sundries

[rm]

Claudette is adjusting well. She is more secure and lets both Patty and I pet her. She is eating well and seems to have figured out the temporary litterbox we set up for her after the horrific destruction of a really cheap Ikea throw pillow. Patty took this picture of her (along with many others that are AWESOME) to send to the woman who fostered her:

Openly gay MP to make the case that supporting gay rights is a key element of modern conservatism. I grok the argument, but can barely grok a political landscape in which that is true in the US although my gut tells me that the guy is right in that a lot of gays would vote on conservative/Republican lines here if gay rights weren't part of the issue. This makes me uncomfortable, because too often I see many members of the gay community wanting equality on gay issues so as to have their privilege on other fronts back (seriously, the organized gay activist community has a shit track record when it comes to racial and ethnic diversity).

Pride House opens at the Olympics. Because several countries participating in the Olympics have legal sanctions against LGBT people, Pride House is prepared to address asylum claims. So far, they have already received four inquiries.

Gay boutique hotel planned for NYC. That'll be interesting. Wonder if it'll be no girls allowed. Why do I ask? Similar ones I know of in Europe and the dance club anchorage.

Some states are planning a battery of tests that would let high school sophomores that complete them to skip immediately to community college. On one hand, good. On the other hand... why can't high school be high school and do the job it should and produce students who can write so that a B.A. is something other than people learning skills I had the luck and privilege to master in 6th grade?

The story we were expecting to break on Gov. Patterson finally did. And it's about the sharp rise of one of his aides. It is discussion candy. First, it's filled with framing that's unpleasant, and I feel nearly sure wouldn't be there in so voluminous a fashion if the protagonists in this tale weren't PoC. But then again, the New York Times having RaceFail? Is anyone surprised? It also, however, raises the question of whether domestic violence perpetration should disqualify someone for political work. This is something of a hot topic in New York State politics because of a case involving a state senator as well. If you follow the coverage of the cases there is, I think, a subtle undertone of shrugging acceptance that of course some powerful men beat women, and what are you going to do about it? Disturbing.

John Hodgman on the very weird world of fame.

Daily obligatory promotion of tw_itallchanges. Episodes are staring RSN.

The Infinitus CFP deadline has been extended. I wonder if I should send in another one.

Comments

[dipping_sauce]

Aww! Hello cutie-pie kitty!

[51stcenturyfox.livejournal.com]

Awww cute Claudette!

my gut tells me that the guy is right in that a lot of gays would vote on conservative/Republican lines here if gay rights weren't part of the issue

Well, if conservatives in the US would ditch the social conservatives um... yeah, I don't see that happening anytime soon either, since the religious right has the party in a choke collar and moderates are hosed.

My husband wants to run for President on an "equal rights for all and pay down the damned deficit" platform. Good luck with that! :D

[nancylebov.livejournal.com]

In re your second link: Parties aren't about principles. They're somewhat accidental coalitions which may possibly have some ideological tendencies. I don't know whether the R's can afford to bend on gay rights, but it doesn't surprise me if someone is trying to get them to do so. Elections are pretty close, and it was a shock to the R's to lose.

A while ago, it seemed to me that gun control was the most dispensable major issue on the left, and Obama doesn't seem to have any fondness for it-- and I don't know whether he'd have won if he'd been strongly in favor of gun control.

[aviv-b.livejournal.com]

Claudette looks pretty comfortable in that picture. Has she had any face time with Pretty yet?

[msp-hacker.livejournal.com]

I was lucky enough to go to a school where I could take classes at a community college level during my senior year, so I'm thrilled that more teenagers could have that option.

[drfardook.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure I understand the reasoning behind the early graduation.

Students require extensive remedial courses when they get to college... so... rather than raise the floor and properly prepare students for higher education we're going to lower the roof and get the little shits off our books and onto the community college system. That way they can suck up all the adult education resources in the area while they're at it.

I'm not sure asking a 15/16 year old to pick a narrow course of study is a great idea either.

[lovefromgirl.livejournal.com]

The way it goes nowadays, that fifteen-year-old is asked to be excellent in everything. When I graduated in '04, it was with kids who did band, sports, chorus, honor society, and umpteen AP courses in diverse subject matter. How's that any better?

[eumelia.livejournal.com]

Oh kitty! She looks curious, which is great? Have she and Pretty interacted yet?

Re: Tory MP. Israel is in a similar spot as the US when it comes to social conservatism, fiscal conservatism and being trigger happy. We've had some openly gay MK's, we have one currently who is a member of a Leftist party (one that is far too flakey on race, religion and gender imo, but they've always been vocal about gay rights - gay men, of course, we've yet to have an out gay woman in government IIRC and as far as I'm aware) and his entitlement irritates me.
Because if it weren't for him being gay, I could totally see him sitting

there next to the much more centrist party (not Benjamin Netanyahu god forbid), but you catch my drift.

Queers are definitely a consumer and political interest group here.

The boutique hotel and the whole privilege seeking thing reminded me that there is a group of that is trying to get permits to build a gay only apartment block... It boggles my mind, though if they were kicked off other purchasing groups it makes sense, but still... boggle.

[melebeth]

why can't high school be high school and do the job it should and produce students who can write so that a B.A. is something other than people learning skills I had the luck and privilege to master in 6th grade?

This. Some of my graduate students write in a way that wouldn't have been acceptable in my freshman year high school English class. What are they teaching these kids?

[gement.livejournal.com]

My high school offered "Running Start" free or heavily subsidized community college classes to supplement or replace the last two years of high school. It was on a class by class basis. For the people who were tired of being trapped in snail's pace high school English and History classes full of unmotivated teen jerks, it was a great option.

One of my friends (who had been homeschooled in grade school and *despised* the crab bucket of public high school) went straight over and earned her high school diploma and AA degree at the same time. It was a great option for her.

I used it to take my Spanish twice as fast and have an actually valuable American History class. It gave me a few transfer credits for college, but that really wasn't the point of it.

I did meet someone in college who had done the AA track and came in very touchy about wanting to be called a junior when she was socially (blazingly obviously) a freshman. There are social aspects that can get complicated, but that's true of any difference.

I don't think slowing down the kids who really should test out and get into classes that really challenge them is the answer. My high school simply couldn't support enough challenging classes, and the community college was already teaching them.

[rm.livejournal.com]

I don't think slowing down kids is the answer. But I think a lot of kids who get labeled exceptional are ordinary kids who should be doing ordinary high school-level work as it is offered in Europe, but apparently we can't be fucked to teach 14-year-olds (or for that matter 18-year-olds) in this country. Upon entering college a student should already be able to write a vaguely cogent persuasive essay made up of complete sentences. The fact that our college freshmen can't doesn't mean more teens should be going to community college. It means we HAVE to fix high school and earlier grade education.

[eandh99.livejournal.com]

THIS. I recently came across an essay I wrote in English 12 - Religious Satire in Huckleberry Finn. It would probably be at least second-year university now. I've been teaching post-secondary for 15 years, and the sharp decline in language skills, oral and written, is really noticeable. I used to be able to have students read and debate Sartre in my intermediate French class. Not now, not for the last 5 years at least.

[brewsternorth.livejournal.com]

Hello little cat! She does look like a sweetie. Glad to hear things have settled in on that count.

[lovefromgirl.livejournal.com]

On the other hand... why can't high school be high school and do the job it should

Because it doesn't, and fixing the problems would take too much work from people who should care but don't. Because nobody actually cares about the kind of people who need help coping with what has become a vicious environment, but they'll move heaven and earth for the ones who fit in fine.

If I could've taken that test my sophomore year, fuck, I'd have been gone.

[woogledesigns.livejournal.com]

Hello kitten cat. I think you are very clever and very pretty. Yes.

[lisa-marli.livejournal.com]

Pretty Kitty! Glad the adorable animal has a loving home.

That said - My son hated High School. Interestingly, he was on a highly academic tract, but it didn't match brain at all. And He Hated It. English was a bunch of dry boring books and people being snobs, ie No SF&F only Proper Books. You know the drill. The Math Analysis teacher (last thing before Calculus) was a touchy feeling "let's make Math More Accessible to Girls" Teacher. Even This Girl didn't understand some of the class projects. He was actually FAILING High School.
So we let him test out in Junior year. He has a B Average in Jr College and is loving learning again! Best thing we ever did for him.
This semester, he has 2 classes on campus in African American Culture & World Music, and 2 computer programming classes online. He loves it.
He is now looking for 4 year colleges to transfer to, so be can complete getting his BS CS and start working on computers for a living.

[ladyofthelog.livejournal.com]

Hello, Claudette! So pretty!

Oh, JHodg. Excellent piece.

I have decided that I am not going to Infinitus unless my schedule randomly sends me home, because I'm going to see you & flourish over break. But I wish you luck with the CFP.

eta: although I would like to wipe much of the last two years of high school from memory, I'm not sure if going to college earlier would have made them better or worse. Suffering built character? But then again, my youthful marriage to a cat furry MMORPG addict would probably have been avoided.

[therealycats.livejournal.com]

I saw the sophomore graduation thing earlier today. To be honest, if it had been an option when I was in school, I probably would have gone for it, but I don't like the idea that it only gets them to community college. If you graduate high school you graduate high school. And when I was a junior in college there was a 14 year old in a couple of my honors classes. I guess some of those credits could transfer to a four year college, but generally speaking not all of them would, so you're still looking at at least two more years, probably more.

[sparkindarkness.livejournal.com]

I can see a lot of gays voting conservative if the conservatives weren't so virulently anti-gay. After all, even gays can be selfish, rich men who don't give a damn about anyone else (my totally unbiased opinion, of course)

But from the Tories? The Tories are as homophobic as they come - there has neever been a gay right they haven't opposed here - they just have finally realised they need to rainbow-wash their reputation

Kind of like General Motors painting the Hummer green and calling it environmentally friendly

[delchi.livejournal.com]

Oh Cat! She looks ready to take over her newfound territory!

[karathephantom.livejournal.com]

I'm really conflicted about the new political emphasis on the early-graduation-then-community-college plan. Because I hear good points being made on all sides, but I can't be unbiased, because I graduated HS after my sophomore year and went to community college at 15.

I mean, for full disclosure, I was a mega-geeky homeschooled outlier kid who adored school and had begged to go to college since turning 13. My situation was fairly strange. Early graduation ended up working amazingly for me. But it was a legal/bureaucratic nightmare, so my initial response is to be in favor of making it an easier thing to do. On the other hand, I agree that kids coming into college already have a hard time when it comes to meeting academic standards because of poor preparation in HS.

When I went, the standards for going early were high. We weren't allowed to take any remedial classes, and had to have test scores that proved we didn't need remedial classes. They reviewed our college grades to make sure we were doing well enough to stay in the program. With some kinds of safeguards like that, I think this might be a good thing. But I'm still just a little conflicted about it all.

[lachupacabra.livejournal.com]

*hugs on the new kitty*
im very happy for you guys.
:)