They want him "fired," not "strung up."

• Wow. The OC Reg actually updated it’s “Jesus Glasses” story of this morning: 200 protesters turn up to support Capo teacher sued over religious comments. The update includes the following:

…"We object to Mr. Corbett,” said the Rev. Rod McDougal, who came up from San Diego for the prayer vigil. “We don't want him strung up; we want him fired."….

Earlier today, the Reg quoted Pastor Wiley Drake of the First Southern Baptist Church of Buena Park: "This teacher is teaching his own version of religion, so we're asking the school to take him down."

Gosh, that sounds a bit harsh. So I guess these preachers got together and settled on saying they don't actually wanna kill the guy.

I'm glad they cleared that up.

In the lovely, soggy canyon

This morning's education news: mixed nuts

RAD CYBER-GEEZER. In this morning’s New York Times: At 71, Physics Professor Is a Web Star

.....CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — Walter H. G. Lewin, 71, a physics professor, has long had a cult following at M.I.T. And he has now emerged as an international Internet guru, thanks to the global classroom the institute created to spread knowledge through cyberspace.
.....Professor Lewin’s videotaped physics lectures, free online on the OpenCourseWare of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, have won him devotees across the country and beyond….
.....…Professor Lewin delivers his lectures with the panache of Julia Child bringing French cooking to amateurs and the zany theatricality of YouTube’s greatest hits. He is part of a new generation of academic stars who hold forth in cyberspace on their college Web sites and even, without charge, on iTunes U, which went up in May on Apple’s iTunes Store.
.....In his lectures at ocw.mit.edu, Professor Lewin beats a student with cat fur to demonstrate electrostatics. Wearing shorts, sandals with socks and a pith helmet — nerd safari garb — he fires a cannon loaded with a golf ball at a stuffed monkey wearing a bulletproof vest to demonstrate the trajectories of objects in free fall.
.....He rides a fire-extinguisher-propelled tricycle across his classroom to show how a rocket lifts off….

From this morning’s Inside Higher Ed:

• OH, DID WE FORGET TO MENTION THE MURDER?

As expected, the U.S. Education Department has imposed a major fine — $357,500 — on Eastern Michigan University for its failure to notify students and others last year that a student had been murdered….

• OOPS, I FORGOT TO KNOW WHAT I’M TALKING ABOUT

Jonah Goldberg’s new book is being promoted with a little … college bashing. The book jacket for Liberal Fascism: The Secret History of the American Left, From Mussolini to the Politics of Meaning, forthcoming in January from Doubleday, proclaims: “The quintessential Liberal Fascist isn’t an SS storm trooper; it is a female grade school teacher with an education degree from Brown or Swarthmore.” Leaving aside the rather large issue of the charge that Brown and Swarthmore educate for fascism, [blogger] Kieran Healy … points out a factual problem: Swarthmore doesn’t award education degrees….

• ROCCO-SOCCO: RESORTING TO GERRYMANDERING?

The only people more ridiculous than Steve Rocco, Orange Unified School District conspiracy-nut trustee, are the people who voted for him—and the people who can’t seem to get rid of him. ¶ In this morning’s OC Register: Orange school trustees recommend boundaries change:

.....ORANGE: Orange Unified School District trustees are recommending a plan to adjust boundaries for which areas they each oversee – a plan that would effectively prevent some current members from seeking re-election to their seats.
.....…Steve Rocco, a controversial trustee who often speaks during board meetings about perceived conspiracies against him, would be the first trustee affected. If the changes are approved they would take effect by the November 2008 election. Rocco's seat is up for re-election then, and he would no longer live within the area he represents – Area 6.
.....…District officials say the proposed changes are based solely on population and are not meant to target current board members.

• "WE'RE ASKING THE SCHOOL TO TAKE HIM DOWN." The Reg offers the latest on that religion-bashing San Juan Capistrano high school instructor: 200 rally for Capo teacher accused of anti-Christian remarks :

.....MISSION VIEJO – A rally by more [than] 200 Capistrano Valley High School students and alumni sparked a nearly continuous stream of honking horns for an hour before classes this morning as they showed support for embattled history teacher James Corbett.
.....Corbett was sued last week by student Chad Farnan, who alleges Corbett made anti-religion remarks in his Advanced Placement European history class.
.....Under the morning drizzle, the protesters lined Via Escolar in Mission Viejo with posters that read “Keep Corbett,” “Alums for Corbett,” and “Honk 4 Corbett.”
.....“I support Corbett because he was a teacher who supported free speech and allowed us to discuss in an intelligent way,” said Matt Yee, 17, a junior at Capo Valley who took Corbett’s AP European history class last year.
.....At issue in the lawsuit is whether Corbett violated the separation of church and state as outlined in the First Amendment's establishment clause.
.....Court papers cite statements tape-recorded by Farnan such as “From conservative Christians in this country to Muslim fundamentalists in Afghanistan … it's stunning how vitally interested they are in controlling women” and “When you put on your Jesus glasses, you can't see the truth.”
.....Down the street from the school, at Via Escolar and Marguerite Parkway, about 10 supporters of Farnan, 16, a sophomore, held up signs in support of Farnan, such as “Freedom from hate” and “Teach Don’t Preach.”
.....“I love what Chad’s doing,” said student Cale Crawford, 16, a junior at the Agape Academy at Saddleback College in Mission Viejo. “The teacher is breaking the First Amendment, and Chad is standing up for what he believes in.”
.....The lawsuit has attracted national media attention and created a bitter divide in the Capistrano Valley High community about whether Corbett, a 19-year teacher with the district, should be censored.
.....Many of Corbett's current and former students have rushed to his defense, saying he not only has the right to comment on traditional Christian viewpoints on topics such as birth control, teenage sex and homosexuality, but that his talks force students to think critically about their own views.
....."I never felt like he was biased," said junior Sunny Bhatia, 16, of San Juan Capistrano, who took Corbett's class last year. "He always used to say, 'Just think about that.' He was able to bring current events into the classroom and relate them to what we were studying. I never felt he was trying to impose his own ideas on us."
.....But Corbett's critics say he monopolizes much of his class time promoting liberal viewpoints and leaves little room for students to interject.
.....The Capistrano Unified School District has not yet responded to the lawsuit, which alleges a violation of the First Amendment's establishment clause prohibiting government from promoting hostility toward religion.
.....Farnan says the lawsuit would be dropped if Corbett were removed from his post.
.....Also Wednesday morning, Pastor Wiley Drake of the First Southern Baptist Church of Buena Park visited the school area, giving his view on the controversy.
....."We're glad that Chad is standing up against this discrimination against Christians," Drake said before the event. "This teacher is teaching his own version of religion, so we're asking the school to take him down."

• SHE TOOK THE CLASS 8 TIMES. Irvine Valley College is in the news: Community college fitness scores high grades:

.....Irvine artist Michael Harrison has thought about joining a gym, but they don't take attendance there.
.....They do, however, in his weight training class at Irvine Valley College, giving him added motivation to exercise.
.....…Registration is under way at local community colleges, a sometimes overlooked option for quality fitness at a cheap price, according to school administrators. Colleges offer everything from tai chi to tennis and often provide needed equipment. Fees are based on the number of units.
.....…But while a twice-a-week Pilates class at Fullerton College averages about 50 cents per session, there are tradeoffs, such as parking hassles and no classes during semester breaks.
.....In Harrison's class, taught by Tom Pestolesi, who has a master's degree in physical education, a mix of students rotate through weight machines. The atmosphere is casual but focused. There's a cluster of young guys from the volleyball team. There are a few middle-age professionals and regular college students. Pestolesi wanders the room, giving high fives and helping with form.
.....One student, Becky Millman, 53, has taken the class eight times.
.....She started in a golf class and noticed that her swing was weak. She signed up for weight lifting to build some upper body strength. Her golfing improved quickly but she discovered she was more interested in the weights workout.
....."I couldn't lift more than 20 pounds," she said last week while doing squats. "I'm lifting 50. I feel good about my body. I feel strong."
.....Millman, a graphics account coordinator, pays about $35 dollars for the 16-week course and a parking permit. She said she's slimmed down and lost inches since signing up.
....."It just changes my mood," she said. "I can come in filling a little blah and I go back to my office feeling so happy."
.....Pestolesi helped Millman tailor a workout and taught her what machines target particular muscles.

....."We are a no-pressure situation," Pestolesi said. "We're just here to help. We're not trying to sell them this drink or this protein bar or this program. We want you to get in here and get a good workout and develop some knowledge."
.....Millman said she enjoys the social atmosphere of the class. She's made friends and loves helping younger women with their technique.
.....…Keith Shackleford, dean of health sciences, said the classes are a non-threatening way to pursue a new hobby or get in shape.
....."It's not just weight training," Shackleford said. "It's tennis classes, badminton, soccer. We have things like theory of coaching for those involved in youth coaching. Your investment is $20."

Swoop

AS YET ANOTHER rain storm passes through the Southland, some of the canyons hit by the fire are on a flash-flood watch, but no mandatory evacuations are expected this time around, not in Orange County.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Forest Service has a squadron of planes hydromulching the bejesus out of the hills in the canyons—to “stabilize” them.

Essentially, they're gluing things down using dive-bombers.

The Reb, who lives in Modjeska Canyon, called me today, inviting me to bring my camera and check it—i.e., the hydromulchery—out. So, taking a break from grading, I did.

The aerial H-mulching is all very cool, if you ask me, but a person (such as Reb) could easily get weirded out by all these noisy crop dusters buzzing so close to the ground and to homes. I mean, as soon as I arrived, without warning, a plane roared from behind a hill and commenced swooping and mulching right at me. I think Reb ran inside.

I could see the pilot as he flew by (see). Couldn't see his eyes. I think he was a Republican.

Check out my pics.

LATER, I WENT Christmas shopping, guided by an article I found today in the online version of OC Weekly: 25 TOYS FOR THOSE 25 AND OLDER.

The article is a slide show with mostly the kind of stuff you’d expect the Weekly to notice (e.g., a Hillary Clinton nut-cracker). But I did like three of the toys:

"#17 Holy Toast Bread Stamp: Who says ALL toast can't be holy?" —This is way cool, doncha think? Too bad I don't eat toast. But my friends do.

"#20 Nun Punching Puppet: Because no one messes with a nun." —I think Tom will like this. I can just see him wearing these things and going at it.

"#25 Periodic Table Tarot Cards: For those of us who can't decide whether to be into science or pseudo-science." —Unfortunately, I can give this one to nearly all of my friends. Most of 'em go to chiropractors or worse. I'll gift 'em. Then, I'll mock 'em.

ALSO APPEARING today in the Weekly is a nifty post by our pal Scott Moxley:

SCHROEDER LAW ENFORCEMENT EMPIRE AT STAKE TODAY:

Mike Schroeder will jump out of bed this morning in Corona del Mar, neatly hang his Darth Vader pajamas in the closet, shower, kneel at his USC football altar and don an expensive, natty suit befitting Orange County’s leading Republican strategist-slash-chiropractic insurance company king.


It’s a big day in Schroederdom. He’ll drive his jumbo-sized, black Hummer to the state court of appeal (COA) in Santa Ana in the hopes of teaching a onetime disciple a lesson: Don’t Mess with Mike. Schroeder—consigliere to both District Attorney Tony Rackauckas and Sheriff Michael S. Carona—wants the justices to toss First District Republican Supervisor Janet Nguyen from office.


…Schroeder claims the Registrar of Voters certified the wrong Nguyen as the winner (by just three votes) in last February’s special election. He says the Republican who finished second, Trung Nguyen, should be seated. Surely coincidentally to the merits of the case, Trung is, to put it bluntly, Schroeder’s boy. Janet, on the other hand, has had the audacity to show occasional independence from local GOP bosses like Schroeder.


…If the COA tosses Janet’s election, Schroeder—the reigning mastermind of OC insider games—will be in excellent position when his pal—the federally indicted Carona—leaves office prematurely. How? In his corner, he’d have three likely votes on the board of supes: Trung Nguyen, Pat Bates and Bill Campbell. That board majority gives Schroeder key influence over who will complete the remainder of Carona’s term at the county’s most powerful government agency.

So if you see Schroeder running excitedly into the COA building on Spurgeon this morning, it's not a pit stop. It's not even to distribute Mitt Romney For Prez brochures. Half of his law enforcement empire is at stake.

"The opportunity to do something bad"

.....ORANGE COUNTY is lots of things. Sometimes it's real. Sometimes, it’s odd.
.....Now, here’s an odd story. According to the OC Reg, “Deputies responded to a disturbance call at 8:10 a.m. on Monday, Dec. 10 from a residence in Coto de Caza. ¶ A woman said that her 15-year-old son was refusing to go to school. The youth punched a hole in the wall when his mother asked him to go to school. ¶ Deputies arrived at the home an hour later and took the boy to school.”
.....OK.

.....THE LA TIMES offers this peculiar story about “hoodies” at Capo Unified: Danger under the hood?:

.....The sweat shirts zip up through the hood to completely cover the face, becoming a mask and making it virtually impossible to tell who is underneath.
.....…They're fashion statements to some, but to administrators in Orange County's Capistrano Unified School District, there's danger lurking under the hood. All six high schools last week banned hoodies from campus.
.....…School administrators say the problem is that someone could hide behind the mask. "There is no way to identify who kids are," said Tom Ressler, principal at Capistrano Valley High. "Generally, we don't think that is a good thing. It gives kids the opportunity to do something bad."
.....…Sergio Magana, 17, a Capistrano Valley senior, bought two masked hoodies after he saw some of his favorite hip-hop artists, including Kanye West and Lupe Fiasco, sporting them.
....."They bring the style and we roll with it," Magana said.
.....One friend owns the same-style hoodie West wore, with a skeleton on the sweat shirt and a skull on the hood, he said.
.....…Others feel the hoodies are a fashion faux pas.
....."From a girl's point of view, they're ugly," said Lisa Harlow, 16, a sophomore. "Nobody wants to see a skeleton running around."….

.....WHILST LECTURING on Thomas Hobbes (Leviathan) recently, I mentioned that, according to the FBI, Irvine is the 14th safest city in the country. I speculated that Irvine had dropped to 14th owing to our new Performing Arts Center and it’s “assault on the senses.” I also mentioned “all the hookers.”
.....Surely I’m joking! Hookers in Irvine?
.....Why, allegedly, yes! According to the OC Reg (Women plead not guilty to prostitution in Irvine apartment), Irvine is a seething cauldron of illicit & unsafe sex.
.....Well, no, but the city does sport at least two alleged hookers (who, btw, kept lots of alleged condoms in their alleged refrigerator).
.....One of the women “is accused of having a cell phone with the phone number listed on a Craigslist.org ad for ‘hottie Asian girls waiting for you.’ The ad promised a ‘good time’ for one hour between 11 a.m. and 2 a.m. for ‘160 roses.’”

.....THINGS REMAIN DICEY in our fire-ravaged canyons. According to the Reg, “A storm that was expected to bring light rain has intensified, leading the National Weather Service to issue a flash flood watch for the Orange County canyons and foothills that burned during the October wildfires. ¶ The watch will go into effect at 2 p.m. and will likely last until Wednesday morning as the region gets drenched with an inch or more of rain, forecasters say.”
.....The Reg provides a link to the notorious Modjeska Canyon webcam. Check it out.

Hydromulch swoopage?

—Late this afternoon, in Modjeska Canyon.

Rains are expected soon. Tomorrow, maybe tonight. Should be light. Let's hope so.

The Reb sent me two super low-res pictures that she took with her digital Brownie, and so I tarted them up a bit. These planes were buzzin' her house. Limber Lou that it was great. The Reb, not so much.

Hydromulch is a kind of adhesive that holds the soil together. They'll be dropping this goop for days. Could be they're shoveling shit against the tide.

1. To me, this first one looks like an Me109 from the perspective of the nose gun of a B-17.

2. I guess there wouldn't be trees and a hill and power lines over the skies of Germany. Clouds, though.

3. This 3rd one just looks like a guy dropping hydromulch. Not that I'm complaining!

See Forest Service bulletin re hydromulch:

...Pilots will apply a layer of hydromulch, which is a wet mixture of, 40% shredded wood, and 60% paper with a guar gum based tackifier, a sticky substance that helps the mulch material cling to hillsides and steep slopes (Guar gum is used in ice cream as a thickener). The green-dyed biodegradable hydromulch stabilizes the soil and provides a nutrient media for new plant growth on fire-damaged lands. After drying it will harden and turn gray. It will intercept some of the rain’s impact energy and minimize erosion. No seed or fertilizers are included in the hydromulch mixture....

Trout Fishing at Christmas

.....A neighborhood holiday party inspired Rebel Girl to dig up the article below to share with ya'll. She was, at the time, busily digging into a paper plate of Christmas tamales when she heard the story of how the homeowner, sitting in his livingroom, spied the recent Harding Canyon mudslide as it slid. His perch, on our side of Modjeska, opposite Harding, gave him a perfect view.
....."It was like the hand of a dark ghost," he said. The man is a sheriff, not usually as given to metaphor as, say, an English major like Rebel Girl. She was impressed.
.....It is believed that the mudslide, the dark ghostly hand, took out what was left of the Harding Canyon rainbow trout.

From the Associated Press:

.....SANTA ANA – A mudslide in fire damaged Orange County wiped out one of the last remaining populations of native rainbow trout in Southern California.
.....“What we feared, happened,” said Adam Backlin, an ecologist with the U.S. Geological Survey. “The hillsides just slumped into the canyon, and buried the entire creek.”
.....Backlin said he became concerned about the Harding Canyon trout after the Santiago fire, which burned more than 28,000 acres during the October wildfires, creating mudslide conditions. The fish lived in rocky pools along a stretch of creek.
.....The loss is just one example of how many of Southern California's dwindling species teeter on the edge of disappearing completely. The once thriving populations of fish and amphibians have shrunken into small pockets easily threatened by storms and mudslides.
.....Backlin had tried to arrange with the Department of Fish and Game to temporarily remove the fish, fearing that one good rain could fill the trouts' refuges with mud. When it did rain, the trout disappeared under as much as six feet of mud.
.....This isn't the first time a post-wildfire mudslide appeared to wipe out a population of animals. In 2003, the last mountain yellow-legged frogs in the San Bernardino Mountains appeared to be lost forever. Later, a few surviving frogs were found, and now scientists are working to re-establish them.
.....The Harding Canyon trout, however, seem unlikely to make such a lucky comeback. Backlin and another scientist searched below the mudslide, hoping to find a few trout that had washed downstream, but came up empty.
.....Rainbow trout can become protected steelhead if they can get to the open ocean. While moving from freshwater to the ocean, the fish take on a streamlined shape that gives them their name. The process known as anadromy allows the fish to exploit both habitats, and to return to protected upland pools for breeding.
.....But during the rainbow trout phase, the fish are not protected. The Modjeska reservoir and other barriers prevented the Harding Canyon trout from ever reaching the ocean and gaining that protection.

.....Pictured right is Harding Canyon, along the Seven Pools hike, before the fire and the mud.
.....Years ago, when Rebel Girl was growing up in Torrance, California, a flatland So Cal suburb that lacked trout entirely, she fell for post-beat poet Richard Brautigan in a big way. He is an writer she finds almost entirely unintelligible now, absurd, embarrassing—but she keeps him on the shelf like one might keep the letters of old lovers. At one time they meant everything, the world, to our young selves.
.....Here is what Brautigan has to say about trout. It's not that bad.

The opening page of Trout Fishing in America:

.....As a child when did I first hear about trout fishing in America? From whom? I guess it was a stepfather of mine.
.....Summer of 1942.
.....The old drunk told me about trout fishing. When he could talk, he had a way of describing trout as if they were a precious and intelligent metal.
.....Silver is not a good adjective to describe what I felt when he told me about trout fishing.
.....I'd like to get it right.
.....Maybe trout steel. Steel made from trout. The clear snow-filled river acting as foundry and heat.
.....Imagine Pittsburgh.
.....A steel that comes from trout, used to make buildings, trains and tunnels.
.....The Andrew Carnegie of Trout!