Straight Outta Frogtown

Becky Lourey for Governor of Minnesota

Becky Lourey rocks hard.

www.beckylourey.org

on MPR now: listen to audio of Becky Lourey on MPR's Midday here

"Q Comp" for teachers is awful

Speaking generally, the act of applying corporate lingo help strategies to social service, non-profit, or any other fields that are people/personal intensive is doing a huge amount of damage right now.  The cumulative power of this trend is one more link in the chain that America is going to hang itself with. 

"Q Comp" places "blame" for "bad kids" on teachers.  Selfish and ineffective parents must just luvv this one.  I blame them.  Sorry.

*inspired by yesterday's Midday program on MPR

Day To Day? WTF?

What the hell?  So, what, we only get half of Talk of the Nation now?  I know it started last week, but it didn't have an impact on my life until today... TotN is a 2 hour long program, running from 1pm to 3pm here in Minnesota, according to NPR.  Surprise!  Now Day To Day, a product of Slate magazine and NPR News, runs from 2pm to 3pm on those same stations.  Is MPR only paying for half of Talk of the Nation?  Because they're only running half of it.  Bunk.  Seriously.

Frogtown Update

Do I have anything to say about Frogtown - St Paul today?  Sure!  Frogtown rules!  It's increasingly hip, without all the pretense.  Did I ever mention the abundance of clean friendly gay bars in the area?  Blue skies, pretty gardens, and cute cute puppies...  mmmmm, Frogtown!  Don't you want to live here too?  Now you can!

Check out this beautiful piece of St Paul real estate for sale!

Hiatus or Laziness

It recently came to my attention that I haven't done anything with this blog lately.  What has tbone been doing?  Well, he made the heartbreaking (for some) decision to quit his job working with the tards (and thusly, probably shouldn't be referring to them as tards, at least in print.) and a week ago went back to doing geek work in a gray room with no windows.  It's going to be totally awesome, actually (what negativity, Margaret?)...  as long as people can keep me out of their marital problems and as long as I can set some boundaries regarding the K-102 in my workspace.  I swear, in the 9 months since I last worked at this place, country music has gotten far more offensive to a "normal" like myself.  Hmmm....  what happened within the last 9 months that would have made that ok?  Anyway, I've been busy.  Check my Flickr photostream for interesting recent happenings.

3rd person?  1st person?  I care why?  Tbone has to look out for tbone.  And tbone really only wants to get around to shamelessly plugging this beautiful piece of St Paul real estate for sale.

Old Newz

From an essay, via New Patriot, re: the 2004 revision of the state's standards of education under Cheri Pierson-Yecke, then Minnesota's Commissioner of Education

"For example, in a discussion of the kindergarten Civics standard describing the “virtues of good citizens,” the subcommittee decided to omit “sharing and cooperation” because these were too “socialist.” At another meeting, the subcommittee agreed that it would be inappropriate to teach middle school students about the economics of slavery, because the knowledge that human beings were bought and sold as merchandise might “prejudice the students against a free market economy.”

Gross.  Won't somebody please think of the children?  Well, these guys will think of the children (warning: also contains gross content).

Here's some better news and then some other stuff:

From BBC News: Marijuana may block Alzheimer's

Via Photoethnography:  Wing Young Huie's photos of Frogtown (St. Paul) and Lake Street (Mpls)

Flickr is still cool.  I really liked Chuck's photo of the old mac and Sharyn's photo of the sulking Hulk on flickr this week.  Also on flickr; here but for the grace of God goes my brokedown G3/600 Graphite iMac.  How's about I type "flickr" a few more times then.

Air Can Hurt You Too

Some people say not to worry about the air
Some people don't know shit about the...

As I sit down to type this, the StarTrib and WCCO now both now say we Minnesotans can "breathe easier" now that the "smog has lifted."  Oh, goody.  Not being aware of this is what I get for not tuning in to 91.1 since last week [Damn you, 89.3!], but apparently, we have been experiencing the worst air quality levels in 25 years here the last few days.  Wonder if that's why my eyes are burning and my lungs feel like I've smoked a pack of cigarettes in a bar with 100 people also smoking a pack of cigarettes just been to a show at the Fine Line.  Just a couple hours ago, the Air Quality Index went from the Unhealthy For All Humans range to Unhealthy For Sensitive Groups range.  This must have been too late for me.  Someone at work suggested that I go home because I "look like crap."  So I did.

Also missed on the radio recently and listening to now: Stephen Colbert on Fresh Air.