A man decides to get drunk and engage in target practice in the backyard of his suburban neighborhood. Bullets fly into his neighbors’ homes. The usual suspects line up to protest guns. It turns out that he is a Democrat.
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Tool
This film actually illustrates one of the fundamental problems that I have always had with the Libertarian party.
They are called illegal immigrants because they broke the law when they immigrated. The term has exactly nothing to do with race or ethnicity. Whether it was illegal decades ago or not doesn’t matter. They immigrated in an illegal manner, and just because you happen to disagree with the law doesn’t make someone a racist for using the term.
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Helicopter parenting
Many parents are tempted to try and solve all of their child’s problems, but in some cases doing so is actually harmful to the child, as they never learn to do things and solve problems for themselves. Let me explain:
One of the most difficult things for high school chemistry students to learn is how to set up conversion problems. To make learning this method easier, I begin by showing them how to do it, and then over a period of weeks I assign them practice worksheets with sample problems. For the first few weeks, the problems are very easy. They start off with problems like converting a $5 bill into quarters, progress to converting grams to kilograms, and then once they have mastered the easier problems, we begin the more difficult ones. Each problem must use the proper number of significan figures, and all problems MUST be in scientific notation.
I require that each student show their work, so that I can monitor their learning progress and offer guidance when they make mistakes. Points are taken off for various mistakes, with the largest deductions coming for not showing your work, or setting the problem up improperly. Minor math mistakes result in small deductions, because I am more concerned with mastering the methodology than whether or not a student can tell me how many quarters he can get for $5.
Every year, I get a student who either decides that he can take shortcuts like simply moving the decimal point, or using a calculator to do the entire problem. Each of those methods work on the easier problems they face in the beginning, but they do not work with the more difficult problems, and as those problems get more difficult, the student falls behind his peers and grades begin to slide.
This year was no exception. I had a child who simply turned in a 7 problem homework assignment without showing work on three problems, showing the incorrect method on two problems, and a host of other, more minor errors such as failing to show units in the answer, and failing to use proper scientific notation. His parent argued vociferously that those errors don’t matter as long as the student gets the correct numerical answer. I spend two hours typing up an explanation of my grading system, and pointing out that this homework assignment was less than 0.05% of the student’s overall grade, and the grade on this assignment was merely a feedback mechanism for the student.
The parent was having none of it. He insisted that I give the student full credit “for making an honest attempt” at completing the homework, and that listing the answer without showing his work should be good enough, because in the business world, it is results that count. I told him that his feelings on this were immaterial, and further told him that the grading system in my class would not change. He then became hostile, and said that as a parent, it was up to him how his child would be educated, called me “obtuse” and then said he was going to the authorities (principal, school board) to have me fired.
He then transferred his child to a much easier, less challenging class, where this child will be bored out of his mind.
But at least they aren’t my problem any longer.
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Childish demands
Recently, the national organizer for a student movement that is demanding free college, forgiveness of all student loans and a $15 an hour minimum wage appeared on Fox news. You should watch this:
This is child like thinking. They want all of these things given to them at taxpayer expense, but haven’t thought about how to pay for it. Clueless.
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The Brady campaign
The Brady campaign is crossing the line in to idiocy. Here is the picture that they posted to their Facebook page:
With the caption:
This week, more than 900 people were killed by guns in the U.S. Two of them, Alton Sterling and Philando Castile – both young, black men – were shot and killed by police. We MUST do better to address the problem of #gunviolence that disproportionately claims lives of color. #ENOUGH
What gun law that ANYONE has proposed would change what happened?
I would call them idiots, but I think that they know the truth. That makes them liars.
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Hot and Humid
In reference to my post of the weekend about people from the north not understanding Florida summer:
A pastor friend of mine was telling me how he was to be the officiant for a “destination wedding” here in Orlando, where the two who were getting married had never been to Florida before. The wedding was to be this past July 30 at 2 o’clock in the afternoon. Outside, at one of our resort hotels. They wanted a full 2 hour ceremony with formal dress.
My pastor friend tried to tell the bride that it was too hot outside to give her what she wanted, but she was having none of it. She wanted what she wanted, and she was the bride, and do what I say, was her attitude. Besides, they were from Chicago, and you rubes don’t understand heat until you have been in the midwestern states during their summers.
Of course, anyone who lives here in Florida knows that you cannot spend that amount of time outside, dressed like that in this kind of heat. But, he was ready to let her have her wedding the way she wanted it.
Two days before the wedding, the bride and groom arrived in Orlando and decided to spend the day before the ceremony at the Magic Kingdom. They called the pastor in a panic at 3 in the afternoon, and demanded that he change the ceremony to a shorter, 20 minute ceremony.
Luckily, he already had prepared for that eventuality.
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Sneaky Pete
Since it gets so hot here in Central Florida and the people who live here are always wearing summer clothes that make carrying a weapon problematic, those of us who carry weapons are always looking for comfortable ways to conceal. Enter the Sneaky Pete holster:
It appears like a case for a tablet pc, or perhaps a large cell phone. However, it actually hides a S&W Shield rather nicely:
I like it, because it doesn’t get a second glance from anyone, and it is of sturdy leather construction. Go check them out. (I have no stake in the company, other than being a satisfied paying customer).
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Polling- random thoughts
I was looking at polls, and I saw some interesting trends.
Income:
As of today, Clinton has leads among those who make $35K, but is trailing those with middle incomes from $35K to 75K, and the two are tied among those who make more than $75K. This tells me that the people who work for a living are tired of the status quo.
Race:
Clinton has 83% of the black vote. I think that this ties in with the lead she has among with lower incomes, because 85% of Blacks are on Welfare.
Education
Clinton also has a lead among those who have a college degree, but is losing among those with some college. My opinion here is that she is winning among those with degrees who have a low income. Why? Because these are the people who went to college to earn worthless degrees and are stuck under a mountain of student loan debt, but can’t get a decent job to make their loan payments.
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Hot and Humid
In a recent post, the Silicon Graybeard explains what it is like to live in Florida in August. He isn’t kidding. On Thursday when I left for work at 0600, the temperature was 78 degrees. At 6 in the morning. But it isn’t the temperature that is the biggest problem.
The biggest problem was my windshield fogging over, and not staying clear no matter how high I ran the wipers. The only way to keep the windshield clear is to run the defroster at 80 degrees. What this means is that the dew point is 78 degrees. So now I am sitting in a car that is heated to 80 degrees, with a humidity level of 92 percent.
The dew point temperature is the temperature at which the air can no longer hold all of its water vapor, and some of the water vapor must condense into liquid water. At 100% relative humidity, the dew point temperature and the air temperature are the same, and clouds or fog can begin to form. While relative humidity is a relative measure of how humid it is, the dew point temperature is an absolute measure of how much water vapor is in the air (how humid it is). In very warm, humid conditions, the dew point temperature can reach 75 to 77 degrees F, but rarely exceeds 80 degrees.
Dew point is the best indicator of comfort in a hot climate. Once the dew point of the air exceeds 66 degrees Fahrenheit or so, the air begins to feel hot and uncomfortably stuffy. The reason for this, is that your perspiration can not evaporate to cool you off.
Couple this with heat, and we have what is known as the “heat index,” which is a way of saying what the air feels like. In the case of my morning drive, that particular combination of heat and humidity makes for a very uncomfortable drive.
That afternoon, my car said that it was 98 degrees on the way home. That temperature, combined with the dew point of 78 degrees, means that the relative humidity is 53 percent. That makes it feel like it is 116 degrees Fahrenheit (46.4 degC) outside.
THAT is the reason why we need air conditioning in Florida. Now there are people from further north who like to claim that it gets just as hot or hotter up where they are from, but they are not accounting for humidity. On July 6 of this year, New York City recorded a temperature of 91 degreesF, and a dew point of 72 degreesF. That makes the Relative Humidity 54%, and the heat index a relatively comfortable 99 degrees F (37 degC).
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Cameras
Two weeks ago, I installed a camera system in the house at a cost of $400. I placed five cameras around the house: One on the front door, and one on each of the four sides of the house. It records what happens outside when it detects motion. Five days after I installed the cameras, those cameras recorded the lawn maintenance guy just sticking the “pesticide” sign in the yard, and then sticking the bill in the door. That was all he did- he did not do a thing to the yard, aside from the sign. He is supposed to treat the lawn for bugs and weeds, and then fertilize.
So last Saturday I sent the company a certified letter, explaining that I had them on film billing me for a service that they did not perform. I demanded that they cancel our service, and demanded a refund for the year I had paid in advance. In the envelope, I included a copy of my contract, a copy of the bill left in my door, and a printout of a screenshot from the camera at my front door. That screenshot had a facial view of the service tech, with his vehicle and the “pesticide” sign that he had placed in the yard in the background. The letter said that they had 30 days to refund my money, or I was filing a complaint with the state to have his professional license revoked, and I was going to hire an attorney to sue him.
I got a $375 check today by certified mail. The system has paid for itself already.