Why I Love Wacko Conservatives -- Consider Elena Kagan

The conservative argument against the confirmation of Solicitor General Elena Kagan for the Supreme Court goes something like this:

1. She hasn't done anything.

2. What little she has done was all wrong in every way that something can be wrong.

3. She hates the military.

4. If she objects to the characterization in no. 3, she's a liar.

Look here, here, and here, too.

5. Finally, they say she's ugly.

“This Work Just Doesn’t Inspire Me!”

Do you really need some inspiration? Are your classes totally blah? Or could it just be you?

Inspiration is generally the result of hard work and continued
engagement with that hard work. There’s a Buddhist notion that if we find something boring, we should do it 278 times. This sort of full-on engagement will result in an inspiring revelation about whatever we once found boring.

It is a luxury to be able to "wait" for inspiration especially when we are
not working to evoke it. Think of Picasso: He wasn't “inspired” every
day, but he went to the studio every day because that was his job: to
make art.

I'm not "inspired" every day, but I come to school . . . every day.
And the glorious thing is that inspiration happens, like good luck, as
a result of design. Someone said that "good luck is the residue of
hard work." Same with inspiration.

We earn inspiration. We don't wait for it.

Okay, I've gotten all Protestant work ethic on you.

Regarding Discipline

Regarding Discipline: The etymology of the word focuses on the process by which we impart skills and ideas rather than on the skills and ideas themselves. Doctrine and Scholarship deal with the skills and ideas in the abstract. So discipline, rightly understood, is what we deal with more than anything else in the K-12 world. We are teachers, not scholars, and we teach kids, not subjects. Process, at this age, is as important as content. They’re not flawed little adults; they’re kids.

Kids have a measure of discipline. They have disciplined themselves in at least a few things. It has worked for them. Rewards and discipline -- carrot and stick. What would we replace these with?

We are constantly given to straying from healthier paths unless we have the self-discipline to stay true. Kids have less self-discipline. And they are bombarded by messages telling them to just f**k it, that only idiots work hard for . . . anything.

And yet, they know that they need to learn stuff and generally they do want to learn stuff. . . . just not necessarily at the same moment we want to teach it or in the place its being taught or in the proven manner in which it might be taught.

Sometimes kids say to me, “I’m not inspired, Greg! It’s hard to work when I’m not inspired!” And I know that, ideally, I’d like to be able to inspire every kid all the time. But inspiration doesn’t come easily and when it does come, it usually doesn’t come to a bunch of people at the same time. And those to whom it doesn’t come will regard their suddenly inspired peers as a little off balance and in need of being brought back down to the real doldrums of what we’re enduring. Inspiration is scandalous.



Inspiration is rare. If we all waited for inspiration, nothing would get done. If Picasso or Woolf or Ellington or Cassatt waited for inspiration every day, they wouldn’t have done a tenth of the work they did. A painter paints, an accountant accounts, a teacher teaches, a composer composes, and a student studies. And it’s discipline -- imposed from within and without -- that motivates them all. To the extent that a necessary discipline has not been developed within, and that’s the case with kids generally, it has to be provided. And, of course, kids will sometimes think that they have the discipline others find missing.

Rock, Paper, DEATH . . . Dies!!!

Meat Tree and Pelt Swan, founders of the heavy metal covers supergroup Rock, Paper, DEATH, have split irreconcilably and have not announced plans, but a source close to the band insists that Tree and Swan will get “heavier. Much heavier. I’m not even lyin’.” All that's left for fans after their last concert, June 11th, at "The Agnes," will be the "Meat Tree" action figure featuring "my gold shorty pants," the Rock, Paper, DEATH video game featuring RPD vs. various emo groups as they attempt to control the universe, and the Rock, Paper, DEATH Garage Band tutorial that allows budding metalists to play along with RPD while RPD plays along with 70's metal bands.

The group had been slowly falling apart: Founder Jack Tyranny left a year ago to pursue his dream . . . “scream metal.”

Lizard Breath Cold Blood moved to Canada. Tree was reported to have said that Cold Blood moved to Canada, “to watch paint dry or study Abba sheet music or some such . . . . It IS Canada after all – the least heaviest place EVER.” When reached by walkie-talkie at her “Canada First!” encampment, Cold Blood unleashed a string of profanities against “U.S. metal hegemony,” not one word of which can be printed in this family blog.

This left Grey Monster, founding drummer, to continue the tradition with the newest RPD members, bassist Jayne Poisonwell and singer Der Desecrator. “It’s no secret that I opposed the break up so it’s no wonder that many have asked if there’d be a RPD tribute band,” Monster claims.
“Rock Paper Death won’t die,” Monster continued, “although I’m legally prohibited from using the name ‘Rock Paper Death.’”

Monster says he will create a “RPD tribute band” called “Rochambeast!”

However, “Doc” Martin Lindsey, a representative for Poison Apple, the corporation formed by Swan and Tree to manage the band’s business back in happier days, states that the corporation will strictly control the licensing of tribute bands and Monster’s “Rochambeast!” will not be permitted to perform covers of the covers performed by the band. “Meat and Pelt agree on one thing,” says Lindsey, “and that’s that there should be a sudden, violent ‘D’ of RPD. I’m not even lyin’.” Ominously, both Tree and Swan have been seen in San Francisco with acoustic guitars and tambourines.



But it shouldn’t come to any surprise that signs of the band’s utter demise are mixed. Last week when RPD was inducted into Rock n’ Roll Cover Band Hall of Fame in Daly City, California, and after accepting their third Grammy for best private school affiliated heavy metal cover band, Tree and Swan were interviewed by Times of London reporter, Renee Dragonvan. Tree insisted that he and Swan “couldn’t help but jam a little bit backstage after our induction.” Dragonvan asked if she could record a bit of their jamming and was invited to do so only to find that Tree and Swan jammed with air guitars. “Of course, we jammed on air guitar,” Tree explained, “because we didn’t have our real guitars with us – they’re big and heavy -- but we jammed long into the night, kinda’ put our differences aside, I’m not even lyin’, and we talked about our roots.”

And just what are the roots of Rock, Paper, DEATH?

A band came together and was already wildly popular before their first concert. But the members of RPD were family oriented, so they found a solution to touring while remaining with their families.

The solution: RPD didn’t tour. Tree explained: “The Beatles stopped touring and remained popular, so why should we even start?”

All concerts were in the same place. And they were free. “The loyalty of our fans was amazing,” recalled Swan. “All of them, every single one, came to every show. I’m not even lyin’.”

Recipes from the Kitchen of Greg and Tina

Asparagus with Sauteed Meyer Lemon Slices

Ingredients:
Asparagus for 4 - steamed, roasted or sauteed with a little salt and black pepper.
1 Meyer lemon sliced crosswise very thinly with a very sharp knife to make about 10
slices
1 TBS olive oil
1 TBS butter

Place olive oil and butter in a saute pan over medium-low heat. When butter begins to bubble, place the Meyer lemon slices in the pan. Don't let them overlap. Watch for the slices to lift a little from the bubbling liquid underneath them. DO NOT turn over the slices. Sprinkle with some salt and black pepper. Saute on lower flame for another minute or a bit less. Gently, pick up the slices by the rinds with a tongs. Place the lemon slices on top of your asparagus. The slices go great with the asparagus, but can also be eaten alone.

Take Me Out of the Ballpark

Michael Kimmelman fr. “On the Bad New Ballparks” in the Nov. 19th, 2009, issue of The New York Review of Books:

“At the [new] Yankee stadium . . . [T]he stadium sound system, echoing against the hard walls, keeps up a torrent of advertising, music, and instructions for spectators to ‘Get Loud’ and ‘Make Noise.’ . . . Major league baseball used to be a game of reverie. It was, and in amateur pickup games and at minor league fields is still, experienced as long stretches of near silence, interrupted by bursts of excitement. The soundtrack has long been the steady murmur of the crowd and the burbling chatter of radio or television announcers free-associating between plays. The new stadiums subvert this reverie. They fill the silence for the crowd that seems to number more and more multitaskers, who text or chat on cell phones during the game, and gladly pass an hour dawdling in line at the Shake Shack outlet at Citi Field rather than watch the action from their seats. As my friend . . . put it, marveling at the long lines, ‘They’re buying tickets to a mall that happens to be at a baseball stadium.’”