Ayn Rand SUCKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Let me first begin with how I was exposed to Ayn Rand. I am in high school and awhile back my teacher was doing a course on homelessness. In a ‘prompt’ that she gave me as to what are the causes of homelessness, I answered CAPITALISM. A week later I was astonished to get back my paper with a Zero. I showed this to many people all of whom agreed that it was in no way deserving of a zero. My dad and I took this question as to why I had gotten a zero on  my paper to the teacher. I wasn’t expecting much but even after one hour of asking my English teacher why I had gotten a zero on my paper she had no reasonable answer other than that I had not followed the ‘format’ correctly, even though I had a previous organizational sheet on which I based my writing on following her format. she ended by saying I was a horrible writer;  we gave up trying to get to through to such a numbskull.

I didn’t quite understand why she had given me a zero until a couple months later, and so began my experience with Ayn Rand. My teacher took us to get the book. As I read the summary I knew it would be some sort of method for her and d-11 to push their politics on students;  however I had no previous knowledge of who Ayn Rand was.  The next day in class she gave us a powerpoint on the background of Ayn Rand and what the book Anthem was about. It was filled with negative comments on communism including that communism supposedly takes away knowledge, individuality and free expression.   As I was assigned to read more and more of Ayn Rand I realized how horrible of a writer she was. I started to listen to Ayn Rand’s interviews. I then understood that  they were forcing me to read a writer who didn’t believe in helping anyone, because she was a racist, a nationalist and a pure evil witch. These interviews can be found on <youtube> and <bluecorncomics> among many other articles revealing Ayn Rand to be a racist.

The more and more I read into the book the more i was infuriated at the pure ridiculousness and hypocrisy of it.  In the ending chapters it is written by Ayn Rand that

“The word WE is the lime poured over me, which sets and hardens to stone, crushes all beneath it, and that which is white and that which is black are lost equally in the grey of it. It is the word by which the depraved steal the virtue of the good, by which the weak steal the might of the strong, by which the fools steal the wisdom of the sages. What is my joy if all hands, even the unclean, can reach into it? What is my wisdom if even the fools can dictate to me? What is my freedom, if all creatures, even the botched and the impotent, are my masters? What is my life, if I am but to bow, to agree and to obey?”

As i read this I wasn’t sure whether to laugh, throw up, or rip the book apart . I was sickened by how when I had expressed my “free speech” I was given a ZERO; by how I had to read an author who believes being selfish is  a virtue. And by how every day, whenever I went to class instead of being taught English literature I got the teachers Right Wing, anti-communist politics thrown into my face. Each time a question on the book was asked I didn’t hear an opinion on whether the book was good or bad i only heard questions on how communism takes away individuality and how  Ayn Rand is right on what her idea of what communism is? I said the teacher was expressing personal opinion and the whole class started to yell at me to shut up. I got so alienated and depressed after they  said that communism makes robots, and brain dead people  even though I couldn’t find more brain dead robots as hard as I looked than the ones that were sitting right next to me.

I couldn’t take the class anymore as it was an insult to who I was, what I believed in, and all the people I respected were continually insulted and lied about. I started skipping the class after my dad not only talked at a school board meeting but also to my assistant principal, in both cases we were given the cold shoulder and treated horribly rude. I decided to go to the class again and deal with it. As I read the quote given above in that class and as I looked around i became terrified of being like them. I was torn between staying and swallowing my believes and to be JUST LIKE THOSE SHEEP or to get up and leave. The overwhelming fear of being lost into them made me get up and walk out of the class. Later that day the assistant principal took me out of a class and made me feel like an outsider, like a weird person that needed to be put in a psychiatric hospital. I complained that I was being pushed politics in a public school and his response was that no other students felt like I did. When I told him that the teacher had given me a zero and was now failing me out of the course, who had said I was a horrible writer; he said He didn’t believe me and that I was wrong. He told me that if I was to walk out again I would have to deal with the consequences even though he wouldn’t deal with a teacher pushing politics.   He smiled as I cried for being  looked at as being an idiot and a weirdo kid ; it took me about two hours to get with it. We continued to try to get me switched out of the class, which finally we did only to find that Ayn Rand was being taught in that course too and  in all English classes for that matter.

I realize I will probably never get them to change, to respect students, parents and INDIVIDUALITY. But this  continuing fight which is probably the hardest I’ve ever had to fight proved to me that I would stand up for myself against a herd of flesh eating zombies, that I would NEVER BE LIKE THEM . And I felt pride in knowing I stood up to being brainwashed by  anti communist right wingers.

I know where Congressman Lamborn is – because no one is telling OR asking. Re: media blackout on junkets to Israel

Calls to Doug Lamborn’s office inquiring as to his whereabouts produces this charade: “Um, I don’t know. Let me ask. They don’t know. I’m not certain who would know. Could you hold please?” And we never get an answer. That his office won’t say, coupled with the media’s strange incuriosity, points to a self-enforced news moratorium on where a fifth of US congress is spending the August recess: as guests of Israel and the most powerful DC lobby. It’s been reported that a record 81 members are on an all-expense-paid junket to Israel, but their identities are a closely guarded secret. The US TV audience can be let to see their representatives give standing ovations to the Israeli prime minister, but visit Israel? The media blackout would have you think there’s something wrong with that.

Middle East peace groups and Palestinian rights organizations have had to painstakingly gather the information from stray news reports out of Israel, or from congressional offices reluctant to let it be know. So far 45 names are known to be on this year’s junket. Doug Lamborn is not on the list, but his office probably has a lower self-respect threshold for playing dumb.

You’d think with the recent furor about calling Obama a Tar Baby, that the media would want to be calling Lamborn to the hot seat. Apparently not. All that’s said is that he hasn’t surfaced to meet with constituents, or give interviews. Last week Lamborn issued a press release unrelated to his recent trouble, probably preplanned, in collaboration with fellow Colorado Congressman Tipton. Tipton, by the way, is among the officeholders known to be in Israel.

Lamborn vacationing in Israel would not be a far-fetched possibility. He attended the junket in 2007 and since then has acted on Israel’s behest in lobbying to drop charges against an accused Israeli spy, in removing legislation which prevented the US from relocating its Tel Aviv Embassy to Jerusalem, and this Spring Lamborn was made co-chair of the Israel Allies Caucus.

What a damn missed opportunity to press them on contacting Tar Baby Lamborn. It would appear that keeping the congressional Israeli lobbying junket on the QT outweighs making Lamborn squirm on camera to explain his non-racist remark. Never mind complicating the issue. What’s a racist WASP doing in the land of Apartheid racism? Well, of course, they’re absolutely related. Oooh, terrible timing. And Lamborn’s a Christian Zionist, so he “likes” Jews, but come the end times, he won’t touch them either.

How is it American elected officials are allowed to behave as agents of a foreign government would be one question, but the more glaring one would be why it is the media is complicit in keeping citizens in the dark?

Partial list of 81 US congressmembers on Israel junket over August recess, according to MoveOver AIPAC

Gus Bilirakis R-9 FL
Mo Brooks R-5 AL
Anne Marie Buerkle R-25 NY
Eric Cantor R-7 VA
Russ Carnahan D-3 MO
Kathy Castor D-11 FL
Steve Chabot R-1 OH (went last month)
Judy Chu D-32 CA
David Cicilline D-1 RI
Yvette Clarke D-11 NY
Mark Critz D- 12 PA
Scott DesJarlais R- 4 TN
Bob Dold R-10 IL (unconfirmed)
Jeff Duncan R-3 SC
Blake Farenthold R-27 TX
Stephen Fincher R-8 TN
Mike Fitzpatrick R-8 PA
Chuck Fleischman R-3 TN
John Garamendi D-10 CA
Kay Granger R-12 TX
Michael Grimm NY-13
Janice Hahn D-36 CA
Jaime Herrera Buetler R-3 WA
Steny Hoyer D-5 MD
Jesse Jr. Jackson D-2 IL
Hank Johnson D-4 GA
Kevin McCarthy CA-22
Gwen Moore D-4 WI
Bill Owens D-23 NY
Steven Palazzo R-4 MS
Ed Perlmutter D-7 CO
Tom Price R-6 GA
Tom Reed R-29 NY
Peter Roskam R-6 IL
Dennis Ross R-12 FL
Loretta Sanchez D-47 CA
David Schweikert R-5 AZ
Terri Sewell D-7 AL (not confirmed)
Adam Smith D-9 WA
Steve Southerland R-2 FLA
Betty Sutton D-13 OH
Scott Tipton R-3 CO
Allen West R-22 FL
Frederica Wilson D-17 FL
Kevin Yoder R-3 KS

District 11 Colorado Springs cutbacks get to rolling

I went to one of the District 11 cutback hearing meetings where the Administration pretends to solicit community input for decisions they pretty much already have planned to make, and shared the auditorium with about 700 other concerned but utterly confused folk. It’s cutback time here in the city since the School District put itself in a very deep hole taking out loans whose interest payments now eat up huge chunks of money.

At a little over $63 million interest service on loans per year, that adds up to 1/2 billion dollars over every 8 years by my calculations taken from the School Districts own data. See my earlier comments about these figures on the commentary here about district 11 school district corruption

One half billion dollars every 8 years in debt service? Good grief! One would think that it would get mentioned by somebody at least at these meetings, and it was fully my intention to bring it up.

In fact I did, as I was being kicked out of the school with my big sign that said… DISTRICT 11- GRADE F I was told that no signs were permitted on Private Property by the ten or so cops on the scene. What the Heck?

“I thought my kid was getting a public education,” I responded.

But in a country where torture is legal and legalisms are torture the public in this case is classified ‘private’ per the cops! When I try to take a sign into the City Council public meetings they tell me I can’t do it because it’s public property. That’s America for you, isn’t it? You can’t do it on public or private property, either one, if it has to do with Free Speech. Amazing how so few people actually know that about our Fantasy Land though! They seem to think that we’re in the land that guarantees that Free Speech flourishes! Not exactly, Folk. I had to put my sign away and then try to sign up as a speaker. I did and never got to speak.

So no signs, no flyers, no nothing. That was my 3 hours spent in the auditorium. You see, handing out flyers with info not controlled by the D-11 administrative team would amount to giving them actual input, the parents input, and the teachers input. But D-11 merely wants to pretend that it is asking for public input, not actually get it. I almost got arrested for clapping for one speaker while standing up! That”s how tightly run this charade actually was. I kind of feared getting tasered but merely got ordered to sit down instead! It was a super mannerly assembly.

I really ran into trouble, too, there when I said I was ‘pissed off to an Administrative type in the John, who then lectured me on language! He didn’t seem upset at all that the public was pissed off though, just that I used bad language! He looked so horribly angry at me… He and I were the only ones in the John.

Colorado Springs is just that type of city though with just that type of people. Many of those speaking said that their schools were just fabulous and that the District should close some other school down instead. The meeting was not exactly solidarity forever… lol… It did seem like boredom forever though. What a charade. We all love our schools..blah/blah/blah.

Jerry Heimlicher, Council Member District 3 got to speak next to the last one allowed, and used his time to say that he wanted to be a good partner with this school district management that is refusing to ‘fess up to the real reason they are putting up to 8 public schools on the chopping block. See More details on D-11 restructuring plans Good Ol’ Jerry, wants to play the team player with everybody since he’s always the consummate play liberal politician in town.

I caught Jerry going out the door where I verbally asked him why he didn’t expose the interest servicing that the School District was hiding away from telling the public about? After all it is the real reason for cutbacks being made, and not the pretend reasons which can be found here… ‘If your child goes to a District 11 school, that school could soon be closing. The district is looking at closing at least eight schools and re-configuring several others. They say lower enrollment and budget cuts are to blame.’ …at KKTV Parents Weigh In On Possible District 11 School Closures See how D-11 forgets to mention that $63 million per year servicing of debt interest payments that are the real cause of the distress?

Jerry said that he didn’t want to talk to me about it, and stiffly headed towards his car. Shame on all of the D-11 administrative hacks, and shame on Jerry Heimlicher too for covering up for their crooked asses! The children will suffer because of the banks pulling off this gigantic haul, and this is just the beginning of the school cutbacks that will be coming our way most soon enough. The city too is already cutting services, and the layoffs are a coming. Who’ll bail the people out? All we have are cons in office these days.

Colorado Springs District 11 School District corruption in plain view

school debt
Something called a ‘School Accountability Report’ came to my house in the mail last week. Let’s take a look at it, shall we?
 
How is Colorado Springs District 11 Administration doing with that $409,468,689 they spent on less than 30,000 students last year? That’s almost a half a billion dollars! That’s a lot of money!

First off, they spent 15% of that money ($63,437,095) on ‘servicing debt’ as they called it. Wow! Double WOW! These are the people in charge of teaching math to kids, too… and it is no wonder that so many of District 11 miseducated kids cannot hardly count, let alone add and subtract, multiply and divide. $63 million per year! What did it buy? Well, it bought nothing. It was spent on ‘debt service’!

Why in the world would this School District borrow money? After all, when school levies can raise hundreds of millions of dollars at a time, why not wait before spending our tax monies? Is that really so hard for these people to do? The answer is NO. So why did they go and put parents into hock like this with taxpayers’ money?

The answer is CORRUPTION. You see, the $63 million PLUS money paid out in interest annually is something that big financial corporations lobby to get. No need to go after the bottom dwellers (you and I) to get us to add on a credit card or two, when this sort of interest ‘servicing’ can be had by getting the School Board in bed with them.

Nobody questions necessary debt, but a taxing agency such as government can obtain money without borrowing it beforehand. That is something that should be called unnecessary debt when they borrow first. It’s unnecessary for us, but necessary for banks to get corrupt fools (the D-11 School Board Administrators) to line them up with them to get that $63 million annually. Yes, those School Board Administrators are corrupt, corrupted, and shameless, and back to the ‘School Accountability Report’ once again…

Those corrupt administrators pull off an average salary of over $40/ hour. That’s right. That’s an average. The corrupted administrators that passed these deals to have the D-11 public now paying off $63 PLUS million per year in ‘debt service’ made more than that average. Perhaps $50-$70 per hour? Perhaps the sky? Your guess as to that?

Many of these students at District 11 have parents making less than $10 an hour apiece. They support these corrupt School Administrators through their taxes, who then sign these sweetheart deals with financial institutions that then helps torpedo these parents’ kids from getting much of an education for that $11,289 operating revenue per kid spent by the district.

What’s the overall grade for this District 11 corruption? ‘Overall Academic Performance on State Assessments’ = AVERAGE. That’s what their own ‘accountability’ paper read. And ‘average’ for American education as a whole = BELOW WORLD AVERAGE. The math of it is so very sad.

Math score for District 11? F. The school district public’s $63 million PLUS per year paid out in ‘debt service’? Shame on them! These administrators are scamming us! And they’re scamming our kids, too! F———- that’s F minus. This country is sinking under this type of corruption!

Pushing computers on school children

playColorado Springs D-11 is one of the worst examples of pushing computers onto children in a mindless and destructive manner. I have seen children that are forced onto the computers as supposedly a form of tutoring there, and the children often respond by just shutting the material out altogether from their minds.

Nobody likes to be programed by computers it seems, but the D-11 Adminstrators haven’t figured that out. Or is it that teachers work and get paid for it, but computers don’t? Never mind the actual results here. Never mind the damage to children done. Computers are in, and teaching is not.

There is big money in pushing these computers onto the kids, and the Alliance for Childhood does a good job of exposing that at their website. Also their film, Where do the choildren play? will be shown next week Thursday 11-13-2008 at 7pm locally at the Mountain Park Environmental Center in Beulah. Worth a watch if you have the time and can get out there?

And here is another question? Where do the children play in Iraq?