If any of you need help borrowing money, I know a Trigonometry teacher who’s willing to cosine.
Also, I found a great old Three Stooges short where they play math professors. Of course, it ends with a pi fight.
I was reading through the Declaration of Independence this morning, when I came across these beefs with the royal boss back in 1776:
“He has endeavored to prevent the population of these states; for that purpose obstructing the laws for naturalization of foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new appropriations of lands.
“He has obstructed the administration of justice, by refusing his assent to laws for establishing judiciary powers.
“He has made judges dependent on his will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
“He has erected a multitude of new offices, and sent hither swarms of officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance.”
This whole “trigger the liberals” thing by having all the “long live the king” stuff with Trump’s image is starting to come off as a “clear and present danger” thing. A time to quote Harriet Tubman thing:
“I had reasoned this out in my mind, there was one of two things I had a right to, liberty or death; if I could not have one, I would have the other.” – Harriet Tubman
Tubman also said if she could have convinced other slaves that they were slaves, she would have freed thousands more. I look at the minds of enslaved Trump supporters and find myself in sad agreement with good Harriet Tubman.
Black History Month in effect, y’all.
Earlier today I mentioned how I made and ate – and enjoyed – a PB&O, a Peanut Butter and Onion sandwich. I found the recipe in a 1932 cookbook and then discovered Hemingway loved them.
Basic recipe is: 2 pieces of bread or a roll split in half. Get some peanut butter, mix it with a dash of hot sauce, spread it on the bread. Then get a big ol’ slice of onion – an entire cross-section, not a ring – and cover the bread with it. It needs to be a *SWEET* onion. Don’t use a regular kind of onion, it needs to be sold as a sweet one – Bermuda, Vidalia, or some other variety of sweet onion.
The key to enjoying the sandwich is making yourself aware that both peanut butter and onion have complimentary sulfur compounds. They were essentially made for each other.
Now, I didn’t want to do the hot sauce, so I thought of something else to add. I used a sweet tomato-based barbecue sauce and that made a lovely flavor addition. Next time, I’ll use a sliced tomato instead. Knowing that Southeast Asian cuisine combines peanut butter with cilantro in tasty ways, I put some cilantro on that sandwich, as well.
I like to have my bread toasted, so I did just that, but the onion was 100% raw. Eating the sandwich with all that onion was very delicious, but there was also the interesting impression one gets when eating all that onion in one go. I felt powerful as I ate the sandwich, feeling the power of the onion coursing through me. Did it put hair on my chest? Most likely, yes. It’s a Hemingway Special, by way of Vietnam with that cilantro.
Just remember, for your PB&O, it *must* be a sweet onion, or you won’t want to have another one anytime soon. I did it right, so I’ll want to do it again.
There are now federal workers who accepted a buyout that are receiving termination notices anyway. Moreover, even if all federal civilian employees were dismissed, it would only reduce federal spending by $270 billion, and the government would still have over $1 trillion of deficit spending.
Keep in mind that federal civilian employees handle the Department of Veterans’ Affairs, which oversees the health care system for veterans. Also included are Department of Energy staff that oversee the safety and security of our nuclear weapons systems. And, yes, those departments are being targeted with indiscriminate firing actions that are dismissing all employees still in a probationary phase.
For those who don’t have access to Discord, you have the list below. Each mod is listed in an order that seems correct for best functionality.
THE MODLIST
A difficult conversation…
The rich man lied to you
He made stuff up
Chanted it
Now you think it is real
It is just a fever dream
He becomes richer
Because of hatreds
He created to exploit
A sorcerer, twisting minds
Promising wealth untold
If you let him bite your neck
And you let him bite, felt your life drain
And believed when he blamed
Someone else
For your weakness and poverty
Chanting on the spell
The fever dream
Your soul being transferred to a vault
Through a series of transactions
Your signature
Authorized the fine print
But I want to love, I want to heal.
I want to reverse that flow
Reclaim and restore
And so, the difficult conversation…
He doesn’t really love you
He’s cheating on you
The betrayal will crush your soul,
But it’s preferable to losing it entirely
The master you serve
Fights the master you should serve
The difficult conversation…
Time is grim and flinty, as always
The happiness I have
Is in the kindness
Of those who scale the face of time
Giving, caring, helping
That is light and warmth
Desperately needed on the windy ledges
Some hurry on to a goal
Time will destroy that
Seek the treasure time cannot crush
Love
When I was a teacher, I was wishing students a “Merry Christmas” in the halls. They’d return the cheer and enjoy the holiday music I was playing in my room, the sounds of the season spilling into the hallway.
Then another teacher came up to me and asked, “Are you sure that’s wise to do? Shouldn’t you be more culturally sensitive?”
At that moment, I saw the Muslim kids in the hall. The Arabs, Persians, Indians, Turks, Bosnians, Pakistanis, Bangladeshis, Nigerians, Ethiopians… At that moment, I realized that “Merry Christmas” might not be what they wanted to hear.
I said to the teacher, “You’re right! I should do better!”
To a young student from Egypt, I shouted, “Christmas Mubarak!”
He joyously returned, “Christmas Mubarak, Mr. Webb!”
I smiled to the other teacher. Cultural sensitivity accomplished.
In our school, in my classrooms, we wished everyone a happy holiday for the religion of their choosing. Happy Diwali, Eid Mubarak, and so forth. If someone wanted to say “Happy Holidays!”, I’d happily respond in kind. Joy is meant to be shared and faith is to teach us all. I didn’t know the expression “righteous envy” at the time, but it’s what I felt. As we all talked through the year about how we strove to be better people, I found inspiration in that, regardless of the faith or lack thereof in the speaker.
I say “Christmas Mubarak” and mean it. Joy and blessings be to us all, from my heart to yours.
There are 1.9 million persons in US prisons, correctional facilities, jails, whatever you want to call them. This includes persons incarcerated for felonies as well as misdemeanors.
The MAGA have stated intentions to deport 12 million+ persons. That is six times the current US prison population. Even if the focus is supposedly on persons committing crimes other than a violation of immigration law, the 12 million number betrays that the focus is on ethnicity, not criminality.
Less than 15% of the persons in US prisons are not citizens of the USA. That’s less than 300,000, or 0.3 million. The other 11.7 million+ persons are not currently in jails, not currently convicted of crimes, and are not currently breaking laws other than those involving immigration status.
12 million+ people is over 3% of the US population. That would mean for every 100 people I know, 3 would be targeted for deportation, focused on those who have Latin American heritage, or who look like they have Latin American heritage. US citizens who are unfortunate enough to not have documentation on their persons when challenged for it are going to be in that 12 million+ number.
Most of the persons with unauthorized immigration statuses live in what are called “split households.” They’re either married to or related to US citizens in their household. This proposed MAGA mass deportation will rip families apart.
Every historical mass deportation I’ve read about has involved brutality directed towards the deportees, their deprivation of basic resources, their denial of access to medicines, starvation, diseases, suicides, horrific deaths…
And as that deportation is being cruelly considered, I do not yet hear anyone asking this question, so I will, out loud.
WHO IS NEXT?
“Not to think badly of anyone, not to wish ill to him though we have suffered at his hands, not to hurt him even in thought, this is an uphill task, but therein lies the acid test of nonviolence.”
~Gandhi, Ashram Observances in Action
“A new commandment I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
~Jesus, John 13:34-35