Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category

Governor Charlie Baker is placing all of his state under double secret probation

Posted: August 13, 2020 by Jon Fournier in Uncategorized
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After a very modest and short lived increase in the number of Coronavirus cases in the state of Massachusetts, Governor Baker took a hissie fit.  He held a press conference where he harangued all of us for our bad behavior and announced that he is putting an indefinite halt to his painfully slow reopening process.  We are now stuck at part 1 of phase 3 of his plan and will not move on to part 2 of phase 3 until he gives it his personal approval.  In the mean time, thanks to his so expertly crafted reopening plan, Massachusetts is stuck with the nation’s highest unemployment rate. 

This WHDH News article discusses a very troubling new wrinkle to Governor Baker’s  Coronovirus response plans, a wrinkle that totalitarian dictators have used a great many times.  Our law enforcement agencies will now monitor us to make sure our behavior meets the standards of conduct laid down by our imperious leader, the great and terrible Governor Baker.

Baker also announced the formation of a an enforcement and intervention team, which will be tasked with ramping up enforcement in key communities and evaluating rising trends such as new positive cases and the percentage of positive tests.

Public safety officials, including state and local law enforcement, now have the jurisdiction to enforce safety orders and crack down on events hosted in violation of the orders, according to Baker.

“These teams will coordinate an increased enforcement effort across the state to assure businesses and residents are aware of and are following the COVID-19 orders,” Baker said. “By authorizing state and local police to enforce these orders, we can not only increase the number of people who will be out there to enforce these measures but also ensure that are penalties for those who refuse to make the adjustments that so many people in Massachusetts have made and continue to make.

Those who fail to comply with the orders will be subject to fines or cease and desist orders

Taking another page from totalitarian leaders Governor Baker announced  travel ban

Gov. Charlie Baker on Friday announced a new order mandating a 14-day quarantine for anyone who travels into Massachusetts from a high-risk state in an effort to curb the spread of COVID-19.

Beginning on Aug. 1, high-risk travelers who come into the Bay State will need to quarantine for 14 days or produce a negative coronavirus test, according to Baker.

Our right to travel where ever we wish to is one of our most important rights, interfering with it is a major injustice.  Living our lives free of government snooping and government interference has always been something that sets the citizens of the US apart from the citizens of totalitarian nations.  That has all changed with this Coronavirus pandemic thanks to terrible governors such as Charlie Baker.  I am shocked and saddened at all of the people in my state who blindly submit to this type of injustice.

Pro-Forma Policing

Posted: August 13, 2020 by datechguy in Uncategorized

To maintain at all times a relationship with the public that gives reality to the historic tradition that the police are the public and that the public are the police, the police being only members of the public who are paid to give full-time attention to duties which are incumbent on every citizen in the interests of community welfare and existence.

Sir Robert Peel’s (the founder of Modern Police) Policing principles #7

Yesterday I alluded to the police not going hard on those who use force, even lethal force defending themselves in places like Seattle where they have been forced to retreat. Let me give you an example of how I think this will work from something that happened in my own life.

About 15 years ago or so my youngest was briefly in the same school where my wife was school nurse, One day I got a call from the VP at the school. He was called into the office one day because he had hit another kid. It turned out the kid had said something about his mother (my wife) and he slugged him.

I went in to see the vice principal and when he objected to my sons actions I bluntly told him what the rules I laid down for my sons years ago concerning fighting at school:

  1. If the other guy is armed don’t fight under any circumstances.
  2. If the other guy throws the 1st punch: fight.
  3. You are not allowed to throw the 1st punch UNLESS the other guy insults your Mother or Grandmother. In that case you are not only authorized to throw the 1st punch your are expected to.
  4. You are not allowed to hit a girl even IF she throws the 1st punch or insults your mother or grandmother.

I told the VP that while I understand he has to enforce the rules and will not complain if he does but as far as I was concerned at home he would not be punished for his actions he would be commended for them.

I further informed the VP that if faced with the same circumstances at school again he is under my orders to do the exact same thing.

Needless to say the VP was rather surprised at my take and said that while he would have to punish my son he would take steps to make sure the provocation was not repeated. As I was leaving he walked to the door with me and in a low voice told me he hoped his sons would stand up for their mother like mine did.

In the end my son got a light pro-forma punishment, neither the kid he slugged nor any other said another word about his mother and the next year I had him in a Catholic School.

That’s how I think such things will work when people decide to reclaim their duty as citizens and when people loudly complain, and they will, the police will note said complaint, and ignore it because this is the society they have voted for.

I Think that Jazz Shaw’s Has Nailed it on Seattle

Posted: August 12, 2020 by datechguy in Uncategorized

In the final paragraph of this piece:

I’d wish the residents of Seattle good luck with this mess, but I’m fresh out of sympathy. They keep electing the same people to the City Council so they’re getting precisely what they asked for. You made your bed. Now you can sleep in it, assuming someone doesn’t set it on fire in the middle of the night.

Eventually I suppose the people of Seattle will get sick of being oppressed or terrorized, when they do the end result isn’t going to be pretty. In the words of Glenn Reynolds:

Is this a boon to the criminal class? Only in the short term.

The thing to remember is, ultimately, police aren’t there to protect the public from criminals, but to protect criminals from the public. Before the invention of modern police by Robert Peel in London in the early 19th Century, the public dealt with criminals mostly on its own, and usually harshly. Arrest by the police and trial before a court was a big improvement over mob justice.

And here is a question for our friends on the left, how anxious do you think the police that remain are going to be to arrest a citizen who blows one or more of these criminals away while protecting himself or his family?

I suspect not very.

Report from Louisiana: Phase 2, Hybrid School

Posted: August 10, 2020 by Pat Austin in Uncategorized
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By:  Pat Austin

SHREVEPORT – Louisiana is number 1 in cases per capita in the nation for Covid-19.  Governor John Bel Edwards has implemented a mask mandate across the state, closed bars, and continues to limit occupancy in restaurants. We are in Phase 2 of reopening for a few more weeks.

Meanwhile, schools are opening. This model looks very different from parish to parish. Most districts have delayed opening of school by a few days or a couple of weeks. Some districts are going virtual only for a period of time while others are using a hybrid model.

I’ve written a great deal about teacher anxiety, and maybe I need to just step away from the computer and the news for a while, because the anxiety is very real to me. What is intolerable to me, however, is the condescension I get over this. How dare anyone judge my feelings and fears. There are several factors that contribute to my fears of bringing Covid home from school to my family; absolutely nobody has the right to judge me for that.

There is a great deal of pressure on teachers right now to be silent about those anxieties, even to the point of reprimand from their administrators. This has not happened to me, but it has happened to someone I know. As teachers, we are expected to put on an enthusiastic face, all optimism and excitement, in order to quell the fears and anxieties of our students. I understand this, and it makes sense (well, not the reprimand). Teachers should never cause anxiety for their students on something like this! As professionals, we know this. Still, it doesn’t mean that in our personal and private lives, we don’t have that fear.

My district is one that is going to try the hybrid model. My day will begin at 6:55 in the classroom receiving students for breakfast, which will be delivered from the cafeteria. When they leave to go to their first class at 7:30, I will have to clean and sanitize the desks. I will have to clean and sanitize desks and computers between each class change throughout the day, as well as any high touch surfaces like door handles, pencil sharpeners, etc. I’ll need to ensure that students sit in the appropriate A/B desk assigned to them for the purpose of contact tracing should someone become infected. Students will eat lunch in my room, and we will have to sanitize desks after that, too.  I’ll have to leave my room by 2:30 everyday (school ends at 2:15) so that the room can be cleaned and sanitized by the custodial staff with the foggers.

In between all of this cleaning, sanitizing, and care, I’ll have to somehow teach the standards of my ELA curriculum, and prepare and upload virtual lessons for the “at home” kids who will be in class the next day. At this point, that almost seems secondary, doesn’t it?

My plan is to do all work 100% digital; I’m going to avoid touching paper and passing papers around. We will do the majority of our work in Google Classroom. When I come home, I’ll leave my shoes outside, shower and change clothes immediately. Overreaction? Maybe. Maybe not. I’d rather be sure.

Louisiana, all across the state, has a very high community spread – it’s anywhere from 94% to 98%, depending on the day. Under the mask mandate, we do seem to be leveling off a bit and hospitalizations are down slightly. The trend is good. There are many, many people who oppose the mask mandate and simply refuse to do it; you’ll see them with masks hanging from one ear, pulled below the nose, under the chin….you’ve seen them. Maybe you ARE them. Whether you believe they work or don’t, just do it. Wear the mask. See if it helps.

As schools across the country have opened, Covid exposures are being reported. Sometimes as “outbreaks” when only a couple of kids have been exposed and are just fine, really. I mean, you have to read these things and make your own judgments. In the Atlanta school with the crowded halls and few kids wearing masks we all saw in that viral photo is reporting nine exposures. The school is closed for two days and is doing virtual instruction. There was no mask mandate in place for that district.

I personally know two teachers who have retired or resigned from our district because of fear of Covid. I am certain there are more. I’ve seen the comments on social media: “Good! Make room for younger teachers!”  Well, no. One of these people IS a young, very gifted STEM teacher. The other is an experienced math teacher who is regarded as one of the top math teachers in our parish. These resignations are a loss to our profession.

So, going forward, I think the point is this. We need to be tolerant of each other’s fears and anxieties. This is all unprecedented and people have heath issues about which you may not be aware and are in no position to judge. We need to be a little patient with teachers too. Yes, it’s true that workers have been out there doing their jobs since March: law enforcement, heath care professionals, store clerks, etc., but as I’ve said before, teachers are a little different in that we are in a closed, unventilated room with up to thirty-three (sometimes more) students. Multiply that by however many classes, three in my case, and we are exposed to nearly 100 kids a day in close contact. It’s daunting.

Be patient with us teachers. Be kind. Be helpful. If your kids are sick or exposed, keep them home.

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.

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