Sunday Morning Reading

Some Sunday morning reading and listening to share.

The news is all about spying these days, and as I've said before most of this really isn't news, but it makes for good theatre when politicians and talking heads show their skirts and their disdain for our intelligence. We've got talks of spying from space now along with talk about the NSA grabbing phone records. I think this will all blow over when Google bails out the US government and buys it. We'll all feel so much safer.

Speaking of spying I wonder how many writers of spy-fare wish that the name "Dusty" Foggo had been their creation.

Cue The Impossible Dream from Man of La Mancha. I love reading Peggy Noonan's stuff. Great writer. She loves to tilt at windmills and does it so well. Her latest posits that Republicans may need a defeat in November to unlearn the lessons of power. Interesting that she has to point forward and not backwards in history to lessons learned. But then Peggy knows all too well that we don't teach real history(you know that thing we are doomed to repeat if we don't pay attention) anymore and haven't for awhile. It's just, you know, too complicated and requires our students to think.

And speaking of teaching students to think it looks like every child is about to be left behind. Apparently not one state met the teacher requirements of the No Child Left Behind Act, so we are now going to start assessing penalties. Simple math lesson here. The taxpayers and the kids all get screwed. Money appropriated for a political slogan that has nothing to do with education obviously didn't get spent well so we'll levy some fines. Where do they come from? The same taxpayers. Who wins here? I'm just asking.

Via Newsome.Org. The MPAA is so afraid of piracy they are now training dogs to sniff out pirated DVDs. You know, I'd rather the MPAA trained dogs to sniff out the folks in Hollywood who keep producing so many films that are dogs.

Taking bets on which TV medical show will be first to feature this disease next season. BoingBoing points to info on Morgellons Disease, which is baffling Doctors in South Texas. The symptoms sound like they are out of science fiction. Black tar-like sweat, lesions that won't heal, wire-like fibers that sprout out of the lesions and protrude from the skin, a sense of things crawling under the skin. Sounds awful. I'm betting on House.

BoingBoing points to the history of booing or heckling. I think we should teach this in schools. Public humiliation can be a good thing and perhaps sorely needed in arenas beyond sports.

Koo-Koo-Ka-Choo. An insult to walruses and egg-men everywhere. Bush says he is The Decider. This song takes a different spin. (note music starts when you click the link so click accordingly.) Via Things That... Make You Go Hmm