Anna Bryson, gun nut, targeting people with "evil intent"

Brontosaur Bryson

     According to local loose cannoneer Art Pedroza (Who do you support for the 73rd Assembly District in 2014?), the battle to replace termed out Assemblywoman (73rd Assembly District) Diane Harkey will likely be “brutal.” At least five Repubs are scramblin' for that Assembly seat:

     Five Republicans have already announced their campaigns – Rancho Santa Margarita Councilman Steve Baric; Capistrano Unified School District (CAPO) Trustee Anna Bryson, Rancho Santa Margarita City Councilman Jesse Petrilla and Dana Point Councilman Bill Brough (a former Chief of Staff to Harkey who is currently a government consultant), and Paul Glaab, another government consultant.

     It appears that our own Wendy Gabriella will likely be the Democrat in this race.
     The early favorite among the above-mentioned Republicans is probably Anna Bryson, that notorious right-wingnut. (She used to work for fraudster Chriss Street.)
     I’ve been looking into her recent activities.
     She’s still nuts. In fact, she's nuttier than ever.

Democrat Wendy

     I came across a post in the January 9 San Juan Capistrano Patch (Teachers Hit Firing Range After Newtown Shooting, School Trustee Says) that reveals that Bryson is a gun nut who favors teachers and other employees bringing guns to school.
     Really.

Bryson has asked Capo schools to look into the feasibility of the district allowing employees to bring concealed weapons onto campuses, she told the Orange County Register.

     Really? Yep. According to the Reg,

     Anna Bryson, a trustee for Capistrano Unified, the county's second-largest school district, [is] an NRA member and grew up in a household of gun owners.
     "We have made schools gun-free zones, weapons-free zones, and all of the people who have evil intent are aware of it," Bryson said. "I don't think that people with evil intent should have that comfort level. If they walk through our doors, they should be wondering, 'Is there someone there who could harm me first?'"
     Bryson said she's looking forward to having more discussion about the issue and hearing from her constituents. Capistrano district staff is researching issues related to how often armed deputies are present on the district's campuses and the feasibility of the district allowing employees to bring concealed weapons onto campuses, Bryson said.

     This reminds me of the time, back in 2007, when a right-wing wacko showed up at an SOCCCD board meeting advocating teaching our students to throw books and other objects at potential terrorists/shooters.
     Yep.
     Said he:

     "We may see less school slaughter if students are trained and encouraged to protect themselves. On hand in every classroom and on every school campus there are innumerable books, chairs, backpacks, laptop computers, shoes, etc., that can be used at a moment’s notice as defensive projectile weapons against armed assassins…."

     Nope, I'm not making this up. The guy was a San Clemente politician. And a Republican. Tom Fuentes called him "esteemed." (See streaming video here. Jump to item 2.5)
     Natch.

SEE Update on Wendy Gabriella’s bid for AD 73

Bugsy

     Bugsy took a turn for the worse today. My sister found him to be sluggish and a little hot, so she called me. I went out to buy a pet thermometer, and we eventually determined that he had a temp of 104.3. That’s pretty high, cat-wise.
     Called the hospital. We hatched a plan to see where the temp goes; if it stayed high, we’d take him in. So, an hour later, his temp was still at 104.3. So we took him back to the hospital, where his temp passed 106. Sheesh. They got to work on 'im.
     Just got a call from the hospital. Bugsy’s red and white blood cell counts are way low, and his platelets are—well, it’s pretty bad. They’re trying to bring his temp down (with ice, antibiotics). I’ll wait to hear from our doctor in the morning.
     Doesn’t look good.
     The little man was a real trooper through it all tonight. Didn’t complain. Just took it.
     Sweet little guy.
     Good grief.

Power goes out in 39 minutes. Deal with it.

     At 5:21 this afternoon, the campus community received this odd message:

A message from IRVINE VALLEY COLLEGE 

So Cal Edison informed Irvine Valley College at 3:45 p.m. of a planned power outage in the area from 5:00 to 5:30 p.m. An emergency procedure will be conducted at an offsite Edison facility at that time. Computers and phones will be unavailable; staff and faculty, as well as students using school computers, are asked to save their work and shut down their equipment prior to the outage. Campus Police phones will be operational. Facilities and the police department will follow standard shutdown procedures.

Faculty will have latitude in determining where and when to hold their classes, as most facilities will be unavailable during the shutdown, but will be available again once power is restored.

NOTE: The women’s volleyball game this evening will be held as scheduled.

--Thanks,

 Bruce Hagan, 
Director of Technology Services

     If the college was informed at 3:45, one wonders why they waited nearly two hours (and only 39 minutes prior to the outage) to alert faculty, et al.
     What gives?
     Who runs this place? Anyone?

Update on Wendy Gabriella’s bid for AD 73

Bryson visits Clown College

     As you know, former IVC Academic Senate president and “Brown Act” attorney Wendy Gabriella is running for the 73rd Assembly District seat (See).
     Visit her website here.
     Not wishing to blindside any old friends and allies, she has contacted the usual suspects among SOCCCD and college leadership and let them know. Reportedly, they have offered strong encouragement.
     Naturally, she’s running as a Democrat, albeit a fiscally conservative one. Her run might seem Quixotic—the 73rd is smack dab in conservative south OC—but change is in the air and the GOP is fragmented. Plus they no longer have the services of a mafia-like “enforcer”—Tom Fuentes. That guy used to thin the field of Republican candidates for any given office, but nobody seems able to twist arms quite like Tom used to do. I guess they could just hire the mafia. Why not.
     Chief among the Republicans running for the seat is Anna Bryson, one of those “Education Alliance” candidates of yore. You’ll recall that she worked for Fuentes’ pal Chriss Street, who resigned his OC Treasurer gig after his conviction for fraud. He's been pissing and moaning ever since, carping that his attorney, Friend-o'-Fuentes Phil Greer, did a shitty job providing defense.
     Bryson's been on the CAPO school board, and she’s made all of the usual moves for a super-duper right-winger. She’s scary. (See here website here.)
     So Wendy’s now on the rubber-chicken circuit, shaking hands, making contacts, asking for money.
     Money’s the big issue right now. Bryson’s got some. Wendy needs some. It’s the usual thing: without money, she won’t be viable.
     Bryson appears to be the last gasp of the Fuentes-generation local GOP. And she’s quite the wacko: she's scrapped textbooks in Capo because they don't match her knuckle-dragging view of the world and she's against the common core curriculum even though that’s pretty much a done deal. I think she seeks a return to stone tablets and charcoal. –Check her out.
     Meanwhile, it appears that Gabriella is being embraced as a fresh face by the local Dems; they view her as a strong candidate with terrific public ed credentials.
     We’ll try to stay on top of this race, which could get WAY interesting.

The people in this video make me feel suicidal. I had to stop watching.

This is your college on drugs

assume - to suppose to be the case, without proof: you're afraid of what people are going to assume about me | [ with clause ] : it is reasonable to assume that such changes have significant social effects | [ with obj. and infinitive ] : they were assumed to be foreign.*

1. Today's visit by students (?) of the California Corporate College caused the predictable parking snafu. One could see students (et al.) anxiously prowling the lots. A colleague explained that she was a half hour late for her class, owing to the fubar. Wonderful, isn't it?

2. At about 11:40 this morning, I wandered over to the IVC PAC and entered. The "California Corporate College" event was in full swing, and the hall was pretty full. Somebody was yammerin' about something ridiculous. I dunno.
     I've got nothin'.

3. I assume that the sun will rise in the morning. Does that make me an "ass"? Don't think so. 

     Note: someone who does not make that assumption is mentally ill. No?

     And suppose that someone really said that "it is reasonable to assume that such changes have significant social effects"? (See def. above.) Only an ass would insist that it is unreasonable to make that assumption. 

4. Insisting that one does not "assume" any such thing would make one an ass. If not an ass, at least a liar. 

     "I am aware that it is at least possible that the sun will not rise. And so I don't really assume it." —Here we have someone who is used to changing words' meanings to save a foolish idea. —A liar or self-deceiver.

5. It's pretty clear, I think, that the truth about assuming is as follows: the phenomenon of assuming comprises a range of cases from the reasonable (and, in truth, more than reasonable) to the unreasonable (foolish or even mad). Hence, some assumptions are foolish (i.e., ass-making) and some are not (far from it). It depends on the case.

     Why overstate the point, declaring all assumptions to be foolish? Just what is the matter with you?

6. It's like the familiar blatherage that "you can be anything you want to be." Well, no. Obviously not. Sure, there are some who need to be encouraged to try to do or achieve things. Yes, there are some who falsely or foolishly underestimate what is achievable as a goal. Be that as it may, it does not justify such idiotic blatherage as "you can be anything you want to be."

7. In this country, when we plan an event, we tend to turn it into a circus. Fighting cancer, for us, is no sober enterprise; it's pink ribbons and "races" for cures. And when we seek to correct an error, we overcorrect and create a new error:

Your vote counts. (Sure, they count it. But it doesn't "count" in the sense of having a bearing on the outcome.)
You can be anything you want to be. (Well, no. Yes, quite possibly, you have underestimated the opportunities available to you. But it takes strength to aim high and miss. The miss could send you spiraling downward. Do these idiots have a slogan for spiraling depressives too?)
There are no limits to what you can achieve! (Ditto.)
This is your brain on drugs. (C'mon. Kinda depends on the drug, doesn't it? And what about that martini in your hand, asshole?)
Celebrate yourself! (I should celebrate myself? What if I'm a lout? A lazy ass? A Tea Partier?)

     *My Mac's dictionary

Taking Philosophy Too Seriously (Inside Higher Ed)
     Two men in a grocery store in southern Russia got into an argument about the ideas of Immanuel Kant, and after the discussion got heated, one man took out a gun and shot the other, Reuters reported. The man who was shot was hospitalized but his life is not in danger. Reuters provided this context: "Many Russians love to discuss philosophy and history, often over a drink, but such discussions rarely end in shootings."

Rebel Girl asks: how and why has this been allowed to happen?

     INSPIRED by a recent comment on the blog ("Has hiring at IVC kept apace with growth?") and the general malaise about future hires at IVC (One hears 15, 12 and even the number 4 bandied about in the hallways), Rebel Girl devoted her Sunday morning to watching a recently released short documentary, Why We Need More Full-time English Faculty.

     Produced by the School of Humanities and Languages, filmed by avant-garde cinematographer Sonja Bangston (Check out those shadows! Shades of Indonesian shadow puppetry!) and starring the Department of English's own Professor Lewis Long (rodeo cowboy, Porsche enthusiast, Dickens scholar, union thug and master of the negotiating table), this short film offers a damning case study of how 15 years of systematic under-hiring in the face of the otherwise steady growth of the small college in the orange groves has affected one department. Some critics liken it to the Academy Award-winning documentaries Harlan County U.S.A. and Godzilla Eats the Accreditation Team. The ghost of IVC's Voice raves: "It's powerful, provocative, exciting and frightening—because it's real." 

     In a series of simple yet effective PowerPoint stills, Long presents a case rooted in history and statistics—in other words, reality and not, say, unannounced and inexplicable helicopter visitations, photo-opular security stipends, and nepotism most foul.

     THE BRUTE FACTS. Drawing from analysis of his own files as a former department chair, he notes the following: Since 1998 the number of our Composition sections offered has grown by 60% . The number of full-time faculty employed in 1998 was 11–in 2015, it is expected to be 12. —That's right: 12.

     Long could stop there—the contrast is enough. But he does not. He offers evidence of staffing percentages:

Above 42% of comp classes were taught by full-time faculty in 1998 but, in 2014, only  27% percent are.

     He explains why this is a problem: "If the college-wide goal is 55% percent FT-PT staffing ratio—[Well,] we have never been close, we are at half that."
     He adds a current statistic: this fall, 72 out of 102 comp sections will be staffed by part-time faculty—that's 71%. The cost, he claims, is demonstrated in the high turnover of part-time faculty, a lack of instructional consistency and so on.

     Obviously, the need for full-time faculty will grow as the college does and as the demand for sections of core curricula increase. Basic skills mandates increase demand for remedial courses, as well as co-reqs. State mandated co-reqs and pre-reqs will also increase demand for Writing 1 (college writing).

     An audience member asked Long how many hires would be needed to address the serious, systematic under-hiring in the department. Lewis, who can do sophisticated math in his head quickly answered: Six.

     How many are we anticipating hiring this year? At best: One.

     Scintillating stuff. Movie thrills. Special effects. Cinema vérité. And Long: a handsome fellow, rugged good-looks, a man who knows how to use Powerpoint. Audiences love it, critics rave, Netflix is interested in an original series, sort of a cross between two recent offerings: Arrested Faculty Development and House of Add Cards.

     But, alas, still only one full-time hire. Maybe.

Lewis Long: rodeo cowboy, Porsche enthusiast, Dickens scholar, union thug and master of the negotiating table

     L'HISTOIRE. It is worth noting that, at every opportunity during the last 21 years (the length, breadth, and width of Rebel Girl's own institutional memory), the Department of English has always seized the opportunity to hire full-time faculty–unlike certain other Departments and programs who have (for reasons best not discussed here) declined. So, in other words, we have grown as much as we were allowed to. And yet—well, the statistics tell the story. We have hired, not to grow, but to replace—barely. It must be said that the English Department has done well under difficult circumstances. Rebel Girl guesses that, this year, we've hired just about every available qualified part-time teacher in a three county radius!

     ONE OBVIOUS QUESTION is, of course, how and why has this been allowed to happen? Where's the leadership? Who is (or isn't) paying attention? How do the decisions we make and in this case, do not make, affect our students?  

     Yes, somewhere in the bowels of the Inside IVC film vault there exists a copy of Lewis delivering the information (clumsily paraphrased by Rebel Girl here), complete with pastel Powerpoint slides and fancy font styles sure to impress. Rebel Girl understands that a limited number of DVD copies will be made available of Members of the Academy, the SOCCCD Board of Trustees and the IVC Administration for their consideration. 

Lewis Long asks for more. 

The good people of Harlan County ask for much, much more.

*