What Fred Cole is really elucidating is that the Democrat-Education-Media complex is so much better at devising sticky labels for their opponents than is the Right. When I say that the history of the Earth shows many warming and cooling periods and I reject the hypothesis that AGW is The Answer then I am labeled a "Climate Change Denier." It is amazing that one can explicitly state that the climate is always changing and still be labeled a denier, but that's what we are up against.

The Party makes their position known and the lemming within and among the academic, media, and cultural institutions fall into line. Part of their age-old book of tricks is to coin clever labels (and collectively they have a lot of creative talent on the left) and ascribe the most crude stereotypes to us, as in the "denier" one or the ever-ready "greedy" for people who wish a little less government on their backs.

I've read enough of Fred here in the past to see that he has a strong antipathy to any Bible-believing conservative.  There is no room for people of Faith on the Left.

My favorite version of Miami 2017 was was from his Live from Long Island DVD -- maybe it was a VHS tape! Anyway, a good view if you can find it.

Darned if the name Patriot Academy isn't already used by a charter school chain! Seriously, though, this is an excellent idea, one as a former teacher I was already considering. Seeing as my county just went Blue for the first time, I'm well located.

My opinion is that after the line-up was set, the GOP made a huge strategic error in not supporting Akin in the race. The lack of RSCC and RNC funds meant his candidacy was not going to be viable, yet he came fairly close for having no money to advertise. Why couldn't we accept his mea culpa and then wholeheartedly support him? Yes, Dems sometimes eject unwieldy candidates but they more often just ignore the rough patches and go on (see Bob Melendez as an example from yesterday, and Bill "Perjury & Obstruction" Clinton as a hall-of-fame example). With support and strategic guidance we could have that seat today. Our propensity to shun anyone who says something stupid is a poor way to run a political organization! We let the evil marxist media make decisions for us too many times. I'm far more upset by the tendency to shoot ourselves repeatedly than I am about the occasional self-inflicted wound like Akin gave himself.

Thank you for writing this. It was a pleasure to read and it touched me. I just plain sat out the '92 election because I was apathetic and unenthusiastic about GHWB. I have not missed an election at any level since then. I don't think I've ever let on to Dad that I sat that one out.

Way too long since he's shown up. But then the writing has slipped a bit since Gutfeld has been doing The Five too.

It embarrasses me when he appears on FNC and they identify him with Republicans. I'm not sure if he is a Republican -- despite his repeated threats to run as one --  but his views don't strike me a particularly conservative either.  He's a bloombergian figure, in my opinion, with all the connotations one would wish to attach to that description.

is.gdCrunchbase: is.gd is a company (Consumer Web), acquired by Memset. →

That question is unanswerable from the Left Coast. We just aren't part of the race this time through. However, let me echo comments I've heard in many quarters of the interwebs, there are almost no Obama bumper stickers in evidence in Southern California. This is a big contrast to 2008. I've seen far more Romney decals than Obama this season.

Yes.

To Donald Todd I should make clear: NOT anyone can do it (be a teacher in a classroom) and do it well. That wasn't explicitly stated in my comment focusing on home schooling, but was implicit in my thoughts. I think when people make the kind of comment you wrote about it is because they see the average government teacher and think, "I could do as well as that guy." It's perhaps a nuanced distinction from "anyone can do it" but that's my interpretation of general comments in that vein.

Paul Erickson Caring is not enough.  There's training and there's talent.  The best teachers I have seen (both as student and colleague) have some innate understanding of what works in a classroom.  I did not have it.  Not sure this can be taught.

That's true, it's not enough, but in my experience it is what set great teachers apart. Because they didn't just see it as a job, they learned what works (classrooms aren't really germane to the homeschooling point, but your point about being in one is definitely true), and then applied it. I also do not know if that essence can be taught. I did have it, loved teaching but hated the administrative burden (Special Ed.) and decided to finish my MBA instead after ten years in.  I saw more than a few teachers who just acted as if they were punching a clock, getting through the day. And some were just plain awful, but not likely to lose their job for being bad at it!

Stipulate up front that there are a lot of hard working, effective teachers out there in government schools. However, the average teacher is not doing a great job and the evidence is stark. People self-select for slots as an "education" major and studies show that these are among the worst-performing college students prior to entering the credentialing programs.

Now, ask yourself as a parent if you could do a better job than the average government teacher and the answer -- for many, many people -- is yes.  Sure it would help to have a few ECE (Early Childhood  Education) classes to learn how K-3 brains develop concepts, and generalized teaching course to differentiate the learning styles of various youngsters, but that's about all the substance of a credentialing program that would be highly useful to a parent. Teaching isn't rocket science, no matter how much the Establishment likes to couch it in "professional" terms. The real difference that sets apart teachers who are effective from the herd is they care.  And nearly all parents care about their children more than a stranger anyway, so you are already ahead of the game if you lean towards home schooling.

If you're correct then Biden's comments will be so many non-sequiturs -- just as Obama's repetition of "$5 trillion tax cut" and "middle class tax hike" were easily dismissed by Romney citing his real plan in comparison to the President's assertions. The first time Biden thrashes on "the Ryan plan" Ryan will calmly and assertively cite Romney's economic reforms as the campaign's agenda and say, "When I accepted the Governor's offer to be his running mate I signed onto his plan, and I support Governor Romney's reforms wholeheartedly. My proposal was one of many at the time, but now we are looking forward to implementing the Five Point plan outlined by Governor Romney last week in the debate."

Surely, Slow Joe will go at it again, just like Obama did. But viewers easily understood last week that what Obama was saying -- in fact what he has been braying about all year -- was a load of hooey and that the Governor was sincere had a well-thought out plan for recovery. The best thing about Ryan is that he goes after "Obama's army of straw men" making direct reference to this fallacy.

I enjoy writing -- until it comes time to rewrite and edit and that, I suppose, is the crux of the problem. Crafting really good writing is work, takes focus and persistence. Those guys (Charen and Nordlinger) are often on deadline and that type of pressure adds a different dimension to writing. Sometimes it forces good things and other times it makes for compromises that detract from the concept one is aiming for. I liked writing factual copy on deadline, but news-writing in no longer as fact-based as it used to be!

Songwriting, on the other hand, can be explosive and result in a good tight lyric set that pops out complete in one burst, or in a "half a page of scribbled lines"* that takes days/months/years to incorporate into a finished song.  Again, the skills of editing and revision are paramount for songwriting as for prose. In all cases, the principles presented in Strunk and Whites Elements of Style are my guide. OK not all cases. After all, this is just a comment.

Outstanding!

"There's another one! This administration has created more slogans than jobs in the last four years. It's time to stop talking about government plans and start implementing market-based solutions to get this economy moving again."