LowerCaseRepublican

QUOTE(Brian @ Nov 23, 2007 -> 06:43 PM) No. I guess the angle was suppose to be Edge and Krystal but Kystal didn't feel like doing it morally and got released. Krystal will do water fights in white shirts but won't be a heel escort with Edge. Would of elevated her career. Well look what happened to the last heel escort related to Edge and what happened.

QUOTE(The Critic @ Nov 23, 2007 -> 08:22 PM) Files fraudulent tax returns. Started his career with glorified snuff films. Takes advantage of stupid, drunk, sometimes underaged girls with low self-esteem. Yep, all heroic traits. Exactly. And now on to address DB, What Hef (and Flynt) did and do is much different than this assclown. First things first, what Hef and Flynt did was legal -- and while Flynt fought for the 1st Amendment with numerous court cases (ultimately winning) at least he did his time without complaining about having to be in jail for what he was doing. This guy is just an opportunist clown.

One more Chikara show added for 12.9 at Penn State Univ. For those in the area prepare to see "Stephen Colbert>Bill O'Reilly" (yes, that is the name of the show) after the Lince Dorado injury and the Claudio/Hero match not being wrestled at Chapter 11.

I'm upgrading my cell phone (I'm due for an upgrade) and then going out for pizza. Does that count?

QUOTE(kyyle23 @ Nov 21, 2007 -> 06:58 PM) Matt Hardy had an emergency appendectomy before the smackdown tapings the other day and is expected to miss a good chunk of the next 2 months recovering. pretty scary stuff, his blood was already being poisoned by the released toxins [kayfabe]Damn you, MVP and your shenanigans![/kayfabe] Off to go play SDvR2008. Surprisingly mediocre but replay is alright until I get bored of it in less than a week. Yay rentals.

QUOTE(Brian @ Nov 19, 2007 -> 09:15 AM) Jericho's titan tron has been leaked. Worst kept secret by WWE ever. Pretty cool. That voice should not be coming out of that man. And dear god, I've been watching Raw with absolutely no reaction. Needs more 'Boom Boom' Colt Cabana!

Update: Per chikarafans.com Lince just has a serious concussion but should be okay with plenty of rest. And holy s***, I just watched the BJ Whitmer/Jimmy Jacobs cage match from SCoH II. Dear God, what a match. Wow. I feel bad for Aries and Strong in the match after. There's not much they could do to top what happened previously.

Lince Dorado got seriously hurt at Chikara's CHAPTER 11 show at the ECW Arena today. During today's CHIKARA Pro "Chapter 11" show at the New Alhambra Arena, there was a serious since when Lince Dorado, a young luchador who has become a star in the promotion this year with a great feud with Mitch Ryder, over rotated in a shooting star senton and whiplashed the back of his head on the mat during the finish. It was a scary and very bad scene. The crowd was completely silent as Lince was stretchered out on a table as Mitch Ryder was shaved as part of losing a mask vs. hair match. Mike Quackenbush ended the show immediately afterward with one match (Chris Hero vs. Claudio Castagnoli) remaining. The crowd was chanting to END THE SHOW after the announcement was made that Lince was going to the hospital. Word is Lince's family was there and you could hear screaming and crying coming from backstage area. Quackenbush also asked everyone to stay until the ambulance came and went as so not to impede it. Thankfully, Lince was responsive and talking when the ambulance picked him up. -- Good to hear that he was responsive. Chikara is a really entertaining comedy/lucha/strong style promotion. I wonder how they are going to handle this on the DVD for the show and a classy move of Quack to cancel the rest of the show. Plus, tonight is Survivor Series. I am spending mine finishing a set of wrestling DVD's (Best of Chikara, ROH Final Battle 2004, ROH Driven, ROH Supercard of Honor II and then whatever else I can get in before passing out tonight)...and then reading the results of Survivor Series online during this.

The Best of Chikara is a must buy for the $10.

Anybody want to send the rodeo leader from Borat there? Seems like he'd fit right in with this mentality.

QUOTE(The Critic @ Nov 12, 2007 -> 05:39 PM) I hear they tickle the animals to death, and if that doesn't work they play interviews with Nicolas Cage on a continuous loop, which either results in the animals dying of boredom or committing suicide. The veal died of loneliness.

QUOTE(Rex Kicka** @ Nov 11, 2007 -> 04:59 PM) I think rather than giving up eating meat, it makes me want to eat free-range and organic meats instead. Much less cruelty involved, much better sanitation in the packing process - generally. Ding ding ding. Hooray local farm and local co-op that provides yummy organic meats.

QUOTE(Texsox @ Nov 11, 2007 -> 03:50 PM) And how did you come to decide that these parents are on an attention crusade? Why are kids going to be warped by NOT reading this book? Talk about straw argument? Free pub and free press? That's like attacking any drug education. If you honestly believe that they are worried about this supposedly dangerous crack, why give it so much free pub? And I don't think all teachers are wrong. Just the ones that attack parents by calling them attention whores, ignorant, hardone rubes for making the same decision that thousands of English teachers have made. Tex, how many teachers have used this book and not had any parents come out in the media about it? I'd be it'd be more than this 1 parent that was offended. And I came to decide that they were on an attention crusade because nowhere in there does it talk about them going through the traditional protocols of complaining in a sane fashion to a district.

QUOTE(Texsox @ Nov 11, 2007 -> 03:24 PM) There is a criteria used in selecting the works that are used in a course. Thousands of English teachers chose different works than this one. They decide that other works are better suited for teaching AP History. Yet, if parents hold that exact same opinion, you believe they are ignorant, book-banning, hardon rubes. I believe public schools are owned by the public, and the public has a right and responsibility for what occurs in the school. No other public servant has complete and absolute power. If the teacher finds scrutiny that upsetting and stressful, there are plenty of private schools where they can teach whatever they want. But be forewarned, the scrutiny in private schools is 100 times greater. Nice gloss over Tex and a very well constructed straw man. You took what I actually wrote, ignored the clarifications and continued to attack the straw man that you were so deftly able to knock down. Perhaps you should read a bit more clearly in what I wrote. Here it is again. I wouldn't use that terminology for all parents -- just the ones who are clearly on an attention whoring crusade by obviously being so angered by the images in this book that they are not only telling them what they are to the kids at school but also to the school board, the local media and the national media. If you honestly believe that they are worried about children, then why give so much free pub and free press to this supposedly "dangerous" book? Now the minds of millions of children will be irrevocably warped beyond recognition by the demon inspired violence and sexual depictions of this book. There is a protocol for these situations and these parents clearly went over the teacher's head to try to get themselves some attention rather than actually solve the situation. There is a substantial difference between being responsible about what happens in a classroom and going deliberately over the teacher's head to create some attention for one's self in a political hackery campaign.

QUOTE(Texsox @ Nov 11, 2007 -> 01:39 PM) Would you call every teacher that didn't use Prince of Tides as an ignorant, book-banning hardon rube? Perhaps there would not be so many parents like that if there were not so many "f*** parent's opinions, they are ignorant rubes" teachers like you. If this is your attitude with parents no wonder you have all those problems. I wouldn't use that terminology for all parents -- just the ones who are clearly on an attention whoring crusade by obviously being so angered by the images in this book that they are not only telling them what they are to the kids at school but also to the school board, the local media and the national media. If you honestly believe that they are worried about children, then why give so much free pub and free press to this supposedly "dangerous" book? Now the minds of millions of children will be irrevocably warped beyond recognition by the demon inspired violence and sexual depictions of this book There is a protocol for these situations and these parents clearly went over the teacher's head to try to get themselves some attention rather than actually solve the situation. Those parents are clearly in the minority but having them interfere with the situation when they are clearly wrong and it wastes everyone's time, is a bit grating...and we wonder why teaching has such a high turnover rate. 9 times out of 10, interactions with parents are positive. However, there are the ones that just want to be there to b****. If I walked on water, they'd rail to the school board that I didn't swim. In this case, that's what these parents are. If they were so concerned, they could have followed the protocol rather than go straight for the media.

QUOTE(YASNY @ Nov 11, 2007 -> 10:24 AM) The school board is elected by the people and it every ... EVERY .... parents right to question what is being done within the walls of the schoolhouse. Just because a teacher doesn't like being questioned or second guessed, well tough s***. I pay your salary. I'll have my say. And then what do I get after you're done putting a teacher through undue stress and problems all because you having an opinion? I'm just into this a bit personally because I had a parent who had it out for me with a perceived situation that never actually happened -- long story short, held a student for a detention and her friend's daughter told her mom and dad that something "may have happened". No proof and a really big headache of numerous meetings, having to get with my union rep and ended up finding out for the district that the dad had a whole ton of f***ING IDIOT fall out of his mouth. Or the parent who called me out in the local paper because I didn't force my students to stand for the Pledge. I mainly don't force them to because if I did, it would be illegal. Instead of talking to me and getting the facts straight, the mom went straight to the newspaper (and I later wrote in a letter to the editor which set everything straight -- and I got a apology call much long after the fact) There have been great parents who come in and talk with me, get both sides of what happened and talk to me directly before going over my head. This whole thing about the book banning smacks of parents wanting attention and attention whoring much more than it does for actually changing anything in the district. If the parents were that concerned, why didn't they initially -- I don't know -- schedule a meeting with the teacher and find out why the teacher chose the book for the class before putting sole prints on the teacher's scalp by going straight to the media about the perceived slight? I didn't even get an apology from "something could have happened" parent for it either. Plus, it was even better during the whole thing when he kept criticizing me, I asked him bluntly "What do you want me to do? Instead of just saying 'I don't like this'., give me some ideas." He sat there with a blank stare on his face. And YAS, there is a big difference between just questioning what is going on and going on an all out crusade to ban a book from the curriculum for everybody. I'd rather trust the teacher, the administration who put the teacher in the classroom, the superintendent who hired the teacher, the school board who approved the teacher being in the classroom as a competent teacher much, much, much, much, much more than some ignorant, book-banning hardon rube of a parent who is "offended" at an act in a book.

QUOTE(Texsox @ Nov 11, 2007 -> 07:52 AM) So of course LCR, parents could never be right? That the English teacher is omnipotent? Amazing how you support civil disobedience if it suits *your* political agenda. I'll bet if this was some right wing piece that the kids didn't want to read, you'd be coaching them, talking about rights and process. The President of the US has a check and balance, I think a high school English teacher should also. If they don't want their child reading it, then don't have them read it. Case closed. Accept the grades that one gets as a result. Complain to the teacher about the choice of the book. However, don't go on a crusade making every parents' decision for them by trying to ensure that nobody gets to read the book. Plus, most of the time that parents are "concerned" about something just means that it is a lot of undue stress and problems for the teacher which end up getting resolved with the teacher being correct. (from personal experience in the places where I've done my professional observations and my current job) And yes, I've actually had to read plenty of pieces in high school that I found less than palatable to my own opinions and taste (oddly, the same book that the other honors kid didn't think was appropriate) but I read the book because it is challenging to read. Overcome the simple "OMG THERE IS TEX SEXORS!!!!!1111!1! ELEVENTY!" and see why it is placed in there, the context of the situation, etc. Banning books in schools is absolutely insane, from any political agenda. And such a political hatchet job from you, Tex. I honestly expected more.

QUOTE(vandy125 @ Nov 10, 2007 -> 09:23 PM) One thing that I have noticed with this discussion is that there is a lot of pointing at this class being an "Elective College-level" class. They do not have to take the class if they do not want to. Is that really true though? With the competition that there is for getting into different colleges, in many cases, you have to take these college-level courses. It is not really an option. So, the question becomes, were there other options to this course? It is a voluntary AP class in literature. We had them in high school too. A kid in my school thought a book was 'immoral' and refused to read it. He took his lumps and accepted the low quiz scores until we finished the book and his parents didn't raise a s*** fit about it. If you're going to choose not to read the book, then accept the consequences. Don't try to go on a moral crusade to stop every child from reading the book and using your parental authority to get the book banned and make the parental decisions for every family in that class. Are this kid and his parents going to try to get college texts and supplementals banned because the child is offended by the subject matter within the books? If the kid and parents don't like it, don't read it but don't dare try to make the parenting decisions for the other students in the class just because they're knee jerk reactionaries.

QUOTE(southsideirish71 @ Nov 8, 2007 -> 03:21 PM) The realists, who have to break down out loud in the theater on how X theory is not real, yet a week before they were at the theaters watching a flying dinosaur who talks and shoots lazers. That they had no problem with. Where is this movie with the flying, talking, laser shooting dinosaur? I must see this film!

QUOTE(StrangeSox @ Nov 10, 2007 -> 09:01 AM) What other professions b**** and moan and walk off the job because they "only" got 19% raises, though? Everyone gets paid based upon the area the work in. An engineer in Chicago or Southern California makes more than an engineer in Kansas because of higher cost-of-living. If teachers deserve raises of 20%+, why don't other professions? It all depends on what raises the administration are giving themselves, the politics of that particular district, the politics inside the building(s) (if things are acrimonious, they can get really heated real quick), what teachers are being asked to do outside of their teaching classes duties (i.e. AM/PM monitoring duties, lunch/recess supervisions, supplemental curricula that the school is adding which requires altering/realigning previous curricular activities in one's classroom, the amount of compensation for post-school actions like working sports games, et al.) There's a lot more to the situation than just "They want X for a raise." in the situation. And Strange, to answer your questions -- it may be because the job requires numerous hoops of certification, scouring with background checks, having to perform 5-6 classes per day (depending on the courses, you may have to plan for 1-3 classes for the year i.e. History, World History, etc.), having to perform a bevy of tasks after professional hours are over, play nurse/psychologist/social worker/role model/doctor/circus performer/disciplinarian on a daily basis for over 100 children, deal with the parents of those 100+ children, make professional meetings, professional improvement days, grade assignments, keep the online gradebook up to date so parents can access their kids' grades and have them be up to date, make your assignments/keys/copies, get make up work ready, get suspension work ready, retrieve lost lunch cards and bus passes, play prison guard when watching the kids in the hallways, making sure the kids all get to class without being tardy, making sure that office referrals get brought down to the office, keeping good communication with your grade level teams about what is going on with students/parents/topics in classes/cross-curricula top down activities like our move towards increasing literacy skills, doing any other extracurriculars, attending students' extracurriculars, working on developing a positive relationship with the 100+ children, keeping their parents up to date about their behaviors so it does not appear that any student has fallen through the cracks, dealing with the parents who leave a lot to be desired from assistance at home, dealing with the parents that try to get staff fired because of some non-existent perceived slights, dealing with parents who want to be too involved and try to micromanage your decisions, co-planning with special education teachers regularly with your plans to make sure that they do not need to be modified at all for special education students because full inclusion means that they are in the rooms as you are teaching (and hopefully the class is co-taught with the special ed teacher or a good teacher's aide), modifying those materials that need to be modified for the special education students, attending IEP and 504 meetings, keeping up to date bulletin boards with daily homework assignments, the week's homework for your classes, the chapter topics as we cover them, putting up and maintaining any motivational posters, playing Fire Chief and disaster drill sarge for fire/tornado drills, keeping kids calm and quiet during Code Red emergency drills...and that's all really I can think of off the top of my head -- I'm kind of tired right now. /was up early to go watch the 7th and 8th graders perform at speech contest today //then graded 100+ exams at work

QUOTE(NorthSideSox72 @ Nov 9, 2007 -> 12:31 PM) I have no problem at all with teachers making 6 figures, if they and the school are performing well. And I will gladly pay more in property taxes for good schools. Very few things are that important to me, but education is one of them. And LCR is right about the balance of funding. That is a huge embarrassment. For anyone who wants to explore how education funding is amplifying the gap between rich and poor in the Chicago area, you should read Kozol's Savage Inequalities. I am not saying that all teachers should be paid 100% equally, but, the current system is unfair in the extreme. As for striking... I would agree to the extent that it should be absolutely a last resort. Perhaps the solution is for the state to employ some sort of mediation team that can be brought in when these impasses become critical. One made up of people with backgrounds in education as well as business. Kozol's newest book "Shame of the Nation" is also really good. Property taxes as the primary mode of funding is insane. And also, CC, it wasn't a knock on you. Just being in the education field and also having been a column writer, I've read the Champion site a lot in the past and got their major bent that their ideology arcs toward. As for the school's success, you can check it here: http://webprod.isbe.net/ereportcard/public...chCriteria.aspx

QUOTE(Brian @ Nov 8, 2007 -> 07:47 AM) I think I used to play this on N64 back in the day or a version of it. I don't need a converter or anything, right? That is cheap. I usually get SDvsRaw every year. What is the roster like? No converter. It is a US release. The roster is pretty deep with CAW's that are really just there to avoid copyright infringement (you can make Terry Funk, etc.) It has a lot of US and international wrestlers in it. Edit Slots: On top of the game's roster of 327 pre-made wrestlers from real-life wrestling promotions, players are allowed to build and store up to 500 highly-customizable wrestler edits at a time. That is compared to the 216 edit slots made available in Fire Pro Wrestling D and Fire Pro Wrestling Z. So, in Returns, up to 827 wrestlers can be chosen. Updated Roster: Smaller indy promotions are represented in their entirety in Returns. New Moves: A variety of new wrestling moves have been added to Returns, including reanimated versions of moves seen in previous Fire Pro titles. Faction Customization: In Returns, you can now create "face"/"heel" factions within the promotions themselves, so players can recreate such popular stables or their own fictional teams. Traditional Steel Cage Match: A long-awaited new feature makes its way into Returns. This is not to be confused with other more "electrifying" steel cage matches in the Fire Pro Wrestling series. Preset match options: You can save up to 4 preset match setups for most of the game's modes. This saves players time when they want to use the same match setups frequently. Giant-sized wrestlers: "G-Size" makes its debut in Fire Pro Wrestling Returns, meaning players can create characters as large as André the Giant or Giant Gonzalez to tower over their competition. "Corner-To-Center" attack position: A new wrestler position for the wrestlers to position themselves in adds an additional layer of strategy to Returns. New deathmatch types: New deathmatch types offer electrified ropes, barbwired ropes and landmines, allowing wrestlers to cause each other further harm. Managers/seconds at ringside: Users can create a manager for your wrestler and also play as the manager at ringside. Post-match attacks: Removed from Fire Pro Wrestling Z, the ability to attack your opponent after a match has ended has been returned in Fire Pro Wrestling Returns. Improved sound: Audience sounds have been enhanced and attendees will chant along with specific wrestler taunts and poses. Larger wrestler sprites: New sprites are larger, sharper and more detailed than sprites found in Fire Pro Wrestling Z.

QUOTE(Texsox @ Nov 8, 2007 -> 03:43 PM) The public should have some input in what is taught in public high schools. Who should teach your kids about sodomy? The English teacher of course! How could kids ever learn English Lit without being exposed to sodomy? And those sure are terrible parents for not wanting the high school English teacher to teach their children about anal sex and child abuse. And let's have the Math teacher teach them about racism. I can't believe the only way to teach English is via anal sex and child abuse. No wonder parents want to take back the schools. Tex, some other famous banned books. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings To Kill a Mockingbird Grapes of Wrath Great Gatsby 1984 Ulysses Of Mice and Men Catch 22 Invisible Man (Ralph Ellison) The ALA has a ton of books for Banned Book Week. Plus:2. High school subjects are generally graphic in nature. I dissected a fetal pig for weeks in high school. I also learned about Samurai gutting themselves, Caligula pretty well personifying debauchery, the Inquisition, the Holocaust, massive genocides around the world and the lynchings during the civil rights movement. A depiction of violence in a work in literature seems fairly tame compared to that.

QUOTE(Controlled Chaos @ Nov 8, 2007 -> 03:13 PM) Any opinions? Anyone affected? I found this article pretty interesting. Teacher Unions and the New math: 20% is 10% By Bill Zettler Unbeknownst to me the CPI (Consumer Price Index) went up by over 20% the last 3 years. Although I checked the Bureau of Labor Statistics and they said 10% I read an ad in the Daily Herald on Sunday, November 4th from the teacher union at District 211 that said they were going on strike soon if they didn’t get big raises. In fact the ad says the teachers had agreed previously to limit increases to less than the CPI for the last 3 years and that’s why the strike was justified. So just to make sure I understood what the teacher union meant I decided to check what actually happened to District 211 teacher salaries over the 3 year period 2003-2006. What I found out was that the 554 teachers who worked at Dist. 211 for that 3 year period averaged 19.8% salary increases. Therefore it follows that the CPI must have been over 20% because the union’s ad in the Herald said they were working for increases less than the CPI. Therefore either the Bureau of Labor Statistics or the teachers union is wrong. Call me a cynic, but I believe the BLS. And by the way, 149 of those 554 teachers had increases in excess of $20,000, which doesn’t sound like a sacrifice to me. I wonder – how many readers of this article had their salaries increase by $20,000 over the last 3 years? The other teacher salary issue is Average Salary. That particular calculation is virtually meaningless when it comes to the parallel universe that is the Illinois Public School system. As an example I again refer to District 211. In 2006 the average teacher salary at 211 was $82,254 and in 2002 $85,438. Now do you really think that the teachers took a salary cut between 2002 and 2006? Of course not. The Average Salary figure is used by the unions because it is unrepresentative of the real increases being received by the teachers every year. The Teacher Retirement System (TRS), which tracks all salaries, states that the average year over year is 6.5%, which according to my 3-year spreadsheet (see here) is just about right. The reason the Average Salary is unrepresentative is because when $150,000/yr teachers retire they are replaced by younger teachers making perhaps $50,000/yr. In District 211’s case there were 3 teachers in 2006 that made more than $150,000: a Drivers Ed teacher, a Phys Ed teacher and an Auto repair teacher. So even though that $50,000 teacher had a raise of 6.5% the average actually goes down because of the $100,000 decrease. You will notice that neither the taxpayers nor the parents nor the students get any extra benefit from paying a $150,000 Drivers Ed teacher rather than a $50,000 one. The only people who benefit from this scheme are the teachers. What possible benefit accrues to the community when taxes are used to pay $150,000 for a service that should cost 1/3 of that amount? Why don’t we pay $50,000 for drivers ed and use the other $100,000 for other public purposes such as health care for poor kids? Keep in mind, in Dist 211, 319 out of 891 full-time employees made more than $100,000 and when they retire and are replaced by less expensive, but just as adequate, teachers it drives down the average. And of course you are not done paying after they retire. Teachers total pension payments during their retirement adds up to more than twice what they made when they taught. So you pay them when they work then you pay them even more for not working. In the case of the three $150,000 teachers above, total pension payout over their expected lifetimes, for all three combined, will exceed $12 million, not including health benefits which currently average about $4,000/yr. Again, wouldn’t the community as a whole be better served if we paid out say $5 million in pensions to these three teachers and used the other $7 million for homeless shelters and food pantries? To paraphrase the home-schooled Abe Lincoln, the Illinois Public schools are “of the teachers, by the teachers and for the teachers.” You have nothing to say about it. You write your check for the taxes and the union writes their check to the politicians. That’s how it works in Illinois. Posted November 6, 2007 The Champion is a really big anti-union site. It'd be better if the Champion attacked Illinois as a whole for being one of the worst states in the US in school economic disparities. Instead, it just becomes "Union=Bad" hilariousness. Two -- knowing their salaries, what is the cost of living in that area? I mean, simply just posting "OMG! THEY MAKE X!" is a bit disingenuous if one does not then couple that with the cost of living in the area. I'll stop now because this kind of stuff is a major pet peeve for me, not that CC posted it -- just the blowhards of the Champion web site which are a bunch of anti-union hacks.

QUOTE(Texsox @ Nov 7, 2007 -> 10:14 PM) Is there any books that you would deem unsuitable for that age level? At what age should parents stop being parents and just turn their kids over to teachers to raise? If the kid is under 18, then the parents can step in. But, this is a voluntary college level course being taught here. The parents do have an obligation then to ask just for their child not to read the book, not that every child is banned from reading the book. There are some parents that don't want their children to be willfully ignorant. In high school when I was there, a student did not want to read one of the honors English books. So, he chose not to read it and accepted the fact that he was going to bomb the quizzes on it. But the parents never once tried to get anybody else's child from having the opportunity to read the book (which in this case was Heinlein's "Stranger in a Strange Land") The idea of banning books will just mean that every kid (in the class and not) will try to read this book now. Seriously, what is wrong with exposing your children to controversial topics? It gives you an opportunity to have actual in depth discussion with your child about a subject that actually interests them. It encourages critical thinking and questioning of their surroundings. Is that a bad thing?