen on the anti-union bent of the local media
Mercifully, the campaign for mayor of Boston is over, and while I have no idea who will emerge the winner at the polls, I am quite certain who lost most in this race: union workers.
If there was a message, both explicit and subliminal, in all the debates and some of the news coverage, it’s that the city’s unions and unions in general are peopled by greedy, unreasonable, insatiable Bolsheviks who would gladly make Boston go the way of Detroit as long as they can get Bunker Hill Day off.
Funny, but I don’t know union workers who think like that, but then I’m in the tank.
My father was able to raise a family, and my mother was able to be a stay-at-home mom, because he belonged to a union. I belong to a union, and at one point, for reasons that remain a mystery, was elected president of the editorial workers at the Boston Herald back when Ronald Reagan became the darling of free marketeers everywhere by busting up the air traffic controllers union...
...The Globe and the Herald editorial pages can’t agree on what time it is, but they agree on the danger of electing a mayor who is a union activist.
It’s perfectly legitimate to ask if Marty Walsh would be beholden to unions, especially given the amount of money that unions have given his campaign, but both candidates should have been asked just as often if they’d be beholden to developers or law firms or any number of other monied interests.
The emphasis on the threat that unions pose to the future of the city left many union workers wishing they were only half as powerful as their critics believe them to be.
http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2013/11/05/laboring-under-cloud/UuIfXRYB8oHrIsP0jERTfP/story.html
If there was a message, both explicit and subliminal, in all the debates and some of the news coverage, it’s that the city’s unions and unions in general are peopled by greedy, unreasonable, insatiable Bolsheviks who would gladly make Boston go the way of Detroit as long as they can get Bunker Hill Day off.
Funny, but I don’t know union workers who think like that, but then I’m in the tank.
My father was able to raise a family, and my mother was able to be a stay-at-home mom, because he belonged to a union. I belong to a union, and at one point, for reasons that remain a mystery, was elected president of the editorial workers at the Boston Herald back when Ronald Reagan became the darling of free marketeers everywhere by busting up the air traffic controllers union...
...The Globe and the Herald editorial pages can’t agree on what time it is, but they agree on the danger of electing a mayor who is a union activist.
It’s perfectly legitimate to ask if Marty Walsh would be beholden to unions, especially given the amount of money that unions have given his campaign, but both candidates should have been asked just as often if they’d be beholden to developers or law firms or any number of other monied interests.
The emphasis on the threat that unions pose to the future of the city left many union workers wishing they were only half as powerful as their critics believe them to be.
http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2013/11/05/laboring-under-cloud/UuIfXRYB8oHrIsP0jERTfP/story.html
Sunday, November 3, 2013
Saturday, November 2, 2013
Friday, November 1, 2013
Amy Burle's on-line event for the year anniversary of the publication of Out Across the Nowhere
A close friend of the blog. Please get out and support her. Amy has a very unique voice and perspective and her book is available on the side. I believe this is the start of a long productive career.
An excerpt of Amy's work published here over a year ago: http://laborspains.blogspot.com/2011/08/hungry-original-fiction-that-first.html
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