Teachers In Baltimore

I've posted a couple of times in the past about the dreadful stats coming from schools in Baltimore. In a recent Tucker Carlson bit, he mentioned that in 2017, fully a third of the city's high schools, 13 to be exact, not a single student tested as proficient in math. No one.

Baltimore schools are well-funded. The cost per pupil is about $14,000 per year.

Beyond that, I'd suggest that the teachers are well-trained, motivated by good intentions and work hard. They'd have to have those characteristics in order to go to work every day in that environment.

Further, the American education industry, whatever its faults, isn't trying to screw up. In fact, it's constantly trying to improve. There is no doubt in my mind that American education techniques are, for the most part, superior to ones from 100 years ago or even 20 years ago. That's the nature of a skilled profession where a lot of work is put into improvement.

So if it's not money, it's not motivation and it's not incompetence, what is it?

Maybe if your kid can't read or do math, you need to do something about it.

I don't know about you, but I didn't have access to anything remotely like this when I was learning fractions for the first time. It looks like if you want to learn, there are lots and lots of ways to do it.

A Pair Of Excellent Pork Chop Rubs

I grilled four pork chops the other night, using two different rubs. I figured I'd find a winner. I didn't, I found two winners. Here they are.

• Dry Rubbed Grilled Pork Chop Recipe
• Spice-Rubbed Grilled Port Chops

I did not brine the chops before cooking, so if you decide to do that, I'd highly recommend omitting the salt from those recipes.

Delish!

Lazy Elite Slobs

What happens when you can no longer have discussions with people who disagree with you? What happens when you lack the knowledge and depth of thought to discuss matters with others? In the case of our Elites, you scream slogans like, "Racism!"

President Trump's accurate portrayal of Baltimore as a rat-infested failure of a city was the stimulus. The Elites' response wasn't thoughtful, it was reflexive. "Racism!" When you think about it, that's not much of a surprise.

Our academic institutions no longer teach, they indoctrinate. Working with student activists, they ban conservative speakers like Ben Shapiro instead of engaging with them. That's the symptom of a larger disease. Our universities train intellectual weakness.

Like a gym with no equipment, but a big donut bar, what should be the training ground for our best thinkers is instead a training ground for mentally lazy slobs. I can't think of a singe legitimate response to Trump's accusations and all of his opponents were Elites.

Furthermore, almost no one in the media, also members of our Elite, pushed back on the racialist spasms of the left. The accusations were ludicrous, but because it reinforced by their own lousy mental training, they went with it.

When our universities close their minds, they make us weaker.

I'm betting Socrates, a white male of all things, never argued with his eyes bugged out like this.

Discussing Baltimore

... instead of discussing race is what we need to do.

I keep getting surprised by how effective President Trump is and how Pavolvian his opponents are. Consider what his goading has gotten them to do and this is a very, very partial list.

1. Fauxcahontas takes a DNA test and proves she's about as Indian as the Kaiser.
2. Nancy Pelosi defends Ilhan Omar and all of her anti-Semitic baggage.
3. Nancy Pelosi defends AOC and all of her lunacy.
4. The entire Democratic Party is now defending Baltimore.

Baltimore is a complete and total disaster. It's also been run by the Democrats for 60 years. There's not a single Republican on the city council. In 2017, this happened.

A Project Baltimore investigation has found five Baltimore City high schools and one middle school do not have a single student proficient in the state tested subjects of math and English

The place is radioactive with fail. Then Elijah Cummings, who represents West Baltimore, where those schools are and where crime is about the worst in the nation, decides to whack the Border Patrol in Congress. Big mistake. Trump flattens him on Twitter, bringing up the true state of his congressional district. The Democrats have a reflexive spasm and scream, "Racism!" Another big mistake. That card is not only overplayed, but practically meaningless now. Trump responded with another devastating broadside.

....a look, the facts speak far louder than words! The Democrats always play the Race Card, when in fact they have done so little for our Nation’s great African American people. Now, lowest unemployment in U.S. history, and only getting better. Elijah Cummings has failed badly!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 28, 2019

He's got the facts on his side, facts we all know. No one, not even the most woke transgender latinx from Oberlin drives through West Baltimore at night if there is any other option. We all know this. Screaming "Racism!" into the teeth of bald reality does nothing but discredit you.

Dig this.

There are gallons and gallons of videos just like this and worse from West Baltimore. Screaming "Racism!" isn't going to work when people see stuff like this. With the information gatekeepers washed away because of social media, people are going to see it.

Not that it really matters, because we all know this stuff is happening.

We've needed to have conversations about the breakdown of society and civilization for a long time. It's not a conversation about race, it's a conversation about behavior. With Trump blowing right through the "Racism!" barricades, we might finally have that conversation.

The Classic Pier Photo

I've got several posts in my head, but too many things to do today. I took this shot this morning while walking on the beach. I think it might be worth a click. Enjoy!

Why Was Robert Mueller Sober?

Man, I'm telling you, if I'm 74 and retired and a pack of political jackals wants me to come into their hearing and grill me for hours and hours, I'm showing up half in the bag. Seriously, guys, go get your jollies somewhere else. Why do I have to be your dancing bear? Get lost.

In fact, that's just about what the old dude did. Good for him.

I'll bet he never gets asked back into that pit of vipers again. Mission accomplished, my man. Well done.

Drowning Peppers

... is what I've been doing.

I meant to get a photo before I left the house today, but I didn't do it, so I beg your pardon for the lack of graphical evidence. In any case, my jalapeno and cayenne plants are exhibiting signs of stress. Their new leaves are curling up and shriveling.

It turns out the problem is like when you spend too much time in the water and your fingers become all pruney. I'm overwatering the poor things. It turns out that my tiny drip heads running for 7 minutes, 3 times a week is way too much. The peppers want to be watered once a week and then have the soil dry out.

You learn something new every day!

Who knew Mexican plants wanted it dry? Why didn't anyone tell me these things?

Trouble Comes In Threes

... maybe so does woke stupidity.

So now we not only have a black, female James Bond, we also have a tiny, feminine Thor.

Yes, you heard that right, the new Thor is Natalie Portman. 5' 3", 110# Natalie Portman. As Thor.

Thor.

Well, what's next? I have an idea. How about if Hollywood goes all woke on ... Lassie?

Anyone who doesn't like the new Lassie hates immigrants and is a racist.

Note: Click on the image for a decent version of it. The aspect ratio is such that Blogger is only going to show you a tiny thumbnail. Enjoy!

Wall Dinosaur

I've been fighting temporary, situational depression lately. I woke up at 0415, in plenty of time to go to the gym, managed to get out of bed by 0430 and here I am, blogging. I didn't work out. I got up, so that's something at least. As I lay there, pondering how to cope with the depression, considering going back to sleep, I figured that if laying in bed was a remedy for depression, all those depressed people who can't get out of bed would be fine.

So I got up. I made my coffee and then made the mistake of sitting down with my phone while I sipped the Black Elixir of Life. Time went by and it became too late for the gym. That wasn't good. Failing at something reinforces the depression. Had I worked out, even partially, I'd be able to look on that as a success and encourage myself to do more.

Note: Like everything else on this blog, I'm writing this to work things out in my head. I learn through expression, which is why I inflict all this stuff on you.

Maybe the key is to stay in motion, even if the motion is inefficient, desultory or languid. Being idle and inert is the enemy.

On to the lizard photo. I took this a day or two ago. It's a baby lizard that was on the wall of our garage. I liked the contrast and he held still while I got close, so his details are visible. I had thought I could make him really pop if I brought him into Photoshop and adjusted color levels and vibrance, but since it's essentially a grayscale image, nothing really made a difference. Still, I think he's a handsome fellow. I think he's worth a click.

Enjoy.

A 007mm Artillery Barrage

So the new James Bond, err, 007 character is going to be a black woman. Of course she is. Because that's what people want, right? No? Well, that's what you're going to get because the Secular Left is going to take out another cultural icon in its battlefield preparation for fundamentally remaking society.

If progressives and socialists can at last convince the American public that their country was always hopelessly flawed, they can gain power to remake it based on their own interests. These elites see Americans not as unique individuals but as race, class, and gender collectives, with shared grievances from the past that must be paid out in the present and the future.

Who cares how many people go see the movie? The job of the movie is not to entertain, it's to blow things up. You can't make an omelette without breaking eggs, you know.

Instead Of Arguing, Give

Surfing around, looking at videos from Baltimore's wretched schools, I found this.

I'm pondering something I'll blog about later, but in the meantime, let me suggest that a lot of the arguing we do is a waste of time. All the screams of "RACISM!" are intellectual trash. It's not meant to do anything but tear at the foundations of America for the sake of giving power to the Secular Left. Instead of responding to primal screams of rage, it might be better to give to causes like this and reach out to sane people.

Make connections with other Normals instead of arguments against blockhead Elites. Your arguments are useless against their rock-solid faith in racialist socialism anyway.

NYT: Jared Goff Stinks!

What with all of the articles, essays, news clips, talking heads and university classes telling us that America was never that great, I figured I'd apply their logic to a sports personality. Jared Goff, the QB for the Los Angeles Rams, is an absolute phenom.

To the NYT, the WaPo, CNN and the entire Ivy League, he was never that great. For example, in the third quarter of last year's game against the Arizona Cardinals, the threw an interception. Here is that play.

Just look at that. Look at it again. And again, but this time in slow motion. Then look at it from another angle. Bring in experts to discuss it. What went wrong? How was Jared at fault? Why did he make such a poor decision? Couldn't he see that his man wasn't open?

What does this play tell you about Jared Goff? To me, it suggests that he isn't very good. Some people, off the record, are saying that he sucks. He might be past his prime. The game could well have passed him by and this play is the harbinger of many, many more interceptions to come.

Let's face it, Jared is nothing at all like we were led to believe by the extremist Rams fans. When you look at history, when you see what he was really like, I think you'll come to the conclusion that Jared is not that great.

Left unsaid: The Rams won the game 34-0 and Jared threw for 354 yards and a touchdown. His passer rating for that game was 108.1.

Come, Let Us Hate Together

Victor Davis Hanson recently wrote a clarifying piece about the Secular Left's crusade to discredit and destroy American historical figures. Here's one of the key tidbits for me.

These arguments over our past are really over the present — and especially the future.

If progressives and socialists can at last convince the American public that their country was always hopelessly flawed, they can gain power to remake it based on their own interests. These elites see Americans not as unique individuals but as race, class, and gender collectives, with shared grievances from the past that must be paid out in the present and the future.

Just like their racialist nonsense, the historical nonsense is only there to help them gain power. If the people think our Founders got it pretty much right, then it's going to be hard to convince voters to give the Secular Left the massive authoritarian power they crave and need in order to "fundamentally remake" America, as Obama said.

Dittos for the attacks on Catholicism. This echoes how and why lefties throughout time, from the socialists, the Nazis, the communists and assorted fascists attacked the Catholic Church. They need the foundations of society in rubble so they can remake it into the utopia they have created in their minds.

Perhaps the proper counter-argument to the howling of the Secular Left is to point out that it's all about power. If historical ignorance or outright lies help them gain power, so be it. If it takes race-baiting, fine. If it means brainwashing our children in schools run by the State, then that's the way it goes.

You can't make an omelette without breaking eggs.

Slaves! Slaves! Slaves!

The Very Best Basketball Player In The 1950s

... had to have been LeBron James. I mean, just look at this highlight video!

Wait, what's that you're saying? He didn't play in the 1950s? WELL, GET LOST, HATER! I DON'T CARE ABOUT HISTORY! EVERYONE, EVERYWHERE, AT ALL TIMES MUST BE COMPARED TO LEBRON! LEBRON IS THE BEST!

That's kind of what I hear when I see that people are tearing down monuments and holidays to George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. The critics aren't comparing those two giants to their contemporaries, they are comparing them to the standards of today. If you look at who else is available as a paragon of virtue and heroism from their era, there really isn't much competition.

Mankind is in a constant state of technological, moral, political and artistic evolution. Passing judgment on individual people from the 1700s using the standards of the 2010s or even the 1200s doesn't make a whole lot of sense.

As L. P. Hartley said, "The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there."

Pagan Prayers

I was listening to my favorite podcast, Clerically Speaking, yesterday when they made an interesting point about prayer. Prayer is not my strongest suit, to say the least.

Pagan prayer is where you pray and expect results. That is, if I say this incantation, God will love me or I'll get some benefit. Or, perhaps, if I sacrifice this chicken, my team will win the big game.

If the chicken sacrifices me, there's no telling what might happen.

In any case, they discussed contemplative prayer which is where you exist in the moment and let the moment wash over you as you contemplate and listen for what God has to say to you. I did this the other day in Adoration. Mother kitteh is doing quite poorly and I was exhausted and stressed. I was told to just love.

Leaving my mom yesterday, I tried contemplative prayer as I drove and I thought about the love and peace I had brought her by setting up some additional care. I was on my way to do some shopping, so I vowed to try and bring some smiles to the clerks and other folks at the stores. I think I managed to do it.

It happened because I opened myself up to what God wanted of me in the moment, not because I performed a certain rite and said certain words. I think those have their place, but not the same as the one they hold in a pagan world.

Does that make sense?

The Escalator To The Cliff

... and over into the abyss!

I'm a bit pressed for time today, so I'll leave you with two things that juxtaposed nicely for me today. First is this tidbit from a Rich Lowry piece.

Beto O’Rourke — the losing Texas candidate for the US Senate who bootstrapped his way into becoming a losing presidential candidate — had a message for refugees who had come to America: Your new country is a hellhole.

The former congressman told a roundtable of refugees and immigrants in Nashville last week: “This country was founded on white supremacy. And every single structure that we have in this country still reflects the legacy of slavery and segregation and Jim Crow and suppression.”

I haven't seen anyone on the left disavowing him or his primary opponents using the stupidity of it to attack him, so I'm guessing they all pretty much agree. That leads me to these tweets from Richard Fernandez, aka Wretchard the Cat.

For the same reason, they can't denounce the raising of the Mexican flag at ICE. They know they must. They may even be convinced. But the words won't come. The words die in their throat. It's spooky.

— wretchardthecat (@wretchardthecat) July 16, 2019

To me, it looks like the machine is out of control. The rate at which accusations of racism are flying is getting faster and faster every day. There's no one on the left trying to rein it in, they're all either keeping their mouths shut or rushing to join in the, err, fun.

This isn't going to end well.

Here are some of the things we can expect if we keep going this way.

Ilhan Omar? Seriously?

Sometimes you can get so caught up in the moment that you lose sight of the bigger picture. Not seeing the forest for the trees and all that.

The most recent series of eruptions from the insane asylum known as "The Squad" - AOC, Ilhan Omar and two or three other deranged mutants - is a good example of it. Ilhan is a cultural Somali. On what planet does it make sense for Americans to take advice, any advice, from someone from that still clings to the belief systems of that violent, benighted place? Honestly, is there not a single scrap of humility in these people?

I guess not.

Yeah, about those complaints against America, Ilhan ...

Bonus Snark

Objection: But George Washington owned slaves!

Rebuttal: I don't care if he had non-consensual sex with underage bats, the dude was an absolute giant. Bite me.

Octopus

... is delicious. I know because we ate some in Spain. I'm not sure how it was prepared, but I know it was better than when I tried to cook some about 35 years ago. That time, it was like eating a fan belt.

The Mathematics Of Mentoring In Baltimore

Yesterday, I posted a video wherein Amanda Brown, a teacher from Frederick Douglass High School in Baltimore, told what it was like to teach there and elsewhere in that distressed city. It was a litany of horrors including everything from homelessness to abuse to hunger to violence to rape. If memory serves, she said that the average reading level for their high school graduates was below 5th grade.

In short, those kids are royally screwed. Given their demographics, it's practically guaranteed that almost none of them come from traditional, married families. Her anecdotes suggest that as well.

Amanda is smart, experienced and tough. She also seems to be a reflexive lefty, which isn't surprising given that she works in the education industry and comes from deep, deep blue Baltimore. When she gets to the prescriptive part of her talk, she blames racism and society and says we need lots and lots more mentors. As I've said before, if racism is the problem in Baltimore, then the Secular Lefties are the racists because there's no one else there. However, let's ignore that and look at the mentoring idea.

Let's assume Amanda teaches 5 classes. Each class has 25 students. That's 125 different students a year. Let's assume the illegitimacy rate is 70%, which is optimistic, both because the national average for blacks is higher and it's also higher in poor communities since broken homes lead to poverty. In any case, that leads us to 87 students from broken homes. Let's assume, again, optimistically, that only half of them need mentors because the other half are coping. That means that just for Amanda's students, you need about 44 mentors every year.

Multiply that by the number of high schools in the area with similar catastrophic problems and a factor to account for the number of Frederick Douglass students who don't cross paths with Amanda and you get a staggering number. Say 5 schools and in any one year Amanda only sees 10% of the student population. We end up with 44*5*10 = 2200 mentors required.

2200 mentors aren't going to cut it. There are grades below high school and the kids coming into Frederick Douglass are at a 3rd grade reading level. You'd better get involved and stay involved starting in, oh I don't know, how about kindergarten? Just using an offhand factor, let's triple the need for mentors which now gives us a need or 6600.

That's insane. It's not possible. It can't be done as in "cannot" as in "no way, Jose" as in "fuhgeddaboudit."

Now think about the task of the mentor. Amanda tells us that the kids are working on survival and school is a secondary concern at best. The mentor isn't only there to tutor, they are there to provide security, money, love and discipline.

If you think there is any chance at all that you will be able to find 6600 people, unrelated to the students, who are going to have the time, energy, know-how and willingness to take on that task, please contact your local mental hospital and schedule a straight-jacket fitting session.

There is a solution, however. Like I said in yesterday's post, those mentors are out there. We just have to be willing to demand they do the job.

I know where we can find the necessary volunteers to act as mentors for the kids. Mom's bed. The men found therein can be given a special title. We'll call them "husbands." We can give them a special token of appreciation. Maybe it could be a ring they could wear. We could also give them a certificate acknowledging their volunteer status. We'll call that a "marriage license."

That is the only solution to the problem. There is no other. All of the screaming about flags and statues and white supremacists and Trump and Tucker Carlson and the far-right and the alt-right is simply irrelevant noise. It's like blaming leprechauns for the suffering of these kids.

Next time someone brings up those topics, tell them to get real.

I'm not holding out hope for explaining my calculations to this nitwit.

Just Wow

Pondering a post discussing how charges of racism are a dishonest distraction from the real problems facing children of all races who grow up in single-parent homes, I found the video below. It's about an hour long, but you can move the scrub head to random points in the video and get the idea pretty quickly.

Kids growing up in Baltimore, read: black children, desperately need love and attention. They desperately need traditional families. Borrowing from a post of mine on the topic, the issue isn't racism and the solution isn't politics.

Navon's classmates are essentially illiterate and unemployable. They're growing up in a war zone. I didn't look it up, but illegitimacy rates must be near 80% in their neighborhoods. For all intents and purposes, there are no whites, asians or hispanics around them. The entire government is made up of Democrats and has been for decades.

The problem cannot be political because there is only one side present.

The problem cannot be racial because there is only one race present.

If you loved the children of Baltimore, if you loved them as images of God, as equals, as people deserving of the same opportunities as you and I, if you want them to grow up and be productive and accomplished, there is no way on Earth you'd be screaming about racism. It's all a lie. The topic is a lie. The accusations are lies.

No one cares about these kids. The Secular Left only cares about playing make-believe and the right has been cowed into silence.

These kids need to be the topic of conversation, not statues, flags or dog whistles.

Assessment of her prescriptions: She's a good SJW progressive. She wants other people to volunteer to help the kids and she wants more money for school. She blames "society" for the kids' failures and brings up racism. Assuming that she's right, the society hurting the kids is pure progressive. That means the Secular Left are the racists.

Whatever the shortcomings of her blame game, I know where we can find the necessary volunteers to act as mentors for the kids. Mom's bed. The men found therein can be given a special title. We'll call them "husbands." We can give them a special token of appreciation. Maybe it could be a ring they could wear. We could also give them a certificate acknowledging their volunteer status. We'll call that a "marriage license."

OK, that's enough for today.