Rowhouse Logic - Breathtaking Inanity

Let’s get hypothetical. Let’s take a middle school special education teacher who teaches life skills to children with Down’s Syndrome, Fragile X and severe Autism. Let’s assume that this teacher spends the majority of her work day teaching her students, well, life skills. These are skills that will enable those children to live the most productive lives possible, enabling them to function and contribute to society, and ease the burden of care on their families as they mature and become adults.

Let’s just take one small hypothetical example; a middle school life skills teacher who focuses a large number of her reading lessons on survival words and phrases such as “Fire Exit”, “Caution”, “Stop”, “No Trespassing”, “Do Not Cross”, “Poison”, “Do Not Touch” and “Danger - High Voltage”. Some other lessons would probably involve reading and executing simple cooking recipes and other similar exercises. If you understand the disabilities involved, just a little, you probably understand why this sort of thing would be very important.

Let’s take this example a little further. Under the No Child Left Behind law, all public school teachers must prove themselves to be highly qualified. This generally involves plunking down $86, and taking something called a Praxis Exam. In order for a life skills teacher to teach severely learning disabled children, above the seventh grade, in any type of language arts, he or she must prove themselves highly qualified to do so, by taking the appropriate Praxis Examination.

Now, you would probably imagine that in order to gain a position with a title like “life skills teacher”, that an individual would have had to have achieve a masters degree in special education. You can probably safely assume that in achieving that degree, they would have taken a number of classes with brutal titles such as “Teaching Survival Skills to the Severely Disabled”. You can probably safely assume that they had to do a significant amount of documented work in the field in order to fulfill their educational requirements.

Let’s take this example to its reasonable conclusion. When our veteran life skills teacher sits down to take her Praxis Exam, in order to become highly qualified to teach middle school life skills students and keep her job, you would probably assume that the majority of the language arts portion of that test would not involve comprehensive knowledge of Shakespeare’s works. You would be very wrong. Dead wrong, as a matter of fact.

How ’bout them apples?

This daily grind of work, stress, demanding ex-boyfriends, mothers, and pets has got to stop. I don’t want any of it to go away forever, but god, I desperately need a break. Here’s the problem. I love vacation, I tend to feel much better when I can get away for a while. I’ve never been one of those people who takes time off work and just stays home. Nope, if I’m taking vacation, I’m going somewhere. Unfortunately, vacation takes money and this year (well actually since starting my current job) my disposable income has been a negative number.

In the spirit of things that probably won’t happen for a while, I’ve compiled a short list of things that I’d like to do sometime in my life, preferably before I get much older. If you’ve been to any of them, feel free to throw some feedback my way.

1. Go to and fully participate in Burning Man. I’m intrigued, scared, and thrilled by the effect this experience could have on me. But alas, this probably will not be the year. Living in the Nevada desert for a week will take more resources and supplies than I can pull together by Labor Day Weekend.

2. Experience the Day of the Dead in Oaxaca Mexico. I’ve been to the lovely colonial city of Oaxaca; went by myself in 1999 and had an unforgettable experience. From what I understand, this part of Mexico is one that still has large scale celebrations of the Day of the Dead. Another desire that may take more cash than I can gather this year.

3. Carnaval in either Rio de Janeiro or Salvador, Bahia Brazil. Given that I’m a relatively spontaneous, sensual person, I don’t think this one requires much explanation. Hmm, if I start saving now, maybe I could swing Carnaval 2006.

4. I’ve always been fascinated by Morocco. I’d go pretty much anywhere, but I’ve heard the markets in Marrakesh are amazing. Besides, I’ve never been to Africa, so this would be a great way to add a new continent to my list. If anybody wants to go, email me. Not a location I’d be comfortable going as a single woman by myself.

5. Turkey - I must go to the city immortalized in song, you know the one, “Istanbul (Not Constantinople)”. Besides, I’ve yet to set foot in Asia and this would be the perfect opportunity. Again, not sure I’d be comfortable going here as a single woman by myself, so any fellow curiousity seekers who have a desire to go places on a budget, drop me a line.

My vacation needs to happen sooner than any of these options are likely to materialize. A childhood friend lives in Las Vegas, so that’s always an option. I’m also thinking that Canada might be a nice driveable option. I’m pretty adventurous, so any ideas would be appreciated. I’m not likely to be interested in any place that involves people dressed up like rodents.

OK gang, let’s have a go at this, I’ll consider any and all ideas.

Just go have a look.

Better brace yourself for the red tide Mr. Eggen:

Nearly a dozen detainees at the Guantanamo Bay military prison in Cuba told FBI interrogators that guards had mistreated copies of the Koran, including one who said in 2002 that guards “flushed a Koran in the toilet,” according to new FBI documents released today.

The summaries of FBI interviews, obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union as part of an ongoing lawsuit, also include allegations that the Koran was kicked, thrown to the floor and withheld as punishment and that guards mocked Muslim prisoners during prayers.

The release of the new FBI documents comes in the wake of an international uproar over a now-retracted story by Newsweek magazine, which reported that an internal military report had confirmed that a Koran was flushed down a toilet. The retracted story has been linked by the Bush administration to deadly riots overseas.

Since last night’s selection was a little heavy, I figured I would post a something a little more fun. Tonight’s track is II B.S. by Charles Mingus from his album Mingus, Mingus, Mingus, Mingus, Mingus. Yes, the song title means just what you think. The track was recorded on September 20, 1963 in New York and is a reworking of his earlier piece Haitian Fight Song. The entire album consists mainly of the reworking of earlier compositions that Mingus didn’t feel were represented properly in their initial recordings. He felt that with the Impulse label, he finally had the chance to present his music the way he wanted it to be heard. You may recognize the opening of the tune from some silly commercial from a few years ago. The personel are as follows:

• Charles Mingus on bass
• Eddie Preston and Richard Williams on trumpet
• Britt Woodman on trumbone
• Don Butterfield on tuba
• Jerome Richardson on soprano and baritone saxophones and flute
• Dick Hafer on tenor saxophone, clarinet and flute
• Booker Ervin on tenor saxophone
• Eric Dolphy on alto saxophone and flute
• Jaki Byrad on piano
• Walter Perkins on drums

In order to keep this above board, I need to urge you to go buy the CD. Consider yourself urged. If you would like to download other MP3 files from the site, have a look at the music archive. Granted, not many to download yet, but if I keep running out of things to say, the archive could grow pretty fast.

A few excerpts from a speech by Amnesty International Secretary General Irene Khan to the Foreign Press Association. Read the whole thing here.

Our report presents a damning picture of failed leadership and broken promises. But of all the promises made by governments, none was as hollow as the promise to make the world a safer place from terrorist attacks.

Attacks by armed groups pose a major threat to human rights in today’s world. Over the past year we have seen unimaginable brutality and barbarity by armed groups in Iraq, Beslan and Madrid.

Yet, the US government and its allies who lead the “War on Terror” continue to persist with politically convenient but ineffective strategies, which undermine human rights.

…

In 2004, far from any sign of principled leadership, we saw a new and dangerous agenda in the making, rewriting the rules of human rights, discrediting the institutions of international cooperation and usurping the language of justice and freedom to promote policies that create fear and insecurity.

The US is leading this agenda, with the UK, European states, Australia and other states following.

Under this agenda, accountability is being set aside in favour of impunity; a prime example being the refusal of the US Administration or US Congress to conduct a full and independent investigation of the use of torture and ill treatment by US officials, despite the public outrage over Abu Ghraib and despite the evidence, collected by AI and other, of similar practices in Bagram, Guantanamo and other detention centres under US control.

…

The pick and choose approach to international law is being replaced by a “erode where you can, select if you must and subvert where you will” approach.

The US refuses to apply the Geneva Convention for detainees in Afghanistan. It continues to press for bilateral agreements to provide its citizens immunity from prosecution of the International Criminal Court (Congress legislation last year to penalise those who refuse).

But nothing shows the disregard of international law as clearly as the attempts by the US, UK and some European countries to set aside the absolute prohibition of torture and ill treatment by re-definition and “rendering” – or the transfer prisoners to regimes that are known to use torture. In effect sub-contracting torture, yet keeping their own hands and conscience clean.

…

In the US, almost a year after the Supreme Court decided that detainees in Guantanamo should have access to judicial review, not one single case from among the 500 or so detained has reached the courts because of stonewalling by the Administration.

Under this agenda some people are above the law and others are clearly outside it.

Guantanamo has become the gulag our times, entrenching the notion that people can be detained without any recourse to the law.

If Guantanamo evokes images of Soviet repression, “ghost detainees” – or the incommunicado detention of unregistered detainees - bring back the practice of “disappearances” so popular with Latin American dictators in the past.

According to US official sources there could be over 100 ghost detainees held by the US.

In 2004 thousands of people were held by the US in Iraq, hundreds in Afghanistan and undisclosed numbers in undisclosed locations.

More info here. Read the whole speech here

Molly Ivins:

Here in the National Laboratory for Bad Government, it’s Duck and Cover time — the Legislature is in session. The Can’t-Shake-Your-Booty bill passed the House, saving us all from the scourge of sexy cheerleaders. But nothing else is getting done. The state is being run by people who do not know how to govern. Keep in mind that based on past form, whatever lunacy is going on in Texas will eventually sweep the country.

Go read the whole thing for more lunacy, as well as quotes from Texas State Rep. Senfronia Thompson. Remarkable stuff. It’s good to keep up on what’s going on in Texas because, as Molly says, we’ll probably be seeing the same thing on the national level in due course. (via Susie)

Yuck. That’s the only word I can think of to describe my feelings on the whole stem cell research debate. Before opinion comes crashing down on my head, let me clarify that I support the research and agree that it should be at least partially funded by the federal government.

My yucky feeling about this research comes from the lack of foresight into what actually happens to the millions of embryos produced by the millions of in-vitro fertilizations done in this country. We already have plenty of unwanted children; did we actually think we were going to use all those extra embryos?

I understand the perspective of those who think that using the embryos for stem cell research is wrong, but I have to wonder, why were these same people not more vocal while the practice of in-vitro fertilization was becoming incredibly commonplace.

When a couple is unable to have children, why have we deemed it alright to go against what may be God’s will and artificially carry out the fertilization, implantation, etc.? And then when there are extra fertilized eggs, we refuse to use the embryos for what may ultimately be lifesaving research for individuals who are currently suffering? Something is seriously wrong with this picture.

Take a look at this general article on stem cell research. This piece (see Clone of Silence by William Saletan) is a bit more snarky, but also brings out good points.

Tonight’s track, and the album it’s from, played a big, disorganized part in my life, so forgive me if I lack some coherence. The album is entitled Miles Davis in Stockholm 1960 with John Coltrane and the track is So What. I would ordinarily feel the need to ask you to buy the record in order to cover myself legally, but since none of the musicians ever received a dime for this, do as you please.

The band features Miles Davis on trumpet, John Coltrane on tenor saxophone, Wynton Kelly on piano, Paul Chambers on bass and Jimmy Cobb on drums. The track itself was recorded in Stockholm, Sweden on March 22, 1960 at the Stockholm Concert Hall as part of a live radio broadcast. It is the last significant live recording of the Miles Davis Quintet with John Coltrane. He left the band a few weeks after the broadcast to form his own quartet.

While the entire performance is wonderful, I’d like to ask you to focus specifically on John Coltrane’s solo. I don’t think you will have any trouble doing it. What we hear is the culmination of five years of turbulent, brilliant growth and a foreshadowing of what was just about to come. We hear a shot across the bow of the tradition. Just as a listening exercise, focus on the extensive harmonic substitutions over the plain modal backdrop, and then again on the beautiful madness that occurs when Wynton Kelly’s piano drops and Coltrane is left almost entirely to his own devices. If you can, compare this performance to any of the performances of Impressions by the John Coltrane Quartet recorded at the Village Vanguard in 1961.

Forgive me for getting a little personal here, but this performance is one I hold closer to my heart than nearly any other. This is a performance that has haunted me since the day I first heard it and haunts me to this day. While I was still an aspiring musician, Coltrane’s solo on this track left me awake many, many nights asking myself two questions:

1. Is there anything left to be said?
2. If there is, can I ever say it?

My answers are yes and no. There is, indeed, quite a bit left to be said. Coltrane, and many others since, have answered that question beyond any shadow of a doubt. As for the second question, the answer was, for me, a very brutal no. Needless to say, I quit playing music altogether and without regret. Musically, I have nothing to add. Such is life and such is music.

That is the power of this performance. Please do have a listen. If you don’t get it at first, listen to it over and over until you do. I know you won’t regret it.

If you didn’t catch all of the other links to the MP3, click here to get it. The file is a little over 15 megabytes so expect a fairly long download if your connection is a little slow.

Atrios:

Perhaps it’s time to start spending our time and money worrying about state and local governments.

I couldn’t agree more. With absolutely no bitterness in my heart, I’d like to say that we could have used you a month ago kiddo. I admit that these words are way out of context. Whatever.

I haven’t said a thing about Vince Fumo lately, but the Inquirer just ran a three part series on the…oh, I’ll restrain. ACM has the run down and some nice analysis. Go have a look. Pictured below you’ll see my prized Vince Fumo calling card. I received it just after I wrote a post where I failed to restrain myself. A coincidence, to be sure.

I don’t unusually do this sort of thing as it’s overdone, but I’m pleased to announce that this site is the number three result for the search string Rick Santorum Psychopath on Google.

Just in case you haven’t quite had your fill of last Tuesday’s primary, have a look at this article from the Inky which has a few breakdowns (Via Ray Murphy). Seth Williams had what I would call a very good loss. If you haven’t had a look at Seth’s thank you message he has up on his website, go have a look. Short but sweet.

I’m not so sure I’m thrilled with this:

WASHINGTON, May 23 - An evenly divided bipartisan group of 14 senators said tonight that they had reached an agreement that would avert a potentially explosive vote on Tuesday on banning filibusters against judicial nominees.

…

Under the accord, announced in a hastily called Capitol news conference, the 14 senators pledged to vote to end prolonged debate on three of President Bush’s most disputed appellate court nominees: Priscilla R. Owen of Texas, Janice Rogers Brown of California and William H. Pryor of Arkansas.

The 14 senators made “no commitment to vote for or against” the filibuster against two other nominees, Henry Saad and William Myers, Mr. McCain said.

On the one hand, there seemed to be a pretty good chance that the Democrats were going to lose tomorrow, and that certainly would have been an ugly outcome for all involved. On the other, this doesn’t seem like the best cave-in, and I’d love to see more spine out of my party. You know, go down fighting and what not. I’m pretty sure the Religious Right is going to be screaming for Bill Frist’s head for the next few days, which isn’t an altogether bad thing. Let’s face it, with the Senate firmly in GOP hands and Frist panting like a dog in heat over the Religious Right over his upcoming Presidential run, we can only expect so much. Which is to say, not a whole hell of a lot, if that. This one was going to be lose/lose/lose baring a miracle. And that, my friends, is the new, getting pretty damn old, normal.

[Update] Yep, they’re out for blood. That’s worth a good giggle at the very least.

[Update II] I wonder how much of my “so what” attitude about this affair has to do with having lost so many fights recently, that a “not as bad as it could have been” loss doesn’t feel so bad as it ought to? I’ve put Russ Feingold’s comments (via Kos) in the extended entry. Well worth a read.

[Update III] This is an even better giggle. Via Will, who also asks “How could Santorum call the Democrats’ 1942 Nazis, when they’re really 1938 British Conservatives, giving away the Sudetenland and God knows what else?”

[Update IV] Matt is thinking a little clearer that I am: “Republicans are going to find a way to accuse the Democrats of breaking the deal in the coming months. And then they’re going to pull out the nuclear option again.” He also says “I think it stinks like a three-day-old fish.” That’s probably just about right. I’m watching my reaction go from “so what” to “ah, shit” pretty quick.
Read the rest of this entry »

I’ve always been curious about why some people “get” sarcasm and others don’t.

Seems that Israeli researchers might be onto something,

“People with prefrontal brain damage suffer from difficulties in understanding other people’s mental states, and they lack empathy,” said study co-author Simone Shamay-Tsoory, a researcher at the University of Haifa. “Therefore, they can’t understand what the speaker really is talking about, and get only the literal meaning.”

I’ve known a number of very intelligent people who don’t seem to catch sarcasm, so I’d be very curious to understand what else is impacted by this area of the brain.

Very interesting study.

The 9th Street Italian Festival wrapped up activities for yet another year. This may have been the biggest crowd in recent memory. The weather cooperated (except for some drizzle late yesterday afternoon) and everybody seemed to be having a great time.

My blogmate, Chris, and his wife joined me for today’s festivities. We left the square-assed dog at home. Too many people, strollers, and other dogs. To be honest, he’s much happier just lounging on the couch. Besides, when Zack (square-assed dog) comes in contact with others dogs, he becomes a spitting, snarling, lunging maniac. Very different than his usual mild-mannered dogginess.

My new very favorite festival food may be the mango on a stick. The Mexican vendors peel them, cut them slightly so they are easier to eat, rub them with lime juice, and sprinkle them lightly with cayenne pepper. Best thing I think I ever ate. The sour lime and the hot pepper offsets the sweetness of the mango perfectly. It’s the new soul food and you heard it here first.

The festival is really all about food and drink, but this year, along 9th Street between Fitzwater and Christian, they set up a bunch of craft vendors. I think they had some crafty people last year, but this year, there were more and better vendors. I found a guy selling great stones. For $40, I got a huge pair of denim lapis earrings and an equally huge matching ring. He had some great stones, some that I noticed were carnelian, sodalite, coral, jasper (numerous varieties), and best yet, the vendor has an ebay store.

I think a nice day was had by all. It happens again next year, usually the 3rd weekend in May, so mark your calendars now.

Update: Chris butting in on Melissa’s post - Dragonballyee has some pictures of the festival up here.

This is the picture that greeted me this morning when I opened the Washington Post home page.

A pretty decent rendition of any number of powerful Hallucinogens, if you ask me. I’m glad to see the Post is branching out. Well, congratulations to the graduates in any event. it’s all down hill from here kids.

I’d like to point out that this is quite a bit heavier than some seem to have noticed. While the linked piece is self aggrandizing to a serious fault, it does contain some insight that people who tend to agree with my world view should look at seriously. God, I really do love the tenancy to only read the first few paragraphs of whatever and declare victory. I must include myself in that last statement, because it is most certainly true of me.

Midas Touch Ancient Ale brewed by Dogfish Head Craft Brewery in Milton, Deleware.

I don’t want to get fully into this before I have a chance to do a little more digging into it and my own feelings, but I found this post by Daniel Rubin interesting. According to Dan, a wood block installation by Daniel Heyman, depicting hooted prisoners, was defaced earlier this week with the words “At least I was not beheaded”. Heyman himself, has asked that the wood blocks not be taken down. He was looking for a reaction and he got one. Such is the nature of these things.

I do find the sentiments of the defacer interesting however. One of the generic defenses presented by some, with regards to the treatment of prisoners in Abu Ghraib, Gitmo and elsewhere is that it pales in comparison to the to the treatment of civilians by various insurgent and terrorist groups in Iraq. That, in my mind, is really besides the point. While I do indeed find the beheadings, kidnaping, and suicide bombings against civilian targets beyond repugnant and quite evil, they are not being committed in my name, by my country, or by my government. It’s just an irrelevant comparison. Furthermore, justifying the actions of the United States government with crude comparisons to terrorist organizations by saying that “we’re not as bad as them” is to spit on the United States and its citizens.

We live in a country whose government derives its authority to govern from the governed - from us. I may be a bit naive here, but I take that very seriously. I feel that the actions of the United States, regardless of whether I agree with them or not, do indeed reflect on me as a person and my morality. When my government engages in repeated acts of torture at multiple facilities, resulting in some 36 prisoner deaths, clearly violating the Geneva Conventions, I feel guilt and shame. Unlike the horrific actions of any other entity or person or group, this was done in our name and by our authority. We have a moral stake in this. To be silent about it, or to make invalid comparisons and excuses, is to allow ourselves and our nation to devolve into something very cruel.