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Posted on 05.12.13 by Danny Glover @ 12:22 am
We don’t want our children educated in an environment where a teacher lets an unruly student bully her (and other students film the episode), where the disruptive student wins praise for ranting at the teacher, and where neither the mother (a teacher herself) nor school administrators punish the student for being inexcusably disrespectful. There are no winners in this episode at Duncanville High School in Texas, which sadly earned 18-year-old sophomore Jeff Bliss 86 seconds of YouTube fame: The message to teachers is that students can shout you down without consequence, and the message to students is that they are in control of the classroom. That’s an unhealthy atmosphere for teaching children who actually want to learn — even if, as Dallas Morning News columnist Tod Robberson argues, Bliss had a valid point about his teacher’s instructional methods. “Teaching by ‘packet’ is no way to get through to young minds,” Robberson wrote in a column decrying Bliss’ behavior and the reaction to it. “… But his choice of protest venues and methods is one I will never celebrate. He owes everyone involved an apology.” (Read previous “Why We Home-School” lessons.) Filed under: 1980s and Business and Culture and Education and Government and Human Interest and Media and News & Politics and Parenting and People and Rednecks and Video and Why We Home-School Comments: None |
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Posted on 04.27.13 by Danny Glover @ 12:10 am
This morning as my Facebook feed filled with the news that country music legend George Jones had died at age 81, my mind drifted to his 1993 hit song “High-Tech Redneck.” I am one, so the song is perfect fodder for this blog as a tribute to Jones. But as you watch the video and listen to the lyrics, think about how outdated the high-tech redneck of 1993 is today: Did you catch the size of the headphones on the dog in that video and the cell phone that Jones pulls out at the end? What about the talk of VCRs, cassette tapes and CB radios? Or the reference to a “plugged in” bumpkin? Any redneck celebrating those “advances” today most definitely would fall into the bumpkin category! Filed under: History and Music and News & Politics and People and Redneck Music and Redneck Musical Interlude and Rednecks and Video Comments: None |
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Posted on 04.26.13 by Danny Glover @ 11:36 pm
What a boring Congress that would be. If the Georgia Democrat didn’t serve in the House, we wouldn’t get memorable speeches like yesterday’s humdinger on helium, where Johnson waxed ineloquent about “a world without balloons” and comedians with that “high-pitched voice that we all hold near and dear to our hearts”: Or this gem from 2010, where Johnson worried aloud that the U.S. territory of Guam might “become so overly populated that it will tip over and capsize”: Filed under: Government and Just For Laughs and News & Politics and People and Video Comments: None |
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Posted on 04.20.13 by Danny Glover @ 12:28 am
We don’t want our children subjected to the disciplinary whims of school officials who lack common sense and ignore their own policies about what qualifies as acceptable behavior, speech or dress. The latest case of bureaucratic overreach occurred at Logan Middle School in my home state of West Virginia, where an anti-gun zealot who also happens to be a teacher picked a fight with a student over his pro-Second Amendment t-shirt. This particular student, eighth-grader Jared Marcum, was old enough to protest — and did. Marcum should have respected authority enough to change shirts and let his father argue the point, but he’s just a kid. When that didn’t happen, the adults in the room should have acted like it. Instead, the school not only suspended Marcum but also had him arrested, a decision that forced Marcum’s father to leave work and just inflamed the situation further. Unfortunately, Marcum’s case is not unique, and the other students punished by public schools for simulating guns or carrying toy guns have been far younger. Here’s a list of the incidents, which likely will continue to grow as the hysteria over guns does:
These anti-gun witch hunts of children (and their parents) have become so ridiculous since the Newtown, Conn., school shooting last December that one Maryland lawmaker has proposed legislation to crack down on the schools, not the students. By teaching our children at home, we don’t subject them or ourselves to such nonsense. (Read previous “Why We Home-School” lessons.) Filed under: Business and Education and Government and Human Interest and Hunting & Guns and People and Rednecks and West Virginia and Why We Home-School Comments: None |
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Posted on 04.19.13 by Danny Glover @ 9:39 pm
During Senate floor debate, Manchin scolded the NRA for conducting a campaign of “misinformation” about his proposal. But a tidbit in today’s Washington Examiner makes it clear that the relationship soured before then. NRA President David Keene was so irked by Manchin that he hung up on the senator when Manchin called to pester Keene during a trout-fishing trip to Montana last week. “Unfortunately, I took my cell phone with me and my cell phone rings in the midst of my float and it’s Joe Manchin, who’s talking about how reasonable his idea is,” Keene told the Examiner. “And finally I said, ‘Look, I’m in the middle of the Missouri River, I’ve got a trout on the line. I don’t agree; you will have to make your own decisions.’ And I hung up.” Filed under: Government and Hunting & Guns and News & Politics and People and West Virginia Comments: None |
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Posted on 04.11.13 by Danny Glover @ 8:31 pm
I admit it, I’m one of those folks who dreams of Dave Sayer and the Publishers Clearinghouse “Prize Patrol” knocking on my door to give me a big check. Clicking on Publishers Clearinghouse links to enter its giveaways is part of my evening routine. I’d just as soon these guys from the Internal Revenue Service stay away from me (and you): Filed under: Culture and Government and News & Politics and Video Comments: None |
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Posted on 04.08.13 by Danny Glover @ 11:41 pm
More than a decade later in a speech during Black History Month, Attorney General Eric Holder called America “nation of cowards” when it comes to discussing race. And a few weeks ago when a Philadelphia newspaper ran a piece on “Being White in Philly,” Mayor Michael Nutter responded by calling for a formal rebuke of the paper. This is what happens when political and media elites try to shape public opinion. Maybe it’s time to give a redneck and a rap star a voice in the conversation. Country boy Brad Paisley, who was born and raised about 40 minutes up the Ohio River from my hometown, and rapper LL Cool J certainly want to be heard. They’re trying to bring enlightenment to the race debate through the lyrics of Paisley’s new song, “Accidental Racist,” which approaches the subject from the perspective of a white Southerner wearing a Confederate flag and black man in a do-rag. Here’s a snippet from Paisley’s part in the duet:
And here’s LL Cool J’s take on the current state of racial affairs: Filed under: Culture and Entertainment and History and Media and Music and News & Politics and People and Redneck Music and Rednecks Comments: None |
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Posted on 04.02.13 by Danny Glover @ 9:23 pm
If you go to West Virginia University and make Glamour magazine’s top 10 college women for an innovation you created before college, you’re definitely an enlightened redneck. Katherine Bomkamp is that woman. She invented a prosthetic device to eliminate “phantom pain” in amputees for a 10th-grade science project and has been winning accolades ever since, including during her three years at WVU.
Filed under: Business and Education and People and Rednecks and West Virginia Comments: None |
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Posted on 03.07.13 by Danny Glover @ 12:55 am
Newsflash! Newsman Brian Williams has a touch of redneck in him. The “NBC Nightly News” anchor is a spam-eater from way back and still likes Ramen noodles.
Spam and eggs, now that’s a meal. I’m not so sure about the Spam sushi Savannah Guthrie of NBC’s “Today” admitted to eating, but I’d probably be willing to give it or any other number of Spam recipes a try. That’s what being enlightened is all about. Filed under: Food and News & Politics and People and Rednecks Comments: None |
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Posted on 03.06.13 by Danny Glover @ 11:02 pm
Washington changes politicians. No matter how much they may want to stay true to their roots, they start thinking like the people they spend most of their time with inside the Beltway instead of those they represent back home. Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., illustrates this unfortunate phenomenon perfectly. The redneck who did this in his first Senate campaign … … is now guilty of this very Washingtonian attempt at message control: Manchin’s regression toward “typical Washington politician” has been gradual. He first started going weak in the knees about gun control after then-Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., was shot in 2011. Manchin voiced second thoughts about the “Dead Aim” campaign ad he had run a few months earlier. Filed under: Hunting & Guns and Media and News & Politics and Video and West Virginia Comments: 1 Comment |
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Posted on 02.26.13 by Danny Glover @ 11:01 pm
Vice President Joe Biden made news last week for advising American women to “buy a shotgun” for protection instead of an AR-15 semiautomatic rifle with a high-capacity magazine — the kind of gun Biden and others want to ban. “You don’t need an AR-15 — it’s harder to aim, it’s harder to use, and in fact you don’t need 30 rounds to protect yourself. … Buy a shotgun,” Biden said. “Buy a shotgun.” Let’s put that theory to a video test and see what happens: No wonder the woman who asked the question that prompted Biden’s response called it “sexist” and “the poorest advice he could give anyone.” Filed under: Hunting & Guns and Just For Laughs and News & Politics and Video Comments: None |
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Posted on 02.23.13 by Danny Glover @ 9:32 pm
We don’t want our children to have to wonder whether they’re sharing bathrooms with boys who think they’re girls or girls who think they’re boys. That’s precisely the scenario students in Massachusetts (and their disapproving parents) now face thanks to rules that refuse to acknowledge gender realities:
“[We're] going to have to go to individual rooms to keep things from getting out of hand or uncomfortable for someone any way you look at it,” a Facebook friend of mine noted. All the more reason to home-school, where individual bathrooms are the norm. (Read previous “Why We Home-School” lessons.) Filed under: Culture and Education and Why We Home-School Comments: None |
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Posted on 02.09.13 by Danny Glover @ 5:50 pm
Or at least that’s how the reptile-loving elitists who live with snakes and alligators and other creatures in Florida year round see the Python Challenge that is about to end. Snooty university snake researchers apparently feel the same way. “Look at all the yahoos coming down here,” one of them said when explaining why the Python Challenge has been a bit of a bust. To put this episode of redneck- and yahoo-bashing in ironic perspective, let’s take a closer look at one of the members of the South Florida Herpetological Society mentioned in the first story linked above:
Talk about throwing stones from glass houses! People who cuddle with Caiman crocodiles and play with snakes for a living really have no credibility to be hurling insults at python-hunting rednecks. Filed under: Hatin' On Rednecks and Hunting & Guns and News & Politics and Rednecks and Wildlife Comments: None |
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Posted on 02.02.13 by Danny Glover @ 3:53 pm
Millions of Americans fear that President Obama is going to infringe their Second Amendment right to bear arms. Guns and ammunition have been selling so fast that Walmart is now rationing them to address the demand. Obama wants to restrict access to guns, but he first he has to win the PR battle. That’s why he’s talking about how he shoots skeet “all the time” at Camp David — and why he released a photo to appease the skeptics who doubt that claim. Sorry, Mr. President, firing a shotgun occasionally won’t earn you any street cred among rednecks who cling to their guns ever tighter when politicians like you start plotting to weaken gun rights. You’re no Paul Ryan. Update: The picture of Obama as skeet-shooter-in-chief is great ammunition for Photoshop fun. Here are a couple of spoofs from my Facebook news feed today: Filed under: 1980s and Business and Culture and Hunting & Guns and Media and News & Politics and People and Photography and Rednecks Comments: None |
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Posted on 01.02.13 by Danny Glover @ 7:30 am
Seventeen years ago when my wife and I moved to Manassas, Va., this ink-stained wretch found himself in the heart of a newspaper boom town. With a population of less than 35,000 at the time, Manassas was the target audience of three local daily newspapers, the Manassas Journal Messenger, Potomac News and Prince William Journal. The Washington Post also had a small local bureau in the city. The Internet revolution was in its infancy then, but as the news editor of Congressional Quarterly’s BillWatch legislative database, I had transitioned into the digital space and was an early convert to the gospel of digital media. I wanted to believe that daily print newspapers had a future but was skeptical. The move to Manassas gave me hope. My hope for daily newspapers, at least as we old-timers know them in newsprint, died on Sunday, Dec. 30, 2012. That was the last day of publication for the News & Messenger, the product of an Oct. 13, 2008, merger between the Journal Messenger and Potomac News.
World Media Enterprises, owned by Warren Buffet, who has been buying newspapers across America for two years, blamed the demise of the News & Messenger on bad business conditions. “We do not see a long-term viable way to maintain a daily news operation here,” the company said upon announcing the decision in mid-November. So Manassas is starting the New Year without its own daily newspaper, ending an era that dates to at least 1869 when the Journal Messenger started publishing. “We can only hope that the existing papers among us ratchet up their daily coverage of our community in our sudden absence,” the News & Messenger said in its farewell editorial. My friend Mark Tapscott, who once served as editor of the Prince William Journal and who now serves as executive editor of the Washington Examiner that absorbed the Journal Newspapers in 2004, shared his thoughts with me on the closing of the News & Messenger. “The biggest puzzler here,” he said, “is how a county of 400,000 people doesn’t have sufficient demand to support at least one newspaper or website devoted to local news.” The good news is that we may. While we in Manassas won’t have our own daily newspaper anymore, the larger Prince William County will have two weekly newspapers and two websites covering local news in the future. Filed under: Advertising and Business and History and Media and News & Politics and Social Media Comments: None |
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