Kindergarten: Behind Chain Link in Diapers

I didn't go to kindergarten as a child. It wasn't offered. I don't think I've suffered for the lack of it, and I regard it as just another step by government to get children away from their parents as early, and for as much of the day as possible.

One of the reasons I think this is that some statist "educators" are pushing to start kindergarten even earlier, at the age of four or even three. They've also begun "free" breakfast and lunch programs at some districts so that the kids come earlier in the morning and don't leave to go home for lunch.

Parents can do what they want, as far as handing over their children to strangers to raise and indoctrinate, my only issue, other than a general sense of wonderment as to why they went to all the trouble of having kids if they don't want them, is that they're gleefully forcing me and other dissenters to pay for it.

A couple who are dear friends of mine send their kids to a government children's prison, then spend untold hours trying to undo the damage caused by the (large amount of) pro-government propaganda when they come home. Commendable. They say that the government school their kids attend is of very high quality and has an excellent academic standing.

Let's consider this.

Government "education" is so all-encompassing that it effectively eliminates any attempts at innovation. Even if a private school or a religious school sets its own curricula, it has to follow government approved methods, restrictions and even lesson plans. No one can legally attempt any serious innovation in education without running afoul of government regulations.

So, how can we possibly say that even the best schools are really anywhere near as good as they could be? The top-drawer institutions in the country are held to standards enforced by the ultra-mediocre members of teachers' unions and government drones. How can any critic possibly consider any school high quality if the best that exists is mediocrity?

We've all heard the stories of super successful individuals, a large number of whom dropped out of school early to improve their education. Or, as it's more often phrased, school is too boring. I hate to hold myself up as an example; I doubt that anything I've done or will do is going to change the world for better or worse, but I emerged from high school with no knowledge of mathematics beyond being none-too-adept at the four functions. After my hitch in the Navy, I took a private course in which I learned math through basic algebra, analytic geometry and trigonometry, including principles of surveying, in a little over a year, studying on evenings and weekends.

Standards in education have been slipping downward for decades. I recall looking at some of my dad's high school homework. It scared the crap out of me. My son went to high school in the early 1980's. After a teacher-caused hard disappointment in the prep program, he got disgusted and floated through in the general ed program, which seemed like an eighth- or ninth-grade education by the standards of the high school I attended.

I really hope that parents will withdraw their sanction from government children's prisons, "keep their kids off-book," and teach them at home. Today's computers being what they are, parents can find everything they need to educate kids to college level and beyond--and perhaps learn a little themselves in the bargain!

Hey! Teacher! Leave them kids alone!

Warm regards,

Col. Hogan
Stalag California

We Don't Get No Education.....

I' ve had numerous conversations over the years with parents about the perils of sending your kids to the government children's prisons--my term for government schools, and a more accurate term than those used by the government or the media.

Some tell me that the academics at their kids' school are better than the ones we hear about all the time. Maybe so. Maybe not. Maybe the parents are actively involved, helping the kids learn their school work and even going above and beyond.

What only a relative few parents realize is that, since the federal government has ignored the US Constitution and gotten involved with education, all schools are standardized to a very high degree, in many respects. Even the much touted exceptions--the magnet schools.

Magnet schools started well after my kids graduated, but I'm given to understand that they actually are superior academically to "ordinary" schools--the ones that are inflicted 'pon the poor kids. The ones in which seem to tolerate muggings, rapes, shooting, gangs, knifings and all manner of mayhem except learning.

All these government children's prisons, though, have one thing in common: they are propaganda mills. Well, two things--they're also indoctrination centers. Run largely by leftists, they continually bombard the kids with statist propaganda and indoctrinate them in every sort of leftist cause imaginable, from global warming to fear of weapons and self defense to government can do no wrong and many, many more.

The real reason government school fascists hate home schoolers is that parents won't inject the students with the "proper" indoctrinations and keep them physically restrained in those little desk-chair combos where the only actions that are not forbidden are shut up and listen.

Any child who shows any spunk, of course, is declared ADHD and doped up. We can't allow any initiative or enthusiasm to disrupt the rest of the child-zombies, can we?

Schools try to take moral and philosophical education away from the parents and in many cases, seem to be trying to separate kids from their families and demonize parents who aren't toeing the "proper" leftist line.

All of this is bad enough, but it gets worse. They do this stuff during time when they should be teaching academic subjects. Hence, academics suffer. Kids graduate school unable to read well, unable to perform simply math and with no concept of the history of the country and the world.

But, it's ok. Your kid did well on the standardized tests. They're fine.

No, they're not.

Government has made up standardized tests--nothing new, it began decades ago--that are supposed to tell a number of things, including whether the student will perform well in college and how well he's learned what the primary and high school purports to have taught.

It actually tells how good the student is at rote memorization, and not much more.

At no time does the government children's prison system attempt to teach students effective uses of their rationality. Nor does it attempt to teach critical thinking. The history they offer is stunted and distorted. Economics, if offered at all, assumes the need for government intervention and the market's inability to regulate itself.

Government children's prisons teach sex education, something better left to the child's parents--or even to the child himself. The philosophy of sexual (never romantic) relationships, shifts like the desert winds from various degrees of abstention to "here's how; have fun!"

My son's high school had day care, fer cryin' out loud! For students with children!

Government children's prisons have generally eliminated the practical tech classes, such as wood, metal and auto shops, home economics, music and art classes (not to be confused with the nonsense pottery-making and basket-weaving baloney sometimes offered.

And then, there are the various and sundry "Zero Tolerance" rules for various, mostly politically correct actions. Zero Tolerance is more accurately termed "Zero Intelligence" on the part of school officials. They don't want to, or are unable to consider whether a given action is dangerous, or even worthy of note, or not.

Zero T for drugs includes bringing aspirin from home for a possible headache, or a cold pill to minimize coughs, sensitivity or congestion, or sometimes even prescription meds, unless you get approval from the jack-booted school nurse.

Zero T also forbids students from bringing anything more pointed than the digits 'pon their sticky little hands. Not to allow a boy to carry a jackknife in his pocket is part of the emasculation process, as well as a denial of American heritage. No self-respecting lad in the 1960's or earlier would be caught without a jackknife. Yet, somehow, we avoided killing ourselves or each other.

There are Zero T rules for speech, action, and even thought. A school in Connecticut recently announced a Zero T Policy against any form of touching of one student by another. Teachers can't touch students, although strangely, in some LA schools, students hitting teachers goes unpunished.

Face it: government children's prisons are child abuse.

The 10-year-old will learn more practical knowledge on a three-day camping trip with his parents--or a few days at work with a parent, or a few days working in and around the house--than in a full semester in a government children's prison.

Kids go to school with a great deal of enthusiasm, at first. They want to learn. It usually takes only three or four years for the children's prisons to beat that out of them.

Government children's prisons are hazardous to your child's mental health. Keep your kids out of them!

Warm regards,

Col. Hogan
Stalag California

Another Great American Hero (from England)

I'm just starting to read Christopher Hitchens' 2006 book Thomas Paine's Rights of Man. I regard Paine as one of my revolutionary heroes since having read his The Rights of Man some time ago.

In the early pages of Hitchens' book, I find reference to a parody of the British National Anthem, the melody of which is the same as our My Country 'Tis of Thee. According to Hitchens, the words to the parody were penned in 1771 by Joseph Mather, a radical file-maker from Sheffield.

The words to the parody are as follows:

God save great Thomas Paine,
His 'Rights of Man' explain
To every soul.
He makes the blind to see
What dupes and slaves they be,
And points out liberty
From pole to pole.

Thousands cry 'Church and King'
That well deserve to swing,
All must allow:
Birmingham blush for shame,
Manchester do the same
Infamous is your name,
Patriots vow.

Pull proud oppressors down,
Knock off each tyrant's crown,
And break his sword;
Down aristocracy,
Set up democracy,
And from hypocrisy
Save us good Lord.

Why should despotic pride
Usurp on every side?
Let us be free:
Grant freedom's arms success,
And all her efforts bless,
Plant through the universe
Liberty's Tree.

Facts are seditious things
When they touch courts and kings,
Armies are raised,
Barracks and Bastilles built,
Innocence charged with guilt,
Blood most unjustly spilt,
God stands amazed.

Despots may howl and yell,
Though they're in league with hell
They'll not reign long;
Satan may lead the van,
And do the worst he can,
Paine and his 'Rights of Man'
Shall be my song.

It's fairly easy for anyone to see that these lyrics fit today's burgeoning dictatorship in America, perhaps even more than they did that of George III, in the late 18th century--just as does Jefferson's Declaration of Independence.

We don't find any of this taught in the government children's prisons, either in the United States or in Britain. I seriously doubt if Mr Paine is anything more than a name mentioned in the footnotes of some American History texts, if at all. It's a necessity that if we ever wish to recover the liberty that once was, much less improve 'pon it, we must understand what was given us by those who once built the road to freedom, in order to clear it once again.

Those who don't remember the mistakes of the past are doomed to repeat them.

Warm regards,

Col. Hogan
Stalag California

Fight For What You Want

For many years, extended out of WWII, through Korea and VietNam, flying in the face of the Thirteenth Amendment, the United States forced Americans into involuntary servitude by requiring them to enter military service. For several years, particularly during the VietNam war (the very definition of a war of choice; a war that had nothing to do with the security of the United States), young people protested, not only the war itself, but the conscription the war required.

The majority of the protesters were non- and anti-intellectuals who had an agenda other than the simple end of conscription or even the end of politicians' military adventures. There were, however, a number of smaller groups of more rational, better spoken and better focused individuals were able to frame the argument and place it in the laps of legislators.

Between the voices of these individuals and the thundrous noise of the other protestors--as well as the slothful desire of the politicians to make it all go away before the next election, the protesters were successful. Conscription was ended. The pro-slavery types of politicians have since reinstated registration for the as-yet nonexistent draft, showing that we have to be far more careful whom we entrust with the care and feeding of our way of life.

There's a lesson here.

This lesson should be entitled, "Fight For What You Want."

I know and know of many individuals who recognize the failures of the government children's prison system. Actually, I suspect that just about everyone, including the people involved in the system, are aware of these failures.

Some say that the system needs more money to be improved, though the system gets more and more money with every election, and improvement never comes. The children's prison system currently spends, depending on the particular district, two to five times more than the requirements of various parochial schools and private schools. These latter generally offer a much better education than do the children's prisons.

Almost all schools spend far too much time on propagandizing--whether pro-government indoctrination, religious indoctrination, agenda promotion or a combination thereof--than they should. Schools are to teach academic subjects and to prepare the student for higher education, and life. Not for pushing political or philosophical agendas.

I could say more, but you get the point.

Many people I know want to be responsible for the direction of their children's education. You see protests against many of the instances of incompetence of school administrations, from the kinds of non-academic indoctrination to the actual ability of teachers to teach.

Since parents have to pay for the children's prisons anyway, through taxation, many are trapped. They can't afford two tuitions for one child. They send their kids to the children's prisons, then protest the many failures therein. They shouldn't have to do that--they should simply be able to remove their kids from the failing children's prison or private school and enroll them in a better one.

You have to fight for what you want.

Rather than attending parent-teacher meetings, which are never fruitful for the student, parents should say," I want my money back so I can use it to see to my children's education."

Nothing less.

Government should not be allowed to collect tuition and other costs from parents of children who do not attend government children's prisons. Nor should they be allowed to collect tuition from individuals who have no children.

This is where the fight is: whether government has the right to force the individual to pay for substandard services he neither desires nor needs. Take it a step farther: government shouldn't be allowed to involve itself in areas not mandated by its charter.

There's no point in arguing over whether your child should be required to suffer through sessions of sex education presented by often-troubled adults they don't know. There's no point in arguing over whether he should be required to suffer through sessions of indoctrination toward such nonsense as recycling, global warming, the evils of smoking, the wonders of government action, the need to subject oneself to government whim, etc.

Teach him logic and critical evaluation and he'll be able to make those choices for himself. Parents should teach interpersonal relations themselves, both by instruction and by example. The same goes for philosophy and ethics.

Who worse to teach philosophy than a neurotic union schlub whose very existence depends 'pon the whims of government, and whose only ambition is to retire as soon as possible.

Fight for what you want.

• Fight to control the education of your children.
• Fight to control your life and the products thereof.
• Fight to control the pastimes you prefer to pursue.
• Fight to control your freedom of association and dissociation.
• Fight against having to get permission.

Government has progressively asserted authority over many aspects of our lives. To reassert our rights, we can't ask for bits and pieces. We have to fight for the full freedom with which we were born, and which our lives require.

People shouldn't be afraid of their governments; governments should be afraid of their people.

Warm regards,

Col. Hogan
Stalag California

Uncommon Sense in a Texas Children's Prison District

Dozens, nay hundreds of children, teachers and bystanders have been killed, actually by crazed murderers, but with anti-gun, anti-self defense politicians as accessories before the fact. It might even be said that these self-same politicians are accessories after the fact as well, for their attempts to minimize punishments for these psychos. Now, there seems to be a small island of sanity in the northern plains of Texas.

According to a story on the Chron.com web page, a small school district in North Texas--Harrold, Texas--has adopted a policy of allowing school teachers and staff to carry concealed firearms in classrooms, the better to help protect the inmates, should one of these demented individuals decide to pick one of their campi to make his final stand.

There will be a small number of qualifications staff must pass in order to carry on campus, but they should be fairly easy for anyone to satisfy. Unless he is one of the aforementioned psychos.

Here's hoping this tiny ray of intelligence can be multiplied before any more schools, churches, shopping centers and restaurants become shooting galleries.

Gun free zones are free fire zones.

Warm regards,

Col. Hogan
Stalag California

Nation of the Flies

I often wonder what the world will be like a century from now, or even twenty years along. I'm observing that the government children's prison system and the media are seem to be doing everything they can imagine to keep children from full adulthood--by de-emphasizing the need for personal responsibility and critical thinking, and many other activities to which man (in Dirty Lab lingo, man is an abbreviation of human, which is a species of critter that has a female sex--woman--and a male sex--man--and is inclusive) must attend if he's to even begin to fulfill his potential. One can only conclude that the individuals who operate these institutions want to see mankind stunted and mentally/psychologically crippled to remain a sort of world of children throughout their lives.

Another trait these elitists are trying to destroy is that of defiance. As I've mentioned in the past, the only reason for this is that the elitists want a subdued, compliant populace to follow quietly along the elitists' path toward a new feudalism. Most of us are already in the mindset of serfdom already, after decades of conditioning and propagandizing. We can see it wherever we go.

Since the children's prisons seem to be teaching mainly compliance and subservience. Any teaching of that which is necessary for children to become adults must come from the parents. In addition, it has to be hoped that there's some spark of individualism left with the parents, they already having been bathed in humanity-robbing propaganda during their own school years. One bit of evidence that young people are failing to reach adulthood is the relatively common phenomenon of adult children living in their parents' homes well into legal adulthood--presumably with their teddy bears.

The failings of many of today's parents include the inability or lack of desire to:

• Teach their children the work ethic.
• Teach critical thinking.
• Teach time management.
• Be parents.
• Teach children to dress properly.
• Teach children common courtesy.
• Teach them to defend themselves.
  

Many parents fail to allow their children to learn for themselves by:

• Never allowing them to be alone.
• Never letting them set their own goals.
• Never letting them achieve their goals on their own.
• Never letting them achieve self reliance.
• Never letting them have adventures.

Or even:

• Letting them walk to the places they go.
• Letting them go to a public rest room by themselves.
  
• Letting them go to summer camp without their cell phones.
• Letting them find work, earn money and spend it as they will, on their own.

I became a streetcorner newsie when I was ten. It was wonderful, having my own money.

Years ago, I had a job in which I hired kids. I'm not sure if that could still happen today. I tried to instill in them responsibility and pride in a job well done. I tried to teach them to make change properly--something the children's prison hadn't done. We didn't have cash registers with pictures on the keys in gas stations back then.

They'll have kids of their own by now. I hope a little of what I tried to teach stuck.

The road to serfdom is all downhill.

Warm regards,

Col. Hogan
Stalag California

This Time, It's the Christians

Each year, at many of the government children's prisons, there are occasional special programs or times in which tradition is broken. Among them are Christmas programs, Easter egg hunts, Homecoming parades, the Prom and others.

Some are related to holidays and some mimic pagan seasonal rituals. Some are local in nature and some are related to sports and academic endeavors.

In my school, we had an annual operetta, conducted by the acting program and the school orchestra. We had Homecoming, related to the foopbaw team--we had a dance, a parade, and (of course) the foopbaw game. We had the Junior Prom. We had a Christmas program and the Senior Play. And, both the most bizarre and the most fun, we had the Sadie Hawkins Day Dance.

We all dressed as Li'l Abner characters in salute to, or parody of, Al Capp's comic strip that appeared daily in the Grand Forks Herald those many years ago. For you youngsters, Sadie Hawkins Day (according to Capp), was a day in which the women chased the men, and if a woman was able to catch one, he had to marry her. At GF Central, tradition was that the girls asked the boys to the dance, and everyone dressed in Capp's inimitable hillbilly style.

Well, ladies and gentlemen, we got trouble. Right here in River City. Or, more accurately in this case, Reedsburg, Wisconsin. According to a story in MyWay:

Students at Pineview Elementary in Reedsburg had been dressing in costume all last week as part of an annual school tradition called Wacky Week. On Friday, students were encouraged to dress either as senior citizens or as members of the opposite sex.

No doubt there's a little PC involved in these choices. Wacky Week usually has some kind of theme, according to the story, and is chosen by the students. It sounds like a good diversion from the normal humdrum of children's prison life.

But, Wait! Jim Schneider, program director for the funny-mentalist Voice of Christian Youth America cries foul! "We believe it's the wrong message to send to elementary students," he says. "Our station is one that promotes traditional family values. It concerns us when a school district strikes at the heart and core of the Biblical values. To promote this to elementary-school students is a great error."

I'm having a bit of trouble figuring out the error in having a bit of fun with age and gender. It doesn't sound as if anyone is trying to push other characteristics of age and gender 'pon these kids.

It's not the ACLU this time, nor is it the raging subhumans of fascist islam. It's funny-mentalist Christians!

I have no intention to paint Christians with a broad brush, but there are loons in every movement. It makes me wonder how many islamists are peaceful followers of the "religion of peace, and how many are bloodthirsty, crazed followers of a bloodthirsty child molester.

No idols.

Warm regards,

Col. Hogan
Stalag California

A Cure For the Woes of the California Children's Prison System

Thanks to Rob at Wild Blue Yonder, we find this gem to aid the reconstruction of the utterly failing California Children's Prison system.

In a stunning development, it was announced today that Professor Dolores Jane Umbridge has been appointed Headmaster of the California Public Schools. Professor Umbridge has pledged to stamp out all forms of homeschooling and to bring California's troubled schools up to nineteenth century standards of discipline and performance.

"There will be no more nonsense", Umbridge has decreed.

As is well known throughout the civilized world, Prof Umbridge is a character from one of the Harry Potter books.

The decision follows a criminally incompetent decision by the bought-and-paid-for California state court of appeals that will allow the state's schoolteachers to remain as incompetent as they are with little chance for most families to escape the conversion of all children into welfare state worshiping marching morons. Expect an exodus.

Tip of the old gray fedora to Wild Blue Yonder, Rational Jenn and the Philosophical Detective.

Buying stock in the moving business.

Warm regards,

Col. Hogan
Stalag California

Got Pennies?

On one hand, it was a prank. Students in Readington Middle Children's Prison were upset over the shortness of their lunch period. To give voice to their plight, several students thought of a very clever way to dramatize the problem. They paid for their lunch with pennies. According to EdgefieldDaily.com:

"Got pennies!" It's plastered on their shirts and these eighth graders wear it proudly because on Thursday they pulled a prank at the Readington Middle School, paying for their lunches entirely in pennies. "At first it started out as a joke, then everyone else started saying we're protesting against like how short our lunch is," student Alyssa Concannon said. In fact, the penny prank has earned 29 students two days of detention. "There was no rule in the rulebook about it," student Sarah Henschel said. "It was just unfair. It's U.S. currency."

The New York City news station WCBS-TV expounds a bit more about the sordid tale here.

I've always been a supporter of peaceful student protest, and am very impressed by the inherent cleverness of this one. Were I the principal of the school, I'd have to find a way to reward the young minds behind this stunt. "50 points for Griffindor!"

The event that seems to have caused the punishments was basically the laziness and lack of wit in the persons of the cafeteria workers. The complaint was that the counting of the pennies caused some students to miss lunch, because of the slowness of the lunch line--the lunch counter workers had to count the pennies(!).

The lowly penny has indeed been getting a bad rap in recent years. The US mint even devalued the penny by starting to make them from copper-washed zinc instead of a real copper alloy, back in 1980. How many of us actually pay for our cash purchases to the penny, these days? Every day we empty our trouser pockets to find between ten and thirty pennies along with the other change. What to do with them? Put 'em in a jar.

Eventually, the jar gets full. Then what? The bank doesn't want them. Laziness seems to hit bank tellers, as well. I used to actually roll up my accumulated change and take it to the bank periodically. They no longer accept it, or will charge a 7 or 8 percent fee to accept it. More often, bank tellers direct you to a change machine, into which you can dump your coins and get a cash voucher, minus a 7 to 8 percent fee, which can then be deposited (after waiting in the interminable bank line yet again).

In my youth, a penny would buy a piece of Bazooka, or a bit of sugary liquid in a wax "Coke" bottle. Today, people simply throw them away. A handful of pennies won't buy anything. One has to wonder why they're still made.

Back to the point. Pennies are still around and theoretically still have value. They're still legal tender. Since the New Jersey children's prison accepts cash to pay for lunch at the cafeteria, one has to wonder on what grounds the staff imposed punishment for the use of pennies. No one disputes the students' assertion that there are no rules prohibiting pennies. If not, then what?

It's a fine method the New Jersey Children's Prison system has for teaching youngsters: making up the rules as they go along. Very typical of the same kind of idiots that impose "zero tolerance" programs to prohibit things that prison staffs find might cause them to actually have to (shudder) think!

Returning to all fours.

Warm regards,

Col. Hogan
Stalag California

Priscilla the Knife

More years ago than can be counted on both your fingers and toes and mine, I was an elementary school student at West Elementary School in Grand Forks, North Dakota. Admittedly, it was a different time, but the principles involved are the same. The stated goal of the government children's prison system is to help parents prepare youngsters to be able to function as adults in the real world. Today, the children's prisons are failing--not only by ineptitude, but by conscious intent. They are trying to make herd animals out of our youth!

I'm not sure they weren't already working in that direction in my skool daze; after all, most people my age are eight-hour-a-day wage slaves just as are those graduating colleges today. Seems like many of the high-profile successes 'bout whom we read in the business journals and society gossip pages got where they are after slipping the yoke in their own youth.

Now, I like what I do, and actually look forward to going to work most days, but sometimes I wonder why I'm not a movie studio executive or a famous writer or a crocodile hunter. Well, with age comes wisdom, and I finally realized that my difficulty is that I've always been afraid to take risks regarding my livelihood. Fact of life. Now, I have to ponder the question of whether it's too late to change.

But, I'm wandering away from the subject: the abominable and purposeful failure of the government children's prison system, and its stubborn and deliberate inability to make educated and functional adults out of children. Parents are also failing at their part, as well--they were inmates of children's prisons in their youth.

Yesterday, according to a story on the website of Local 6 News in Orlando, Florida, a ten-year-old girl, an inmate at the Sunrise Elementary School in Ocala, was arrested for having a knife on school property--a felony in Florida. She had a steak knife that she'd brought from home, and was using it to cut her lunch into bite-sized bits.

There was no allegation that she'd used the knife in a threatening manner. She was transported down to Juvie Hall, presumably to be flogged, then stretched on the rack until she admits membership in a pre-teen terrorist organization. Look for a much taller Priscilla if and when she's released (or when her cabal effects an escape for her).

The long-ago time I referenced earlier in this missive saw me and many of my contemporaries carrying knives to school, and everywhere else, routinely. We called them jackknives, and they were often given to boys as Christmas gifts by fathers and uncles. They were a permanent part of our trouser pockets, and we used them to make slingshots and to carve our initials into the bark of trees. As Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts, our jackknives were an indispensable tool, to be used to do the tasks required to earn achievement badges.

I can only assume that young girls learned (in those days) to do Girl Scout things with knives, not to mention to learn to cook and bake under the tutelage of their mothers. And, of course, we all had to learn to handle tableware to dine without taking on the appearance of islamic savages.

What is it this that the Florida Children's Prison System is rejecting? The notion of eating meals like a civilized human being? Will the use of hands next be rejected? I can almost imagine the guards and wardens of the Florida Children's Prison System nodding in approval at the sight of the youngsters bent over the tables, faces in their plates and making snarling and snorting sounds while trying to snarf up gruel at the school cafeteria.

How long until walking upright will be forbidden?

Darwin was wrong. It's Devolution.

Warm regards,

Col. Hogan
Stalag California

Mission Accomplished!

I don't know if most large cities are as utterly dysfunctional as is El Pueblo de Los Angeles, but it seems to be following a pattern set by the state, originally seen (in this country) in the US federal government. Since these governmental entities attract power-mad controller types, these individuals see the way to increased power (over others) is to control as much of the infrastructure as possible.

Trouble is, these little fascists are neither very smart nor very imaginitive. To them, it's a one-size-fits-all world. Ultimately, their grandiose control schemes fail. Today, el Pueblo de Los Angeles is failing, the state of California is failing and the federal government of the United States is failing. Various petty little dictators are biting off way more than they can chew and trying to control far more than can be controlled.

In this case, I'm spotlighting the LA Unified School District and the LA Police Dept.

Seems there's a children's prison down in South Central called the Santee Education Center. There is also a severe gang problem in the area. Many youngsters ride the LA Metro buses to school, which stop at an intersection two blocks from the children's prison. The kids have to walk the remaining two blocks.

Seems that local gangsters often prey 'pon the kids, harassing them about gang affiliation and/or robbing them of cash and valuables. Finally, officials of el pueblo decided to do something. They added another bus stop only one block from the children's prison.

Patience, my friends, it gets better from here.

According to stories in the LA Times, including this one, at the inauguration of this new bus stop, a bus carrying Antonio Vinaigrette, el alcalde del Pueblo de Los Angeles, schools Supt. David Brewer and Santee Principal Vince Carbino, a posse of LAPD officers and news reporters (an unconfirmed rumor states that the new bus stop cost $7 million) was tagged by a student!! Tagging, for those of you in south Indiana, is scribbling graffiti 'pon the outside of the vehicle with spray paint or a magic marker.

The lad, wearing a gray hoodie and looking very mean, wrote his handle, "Zoner," on a bus window. He bolted when he realized that a news reporter was taking pictures of him through the very bus window 'pon which he was scribbling. El Alcalde, who reportedly was quite angry, wanted the police to catch and arrest the kid, but cooler heads prevailed as they realized they might cause a traffic problem in the street. Mr Carbino was sure he could locate the youngster through school records.

I would have loved to have seen the Keystone Kops chase routine that might've erupted at that point. Too bad; a great opportunity was missed.

A tip of the old battered fedora to Doug McIntyre, talk show host at KABC-AM in LA, for asking why the city isn't, instead of creating a new bus stop, going after the gangs, arresting those who commit crimes.

Meanwhile, children's prison officials battered each other trying to get at the mike to be first to say that they don't want this tagger punished; his action is a "cry for help."

I wonder if Charles Manson's 1969 Tate-Bianca murder spree was a "cry for help."

I fear for the life of the Republic.

Warm regards,

Col. Hogan
Stalag California

The Prince of Phallic Symbolism

It might seem like I'm stuck of talk show hosts, and maybe I am, but I just have to write about this, since it at once stands out as irrefutable proof that the christian taliban right is obsessed with sexual symbolism, if not with the sex itself.

I watched the HyperBowl game yesterday, and enjoyed it, in spite of the fact that I'm not that much of a fan of foopbaw. I've always rather enjoyed the game played under inclement weather conditions. It's interesting to see how the players deal with rain, snow, cold and/or a muddy field. In yesterday's game, the main problem was a steady rain that lasted troughout the game. One of the reasons my interest in the game has flagged, is the proliferation of covered stadia. Traditionally, foopbaw is an outdoor sport.

Debbie and I watched the halftime show with a high degree of enthusiasm, both being Prince fans. While I might've picked a slightly different playlist, I still enjoyed it thoroughly. As did Debbie. I commented that this was one of the only halftime shows that actually worked, in several years.

This morning, on the infamous Laura Ingraham talk show, I found out how wrong I was. I didn't notice this, I was enjoying the show: seems that, at one point, Prince used a wind machine to blow a large, white cloth sheet to a vertical, flapping, moving screen 'pon which the lighting caused his shadow to be displayed as he sang and played his guitar. For a brief moment, Price turned so that the shadow of his body hid the guitar body, and the neck of the guitar appeared to be sticking out of the front of his pants. As he ran his hand up and down the frets, well, you can imagine how that looked.

Ms Ingraham, sexually repressed individual that she appears to be, jumped 'pon that image like Miss Balbricker in the shower scene in the film Porky's.

Ms Ingraham spent a large portion of her show discussing this, bringing up the Janet Jackson/Justin Timberlake show a few years ago. It seems we can see which kind of individual is sex-obsessed.

One of the excuses Ms Ingraham (and others--Hannity, O'Reilly, et al) uses for her fixation 'pon these kinds of images is that of protecting the children.

We have to protect the children.

I don't think it's the job of the christian taliban right to make the world child-safe. I don't want the world to be child safe, nor is it its nature to be so.

Parents, care for your children. Love your children. What you teach them in their first four years will go far toward their psychological makeup throughout their lives. What you teach them in the next ten or so years will make young men and women out of them.

And, for the sake of their safety and future sanity, keep them out of the government's children's prisons!! They're getting more and more dangerous and more and more destructive of the uniqueness of the individual.

No one has ever been able to convince me that casually observed sexual images are destructive to children. Usually, they elicit an attack of curiosity--normal and healthy for a child. You tell the youngster the truth--just enough to satisfy his curiosity. You can tell him more later, as he gets older.

"Protecting" a child from his own adulthood is far more destructive than any casually observed sexual images he might encounter. If you can manage to protect your children from sexual abuse--a formidable enough task--that'll do. That'll do, along with his education and your love.

Government schools are child abuse.

Warm regards,

Col. Hogan
Stalag California

Children's Prisons Under Siege

I was reading the story through the plastic window of the vending machine. It was the Los Angeles Daily News, a leftist-run newspaper that I don't purchase because of its bias.

Later, I found the story (containing a lot of leftist spin) on the net.

The story tells us that students at several San Fernando Valley High Schools are experiencing an increasing number of violent attacks in recent times. I might wonder how this could possibly be, in light of the fact that LA children's prisons are legally "safe school zones," in which there are high penalties for possession of a weapon or committing various other crimes within the area.

David Brewer, the superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District, neatly sidesteps the issue by claiming it's "the community's fault." He pledges to work closely with Antonio Vinaigrette, el alcalde del Pueblo de Los Angeles to reduce gang activity.

El alcalde, a member of MEChA, a latino power organization, is failing miserably in the battle against criminal gangs, partly because he refuses to acknowledge the racial aspect of gang dynamics, and partly because he refuses to recognize the means of their funding: illegal vice. He further casts a blind eye 'pon anything that might actually lessen their power. His idea of fighting gangs is with negotiation, and attempts to learn more about their grievances so he can find a way to satisfy them. "I feel your pain," or the like.

I have news for you, Senor Alcalde: They want money and they want power over others. Just like you do. Just like the city council does. Just like the federal government's elected officials do.
They, and you, want the unearned. You want respect and adulation even if you have to get it by force of arms.

I know this is the farthest thing from your mind (such as it is), but if you really wanted to do away with gangs, here are three things that will go a long way toward a solution:

• Repeal all of the municipal gun laws. All of them. This is the most important, and would be the most effective of this entire list. One of the biggest reasons for the success of gangs in El Pueblo is the fact that most of their victims have no way of effectively defending themselves.
• Repeal all municipal drug laws. The enforcement of drug laws is far more harmful to the populace than are the drugs themselves. If the drugs to which we refer as "recreational" were readily available at drug stores (or even head shops) at market prices, gangs will have lost their primary source of revenue, not to mention power.
• Withhold tax payments to the state and federal governments. They are doing nothing to help the problem. Their actions seriously aggravate these and many other local difficulties, and they deserve no payment for their lack of effective effort.
• Permanently suspend any and all mandatory taxes, and solicit donations from the public to fund police and court activities. The poor can't afford to pay your confiscatory taxes; the better off could afford to invest in businesses that could offer honest work to ex-gangsters and the honest unemployed alike. Offer all municipal services on a fee-for-service basis at market prices.
  
• El Pueblo should divest itself of all services that can be offered on the free market. Fire fighting and prevention, education, health services, utilities, public transportation, routine police patrolling, construction inspection and even streets and highways can be privately owned and operated. It'd be done far more efficiently and at less expense outside of municipal control.

The only reason that these solutions won't be considered is that, in the deepest analysis, Senor Vinaigrette, the City Council, the Chief of Police and the heads of the various municipal departments are a gang in their own right, and will only mount a serious battle against street gangs if they actually challenge the power of city government itself.

....And that could happen, amigos mios. It could happen soon.

They've killed Freedom! Those bastards!

Warm regards,

Col. Hogan
Stalag California

Addendum:
As I write this, according to a story in the Long Beach Press Telegram, four of nine gang thugs who beat up three young women of another race in nearby Long Beach this past Halloween because they are of another race, were sentenced to probation and house arrest for their actions. These women are not yet recovered from their injuries. This is a perfect example of municipal governments' inability (of lack of desire) to deal with gang activity.

Tomorrow's Engineers, Today

When I first arrived in wonderful California in 1965, as a mere lad, I was stunned by all that seemed possible here. There were clean, pleasant cities with wonderfully bizarre-looking buildings and wide, well-maintained streets and freeways, good-paying jobs and the widest variety of types of terrain/scenery one could imagine. There were beaches, mountains, deserts, rivers and lakes, all close enough for a weekend outing, at most.

Cities were similar, yet different, and all jammed together so that it was hard to tell exactly what city I was in at any given moment, while driving. There was also air I could sink my teeth into--that would sometimes burn my eyes and catch in my throat.

A price worth paying, I thought at the time.

I found a job quickly: there were many jobs available. After the first year, I'd left the first job for a higher paying one. Finally, after a little over a year, I got the job I'd been after: a surveyor-apprentice with what was then known as the California Division of Highways. I was involved in building freeways!

One thing I've remembered for all these years: every one of my employment interviewers commented that I had an incredible advantage, having gotten my schooling outside of California. Even back then!

The photo with this entry comes from The Orange County Register, September 1, 2006. It leads a story about California's government children's prisons. The headline: "More Schools Meet Federal Goals," and is a mostly self-congratulatory story apparently written, or at least coached, by a member of the state's Dept of Education, about the improved scores "achieved" by Orange County's children's prisons. Seems they've generally improved a bit over last year.

Pardon me while I hawk up an expression of doubt.

Since the mid-seventies, I've had the opportunity on numerous occasions to interview prospective employees and make hiring decisions regarding these individuals. Though I have no formal schooling in personnel matters, I think I'm a better than middling judge of character. I'm generally happy with the decisions I've made. The one common thread I was able to observe, though, was that high school graduates seem incredibly under-educated to me. On the other hand, the two college grads I had a hand in hiring seemed far better. They were graduate geologists that worked in my lab for a couple of years, then moved on to jobs that made better use of their education and talents.

The high school grads I dealt with, while intelligent lads all (or I wouldn't have hired them), seemed to be deficient in the knowledge of stuff that ought to be taught them in school.

Which brings me back to this newspaper article. The photo shows a quite atrocious construct that looks to me to be a kindergartener's work. I guess it's supposed to be a bridge. In the photo, it's falling over under a load. Good thing the photo's caption tells me this, or I'd never have guessed.

These are sixth graders!!

When I was in seventh grade, lo! these many years ago, we had a science fair at Valley Junior High School in Grand Forks, North Dakota. No science maven, I, so I had no entry in the science fair. A girl for whom I felt fondness at the time was, however, so I attended the science fair.

The recollection that has relevance here, is the fact that one of the thirteen-year-old exhibitors at the Valley Jr science fair built a bridge out of popsickle sticks, string and Elmer's glue that not only looked like a real bridge, but was able to support the weight of the HO-scale cars, trucks and miniature people figurines which he placed 'pon the bridge.

Today's kids aren't stupid--I know some of them. But, they're being horribly shortchanged by the children's prison administrators and teachers.

And here, in spite of the criminally poor job they're doing, they have the gall to congratulate themselves on having improved minutely over the period of a year. They ought to be ashamed!

Why aren't these sixth-graders reading Aristotle? America's Founding Documents? Ayn Rand?

Why aren't they working in algebra? Geometry? Trig?

Why can't they diagram sentences? Why, for cryin' out loud, can't they, any of them, spell?

Why can't they make change? Write a check? Balance a checkbook?

I fear for the Republic.

Remember, VOTE FOR NO INCUMBENT!

Warm regards,

Col. Hogan
Stalag California

Pssst! Hey Kid! Smarties! Fifty Cents a Pack!

Cicero, over at To the People, reminds us of yet another stunt the government childrens' prisons are initiating to avoid actually having to teach anything. I've been hearing a quite a bit, over the past few months, about yet another war.

One might think we're involved in enough wars at present, most of them both stupid and futile, without having to start yet another.

Cicero points us to an article that shows what some childrens' prison administrations are doing and planning--in part at the behest of the feral government. Yes, that George W Bush.

Now. Let me tell you, mes enfants, how it's gonna be.

When I was a kid, it was squirtguns. We wanted to have water fights at every opportunity, and the screws were constantly looking for the squirtguns to confiscate them. There was no end to the inentive ways we had of concealing these weapons, to be drawn and fired at any opportunity.

It'll start with recloseable plastic bottles of soda in their backpacks, along with candy bars and potato chips. Prison officials will counter by having random backpack searches. Older brothers will hand candy through the chain-link to kids in the yard, and these kids, in turn, will sell candy to their hungry classmates. We'll see children concealing candy bits in their clothing.

Janitors will find tofu smeared onto the undersides of the tables and vegetable medleys clogging the drinking fountain drains. Rival smuggling gangs will evolve, and there'll be fights over who can sell candy to whom. The more enthusiastic of the screws will discover flops of steaming broccoli in their desks and soured milk in the coffee pourers in their staff rooms.

Gang members will unplug the drink machines to leave the drinks unchilled.

It could get nasty. Fruit and vegetables in the cafeteria could be destroyed or contaminated. Childrens' prison officials could call for a no sweets zone within a mile of every prison. Daily universal strip-searches could become the daily routine. Punishment for possession, smuggling, and attempts to sell illicit confections could include felony punishment and mandatory minimum sentences.

Meanwhile, the teaching of academic subjects would suffer and eventually cease, as enforcement efforts take up more and more time.

Youngsters would graduate, not only unable to read and work basic arithmetic, but looking like Auschwitz survivors.

They've killed Freedom! Those bastards!

Warm regards,

Col. Hogan
Stalag California

Teach Them Spanish And Teach Them In Spanish

M.E.Ch.A. is an organization, mostly of college students, I guess, in the Southwest. Although a number of individuals who were members of the group in college retain their membership as they meander along their career path.

One such member is Cruz Bustamante who, after a career in California politics, is the current Lt Governor of California. A leftist Democrat. Another is Antonio Vinaigrette, El Alcalde del Pueblo de Los Angeles.

'Tis of El Alcalde I wish to write today.

El Alcalde is now lobbying the Governor's office to make hin Czar of the behemoth Los Angeles Unified School District. Having been trounced soundly by LAUSD officials and the evil California Teachers' Assoc, he has retreated to a position of desiring an advisory role over the district, its budgets and operations.

I don't know if el alcalde will actually change anything, but I'm pretty sure he'll try to inject more diversity programming into the classrooms. He'll find a way to increase the amount of M.E.Ch.A. doctrine into the programs of those Los Angeles schools in heavily Latin areas, and increase tolerance for it in the others. He'll be a force to lessen the ability of Latins to fit into the American economy. He'll be a force to lessen the amount of classroom time devoted to academic studies in favor of ethnic studies.

It's hard for me to make suggestions as to how to improve government childrens' prisons, since I really don't think they can be improved much, and I don't think that's the way to go. Parents should do whatever's necessary to get their kids out of these prisons and into a program of real education. Individuals need to find a way to get out from under the yoke of the confiscatory taxation that finances these wasteful and harmful organizations--and that will be a much more difficult task, but with great financial rewards and rewards in additional personal freedom.

The best thing that can happen to Antonio Vinaigrette, el Alcalde del Pueblo de Los Angeles is that he should be rendered El Alcalde de Nada.

Remember, VOTE FOR NO INCUMBENT!

Warm regards,

Col. Hogan
Stalag California

Rights of Passage

It looks like I was right all along. According to the California Department of Education, the only requirement on California youngsters to achieve a high school diploma is the fact of attaining the age of eighteen years, and have their butts in the seats a certain number of times a year for twelve long, endless, boring years.

After some parties actually interested in seeing California kids get something resembling an education, pushed for the CAHSEE (California High School Exit Examination), and it was finally adopted, there was an expectation (among some) that California kids might actually finally begin to benefit from government schools.

The first crack in the dike appeared when high school teachers left off (to some extent) teaching the curriculum and started coaching for the Exit Exam.

Now, what I've heard termed a fifth grade-level exam, is just too tough for many poor and disadvantaged students. A lawsuit has been filed, and one of California's many utterly unqualified judges has indicated he plans to place an injunction against the test based on "equal protection" concerns.

I've written many times that I regard government-operated schools little more than children's prisons (observe the architecture of newer school campi), designed to warehouse children to keep them off the streets, and to indoctrinate them in political correctness and compliance with social(ist) norms far more than to actually teach them to reason, to be creative, to learn the 3 r's, to have an historical perspective and a real appreciation of the arts.

In short, government schools are child abuse.

The CAHSEE is irrelevant. If a youngster wants to learn, he'll learn. Try and stop him! Actually, it seems that the California Department of Education is trying to stop him! With all the time and opportunity available in school, most kids should exit in twelve years with an education well beyond that we normally expect of a Bachelor's degree. Today's schools actually do more to inhibit learning than they do to facilitate it.

Fast food outlets have for years now replaced the digits on cash registers with pictures of the food items! Who has time to figure out those incredibly difficult Arabic hyroglyphics, anyway? Many high school grads are unable to make change or to balance a checkbook.

Aside from accelerated and college prep curricula (which are a little better), most kids are kept down to the level of the slowest in any given class.

Many teachers are unqualified to teach the assigned subject. One youngster about whom I have personal knowledge was "taught" algebra by a football coach. When he found the subject difficult, and started asking questions, the "teacher" got angry, told him to study the book, do his homework and the problem would clarify itself. The boy dropped, went into a basic math class, and slid out of the college prep curriculum. The lad did graduate high school as scheduled, has yet (after several years) to take on the challenges of "higher education."

As it turns out, were he in high school today, he would have to do nothing to get a diploma but show up each day.

Remember, VOTE FOR NO INCUMBENT!

Warm regards,

Col. Hogan
Stalag California

Yet Another Tale of a Legal System Gone Mad

The list is long.

I, and many others are illustrating the insanity of the so-called "War on Drugs," more accurately dubbed by those of clearer vision, The War on the Bill of Rights. An easier job many of us will never have.

In this instance, it involved a young student, an inmate of a Chicago-area suburban school. The unfortunate lad was bringing a quantity of powdered sugar to school in a baggie for a science project. He showed it to a fellow inmate, unfortunately in the presence of a guard, er, that is, a custodian. When the other student asked if it was cocaine, our unidentified victim jokes that it was. The custodian, of course, reported this.

Bottom line: the lad has been charged with a felony! He was (you're gonna love this! Put some plastic over your keyboard, lest you spray it with a mouthful of coffee.) charged with possessing a look-alike drug!!!!! It's not such a big deal, he's already incarcerated in the government school system, but it'll go on his Permanent Record!

Is any more proof needed to show that America's legal system (not to even get into the supposed education system) is broken? Has been murdered by the attornies? Nope.

Thanks again to The Agitator for pointing out this story from CBS Channel 2 News in Chicago.

Disclaimer: I don't mean to imply that I trust or believe any story reported by CBS or any other Manistream News organization. Please check this out with more reliable sources prior to full acceptance as truth.

They've killed Freedom! Those bastards!

Warm regards,

Col. Hogan
Stalag California

Pounding Them Into a Single Mold

The evil and corrupt Barbara Kerr, Fuhrer of the California Teachers Assosiation (CTA) has hit the news again today, this time stumping against Props 74, 75 and 76. These are three of the new referenda put together by Guber Terminator in what he mistakenly hopes will actually make California schools better.

Prop 74 purports to make it harder for substandard teachers to get tenure. It'll make it easier to dismiss a poor teacher. (S)he can be let go after two successive unsatisfactory evaluations. Of course, that means the kids have to suffer under a bad teacher for two years. Do we hear the huzzahs?

Prop 75 requires that union members specifically allow unions to use their dues for left wing political purposes. I don't think it lessens the extortion payments if you don't allow it.

Prop 76 seems to limit increases to government schools by the state. It's more than I care about to try to figure out how. I still haven't been able to figure out why local schools need any involvement by state, or for that matter, federal government. Government schools once were wholly operated by the locality. They were better then.

Ms Kerr has been sliming the Guber's office since Ahnold was elected. One of her favorite tag lines claims that teachers help students to be able to succeed "....And no child succeeds alone." I can see it all now. No child can "succeed" (undefined) without government schools, and she plans to keep it that way.

Except that it's even harder to succeed under the handicap of a government "education," as opposed to the kinds of alternative kinds of schooling advocated by many. Among those is simple home schooling, provided by loving parents. Another is the Montessori method.

How about we take government out of the equation and leave parents with their rightful power and responsibility to care for their children, to make decisions as to the methods of rearing and education (and paying the costs of these things) of such children as they decide to have.

Incentives would be for teachers to improve their knowledge and skills rather than to vegetate in dead end government jobs. Parents would be empowered to to bring their kids up according to their own principles.

Barbara Kerr would have to go looking for a real job, and I won't have to listen to her polluting the airwaves any more.

Remember, VOTE FOR NO INCUMBENT!

Warm regards,

Col. Hogan
Stalag California

The Pledge of Servitude

Well, the old "Pledge of Allegiance" is back once again. The recently added phrase "under god" is again under fire by alleged atheists and a sympathetic federal court.

I wrote about the pledge the last time it came up, and still hold the same opinion on the matter.

The Stars and Stripes used to be a symbol of all that America is, but thanks to government school civics classes and actions of government on all fronts has led most people to the opinion that the flag is a symbol of the government. Thus, when we "pledge allegiance to the flag," most of us are pledging allegiance to the government. Note the way that many people react to the President as if he were royalty. Note how, during the recent troubles in the Gulf area, many people look to the President as a savior, and are extreme in their anger as they perceive that he's failed them.

Only from libertarians and a few conservatives do we even hear the suggestion that they might actually lift a finger to help themselves and help each other. From the left we hear, "Where was the federal government?" and "Bush doesn't care about black people."

So we send the kids to government schools where they recite the "Pledge of Allegiance" each day, to reinforce that the federal government is and always will be critical to their very existence.

That's what I mean by the Pledge of Servitude.

I don't care at all about the "under god" phrase. I've never added the "under god" phrase when I used to actually recite the pledge, but now, I won't recite it at all. It's subversive and unAmerican. Americans aren't subservient.

Americans are individualists.

I don't care about "under god." Any parent worth his stuff will keep his kids out of government schools (government schools are child abuse) and teach them that government is the servant, not the master. This servant has been doing such a poor job at it's assigned (by the Constitution) tasks that it deserves to be treated with nothing but contempt.

They've killed Freedom! Those bastards!

Warm regards,

Col. Hogan
Stalag California