Now a Federal Appeals court has ruled that transgender students have a right to be called by their selected name and pronouns. Teachers refusing can be terminated.
Power Grab
Rule of Law is Ending?
The Democrats in Congress are now angry enough at the courts that they are pushing the Biden administration to ignore Federal court rulings on abortion. The Secretary of HHS is saying that “everything is on the table,” including the Federal government ignoring the court rulings that it does not agree with.
This is two branches of government declaring that the third branch is no longer relevant. How will that play out? What else can be ignored? Judicial limits on gun laws? Election tampering? The Democrats have taken the first steps in dissolving the Federal courts. Why pack the Supreme Court, if you can simply ignore whatever it does?
At the risk of running afoul of Godwin’s law, this is exactly what occurred when the Enabling Act was passed, which authorized Hitler to do whatever he needed to do. The Reichstag up to that point had been the check and balance against German dictatorship.
So what comes next, if the Feds begin ignoring whatever court orders that displease the left? I feel like, at that point, all semblance of a Constitutional Republic will have been eliminated. This will no longer be a nation of laws. A nation of might makes right. The Constitution itself will no longer matter as the source of government power. The only power that will exist will be at the point of a gun.
Failure of Education
Attacking Teachers
I was attacked in my classroom by a student once. I feel sorry for this teacher because his career, at least with that school district, is over.
While legally a child, this student is large. Larger than the teacher, yet there are many who will say that the teacher can’t defend himself because teachers can’t hit children. There are those who say that the teacher can’t take a student’s property. Still others say that the teacher should have let him use the phone. I disagree with all of those.
No matter what, the school district will likely fire or force the teacher to resign. He is now a liability, because if there is a future incident, the parents will point to this one and claim there is a pattern of violence on the part of the teacher.
In my case, I found a new job. When I got there, I resolved to not ever take anything from a student. Ever. If a kid is on the phone, whatever. Not my circus, not my monkeys. The problem with this is that the kids learn that quickly, and many of them simply don’t learn. This causes a larger issue, because kids are not allowed to fail. So they haven’t learned anything, but they eventually graduate. That’s why we have a mostly “educated” but unlearned nation.
Our schools are out of control.
Uncategorized
No War on Christianity?
The Biden administration has kicked the Catholic Diocese out of Walter Reed Medical center for Easter weekend.
@WRBethesda has issued a cease and desist order directing Catholic priests to cease any religious services at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, during Holy Week, the most sacred of days in the Christian faith. https://t.co/sS7279MTTm
— Military Archdiocese (@MilArchUSA) April 7, 2023
Uncategorized
Chinese Blockade of Taiwan?
If this is the precursor to such a blockade, it is an act of war. The US should respond by publishing photos of Chinese aircraft carriers that were obviously taken through the periscope of undetected submarines.
Cancel Culture
Privilege
My sister called me last night. She works as a teacher here in Central Florida. She was contacted earlier in the week by her Principal because the mother of one of her students contacted the Superintendent’s office to complain that her son was being “targeted” by his teacher, as evidenced by his poor grades and discipline problems. The district office is sending an administrator to my sister’s school, so that they can meet with my sister, her Principal, and the parent to discuss the problem.
The problem? The kid is being suspended for calling another kid a “nigger” while they were at lunch. My sister isn’t the one who wrote the referral, the Principal is. My sister, as the teacher, was required to email the parent, as per district policy. The mother was very angry and claimed that her child “doesn’t even know that word.” She then demanded that my sister call her so they could discuss it. My sister wisely refused, and wants everything dealt with in writing. So that is why the parent has complained.
As soon as I heard “targeted” I knew without being told that this was a black student who was going to throw down the race card. I told her that, since this was a discipline meeting, she was entitled to have her union representative there as a matter of Federal law. I don’t really like a lot of what the union does, but in this case, it’s important to remember that there will be two administrators and a parent there. You will be alone, and need a witness there that will be somewhat impartial.
When I told her that, my sister replied, “Oh, no. The principal told me that this wasn’t a meeting where I would be disciplined. It’s just an informal meeting.” No. There is no such thing as an informal meeting when there are multiple administrators in a room with a parent making racism accusations against you. You are white, and that means you are guilty. If either of those administrators can avoid trouble by tossing you in front of that bus, they will do it without a second thought. That’s when my sister said, “Oh my principal is black. She told me that she knows I am not a racist.”
Oh shit. It was at that point that I began to wonder whether or not my sister should bring not just a union rep, but a lawyer. If this woman wants to claim that racism is why her child is failing and getting in trouble, the only white person in the room is going to be the target.
Racism is a serious charge for a teacher. Not only will it cost you your job, it can cost you your teaching license. There goes your career, and my sister doesn’t have the looks for only fans.
I’ve seen this show before. I know how it turns out. You can win, but you need lawyers, representation, witnesses, and money. I got in that fight back in 2016, and I wound up quitting and going to a different school. The old school then tried to have my professional licenses revoked. They failed and I won, but it cost me nearly $10,000 in legal fees and I wound up switching jobs.
I don’t think that my sister has that kind of money.
So when the meeting happens this week, she will have a union representative there. At least she took my advice. She usually asks for my advice, then goes in a different direction. Then she comes to me and wants advice on the situation that she got into because she didn’t follow my original advice. Wash. Rinse. Repeat.
Training
FRS, GMRS, MURS, HAM, CB
So there is some discussion about FMRS vs. HAM vs. GMRS vs. CB. Each one has its advantages and disadvantages. CB is high frequency (HF), FRS and GMRS are Ultra High Frequency (UHF), while MURS is Very High Frequency (VHF). HAM can be all three. Let’s take a look:
No License Required
CB Radio: Citizen’s Band, 11 meter band (~27 mHz)
CB doesn’t require a license, nor is it very regulated. CB’s biggest advantage is also its biggest disadvantage: So many people have them that it’s easy to use them to contact people not in your group, but its also a disadvantage because so many people are both listening and talking over you. Just tune to channel 6 some time and listen to the yahoos talking over everyone with their illegal high powered sets. There are people there that are transmitting with thousands of watts of power. Another big disadvantage is that there are only 40 channels. Sure, you can try tricks like SSB, but if you are going to do all of that, there are better formats than CB. Police are known to routinely monitor CB radio, especially near major highways. I’m not much of a fan of CB. That may be a plus or a minus, depending on whether or not you want to talk to them. Radios run anywhere from $50 on up.
FRS: The Family Radio Service, 462-467 mHz
FRS is a channelized FM radio service that allows families to talk to each other. There are 22 channels dedicated to this service, with channels 8-14 (467 mHz) restricted to 500 milliwatts, and the rest (462 mHz) permitted up to 2 watts. All 22 channels are shared with the GMRS. No license is needed, but like CB, you are limited to certain channels, so traffic may become an issue. They can use tone coded squelch to cut down on congestion, but remember that people not using it can still hear everything you say. The radios must use permanently attached antennas, and this is done because the antennas themselves are designed to limit the range of the radios. Expect the range on these to be somewhere around three quarters of a mile in realistic conditions. Repeaters, phone patches, and the like are prohibited by law on FRS. Radios cost anywhere from $20 on up.
MURS: Multi Use Radio Service
MURS is a UHF service that uses 5 channels in the 151 and 154 mHz band. Up to 2 watts is permitted. No license is required, and there is very little traffic on these channels, but there are a wide variety of radio products that use MURS frequencies. MURS devices include wireless base station intercoms, handheld two-way radios, wireless dog training collars, wireless public address units, customer service callboxes, and wireless remote switches. That may or may not mean interference.
License Required
GMRS: General Mobile Radio Service
This service uses the same channels as FRS, plus an additional 8 channels, for a total of 30. Using these does require a license, but the only real requirement to get one is to be 18 years old, register, and pay a fee of $35. The license is good for 10 years. One license is good for your entire family. Anyone not in the family must get their own license. Transmissions must periodically include the station’s license callsign. If you are using a repeater, the repeater can be used to do that automatically. With the GMRS, you get the 8 extra channels, the ability to use repeaters, and better antennas. This means handheld units get a range of about 2 miles, vehicles about 5, and using a repeater with an antenna on top of your house can get you 20 miles or more of range. Those 8 extra channels are allowed up to 50 watts. Radios are about the same cost as FRS, $20 on up.
HAM radio: VHF, UHF, and HF
HAM radio does require a license, but it allows you a great deal of flexibility. The license isn’t too difficult. The easiest one to get is the technician license, and that requires a small fee and a relatively easy test on basic electronics. With that license, you are good to go on HF, VHF, and UHF. Since there are no channels, you literally have thousands of possible choices. This means that the frequencies will be largely unused and not congested.
Here is what I have done: The only choice from the above list that I don’t have is MURS, but I can program the Baofeng to transmit there, if I have to. In my shack, I have radios that cover GMRS, FRS, and CB, as well as HAM. I like to be as flexible as possible. There is a small antenna farm in my attic.
Each of the above has its own advantages and disadvantages. The disadvantage to a channelized system is that users will be compressed into a limited number of channels. They all have one major disadvantage: they are unencrypted. That means working out code phrases that aren’t obviously code phrases: “John has a long mustache. The chair is against the wall.” Asking someone how Frank is doing could mean something that is known only to the two of you.
The advantage to a non-licensed system is that your friends and neighbors can communicate with you without the need for them to have a license.
Different frequencies and power levels allow you to play physics to your advantage. VHF is easily refracted by vegetation but doesn’t penetrate buildings or rocks very well. UHF penetrates buildings better. A VHF transmission in the woods at low power is unlikely to be intercepted. UHF at low power is great for a block or two in the city, and beyond that is unlikely to be intercepted as well.
If I were to have just one, HAM is the way to go. After that, my second choice would be GMRS.
Antifa
Breaking from TX
Man who shot an Antifa member that pointed an AK clone at him has been convicted of murder.
Crime
Quote of the Day
The honor goes to Billy Woods, the Sheriff of Marion County, Florida:
All the gun laws we got in place didn’t prevent it, did it? Neither will any new ones, because here’s the fact: the bad guy is going to get a gun no matter what law you have put in place, these juveniles shouldn’t even possess a handgun, but they did.
He said it in the press conference announcing the arrest of 2 gang members, aged 12 and 17, who killed three people. The weapons used were a pair of handguns stolen in automobile burglaries. The killers’ identity will surprise no one.
Anti American left
Threat to Democracy?
The left is absolutely incensed that they have to follow the rules as two Tennessee lawmakers are expelled:
They claim that the three were facing expulsion because they were protesting. As usual, the left only tells half of the story. They weren’t merely protesting, they were refusing to allow the remainder of the legislature to carry out the business of the people, and were getting the protesters in the gallery to assist them. (This is where I would usually post video of what they did, but youtube has removed most of the videos from their site, and the one that I could find on their site won’t embed. I can’t find a single video of what they did to get expelled. Odd, huh?)
The next claim is that it is an attack on democracy. I don’t see how. The voters in Tennessee are represented by their democratically elected representatives. Those representatives, all 99 of them, were prevented from doing their jobs by an unruly mob, led by three of their members. The representatives all operate by an agreed upon set of rules. Violating those rules can cause the members to expel you by a 2/3 vote. The three refused to abide by the rules and held the entire body hostage, so the members took a vote, and two of them were expelled. Seems mighty democratic to me. Majority rules.
Expelling someone is a threat to democracy? You tried to expel the President. Twice. Was that a threat to democracy? When republican protesters attempted to hold a similar protest in Congress more than two years ago, you said that such protests were an insurrection. Hundreds of the protesters are still being held without trial.
Things continue to heat up on the road to CW2. It’s coming, unfortunately. I can feel it.