Kid shot... but doesn't want the bullet removed

Here is an interesting article that my cooperating teacher and I had our students read in the civics classes we teach ...

It begs many questions (not the least of which is, "Why doesn't he want the bullet removed unless he has something to hide?"). But there is one question that's been bugging me ever since I heard about this case.

If this case makes it to the Supreme Court, might there be an impact on Roe v. Wade? I may be going out on a limb here, but follow my logic, if you would...

1. Much of the modern privacy-of-body laws stem from Roe.
2. A main focus of Roe is that it violates a person's 14th Amendment rights to have State officials telling her what to do with her body.
3. In the case I've mentioned above, the state wants to remove a bullet lodged in a teen's forehead to prove that he was (or was not?) attemting to murder the owner of a used car dealership. (See, the kid has already admitted to being a part of the robbery of the dealership earlier in the day. Police suspect that this kid returned later, threatened the owner's life if he spoke to police, and shot at the owner. Hit the link above if you want more info about the case.) The question at hand is who has more rights: the state in procecuting the crime or the individual's right to privacy?
4. IF the case made it to the Supreme Court and they decide that the State has the right to force the kid to have surgery to remove a foreign body, might this start eroding rights to do what we want with our own bodies?

OK, so it's a bit of a stretch, but it sounds conceivable. At the very least, might this turn out to be a precedent that others may build on (a la Brown v. Board was a stepping-stone to get rid of all Jim Crow laws...)

Thoughts?
5.

Happy New Year! Shanah Tovah!

Wow, it's so cool to see so many new hits on the website, in spite of the fact that no one has posted in the past couple of weeks! I hope all of our new readers have seen enough that they are compelled to come back though!

More to come... I've just been insanely busy over winter break grading papers and doing lesson plans. But I promise a good post soon!

John Edwards Is Planning on Running For President

John Edwards is planning to enter the race again for president. According to All Headline News:

Reports say former North Carolina Senator John Edwards will enter the race for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination.

Officials, speaking on condition of anonymity to news outlets say the former Democratic vice presidential nominee will make the announcement from New Orleans before 2007.

John Edwards ran in 2004 and although he lost the primary he was chosen by John Kerry as vice president. During 2004 I was a huge Edwards supporter. I donated much money to him and campaigned for him in South Carolina. Will I support him again? It depends on who else decides to run. I am leaning towards Edwards.

For more information check out John Edward's website.

Good"Bayh"

According to the New York Times this morning, Evan Bayh will not be running for President. I guess this means I can now count on the support of RUGWDEM for my candidate, Senator Barack Hussein Obama!

Jimmy Carter

What a douche-bag.

I think that about covers it. So I'm guessing there won't be any comments on this one :)

Today

I had my psychology class meditate for 10 minutes today. Who knows if they were telling the truth about how it went. That is, if they ever achieved true relaxation or a real state of "inner peace". When I woke them up by yelling "Okay!" about half the class jumped, though. Heh heh...

In other news, I would like to make my formal endorsement of Barack Obama for President of the United States of America. This both a premature and uninformed pronouncement by yours truly, but I couldn't resist. Any other opinions on candidates??

Say Goodbye to My Little Friend

I would like to announce a purge at the Heroes' Handbook blog. The member formerly known as "Whorush" has been removed, not so much for his lack of postings, but because I don't think he even realizes the blog exists.

Thus I have removed him from the Masthead. He will be off to Vancouver shortly, anyway, where he will attempt to hit on women of Asian descent, so I expect him to have even less time than now to contribute. I bid him adieu...

Movie Recommendation of the Week

Paths of Glory

Starring Kirk Douglas (aka: Issur Danielovitch); directed by Stanley Kubrick

It is the classic World War I movie. I am screening it for my US History classes. It's just amazing and should be required viewing in all high schools across the globe. For real.

Recession Very Likely In 2007

As the housing market continues to weaken it will have serious ramifications for the overall US economy. "The collapse of the housing bubble will throw the economy into a recession, and quite likely a severe recession," warned a July report by the Center for Economic and Policy Research. Furthermore, Lehman Brothers report, "[A] turn in the housing market is central to our economic forecast. " As reported by the AP on Nov 11, 2005:

A downturn in housing could mean more than 1.3 million lost jobs, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. predicts, bumping up the national unemployment rate by 1 percent and the unemployment rate in house-mad California by 2 percent. Those numbers don't include likely job cuts in housing-dependent businesses, such as banking, furniture and building materials.

The Center for Economic and Policy Research predicts worse, saying a bubble burst would mean the loss of 5 million to 6.3 million jobs.

The housing run-up has financed consumer spending, creating more than $5 trillion in bubble wealth, the center estimates. Consumers have used "cash-out" mortgages to pay for everything from new kitchens to college tuition.

The current economic predicament is simply unsustainable. The double digit price appreciation of the housing boom years has come to an abrupt end. Once the housing bubble pops, a recession is almost inevitable. Here are other factors that will contribute to a future recession:

• High Energy Costs
• Federal Debt & Deficit
• Continuing Housing Bust
• High Consumer Debt
• Large Trade Deficit
• Continued Offshoring
• Security Costs

Billionaire speculator George Soros said he did not expect the United States to fall into recession in 2006 - but he does the following year.

For the past 4 years the US economic 'recovery' has been too dependent on cheap credit and the housing boom. The boom is fast becoming a bust. The convergence of the housing bust with other significant economic factors will very likely put the US into a recession by early 2007.

Traffic Declining on Heroes' Handbook

Traffic has been declining on thsi blog.

We need away to reverse this trend. How? Discuss!

An interesting quote

Since I deal with kids with special needs, I oftentimes have students that make less than appropriate decisions about how to spend time during "silent" work time. After discussing various strategies with colleagues, one of them said this:

"We are entrusted to make academic decisions for those students who refuse to make successful academic decisions for themselves."

In the real world, however, these students won't have us around to rely on. I'm not working with moderately- or severely-disabled kids anymore. The students I'm working with are "normal" but have a few learning difficulties. Is it really our place to make these decisions for these students, as my colleague suggests, or is it more of our responsibility to model proper decision-making techniques? Is it even our job to do that much? Should we just let the kids who don't care fail? Should we just let the kids who are too distracted to do their work fail?

Oy

It's been crunch time the past two weeks with grading papers and all. Things should calm down a bit by Thanksgiving.

The past two days I was away in Atlantic City for the New Jersey Education Association's teachers convention. Apparently other states don't have the luxury of getting off from school like we do. That's one of the good things about having such a powerful union here in Jersey :)

Anyway, the convention was fun. I got to hang out with one of my gorgeous co-workers and spend time getting feshnikert with her while watching the Rutgers football win on Thursday. And I learned a lot at the seminars! Don't worry: your children missed school for a good cause, I promise! :)

And there was also reason to party over the election. I do believe that the tide has begun to turn...

Who Will Control The US Congress

My predictions. Who will control the:

US Senate: Too Close To Call
US House: Democrats Will Win

Dear Hardcore Heroes' Handbook Readers...

I apologize for the dearth of posts in the past week. Things have been hectic at work and I haven't had an opportunity to write. School is going decently overall. I had to kick two kids out in the space of 3 minutes yesterday, but it put me in a good mood afterwards.

I finished the section of my book on General McClellan and now I'm on to "Fighting Joe" Hooker. I'm only a few pages into the chapter, but it's really remarkable so far. The author opens by making comparisons between him and Ulysses S. Grant. He shows how the two of them were so similar in terms of resume and accomplishment as of early 1863, but how Hooker was ultimately a failure as the top general, while Grant won the War. His point was that, for Lincoln, and other chief executives at the time, picking good generals was often a roll of the dice. He provides some examples to back up his point. I will have to think it over though before I pass judgment, though.

Btw, I am not posting extensively on the Kerry fiasco. If that's enough to make anyone vote Republican in this election, then you have tapioca pudding for brains. And that's me being nice. Anyway, I encourage people to post more comments! I'm curious what everyone thinks...provided we have readers left :(

Freedom Plaza in DC

Freedom Plaza in DC

The Smell of Fear

President George Bush: Frank, please consider filling a post I'm creating. It may mean long hours and dangerous nights, surrounded by some of the scummiest elements in our society.
Lt. Frank Drebin: You want me to be in your cabinet?

- The Naked Gun 2 and 1/2

Nostalgia for ex-president George H.W. Bush and his administration has gotten out of hand. I realize his son has been an unmitigated disaster as president himself, but we really have to keep things in perspective. The father only seems better since everything that the son touches manages to fall apart. There's a reason why the voters gave H.W. the boot in '92...

In the winter of 2004, journalist Tom Frank wrote an article in The New Repbulic basically exploding some of the more recent myths about Bush the Elder. I recommend reading it.
http://www.tnr.com/doc.mhtml?i=express&s=frank122704

Frank makes the case that W is actually a better president than H.W., which I disagree with. I should note, however, that since the article is a couple of years old, some things he mentions ended up being much worse than he thought they would be. His opinion might be different today.

In addition, I think that it is important to raise this issue as people laud not only Bush I, but also James Baker (an overrated political hack) and Brent Scowcroft (an adherent of the "realist" view of foreign policy, who would have no problem seeing thousands die if it doesn't fit in America's national interests...as defined by him).

So I recommend that all those liberals suffering from this nostalgia knock it off and find some real people worth having in the government. Like say the junior senator from Illinois...

Athletics, Employment, OR School

We need a greater focus on academics in this country. Last week I overheard a couple of parents talking. The basic gist of the conversation was that schools are not properly teaching students to balance their time. Those parents believed that it is the school's responsibility to teach students how to balance their schoolwork, sports, academics, and social lives. The discussion then fell to talking about how schools gave too much homework and that their kids were falling behind because they were too tired to do the work when they got home from sports practice or their after-school jobs. Their solution? Give kids less homework or lower the standards expected of them on homework.

In high school, I had a part-time job and was on a sports team (and Captained the team my senior year), not to mention taking all AP/Honors/UConn co-op classes. Not only did I manage to get all of my homework done, I mantained a high GPA. I realize that many students don't have the ability to maintain all of these things, but it is not up to schools to set these priorities.

My parents set down very clear rules: if I didn't maintain the equivilant of a 3.0 in school, I was off the team and I was giving up my job. Period. There was no discussion, no wiggle room.

Here in Montgomery County, MD, as with the district I grew up in, the minimum GPA to play a sport is a 2.0 or you are removed from the team (at least, in theory ... some schools in the county haven't played so nice). You can also receive a work permit if you are a senior, enabling you to leave school early and earn both life experience and money.

But the focus must be on academics. It's bad enough that NCLB is eliminating helpful teaching methods in favor of forcing standardized testing, but it is the parents that need to stand firm and hold higher educational standards.

2006 Election Contest

I will be hosting an Election Night Viewing. For those invited to the viewing there will be a contest to win a $25 gift certificate to Target. Here are the rules:

All predictions for the contest must be received via email (to me) by 11:59pm (EST (Eastern Standard Time) on November 6th, 2006. One submission per person.

US Congress Contest

60% of your score will be determined by the House of Representatives Portion
40% of your score will be determined by the Senate Portion

The formula for your total score will be = ( ((Senate Portion Score) * .6) + ((House Portion Score) * .4) ). Whomever has the highest score wins the gift certificate.

Senate Portion (Currently it is D: 44 R:55 and I: 1)

Democrat: X
Republican: Y
Independent / Other: Z

X + Y + Z = 100 (it must equal 100 or your prediction is automatically disqualified).

Scoring: Thus if the actual (a) is D:50 R:49 I:1 and your prediction (p) was D:51 R:48 I:1 your score would be 98 for the Senate races. The formula is 100 - ( | Dp - Da | + | Rp - Ra | + | Ip - Ia | ) . Please note: The | | symbol is for the absolute value of.

House of Representatives Portion (Currently it is D: 202 R:232 and I: 1)

Democrat: X
Republican: Y
Independent / Other: Z

X + Y + Z = 435 (it must equal 435 or your prediction is automatically disqualified).

Scoring: Thus if the actual (a) is D:215 R:215 I:5 and your prediction (p) was D:210 R:220 I:5 your score would be 97.71 . The formula is 100 - (( | Dp - Da | + | Rp - Ra | + | Ip - Ia | ) / 4.35 ). Please note: The | | symbol is for the absolute value of.

A new addition! It's great to have so many team members with a wide array of viewpoints. As H. Abiff noted, he and I have known each other for several years now. His comprehensive knowledge of history and politics will add a lot to the discussion. Also, his being to the left of myself will make this a lively debate. Stay tuned!

Greetings... H. Conway was nice enough to invite me to post on this blog ...

I, like H. Conway, am a high school history teacher, currently working on his MS in Special Education in a prestigious eastern university (I don't want to give away too much about myself). My politics tend to be leftist, though not quite as radical as they were in college (I'm reminded of the joke: What's the difference between a Liberal and a Conservative? 20 years). I also have Capitol Hill experience, as well as Lobbying experience ...

And the only hint that you'll get as to what my alias means is to say that I am a 3rd Degree Master Mason. :-)

Anyway, I've known H. Conway for several years now, and I look forward to contributing to his blog!