Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category

Report from Louisiana: Week One – Done

Posted: August 24, 2020 by Pat Austin in Uncategorized
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By:  Pat Austin

SHREVEPORT – Schools across the country are opening up, some all virtual, some all in-person, and some a hybrid mix A/B schedule. School districts are making decisions about transparency and how much information to share with the public with regard to Covid exposures and outbreaks. These policies differ from district to district.

When making decisions about exposure transparency several factors seem to be at play. First to consider is patient privacy, of course. Some districts are interested in image and in containing community panic. Others are wide open and are making weekly disclosure announcements.

In exploring this same topic last week, The New York Times spoke with Dr. Ashish Jha, of the Harvard Global Health Institute, who said “If schools don’t notify, it actually can make disease control more difficult. And it’s not like no one will know. Word will get out through a rumor mill. You don’t scare people by telling them what’s going on. You scare them by hiding information.”

Personally, I think communities should be informed, but I do see the problem if it is a very small community where patient identity would be obvious.

Most districts are choosing to notify only close contacts who might need to quarantine, and the rumor mill is taking care of the rest. This is a poor system.

I teach high school, and we had four days of inservice and training of the new programs that will support virtual learning, and then we had students for two days so far on an A/B hybrid schedule. We get half of our students on an A day and the other half on the B day, then they alternate Fridays.  This is my twenty-fifth year to teach high school, and it was the first year that I felt sad at the end of the day. There were no hugs, no high-fives, and no smiles that I could see because everyone was wearing a mask.

Many people were so anxious for schools to open so we could “get back to normal,” but let me tell you, this is in no way normal. When the bus drops kids off they go straight to a homeroom, or to the cafeteria to pick up a grab and go breakfast in a big Ziploc bag, then they go to homeroom. Everyone sits in homeroom until the first bell at 7:25. We are six feet apart, and there are no more than ten kids in any classroom at one time.

Same procedure for lunch.  The kids never go outside, and can’t let loose and relax much at lunch, because they are sitting six feet apart in a desk.

This is not normal.

Classes aren’t even normal. There are no group projects – we have to sit in straight rows all facing the front. Some elementary teachers have spent their own money to build plexiglass partitions and cubicles for students to avoid the rows.

The halls are quiet because you can’t stop and socialize – six feet apart.

It’s just very surreal and dystopian and it made me sad.

My colleagues and I are trying as hard as we can to find solutions, to break the monotony, to be engaging. To make them laugh, to feel safe, to feel welcome.

But this is not normal school. It still is better than 100% virtual for some students, that is certain. There is still bound to be a little bit of social stimulation here.

But outbreaks and exposures are already happening. I personally know of several in quarantine after only two days. I take precautions – I’ve bought a HEPA air purifier for my classroom (out of my own pocket.) We wipe down Chromebooks between each student, and desks, all day long. At the end of the day the custodians come in with foggers to kill any lingering virus. We have to exit our classrooms right after the students leave, so no more long afternoons at my desk catching up on grading. When I come home, I leave my shoes outside, change and shower immediately. The clothes go straight into the washer.

Meanwhile, a large part of the general public tells us teachers to quit whining, that grocery clerks, medical personnel, and other frontline workers have been working since March. Suck it up. I’m in my classroom from 9:05 – 2:15 with kids, with no personal break. None. I’m eating breakfast and lunch with them. (First block is my planning block, so after breakfast in have 90 minutes to take care of things prepping for the day). Cleaning. Sanitizing. Worrying – did I miss something?

I’m already exhausted, and I can’t imagine how my kids feel.

And if that’s not enough on anyone’s plate, here in Louisiana we have two hurricanes rolling in this week. TWO. IN THE SAME WEEK.

 I mean, really. Stop, already.

I’m not having a pity party, I promise. I love my job, and I love my school and my students, but I worry – this is not normal school. And if parents thought that’s what they were getting, it’s just not. Basically, they are getting virtual school, in person.  And they may or may not be notified if there is an exposure in their child’s school.

Even with all that, the kids really do seem happy to be back! And I’ll do everything in my power to keep it that way.

Pat Austin blogs at And So it Goes in Shreveport and is the author of Cane River Bohemia: Cammie Henry and her Circle at Melrose Plantation. Follow her on Instagram @patbecker25 and Twitter @paustin110.

Just Words

Posted: August 22, 2020 by datechguy in politics, Uncategorized
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The Biden campaign, planning for every contingency it seems, recently wargamed a situation where, in the event Trump won re-election, the entire West Coast would secede, and the public would wait to see what the military would do. Democratic insider John Podesta played the role of Biden in their scenario, and refused to concede, prompting the secession.

Secession is all the rage these days among the Left, which always seems to fester among the losing side in any election. (Which makes me wonder about all those polls showing Biden ahead.) Along these lines, just this past Thursday, NPR featured the author Richard Kreitner on its morning news shows, Morning Edition. Kreitner was pushing his new book, a history of American secessionism. Kreitner has previously written for the Nation and Slate and currently lives in Brooklyn, so I think it’s safe to call him a leftist.

Kreitner’s book purports to examine whether “it’s time to break up” the United States. Of course, Kreitner assured the listener, while he didn’t “want” states to secede, he also didn’t see why California should have the same number of senators as Wyoming. My way or the highway, essentially.

You hear this argument quite a bit among the Left, actually. The tyranny of the Senate. California has so many times the population as Wyoming, so why should they have the same number of senators? A cursory glance at some of Vox legal writer Ian Milhiser’s ravings will reveal similar sentiments.

Memo to the Left: California should have the same number of senators as Wyoming because California agreed to have the same numbers of senators as every other state when it applied to join the Union in 1850.

No surprise the Democrats put little weight in words. From Kamala Harris laughing off her earlier condemnations of Joe Biden’s sexual predations as merely the stuff of a “debate,” to Bill Clinton dancing around the definition of “is,” Democrats treat words as things to be twisted and manipulated, not to be backed up with conviction. Joe Matthews, a journalist for Zocalo Public Square, claimed on NPR that it was good that Kamala Harris had no conviction, because it allowed her to blow wherever “the wind blows.”

Words are supposed to mean something. To fewer and fewer Democrats, they don’t.

Five Under the Fedora Thoughts: New Rules, DOJ Bannon, Dems Should Thank China, Stacy’s Ironic Line and Following Mom’s example

Posted: August 21, 2020 by datechguy in Uncategorized

I see the Mayor of Pittsburgh has decided that he doesn’t like the new rules when they are applied to his house and his neighborhood just like reporters have decided they don’t like the new rules when applied to their homes either.

Kurt Warned them about these new rules.

I’m going to withhold judgement on the indictments Steve Bannon (full disclosure while we haven’t talked in 5 or 6 years knew Steve from CPAC & always had good things to say about me and right back at him) and three others concerning fundraising for “We Build the Wall” while saying that a lot of the fundraising of that nature by both sides can be “interesting” at best.

More interesting is this question that I’d like to ask:

Could you imagine the DOJ indicting a former Obama chief of staff who was supporting his re-election for iffy on fundraising in August of 2012, Or a Bush partisan in Aug of 2004 or a Clinton partisan in 1996 or a GWB one in 1992, or Reagan one in 1984 or a Carter one in 1980?

So much for the Trump administration and Bill Barr using DOJ for partisan ends.

Oh, and let me note that when you hit DaTipJar here all the funds go to pay the bills for what I do from paying the writers to the price of the new computer that I’m typing this on and all the extra goes to me. Needless to say I’m not quitting my day job anytime soon.

Given the fact that I work 2nd shift I wouldn’t have caught any of the Democrat Convention anyways but I’m thinking how the Pandemic must have been a godsend to them.

Not only does it mean that Joe Biden didn’t have to preform in front of the crowd but it also meant that they didn’t have to have the specticle of the BLM ANTIFA crowd fighting with police in front of their convention hall while at the same time people on stage were saying “Imagine a world without Police”

With those images on TV Trump would win 40 states and the GOP would sweep both houses. The Democrats should send a big wet kiss to China, but looking at their campaign, it seems they already have.

It’s not often I take issue with something that old friend Stacy McCain writes but I must confess that I was really amused by this paragraph in his post of yesterday:

The belief that words in the Bible have no objective meaning — true for everyone, everywhere, at all times, eternally — is part of what has undermined institutional authority in the church. And once this pastor pointed out to me this “what it means to me” intepretation (which was already widespread 30 years ago) as symptomatic of a spiritual disorder,

While the piece as a whole is very good and an on point evaluation of the insanity of moral relativism I chuckled here because my friend Stacy is very Protestant and the whole Reformation was based on the idea of Martin Luther deciding that his interpretation of Scripture and faith was superior to that of the successors to the Apostles, which of course led to other deciding that their interpretation was superior to his which is why there are 30K plus Protestant denominations.

Did you know that 100 years ago all of those denominations had the same view as the Catholic Church on birth control, abortion, Gay Marriage and Transgenderism? We may have a below par Pope today and quite a few iffy bishops and cardinals but on doctrine we’ve managed to hold the line.

Finally I was going to end this piece with a pair of paragraphs I was going to write to vent something that’s really bothering me and will likely be bothering me for quite a while. I have a very definite opinion on this particular subject and would very much like to speak on it, then I remembered two things. The first comes from scripture as quoted from the Vatican web site

He who upsets his household has empty air for a heritage

Proverbs 11:29a

Most often translated as “He who troubles his own house shall inherit the wind.”

And the second was the memory of my mother. She was a very opinionated person but being a proper Sicilian never volunteered said opinion particularly if it was a highly negative one…unless asked.

Once asked she would bluntly state it. She was a very wise women. I’m going to follow that example in this case.

Oh and don’t forget Podcast 3 PM today. I think I just might go freestyle today

Everything fun has been canceled and it’s getting everyone down

Posted: August 20, 2020 by Jon Fournier in Uncategorized
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Normally summers are packed full of fun events for me, so much so that I rarely have a free weekend between the beginning of June and the end of September.  This year has been the exact opposite, every event I usually attend except for one was canceled, and that was the Ham Radio Field Day event I organized. 

Two of the biggest events I attend every year are agricultural fairs. One is in Brooklyn Connecticut and the other one is in Woodstock Connecticut.  This year they were cancelled along with just about every fair.  I won’t get to pig out on fried dough, sausage grinders, giant donuts, and so much more.  Usually the Woodstock Fair has great concerts, horse pulls, midway rides, and so much more I usually enjoy.  Not this year.  So many people are going to miss out on so much fun, which they really need.  So many local businesses and traveling vendors rely on the fairs for so much yearly income.  They will sorely miss all of that income.  Even the Big E has been cancelled.

Every since I was four years old my family and I belonged to a fife and drum corp.  All summer long we would travel around southern New England attending fife and drum musters.   If you have never attended one I highly recommend doing to. It is a truly enjoyable way to experience history and a lot of great music.  This year all of the musters have been canceled.  They usually draw many hundreds, if not thousands, of spectators along with many dozens of fife and drum corps.

This year marks the 400th anniversary of the Pilgrims landing in Plymouth.  I was looking forward to attending all of the festivities starting with the Mayflower sailing from Mystic Seaport up until the last event.  All of this has been scaled back or cancelled completely.  I was planning on taking bus trips to the events since I live so far away and traffic would have been a nightmare because of the crowds.  All of the bus trips have been cancelled.

These cancellations are not just affecting me,  they are affecting all of my neighbors, just about everyone in this country, and all across the globe.  These cancellations are having a very negative impact on my frame of mind.  They are really getting me down.  I know I am far from alone.  We all need fun events, especially if they are so much fun we look forward to them all year round.  These events are not cancelled because of the Coronavirus pandemic.  They are being cancelled because of government over reaction to the Coronavirus and by media coverage of the pandemic that has crossed over to hysteria,  How much longer the cancellations will go on is unknown.  Most likely they will go on until we stand up and say enough.

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