February 14, 2023/Valentine\’s Day
Turkey
This quake in Turkey and Syria was catastrophic, and, has spurred a great deal of internal and international participation in rescue attempts — albeit slowly. Amidst the tragic loss of life we\’ve had a number of heart-warming stories: one featuring a family that survived together after being trapped for 100 hours and also — infants still alive lying next to their dead mothers –one still attached by the umbilical cord! It will take years for the impacted area to recover from the devastation. It has even been reported that warring factions in Syria have set aside their differences to help their fellow man. Wouldn\’t it have been nice if Ukraine and Russia might have lent assistance?
Joe Biden
I was stunned that Uncle Joe made it through his State of the Union speech. I didn\’t watch it — but judging from the responses of the pundits — Uncle Joe remained coherent throughout the hour-or-so that he presented — which flies directly in the face of my suggestion that he shouldn\’t be bothered after feeding the pigeons in the park and/or after dinner time. The Trump Right thinks Uncle Joe must be taking some type of elixir (recipe on Hunter\’s laptop?) that is perking him up. I tend to agree with them.
The Super Bowl
I\’m starting to resemble sports-writer, Bill Plaschke, who never gets a prediction correct. But Plash picked KC to win the Super Bowl. Normally this would have meant the death knell for KC — but not this time.
DeSantis and \”woke-hating\”
Florida governor, Ron DeSantis, doesn\’t want students to be indoctrinated by some of the existent texts in Florida schools. In addition to pulling these books from Florida schools, he intends to replace them with books that don\’t indoctrinate. The definition of Indoctrination is: the process of teaching a person or group to accept a set of beliefs uncritically. So what exactly does DeSantis want Florida students to absorb uncritically?
It\’s impossible to teach American Literature or American History uncritically — since their subject matter requires some personal integration: hence some critical thinking. I guess Biology, Physics, Chemistry, Geography might be taught uncritically (just the facts Ma\’am) — but watch out when teaching composition — which can make the writer reach into her/himself (unless the 5-paragraph composition will be the only acceptable writing format). Poetry is out of the question.
Too bad that critical theory won\’t be employed in Florida any longer. Critical thinking usually makes education tolerable. But it seems Ron DeSantis wants Florida students to die (of boredom) in their seats — as they will be indoctrinated by information served up by their governor ne\’re to have a creative, individual thought…Zombies all. To the victors go the spoils and the rights to view history as they so choose. Yep, I guess examining \”race\” critically is frightening to the emergent regime. Fahrenheit 451, Baby! I just hope that these Florida zombies won\’t play football very well.
Balloons
We celebrated our granddaughter\’s 11th on Super Bowl Sunday and had plenty of festive balloons around — but these were not the balloons being discussed by the adults. I don\’t know much about what circles the earth — except for what my DIRECTV picks up. I\’ve seen an interesting graphic in which the earth is encircled (ensnared if you will) — by multiple satellites. I\’ve heard rumors that this will be how Elon Musk controls…everything! But that one giant balloon (5 football fields long) with a huge payload (3 school busses long) was made by the Chinese…I, I, I keep reassuring myself that US must continue to consume their products to keep the Chinese economy afloat…but Elon does do business with them directly…