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| I can't wait to see and read about Barrack Obama's historical inauguration. For a history and political science major, a history teacher, Obama's inauguration on the same weekend of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s birthday is remarkable. The significance is hard to even communicate with students. The first sixteen presidents of the United States could have owned someone that looked like Obama as a slave. I can tell Dominic that he can grow up to be president of the United States one day and truly believe it. I am assuming Obama's inaugural speech will be quoted one day alongside Lincoln's second inaugural and Kennedy's inaugural speech.
However, where in the world is the "CHANGE," that I constantly heard, read, and saw discussed for over a year during the elections. What in the world is the difference between George W. Bush's economic plans for the recession and Obama's? The only difference I can decipher from the rhetoric is that Bush had a poor man's economic policy to save us from the recession. Not only will Obama out-do Bush with a larger stimulus plan, he wants Congress to pass a budget that doubles the annual national debt from half at trillion to a trillion or more dollars.
I know many people are Obama fans but let me try to make an analogy like I do when I teach that makes concepts easier to comprehend. From what I understand, the policy is to spend our way out of the recession by making FDR look like a featherweight. In statements, Obama has already tried to warn the country we can look at a few years of trillion dollar deficits. We are to spend like mad to get out of our recession and then he promises to rein in Congress and fix our budget... Huh? The country is to indulge itself and then tighten its belt and financially behave after the crisis is over? That's like telling someone who is about to be laid off to just spend like mad, use up those credit cards, and then take better care of the finances after you live comfortably.
If my family was going through some rough financial times, the options are clear. We would have to cut back on expenses, tighten our belts, close our wallets, purses, fannypacks, and save as much as we can. After we successfully made it through those rough financial woes, we would indulge in ourselves with more spending and raise our standard of living. Common sense to average Americans.
I have not had one person explain how the policy will work, not read one article, heard one interview, nothing. Maybe someone can comment and explain to me how following similar policies of Herbert Hoover and Franklin Roosevelt will get us out of the recession instead of creating another Great Depression.
The proposed economic policy is a disaster on epic proportions in gift wrap labled: CHANGE. There's no change. There needs to be a change in MINDSET, PRINCIPLES, BELIEFS. Obama is tinkering with the budget, cutting here, tax cut there, new federal programs there, tax hikes here... THERE IS NO CHANGE. I am hoping that I'm proven wrong. Hopefully the President-Elect will actually have a sound economic, fiscal, and foreign policy that sounds nothing like what he's proposing thus far.
Change? What about a commitment to cut the budget back to when President Bush took office eight years ago. Is that such a difficult thought? There's no way we can cut the budget to less than a decade ago? If we cut the federal budget to what it was when George W. Bush was inaugurated president, we can literally destroy the IRS. Yes, the federal government would be able to financially survive with NO INCOME TAX. The income tax grosses about 40% of the revenue for the federal government annually. It will actually be less for the next few years since incomes are going to go down meaning less tax revenue. However, can you imagine our economy without an income tax? Imagine people keeping 25%-33% of their annual income. We're not talking about going back to the budget of 1900s, we're talking about 2001. There would be an economic boom of not just spending but job creation.
Some of you may be rolling your eyes thinking it's impossible to cut spending so severely when we're fighting wars. You're right. You are absolutely right and not only should Obama decrease America's military presence in Iraq but also Afghanistan. Obama should commit to dismantling the military-industrial-congressional complex. The result of the demise of President Eisenhower's fear for the United States would result in trillions saved. Trillions of dollars that can finally go to CHANGE.
Time for some myth busting.
1)FDR did not get the United States out of the Great Depression. World War II did with its demand for war related supplies and war materials that the United Sates had the capacity to provide. FDR actually made the Great Depression linger for over a decade due to his awful economic policies such as government created jobs. I'll get back to that subject later. When people compare Obama to FDR, that can only be taken as a compliment if you're meaning Obama's future role as commander-in-chief. If you want to put Obama and FDR together on the topic of economy, how is it not an insult? Recessions, panics, and economic downturns are normal to the economy, has been happening since July 4th, 1776. It was only FDR that a recession turned into a Great Depression lasting several years instead of the normal one or two years.
2) People tend to believe that government created jobs are a good thing. FDR's creation of jobs for people to build roads, canals, highways, schools and so forth was a good thing. This is absolutely wrong. The government has no wealth. Let me repeat, the government has not wealth. The government can only redistribute wealth from the private sector, from tax payers like you and me. By depriving the private market money to create government jobs, the problem actually became worst. The private sector could have created sustainable and wealth producing jobs. That's the key. The private sector uses wealth to create wealth producing jobs. The government takes our wealth and gives it to someone else. Government jobs are almost never as productive as jobs in the private sector.
3) From just watching and reading the news, one would assume that the free market is to blame for the financial meltdown. That's absolutely not true. The government and the Federal Reserve created the bubbles and artificially raise markets. What we actually need is more free market, we need capitalism, we need market forces to correct problems. For example, the hated housing collapse. Artificially keeping housing prices make no sense. California went through years of intense construction to build millions of new homes. I lived in the Inland Empire for a time and witnessed this bonanza first hand. Understanding the simple logic of supply and demand, how were prices so absurdly expensive for homes when new homes were being built everyday? Were there that many Californians needing homes? No, the bubble kept building because the government encouraged banks to make low-interest rate homes that allowed people with no savings to buy houses. They allowed people who honestly didn't deserve the homes they were buying to buy. Worst, many people were playing the housing market like the stock market. People would buy a house and sell it five years later hoping to live the profit of the house instead of saving money. To give an idea of why I don't believe in a bailout for people who might lose their homes. This exact bubble occurred for Marvel Comic books. Benny Sin must be paying close attention now. Before Marvel went bankrupted, they were roaring and making a big financial splash. However, report of people making thousands of dollars on rare comic books caught the public's imagination and people started buying not just a comic book but the same damn comic hoping to keep the merchandise in perfect condition to increase its value one day. Marvel even promoted this buy selling the same comic but with "4 collector's cover." Going back to good old supply and demand, Marvel wanted to take advantage of this hording of comics. They increased comic publication exponentially. The bubble popped. Marve Comic books were not increasing in value over time. They were actually decreasing in value over time because so many comic books were printed. A rare 1940s comic is expensive but owning a 1991 comic book that 139,221 comic collectors own is meaningless. This is what happened to the housing market. People buying homes like they were buying stocks encouraged the construction of millions of more homes. Eventually, homes aren't just worth that much and prices drop. Once the housing market hits rock bottom and homes are actual market value, people can start affording homes again. I hope I made that clear Victor, we talked about this once but I don't think I made myself clearly understood.
4) The idea that the government needs to do something to save us from the recession is absolutely wrong. Time and time again, after looking at history we understanding that Ronald Reagan was right, "government is not the solution to our problems, government IS the problem." I had an explanation for this with America's problem with health insurance but I need to make dinner for Dominic. My little is hungry and I'm tired of pontificating my brilliance.
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| "The List" is a phrase Brie and I use for the people we wouldn't mind if the other had sex with. I have Scarlett Johanson on the top of my list. I think she's talented and gorgeous. I was intrigued with news that she had a musical album coming out. I listened to it and I want to cross her off my list but realized the list was about sex and not listening to music. I give Anywhere I Lay My Head by Scarlett Johansson 1 Chi out of 5. That's pretty bad, I think that 1/5 Chis is actually overrating her album but at least I can imagine Scarlett singing her music naked. The album is very different. The music sounds more like ambient sound/music for the background noise for a slow Wong Kai War movie. After listening to her entire album, I can honestly say I'm not sure how she sounds like singing. Scarlett's music career is an enigma wrapped in a mystery hidden in a beautiful actress.
I had a BTSA meeting today. BTSA is a useless new teacher program. Moving on, I got a book called Schools of Fish! and it's about the FISH Philosophy to teaching: Be There, Play, Make Their Day, Choose Your Attitude. This philosophy is based on a study of why Pike's Place in Seattle is so popular. It's a fish market that is supposed to be extremely enjoyable because the fishmongers have a very unique approach to work. People have described it as a Fish's Cold Stone if the Cold Stone employees actually enjoyed being there and enjoyed the singing. The workers supposedly are super friendly, personal, and are always obviously have a great time. This observation was turned into a teaching philosophy. Mr. Leake, I want you to know that I feel that FISH Philosophy is a poor man's version of Leake Nation's Guide for a New Padawan. That's not exactly what Mr. Leake called his philosophy of teaching but I just wanted to show anything is better than FISH! Leake always taught us (Robinson and I, his original disciples of apocalypse) to have fun at work. Sorry Leake, you should have wrote a book about your incredible knowledge of the world of academics. Anyways, the FISH philosophy sounds solid because of its simplicity. It makes me think about the Vans store at Tyler Mall in Riverside. I loved that job because it was a very relaxed and fun environment but we understood we were the #1 store in our district and had a VERY good reputation. We thought so highly of our managers that we wanted to make them look good. In return, they always treated us with respect and went out of their way to accommodate any of our scheduling need. That personal, flexible, but reciprocal relationship eventually would influence how I interact with students. I try to build a similar reciprocal relationship with my students based on respect. I remember Leake's wise words, everyday should be a good day. If it's not, I must have done something wrong. No matter what the kids do, I should be having a great time. Humor and randomness is incorporated into my class to make students' day. The infamous Valentines Day balloon popping has become legendary.
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| I am in class right now. It's lunch time. I've had my daily dose of the Colbert Report and ESPN news. I just saw a movie trailer for a documentary called, "Bloodline." It's a documentary of a film maker's three-year journey into the Da Vinci Code possibility of a bloodline between Jesus Christ and Mary Magdalene. It looks really interesting but I can't find a theater in Southern CA that's playing it. BAH!
I went to Sea World for the first time last Saturday. I had a good time but the weather made a tough day of animal admiration. I really enjoyed the shows. There's nothing like seeing an Otter walk around with a Pepsi can and Killer Whales doing somersaults for our enjoyment. Dominic had a great time though he was exhausted by the end of the day. He particularly liked the sharks.
My homecoming is this week, Thurs night to Sat evening. I plan to do a lot of grading those days. I have about 80 picture books and comic books from my classes to grade. Picture/Comic books were my students' final project worth 10% of their grade. I feel pain in my soul just thinking about grading them all.
Watching the Celtics versus Cavs series made me debate whether the Celtics were overrated or the Cavs continually overrated. The Celtics were supposed to be this dominant team reviving old memories of the Golden Age of basketball. I am not impressed. The Hawks took them to a 7 game series. The Cavs took them to a 7 game series. If Billups is ready, I'm betting on Detroit to head to the Finals from the east. Detroit is rested, experienced, and play tough team basketball. Though the best days of this incarnation of the Bad Boys of basketball is probably behind them, I think Detroit will show more poise in the Celtics versus Pistons series. Pistons will pound and ground.
LeBron James was spectacular but had no help. If the Cavs don't make amazing changes the coming several months, Cleveland will make a blunder to match the Red Sox's blunder of trading Babe Ruth to the Yankees generations ago. Is King James overrated? I think he may be a bit but keeping in mind that he's only 20, NO. If LeBron continues to grow as a basketball player, there is little doubt there maybe be an era named after his years in the game. It's incredible to me that LeBron has been able to carry the Cavs for the past few years with the roster the Cavs possess. No casual sports fan can name a third start on the Cavs team. The Cavs is an awful team. The team is so bad, I am amazed LeBron does not show more bitterness toward management but he does have time on his side. Cleveland has another year before LeBron can opt out of his contract. The New York fanatic will mostly likely land on the Brooklyn Nets or the New York Knicks. If I was the GM for Cleveland, I would be making all the necessary phone calls and making moves that borderline illegality to keep LeBron is Cleveland. The LA Lakers would have survived without Kobe. The Cleveland Cavaliers would fall from grace faster then the Miami Heat.
I'm excited about game 7, Spurs versus Hornets game tonight. I haven't necessarily been rooting for a particular team to win but tonight, I'm rooting for the Spurs. San Antonio loves basketball like Batman loves vengeance. New Orleans is a football city and only been cheering for the Hornets due to Chris Paul's brilliance recently. After the season, winning a championship or losing tonight, New Orleans will immediately talk about football all the way until the next NBA playoffs when Chris Paul can shine again. For San Antonio, whether winning the championship again or failing tonight, they will be talk about Spurs basketball until their next opportunity to redeem themselves in next year's playoffs. Also, there's a better story between Lakers and Spurs. Kobe's young Lakers versus Duncan's tried and true Spurs. Looking to the future, I would HATE a Spurs versus Pistons finals though. A Celtics versus Lakers or New Orleans versus Celtics would be 10 times more entertaining TV.
I watched Meet the Robinsons yesterday and if you can survive the sheer oddity of the first 30 minutes and make it through the film, you will be delightfully rewarded with simply a good family film. I give the film 4 Chis out of 5. The film has a great script but does adventure on the side of unusual. I suggest giving the film the benefit of the doubt after your third, "this is freakin' weird" comment and stick with it because the story reveals itself slowly.
Six more days until the end of the school year! The school year ends on the 29th. My first year of teaching is almost coming to a close. I was talking to a teacher last week and she and I didn't meet until a third way into the year. She said she heard I had a big ego, acted like I knew everything and was overly confident. She finally met and she told me I was nothing like she imagined, I'm a nice sincere teacher. However, I told her I do have a big ego. I know it. There is a lot of vanity in my teaching career. But I work hard as a teacher. I strive to be the very best. Not the best social studies teacher, not the best 8th grade teacher, simply the best teacher. I want to be hands-down, the best teacher these students have in their lives. Am I there yet? Hell No! But I'm working. I continue to incorporate new instructional methodology from professional development into my classroom. I continue to go out of my way to show up to students' extracurricular activities. I continue to grow as a teacher. I want to be that teacher that you all think about when you think about your favorite teachers. Besides Brie, I don't think anyone knows how hard I work at this profession. The usual 10-12 hour days followed by hours of work in the weekend. The enormous amount of reflection and self-ridicule I put myself through in order to learn and get better.
I've been doing a good job going back to the gym, 3-4 days a week for the past few weeks. My body is really out of shape. I haven't worked out regularly since the September of 2006. Luckily, I haven't ballooned but most of my muscle mass has disappeared or have been replaced by flab. I'm hoping muscle memory helps me get into shape faster than what it took before. For people who have known me since 2003, they know I used to work out a lot. Almost an absurd amount, 4-5 times a week for probably the span of 2 years. Since returning to the gym, I do feel better. I feel healthier and I'm happier with my life.
Whoa, I should return to being a teacher.
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| It's 2:30pm right now. Class is almost over. My 1st period is watching a video on the Spanish-American War right now. This has to be a quick update.
I've been breaking out in hives every morning and sometimes in the evening. I don't know why I'm having this allergic reaction. I read that hot showers maybe the reason so I'm going to take a cold shower tonight. I also feel thirsty all the time even though I pound the water. I'm going to buy some gatoraide this afternoon to see if that helps any. I also read exercise may be another trigger for hives. I have been going back to the gym lately but I don't know.
On the 29th, I'm going to preform a dance to Michael Jackson's Thriller with 5 other teachers. Every lunch for the past few days, we've been going over the dance steps. It's a good thing I'm preforming this with older teachers because I think I'm awful but they think I'm pretty good.
Alright, class is getting silly. I have to rule with an Iron Fist.
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| I have triumphantly made my comeback to the gym. I had a grudge match on Friday. I had a near death experience on Monday. Yesterday, I almost lost my soul. Today I suffered like no other. Currently? I am in such incredibly pain! My body hurts. I feel like Brie finally had enough of my educational rants and just beat the crap out of me. Or maybe Dom got tired of how I treat him like an adult when he's only 2 (almost 3!) like Benny beats on Eddie. NO MERCY!!!
I am feeling a lot of aches right now. The glass is half full. I tell myself that as I can barely move around my apartment. The fact that I'm fighting a fever doesn't help my cause either. Yesterday, I came down with a ruthless fever after my workout. I laid in bed for an hour and went to get the only medicine I knew of that equals results: Starbucks. I did get some Tylenol as an afterthought.
Not only was I able to survive last evenings Track and Field Banquet but I dominated today's lessons at school. Tylenol is keeping my mind focus but my body is slowly giving up.
Going back to coaching... I'm DONE!!!! WOOT! WOOT! I have coached since January. The winter season was an successful season of JV Boys Basketball but the spring season proved a Godsend for my spiraling self-esteem in terms of a coach. Though it was my first experience as a track and field coach, I think I learned a lot. The boys won 3rd and the girls won 2nd.
At time, I thought I was not going to survival coaching and teaching at the same time. Especially late January and early February, I thought I was going to snap and give a random student the Steve Blackman's Pump-Kick.
Only 14 more days left in the school year. Next Tuesday, I'm going to JPL with GATE students. I'm hoping they teleport me to Mars or at least give me wings. On the 27th, I'm going to Knott's Berry Farm with the 8th graders. Anyone want to join me there? I only have to act like a check-in for students twice during the day. The rest of the time, I can create my own havoc. Woodstock, you best watch out!
Some more good news about the summer. I was emailed my contract by Mt. San Jacinto City College's Upward Bound program. I was confused due to some additional dates so I called and asked how that incorporated into my work week . I simply wanted to know how much I would make in the summer and needed numbers to put together. Somehow, I ended up with a raise. I love America!
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