Blog entries for MKEman

Old fashioned my arse

MKEman — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 23:02:11 GMT

Just rode past Humboldt Park on my bike and I noted there is an "old fashioned revival" tonight at 7:00 pm. That sounds like a bunch of white folks using the bible to justify their prejudices and fears. Either that or one hell of a Creedance show!

Is it just me?

MKEman — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 17:18:02 GMT

Or is there some reason that the conservative comic strip "Mallard Fillmore" is simplistic and lacks any nuance? Almost every day it's a basic one panel cartoon that seems to parrot the company lines of the worst part of the conservative movement.

While I have great respect for many conservatives in our city and country, this "comic mouthpiece" for the party is so (for lack of a better term) obvious, without any gray area, much like the current administration itself. Give me ambiguity and diversity and allow me to ponder a spell, instead of bashing me over the head with your message.

AN unrealistic goal

MKEman — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 19:42:48 GMT

So now that more and more high schools in this area are failing to meet the unrealistic goals of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) will we see more of an uproar about this entire fiasco. Look, the kids who are not meeting the goals in these suburban districts are students that have been identified as special needs. Guess what? if you take a 10th grader who has been diagnosed as cognitively disabled (which is a nice way of saying their IQ is south of 70 and used to be labeled retarded) and give him or her a standardized test, they won't pass. They won't score proficient.

Why?

BECAUSE THEY ARE COGNITIVELY DISABLED. Why in the hell does this test define success? Hey, the world needs folks to stock shelves and do light assembly, and not every kid is going to college. Why the square peg into the circle? It's got a lot to do with our current government wanting public schools to fail so they can reinvent "for profit" education.

The business community likes to point fingers at MPS and other districts, telling them if the districts argue that these kids (and I speak only of those who are diagnosed as CD and with academic levels that are flat around 3rd or 4th grade) cannot realistically pass a state standardized test, they are giving up on these kids. Well, guess what the darn business community gave up on these kids when they sent all the decent wage factory jobs to Mexico and other third world nations.

...It'll be interesting to see how the pressure from suburban parents plays into this equation. No one listens to poor, urban districts but the wealthy conservatives...well we shall see.

The sad reality

MKEman — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 17:44:07 GMT

Well now that former alderman Michael McGee, Jr. has been convicted of federal charges relating to bribing and exortion, it saddens me that there are still those in the community who believe he may have been set up by the government. Sure there is plenty of racial injustice to go around in this town, but Mr. McGee is not a victim in this case. Despite all this compelling evidence there are those who will still refuse to believe the apparent truth. Justice in this case was color blind. Mike did the crime to get fat off of his constiuants and he almost got away with it.

In my book, the system does work.

Carlin's dead

MKEman — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 13:12:58 GMT

George Carlin certainly made his mark on the world of comedy and popular culture over the last 40 years. While his recent anti-environmental rantings were a bit off the mark, he will be missed both as a comedian and a commentator on the world that we live in. And I'm pretty sure he wasn't in anyone starting five in a dead pool.