Five Favorite NBA players

Here my all time favorite most underrated basketball players, in no particular order:

1) Manu Ginobili
2) Scottie Pippen
3) Robert Horry
4) George Gervin (the Iceman)
5) Tony Parker

None of them are playing in the NBA playoffs as of today, now that the San Antonio Spurs are eliminated.

Gelato! Soldiers make a living by dying....

We went to the Jonquil Festival today. My wife took this picture in front of a Gelato place in the Market Village. We can't wait until the Publix under-construction around the corner is finished. Right now we go to Kroger or the other stores about 7 minutes away.

Anyway, here are my thoughts about the deal with gun control. Yesterday, a UGA professor shot and killed 3 people at the Town and Gown Community theater in Athens, GA which is about 80 miles from here. Just about an hour ago, there were news of another shooter and killer in Virginia. What is common denominator in all of these murders? Guns with bullets in them. Guns don't kill people! Really? Tell that to the families of those victims. Why do people glorify and honor a piece of metal that has one purpose for existing, which is to kill another being so much? We don't need any more gun control any more than we need to control alcohol or drugs or cigarettes, but what we do need is to expose the unnecessary glorifications and glamorization of the gun culture in America. Children think that guns are the bomb and violence is way cool. Foolishness! Many adults still think that we should honor the military and the people in the Army, Air Force, Marines or Navy. Why? Shouldn't we honor the people who really help build our society up by educating our children, or the doctors or nurses who heal the sick, or even the policemen,firemen, and garbage men and women who are working hard every day to make a living. The real heroes in my book are artists, teachers, musicians, and writers. They don't make a living by dying or by killing other human beings. We need to stop this gun phallic obsession culture and the military mentality in America. And about the 2nd amendment or this right to bear arm bullcrap, please, if you really value a piece of cold metal over a living breathing human being, then, I doubt if you ever have a soul to begin with.

Earth Day Smearth day

Hail storm in 80 degrees weather

Ahh, a little hail storm in Georgia in the springtime. Love this weather, good thing I decided not to go play basketball outside at the park down the street.
Listen to the sounds of the quarter sized hail hitting the roof.

Teabaggers AKA America-Love it or Die

I heart the IRS

Easter 2009

Good Friday is redundant.

I still think that Tyler Hansbrough is the most over-rated college player of all time.
North Carolina was the most boring team in this year's final four. I thought this was Villanova's year, but oh, well. Gonzaga was my pick to win it all, so what do I know.

Why make art? Why do we need art?

(From Greater Good Magazine, UC Berkeley)
WINTER 2009 Volume V, Issue 3

Arts and Smarts
At a time when educators are preoccupied with standards, testing, and the bottom line, some researchers suggest the arts can boost students' test scores; others aren't convinced. Karin Evans asks, What are the arts good for?

When poet and national endowment for the Arts Chairman Dana Gioia gave the 2007 Commencement Address at Stanford University, he used the occasion to deliver an impassioned argument for the value of the arts and arts education.

"Art is an irreplaceable way of understanding and expressing the world," said Gioia. "There are some truths about life that can be expressed only as stories, or songs, or images. Art delights, instructs, consoles. It educates our emotions."
For years, arts advocates like Gioia have been making similar pleas, stressing the intangible benefits of the arts at a time when many Americans are preoccupied with a market–driven culture of entertainment, and schools are consumed with meeting federal standards. Art brings joy, these advocates say, or it evokes our humanity, or, in the words of my 10–year–old daughter, "It cools kids down after all the other hard stuff they have to think about."

Bolstering the case for the arts has become increasingly necessary in recent years, as school budget cuts and the move toward standardized testing have profoundly threatened the role of the arts in schools. Under the No Child Left Behind Act, passed in 2002, the federal government started assessing school districts by their students' scores on reading and mathematics tests.

As a result, according to a study by the Center on Education Policy, school districts across the United States increased the time they devoted to tested subjects—reading/language arts and math—while cutting spending on non–tested subjects such as the visual arts and music. The more a school fell behind, by NCLB standards, the more time and money was devoted to those tested subjects, with less going to the arts. The National Education Association has reported that the cuts fall hardest on schools with high numbers of minority children.

And the situation is likely to worsen as state budgets get even tighter. Already, in a round of federal education cuts for 2006 and 2007, arts education nationally was slashed by $35 million. In 2008, the New York City Department of Education's annual study of arts education showed that only eight percent of the city's elementary schools met the state's relatively rigorous standards for arts education—and the city's schools are now facing a $185 million budget cut this year.

For 2009, the nonprofit Center for Budget and Policy Priorities forecasts budget shortfalls in 41 states. California, ranked last among the states in per capita support for the arts, is considering $2 billion of additional cuts to K–12 education. Josef Norris, a grant–supported artist who creates murals with kids in San Francisco's public schools, says he has worked with classes where fifth graders have never picked up a paintbrush or handled a lump of clay.

Given such stiff fiscal and political challenges, some arts advocates have felt pressured to bolster their arguments. Afraid that art won't be able to stand on its own merits, such advocates have sought whatever evidence they can find to argue that art contributes to measurable gains in learning—which, in the No Child Left Behind world, means boosting a school's academic test scores in literacy and mathematics.

And in fact, advocates have gotten a recent lift from new research in several scientific fields. For the first time ever, for example, scientists have used sophisticated brain imaging techniques to examine how music, dance, drama, and the visual arts might positively affect cognition and intelligence. Such work, the researchers claim, is a crucial first step toward understanding whether art can actually make people smarter in ways that can be measured.

But other arts advocates say that's the wrong way to go. Skeptical of some claims of the art–boosts–smarts camp, they instead support a line of research that explores the benefits that are unique to the arts. Let art do what art can do best, they say, and let the mathematics class take care of itself. And so the debate goes on, focused on a question that has long concerned parents, educators, and policy makers alike: What are the arts good for?

The Mozart controversy
The focus on art's contribution to academics came to wide attention in the 1990s, after researchers from the University of California, Irvine, reported in the journal Nature that college students who listened to 10 minutes of Mozart before taking certain parts of an intelligence test improved their scores—a finding that came to be known as the "Mozart Effect."

Before long, parents who heard about the research were playing Mozart to their babies, the governor of Georgia was handing out classical music tapes to parents of newborns, and companies were springing up to package music for parents eager to bolster their children's brain power.

The Mozart Effect research had some clear limitations: It involved only college–age students, and the improved test scores held up only for 15 minutes following the musical experience. After witnessing the strong reaction to their results, the researchers themselves were compelled to write a rejoinder in 1999, pointing out that they had never claimed that "Mozart enhances intelligence."

Still, whether the hard evidence was there or not, the popular assumption took hold that there was a connection. According to a 2006 Gallup poll, 85 percent of Americans believed participation in school music was linked to better grades and higher test scores.

After the study on the Mozart Effect was published, other researchers tried to substantiate a connection between arts participation and improved cognitive and academic skills. For instance, James S. Catterall, a professor at UCLA's Graduate School of Education and Information Studies, reported in a 1999 paper that middle and high school students with strong involvement in theater or music scored an average of 16 to 18 percentage points higher on standardized tests than those with low arts involvement.

"It's true that students involved in the arts do better in school and on their SATs than those who are not involved," write researchers Lois Hetland and Ellen Winner of the Harvard Graduate School of Education, in an article that appeared in the Boston Globe in 2007. However, they point out, correlation doesn't add up to causation: It's quite possible that kids involved in the arts are the ones getting good grades in the first place.

In a landmark survey called REAP—Reviewing Education and the Arts Project—Hetland and Winner examined the research supporting arts education. Their findings, released in 2000, were controversial. They revealed that in most cases there was no demonstrated causal relationship between studying one or more art forms and improved cognitive skills in areas beyond the arts.

"We found inconclusive evidence that music improves mathematical learning and that dance improves spatial learning," reported the researchers. "We found no evidence that studying visual arts, dance, or music improves reading." They continued.

That leaves our most controversial finding. We amassed no evidence that studying the arts, either as separate disciplines or infused into the academic curriculum, raises grades in academic subjects or improves performance on standardized verbal and mathematics tests. ... Our analysis showed that children who studied the arts did no better on achievement tests and earned no higher grades than those who did not study the arts.

Their findings, the researchers said, were greeted with anger. "One scholar told us that we should never have asked the question, but having done so, we should have buried our findings," Hetland and Winner later wrote. "We were shaken." Some critics claimed that their report had shortchanged the effects of art on academics. But the researchers stuck to their conclusions. Furthermore, they cautioned, justifying the arts on the basis of unreliable claims would ultimately do more harm than good.

Arts and the brain
In 2004, in an attempt to sort out the facts, the Dana Foundation, a private philanthropic organization, took on the question: Are smart people drawn to the arts or does arts training make people smarter? Under the leadership of neuroscientist Michael S. Gazzaniga, the Dana Arts and Cognition Consortium assembled neuroscientists and cognitive scientists from seven universities to study whether dance, music, theater, and visual arts might affect other areas of learning—and how.

After more than three years of research, the results of the $2.1 million project were published in March of 2008 in a report titled "Learning, Arts, and the Brain." Several studies in the report suggested that training in the arts might be related to improvements in math or reading skills. In one of these studies, a University of Oregon team, headed by psychologist Michael Posner, observed the brain activity of children four to seven years old while they worked on computerized exercises intended to mimic the attention–focusing qualities of engaging in art. The researchers concluded that the arts can train children's attention, which in turn improves cognition.

In another Dana consortium study, Elizabeth Spelke, a neuropsychologist at Harvard University, looked at the effects of music training in children and adolescents and found a "clear benefit": Children who had intensive music training did better on some geometry tasks and on map reading. Stanford University psychologist Brian Wandell and colleagues used brain–imaging techniques to study how a certain part of the brain might be influenced by musical activities. He found that students ages 7 to 12 who received more musical training in the first year of the study showed greater improvements in reading fluency over the next two years. Wandell reports that phonological awareness—or the ability to distinguish between speech sounds, which is a predictor of early literacy—was correlated with music training and could be tracked with the development of a specific brain pathway.

Overall, the Dana report didn't go so far as to prove that arts training directly boosts cognitive and academic skills; it offered no concrete evidence that art makes kids smarter. But the project did tighten up the correlations that had been noted before, laying the groundwork for future research into causal explanations. In his introduction to "Learning, Arts, and the Brain," Gazzaniga frames the report as an important first step. "A life–affirming dimension is opening up in neuroscience," he writes. "To discover how the performance and appreciation of the arts enlarge cognitive capacities will be a long step forward in learning how better to learn."

Though Gazzaniga and his Dana Consortium colleagues were quite measured in their assessment, many advocates interpreted the report's results as support for their cause. "Arts Education Linked to Better Brain Activity," read a headline on the website of the Arizona Commission on the Arts after the report was released. A California State PTA newsletter directed parents and teachers to the report, telling them to "find out about the strong links between arts education and cognitive development."

Around the same time in 2008, the advocacy group Americans for the Arts launched a series of public service announcements aimed at encouraging parents to "feed their children the arts" with images of bowls of "Raisin Brahms" or "Van Goghurt" for breakfast, linked to promises that the arts lead to "increased test scores, better creative thinking, patience, and determination." Even Barack Obama's presidential platform, which promised a reinvestment in arts education and professed a broad belief in art's value, fell back, at least partly, on the academic benefits rationale: "Studies show that arts education raises test scores."

But many arts researchers and advocates have reacted strongly against efforts—in research, among advocacy groups, or in schools—that overemphasize the link between the arts and academic proficiency.

Jessica Hoffmann Davis, a cognitive developmental psychologist and founder of the Arts in Education Program at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, has long been one of these voices. "It is not by arguing that the arts can do what other subjects already do (or do better) that a secure place can be found for the arts in education," she writes in her recent book, Why Our Schools Need the Arts. "We have been so driven to measure the impact of the arts in education that we began to forget that their strength lies beyond the measurable."

In an interview, she adds, "No Child Left Behind has sapped the energy and passion out of our classrooms. It's a malaise. Standardized testing is leaving everyone behind—teachers and kids—with this heavy preoccupation on what we can measure."

Another leading expert on the arts, Howard Gardner, a professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, went so far in an interview as to call it an "American disease" to try to justify the arts in terms of benefits for other disciplines. No one, says Gardner, argues that students should take math because it will make them perform better in music.

Education of vision
So what are the arts good for?
In 2007, Hetland and Winner published a book, Studio Thinking: The Real Benefits of Visual Art Education, that is so far one of the most rigorous studies of what the arts teach. "Before we can make the case for the importance of arts education, we need to find out what the arts actually teach and what art students actually learn," they write.

Working in high school art classes, they found that arts programs teach a specific set of thinking skills rarely addressed elsewhere in the school curriculum—what they call "studio habits of mind." One key habit was "learning to engage and persist," meaning that the arts teach students how to learn from mistakes and press ahead, how to commit and follow through. "Students need to find problems of interest and work with them deeply over sustained periods of time," write Hetland and Winner.

The researchers also found that the arts help students learn to "envision"—that is, how to think about that which they can't see. That's a skill that offers payoffs in other subjects, they note. The ability to envision can help a student generate a hypothesis in science, for instance, or imagine past events in history class.

Other researchers have identified additional benefits that are particular to the arts. In Why Our Schools Need the Arts, Davis outlines many of these benefits, including the quality of empathy. "We need the arts because they remind children that their emotions are equally worthy of respect and expression," she said in an interview. "The arts introduce children to connectivity, engagement, and allow a sense of identification with, and responsibility for, others." As a young researcher, Davis once asked adults, children of varying ages, and professional artists to draw emotions such as happiness, sadness, and anger. She found that even very young children could communicate those emotions through drawing. In fact, she observes, "The arts, like no other subject, give children the media and the opportunity to shape and communicate their feelings."

Elliot Eisner, an emeritus professor of art and education at Stanford University and a longtime leader in the field, has emphasized the subtle but important ways the arts can enhance thinking—the ability to use metaphor, for example, or the role of imagination. "These are outcomes that are useful," says Eisner, "not only in the arts, but in business and other activities where good thinking is employed."

At last year's annual convention for the National Art Education Association, Eisner told the crowd, "In the arts, imagination is a primary virtue. So it should be in the teaching of mathematics, in all of the sciences, in history, and indeed, in virtually all that humans create."

"To help students treat their work as a work of art is no small achievement," he added. "Given this conception, we can ask how much time should be devoted to the arts in school? The answer is clear: all of it."

An "education of vision" is also high on Eisner's list of benefits. "You want to help youngsters really see a tree or urban landscape or an apple. It's one of the things they can do the rest of their lives."

Such elusive, immeasurable benefits of the arts may, in fact, be among the most valuable. "At this time when we are facing the threat of the reduction of learning to testable right and wrong answers," says Davis, "we might say the most important thing about arts learning is that it features ambiguity and respect for the viability of different perspectives and judgments."

But perhaps most significantly, Davis argues that the arts can engage children who might not otherwise be reached by academics. In fact, an increasing amount of attention is being focused on the benefits of the arts for at–risk youth.

For instance, when a program called the YouthARTS Development Project, a partnership involving the National Endowment for the Arts and the U.S. Justice Department, engaged at–risk youth in art programs, it found that the participants showed an increased ability to work with others and finish tasks, and showed better attitudes toward school, fewer court referrals, and improved self–esteem.

"Folks are responding to the deficits in schools by saying, 'Bring in the arts,'" says Davis. "Ironically that's what we've always done with individual kids, always turned to the arts as a kid was about to drop out of school. We have always known that arts will save the day, but now the day is so bleak that we have a national charge to do what arts do best—to provide energy and spirit and excitement and community."

In San Francisco, artist Josef Norris has seen evidence of this claim first–hand. When he worked with children to create a mural at an inner–city school, the project was integrated into a unit on California history and immigration. Every single child in the class had a parent or grandparent who'd been born in another country, says Norris, and each child made a tile depicting some aspect of his or her family's history.

"Kids who are struggling academically can get hooked," he says. "You live for the moments when the kids shine—when a pathologically shy girl shows up for mural making on a Saturday morning and stays all day long. Or when a child paints a tile about his family, then brings his grandmother to the unveiling of the mural and says proudly, 'I made that.'"

Art is food for the soul and nourishment for the mind.

Lie to us!

Rush Limbaugh is a still a big fat idiot.

Things said by kids in my classroom today:

"Sometimes I fall asleep just thinking about sleeping." third grader

"That's a nice picture, Mr. N. Are you going to show your mom that?" Kindergartner, of course.

"You're a winner. Not!" Fourth grader

It's Snowin' in Jo Ja

Slumdog Governor

More like ScumBag Governor of Louisiana

New cartoons

Yes I can

Separated at Birth

Farewell, Adios, So Long MoFo

My Predictions for the NFL Playoffs

Ravens 24 - Steelers 13

Cardinals 38- Eagles 20

We will see about the Super Bowl prediction after tomorrow night.

Slumdog Overkill Millionaire

Kathy and I saw SlumDog Millionaire at an independent movie theatre in Asheville, North Carolina a few weeks back while we were on the Christmas break.
I read some reviews and saw some hyped-up ads in the paper and on TV so we went and see this way overrated film instead of Milk. Plus, MILK was sold out. It was a captivating story but in the end the movie felt fake, forced, mechanical, noisy and overly sentimental, kinda like Forest Gump on steroids. Especially to an Asian like me, the movie was racist, exploitative and demeaning to Indians and South Asians. There were a lot of gratuitous violence, murders, explosions, and cheesy car chases. Yeah, I know it was a fantasy or a modern day fairy tale...I also failed to see where the humor was in this movie. Have you seen any other of Danny Boyle's previous films? I thought so. The Beach was a horrendous effort. Trainspotting was pretentious. This director definitely takes himself way too seriously. I prefer Gus Van Sant or the Cohen Brothers or even Woody Allen.

I do understand why the white American public would love this exotic, Bollywood-style, faux-hip MTV editing and self-indulgent glamorizing violence -that is why it just won a bunch of awards at the Golden Globe last night. Who cares? I hated the predictable typical Hollywood happy ending. Oh, and I hope people realize that the dance sequence at the end credits- that's typical of all Bollywood movies, so it's not that earth-shattering or revolutionary according to some of these reviews from major newspapers and magazines. Stereotypical, over-the-top, and catering to the Western mindset. Pretentious entertainment is my final verdict.

Not the worst movie I ever seen but it probably will win the Oscars just like Titanic (one of my all time least favorites).

Oppose Sanjay Gupta for Surgeon General

Oppose Sanjay Gupta for Surgeon General

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Super Boring Bowl

* Oh Well, you win some and you lose some.
My SD Chargers went as far as they possibly can. They lost to the Steelers tonight. Of all the remaining 4 teams, Pittsburg is the only one I would rather not like to make it to the SuperBowl. I would really love to see the Baltimore Ravens and the Arizona Cardinals play in the finals this year. Or maybe even the Philadelphia Eagles could win it all, I don't really care.

* This is my 7th year of teaching art in elementary school. Here are my 5 rules for an art teacher:

1) Know your stuff.
2) Know your students.
3) Do no harm.
4) Keep a sense of humor.
5) Don't think about it too much.

* Oh, no he didn't. Poor Stevy Stephen Colbert, your "Ching Chong Ding Dong man" is NOT funny dude! Always pickin' on the little yellow Asian man. When was the last time you made a racial joke about Hispanic or Native American or black people. Chicken Shit Mofo!

* Honk if you think I'm Jesus is one of my favorite bumper stickers that I still have. It's not on my car at the moment though.

Boooosshhhed!!!!

The Worst American presidents ever:

1. W
2. Dubya
3. GWB
4. Bush
5. Dick Cheney

San Diego Super Chargers !!!!

Yeahh Baby!!!
Down Go Manning and the Indy Colts. MVP my ass. Philip Rivers is the real MVP and why can't we wait until the end of the Super Bowl before announcing the Coach of the Year. Bring on the Steelers.
The Chargers had a horrendously tough season. I've watched them lost 4,5 gut-wrenching, heart-breaking close games that they fought hard for and almost had it until the last minute. These last 2 games were sweet and rewarding.

This is the disco classic Chargers theme song. Last night brought back memories from my high school days in San Diego in the early 80's. Remember Dan Fouts, Kellen Winslow and the Air Coryell era?

SAN DIEGO SUPER CHARGERS

New Year & Resolutions

1. Lighten up and take myself less seriously.

2. Be more patient.

3. Work out every day.

4. Listen more, Talk less.

5. Meditate

6. Laugh

7. Play

8. Make art for myself.

9. Be. Here. Now.

NFL Football Playoff picture

Wow, this was an interesting day in the NFL today! My current favorite team the Atlanta Falcons just made the playoff by winning over the Vikings in Minnesota. And I think the Falcons can actually win the NFC South next week if both Carolina and Tampa Pay lose again. What a bunch of miracles coming at the end of the season for my other two teams: Dallas and San Diego.

So, last night the Dallas Cowboys lost to the Baltimore Ravens which helped out the Falcons and today the San Diego Chargers beat the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and so all Atlanta had to do was win and they're in. The Chargers are still in it with a record of 7-8, and they can actually win the AFC West next week if they beat the Denver Broncos. Buffalo had to win in Denver to keep San Diego alive and they did.

Cowboys win next week against the Eagles and they will be in as a Wild Card. I must admit I almost gave up on the Chargers and the Cowboys a couple of weeks ago, but they've come back from the dead and are still fighting until the last week of the regular season. I would rather see anybody but these overrated teams in the Super Bowl: NY Giants, Pittsburgh, New England, Indianapolis and especially Denver.

Go Chargers!!!! Go Cowboys!!!

Merry XMAS , War is Over

Who you calling ILLEGAL Pilgrim?

"This problem with illegal immigration is nothing new. In fact, the Indians had a special name for it. They called it "White People." " Jay Leno

"My whole family has been having trouble with immigrants ever since we came to this country." Edgar Y. Harburg

"Remember, remember always that all of us, and you and I especially, are descended from immigrants and revolutionists." Franklin D. Roosevelt

The end of an Error

* I am so looking forward to January 20, 2009- Bush's last day in office: Just one of the many things to be grateful for this Thanksgiving. But really, I have 3 things to be thankful for: my wife Kathy, my health and my job.

* This month we have moved to our new place, this will be our sixth abode since I moved to Georgia 14 years ago. We also had to put down our beloved 21 year old Siamese cat Jasmine this week. She has been with us the entire 14 years as well.

* November is a special month for us. We celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary a couple of weeks ago. Actually Kathy and I met and have been living together since 1992, so 16 years.

* I am off next week for the Thanksgiving break, and then after that 3 more weeks of school until the Christmas break. This has got to be the fastest semester since I started teaching 6 years ago. It seems that the older I get every year has gotten shorter and shorter. Half of the school year has just gone by in a blur.

Country First = Fascism

Listen up now y'all. Are we supposed to listen and believe these foolish Republicans who created and managed this mess, this fiasco that we call an economy? Conservatives always blamed the helpless, the victims first and take credit for the good things that happened during their watch. Always. Always.

My fellow prisoners, if Bill Ayers is so evil than you have an obligation to go after his employers and his associates right now. This minute. Where is Bill Ayers and what is he doing right now? What are you waiting for McCain and Palin (AKA Main Pain)? You are NOT thinking of our country's security first if you are not going after Bill Ayers the terrorist. Or is it really because Ayers is not the issue. The issue is about McCain and the Republican party's insecurity so they need to raise doubt in voters' minds by scaring them. The usual fear tactic that has worked before in previous elections.

Looking back at my prediction for the outcome of this election from a previous post more than a month ago, I still stand by the 14 percent margin of victory for Obama. And by the way, I stand corrected Obama is actually as much WHITE as he is Black. He is half black and half white. The media loves the tension and the drama of the perceived closeness of the polls, but seriously folks, it ain't close. If you look at the electoral map, McCain will lose by over 100 votes, if not more. Not even close at all. I seriously think it will be a landslide.

Well, of course I also live in a country that voted for Boooosh not once but twice. Hey, guess what people, you got what you deserved. If you voted for Dumbya, then you are suffering the consequences. Stop whining and Stop blaming other people for your actions and bad choices. Country first, my ass. Country first, thinking second.

No Child Left A Dime

RELIGULOUS

In what respect, Charlie???

Turn out the lights, party's over for GOP

News Flash !!! Senor Juan Sydney McCain wants to suspend his campaign for the next 100 years. Too bad, you and GrandMa Palin came so close this time. May be you can try again in the year 2118.

But seriously, what happenned there Mister War Hero Numero Uno patriot? Chickened out at the last minute? Don't have the guts or the nerves to have a one on one debate with Barack Hussein Obama ? Too scare or more like too embarrassed about the current fiasco that the Republican party and the capitalist rich yuppies thugs who stole all the money and ran. Girlie Maaaaan.....

* New movies out this week:

1) Michael Moore's free "Slacker Uprising". I've already watched part of it last night. I was not that impressed and I am a big Michael Moore fan. His ego is almost as big as he is.

2) Chuck Palahniuk's "Choke", from one of my favorite authors. Fight Club is one of my top 10 movies of all time so I can't wait to see this one.

3) Bill Maher "Religulous", from one of my current favorite atheist comedians / talk show hosts. This one looks like a winner. Religions are ridiculous. Religious people are ridiculous and should be made fun of. Often. And Openly.

4) I will wait to see the Coen Brothers' "Burn After Reading" when it comes out on DVD. Their last effort was too uptight, too straightforward and unfunny. Of course it also was a big mainstream hit and even won the Oscar for best picture last year. I am ready for some old skool irreverent dark humor a la "Fargo".

5) That stupid piece of crapola "An American Carol" looks and sounds lame. You couldn't pay me enough to see it. OK, may be if you pay me about a million dollars.

The Con in conservative

I wanted to name our new kittens Kinko and Kinka, but my wife wanted to go with the artists' names so we settled for Pablo and Georgia (for Picasso and O'Keefe). Then last week I heard a kid from my school told me that he had a couple of cats named Kiko and Kika. Hey, great minds think alike. Our school has a population of around 80% Hispanic kids, and I finally got to meet all the students, all 688 of them this week. There is one Asian girl in the whole school. That makes two of us at this elementary school.

McCain in the Membrane

Insane in the membrane is Senor Johnny Sydney McCain. El Loco!!!




Go Russia Go!!! K G B #1 ! Putin' On the Ritz...

My Prediction

OK, we're 55 days from this year's presidential election. Here is my early prediction for the outcome. Obama, the first ever black president will win by a landslide: 14.9 % margin of victory. He will be the first Democratic candidate to win my state of Georgia since Jimmy Carter. He will also carry virtually all of Southern states with the exception of Florida and Texas.

Another bold one, Sarah "Lipstick Pitbull" Palin will resign from the VP nomination on October 19. She is pregnant with her sixth and seventh children: both homosexuals.

The Escalation AKA Surge

Make good choices and vote, vote, vote.

VOTE EARLY AND VOTE OFTEN.

Thoughts on current events

* Some public schools in Barrow County, Georgia want to teach the Bible in the classrooms. I say Sure, why not? It's one of the greatest works of fiction. Wonderful literature. I would also recommend teaching books from the other religions as well as atheist and agnostic works. And Pornography as Film History.

Soldiers in the military AKA Professional killers: How do you serve our country? What did VietNam ever do to our national security back in the 60's? Why did we invade Iraq, a country that had nothing to do with 9/11, had no WMDs, and no connection with Al-Quaeda? Not to mention no OSAMA BIN LADEN. The only military people I have respect for are the National Guard, who are actually doing something useful for the United States.

Anti-Abortionists AKA Pro-fetus: These people are hypocrites. They say that they are for the life of the fetus once it's inside the mother's womb (belonging to the woman and cannot survive without her), but once the baby is born they disregard them. Case in point, Sarah Palin and her 3-month old newborn infant. Family values, my ass!!! Where are your priorities? Your child needs you now more than ever but you don't care about that, do you? You could have say Thanks, but no thanks to the nomination like you claimed you said to "The Bridge to Nowhere".

About that Sarah Palin VP choice. What a joke! Now we got GrandPa McCain and GrandMa Palin on the GOP ticket. What a laugh riot! The woman can't even control her own daughter, and now she wants to run the country and be second in line for the leader of the free world. May be she should focus on being a mom first. Talk about a novice: her current experience include 20 month on the job as Gov. of a state with 600,000 people and her last job was the mayor of a town with 6000 people. If this is the best the Republicans can do, then we are in for a landslide, folks.

* And one more thing, I ain't YOUR FRIEND. So stop calling everyone "my friend" you moronic ex-con incompetent pilot war mongerer senile mofo. No you don't work for me, you work for the government of the United States of America. If you work for me, I would ask you to go get me a glass of water. Show me the money Johnny.

Green Acres is the place to be?

The new school year officially started here in Cobb County a couple of weeks ago.  Man, where did the time go? I just came back from a week in California.
I'm at a new elementary school this year and here is our theme song, sing to the tune of the TV show Green Acres, of course:

P-R-I-D-E, SPELLS PRIDE
P-R-I-D-E, SPELLS PRIDE
P-R-I-D-E, P-R-I-D-E, P-R-I-D-E, SPELLS PRIDE!

GREEN ACRES HAS A LOT OF PRIDE!
HERE WE LEARN BY STANDING, SIDE BY SIDE
RESPECTING DIFFERENCES IS WHAT WE DO,
GET READY TO EXCEED, YES ME AND YOU !!!