Esbee posted a nice poem from Lewisville-based poet Terri Kirby Erickson. Funny coincidence: her blog has the same design as my aunt's, Debbie Erickson, whose prose I think you might enjoy.
53 Republican members of the US House of Representatives are calling for President Obama to remove Kevin Jennings from the position of 'safe schools czar'. From an article in The Hill:
The lawmakers accused Jennings of "pushing a pro-homosexual agenda" and said that Jennings's past writings exhibit a record that makes him unfit for the position.
"We respectfully request that you remove Kevin Jennings, the Assistant Deputy Secretary for the Office of Safe and Drug Free Schools, from your Administration," the Republicans wrote. "It is clear that Mr. Jennings lacks the appropriate qualifications and ethical standards to serve in this capacity."
Apparently Mr. Jennings is a native of Lewisville. I'm not really up on this issue, but it sounds like they're trying to get rid of him based on problems they have with his background, not anything he's actually done in his position. We'll have to wait and see how it plays out.
Below's the full text of the letter that the 53 House Republicans sent to the President. I'll let you draw your own conclusions about their logic:
October 15, 2009
President Barack Obama
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, D.C. 20500
Dear Mr. President,
We respectfully request that you remove Kevin Jennings, the Assistant Deputy Secretary for the Office of Safe and Drug Free Schools, from your Administration. It is clear that Mr. Jennings lacks the appropriate qualifications and ethical standards to serve in this capacity.
As the founder of the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN), Mr. Jennings has played an integral role in promoting homosexuality and pushing a pro-homosexual agenda in America’s schools—an agenda that runs counter to the values that many parents desire to instill in their children. As evidence of this, Mr. Jennings wrote the foreword for a book titled Queering Elementary Education: Advancing the Dialogue About Sexualities and Schooling. Throughout his career, Mr. Jennings has made it his mission to establish special protections for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered students to the exclusion of all other students. The totality of Mr. Jennings’ career has been to advocate for public affirmation of homosexuality. There is more to safe and drug free schools than can be accomplished from the narrow view of Mr. Jennings who has, for more than 20 years, almost exclusively focused on promoting the homosexual agenda.
Equally troubling is Mr. Jennings’ self-described history of ignoring the sexual abuse of a child. In his book, One Teacher in Ten, Mr. Jennings recounts a 15-year old student confiding in him that he had a sexual relationship with a much older man. Mr. Jennings’ only response was to ask if the underage boy used a condom. As a mandatory reporter, Mr. Jennings was required by law to report child abuse, including sex crimes. Mr. Jennings cannot serve as the “safe schools” czar when his record demonstrates a willingness to overlook the sexual abuse of a child.
As the “safe schools” czar, Mr. Jennings is also charged with ensuring our schools and students are drug free. It is clear that Mr. Jennings is unfit to serve in this capacity, as well. His own history of unrepentant drug and alcohol abuse indicates that he is of the opinion that getting drunk and high as a young person is acceptable. In his memoir, Mama’s Boy, Preacher’s Son, Mr. Jennings describes his use of illegal drugs, without expressing regret or acknowledging the devastating effects illegal drug use can have on a person’s life.
Everyone that deals with the education of the most vulnerable must be a positive role model. Our children are not blessed with the wisdom to discern and reject. Children presume the adults who educate them are approved by the larger society and their parents. Kevin Jennings cannot gain the approval of parents who want their children safe and their schools drug free. You should replace him with someone who has a record of educating children in a safe and moral environment.
Given these very serious issues with Mr. Jennings’ record, we urge you to remove him immediately.
Sincerely,
KING
Alexander
Aderholt
Akin
Austria
Bachmann
Bachus
Bartlett
Barton
Boozman
Broun
Brown, H.
Carter
Chaffetz
Coffman
Cole
Conaway
Davis, Geoff
Fallin
Fleming
Foxx
Franks
Garrett
Gingrey
Gohmert
Hunter
Issa
Jordan
Lamborn
Latta
LuetkemeyerMarchant
McClintock
McHenry
McKeon
McMorris
Mica
Miller, J.
Myrick
Neugebauer
Olson, P.
Pence
Pitts
Posey
Rogers (AL)
Rooney
Ryan, Paul
Shuster
Smith, C
Smith, L.
Wamp
Westmoreland
Jones, Walter
Tempered by not-so-good news:
"Foreclosure filings, however, rose nearly 29 percent in the third quarter from the second quarter.
Foreclosure filings in North Carolina rose 51 percent in September from the same period last year.
Filings were down 13.5 percent last month from August."
Uh oh.
The contract will fund operations of the center for five years. The NCHE was founded in 1998 and helps school districts, families and children meet the educational challenges of homelessness."
Hmmm. I tried to log into Facebook this morning and got a nice note saying that, "Your account is temporarily unavailable due to site maintenance. It should be available again within a few hours. We apologize for the inconvenience." I checked with a couple of other people and they aren't having any problems logging in. Since we're literally logging in from the same network it doesn't appear to be a location based or across-the-board FB issue, so my knee jerk reaction is to wonder if I've joined the small army of people who have had their Facebook accounts fried for no apparent reason. If so I guess there are worse things in life, but after investing all that time into building my network of new, old, and recently re-acquainted friends it would truly stink to have to rebuild it all.
On another note, if this happened to my daughter it would be the worst thing in life if you asked her.
*Update: False alarm. Now fully able to waste half a day.
I don't know how they originally sent me the info, but the folks at Wildfire weren't taking any chances and they sent me info about the Digital Marketing Boot Camp via email, Twitter and I believe carrier pigeon. Anyway, if you're a small business person, a.k.a. an entrepreneur, then you might be interested in the event Wildfire is running October 24, 2009 at NC A&T:
Industry leaders at Wildfire will collaborate with North Carolina A&T State University’s Continuing Education Program to implement a program titled, Digital Marketing Boot Camp. The Digital Marketing Boot Camp is intended for interested CEO’s, managers and those involved with marketing processes to participate in an in-depth crash course on marketing, across the digital landscape. The program is offered to the public in efforts to help professionals in the region utilize digital media to build better businesses. “The need to upgrade and continuously improve interactive digital skills is essential to compete in today’s economy,” according to Will Spivey Managing Partner, Trone.
Two options will be offered: a Boot Camp Jumpstart crash course and a more in depth Boot Camp Plus. The Boot Camp Jumpstart will provide an overview covering the basics in a one half-day session on Saturday, October 24, 2009, 9 am – 12 pm. Boot Camp Plus will provide an in depth examination of marketing across the digital landscape and the role of a website vs. social networking vs. search marketing. It will also cover everything from basic terminology to more comprehensive applications in the digital marketing space and much more. Boot Camp Plus will consist of seven three hour sessions beginning with the Jumpstart on Saturday, October 24, followed by six classes on Wednesdays, October 28 – December 9, 2009, 6-9 pm. All classes will be held on the campus of NC A&T State University. Tuition for Boot Camp Plus is $299 or $249 if registered by September 30. The fee for the Boot Camp Jumpstart is $99, or $49 if registered by September 30 (the Jumpstart fee is included in the Boot Camp Plus tuition).
Here's the link to the Boot Camp website. FYI, Wildfire's the group doing some pretty cool digital marketing for Noble's Grille and Dewey's Bakery among others.
The news really is the greatest source of entertainment. Exhibit A is a pastor in North Carolina who's going to lead a Bible burning on Halloween:
Pastor Marc Grizzard told Asheville TV station WLOS that the King James version of the Bible is the only one his small western North Carolina church follows.
He said all other versions, such as the Living Bible, are "satanic" and "perversions" of God's word.
On Halloween night, Grizzard and the 14 members of the Amazing Grace Baptist Church also will burn music and books by Christian authors, such as Billy Graham and Rick Warren.
Redefines "fire and brimstone" doesn't it?
"The 'shadow market' competition that followed the housing market bust will continue to be felt in 2010, Culkin said, brought on by failed condo projects going rental, foreclosed single-family homes becoming rentals and a continued lack of job growth. For those on the operations side of the apartment market, next year’s outlook will be more of the same, he explained. 'We are looking at pressures on rental rates [to] remain, and vacancy rates are expected to remain higher than we would like.'"
"He spoke in a folksy, yet brash tone, adding an exaggerated shrug of his shoulders for effect.
'We're going to create jobs, make money and enjoy life, and honor and respect each other.'
Less than four months later, Pace likely has been grounded for good by Rodgers' management."
"The primary reason I love Google Docs is that I like being able to ask several people to comment on something I’ve written (with each of them having their own comment color) more than the Word way of having copy “edited over.” And frankly, I’ve always thought the tracking feature of Word is worse than an editor’s red pen all over a page. I greatly prefer the wiki-like version tracking method of Google Docs (just click on the time of the last edit and you’ll see what I mean)."
and
“When we broke ground on this plant in 2004, we had planned to have almost 400 employees by this time and be well into the execution of our Phase 3 expansion,” Lauten wrote. “The reality is that we will employ approximately half that number at year end 2009. … Despite the economic challenges, we are still on track to have invested $80 million at this campus by the end of 2009 as we originally planned.”
But in the cold, calculating numbered charts of insurance companies, he is fat. That's why he is being turned down for health insurance. And that's why he is a weighty symbol of a problem in the health care reform debate."
That's just amazing to me.
That’s not peanuts … except in the case of what the U.S. spends for health care. We spend roughly $2.4 trillion every year on it. So these savings would be the equivalent of saving a nickel on a $24 restaurant tab."
Befuddled 