Discussing a clueless mayor

I'm pleased to report that my recent rant against the reaction to (admittedly clueless) Los Alamitos Mayor Dean Grose's "watermelon" email inspired a pretty decent discussion. Check it out: Big Money (scroll down to comments).

Los Alamitos residents weigh in

Conservatives on the Titanic: blaming right-wing “carny barkers”

Yesterday, the Reg’s Orange Punch blog noted a provocative essay by conservative writer John Derbyshire (of National Review) that appeared in The American Conservative. Derbyshire's point: Rush Limbaugh, and the other right-wing radio rabble-rousers have hurt the cause of conservatism. Surely he's right. (Stop calling me "Shirley.") Some excerpts: How Radio Wrecks the Right

...With reasons for gratitude duly noted, are there some downsides to conservative talk radio? Taking the conservative project as a whole—limited government, fiscal prudence, equality under law, personal liberty, patriotism, realism abroad—has talk radio helped or hurt? All those good things are plainly off the table for the next four years at least, a prospect that conservatives can only view with anguish. Did the Limbaughs, Hannitys, Savages, and Ingrahams lead us to this sorry state of affairs? They surely did. At the very least, by yoking themselves to the clueless George W. Bush and his free-spending administration, they helped create the great debt bubble that has now burst so spectacularly. The big names, too, were all uncritical of the decade-long (at least) efforts to “build democracy” in no-account nations with politically primitive populations. Sean Hannity called the Iraq War a “massive success,” and in January 2008 deemed the U.S. economy “phenomenal.” Much as their blind loyalty discredited the Right, perhaps the worst effect of Limbaugh et al. has been their draining away of political energy from what might have been a much more worthwhile project: the fostering of a middlebrow conservatism. There is nothing wrong with lowbrow conservatism. It’s energizing and fun. What’s wrong is the impression fixed in the minds of too many Americans that conservatism is always lowbrow, an impression our enemies gleefully reinforce when the opportunity arises. Thus a liberal like E.J. Dionne can write, “The cause of Edmund Burke, Leo Strauss, Robert Nisbet and William F. Buckley Jr. is now in the hands of Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity. … Reason has been overwhelmed by propaganda, ideas by slogans.” Talk radio has contributed mightily to this development. It does so by routinely descending into the ad hominem—Feminazis instead of feminism—and catering to reflex rather than thought. Where once conservatism had been about individualism, talk radio now rallies the mob. “Revolt against the masses?” asked Jeffrey Hart. “Limbaugh is the masses.” In place of the permanent things, we get Happy Meal conservatism: cheap, childish, familiar. Gone are the internal tensions, the thought-provoking paradoxes, the ideological uneasiness that marked the early Right. But however much this dumbing down has damaged the conservative brand, it appeals to millions of Americans.... 

… 

… The unholy marriage of social engineering and high finance that ended with our present ruin was left largely unanalyzed from reluctance to slight a Republican administration. Plenty of people saw what was coming. There was Ron Paul, for example: “Our present course ... is not sustainable. ... Our spendthrift ways are going to come to an end one way or another. Politicians won’t even mention the issue, much less face up to it.” Neither will the GOP pep squad of conservative talk radio. …Why engage an opponent when an epithet is in easy reach? Some are crude: rather than debating Jimmy Carter’s views on Mideast peace, Michael Savage dismisses him as a “war criminal.” Others are juvenile: Mark Levin blasts the Washington Compost and New York Slimes. … I enjoy these radio bloviators (and their TV equivalents) and hope they can survive the coming assault from Left triumphalists. If conservatism is to have a future, though, it will need to listen to more than the looped tape of lowbrow talk radio. We could even tackle the matter of tone, bringing a sportsman’s respect for his opponents to the debate. I repeat: There is nothing wrong with lowbrow conservatism. Ideas must be marketed, and right-wing talk radio captures a big and useful market segment. However, if there is no thoughtful, rigorous presentation of conservative ideas, then conservatism by default becomes the raucous parochialism of Limbaugh, Savage, Hannity, and company. That loses us a market segment at least as useful, if perhaps not as big. Conservatives have never had, and never should have, a problem with elitism. Why have we allowed carny barkers to run away with the Right? [My emphases.]

• SADDLEBACK COLLEGE CELEBRATES AFRICAN AMERICAN HISTORY. Also yesterday, the OC Reg reported on the celebration of African American history going on at Saddleback College: Saddleback College students celebrate African American history. The event was entitled "A Celebration of Black History: Legacy, Liberation, and New Beginnings.” It featured a presentation by Dr. Richard Rose, Professor of Philosophy and Religion at the University of La Verne and a keynote speech by Reverend Mark Whitlock of the Christ Our Redeemer AME Church.

So what I am going to do now Simon is beat you with cat fur."

MIT professor Walter Lewin conduct a physics experiment.

Big money at Chapman U

This morning, the OC Register’s OC Watchdog zeroes in on some stunningly generous salaries at Chapman University in Orange. According to W-dog, the university’s “chief money guy earned total compensation of $509,294 in 2007….”

Meanwhile, Chapman’s Prez Jim Doti earns $497,718.

Here are some other Chapmanesque salaries:

Parham Williams, dean of the law school: $467,229
Art Kraft, dean of the business school: $425,581
Henry Butler, business professor: $275,599
Michael Lang, law professor: $218,902
Francis Tuggle, business professor, $220,656

As you know, the SOCCCD's Chancellor, Raghu P. Mathur, gets about $300,000 a year, thanks to the "fiscally conservative" Mr. Tom Fuentes, his GOP pal.

The Reg also reports that “[Los Alamitos] Mayor Dean Grose on Tuesday apologized for an e-mail he sent to [a local businesswoman, Keyanus Price, who is African American] that showed a photograph of the White House with a watermelon patch imposed as the White House garden. (Disgust over mayor's White House watermelon e-mail.) See graphic above. 

I dunno. I don't know a thing about Mr. Grose. But isn't it possible that Grose was inviting Ms. Price to laugh at an outrageous image based on an old stereotype of blacks? 

I'm German, and if a friend were to send me a graphic of the "Bauer Compound" as, say, the Kehlsteinhaus (Adolf's Eagle's Next), I'd get a pretty good laugh. I think I'd appreciate the humor. 

And that doesn't mean that I'm not appalled by Hitler and the Nazis.

Or maybe a Photoshopped image of Herr Bauer driving a WWII Kübelwagen in an Anaheim parade? That's funny stuff, man.

UPDATE:

Mayor who sent White House watermelon e-mail to resign

“The attention brought to this matter has sadly created an image of me which is most unfortunate,” he wrote. “I recognize that I've made a mistake and have taken steps to make sure this is never repeated.”

Laptop Lap Dance?

via The Orion, Chico's online newpaper:

As Mary Lee Barton, professor of management, spoke to her students, she couldn't help but notice a couple of her students laughing and pointing at another student's open laptop in front of them. The laughing and pointing continued, so she told the student to put it away and went on with the lecture.

Curious as to what was so funny, she pulled the giggling students aside once class ended, she said.

"I asked some of these fellas afterward, 'What was so funny on his laptop?'" Barton said. "And they said he was looking at pornography."

Since that day, no laptops have been allowed in her class unless there was a great need for them, she said. It's even stated in big bold letters in her syllabus.

"I was horrified," Barton said. "I just want to say one kid can ruin it for everybody."

For more details, click here.

This is one reason why Rebel Girl regulates technology use in her classroom.

(Tip of the hat to University Diaries.)

Tuesday's board meeting: an interesting but ghastly complexity

Here’s a fuller account (than yesterday's) of last night’s SOCCCD board meeting.

Trustee Tom Fuentes reported the one action taken during the 5:00 p.m. closed session. He didn't mention the contract. Insiders tell me that things have definitely taken a turn for the worse in negotiations.

Trustee Nancy Padberg led the invocation, which began with a brief moment of silence followed by a prayer that started with “Dear Lord, we ask for Your guidance” and ended with “Amen.” In the middle was the usual stuff.

The board is big on bestowing “resolutions” on people, and, this night, the “My Academic Plan” design team got one, and so did IVC’s coach Martin McGrogan. Read all about it in Tracy’s Board Meeting Highlights, which are always recommended. (Tracy knows how to put lipstick on a pig. Me, not so much.)

As I explained last night, only one person—a student, I think—addressed the board during “public comments.” He was worried about second hand smoke and such. The board could not care less.

During board reports, Trustee Fuentes described his adventures at the OC Legislative Task Force, which is chaired these days by Chancellor Raghu Mathur. The latter invited OC Treasurer Chriss Street to the last OCLTF meeting. Yeah, we know what that’s about. Raghu thinks he'll be the governor some day.

Trustee John Williams renewed his threat to pursue “alert systems” and “security cameras.” Everybody groaned. Plus he reported that he, Mathur, and Jim Gaston gave a presentation at the Future’s Assembly. I bet John held up some cardboard.

Trustee Marcia Milchiker went on and on with her report, and so Board President Don Wagner suddenly bleated forth an unpleasant “Time.”

Student Trustee Lee revealed herself to be a Valley Girl or something. She had attended “Homecoming” at IVC, she chirped. There, said she, she got “a lot of free stuff…I got a tattoo on my arm!”

Golly!

Chancellor Mathur continued with his new practice of using his report time to run for higher office. Off he went again opining gratuitously on the state budget situation, which will have a tremendous impact on local schools, he said.

Duh.

“The news is not good,” he added, pointlessly. He looked stern and staunch and disapproving.

Eight or so newly tenured faculty lined up to be photographed by the lovely Tracy. After that, they went out to the hallway to eat cake and drink punch. Wagner, who, until then, had seemed to be either disgruntled or zombified, suddenly became animated and chirpy, blathering about the availability of cake (for board members, but not for the hoi polloi). You shoulda seen these people chowing down right there in front of the great unwashed and unfed.


Rajen and Craig gave remarkably brief presentations on “basic skills.” Wagner virtually told ‘em to mail it in fast and get it over with. Move along, move along!

After the reports, Wagner’s only comment was, “the cake is really good!”

Fuentes asked an unpleasant question about ESL students. Foreigners, eh? Yeah, but they pay big bucks, so shut up, said Trustee Marcia Milchiker.

Then came the curriculum report, which was way snoozy but quick. After Bob Cosgrove’s jocular brevity, Wagner boomed: “You’ve never been that pithy before in your life!”

Biologist Kathy Schmeidler’s report was slightly less brief. Milchiker responded to it by declaring, “I’ve seen you dissect a cow’s heart!” We all laughed. Not with. At.

Fuentes got all right-wing Republican and asked regarding whether students can compare the programs of different colleges. “How does the buyer [i.e., the student] know it’s the same product?” he asked. Then he yammered about “marketing” efforts.

Kathy took it all in stride.

When they got to the Santander, Spain “study abroad” trip, Fuentes pontificated about the board’s commitment to providing students “the best value.” He was referring, I guess, to the various vendors who provide travel and accommodations for this kind of trip.

“The marketplace is the best judge,” he said. Then he voted for the program along with everyone else.

One item concerned bennies and perks for student in the armed services. Predictably, trustees took turns saying solemn and patriotic things about them. Fuentes speechified ponderously about “these young people who wear the uniform of our land.”

—Of our land. Who talks that way? Who does this guy think he is?

Get this. Fuentes nominated Williams for the OCSBA Marian Bergeson Award. As you know, not long ago, Fuentes punished Williams for supporting the faculty union by pretty much destroying Williams’ political career (at least as a Republican).

Williams accepted the nomination. His demeanor exhibited an interesting but ghastly complexity, as though he were offered a glass of fine wine mixed with cat turds.

Wagner blew through the next ten or so items in about a minute flat. It was amazing. You’ve gotta give the boy credit.

They hit a speed bump, though, when they got to the “Retiree (OPEB) Trust Fund.” Naturally, this fund has taken a big hit in recent months (a 17% loss, I think). Trustee Bill Jay suddenly came on like a stockbroker, opining forcefully that the district should get out of “common stocks” in favor of “fixed return.” (I have no idea what that means. I don't wanna know.)

Trustee Dave Lang respectfully disagreed. He got out some beans and counted ‘em. He ate one and then said that we oughta “stay the course.” It was like a TV show.

It was only an info item, so they moved on.

Well, that was about it.

Let Them Eat Cake

Many have pointed out that the PAC building at IVC looks bigger on the outside than it appears on the inside.

There's a discrepancy, some have said, similar to the ones Sherlock Holmes discovered in several of his acclaimed mysteries. A secret room – or in the PAC's case, a hidden floor.

Here's what we know so far: on the hidden upper floor of the PAC building there is a large refrigerated room. You can hear it hum as you enter the building. Listen for it.


In that room is stored an industrial size sheet cake approximately 20 feet by 30 feet in size, bought wholesale from CostCo and charged to the district's credit card.

Whenever there is some kind of celebratory event, say a birthday of note, or a retirement or, in last night's case, the attainment of tenure, a chunk is sawed off the cake, the appropriate slogan is painted on using the array of frosting tubes provided by CostCo, and the cake is then presented to the hungry hordes desperate for something sweet. Yum.


We hear that they got the cake for a good price.

It was, they say, quite a sweet deal.

Stayed tune for more updates about the other hidden rooms on the IVC campus.

May I be your serving wench?

It's late, I'm tired, and I don't much feel like staying up to report on tonight's hurried and largely uneventful meeting of the SOCCCD Board of Trustees. I'll just make a few notes and put up some pics. I'll do more tomorrow. Or not.

The trustees had a special meeting at 3:00, then a closed session at 5:00, and then this open session that finally started around 7:45. So you can well imagine they were in a big hurry to get done and get home. Can't blame 'em, I guess.

For some reason, this year, they made a big freakin' deal out of the faculty who attained tenure. These instructors stood up, we stared at 'em, and then they were sent off for cake and punch, just outside the entrance of the Ronald Reagan Room.

I was told that, written upon the cake was one word: "CONGRATULATION." Raghu must've been in charge of that detail. 

Gooey cake brings out the worst in people, I guess. Upon hearing about this celebratory confection, several trustee eyes lit up. Their lips moved. "Yum," they said. 

Raghu's no dummy. He immediately told Tracy to get seven fat slices, tout de suite. She scurried out the door.

Tracy hurried back with the slices. But then, get this. Raghu insisted on serving each trustee personally. I listened very carefully, and I do believe he told each trustee, "May I be your serving wench this evening?" 

"Yep."

There was only one public comment. Some kid came up to carp about all the smoking going on at Saddleback college. To hear this kid tell it, this smoke is like nuclear fallout or worse. We all stared at 'em. His pitch kinda petered out. At the end, even the kid didn't seem interested in his proposal, which is to move the college closer to a "no smoke" zone.

Me, I'm thinking we should move to a "no Raghu" zone. With smoke, lots of it. I don't care.

"May I be your serving wench this evening?"
"Yum."

All tomorrow's board meetings

The South Orange County Community College District Board of Trustees will meet twice tomorrow.

• At 3:00 p.m., they’ll convene for a Special Board Meeting (pdf) (in the Ronald Reagan Room, near Health Sciences).

According to the “notice,” the board will convene “for the purpose of discussing the Concept Plan at the Advanced Technology and Education Park in Tustin.”

Members of the community will be given an opportunity to make comments at the start of the meeting.

The city of Tustin needs to sign off on the district’s plan for ATEP. But it has been clear for quite some time that the plan is unacceptable to city officials. Unless things have changed recently, the district is likely headed for litigation.

For the last six months or so, Chancellor Raghu Mathur has made a great point of noting the rapidity of growth (courses, headcount) at ATEP. Some insiders have suggested that Mathur has pushed and highlighted development there in order to put the district in the most favorable position in the event of a legal tangle with Tustin. 

• The regular board meeting will start with a CLOSED SESSION at 5:00 p.m. and an open session at 7:00 p.m.

You can download the agenda for the regular board meeting here (“current agenda”).

Item 3.1 includes a board request for a report “on Reduction of District Property Tax Rate.”

Now wait a minute. As a “basic aid” district, we want property valuations in OC to stay high ‘cause that means we get more money. What we don’t want, then, is for property owners to request a downward valuation of their property.

So this ironic, right?

Tuesday’s discussion items are the “basic skills initiative” and “curriculum.” So we can expect the usual dog and pony shows. You know, embarrassed administrators, doing Mr. Goo's bidding.

Item 5.12 concerns ATEP in Tustin: approval of an agreement with “Austin-Foust Associates, Inc. on a time and material basis.” AFA is a consulting firm that does “traffic engineering and transportation planning.”

Item 5.19 seems odd (to these fiscally challenged eyes). It’s an amendment to the district budget. The update involves a change in expenditures, I guess. One item—07/08 Allocation to Saddleback, basic skills—shows the odd allocation figure of $5. What’s that about? Maybe nothing.  

Item 5.22 is ratification of contractor agreements. This lists such agreements as a $60K ATEP landscaping deal.

Oddly (again, to these fiscally challenged eyes), among the contractors are four that (as per recommendation) are slated to get $0, including “The City of Tustin.”

Apparently, the Tustin item involves a “Landscape Maintenance Agreement to require SOCCCD to install certain parkway improvements for the ATEP project.”

Item 6.5 is approval of the Santander, Spain “study abroad” trip. It’ll be interesting to see what Wagner and Fuentes do with this. Usually, they vote against it, I think, 'cause they're very staunch, as you know.

Item 6.9 concerns academic personnel actions—the hiring of instructors. Part-timers, mostly.

I noticed that, included among the “temporary part-time/substitute staff” is a Doctor of Chiropractic. (He started work in January.)

What on earth does this fellow teach for us? And do we teach homeopathy and acupuncture, too?

VELVET UNDERGROUND: All Tomorrow's Parties


Nico does same, in the eighties: All Tomorrow's Parties

Gracias a la Vida (Rebel Girl)

     Sometimes it is a charmed life, Rebel Girl remarked to Red Emma late Thursday night as they hurtled south on the 405 in their rattling tin can of a Corolla. The observation sounded like a bad line out of a mid-century novel but she didn't care. She said it anyway and squeezed his hand. He knew what she meant.

     They had spent the evening at UCLA's Royce Hall, named after Josiah Royce, that California philosopher idealist. Rebel Girl invariably teaches him every semester. She wondered if she could remember Royce's words chiseled in pale rosy stone which spanned the stage. She could: 

Education is using the tools the race has found indispensable.

     Then, Joan Baez came on that stage and for the next two hours sang selections from her nearly fifty year career, opening up with "The Lily of the West" and closing with "Gracias a la Vida," and in between was just about everything else, new and old, or so it seemed. 

     Rebel Girl has noticed that she weeps more easily these days. It started, she believes, when the little guy was born.

     So she sat last night in that grand hall and wept from time to time as the music did its conjuring act, summoning people and the past so it seemed that the great hall wasn't filled with strangers but was instead filled with everyone she'd ever known. Then, as the audience filed up and out, Rebel Girl and Red followed a friend backstage. 

     The friend they followed had worked closely with Baez back in the day and could tell stories about Bob Dylan's appetites.

     Rebel Girl and Red met this friend when they were political organizers and now had known each other, they reckoned, for about 21 years. The friend seemed concerned and a bit confused that she had not, during all those years, introduced them to Baez before. They reassured her that it was okay. They wore blue wristbands which they showed from time to time to the people who cared about them and shuffled through a series of rooms and hallways, pausing, moving, waiting. 

     Then, there was Joan Baez. A barefoot, elegant beauty who looked a bit weary but was gracious all the same. 

     Rebel Girl shook her hand and managed to stammer out a "thank you" and that was about it. It was enough. She watched Baez greet the small group, laugh, share a few stories. It was more than enough.

     

     Then they were in their rattling Corolla, the heat turned up, heading south. And Rebel Girl thought about her charmed life, where she came from and where she is now, as they drove past the exits of nearly all the places she lived as a girl who began to listen to Joan Baez because Baez was a brown girl like her with long dark hair: Los Angeles, Inglewood, Hawthorne, Gardena, Torrance, San Pedro. 

      Gracias a la vida indeed.

TigerAnn—or Chupacabra?

Sometimes I just snap away promiscuously. I went outside and did that today. I then downloaded the pics, and this was one of 'em.

It's just that silly cat, TigerAnn, enjoying some grass.

Protests at Cypress College

Above is the OC Register’s brief video coverage of yesterday's protest, at Cypress College, over display of a photograph. The photo shows a young woman wearing a shirt that is similar to the flag of Vietnam while standing near a bust of Communist revolutionary leader Ho Chi Minh.

Protests were threatened a year ago at Irvine Valley College over the display of the Vietnamese flag among a discreet presentation of "flags of the world" along the "atrium" of the Student Services Building. IVC administration chose to take down all of the flags. Some on campus objected to the de facto knuckling under to what they felt were offensive demands and threats.


Cypress College has consistently refused to remove the offending photograph. As you can see, thus far, the promised protests haven't amounted to much.

As some of our readers have noted, more than a few members of Orange County's Vietnamese community have joined in the defense of free speech and have denounced the censoring spirit of some of these protests. 

Rebel Girl's Bad Dream

In her dream, Rebel Girl was contacted by the college and informed that a famous theologian would be soon making an appearance. Rebel Girl imagined it would be an event similar to the recent one with Ray Bradbury and that she was being contacted as part of the course. You know, writer comes to campus, contact the English teachers.

But no.

The theologian would be speaking, it seemed, not in the new theater but in the bedroom of Rebel Girl's six-year-old son. The college had contacted her so she could be ready.

Wait a minute, Rebel Girl said.

"What?" the college replied. (In dreams, colleges can talk.)

"You can't do that," she complained. "My son's room has only one chair and besides, it's a mess. I mean, seriously. Littered with Legos since Christmas. It's really not the right venue. And parking in the canyon is terrible."

The college was adamant.

Another professor weighed in. "You can't hold the talk there," she pointed out in an email to the college president. "It's not even on campus. It's in the canyon."

The college refused to change its mind.

Rebel Girl, not knowing what else to do, started cleaning up her son's bedroom and prepared for the hordes to arrive.

The speaker arrived first.

The Reverend Jeremiah Wright.

And then, thankfully, Rebel Girl woke up.

“I deserve a A”

From the New York Times:

Student Expectations Seen as Causing Grade Disputes

… “Many students come in with the conviction that they’ve worked hard and deserve a higher mark,” Professor [Marshall] Grossman [of U of Maryland] said. “Some assert that they have never gotten a grade as low as this before.”

He attributes those complaints to his students’ sense of entitlement.

“I tell my classes that if they just do what they are supposed to do and meet the standard requirements, that they will earn a C,” he said. “That is the default grade. They see the default grade as an A.”

A recent study by researchers at the University of California, Irvine, found that a third of students surveyed said that they expected B’s just for attending lectures, and 40 percent said they deserved a B for completing the required reading.

“I noticed an increased sense of entitlement in my students and wanted to discover what was causing it” said Ellen Greenberger, the lead author of the study, called “Self-Entitled College Students: Contributions of Personality, Parenting, and Motivational Factors,” which appeared last year in The Journal of Youth and Adolescence.
…
James Hogge, associate dean of the Peabody School of Education at Vanderbilt University, said: “Students often confuse the level of effort with the quality of work. There is a mentality in students that ‘if I work hard, I deserve a high grade.’ “

In line with Dean Hogge’s observation are Professor Greenberger’s test results. Nearly two-thirds of the students surveyed said that if they explained to a professor that they were trying hard, that should be taken into account in their grade.

Jason Greenwood, a senior kinesiology major at the University of Maryland echoed that view.

“I think putting in a lot of effort should merit a high grade,” Mr. Greenwood said. “What else is there really than the effort that you put in?”

“If you put in all the effort you have and get a C, what is the point?” he added. “If someone goes to every class and reads every chapter in the book and does everything the teacher asks of them and more, then they should be getting an A like their effort deserves. If your maximum effort can only be average in a teacher’s mind, then something is wrong.”

Sarah Kinn, a junior English major at the University of Vermont, agreed, saying, “I feel that if I do all of the readings and attend class regularly that I should be able to achieve a grade of at least a B.”….

Rebel Girl's Poetry Corner: "sleeping in the cold"

Rebel Girl's middle-aged winters in Southern California are sure different than those of her girlhood in Los Angeles. Then she saw the snow from an impossible distance - these days it is her seasonal friend. Some photos from the long weekend. Forsee Creek was fringed each morning with lacy ice.


After a good snowfall, Rebel Girl and her little guy get up early and follow the tracks the animals have left behind. It's a bit of detective work that finds them crawling under trees and bushes and trailing the river as they trace their steps and try to identify them.



And now, a poem:

Winter Trees
by William Carlos Williams


All the complicated details
of the attiring and
the disattiring are completed!
A liquid moon
moves gently among
the long branches.
Thus having prepared their buds
against a sure winter
the wise trees
stand sleeping in the cold.



(Above, the Santa Ana River.)

Rainy day in OC

Lambrose Canyon Rd. this morning.

Irvine Valley College.

Modjeska Grade, this afternoon.

Cloud threatens to eat South County.

After the meal.

To see video of those special people in Ladera Ranch who gathered to pray for the CAPO school district, click here. Skip to about 2:20.

Gosh, if I didn't know better, I'd swear they were engaging in some kind of pagan ritual. Devil-worship, maybe. Could be.

I don't get it.

THE IMPORTANCE OF COW BELLS:

Go ahead. Revel in the excellent cow-bellitude. When the "Li'l Bastard" isn't crooning about "our country" (bleccch!), he rocks most excellently. Kenny Aronoff kills.

The original cow-bell wonderfulness. I remember it well. I was on Catalina Island, Cherry Valley Harbor, and that cow bell rang over the harbor on a warm summer night. Even then, I knew I was experiencing prodigious and cosmic cow-bellitude.

Yoo is “wrong, wrong, wrong”

     On Wednesday (Torture boy at Chapman) we referred to a Times article about the Bush Administration’s John Yoo (aka "Torture Boy") teaching at the relatively uncomplaining Chapman University in Orange, after having endured endless protests at Cal (Bush policymaker escapes Berkeley's wrath). 

     Today, the Times printed two letters regarding that piece, including one by our own Red Emma:

I am appalled that Chapman University has invited former White House lawyer John Yoo to teach its law students. With the painfully prevalent lack of ethics today, it is shocking that Chapman is clearly more concerned about publicity for its young law school than ensuring that its students are taught by professors of great achievement, guided by high ethical standards. The last thing we need are more John Yoos in America's legal system. 

—Johanna Dordick, Los Angeles 

There's something too easy in offering Berkeley as the singular (and stereotypical) community of resistance to Yoo. Orange County residents—UC Irvine staff and students—were similarly vehement, angry and (appropriately) rude to the Bush administration apologist for criminal behavior when he appeared on our campus. There's no need to harp on the now-clichéd environs of Berkeley to illustrate citizens expressing a consensus: Americans know that torture and violating international human rights law is wrong, wrong, wrong—and plenty are willing to shout about it, even in Orange County.  

—Andrew Tonkovich, Silverado The writer is a lecturer at the UC Irvine Department of English.

P.S.: John Yoo is Chapman’s Fletcher Jones Distinguished Vising Professor of Law. According to the university,

The Fletcher Jones Distinguished Visiting Professor of Law is selected annually from nominees and candidates who possess exceptionally outstanding credentials in legal education, and whose personal and professional lives reflect the highest ethical standards. [My emphasis.]

See also Torture memo author finds friends and foes at Chapman U (Matt Coker, OC Weekly)

An experiment in weirditude

Did you see this story in yesterday’s OC Register?

Parents, kids to pray for Capo school district

Things aren’t looking so good for the CAPO district. As the Reg explains, “Capistrano Unified officials are bracing for an anticipated $24.5 million shortfall in the current 2008-09 school year and a projected $32 million deficit next year.”

Plus they've got trustees from hell.

Things really are tough, fiscally. Gosh, at a time like this, each of us has got to do anything we can. And so 37-year-old Ann Marie Jennison of Ladera Ranch is organizing an hour of public prayer on behalf of the Capistrano Unified School District.

The event is planned for Monday from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m.

The Reg didn’t indicate if spotters have been organized to watch for positive changes in the district during and immediately after this time of prayer.

Naturally, the Reg has concocted one of its polls, which accompanies the article. The question: Will praying for public schools help?

You’d think readers would be allowed to choose between “No” and “Yes.” I woulda voted “No.”

But those aren’t the choices.

Here are the choices:

Yes, schools need all the help they can get.

No, it’s up to government to solve the problem.

Sometimes, I feel that I have been placed here in Orange County as some sort of experiment in weirditude.

(Above: the sky, last night.)

Chain overreaction started by reading from Bible and dictionary

From this morning’s Inside Higher Ed:

The Alliance Defense Fund has sued the Los Angeles Community College District on behalf of a student [a Mr. Lopez] at Los Angeles City College who charges that his public speaking professor [a Mr. Matteson] called him a “fascist bastard” for a speech during which the student read a dictionary definition of marriage and two Bible passages.

The suit, which charges censorship of “Christian speech” in violation of the First Amendment, said that the instructor also refused to grade the speech, writing on an evaluation form that the student should “Ask God what your grade is.”
…
A letter from the college to the Alliance Defense Fund, sent prior to the lawsuit being filed, said that “action is being taken” against the professor involved, but that privacy rules barred the college from disclosing what was happening. The letter ... said that the college viewed the incident as “extremely serious.”

The letter, from Academic Affairs Dean Allison Jones, fills in some details:

I received statements from two students which were signed by several members of Mr. Lopez’ class. Contrary to Mr. Lopez’ assumptions, these classmates were deeply offended by his speech. One of the students stated that “His speech was not of the informative style that our assignment called for, but rather a preachy, persuasive speech that was completely inappropriate and deeply offensive. I respect his right to freedom of speech, but I also do not believe that our classroom is the proper platform for him to spout his hateful propaganda.”

The second student said “I don’t know what kind of actions can be taken in this situation, but I expect that this student should have to pay some price for preaching hate in the classroom.”

Where do we go from here? Regardless of the other students’ reactions to Mr. Lopez’ speech, Mr. Matteson will still be disciplined. First amendment rights will not be violated as is evidenced by the fact that even though many of the students were offended by Mr. Lopez’ speech, no action will be taken against any of them for expressing their opinions….

I don't get it. Why would action be taken against these students?

It's hard to see how Matteson's calling Lopez a "fascist bastard" could be appropriate in a classroom. It would be understandable, I suppose, if Lopez had just called Matteson a "mother f*ckin' t*tty s*ckin' two ball b*tch with a ping pong p*ssy and a rubber d*ck."*

That stuff will piss a guy off. 

The "ask God" note seems plainly unprofessional, but, again, I'd like to know the context. Maybe Lopez had just picked up a phone, listened to it, and said, "It's God, you h*mo atheist rat bastard. He wants to know my friggin' grade!"

Context is important, you know.

*In grad school, one colleague's lovely and sweet Christian wife would occasionally use this phrase. Wow. I never forgot it.

Liar, liar pants on fire

AS YOU KNOW, the SOCCCD has once again spent big bucks mailing South County residents a glossy new "report to the community," featuring big smiley pictures of Raghu, et al.

The booklet opens up to a letter "from the chancellor." (See.) It's mostly the usual Mathur Blather.

But one paragraph caught my eye. It explains our "basic aid" funding:

...Because the district is located in south Orange County, the property taxes collected are beyond the state funding formula. The board has chosen not to seek additional taxes in the form of "bond" measures because residents are already paying more. ... We consider "basic aid" dollars equivalent to "bond" money. [My emphases.]

Well, yes. That's exactly right. The board doesn't pursue bonds because our citizens already pay more than they would if we were a normal district that pursued bonds, owing to our Basic Aid gravy train (high property taxes revenue).

Just sayin'. But do remember that Tom Fuentes' based his reelection campaign on the claim that he

• Led District to one of the Highest Transfer Rates of students to four year colleges
• Produced a Balanced Budget with No Debt or New Bonds

Led? Naturally, the board had no role whatsoever in achieving our high transfer rates.

Elsewhere, Fuentes even more clearly implied that our not pursuing bonds showed that he and the other trustees are the taxpayers' friend.

Well, no. Like I keep sayin': we don't need to pursue bonds cuz we are already getting and spending sh*tloads of the people's money.

Taxpayers' friend my ***.