Right Wing Nation

Barely two months after the last of the election signs from that last election finally came down, they started sprouting up again–and they’re everywhere. Great. And whoever heard of a primary where you have to do more research on candidates than a regular election? Well, that’s exactly what we have coming up Tuesday. Take a look (the Republican ballot):

Justice of the Supreme Court

Paul P. Panepinto
Maureen E. Lally-Green
Mike Krancer

Judge of the Superior Court

Bruce F. Bratton
Cheryl Lynn Allen
Jacqueline O. Shogan

Judge of the Court of Common Pleas

R. Bruce Manchester
Steven F. Lachman (This is the bozo that wants to send criminals to knitting class instead of locking them up. His flyers say he’s an Independent, so what’s he doing on the Republican ballot?)
Jonathan Grine
Pamela A. Ruest
Stephen P. Sloane

All I know is I’m voting for the judge who wants to toss criminals in jail and throw away the key. I’ll have to do some looking around to figure out who that is (for each race).

County Commissioner

Sue Mascolo
Chris Exarchos
Steven Dershem
Andrew A. Sicree

I’m skipping the ones that have only one candidate running.

Sheriff

Doug Kalmbach
Paul Stamm
Bill Kuzio

If you read this, you know how I’m voting in the general election. Course, this is the primary, so he’s not on the ticket. I like Kalmbach’s platform, but I’m going to find out which one is the idiot who criticized Nau for not buying new vehicles and not vote for him. I figure I can wean the choices down by elimination. And the Democrats have the good sense not to run anybody against Nau.

Register of Wills

Do we really need a special office just to handle wills? In Indiana, the County Clerk does that. And from all the flyers and visits to the house, you’d think this was some kind of important race. Sheesh. Having said that, I’m voting for Gable, only because I don’t care who wins, and I’ve met him–he’s the guy who explained the bizarre way local government works in this state.

Kim Barton
Charles R. Gable
Mary Lisko

District Judge

Drew Clemson
Leslie Dutchcot
Robert W. Stewart
Craig Q. Rose
Lynn Herman

Stop the presses! Lynn Herman was the state rep when we moved here. He voted for the pay raise, saw the writing on the wall, decided not to run–and then (surprise, surprise) his handpicked successor lost the election. So now, he’s running for district judge–I guess because judges can keep their pay raises (or so the state supreme court decided). And get this. His campaign slogan is, “Who better to judge violations of our laws than the person who wrote them?” Stop it! You’re killin me, Lynn baby! Idiot.

School Director at Large

There are nine running, and I can only vote for five. Now, I wouldn’t usually care much, except for the crap the current school board has been pulling (see here for everything you need to know about the high school scandal, and more). There’s a story about the candidates in the local rag. All I know is that I want the incumbent bozos out.

You’re going to love the school district referendum (for the reasons behind it, here:

Act 1 School District Referendum

“Do you favor the State College area school district imposing an additional 0.7% earned income tax? The revenue generated from the increased tax rate will be used to reduce school district taxes on qualified residential properties by an estimated $378.00. The current school district earned income tax rate is 0.95%.”

Guess how I’m going to vote. Go ahead. Guess.

UPDATE: Right after I posted this, I got email from the (hold my nose) State GOP, which says, “REMEMBER TO VOTE LALLY-GREEN AND KRANCER FOR SUPREME COURT; AND BRATTON AND SHOGAN FOR SUPERIOR COURT NEXT TUESDAY, MAY 15th, 2007,” and yes, in all caps. I guess that makes things easier–well, a little. I’ll just have to figure out which of the state selected candidates to vote against.

You know, those scalloped potatoes in a box aren’t bad, provided you doctor them (cream, not milk, increase the butter, add the obligatory ham), but whether it’s due to the boxed potatoes or something else, the venerable dish has seemingly fallen into the cracks. And you see all kinds of crap served as scalloped potatoes when you do see them. No, scalloped potatoes do not contain cheese. No, scalloped potatoes do not contain Campbell’s soup, or carrots, or celery. And perhaps most importantly, no, scalloped potatoes are not “vegetarian.” So here is how God Almighty eats scalloped potatoes. Try them, and you’ll see why.

Country Scalloped Potatoes

6 medium potatoes
3 T. each: butter and flour
1 large sweet onion, chopped
4 oz. ham, diced
1 c. each: milk and cream
1/4 t. dried mustard
salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 350 and lightly grease a large baking dish.

Peel potatoes; rinse well then slice thinly (hint: the food processor is good at this). In a saucepan over medium heat, melt butter. Add onions, turn heat down to low, and sauté for 5 minutes, until beginning to soften (but not until transparent). Raise heat to high, stir in flour until smooth. Add milk and cream. Cook, stirring, until thick and bubbly. Stir in mustard, ham, and salt and pepper to taste. Mix the potatoes and sauce in the baking dish, cover, and bake for 45 minutes. Uncover, and bake for an additional 20 minutes, until potatoes are tender and the top is nice and brown. Cheese? Are you kidding? (When I was a kid, I preferred au gratins to scalloped, but I grew up. Cheese is a frivolous distraction.)

I found these comparative data on homeschooling (1999 and 2003) at the NCES site. First, the national data for the two years (number and percentage of school-age children homeschooled):

It’s hardly surprising, given the nonsense paraded as education, that the percentage of homsechooled kids increased by 0.5% between 1999 and 2003. Nor is this:

I’ve never done it, but I feel certain that homeschooling is a lot of work, far easier for two parents than one. As I said, not surprising, but the rest of the data are:

Like I said, homeschooling has to be a lot of work, so I’d expect to see a higher percentage of homeschooling households with one, or even two chidren. Yet, by far the largest cohort have three or more children. This only appears surprising at first glance:

The initial question is why there aren’t more households in the top two income brackets homeschooling. The answer is, of course, that they can afford expensive private schools. However, note that between 1999 and 2003, the number of households homeschooling increased in those top two brackets, by 5% and 4.3%, respectively. In 1999, homeschooling truly was a middle-class phenomenon. The data show that it is spreading.

This, however, is surprising:

The first surprising thing is that the more educated the parents are, the less likely they are to homeschool (there are possible reasons for this, but I’ll get to that in a minute). The second surprising thing is that between 1999 and 2003, parents who have a high school diploma or less form the only group that has increased (there are also possible reasons for this). The only educational group that has remained stable between the two years are the parents who have a Bachelor’s degree (25.1% and 25%).

The more educated the parents are, the less likely they are to homeschool their kids. So does this mean that more educated parents are less concerned about their childrens’ education? I doubt it. The more educated parents are, the more likely they are to have decent-paying jobs, and decent-paying jobs tend to require more work, both outside and inside the home. Therefore, part of this may be due to simple pragmatism. Also, a trip to any number of parent edublogs (most of whom represent the top two educational levels) shows that while they may not be homeschooling their children, they are working with their children and supplementing their education (the level of frustration with the local school system and educational system in general on these blogs tends to be quite high). Some, such as this parent blogger, are working their children through whole alternative curricula.

The increase in the number of parents with high school diplomas or less who are homeschooling their children also has a possible explanation. Where is the highest concentration of both parents with a high school education or less and the poorest (and most dangerous) schools? Unfortunately, the NCES does not include these data, so I cannot check if there was a similar increase in inner city families homeschooling their kids, so that will have to remain speculative.

Finally, here are the reasons parents homeschool (2003):

The primary reason, then, is a concern about the environment of the schools (obviously, both the dissatisfaction of instruction and moral instruction are also important). Do you think it might be time for the schools (and state and federal governments) might reconsider all the "student rights and privacy" policies they’ve set in place? Perhaps it’s time for the schools to take discipline back, eh?

Wal-Mart gives over four million dollars to Teacher of the Year winners.

The moonbats are slobbering all over themselves because, and I quote:

On Monday, Rep. Ted Poe took to the House floor to discuss foreign policy matters. To make a point, the Texas Republican invoked the words of Civil War Confederate Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest: “Git thar fustest with the mostest.”

The quotation got some floor watchers’ attention pretty quickly. Forrest is a controversial figure who was one of the Klan’s first grand wizards. Although the Civil War hero (if you were a Confederate, that is) ultimately abandoned the Klan for its violent tactics, he continues to kick up dust.

Nice try, kiddes, but there are two problems:

1. Forrest never said it.
2. Robert Byrd.

Maybe you’d better sue that university for the “People of Color Studies” degree they conned you into getting.

In two days, two politicians have demonstrated their ignorance. First, the Silky Pony:

Democrat John Edwards said Tuesday that he worked for a hedge fund between presidential campaigns to learn about financial markets and their relationship to poverty

Then, Obama:

Barack Obama, caught up in the fervor of a campaign speech Tuesday, drastically overstated the Kansas tornadoes death toll, saying 10,000 had died.

The death toll was 12.

I guess both of them went to one of those “creative” schools where they do lots of macaroni art projects.

The Carnival of Education is posted!

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