I haven’t hit the end of the Internet,
Nor have I even come close to breaking it, that task falls strictly within the purview of mainstream media who have it well underway despite their belief that climate “change” will precede this apocalyptic event. However, I do have cleaning and packing to do. So, since it is Caturday, I give you this and leave you on your own.
Behave.
That is correct: President Trump ordered the drone strike that took out Qassim Soleimani, the leader of Iran’s Quds Force. He was at the Baghdad airport (foreign country) orchestrating more terrorist attacks against the American Embassy (sovereign American territory) – all of which translates to an act of war on Soleimani’s part. Just because previous American presidents didn’t see fit to respond to said acts of war does not mean it is “illegal” to do so.
And good grief. please tell me the Left and the Media (I know, I know - redundant) are not rooting for Iran on this one? Is that too much to hope for? Of course, because Orange Man Bad.
So predictable: Ilhan Omar Attacks Trump For Killing Top Iranian Terrorist, and Ms.NBC’s crack journo team opined that “if” this was the “right decision, it was the wrong Commander-in-Chief.’ What on earth does that even mean?
Ms.NBC mourns the death of a terrorist and wrings their hands over the President’s decisive action
Allow me to interpret: “no matter what President Trump does we will hate it.” This position is best illustrated by ‘Shameless’ Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy’s FAST one-eighty on his criticism of Trump’s response to Iran aggression after reports Soleimani was killed in airstrike:
Tweet on December 31, 2019 (didn’t age well)
— Chris Murphy (@ChrisMurphyCT) December 31, 2019Soleimani was an enemy of the United States. That’s not a question.
Tweet on January 3, 2020
The question is this - as reports suggest, did America just assassinate, without any congressional authorization, the second most powerful person in Iran, knowingly setting off a potential massive regional war?— Chris Murphy (@ChrisMurphyCT) January 3, 2020
Got it? It’s not illegal unless it’s Donald J. Trump. Because…well, you know.
According to a recent survey 70 percent of Millennials would be likely to vote for a socialist candidate. The survey also found that a disturbingly high percentage also “approve of communism.” A survivor of the former U.S.S.R. totalitarian regime offers some perspective:
This level of support for totalitarianism confirms the complete failure of the U.S. education system. To which I can already hear a chorus of “OK Boomer” from the younger generations. Fine. But just remember: I told you so.
And trust me, that’s hard to do when you don’t have a gun. Don’t be so anxious to have your fellow citizens who actually know how to use one surrender their guns just because you don’t currently believe in the Second Amendment; you may need them someday if you get your way. Because if you do, trust me, you’re going to miss America.
Free stuff is never free and freedom lost is only regained with blood. So come on Millennials, you can do better.
Happy New Year to my favorite deplorables!
Once again I failed to witness the Waterford ball drop but Raj and I did enjoy our traditional New Year’s Eve tradition as I explained yesterday:
We've been staying home and celebrating, just the two of us, in front of the tree and fireplace with caviar and champagne for 31 years now. During our crazy years it was an annual highlight. And yes, we once dressed up and danced at midnight. Now we put on our "best comfy” clothes, and are usually tucked in bed by midnight so dancing is usually not on the evening's agenda anymore.
I’m sure President Trump was still up and celebrating at midnight, as the man doesn’t appear to require any sleep.
Sure enough, The POTUS and FLOTUS at Mar-a- Lago for New Year’s Eve celebration
That’s a good thing, as I see it is the year of the Rat in the Chinese zodiac. And if you didn’t have enough controversy yesterday arguing over when the decade actually begins, get this: the Chinese New Year doesn’t even begin until January 25th! It’s as if we are living in parallel universes where one is out of kilter.
Like the one that Democrats inhabit. Which reminds me, I’d like to take this opportunity to point out that my prediction as of last January certainly came true:
Dozens of dolts will announce they’re running as the Democratic candidate for president of the United States. If you thought the 2016 Republican field was deep, wait till you see that of the 2020 Democrats – it’s more like the Grand Canyon. Not so much because it will be awesome but because it’s a really big hole, populated with a lot of goats.
In fact, they went out of their way to prove me correct.
Some came and went so fast you don’t even remember them. For the rest, well let’s just say it’s a very deep canyon and they all seem to be headed in the same direction.
Sadly the 21st century is already a disappointment for most Democrats who expected free college tuition, flying cars, a cure for cancer and the perfect climate at all times everywhere on the planet by now.
Instead they got Netflix, Alexa, exploding Teslas…and Donald Trump! While the President doesn’t imbibe himself, he is very good at sabering.
So stay out of his way.
Happy New Year!
Does anything define this decade quite as well as an internet meme?
Yes, it’s New Year’s Eve already. It’s pointless to note that the years roar by with alarming speed these days, you already know that. And as everyone else will be doing a decade recap I won’t bother with that either.
However I would like to point out that tonight’s celebration is not without controversy. Because we don’t have enough to argue about…the internet is now shouting at each other over whether the new decade begins at the stroke of midnight tonight or if it actually begins a year hence on January 1, 2021.
There is a group of One True Decade Pedagogues (OTDP) who insist it is the later. Apparently the argument rests on the difference between the Julian calendar, which had no zero, and the Gregorian calendar, which does. They argue that since there is no year 0 in the Anno Domini system – created in the days of the Julian calendar - the first year ever was year 1. Therefore, the first year of any and all subsequent decades is the one ending in 1.
Since we have operated on the Gregorian calendar for millennials (since 1582), and because it was invented in order to correct inaccuracies in the Julian calendar, it seems a no-brainer to me but apparently that argument is not persuasive to the OTDP.
People making this pedantic point ought to be banned from commenting on Twitter and forums for the next decade. There are already far too many irrelevant and pointless-but-true factoids clogging up the internet.
And did we not already have this argument back in the dark days at the turn of the century? The fact that all the doomsday triggers that the Y2K alarmists were terrified of but never happened kicked in on January 1, 2000 ought to be sufficient to end this silly debate. Give it a rest, nobody wants to argue about arcane issues for an entire millennium.
Merriam-Webster agrees that popular culture and common usage has determined and defined that decades end after the 9 year. That’s good enough for me yet I know that somewhere, somehow that fact alone will convince the Decade Purists that they are right. To them I say SHUT UP ALREADY! You’ve already caused enough damage.
But if they wish to continue to make their correct but inconsequential point fine, the rest of us will be ringing in the 21st century’s own Roaring 20’s )HT PDJT) – perhaps by popping a bottle of Moet Chandon. Which I just found out I’ve been mispronouncing for decades, no matter how you count them, thanks to Queen:
For the record, you DO pronounce the “t” in Moet. It’s a Dutch name, I should have known that.
So get your dancing shoes out and have a great New Year’s Eve regardless of which decade you’re celebrating!
Before I begin let me say that the objectives of Common Core Math sound good, especially to people like me who need to understand concepts before proceeding to mechanics:
Greater focus on fewer topics
The Common Core calls for greater focus in mathematics. Rather than racing to cover many topics in a mile-wide, inch-deep curriculum, the standards ask math teachers to significantly narrow and deepen the way time and energy are spent in the classroom. This means focusing deeply on the major work of each grade
- In grades K–2: Concepts, skills, and problem solving related to addition and subtraction
- In grades 3–5: Concepts, skills, and problem solving related to multiplication and division of whole numbers and fractions
- In grade 6: Ratios and proportional relationships, and early algebraic expressions and equations
- In grade 7: Ratios and proportional relationships, and arithmetic of rational numbers
- In grade 8: Linear algebra and linear functions
This focus will help students gain strong foundations, including a solid understanding of concepts, a high degree of procedural skill and fluency, and the ability to apply the math they know to solve problems inside and outside the classroom.
This approach, in the abstract, greatly appeals to me as I was never good at memorizing and never “got” math until I understood it conceptually (which I had to figure out on my own as none of my teachers ever taught it that way).
Unfortunately like everything else entrusted to the well-meaning liberal world of academia they failed miserably in the implementation.
Hence we get frustrated parents
and a generation even less proficient in math than previous ill-educated kids.
And now here comes Michael Bloomberg, a man who clearly understands math, speciously announcing his plans for the War on Poverty 2.0.
“As president, my job will be to move all Americans ahead, and that includes committing our country to new and innovative ways to combat poverty. There has to be a war on poverty,” the New York billionaire said while campaigning in Stockton.
What a good idea, especially since the last one worked out so well. After 50 years and $22 trillion the country’s poverty level is only slightly lower then it was the year LBJ launched the first War on Poverty. And that slight drop is due to President Donald J. Trump’s policies, not any of the Washington give-away programs. So using the powers of extrapolation, which you won’t learn in common core math, my suggestion - if we really want to lower the poverty rate in this country - is to reelect the President.
Either that or just give a million dollars to all 40 million poor people in America and save money by cutting out all the middlemen.
True story: my Park City neighbor checks on our house once a week while we are in Michigan. She sent me a text yesterday saying that when she entered the house she heard something upstairs so she went up to check. (Aside: A #1, don’t EVER do that! Especially if you are a sweet trusting liberal who actually believes ‘it could never happen here’ and therefore would never dream of owning a gun let alone carry one.) She found the TV in the bedroom on. She attempted to turn it off with first the TV remote and then the Dish remote. Neither worked. She changed batteries in both but they still wouldn’t shut it off so she unplugged it.
Of course I had no idea why this would happen but much to my dismay, neither did Raj. He’s tech support! He’s supposed to know everything! To say that’s creepy is an understatement. And yes, we have home security, cameras and a Ring doorbell but we also have a very strong firewall. But somehow technology seems to have gotten out in front of us both. The Deus ex machina morphed into Diabolus ex machina so slowly that hardly anyone noticed.
I don’t know what evil spirit has inhabited our television but I suspect it will attempt to extort some form of payment before returning control of the remote device. 
Possibly even a quid pro quo: 
As we enter the third decade of the 21st century it seems prudent to point out - yet again - that 1984 was supposed to be a warning, not an instruction guide. Somehow you would think that “journalists” would be the last group on earth that would require that reminder but…
they seem to be the people taking the most notes.
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