2025-02-26

Radicals and subversives within the intelligence community

I had the great privilege and honor of working at NSA in 1974, working in Ops1 in NSA's R&D group.
As I said, it was an honor and privilege to work with such a great bunch of talented, dedicated, hard-working people. 
We didn't talk politics (even though this was the time of Watergate), but they were clearly culturally conservative at least.
As I recall, homosexuals were not eligible for employment in the IC at the time,
https://www.nytimes.com/1961/07/29/archives/us-security-unit-ousts-26-deviates-walter-tells-of-dismissals-since.html
as an aftermath of the 1960 defection of Martin and Mitchell to the Soviet Union.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_and_Mitchell_defection

Things have radically changed since that time,
according to a developing story.

Certain shocking allegations were reported on Tuesday, Feb. 25, 2025 by Chris Rufo and Hannah Grossman:

https://christopherrufo.com/p/the-nsas-secret-sex-chats

https://www.city-journal.org/article/national-security-agency-internal-chatroom-transgender-surgeries-polyamory .

For responses from NSA and CIA, see
https://x.com/realchrisrufo/status/1894181424686641612
and 
https://twitter.com/realchrisrufo/status/1894104658295361945

Fox News and DNI Tulsi Gabbard are taking these allegations seriously.
"NSA investigates 'secret sex chats' under guise of DEI on internal agency message board"
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/nsa-investigates-secret-sex-chats-dei-agency-message-board

Comment: Well, this will certainly get the attention of the IC.

Ah, this looks like the real deal:

"DNI Tulsi Gabbard moves to terminate, revoke security clearances of NSA employees tied to explicit chatrooms"

https://www.foxnews.com/media/dni-tulsi-gabbard-moves-terminate-revoke-security-clearances-nsa-employees-tied-explicit-chatrooms

Hear Gabbard state this herself, to Jesse Watters:
https://youtu.be/TLxpz_B28Lk?t=3m

NYT, 2025-02-28
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/28/us/politics/nsa-chat-messages-intelligence-officers-gabbard.html

Some Rufo X posts here:
https://townhall.com/tipsheet/mattvespa/2025/02/25/secret-intel-community-sex-chat-discussed-libs-of-tik-tok-n2652729


I must say, I am surprised so many IC people were involved.
Over 100! Wow!

Another surprising thing:
That this matter couldn't be handled within the IC itself, either within the management structures of the agencies themselves or with their IGs (I believe each agency has its own IG).
Instead, whoever raised this issue had to go outside of the IC, to independent journalists.
They did not go to the Washington Post, 
but to a well-known conservative independent journalist
to break this bombshell story.



According to Chris Rufo's whistleblower, the subversion of NSA extended far beyond a mere chatroom, to include a considerable part of its management structure.

2025-02-26
"Whistleblower: 
There’s a Trans Cult Inside the NSA
An insider tells the story of the intel agency’s ideological capture"

https://www.city-journal.org/article/nsa-whistleblower-trans-gender-ideology-dei

"according to our whistleblower, these sex chats were just the tip of the iceberg. 
This longtime NSA insider tells me that the ideological capture of the NSA began a decade ago. 
Trans activists have 
<b>entrenched themselves in positions of power, 
pressured employees to undergo reeducation trainings</b>, and 
compromised national security in the name of ideology."





My comment:
I think the issue goes far beyond transgenderism or homosexuality.
The bigger issue is cultural Marxism:
cultural Marxists in positions of power in NSA.
That would be a harder thing to root out.
Merely firing those who participated in sick chat groups would not be enough.

In any case, one thing is for sure:
that Rufo article will get the attention of the people at NSA :-)

2025-02-25

The minerals deal is the tarbaby

Just an attempt to get the U.S. indefinitely entrapped in Ukraine.

What the U.S. should do is just STAY AWAY from Ukraine.
Ukraine's fight is not our fight.
We definitely should not be lured in by the promises of "Ukraine's resources."
If those resources are so great, 
why was Ukraine begging the U.S. for aid in the 2010s?
Remember Joe Biden using the threat of denying Ukraine loan guarantees to get Ukraine to fire Viktor Shokin.

Ukraine is a never-ending tarbaby for the United States.
If Europe wants to spend its resources aiding Ukraine, that is its business.

I hope Trump does not lose sight of the big issue.
It is not getting reimbursed for what the U.S. has given Ukraine, or gaining control of Ukraine's resources.
It is ending the entanglement with Ukraine.



On the desire of some in the IC, and many in the U.S. establishment, to oppose Russia, Larry Johnson has some observations here:

https://sonar21.com/trump-and-europe-fail-to-realize-that-russia-has-a-vote/

 "[a recently retired CIA case officer who is still doing contract work for the Agency] 
voiced outrage at Trump “cozying up” to Putin and exclaimed: 
“I’ve spent forty years fighting those bastards and Trump is surrendering.”

The US foreign policy establishment is like a prehistoric bug frozen in amber. 
They are trapped in the past. 
They have a fixed image of Russia as 
an authoritarian communist dictatorship and cannot accept the reality that 
modern Russia has reverted to its nationalist, Christian roots."

Again, that is Larry Johnson's opinion.



BTW, Larry Johnson back in September 2024 took a detailed look at what Ukraine actually has in the way of natural resources:
https://sonar21.com/why-the-west-lusts-after-ukraine-back-to-the-future/

Politico takes a look at Ukraine's mineral resources:
https://www.politico.eu/article/donald-trump-bad-mineral-deal-ukraine-volodymyr-zelenskyy/
 

Here is a counter to those who think it is the 1930s again, 
with Putin playing the role of Hitler and Russia that of Nazi Germany:

"The Fallacy of '39"
https://original.antiwar.com/justin/2004/12/27/the-fallacy-of-39/
by Justin Raimondo.

This gives the flavor:

"from the New York Post to the New York Times, the op-ed pages of the nation’s newspapers are swarming with keyboard commandos who look upon Ukraine as the Russian Rhineland. 
If only the West had stopped Hitler early on – but it isn’t too late to stop Putin!

...

Putin’s drive to smash the power of the oligarchs represents Russia’s final reckoning with the old Soviet ruling class. 
It is a push to reclaim stolen wealth and finally break the power of parasites who have been feasting on the Russian body politic since 1917."


As a perhaps eccentric counterpoint to that POV, opposed to certain wars, 
here is some really great music:
Handel, Esther close
https://youtu.be/klR0HN3rrV8

Anti-fascist violence

Examples:

2025-02-24
https://www.gbnews.com/politics/nigel-farage-news-reform-uk-cornwall-masked-protesters-tensions
"Mask-wearing protesters, who refused to talk to local police officers after gathering at around 3.30pm, vowed to shut down the Reform rally.
...
The group of "noisy" protesters were heard chanting "Nazi scum of [off?] our streets", with others accusing Farage of "racism". "

A 02-25 followup

"Nigel Farage calls for Antifa to be proscribed as a 'hate organisation' after Reform UK protests in blistering letter to Yvette Cooper

...

they held a disorderly protest which led to several people being injured outside of the venue."

https://www.gbnews.com/politics/politics-news-labour-reform-nigel-farage



Not violent, but disruptive:
2025-02-22
https://www.rfi.fr/en/international/20250222-far-right-rally-in-berlin-faces-antifa-resistance-on-eve-of-crucial-german-elections

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/world/3327030/afd-and-antifa-both-want-nazis-out-in-berlin/
"The group then set to cross the Wiedammer bridge, but was faced with thousands of antifa protesters gathered on the other side of the river, beating drums and chanting "Nazis 'Raus!" or Nazis! Out!"

2025-02-21

What law enforcement has to put up with

For a brief video, see
https://youtube.com/shorts/RiPt0dP1i8M

For a ~ 3 minute video, see
https://youtu.be/IuUPLNEL39k
or for a news report, 
(you have to manually expand the URL) see

https://wjla.com/news/local/virginia-crime-registered-sex-offender-richard-cox-fairfax-county-police-video-body-camera-cam-footage-full-encounter-questions-safety-womens-locker-room-oakton-rec-recreation-center-transgender-civil-rights-lgbtq-lgbtqia

" “There’s so much confusion in there that it’s unreal,” a police officer said "

For a six minute YouTube video, see
https://youtu.be/UpG7yX68264


2025-02-20

The attack on nuclear families and America's future

What is a nuclear family?
The classic definition is:
a father, mother, and their biological children.

If young men have their genitals, their testicles and phallus, surgically removed, they have no possibility of being part of the production of a nuclear family.
Likewise for young women who have their genitals, their vagina and ovaries, surgically removed.

I must say, doctors who perform such surgeries are absolute monsters, preventing the formation of nuclear families, which are vital to America's future.

2025-02-19

Transsex activism in Arlington

For what transgender activism leads to, see 
https://www.iwfeatures.com/profile/virginia-mother-slams-policy-that-allowed-registered-child-sex-offender-into-her-daughters-locker-room/

"school officials informed McDougal that they knew exactly who she was referring to in her complaint, 
and that they had granted Cox access to the girls’ locker room because of 
Arlington Public Schools’ policy allowing individuals, including community members, to use the school restroom and locker room corresponding with their gender identity.

Cox, they said, had identified himself as a woman, and therefore had to be granted access to all women’s facilities. 
If McDougal and her daughter didn’t feel comfortable sharing an intimate space with Cox, they could use the private family dressing rooms instead, the concerned mother recalls being told.

McDougal agreed the private family dressing room was the safest option for her daughter. 
Noticeably, many of the other moms did as well, McDougal said, because the line to the private dressing rooms suddenly became long ahead of swim class each day."

I wonder why the real women and girls had to use the family dressing room if they wanted to avoid having to see a man naked.
Why wasn't the weirdo required to use the family dressing room, and stop bothering real women?
Oh, right. Because he wanted to see and be seen, in the space normally reserved for females.
With the approval of the Arlington authorities.


For an example of transgender activism, see

https://www.arlnow.com/2025/02/19/lgbtq-group-urges-more-support-for-aps-transgender-students-amid-federal-investigation/



Death in Germany

"at least six people were killed and 300 more injured when a refugee of Saudi origin drove a rented car through a crowd of revelers at a Christmas market."

https://www.dw.com/en/german-election-afro-germans-hope-for-a-better-future/a-71645742

Sounds like terrorism to me.

Why do American Democrats hate Russia?

Can't you understand and respect Russia's need for security?
Is that too hard for you to understand?

2025-02-18

The Republican/Democratic difference on peace and war

It is really clear that Donald Trump wants to end the Russia/Ukraine war.

Joe Biden kept it going, proclaiming "As long as it takes".
Kamala Harris, as a presidential candidate, made it clear that that was her intent also.

The difference is starkly clear.

Democrats are for perpetual, totally unnecessary, $millions wasting, thousands killing, conflict with Russia.

Over who controls Kyiv?
Good grief.

2025-02-17

What Arlington County just doesn't get

That men, i.e., humans with the normal male genitalia of balls (testicles) and a penis, 
just don't belong in the usual spaces reserved for women, notably rest rooms and locker rooms.

Why is that?
Because it's impossible to know the motivations and psychology of that person.
Is that person 
a rapist, 
a pervert, 
or a nut job?
Who knows?
Whichever he is, he doesn't belong in women's spaces.

The people who make the rules in Arlington just don't get that.

It doesn't matter who or what people identify with.
What matters is what they ARE.

It's really that simple.


For Arlington dithering over this, see e.g.

https://www.arlnow.com/2025/01/18/charges-against-sex-offender-for-w-l-girls-locker-room-incident-prompt-statement-from-gop/

https://www.arlnow.com/2025/01/22/new-superintendent-addresses-arrest-of-sex-offender-for-incidents-at-w-l-pool/

https://www.arlnow.com/2025/02/03/arrest-of-sex-offender-for-indecent-exposure-in-locker-rooms-sparks-aps-debate-on-gender/

https://www.arlnow.com/2025/02/14/developing-dept-of-education-announces-investigation-of-aps-transgender-policies/


For the related issue of biological men competing in women's sports, see e.g.

https://www.arlnow.com/2025/02/12/aps-transgender-policy-faces-dilemma-after-change-in-athletic-leagues-rules/


2025-02-11

Male genitilia in women's locker rooms?

Is that what the left wants?
How disgusting!

2025-02-09

Washington Post and "advocates"

This is a classic Washington Post headline:

"Advocates worry that migrants sent to Guantánamo are entering a ‘legal black hole’ "

https://www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/2025/02/08/guantanamo-migrants-trump-deportations-noem/

Advocates for what?
Why should anyone care?

Let's face it,
the Washington Post is an advocacy organization for the left wing.

Not another penny for Ukraine

Question:
Should Lviv 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lviv
be part of
1. Poland
2. Lithuania 
3. Austria 
4. Russia
5. Ukraine
6. Ruthenia
or be independent?

For general information, see 
"In Lviv, according to the Austrian census of 1910, which listed religion and language, 51% of the city's population was Roman Catholics, 28% Jews, and 19% belonged to the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lviv/

May God bless each and every one of them!

As to who controls Lviv today, who cares?
That is not the business of, nor is it important or relevant to, the United States.
So why was the United States sending literally billions of dollars in aid to the current government of Ukraine to influence who controls Ukraine?

Enough of this insanity.
Let the Eastern Europeans decide for themselves how they shall be organized.
That is not, and should not, be the business of the United States.

2025-02-06

My love for Germany and Russia

There are two subjects I know at least a little about:
mathematics and music.
In each subject, Germany and Russia have made great contributions.

In mathematics, it is impossible to give examples understandable to those without an advanced education, but I will just mention three names:
Gauss, Euler, and Vladimir Voevodesky
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladimir_Voevodsky
For more Russian mathematicians, see
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Russian_mathematicians

Music is much easier for the general public to appreciate.
For Germany, a shining example is BWV 71:
https://youtu.be/w-Q0MnkwUuU
https://youtu.be/ZqQTMEtQTOA
(What great videography!)
For Russia, a great example is Mussorsky's "Great Gate of Kiev":
https://youtu.be/xX4t4XLZjXM
Watch the middle-aged Valery Gergiev at the peak of his form, 
giving a truly magnificent performance.
Leading a really huge (Japanese) orchestra.
So wonderful that Mussorsky, Ravel, Valarie Gergiev, and the splendid Japanese orchestra could combine to yield this magnificent performance.
(Giving credit where it is due.)
Note the brilliant alternation between the woodwinds and the horns, 
with the timpani intervening.

May God bless the German and Russian people, 
and preserve them from harm.
Forever and ever.


Empathy? Cruelty? Empathy for whom?

See this Sally Jenkins column:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2025/02/05/trans-athlete-ban-trump-executive-order/

"sauerbraten", Sally?
Are you biased against Germans?
I happen to like sauerbraten.
Is there something wrong with that?

Sally Jenkins concluded 

"Whatever you think about trans athletes, surely the subject, in which so much science remains undetermined, calls for empathy. These executive orders, as they’re written, are barbarism."

"Undetermined science"?
That is an absurdity.
The difference between men and women is well understood.
For example, women can bear children, men cannot.
Men have penises, women have vaginas.
Is that too hard for Sally to understand?

Of course there are some gray areas.
Infertile men and women.
The very rare people who have truly mixed sexual characteristics.
But those rare exceptions should not invalidate the basic dichotomy between men and women.

Which should exclude people with truly male sexual characteristics and abilities from competing athletically with women.

Who is controlling Arlington, Virginia education?

At one level, it is
"Superintendent's Cabinet and Organizational Chart - Arlington Public Schools" 
https://www.apsva.us/departments/superintendents-office/superintendents-cabinet-organizational/
Three black people (two black men, one black woman), three white women, one Hispanic man.
Not a non-Hispanic white male in sight.
What do non-Hispanic white men know about mathematics, or how to teach it? (Sarcasm)
(I have to say, that photo is the left's idea of diversity.)


But to whom else is Superintendent Durán going for advice?

See
https://www.equityinedpartners.com/about , and
https://www.arlnow.com/2024/09/25/school-board-eyes-65m-budget-increase-for-more-staff-and-pay-raises-in-fy-2026/

These are the people giving advice on how to teach mathematics?
These are the people who will help America compete with the Chinese?

I think the point here is:
What is Arlington prioritizing?
When I was growing up in the 1950s, competing with the Russians was a very big issue (an issue raised by  
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sputnik_crisis ).
In the 2020s, is competing with the Chinese a priority?
And how does that compare with equality of racial outcomes?
(An issue I don't think the Chinese need to worry about.)

Let's face it.
Arlington, Virginia politics is dominated by political correctness, at the expense of all else.

-------

As to Arlington's ability to control spending, please see

https://www.arlnow.com/2025/02/06/new-aim-audit-reveals-deeply-concerning-issues-in-handling-of-2m-from-county/

https://www.arlnow.com/2023/01/24/breaking-former-arlington-teachers-union-president-arrested-in-fairfax-county/

" “Calibre CPA Group was hired to conduct an audit of the funds. After six months of reviewing the activity, it was determined Gant embezzled $410,782.10 throughout her tenure as president,” the release said. “Detectives were notified and began their investigation, while working closely with the accounting firm and AEA to review the documentation. Detectives determined Gant provided herself with multiple bonuses and used debit cards for unauthorized purchases.” "

A pattern here?

2025-02-05

"prescribed hormone therapy drugs"

For the source of that title, see

https://www.politico.com/news/2025/02/04/judge-blocks-trumps-executive-order-on-transgender-prisoners-00202521

Just who is paying for these "medically required" drugs?

This is a glaring example of how female impersonators, doctors, drug companies, and judges are conspiring to raise costs for all of us.

Remember, those drugs don't come for free.

And are most certainly not necessary.

Transgender filth in Arlington VA

See

https://dailycaller.com/2025/02/04/virginia-residents-ask-school-overlook-transgender-sex-offender-caught-girls-locker-room/

"Virginia residents are rallying against parents who spoke out about an Arlington Public Schools (APS) District policy that allowed a serial sex offender to watch young girls change in a high school locker room for months.

The transgender proponents called on the district to maintain its policy allowing men to use women’s restrooms and locker rooms if they claim to be transgender"

What utter filth.

The simple solution to this problem:
Don't allow men in women's spaces.
Is that too hard to understand?
And please, enough of denying the biological difference between men and women.

And screw Francisco Durán's commitment to "gender identity".
That is purely a matter of psychology.
What matters is biological sex.

A person can change who or what they identify with on a moment's notice.
They cannot change their biological sex, no matter how much is spent on hormone "therapies" or plastic surgery 
(i.e., paying doctors and drug companies for unnecessary products and services).


More detail on the locker room story:

https://www.iwfeatures.com/profile/virginia-mother-slams-policy-that-allowed-registered-child-sex-offender-into-her-daughters-locker-room/

"school officials informed McDougal that they knew exactly who she was referring to in her complaint, 
and that they had granted Cox access to the girls’ locker room because of 
Arlington Public Schools’ policy allowing individuals, including community members, to use the school restroom and locker room corresponding with their gender identity.

Cox, they said, had identified himself as a woman, and therefore had to be granted access to all women’s facilities. 
If McDougal and her daughter didn’t feel comfortable sharing an intimate space with Cox, they could use the private family dressing rooms instead, the concerned mother recalls being told.

McDougal agreed the private family dressing room was the safest option for her daughter. 
Noticeably, many of the other moms did as well, McDougal said, because the line to the private dressing rooms suddenly became long ahead of swim class each day."


Utter filth in the Virginia legislature

See

"Defense, intel veterans reject Tysons casino as ‘acute’ health and national security risk | Articles | fairfaxtimes.com" https://search.app/i2DzP7WjzKM7EYNR9

And who is promoting this horrible project?

L. Louise Lucas,
who describes herself as the "Casino Queen of Virginia".
"Northern Virginia Casino Set For Senate Vote, Bill Wins ‘Casino Queen’ Support" https://search.app/sGHGQrYj39s6WqL9A

"During Tuesday’s vote in the Finance and Appropriations Committee, 
the Tysons casino bill garnered Sen. L. Louis Lucas’ (D-Portsmouth) support, the so-called "Casino Queen of Virginia.” 
The longtime lawmaker, who has served in Richmond for more than three decades, championed Virginia’s 2020 gaming bill that legalized casinos in certain cities."

What a despicable person.
What a despicable idea: a casino in Fairfax.

For more information on this person, 
Google L. Louise Lucas casino 

See, in particular,

"Portsmouth Renaming Street Near Casino After State Senator" https://search.app/rBKkZdMDhSoRSv6x6

"Local government officials in Portsmouth, Va., are renaming a street near the city’s casino in recognition of the state lawmaker who championed the push to bring slot machines, table games, and sports betting to the commonwealth.

No lawmaker in the Richmond capital has been more supportive of casino gambling over the years than state Sen. L. Louise Lucas (D-Portsmouth). 
The trailblazer — Virginia’s first woman and Black lawmaker to hold the office of Senate president pro tempore — was the lead author of the 2020 statute that authorized casinos in certain cities, including Portsmouth. 
It’s garnered her the nickname of Virginia’s “casino lady.”  "

Again, what rotten values she espouses.

 But it's not just Lucas promoting the casino in Fairfax.
See what Senate Majority Leader Scott Surovell (D-34) said:

<Blockquote>Surovell questioned why the national security concerns didn’t crop up when Virginia legalized sports gambling on phones or when MGM National Harbor Hotel & Casino opened in Oxon Hill, Maryland, just on the other side of the Potomac River.

“If our national security community is so vulnerable to this, we’re already screwed,” Surovell said. 

“…It’s NIMBYism dressed up in a different set of clothes.”</blockquote> 

Surovell evidently a moron.

The IC, both within the government and in its contractors is thick and dense in Northern Virginia, especially the area around Tysons.

The last time I took the Metro out to Tysons, I noticed that the display ads in the Metro station were not hawking retail products or medical services, but employers looking for job seekers with high level clearances.

I got the message on who the people who used that Metro station tended to be.

Surovell is a lying turd if he can't recognize that fact, and admit its relevance.


--------

For the vote by political party, see

"Fairfax casino legislation passes in Va. Senate - Virginia Business" https://search.app/5GK8bwypu7ueQemW7

"Voting yes Tuesday were [13] Democratic senators Lashrecse Aird, Lamont Bagby, Jennifer Carroll Foy, Ghazala Hashmi, Mamie Locke, Louise Lucas, Marsden, Jeremy McPike, Stella Pekarsky, Russet Perry, Aaron Rouse, Surovell and Angelia Williams Graves.


The following [11] Republicans voted yes: Christie New Craig, Bill DeSteph, J.D. “Danny” Diggs, Tara Durant, Timmy French, Emily Jordan, Todd Pillion, Bryce Reeves, William Stanley Jr., Richard Stuart and Glen Sturtevant Jr.


[8] Democrats voting no were: Jennifer Boysko, Creigh Deeds, Adam Ebbin, Barbara Favola, Danica Roem, Saddam Azlan Salim, Kannan Srinivasan and Schuyler T. VanValkenburg.


[8] Republicans voting no were: Luther Cifers III, Travis Hackworth, Christopher Head, Ryan McDougle, Tammy Brankley Mulchi, Mark Obenshain, Mark Peake and David Suetterlein."


2025-02-04

What Israel means: perpetual war

It's really that simple.

The hiding of responsibility

Consider this:

"High Murder Rates in the Caribbean Linked to Guns Trafficked from the United States | U.S. GAO" https://search.app/zGfXWTajrrRUEc3v8

Wow!
So if blacks are using guns to commit crimes, up to murder,
the fault is with the gunsellers?

All the fault of whites???

Talk about 
"Designated Victims, Designated Villains".

2025-02-03

The educational gap Arlington should be addressing

While many in Arlington are obsessed with the persistent racial gap in standard test scores, 
there is another, perhaps more important, gap that should be addressed.
Elon Musk points it out here:

"Elon Musk needs H-1B workers because math education fails our students"

https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/elon-musk-needs-h-1b-workers-because-math-education-fails-our-students

"While much of the coverage of the H-1B debate focuses on the foreign-versus-American-worker angle, 
the real issue regarding H-1Bs is that the U.S. is failing to produce domestic workers with the requisite math skills required by Musk’s SpaceX and other high-tech companies. 

In 2024, a shocking 72% of eighth-grade students taking the National Assessment of Educational Progress math exam failed to score at the proficient level -- 
a full 6% increase over the 66% of eighth graders failing to achieve proficiency in 2019.

Why are American students doing so badly in math? 
The answer lies in the ineffective math instruction they are receiving."


I think there is a broader problem, and issue.
The prioritizing in our broader culture of various "Woke" issues, over the hard work it takes to become proficient at the STEM fields.
A teacher can only do so much.
It takes a real commitment by the student to do the hard work to master these fields.

The cited article goes on to criticize Common Core:

"In the early 2010s, most states adopted the Common Core national education standards, which were touted as a cure for America’s math woes. Unfortunately, Common Core turned out to be bad medicine. 

Common Core confused many students by emphasizing indirect ways to arrive at the right answer instead of just learning straightforward mathematical operations. 

For example, in multiplying numbers, children are often asked to draw pictures instead of simply memorizing the multiplication tables."


I am not sure that is the real problem.

For example, take a look at this:

"Number & Operations—Fractions | Common Core State Standards Initiative" https://search.app/1B2fErzBGsGjMjoP7

To understand that, it is helpful to replace the abstract variable "b" by the specific whole number "2".
Then go through the reasoning.
Once you understand what is happening when b=2, 
then you can understand the general case of an arbitrary whole number "b".

There are two distinct issues:

One is purely computational.
E.g., memorizing the formula 
(a/b) × (c/d) = (a×c) / (b×d)

The other issue is conceptual.
E.g. given whole numbers a and b,
what exactly does a/b MEAN?
It is that latter question, of meaning, that the sample Common Core page cited above is getting at.
Again, the easiest way to get into that is to let b=2.
Then we can relate 1/2 to "half", 
so a/2 is just half of a.
E.g., 6/2 = 3, and 
5/2 = (4+1)/2 = (4/2) + (1/2) = 2 + (1/2),
which is usually written as 2 1/2.

2025-02-02

Is arlnow.com arl-homosexual.com?

I have witnessed a parade of articles from arlnow.com featuring the homosexual viewpoint.
For example,
https://www.arlnow.com/2025/01/27/lgbtq-advocates-call-on-county-board-for-greater-protections/

Question:
Is the editor of arlnow.com a homosexual?
If not, why the stress on the views of homosexuals?

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2025-03-05 update:

https://www.arlnow.com/announcements/help-close-the-lgbtq-funding-gap-with-the-new-fund-for-queer-causes-778/


2025-02-01

The hatred of math

https://www.texasmonthly.com/news-politics/texas-problems-with-math-education/

<Blockquote>Humans have been learning math for thousands of years. As long ago as the third millennium BC, Mesopotamian scribes-in-training practiced calculation and geometry by etching numbers into clay tablets. Measuring, accounting, computing totals, divvying up resources: One generation has taught these techniques to the next—and the next and the next—for a dizzyingly long time, a lineage that indirectly connects the scribes of old Babylon to the kids in room 413 at Kealing Middle School, in Austin ...</blockquote>

Health care advocacy and national bankruptcy

Who has not read the pleadings of those advocating for spending more, more, more on health care?
Those advocating for more research or more care.

It should be obvious that this is a bottom less pit.
We can always spend more on health care.
But when does it end?
We could spend the entire American Gross Domestic Product on health care.
Would that be enough?
I am sure there would be some "health care advocate" who would be saying that is not enough, that America should go deeper in debt to meet "health care needs".

Enough with these "health care needs".




A really good Jonathan Turley post

"Mass shootings by leftist gunmen have repeatedly occurred, but those are treated as one-offs, 
while any conservative shooter is part of a pattern of right-wing violence."

https://jonathanturley.org/2025/02/01/fight-in-the-streets-democratic-leader-hakeen-jeffries-triggers-renewed-debate-over-rage-rhetoric/