Thespis Journal

Governor Taft’s plan looks something like this: The “Ohio Core,” as Taft calls it, would be four years of math, including Algebra II; three years of science, including biology, chemistry and physics; four years of English; three years of social studies; and at least two years of a foreign language The plan would make the completion of the curriculum a condition of admission to Ohio’s state-funded, four-year colleges and universities. Sounds great doesn’t it?

Sure, high standards are great. We applaud this hollow effort to sound the call for rigorous academic standards. But, how does this proposal relate to the average Ohio student? Many students are already completing and exceeding this basic curriculum. Districts have been scrambling to align standards with the newer high stakes tests mandated by No Child Left Behind. While some students struggle to pass the test, the Governor has decided to create another hurdle and red tape for all students.

Furthermore, not all students will fit into the Governor’s square peg. Intellectual and mature students sometimes have other noble and laudable goals that do not include the over-indulgence of heavy science and mathematics. Painters, producers, artisans, chefs, psychologists, musicians, dancers, actors, singers, designers, and several other wonderful career fields and vocations do not require that a student major in upper level math and science courses. In fact, the Governor seems to believe that Algebra II is the only method of teaching critical thinking skills. Well, we have a message for the Governor and his ilk.

Higher order thinking skills, creative dexterity, and the development and encouragement of the human imagination are equally as important as physics or chemistry in leading a successful life. And the Governor might not realize that limited resources and a limited school day make it impossible for every student to complete his “Ohio Core” while accessing equally important and life altering, dynamic, and interactive courses in the so-called elective areas. As we strive to teach our students a core curriculum, we are also providing essential life skills, and teaching our students how to lead a productive life.

It is a daunting task, and the politicians never wish to pursue a complicated option, but a portfolio assessment for every high school student would be the most thorough and meticulous method of insuring success. A comprehensive assessment package would guarantee that students reach strong core curricular goals in tandem with a career path and artistic and creative pursuits. It’s easier to sell the public and the broad-brush politicians with slogans and neatly wrapped ideas that ignore the reality of today’s school and society.

It would be a fair and sensible sentence to require all of Ohio’s legislators and statewide officials to a year or more of public service in a school as a teacher with a classroom full of students. For a few days, it would be fun, and then reality would begin to set it on these talking heads.

It would be great to have new leadership in Ohio that would stop the unfunded mandates and rigid edicts coming from Columbus. It is time for a realistic assessment of Ohio’s schools and dynamic leadership to move us into the future. In the meantime, could we place a moratorium on propaganda, flimsy, un-researched ideas, and overblown, political cheap shots? Our students all deserve our best, not more out of tune warbling and despicable political posturing.

Scott Elliot of the Dayton Daily News is on the story
Read more at Red Orbit

From Al Gore to Hillary Clinton, there seems to be a contest for the office of liberal leader, and the path to this coveted title seems to be a competition of who will make the most strident, harsh, discordant, and raucous, comment of the moment. Making the most colorful comment means winning the adulation and admiration of the mainstream media who are always waiting in the wings to anoint the story of the moment.

Of course, Howard Dean seems to be the grandfather of this most recent fad in political speech making, and look at his rising career.

With their allies in the media ready to amplify their latest moon-batery, Hillary, Al, Ray and Jack seem to wage an artificial battle within their elite clique like smutty high school girls using all their assets to attract the most popular boy.

Their hysterical, unhinged oratory is often laced with electrically charged words designed to create the illusion of a magnetic persona, and to disguise their lackluster political skills. The absence of any philosophical foundation is masked by the transitory and opaque emotional hyper-response from the eagerly waiting media types. The media elite believes their own stories and further deepens their plunge into that cosmic chasm: the liberal unreality bubble.

But, what do regular Americans think? We have become immune to these sob sisters and their sensationalist speech-making. These over-the-top comments no longer pass the smell test. We recognize counterfeit hogwash when we hear it. It an era of too much news from too many sources, it is easy to put these exaggerated voices on permanent mute. After a steady diet of Clinton fast food, the American Voter is ready for the authentic taste of nutritious, home-cooked meals.

When we hear all of this over-baked and under whelming liberal talk, we plan to do like my Mother often told us as children: turn off the noise box! That’s exactly what much of main street America will be doing this political season.

It’s no different than all the shouting on Jerry Springer: it gets old really fast!

Senator Diane Feinstein (D-California) leads off second edition of ten stupid things said by liberals. Feinstein was speaking to Bob Sheiffer on Face The Nation.

1. According to Mark Kilmer at Red State, Senator Feinstein engaged in meaningless rambling while on the show. She is voting against Alito. She disagrees with Alito, but he’s qualified and disagreements are not a good reason to vote against a nominee. However, she is concerned about the Rehnquist Court. Explain any of that to me…

Senator John McCain takes numbers two and three…John McCain you ask? On a list of ten stupid things said by liberals? Read on…

2. Once again on Face The Nation, McCain said that the Federal Elections Commission is corrupt, because “they keep trying to find loopholes in the McCain-Feingold Law.”

3. Regarding global warming, Senator McCain then stated, “We are doing a terrible thing to this globe, and a terrible thing to future generations.” We first have to admit that it’s real, he said, and we have to reduce Greenhouse gases. For this, he stated flatly that nuclear power was our best option.

Editors Comment: How many of you reading this posting believe that McCain seems to have nothing better to do than sit with the Sunday morning hosts and make stupid comments?

Number four on the list goes to Hillary Clinton for this brilliant statement at a MLK Day rally. This statement is really stupid.

4. Sounding a little like a preacher, a fired-up Sen. Hillary Clinton lambasted the Bush administration and the Republican-controlled Congress during a Martin Luther King Jr. Day event, predicting the presidency “will go down in history as one of the worst” and saying “the House of Representatives is run like a ‘plantation’ where dissenting voices are squelched.” When you look at the way the House of Representatives has been run, it has been run like a plantation, and you know what I’m talking about,” Clinton, D-N.Y., told the crowd at the Canaan Baptist Church of Christ in Harlem.

Editors comment: Oh really, Mrs. Clinton? Is this why we have to endure specifying of the worst degree from Nancy Pelosi, Mad Maxine Waters, Sheila Jackson Lee, Cynthia McKinney, and John Murtha all the time?)

5. For number five, we simply can’t resist Teddy Kennedy. In the Sunday New York Times, Uncle Teddy Kennedy complained that the judiciary committee process has become too political. Mr. Kennedy said that the nomination process, and particularly the hearings, had “turned into a political campaign,” and that the White House had proved increasingly skilled in turning that to its advantage.

Editors Comment: Uncle Teddy, the godfather of politicizing nominations to the Supreme Court (remember his speech titled, “in Robert Bork’s America…?), has real nerve to say that the process is too political.

Walter Cronkite, America’s Anchor Man, provides us with number six on the ten stupid things list when he attempted to replay his treasonous behavior from the Vietnam era.

6. Former CBS anchor Walter Cronkite, whose 1968 conclusion that the Vietnam War was unwinnable keenly influenced public opinion then, said Sunday he’d say the same thing today about Iraq. “It’s my belief that we should get out now,” Cronkite said in a meeting with reporters.
Several on the left have been begging around to find a “Cronkite moment” that would tip the momentum in Iraq into abject withdrawal, and Cronkite probably figured he was the best person to attempt another Cronkite moment. He proclaimed that it was one of his proudest moments to tell the nation in an anchorman’s commentary that the Vietnam War “was unwinnable and that the U.S. should exit.
Editors comment: Maybe Walter Cronkite could go back to the CBS Evening News and resurrect their ratings with his brand of treason.

We were thrilled to see Al Gore return to the public eye with a blistering speech on Monday. He gives us number seven. We are so fortunate that Florida turned out the way it did in 2000.

7. Former Vice President Al Gore asserted Monday that President Bush “repeatedly and persistently” broke the law by eavesdropping on Americans without a court warrant and called for a federal investigation of the practice. “Is America in more danger now than when we faced worldwide fascism on the march - when our fathers fought and won two World Wars simultaneously?” he said. “It is simply an insult those who came before us and sacrificed so much on our behalf to imply that we have more to be fearful of than they.”

Editors comment: As usual, Mr. Gore spoke without regard for facts, ethics, or the compelling nature of our current war.

It pains us to give any more ink to John Murtha, but his latest gaffe is too good to pass up for our ten stupid things listing. What will Murtha say next? Here is number eight.

8. “I think the vast majority will be out by the end of the year and I’m hopeful it will be sooner than that,” Murtha, a decorated Vietnam combat veteran who retired as a colonel after 37 years in the U.S. Marine Corps, told the CBS “60 Minutes” show. “All of us want this president to succeed … I feel a mission here, with my experience, that I have to help the president find a way out of this thing.”

Editors Comment: Yeah, right, Mr. Murtha….cut and run now! That’s your brilliant strategy.

Numbers nine and ten in our ten stupid things list have to go to America’s favorite mayor, Ray Nagin of New Orleans who seems to have lost it Monday while pontificating extemporaneously during his MLK speech. These comments speak volumes about his mentality.

9. “Surely God is mad at America. He sent us hurricane after hurricane after hurricane, and it’s destroyed and put stress on this country,” Nagin, who is black, said as he and other city leaders marked Martin Luther King Day. “Surely he doesn’t approve of us being in Iraq under false pretenses. But surely he is upset at black America also. We’re not taking care of ourselves.”
10. “It’s time for us to come together. It’s time for us to rebuild New Orleans — the one that should be a chocolate New Orleans,” the mayor said. “This city will be a majority African American city. It’s the way God wants it to be. You can’t have New Orleans no other way. It wouldn’t be New Orleans.”

That’s a wrap for another edition of Ten Stupid Things Said by Liberals-In Just Three Days. We truly hope that you enjoyed it. It’s been great fun, and It should provide all of us with things to comment on for the reminder of the week.