John Sez: Although the title above sounds silly, it briefly sums up a situation which has been brewing in Danvers High School in Massachusetts.

Apparently, the story goes something like this:

School principal, Thomas Murray, came across some information on Facebook which led him to believe that his students had planned a conspiracy to ‘mass-meep’ in one part of the school building. Murray seemed to think that such an action could be a huge detriment to his school (wars have been started for less, right?), so he took immediate and decisive action and notified the parents (via automated phone message)of all students who attend his school that the punishment for uttering the dreaded syllable would be grounds for an immediate suspension.

In an interview with the Salem News, Murray said the matter should be a ‘wake-up call’ to parents about what their kids are up to on social networking sites; to that end he is planning a school forum for parents on the pitfalls of face book.

But wait, there’s more.

New York based attorney, Theodora Michaels, got wind of the story and sent the following letter to administrators at the school:

An open letter to Principal Murray of Danvers High School (MA):

Meep.

Sincerely,
Theodora Michaels

The response from the school was fast and furious. According to Ms. Michaels, she received a reply from Assistant principal Mark Strout which informed her that her ‘meep-mail’ had been forwarded to the Danvers Police Department. In an excerpt from an article about the meeping situation posted on her site, she mused:

“LOLwut? That simultaneously annoyed and amused me enough to write this article. (Plus, my train was late.)

First, apparently this school doesn't know how email works. If they don't like getting emails that say "meep" -- and I'm assuming they got others before they got mine -- it should be a simple matter for the school's IT person to set their email program to filter all external emails that say meep and send them straight into the trash. Then there'd be no need to even look at them, let alone reply to or forward them.

Second, apparently they don't know how the law works. I haven't researched Massachusetts law, but I'm assuming there's no law that would prevent me from sending a single, non-commercial email, containing a single nonsense "word" (but impliedly relating to their work as school officials) to adults at their publicly-posted work emails. And if there were such a law, it would not survive a constitutional challenge. So I don't understand the point of Mr. Strout's email, unless he's hoping to scare me into -- what, not emailing "meep" ever again? Or more generally not criticizing his performance as a school official?

Gee, I'm scared -- maybe the Danvers police will come to NYC to arrest me! I guess they'll also try to extradite people who (I'm guessing) sent emails from other countries. We can be charged with . . . what, first degree meeping? Yeah, good luck with that.

Third, and most important, Messrs. Murray and Strout don't understand human nature. People -- especially teenagers -- don't like following pointless rules. To the point where they'll go out of their way to rebel against them (and I took five seconds out of my busy day), even if said rebellion itself is rather pointless. I get nothing out of saying meep. But I will vigorously defend my -- and others' -- right to say it.”

To say that the whole thing seems absolutely and childishly ludicrous on its face would be an extreme understatement.

I fully understand that school administrators face a great many challenges on a daily basis, ranging from finances, human resource issues, academic issues, and so on. It’s not an easy ship to run, so to speak, and any successful school owes a great debt of gratitude not only to the teachers but to the administrators who oversee the process of education as well. I am also fully aware that sometimes a principal is required to make some decision which may proove unpopular with the student body; the principal is well within his bailiwick to do what is necessary to both protect his students (and teachers) as well as make sure that there is no disruption in the educational process.

With that being said, I am hard pressed to find any grounds to agree with the administrators of Danvers High School. With all the problems that a school can have – drugs, violence, academic underachieving, and so on – this apparently harmless high school prank has been blown way out of proportion. What this principal (who appears to be more than a tad over his head in his position or has a severe case of little-man syndrome, in my opinion) is doing is showing the students that the law of the land is made up of nothing more than arbitrary decisions by men in suits and ties with no questioning or recourse for any decisions made. That’s simply not the way it is or should be, both in or out of school.

And if the principal thinks that this conspiracy to meep is worthy of a lesson to parents on the pitfalls of their children’s use of social networking sites, then my reply is that the principals understanding of the possible dangers of the internet in general are woefully shallow and inadequate for him to make such a broad assumption. While I applaud the fact that he has taken it upon himself to utilize the same technology as his students in order to keep abreast of what is going on with the student body, I have to say that his conclusions are clearly indicative of someone who has only a slim grasp of real and serious concerns over teenagers and the web. And if he is using this argument simply to cover his ass, then he is intentionally marginalizing a subject which should be take very seriously by educators, school administrators, parents as well as students.

Additionally, concerning the threat of ‘law enforcement action’ against Ms. Michaels, this is a clear indication that the administrators are themselves hard pressed to defend their actions  and have to rely on an legally empty threats in order to cajole or frighten someone who decided to let them know that their heavy handed approach is more than a little uncalled for. Additionally, by sending this e-mail on to the local PD, time that could have been spent going after people who have actually broken a law is instead spent on, well, foolishness.

In the future the principal (and his staff) need to take a closer look at the potential aftereffects of their actions. While I don’t expect that a school administrator make all of their decisions with one eye behind them watching their own backs, this napoleon-like posturing (which seems to be little more than an exercise in “Look at me, look at me – I am in charge, look at me!”) has done nothing more than disrupt the student body, made the administrators involved look more like major power-mongering fools concerned with enforcing the respect of their station and less like serious minded educators who have the best interest of the school as their first priority, and have clearly set the stage for an adversarial ‘us vs. them’ attitude between the staff and the students – something that can only become a detriment to the education process for all concerned.

(Thanks to Constitutional Law Scholar, Jonathan Turley, for bringing attention to this story)
 
 
John Sez: Other than the fact that he, at times, gets extremely marble mouthed, I like Lou Dobbs. I can’t say that I agree with all of his commentary (although his reporting on illegal immigration was spot on, in my opinion) his was one of the few (the only?) show left on the 24 hour news channels that asked the hard questions, and had no fear of confronting anyone regardless of their status, power or money. He also has some incredible good reporters (notably Casey Wyann, whom I hope has a long and illustrious career ahead of him after the Dobbs show) on his staff, who were apparently the last remnant of a free press on the big news corps.

Like him or not, he was all there was left of the heard edged, old school type of presenters and CNN if the poorer for his leaving.

Interestingly enough, Media Matters for America sent me form e-mail claiming that Dobbs’ leaving was their doing. Um, considering that Dobbs wife was almost killed in a drive by on his home a couple of weeks ago (perhaps by someone inflamed by Media Matter’s rhetoric? Hmmmm…), I think he may have had some reasons other than a hack political activism group’s efforts to smear him to draw back from the television limelight. (see video below of Lou Dobbs announcement)
In other news related new, Bill O’Reiley is the biggest douchebag onTV - followed by, perhaps, his recent guest Col. Peters(for a real meeting of the mindless, see video below)
 
 
John Sez: Today is Veteran’s day. I could go ahead and write a piece about patriotism, or how wonderful the military is, or about the sacrifice that many who have worn the uniforms of our services, but I think that sometimes a simple yet heartfelt statement can effectively get one’s point across better than a wordy essay. With that in mind, I say to all of our Veteran’s on behalf of my family as well as myself:

 

Thank you.
 
 
John Sez: A lot of information (and misinformation on both sides of the political aisle) is being bandied around about the so called health care reform bill passed (over the weekend after the sun went down no less) by Congress. It’s a HUGE stack of paper, and I’ll admit to only having read about a fifth of it so far, so I will reserve comments about specific parts of the bill. Having said that, I really do think that the whole thing is a political smoke screen which does very little of what is claimed by talking heads who get the greatest amount of television airtime.

I will admit upfront that I am a proponent of a full-coverage, tax dollar paid health care coverage system similar to what Europe has. Opponents of such an idea will point to some countries that have such a system and gripe that we’ll have long lines and many will not receive the proper care, but seem to forget that we are America and we need to find a way to do it better – to be the model for that kind of system, not just a follower of all that is wrong with such a project.

Others might say that it will cost too much in taxes and that Europeans are taxed more as a result, but think about how we are taxed already (let’s take an envelope as an example – the land the tree is on is taxed, the guy who cuts the tree down is taxed, the company which hires the guy is taxed, the fuel used to power the chain-saw is taxed, the chain saw is taxed, the people and machinery that turns the wood to paper are taxed, the person who ships the envelopes is taxed, the vehicle and fuel for the vehicle which ships the envelope are taxed, the person/machine/fuel/ink/adhesive which makes up the packaging for the box of envelopes are taxed, the store which sells the product is taxed, the people who work at the store are taxed, then the product is finally sold to a consumer who – of course – pays a tax on the item. And THEN we pay our income/property/business/state taxes. Hell, as a homeowner I even pay a frikkin STREETLIGHT tax for the one I never asked for which is sitting at the edge of my property hidden by a copse of trees which prevents it from shedding all that much taxable light– no joke) and it seems ludicrous that we cannot afford such a universal coverage plan. If we really are that short on cash in the treasury (and it seems we are) let’s stop meddling around in the Middle East/Africa/South America/Asia, bombing brown people, and stop funding anything in any other country – see, deficit solved and more for us.

It all comes down to this: regardless of what a great many people seem to believe, this is not a universal health care plan paid for by your taxes which will make sure that all Americans get proper medical treatment when they need to. Generally speaking, this is a program designed to ensure that you MUST purchase insurance, out of your own pocket in ADDITION to you tax contribution, from an insurance company (the same ones that have screwed us citizens all these years) for your coverage – failure to do so will result in monetary penalties (up to almost 3% of your income but no more than the total amount the package would cost you if you decided to purchase it) or even legal penalties (fines and imprisonment are mentioned) for those who ‘evade’ getting mandatory health care.

This is not reform or a universal (some call it ‘socialist’ health care package) health care, it is simply the legal mechanism the government is using to mandate that everyone must purchase insurance OR ELSE – then they can turn around and say, “ooooh, lookie, we got everyone health insurance”. All the other rhetoric about how the insurance companies hate it, and how it will cover so many people, or that there are death panels and so on are red herrings compared with the fact that this is nothing more than trying to build some sort of unwieldy contraption on a crumbling and shaky foundation and hoping the whole thing doesn’t collapse under its own weight until the politicos can figure out who to blame for the mess – pay no attention to the man behind the curtain, but look at all the pretty bells and whistles.


The whole thing is a farce
 
 
John Sez: For years I had seen an episode here or there of the TV show, Stargate SG1. While I liked what I saw (as well as having enjoyed the original movie), I always resisted getting into the show because it seemed to me that I was a little in the dark about where the show was in its story arc, as well as having some of the impact of what I was seeing lessened or missed entirely due to not knowing the back-story. Thanks to Netflix (a GREAT service which I highly recommend – and no, they didn’t pay me to say that) the entire show became available to me on DVD. So I watched…every…single…friken….episode over the last year or so. And I’m not at all sorry at all that I did.

For those of you who may not have tuned into the show thus far, let me offer a very brief and basic plot synopsis:  Stargate SG1 follows the exploits of a secret Air Force program called “Stargate Command”, which has the control of an portal (the Stargate, of course) which allows them to travel millions of light years instantly to any other Stargate in the universe. While the gate is used for exploration to set up cultural and economic trade, it also opens up a conflict between Earth and the Go’a’ould (I’m not sure if that is spelled correctly, but it looks right), a race of powerful and advanced ancient beings who proclaim themselves as gods.

Along with a superb cast, which gelled perfectly and had great chemistry (even through some personnel changes), there was some excellent writing and an amazing eye for detail and continuity. Like any good high adventure, I found that I cared about the characters, despised the villains, and enjoyed the exotic as well as the familiar viewed through the lens of the universe created for the show. It was a very well done show; if you like science fiction or adventure with some humor and a detailed world, I would suggest checking it out – but you have GOT to watch it in order or you miss out on a lot.

I am also planning on watching the first spin off, Stargate: Atlantis. Like the original, I’ve seen a few episodes, but realized that I had no idea what was going on. Hopefully it lives up to the quality of its parent show.

Now  a quick word about the third spin-off, Stargate Universe, now in its first season on SYFY.

I really, really wanted to like this show. The previews made it look like a darker take on the Stargate franchise, one filled with mystery and tension. Unfortunately my expectations were apparently way too high, and I found myself profoundly disappointed in the program. After watching the pilot plus three episodes, I simply gave up watching.

The show centered around a large group of people who used the Stargate to jump to an unknown ‘address’ in order to escape destruction. They find themselves on an ancient space ship which is falling apart. Unable to control the ship or to gate back home and finding themselves short on supplies, the ‘crew’ endeavors to do what they can to survive and maybe find a way back to Earth.

What might have started out as a good idea with a great deal of potential quickly deteriorated into a complete train wreck of a show. First off, within the first half an hour of the pilot the audience was treated to a graphic and gratuitous sex scene – considering I was watching this with my young daughters (who enjoyed SG1) and that the scene had no purpose as a plot device or character development (other than to be shocking, apparently), I felt that not only was it out of place but also inappropriate.

Also, the behavior of some of the characters was not believable. The supposed Air Force cream of the crop which one would expect in such a secret program like Stargate (established in the first series) were nowhere to be found, which really hurt the suspension of disbelief that one needs to get into this kind of show. Most of the uniformed folks behaved childishly or stupidly, and in one case one of the officers has severe anger management problems which I would think would keep him from being in such a specialized program in the first place…but apparently looked like a good plot device to the writers of the show.

Problems with the characters don’t end there, unfortunately. Although the cast is very large, I couldn’t find one character I was either sympathetic with or even cared about. After five hours of viewing, some kind of connection needs to be made with the audience through the characters, but no attachment could be had. It wasn’t that I particularly disliked any of the characters, I just really didn’t care either way.

Also, the plots have been really thin. There’s no sense of excitement, adventure or exploration. Instead the scripting seems to be character driven, trying to bring out angst, drama, and emotion (more in the way of a soap opera than a space opera) in the viewer. Unfortunately, when you have no connection to the characters,  it’s nearly impossible to grow a series that way.

In the end, Universe seems to be a poor use of a great franchise, and will do much to tarnish the reputation of the Stargate world. I think the show will be lucky to make it past two seasons, and I can only hope that it does not leave a bad taste in the mouths of viewers and industry executives which would ruin another foray into the world of Stargate.
 
 
John Sez: So, here I am listening to CNN proclaiming that the national unemployment rate is just over 10% for the month of October. Of course, they don’t mention that the number itself is figured by counting only new unemployment claims and not a general count of both new claims and people who’s unemployment insurance ran out already, so realistically the number should be around 20-25%. But they have had on a bevy of so called ‘experts’ recently who have told us that the economy is getting better, and that the supposed ‘stimulus plans’ which have been rolled out by our government are a shining success. I wonder what CNN was offered to do damage control for the government instead of reporting the news objectively?

On the subject of the economy, I came across a rant by Mike Rivero (of whatreallyhappened.com and What Really Happened radio) which I thought was right on the money. And it goes something like this:

Look at where the stimulus money went! It went to Wall Street. And what did Wall Street do with it? They wrote themselves huge bonuses with it!

It is estimated that the sum of all spending related to the bailouts has reached $27 trillion (with a 't'). That's about $180,000 per taxpayer.

Now, had the government simply handed every taxpayer $180,000, people would have paid their mortgages. No housing crash. Had the government simply handed every taxpayer $180,000, people would have paid their credit cards. No credit crash. Had the government simply handed every taxpayer $180,000, Americans would have bought new cars. No big three automotive bailout needed. Had the government simply handed every taxpayer $180,000, we would have continued to buy TV sets and other toys. No retail crisis.

But the government shifted the money in the wrong direction. They transferred the wealth from the poor and middle classes to the already-wealthy. And as a result, our economy has gone totally out of balance and commerce has ground almost to a halt. Offering to loan us more money won't fix the problem if we have no jobs with which to repay those loans. More wealth, rather than more debt, is what the people need and what will get the economy moving again.

 
 
John Sez: When I first read this, I couldn’t believe my eyes. Then I found myself livid. Here’s the pertinent text from the DNC’s Brad Woodhouse:

“The Republican Party has thrown in its lot with the terrorists — the Taliban and Hamas this morning — in criticizing the President for receiving the Nobel Peace prize. Republicans cheered when America failed to land the Olympics and now they are criticizing the President of the United States for receiving the Nobel Peace prize — an award he did not seek but that is nonetheless an honor in which every American can take great pride — unless of course you are the Republican Party.”

Really? First of all, Mr. Woodhouse, I am not a Republican (nor a Democrat for that matter). I feel no great sense of pride at the nobel Prize going to our President, as he simply does not deserve it. To think that you can measure Barak Obama with the likes of Gandhi or the Bishop Desmond Tutu or the Dali Lama (who Obama chose not to meet with so he could accrue brownie points with the Chinese government), makes me wonder if you have even half a brain in your head at all, or if you have any comprehension of what a true man (or woman) of peace really is.

You, Mr. Woodhouse, are nothing more than a second rate political hack and a third rate human being who is trying to turn this into political spin in a poor attempt to draw your followers (as well as detractors) into the false left/right paradigm, which is fostered by you and your power mad co-horts in order to allow you to get away with your political games and physical and spiritual corruption. I am not a Republican, nor am I a terrorist due to my criticism to Obama’s shiny new medal. You sir can go straight to hell, do not pass go, do not collect $200 dollars…and take a bunch of your political hacks on both sides of the aisle with you on your way down, you incompetent boob.

Anyone who considers themselves a Democrat needs to contact the DNC and tell them that this kind of rhetoric is the same sort of crap that Bush pulled (anyone remember, “either you are with us or with the terrorists”?), and that it will not be tolerated by you. As someone with an “I” on my voter registration card, I don’t have much pull with the scions of the red or blue, so I leave it to you. If you agree with this sort of clap-trap coming out of the spokes-person of your party then you are no better than the mindless Bush drones that you rallied against for 8 years.
 
 
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John Sez: Did you ever notice that the scenic overlooks which make the best scenic overlooks are never marked a scenic overlooks? Just a thought…
 
 
John Sez:  I’ve been hearing a lot of rhetoric over the last few weeks about how anyone who opposes President Obama or his administration is doing so not because they are in disagreement with what the President is doing (or NOT doing, in regards to the many, many, many promises he has broken so far), but because they are some sort of right-wing extremist racist.

This is the most inane, moronic, simple-minded thing I have ever heard. At the same time, as a tool of propaganda with the intent to chill free speech and expression as well as stifle dissent from the public at large, it is villainously brilliant. In either case, it it absolutely wrong.

I grew to despise Bush (as well as many of his cronies like Rumsfeld, Cheney, and Rice) for what I view as a purposeful destruction of our civil liberties and the spirit of the Constitution in order to gain a great deal of power and make incredible amounts of money . I now despise Obama (as well as many of his co-horts, like Biden, Napolitano, and Emanuel) for the same reason. Race has nothing to do with the stomach-churning loathing I have for the powers that be who are doing everything they can to turn the country I love into a cess-pool of corporatism, corruption, and tyranny.

So, who still wants to call me a racist? Those who do, answer these questions first:

Are you for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and do you want to start new ones with Pakistan, Iran, Somalia and Russia?

Do you believe that the patriot act should stand as is?

Do you think that the military commissions act should stand as is?

Do you think that POW’s we have captured in combat should be held for life in secret prisons, even when a military tribunal has found them innocent of actions against the US?

Do you think the Office of the Presidents has the Constitutional right, or even a really good reason, for tracking what the citizenry of the US does on the internet (note: I said the office of the PRESIDENT, not the executive branch)?

Do you think that it is right that the US has more mercenaries on their payroll than any other country on the planet?

Do you think that giving enough tax dollars to the bankers (who got us into our current financial mess, and who spent over 32 BILLION dollars on bonuses for themselves with the bailout money) to put your next ten generations into serious debt the day they are born was a justifiable action?

Do you think its right that Obama has made sure that the LAST administration will never be taken to task for war crimes?

If you answered yes to many of the questions above, then you are either a partisan moron who will back anything the President or the Democrats do, or you and I have some very serious ideological differences. If you have no idea what I am talking about with the questions above, the you need to stop bantering about the term ‘racist’, scroll to the right of this page, click on the ‘Government’ tab, and start reading (and, for God’s sake, turn OFF the TV news!). If you answered no to many of the questions, then  you need to come to terms with the fact that much of what you thought was wrong with the Bush administration has either continued or has been accelerated by the Obama administration, and that my complaints against Obama are YOUR complaints against Obama.

My adversarial stance, as I hope you can see by this point, has nothing to do with any particular shade of skin; despotism and tyranny comes in any color, under any flag.

I am NOT a racist…and I WILL NOT shut up and sit down for Obama, Bush, nor anyone else while my country rots and breaks under the weight of corporatism and fascist tyranny.

 

(Note: Doug Thompson of Capitol Hill Blue wrote a piece covering the same ground. I find it is eloquent and to the point. Click HERE to give it a read)