Unrest in the Arab world. Autocrats killing their own people. Hezbollah working with Mexican drug cartels. And what’s the UN most concerned about? Israel. Right. Meryl Yourish has more.

Speaking of which, the Saudis tried to "stimulate" their economy in hopes of avoiding the same unrest plaguing other Arab nations. Doesn’t look like the citizens will be bought off that easily. (Pity that ours are so easily bought off.)

The inverted morals of the Left; killing babies is OK, but circumcising them once their born should be against the law. Even if you’re Jewish.

Worried about an oligarchy where the rich and powerful pay to have laws favorable to them? Then never mind the Koch brothers, it’s labor unions you should be worried about. (But the Left won’t worry about them, because they’re the right kind of money and power.)

The headline reads, "Gaza militants fire missile at Be’er Sheva for first time since Gaza war". Technically correct, but Qasams fall there virtually daily, but you wouldn’t know from our news media.

The Left is still pushing the meme that "right wing ‘hate’ groups" and their uncivil rhetoric caused the shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords.

Civility Watch: The uncivil discourse has not been just in Wisconsin. Nazi imagery and racial slurs have been used in protests around the country, most recently in Massachusetts, Washington, DC, and Colorado. And while fully documented, none were mentioned by the media. Think it may have something to do with the fact that the protests were all for liberal causes?

In order to find that the ObamaCare individual mandate is constitutional, a judge had to somehow equate action with inaction. The result was never in doubt, it’s just how to get there that is the issue for these liberal judges.

CNN’s Candy Crowley put on her rose-tinted glassed once Obama was elected. I mean people were burning Bush in effigy for the previous 8 years, and now people love us. Donald Rumsfeld disagrees, and Lori Ziganto has evidence to the contrary.

It’s official: The State Department supports expelling Libya from the UN Human Right Council. Where in the world were these guys when Libya was put on the UNHRC? Back in May, we just called the HRC "flawed", which may be last year’s biggest understatement. In fact, it’s the whole UN that is flawed.

And finally, oh, that liberal media. A comparison of Tea Party protest coverage, and union protest coverage. Love that independent, unbiased media.

High School teacher Natalie Munro has, evidently, caused quite a stir recently with her blog posted rants about the many shortcomings of her students and her students’ parents. From the National Post, ‘Frightfully dim’: Teacher suspended for blog insulting students,

Although she didn’t name her school or any students, she used her real first name and initial and had a photo of herself. In a completely unsurprising turn of events, school officials found her out.

Parents, administrators and students alike weren’t too impressed with how she described her pupils:

• “A complete and utter jerk in all ways”
• “Although academically okay your child has no other redeeming qualities”
• “I hear the trash company is hiring”
• “I didn’t realize one person could have this many problems”
• “There’s no other way to say this, I hate your kid”
• “Rat-like”
• “Dresses like a streetwalker”
• “Frightfully dim”

Indeed, such candidly negative descriptions of one’s students seems to exemplify virtues contrary to what one would expect from a teacher. Although, I wonder if Munro’s crime was not so much that she has negative feelings about some of her students as that she committed those feelings to print (cyber-print, as it were). How many of Munro’s colleagues have similar feelings about some of their students? For that matter, how many students have negative feelings about some of their teachers? Yeah. You know what I’m talking about.

Could it be, however, that those criticizing Munro are over-simplifying the problem at hand? Consider what Susan Cairn stated on her blog Quiet,

I want to talk about Munro’s view of quiet and shy students. Here, according to her blog entry of January 21, 2010, is what she wished she could put on their report cards:

• “A kid that has no personality.”
• “She just sits there emotionless for an entire 90 minutes, staring into the abyss, never volunteering to speak or do anything.”
• “Shy isn’t cute in 11th grade; it’s annoying. Must learn to advocate for himself instead of having Mommy do it.”

Munro seemed to have no understanding of how tough a place the typical American high school can be for introverts — like an all-day cocktail party without any alcohol. She believed that these kids should suck it up and act like everyone else. And she was right, to a certain extent; we all need to fake it a little, extroverts too. I’ve met many introverted kids who are thriving and happy, and most of them have learned how to adopt an extroverted persona when need be.

It seems that what we have here is a classic example of the diversity of the human psyche. Contained within a typical classroom are students (and teachers) of various personality types, learning styles, and intelligence levels, who also bring with them the baggage of life – both the good and the bad. If this complexity exists, then it should be no surprise that it manifests itself in equally complex ways.  Thus, a “kid that has no personality” may indeed not have a personality, or he may have mental issues, or he may be extremely apathetic, or he may tend towards not publicly displaying emotion, or any combination of the above.

Is Munro unable to discern the simple fact that humans have differing personalities? It does seem difficult to comprehend that one who is used to seeing classrooms full of new students, each year, would be so myopic. In our own home school household we have seen this clear distinction in differing learning styles, as related to personality differences, with a total sampling of only 2!

If, in fact, Munro is an extrovert who has her blinders on with regards to the diversity of human personality traits, then it would be in her best interest to educate herself on this subject – to expand her horizons – indeed – maybe she should think outside the box.

Yet, before we dismiss Munro’s opinions of her students, and condemn her for having the audacity to express them, could it be she has thought outside the box and is now alerting us to another problem in our midst? Could it be that, within the walls of our public schools, there are students who are lazy, whiny, apathetic, and disrespectful?

From News.com.au,

“My students are out of control,” Ms Munroe, who has taught 10th, 11th and 12th grades, wrote in one post.

“They are rude, disengaged, lazy whiners. They curse, discuss drugs, talk back, argue for grades, complain about everything, fancy themselves entitled to whatever they desire, and are just generally annoying.”

And from Yahoo!News,

“They get angry when you ask them to think or be creative,” Munroe said of her students in an interview with The Associated Press on Tuesday. “The students are not being held accountable.”

Munroe pointed out that she also said positive things, but she acknowledges that she did write some things out of frustration — and of a feeling that many kids today are being given a free pass at school and at home.

“Parents are more trying to be their kids’ friends and less trying to be their parent,” Munroe said, also noting students’ lack of patience. “They want everything right now. They want it yesterday.”

Some may say, in response to the last two article quotes, “well, that’s not news”. Yes, it is not news that today’s students are “out of control”. Yet, it would be too easy to scapegoat the reason why: drugs, being coddled, lack of federal money, teacher’s unions, extrovert / introvert, parents, lack of parents, the myth of adolescence, learning styles, technology, affluence, etc. Rather than a single reason, could it be “all of the above”?

I think that with a problem rooted in complexity, the solution will reflect a similar complexity.

• Teachers need to exercise patience with problem students, learn how differing personality styles affect differing learning styles, and display a genuine interest in their students – among other things.
• Parents need to get involved in the lives of their children, not cater to their children, discipline their children, and love their children with a tough, yet gentle, love – among other things.
• Students need to grow up, exercise respect, study, work, and think – among other things.
• Society needs to stop blessing adolescent activities as normal, stop treating young adults as children, stop putting the notion of “self-esteem” on a pedestal, stop throwing money in the wrong direction, and start demanding results from students, parents, and teachers – among other things.

Today’s vote by the Virginia Senate makes me proud to be a Virginian:

With the backing of two Democrats and a tie-breaking vote cast by Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling, Republicans in the Virginia Senate today won approval of an amended health bill that would require the state’s abortion clinics to be regulated like hospitals.

The 20-20 vote on Senate Bill 924, which now heads to Gov. Bob McDonnell, represents a significant victory for anti-abortion activists, who have been trying for years to restrict access to abortion in Virginia, only to have bills killed in the Democrat-controlled Senate Education and Health Committee. McDonnell has indicated he would sign the legislation.

Democratic lawmakers and women’s rights advocates decried legislation, which was altered on the floor of the House earlier in the week through an amendment tacked onto an unrelated bill by Del. Kathy Byron, R-Campbell and came to the Senate without being debated or discussed in committee.

They said it would effectively restrict a woman’s access to abortion services by forcing the state’s 21 clinics to meet standards set by the Board of Health regulating hospitals — standards that include things like expanded hallways, parking lots and elevators that most clinics could not afford.

Currently, first-trimester abortions are considered medical procedures that can be performed in physicians’ offices, similar to medical procedures such as colonoscopies, vision correction surgery, cosmetic surgeryand dental surgery. Abortions in the second trimester or later must be performed in a hospital setting.

The amended legislation would require that any medical office performing more than five first-trimester abortions per month be classified as a hospital and subject to regulations devised by the State Board of Health — a body that is appointed by the governor.

This is sensible legislation and reasonable in light of recent stories such as the massacre in Philadelphia last month. Hats off to the Senators who had the courage to stand up and do the right thing and protect the cause of life.

UPDATE: The Associated Press claims this is a tactic to force abortion clinics to close:

Virginia took a big step Thursday toward eliminating most of the state’s 21 abortion clinics, approving a bill that would likely make rules so strict the medical centers would be forced to close, Democrats and abortion rights supporters said.

Gov. Bob McDonnell, a Republican and Catholic, supports the measure and when he signs it into law, Virginia will become the first state to require clinics that provide first-trimester abortions to meet the same standards as hospitals. The requirements could include anything from expensive structural changes like widening hallways to increased training and mandatory equipment the clinics currently don’t have.

While abortion providers must be licensed in Virginia, the clinics resemble dentists’ offices and are considered physicians offices, similar to those that provide plastic and corrective eye surgeries, colonoscopies and a host of other medical procedures.

Democrats and abortion rights supporters said the change would put an estimated 17 of the state’s 21 clinics out of business. Most of the clinics also provide birth control, cancer screenings and other women’s health services.

“This is not about safety for women. This is about ideology, and this is about politics,” said Tarina Keene, executive director of NARAL Pro-Choice Virginia. “The women of the commonwealth are going to be the ones left to suffer.”

Abortion rights supporters warned of legal challenges while supporters heralded it as a way to make the procedures safer.

“It is not about banning abortions,” said Sen. Jill Vogel, R-Winchester. “It is simply caring for women who are about to have an invasive surgical procedure and creating an environment for them where they have the opportunity to do that in a place that is safe.”

No other state requires clinics that provide early abortions to meet hospital standards.

For years, abortion advocates have claimed that they want to make abortions safe. But as opponents of this bill have revealed what they really want is for abortion to be available on demand at any time. Their concern for the health of the woman ends when reasonable regulations to insure a woman’s health are introduced. Once again the hypocrisy of abortion advocates is in plain view for all to see.

Let’s have some blood flowing in the streets, shall we?

Sometimes it’s necessary to get out on the streets and "get a little bloody," a Massachusetts Democrat said Tuesday in reference to labor battles in Wisconsin.

Rep. Michael Capuano (D-Mass.) fired up a group of union members in Boston with a speech urging them to work down in the trenches to fend off limits to workers’ rights like those proposed in Wisconsin.

"I’m proud to be here with people who understand that it’s more than just sending an email to get you going," Capuano said, according to the Dorchester Reporter. "Every once and awhile you need to get out on the streets and get a little bloody when necessary."

Really, do targets on a map even come close to this?

Technology tracks truancy
In Anaheim, the school district is using GPS technology to keep track of habitually truant students.

“The idea is for this not to feel like a punishment, but an intervention to help them develop better habits and get to school,” said Miller Sylvan, regional director for AIM Truancy Solutions.

Things sure have change from when I was in school! Back then there wasn’t a feel-good “let’s not make this a punishment” mentality regarding school truancy – if you weren’t at school when you were supposed to be, then the next time you were, you also found yourself sitting in the Vice Principal’s office.

Not all parents were supportive.

“I feel like they come at us too hard, and making kids carry around something that tracks them seems extreme,” said Raphael Garcia, whose 6th grader has six unexcused absences.

…

“This makes us seem like common criminals,” Garcia said.

…

Juan Cruz’s mom, Cristina, said she supports the program and hopes it helps her son get to school – and stay there.

“I understand that he’s been missing class. He’s one of six children, and we can’t always keep an eye on him,” she said in Spanish. “I think this is a good idea that will help him.”

So much for expecting the parents to be in control of their children.

I guess it takes a government to run our lives.

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You’ve lived worked long enough, there, buddy
A survey suggests that an aging workforce, bolstered by those who put off their retirement, will end up hogging jobs.

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So long, bookstores, we hardly knew you
Al Mohler comments on the impending demise of the brick and mortar bookstore.

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Concealed Carry on Campus in Texas
Ever notice how virtually all mass shootings take place in so-called “gun-free” zones.

I host an pretty-much-monthly podcast called Shire Network News, and if you’ve wondered what I sound like, you can find out here. It’s a right-of-center podcast that tries to use humor and satire to make its point. Much of the commentary in this episode is about the latest turmoil in the Middle East (well, more turmoil than is typical, at least). Show notes are at the link as well as ways to listen to the individual show or subscribe to the podcast itself.

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker is compared to Hitler for his stance on unions.

Yeah, no big deal to Democrats. But put targets on a map in areas your campaign is targeting, and that’ll turn a mild-mannered guy into a killer, eh?

It’s not often (well, ever) that a Friday Link Wrap-up would have breaking news, but as I type this, Hosni Mubarak has stepped down as President and put the military in charge, not his recently-named VP. This is a historic day for Egypt, as it now has its first living ex-President. Barry Rubin runs down the "now what?" scenarios.

Some town in the US, including one suburb of Atlanta, have a law requiring each household to own a gun. These towns have much lower crime rates than their neighbors. But with the cases going through the courts on the constitutionality of the ObamaCare individual mandate to buy health insurance, and with South Dakota considering a bill requiring gun ownership, Glenn Reynolds goes over the major differences between the two.

Reaganomics vs Obamanomics and getting us out of a recession.

In his first speech as Britain’s prime minister, David Cameron argued that a shared national identity prevents extremism more so than multiculturalism, and indeed, the latter may encourage it. If you have no connection to your country, you have no problem burning it.

Hmmmm…
Dance the night away, I guess.

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$4.65B profit? Corporate greed!
Yet, no outrage? Oh, right – they aren’t “Big Oil”.

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College = Time to party?
Despite what some of my acquaintances think, I still posit that this is a relatively new phenomenon (i.e., within the last 30 years). When I attended university, in the late 70s, we knew where the party schools were and which majors were party majors. And “Spring Break” was not the orgy it is now. However, the party / socialize mentality seems to be quite ubiquitous nowadays.

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Do you really have 1,538 friends?
Facebook may ask you to identify your friends, via FB photos, for security access to your account. Better check the mug of the friend of your cousin’s kid that you met last summer while on vacation. I’m just sayin’.

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Kids and technology
Yes, preschoolers are more adept at using technology than tying their shoes (unless their shoes lace with velcro). Homeschoolers have long known that kids are capable of learning at a very young age (though they may not be ready).

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Ink from the Cloud
Cool!

In more Civil Discourse Watch, here’s folks on the Left calling for riots, or at least pointing to rioting as a good example.

The failure of the repeal of ObamaCare can be laid at Democrats feet. We’ll see how well that works for them in 2012. (Didn’t work so well in 2010.)

In which country in the Middle East do Arabs have the greatest civil liberties? Click here to find out.

We keep hearing this refrain.

Shortly after taking office, President Obama traveled to Cairo to declare a new day in U.S. relations with the Muslim world – saying there was "no straight line" to building democratic societies in the Middle East.

The June 2009 address was in part intended to show a clean break from a George W. Bush-era "freedom agenda" of promoting electoral democracies across the region. Yet Obama now finds himself forced to move much closer to that world view as he escalates pressure on Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to make immediate changes.

Regarding national defense and now foreign policy, Dubya had it right. Slowly, but too slowly, Obama is realizing this.

Law enforcement could have stopped the Fort Hood shooting by Major Hasan if political correctness hadn’t prevented them.

And finally, some bad investments. Click for a larger version.

If this is okay
then,

this should be as well…

and this too…

and, lastly, this also.

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Be careful how you hold your cellphone when you’re in public
It just might be considered a weapon.

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One soldier, with a knife, against 40 armed thieves
Result: Thieves – 3 dead, 8 injured. Soldier – a serious wound on his hand. This is one reason why the notion that banning objects, such as 30 round magazines, with the intention of curbing acts of evil, is flawed. Humans have the uncanny ability to utilize available tools, combine them with courageous virtue – or evil desire – and act.

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Why you should be concerned about something like Pod Slurping.

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Abortion and the Argument from Inhuman Sociopathy
Joe Carter pulls no punches in this critique.

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Geek News: 25 years since Voyager 2 passed by Uranus
From JPL,

“The Uranus encounter was one of a kind,” said Suzanne Dodd, Voyager project manager, based at JPL. “Voyager 2 was healthy and durable enough to make it to Uranus and then to Neptune. Currently both Voyager spacecraft are on the cusp of leaving the sun’s sphere of influence and once again blazing a trail of scientific discovery.”

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ID Theft not all it’s cracked up to be?
From Consumer Reports,

You have a low likelihood of becoming a victim of true identity theft, and even if you are unlucky, your finances will probably not suffer. Don’t waste money on expensive services offered by credit-reporting bureaus and other ID theft protection companies. Most of their products are unnecessary or ineffective, or they duplicate things you can do yourself, for free.

School officer shooting – a hoax
Oh, this is just icing on the cake for homeschoolers. Remember the school officer shooting that resulted in a pee-deprived 5 hour LOCKDOWN, for up to 9 schools, in a 7 square mile area? Well it appears that the “shooting” was orchestrated by the officer who was “shot”.

Keep incidents like this in mind whenever someone advocates that ordinary citizens should have sensible gun-control laws foisted on them, because we can only trust those who have been trained to be responsible with firearms. Incidents like these do not indicate that all law enforcement is bad, but merely that they are human.

If you think parents were peeved before…

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It was green in every way – except that of money
Huntington Beach’s [California] first ‘green’ home is seized by bank.

The first ‘green’ home in Huntington Beach, debuting to much fanfare a little more than a year ago before having its asking price chopped dramatically and becoming a short sale, has gone back to the bank.

You’d think someone like… Robert Redford, might have cared enough to pick it up.

I suppose that some enviros have yet to understand the concept of free market economics.

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Green in name, but not in deed? Must be due to Big Oil Greed?
And in the same Huntington Beach, we have a middle school protest over the installation of solar panels on school property. Why? Because said panels will be installed by – shudder! – Chevron.

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Hey, Wally?
For some lighter Huntington Beach news, it seems that The Beaver just got married in the H.B.

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A common sense lib
From the Huffington Post,

As a liberal Democrat, I worry about the damage we might do by rushing toward a fresh raft of gun-control laws. It’s very hard to demonstrate that most of them — registration, waiting periods, one-gun-a-month laws, closing the gun-show loophole, large-capacity-magazine restrictions, assault-rifle bans — have ever saved a life. It’s a hard thing to accept, but in a country of 350 million privately owned guns, the people who are inclined to do bad things with guns will always be able to get them. One might as well combat air crashes by repealing gravity.

If you didn’t hear anything, or very little, about thousands who attended the March for Life last weekend in DC, that’s understandable. The media routinely ignores it.

And speaking of a liberal media, Jay Carney, who used to write for Time magazine, is now Obama’s new press secretary. His new job description — putting Obama in the most positive light possible — is very much like his old job description.

And still speaking of a liberal media, they’re getting rather disappointed that Obama is not doing what he said he would. Well, they’ve just joined those of us who have been paying attention for 2 years.

Headline from USA Today: “When unwed births hit 41%, it’s just not right”. But it’s OK at 40%? Seriously though, look at the graph showing how fast the out-of-wedlock births have jumped since the notorious “Sexual Revolution” of the 1960s.

Civil Discourse Watch:

“They’re going to hang themselves,” said Belknap [New Hampshire] Democratic Chair Ed Allard of Republicans. “And we’re going to help them.”

Allard’s threat came during a meeting of despondent Democrats in Belknap County on Thursday evening. The meeting was hosted by President Obama’s Organizing for America.

The IPCC said that the glaciers in the Karakoram mountain range would be gone by 2035 due to climate change. The latest word? “Researchers have discovered that contrary to popular belief half of the ice flows in the Karakoram range of the mountains are actually growing rather than shrinking.” Um, who’s popular belief are they talking about?

And finally, a shorter version of the State of the Union speech, from Rick McKee:

Imagine thousands of young adults kept locked in various rooms, separated from their parents, and some with no access to food, water, or the opportunity to relieve themselves, for up to 5 hours.

That’s what happened to several Los Angeles Unified School District high schools a few days ago after a school police officer was shot and wounded.

From the L.A. Times,

Thousands of students were kept in classrooms without food, water or access to restrooms longer than necessary, the Los Angeles school district’s police chief acknowledged, as officials coped with complaints from parents frustrated once more with the district’s handling of an emergency situation.

Not to worry, though, for even though the lockdown encompassed 9 different schools in a 7 square mile area (for one person shot, mind you), the police department is sympathetic to the predicament the students faced.

“That is not the time to attempt to deliver food to 3,500 students — during the search for an armed assailant,” said LAPD Deputy Chief Kirk Albanese.

Well… surely the school district must have a bit more sympathy?

“Yes, parents are upset that their children at El Camino perhaps weren’t allowed to use the bathroom,” Siegel said, “but safety of the students is our top priority”.

Safe, if not thirsty, hungry, and doing the “I gotta pee so bad!” dance. Yet some classes did improvise by, as one parent put it, “peeing into trash cans”. Some schools have gone so far as to implement the use of “Lockdown Kits”,

In fact, a 5-gallon pail is part of a “lockdown kit” that is supposed to be accessible to every classroom. The pail with a removable lid is “solely for the purpose of this kind of situation,” said district spokesman Robert Alaniz.

Other elements of the lockdown kit include toilet paper and a portable toilet seat. There’s also a flashlight, polyethylene bags, blankets, a pocket radio, bandages, tissues, disposable vinyl gloves, assorted batteries and duct tape.

Every new teacher is supposed to receive training in using the kit, which includes a recommendation that teachers supply a sheet that can be draped to provide privacy, said Bob Spears, the district’s director of emergency services.

What’s that? A “recommendation” that the teacher supply a sheet that can be used to provide some bit of privacy?

It seems to me that about the only other place you hear of a “lockdown” occurring is… that’s right – a prison.

Rest assured. If our home school ever goes into lockdown mode, there will be more in the lockdown kit than mere toiletries.

CNN apologized yesterday when a guest used the word "crosshairs" in a sentence.    Is this what the Left considers the way to civil discourse; censorship? 

And didn’t CNN used to have a long-running, argument show called … "Crossfire"? Whew, glad that’s gone.  We really dodged a bullet there.