The baker should have quoted an obscenely high price, baked the basic cake and then subcontracted the decoration to another bakery. And wrote a contract with that buried in the Terms and Conditions (T&C) along with a provision stating acceptance of the contract means that my T&C take precedence overs yours.
I have to admit I agree with this one! I applied for a USNA position and had to submit 4 one page “letters”: Leadership, Teaching Experience, Research Experience, and Diversity. The last one didn’t seem to fit.
I could have seen it for a leadership or management position, but to teach Ocean Engineering? I’m all for diversity and inclusion, but it just seemed a bit out of place in the application process. Maybe ask that the candidate mention it in the leadership essay.
Exactly why it's super-cringe to have to submit these statements. The only way to comply in many if not most cases is to swear fealty to whatever vague abstract values and use the buzzwords you think they're looking for.
Something like what Orwell termed "Duckspeak" in 1984.
There are some positions in which you could actually take steps to broaden your teaching perspectives or student body. For those positions, a hiring committee could ask focused questions.
This is part of the reason I'll never fly in an airplane, board a ship, or cross a bridge designed by someone who degreed after 2008. Diversity doesn't keep the wings on, the air in, the water out, or the bridge out of the water.
You can have the high level managers and committees publicly change policies, but that doesn't mean one whit of progress. Not long ago a school superintendent discussed the anti-CRT policy adopted by the school board, and in a policy meeting of administrators said not to worry, we'll still adopt all the CRT measures but change wording etc. and fully implement the plan. And he laughed at the school board for thinking they could mandate the change.
Until you weed all the rats out below the top level, you can't stop. You have to reach all the way down the chain until everyone changes or is weeded out.
Europe snuggled up with post Soviet Russia. Aside from Gucci FOGO billets, why should America fund NATO? Europe made their economic decisions under the umbrella of defense provided by the US. NATO... Nothing After Two O'clock.
I have mixed feelings about it. But, mostly because of the liberal Western members like Germany and Canada who are essentially useless, and as a smaller component? Ukraine. Ukraine has no business in NATO.
Our foreign policy is a tribute to diversity considering we have antagonized and perhaps united Russia China Iran North Korea Serbia Syria Niger Venezuela Cuba Iraq Afghanistan and a lot of other countries they otherwise have little uncommon
What level of 1984 do you think we are at? There has been a bit of pushback. COVID, in that sense was a win, as parents got a chance to see the level of indoctrination. The two income household has been an impediment to parenting, teaching, morality, values, and good old fashioned common sense (gender fluidity is stupid, despite what lawyers say).
I went to a college that was a teacher's college at its inception, so that was a good portion of the student body. Holy Mary Mother of God!! So many were idiots in that program. I decided to home school way back 40 or so years ago! Now we are in a full on indoctrination mill and since parents have ceded their responsibility to the State, the Commies/Fascists do what they do. They indoctrinated harder as they were given a free hand. They may have leaned too far forward in the saddle and have been found out. But how much fight is in the American people? What is our culture these days? Decades of indoctrination have taken their toll. Hell, look at senior officers advocating for drag shows, DEI, and trannies. Even Mattis pushed back on Trump for ending that crap. FOGOs failing upwards, not wanting to win wars, and focusing on Communist/Fascist principles. All federal funding needs to be pulled, and universities need to use their endowments to pay for the student loans they all vote to be forgiven. That will refocus education on skills based curricula.
Friendly note for the Front Porch: as all you wonderful people who've been with me a long time know, I keep a fairly soft hand in the comments section. Though I try to read all the comments, I have quite the busy paying gig and can't monitor everything on busy posts. A man must sleep. As many of you have been commenting here for 18-yrs or so, I'd ask you Old Salts to help me out if there is something out of bounds.
Just as a benchmark, I love creative friction and throwing the occasional elbow is fine, but there are things that can give people strikes; unnecessarily personal attack ("well, you don't know what you're talking about" is OK; "You have sh1t for brains you inbred redneck" will give you a strike, or perhaps a temporary ban depending on the context.
Anything that personally attacks the hosts - or a few people who are plank owning members of the Front Porch - may just get you banned for life if I'm in a bad mood. It is OK to call me or MTH "wrong" "ill-read" or even "partisan hack" but anything what gets close to being a slanderous, threatens violence, whiffs at doxing, clearly false or libelous accusations, psycho-sexual, or simply being a blatant troll will get you nuked from orbit and banned for life.
I also do not abide red in tooth and claw communists, nazis, promoters of civil violence, and such ilk.
Spammers and those trying to pimp (over an over) non-germane links will also get nuked.
I always have an open ear to appeals, and people can email me with their appeals. We have more than one regular commenter here who has been banned and then brought back after an appeal.
Likewise, as I mentioned in the above, if there is something/someone in comments you think I need to take a look at, please email me. Regulars know where the email address can be found.
Anyway, as I had to nuke two people from orbit this AM already, I just thought I'd drop a note on this topic as I do now and then.
I value all of you and appreciate the conversations we have here and on Midrats. Have a great weekend.
I’ll look for other references as a cross-check. That particular site seems to be obsessed with which early Marxists were Jews. Not my cup of hot chocolate.
NATO could have been disbanded when the Soviet Union collapsed. We would have saved a lot more money and Europe would have been forced to defend themselves, and spend less money on Socialism. NATO was useless when the Serbian/Bosnian hostilities kicked off and Europe looked to the US to do something. Our country is falling apart and we need to repair ourselves before we go worrying elsewhere. If we wait too long, the populace will lack the skills to rebuild the nation. Europe can pound sand, they opened their borders to ruin their culture, so, I am so very "meh" about them.
A Diversity Statement is effectively a Federally mandated "Loyalty Oath". The last time the SCOTUS ruled on oaths it said:
"During a case in 1972, Cole v. Richardson, the court declared four requirements needed for an oath to clear First Amendment muster:
It cannot go against the First or Fourteenth Amendment rights.
The oath cannot keep an employee from participating in protected public speaking.
Freedom of association cannot be used in oath as protected by the Constitution.
The oath should be direct and clear, so no question comes to what is meant."
Given the latest on AA and the Cake Baker cases from SCOTUS, this Diversity Statement stuff looks and smells like Government mandated Speech...
The baker should have quoted an obscenely high price, baked the basic cake and then subcontracted the decoration to another bakery. And wrote a contract with that buried in the Terms and Conditions (T&C) along with a provision stating acceptance of the contract means that my T&C take precedence overs yours.
Lawfare is a thing.
Perhaps the high tide of diversity is starting to recede.
Yes, but like the sargassum left in beach wrack at the high-water mark, it's going to stink for quite a while until it decays.
I have to admit I agree with this one! I applied for a USNA position and had to submit 4 one page “letters”: Leadership, Teaching Experience, Research Experience, and Diversity. The last one didn’t seem to fit.
(I was not selected!)
Not even from an "advocate of inclusion & diversity?"
I could have seen it for a leadership or management position, but to teach Ocean Engineering? I’m all for diversity and inclusion, but it just seemed a bit out of place in the application process. Maybe ask that the candidate mention it in the leadership essay.
Exactly why it's super-cringe to have to submit these statements. The only way to comply in many if not most cases is to swear fealty to whatever vague abstract values and use the buzzwords you think they're looking for.
Something like what Orwell termed "Duckspeak" in 1984.
There are some positions in which you could actually take steps to broaden your teaching perspectives or student body. For those positions, a hiring committee could ask focused questions.
This is part of the reason I'll never fly in an airplane, board a ship, or cross a bridge designed by someone who degreed after 2008. Diversity doesn't keep the wings on, the air in, the water out, or the bridge out of the water.
Think of it as a letter explaining how your dedication to Marxist-Leninist-Stalinist-Mao Tsetung Thought makes you a better Ocean Engineering teacher.
You can have the high level managers and committees publicly change policies, but that doesn't mean one whit of progress. Not long ago a school superintendent discussed the anti-CRT policy adopted by the school board, and in a policy meeting of administrators said not to worry, we'll still adopt all the CRT measures but change wording etc. and fully implement the plan. And he laughed at the school board for thinking they could mandate the change.
Until you weed all the rats out below the top level, you can't stop. You have to reach all the way down the chain until everyone changes or is weeded out.
Europe snuggled up with post Soviet Russia. Aside from Gucci FOGO billets, why should America fund NATO? Europe made their economic decisions under the umbrella of defense provided by the US. NATO... Nothing After Two O'clock.
ISAF...
I Saw Americans Fight.
NATO is a bit of a conundrum ain't it?
"Conundrum," you misspelled "waste" :-)
I have mixed feelings about it. But, mostly because of the liberal Western members like Germany and Canada who are essentially useless, and as a smaller component? Ukraine. Ukraine has no business in NATO.
Fire. Every. Communist.
Fire or fire AT? ;-)
Why not both?
Preach it.
"Drag it in to the sunlight"...and then hammer a wooden stake through its heart.
“fetid little Cultural Marxist struggle sessions”. Spot on.
They came in one step at at time, they must be removed one step at a time.
Or with budgetary fire. STARVE them like the Soviets starved Ukrainians.
Our foreign policy is a tribute to diversity considering we have antagonized and perhaps united Russia China Iran North Korea Serbia Syria Niger Venezuela Cuba Iraq Afghanistan and a lot of other countries they otherwise have little uncommon
More on how this all came to be: https://www.thepostil.com/from-the-american-dream-to-the-american-nightmare/
What level of 1984 do you think we are at? There has been a bit of pushback. COVID, in that sense was a win, as parents got a chance to see the level of indoctrination. The two income household has been an impediment to parenting, teaching, morality, values, and good old fashioned common sense (gender fluidity is stupid, despite what lawyers say).
I went to a college that was a teacher's college at its inception, so that was a good portion of the student body. Holy Mary Mother of God!! So many were idiots in that program. I decided to home school way back 40 or so years ago! Now we are in a full on indoctrination mill and since parents have ceded their responsibility to the State, the Commies/Fascists do what they do. They indoctrinated harder as they were given a free hand. They may have leaned too far forward in the saddle and have been found out. But how much fight is in the American people? What is our culture these days? Decades of indoctrination have taken their toll. Hell, look at senior officers advocating for drag shows, DEI, and trannies. Even Mattis pushed back on Trump for ending that crap. FOGOs failing upwards, not wanting to win wars, and focusing on Communist/Fascist principles. All federal funding needs to be pulled, and universities need to use their endowments to pay for the student loans they all vote to be forgiven. That will refocus education on skills based curricula.
Friendly note for the Front Porch: as all you wonderful people who've been with me a long time know, I keep a fairly soft hand in the comments section. Though I try to read all the comments, I have quite the busy paying gig and can't monitor everything on busy posts. A man must sleep. As many of you have been commenting here for 18-yrs or so, I'd ask you Old Salts to help me out if there is something out of bounds.
Just as a benchmark, I love creative friction and throwing the occasional elbow is fine, but there are things that can give people strikes; unnecessarily personal attack ("well, you don't know what you're talking about" is OK; "You have sh1t for brains you inbred redneck" will give you a strike, or perhaps a temporary ban depending on the context.
Anything that personally attacks the hosts - or a few people who are plank owning members of the Front Porch - may just get you banned for life if I'm in a bad mood. It is OK to call me or MTH "wrong" "ill-read" or even "partisan hack" but anything what gets close to being a slanderous, threatens violence, whiffs at doxing, clearly false or libelous accusations, psycho-sexual, or simply being a blatant troll will get you nuked from orbit and banned for life.
I also do not abide red in tooth and claw communists, nazis, promoters of civil violence, and such ilk.
Spammers and those trying to pimp (over an over) non-germane links will also get nuked.
I always have an open ear to appeals, and people can email me with their appeals. We have more than one regular commenter here who has been banned and then brought back after an appeal.
Likewise, as I mentioned in the above, if there is something/someone in comments you think I need to take a look at, please email me. Regulars know where the email address can be found.
Anyway, as I had to nuke two people from orbit this AM already, I just thought I'd drop a note on this topic as I do now and then.
I value all of you and appreciate the conversations we have here and on Midrats. Have a great weekend.
Part of me wishes you'd keep 'em for the entertainment value of taunting them.
But, rationally? Thank you.
One of those was among the more egregious trolls (or deluded fools) to wander onto the porch in my memory. BZ
Sometimes we just need to let Cpl Hicks lead...😂
I’ll look for other references as a cross-check. That particular site seems to be obsessed with which early Marxists were Jews. Not my cup of hot chocolate.
NATO could have been disbanded when the Soviet Union collapsed. We would have saved a lot more money and Europe would have been forced to defend themselves, and spend less money on Socialism. NATO was useless when the Serbian/Bosnian hostilities kicked off and Europe looked to the US to do something. Our country is falling apart and we need to repair ourselves before we go worrying elsewhere. If we wait too long, the populace will lack the skills to rebuild the nation. Europe can pound sand, they opened their borders to ruin their culture, so, I am so very "meh" about them.
Perhaps we can convince Macron to stand up his vaunted EU Army.
My bet? Is we'll still end up defending them and taking the blame for disbanding NATO. Damned if you do, damned if you don't.