Special Snowflakes Get Slapped

(Note: this blog post is rich with links and will remain here for several days because I'm still dealing with this miserable nephrostomy. Before commenting, please read at least a portion of each link.  Thank you)

A protected group a group of whiners just lost their protected status at the University of Chicago.

The University of Chicago, of all places!

Yep, snowflakes, it's time to grow up.

Deal with it.

Freedom of expression has triumphed over the insane "doctrine" of micro-aggressions and trigger warnings.

Here is the University of Chicago's Welcome Letter for this year's incoming freshman (Click to enlarge, or go to THIS LINK):

How did we get to the sorry state of worrying about micro-aggressions and trigger warnings in the first place?

In my view, via the self-esteem movement, which, in my own experience as a teacher in a small private school, dates back to at least the 1980s. Overnight, or so it seemed at the time, teacher-parent conferences included parents whining about how their children's disobedience and refusal to do assignments resulted from "poor self-esteem." The parents were, of course, releasing their children from self-discipline and accountability.

By the late 1990s, the push was on for all children to receive awards, whether or not the children had earned said rewards.  In 1996, the private school where I had worked for eighteen years closed — in part, a reaction to the self-esteem movement: the school's director refused to compromise the standards which she had upheld for over twenty-five years.

Believe it or not, there has been a National Association for Self-Esteem since 1986. The idea of such an association was introduced by California State Assemblyman John Vasconcellos.

The National Association for Self-Esteem's web site is HERE. Take a look. It has lesson plans.

Today I teach classes for groups of homeschoolers. The past few years, the self-esteem movement has been rearing its ugly head in that venue, too, and I see fewer and fewer homeschool families interested in the courses I offer. I'm glad that I have relatively few more years before retirement.

Additional reading...Virginia Tech’s Welcome Mat: Diversity Edu. DiversityEdu is a for-profit company and lists these contributing scholars. The organization's home page is HERE.

Weekend Humor Break

One of my recent Facebook finds:

Have a great weekend!

The Clinton Machine

With a hat tip to TOTUS:

Related article and video...Judge Jeanine: 'Bill & Hillary Clinton Are the Bonnie & Clyde of American Politics' and Many donors to Clinton Foundation met with her at State.

Has American ever before been as plagued by a political machine this corrupt and this Teflon-esque?

Dateline...Roanoke, Virginia: "Allahu Akbar!"

Wasil Farooqui

On August, 22, 2016, Wasil Farooqui, 20, stabbed a man and a woman as they were entering their apartment building. The two victims are seriously wounded.


The crime is now being investigated as an ISIS-inspired attack. Many additional details HERE, including this:

Virginia ISIS attacker Wasil Farooqui attempted to go to Syria, was on law enforcement radar. Yet another #KnownWolf

How many soon-to-be stabbers, beheaders, or bombers are on law enforcement's radar? Too many to keep track of?

ObamaCare Fail

Stranded patients! 854,872 individuals enrolled in failed ObamaCare Co-ops, costing the taxpayers $1,711,040,390 in federal loans!

From The 16th Obamacare Co-Op Has Collapsed: Here’s How Much Each Failed Co-Op Got in Taxpayer-Funded Loans (July 12, 2016):

The Ideal Obituary?

The obituary below the fold is definitely not the usual!

In my view, it's both clever and humorous. I cannot speak to its honesty — but maybe it is.

From in the New Orleans Times-Picayune (dated Friday, August 12, 2016):

Hillary Rodham Clinton Is A Big Fat Liar

Click directly on the graphic to enlarge it:

Related article: Hillary Clinton Did NOT Follow Colin Powell's Advice on Her Email Server.

And then there's this....Apparently Hillary Rodham Clinton — or at least her cohorts — intend to shred the Constitution and muzzle those who expose her for the liar that she is (hat tip to Infidel Bloggers Alliance:

From The Defies-Description Files

Howard Dean: ‘I Don’t Consider Iran to Be a Muslim Country’.

Excerpt:

Former Vermont Governor Howard Dean told Breitbart News that “Iran is the farthest thing from an Islamic Republic” and that Iran is not “a Muslim country.” Read the rest HERE.

Something Pleasant — For A Change

(For politics, please scroll down)

Angelonia

I had a surprise visitor this morning: a former piano student from some forty years ago. He came bearing flowers (Angelonia).

He stayed for over an hour so that we could do some political yodeling. LOL!

Tonight, our helper TJP, a classroom student and a piano student from some thirty years ago, will transfer the flowers to the antique flower pot at the front side of our house. These flowers attract butterflies.  I hope that butterflies are still around this late in the season.

Funny how the comforters and helpers are all men.  I guess that the boys found me unforgettable. Heh.

More below the fold.

Refugee By Sabo

With a hat tip to Infidel Bloggers Alliance:

Street artist crashes ‘Refugee’ art exhibit, includes terrorists and jihadis.

According to the YouTube blurb, the "REFUGEE" exhibit is showing at the Annenberg Space for Photography from April 23 - Aug 21, 2016, in Century City, California.

Additional information HERE.

Back When I'm Feeling Better

(For politics, please scroll down)

Still dealing with health issues: namely, bilateral hydronephrosis, with the left kidney in crisis at this time.

What misery!

I am scheduled soon for a nephrostomy.

This procedure, if successful, serves two purposes: (1) to drain the kidney so as to save as much kidney tissue as possible and (2) to ascertain if all the pain I've been having for the past several months stems from a blocked ureter or from nerve damage to the kidney itself.

If the former, I will be undergoing ureteral pyeloplasty in a few months. If the latter, I will be undergoing a nephrectomy in a few months.

Comments intermittently on moderation until I recover from the nephrostomy.

This is the summer from hell.

Hillary Rodham Clinton's Laugh Of The Lunatic

With a hat tip to Adrienne of Adrienne's Corner:


Read Is Hillary Clinton sick? Insane?...

Also see Hillary Clinton freezes in fear over a heckler.

Is it any wonder that she regularly disappears from the campaign trail for a day or two?

My own anecdotal "evidence":

When I first saw the prism on Hillary's eyeglasses — during the Benghazi Hearings, no less — I knew without a doubt that she had suffered some kind of TBI. Mr. AOW had to wear prisms like that because his hemorrhagic stroke damaged at least one nerve controlling equal tracking of the eyes.

I can't prove it, of course, but I suspect that Hillary's outburst during the Benghazi hearings was directly related to steroids prescribed for brain swelling.  I know something about steroids as prescribed for brain swelling: Mr AOW had to take large doses of steroids after his brain surgery in 1993.

As for what's going on right now with Hillary's health, I have little personal frame of reference other than to say that her abdomen appears bloated. I've seen that kind of bloat in family members who had congestive heart failure (my grandmother, for example, and she wore tunic tops to disguise the bloat) and in acquaintances who were late-stage alcoholics.

Recent photo of HRC being helped up the steps

Tales From The Classroom

("Tales from the Classroom" is a feature posted occasionally here at this blog.  All tales are true and present matters about which I have personal knowledge.  The following tale dates back to 1982, when I was teaching third grade.)

D struggled academically. She had always struggled academically and had to repeat a grade or two.

But as an adult? She works as a high-ranking administrative assistant in the U.S. State Department and has beautiful daughter (about age 6).

The graphic below is my comment page on her book report Johnny Tremaine.

D's mother saved this book report in a memory box, and D recently sent me photos of some of her work from way back when.

Click directly on the image to enlarge it:

I am typically stingy with praise.  When a struggling student succeeds, however, I lavish the student with praise.

D says, all these years later, "The book report was a turning point for me."

Yes, a teacher really does touch the future.

Time For Some Beauty

[For politics, please scroll down]

I took this quick photo of this morning's sky as it looked across the street from my back porch:

The sunrise was pinker than the camera shows, and the entire D.C. region was bathed in a soft-rose glow.

Recommended Reading

See Why Voting for Donald Trump Is a Morally Good Choice by Wayne Grudem of Townhall. Mr. Grudem did not support Donald Trump during the primary season, but does so now. Read the entire essay, written from the Christian perspective, to see his argument.

Brief excerpt below the fold.