BLOGGER REVEALS BOBBY JINDAL'S "FIXES" FOR PUBLIC EDUCATION IN LOUISIANA

Blogger, Lamar White, has done brilliant reporting, yes, real reporting, on Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal and his gradual destruction of public education in Louisiana.  To all you professional journalists who mock the efforts of bloggers, and not all paid journalists do, my advice would be to learn from the likes of Lamar and other fine bloggers.  Lamar explores the results of the efforts of the out-of-towners whom Jindal has brought in and paid high salaries to "fix" public education in Louisiana.  I don't mean to imply that our education system did not and does not need fixing, but Jindal's failing gurus are most emphatically not doing the job of improving public education in Louisiana.

John White and his team at the Department of Education, in an effort to demonstrate how the public school system is failing Louisiana school children, are diverting millions in funding every year from public schools in order to enrich some of the worst schools in the United States– religious zealots posing as educators, fly-by-night operators who don’t even have the necessary infrastructure, and bigoted and religiously intolerant “church schools” that specialize in utilizing thoroughly debunked textbooks and materials to stifle dissent, schools that seek to enrich themselves with taxpayer dollars while reserving their right to expel any student on the basis of their perceived sexual orientation or religion.  

There you have it - the fix for public education by the well-paid out-of-towners, who are no more than flim-flam artists paid generous salaries by our flim-flam artist governor.  I am no xenophobe, but please, Governor Jindal, if you're going to bring in people from other states and pay them high salaries, even as you lay off thousands of state employees and raise the unemployment figures here in Louisiana, at the very least, hire people who are knowledgeable and competent in their jobs, and not the likes of John White and his cohorts.  

PRAYERS FOR POPE FRANCIS I

 

Almighty and everlasting God, from whom comes every good and perfect gift: Send down upon Pope Francis, and upon the congregations committed to his charge, the healthful Spirit of your grace: and, that he may truly please you, pour upon him the continual dew of your blessing. Grant this, O Lord, for the honor of our Advocate and Mediator, Jesus Christ. Amen.

(Adapted from The Book of Common Prayer)

The present College of Cardinals was never going to elect a progressive pope.  The cardinals' choice of a 76 year old man signals that they wanted a caretaker leader rather than a long-reigning pope at this time.  My prayer is that Francis will be a caretaker in the mode of John XXIII, who will surprise us all and bring needed change to the Roman Catholic Church.

The former Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio is a doctrinal conservative, who turned his back on liberation theology during the reign of John Paul II, so he's no Oscar Romero, as of now.  But Francis has great care and concern for the poor and lived a simple life as archbishop and cardinal, which count in his favor.

His care and concern seems not to extend to promoting equality for our LGTB brothers and sisters.  Same-sex marriage has been legal in Argentina for nearly two years.  During the debate over marriage equality, Francis said:

Let’s not be naïve, we’re not talking about a simple political battle; it is a destructive pretension against the plan of God. We are not talking about a mere bill, but rather a machination of the Father of Lies that seeks to confuse and deceive the children of God.

He's also said that allowing gay adoption is discrimination against children, who need both a mother and a father.

On the other hand, Francis has shown compassion for persons afflicted with AIDS, going so far as to visit them and wash and kiss their feet.

And on a very personal note, I am pleased that Francis did not choose to wear the ermine and velvet mozzeta, or cape, as shown in Gammarelli of Rome's shop window.

For Pope Francis:

The Lord bless you and keep you;
the Lord make his face to shine upon you, and be gracious to you;
the Lord lift up his countenance upon you, and give you peace.

(Numbers 6:24-28)

Yes, it's the priestly blessing, but as a member of the priesthood of all believers, I'm allowed to pray the prayer.  Peace.

WEDNESDAY EVE

 

A distraction from pope news.

SEAGULL PERCHED ON SISTINE CHAPEL CHIMNEY

March 13 (Bloomberg) -- As the world awaits smoke signals from the Sistine Chapel that indicate whether a new pope has been chosen, a seagull perched atop the chimney. (Source: Bloomberg) --

UPDATE: White smoke issued from the chimney of the Sistine Chapel signaling that a pope has been elected. The bells of St Peter are ringing.

UPDATE 2: The new pope, Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio,76, of Argentina, has chosen the name Francis.  The 266th pope of the Roman Catholic Church is the first non-European leader of the church in more than 1,000 years.

OH DEAR!

A day ahead of the papal conclave, faces at the scandal-struck Vatican were even redder than usual after it emerged that the Holy See had purchased a €23 million (£21 million) share of a Rome apartment block that houses Europe’s biggest gay sauna.

The senior Vatican figure sweating the most due to the unlikely proximity of the gay Europa Multiclub is probably Cardinal Ivan Dias, the head of the Congregation for Evangelisation of Peoples, who is due to participate in tomorrow’s election at the Sistine Chapel.

This 76-year-old “prince of the church” enjoys a 12-room apartment on the first-floor of the imposing palazzo, at 2 Via Carducci, just yards from the ground floor entrance to the steamy flesh pot. There are 18 other Vatican apartments in the block, many of which house priests.

And the conservative Cardinal Dias never knew, even though information about the gay sauna is on the internet.  Perhaps the cardinal is not a techie.  How embarrassed he must be.  Will he move?  He can always choose to look the other way when he comes out of his front door.  One thing for sure, the Vatican keeps its cardinals in style.

THE PAPAL CONCLAVE

To the left, the cardinals are shown processing into the mass in St Peter's Basilica this morning before gathering in the Sistine Chapel to begin the Papal Conclave.

To the right is the Sistine Chapel set up for the for the cardinals meeting in the Papal Conclave to elect the new pope.

The cardinals walk up the aisle toward Michangelo's "The Last Judgement" to place their ballots in the ballot box.

Black smoke issued from the chimney this evening to signal that no pope was elected on the first ballot.  When the new pope has been chosen, white smoke will come from the chimney, and a bell will ring as an additional signal.

The picture of the cardinals in procession made me smile because in my Roman Catholic elementary school such a straggly line would not have been tolerated. We would have heard from the sister in charge, "Straighten that line!"

PAUL RYAN'S FREUDIAN SLIP OF THE DAY

In his press conference, as he presents the GOP's radical new budget, Representative Paul Ryan says :

This to us is something that we're not going to give up on, because we're not going to give up on destroying the health care system for the American people.

Ryan's vaunted concern about the deficit is a cover for his true ambition, as Paul Krugman says:

Meanwhile, he was pursuing radical redistribution away from the needy to the wealthy.

Nothing has changed, except that the plan has gotten even crueler.

Thanks to "The Jed Report" at Daily Kos for the link to the video.

FACEBOOK DRAMA

Well, there's the Papal Conclave now that distracts me a little from Facebook.

And further about Facebook:

Clicking those friendly blue "like" buttons strewn across the Web may be doing more than marking you as a fan of Coca-Cola or Lady Gaga.

It could out you as gay.

It might reveal how you vote.

It might even suggest that you're an unmarried introvert with a high IQ and a weakness for nicotine.

That's the conclusion of a study published Monday in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Researchers reported analyzing the likes of more than 58,000 American Facebook users to make guesses about their personalities and behavior, and even whether they drank, smoked, or did drugs.

Cambridge University researcher David Stillwell, one of the study's authors, said the results may come as a surprise.

"Your likes may be saying more about you than you realize," he said.

OMG!  I am shocked, I tell ya, just shocked.  Seriously, I realize that by just having a presence on Facebook, I've yielded a huge amount of privacy.  Anyone who cares deeply about privacy should go away from the site and stay away.

Some likes were more revealing than others.
...

Men who liked TV song-and-dance sensation "Glee" were more likely to be gay. Men who liked professional wrestling were more likely to be straight. Drinking game aficionados were generally more outgoing than, say, fans of fantasy novelist Terry Pratchett. People who preferred pop diva Jennifer Lopez usually gathered more Facebook friends than those who favored the heavy metal sound of Iron Maiden.

Who would ever have expected...?  Heh heh.  So y'all take care out there in the Facebook jungle.

I will never again friend a person who is not at least a friend of a friend, someone with whom I have not one friend in common.  One time was enough to teach me a lesson, and I can't remember why I chose to do so that one time, but it was a mistake. 

MONDAY EVE

Poor baby must have been scared to death.

NOT RED SHOES, BUT RED SOCKS

No, not those Red Sox.

 

That's the perfect sock for your cassock, Cardinal Bechara Boutros Rai. Comfortable and easy on the eyes yet it makes a bold statement at the same time.

Rather dashing, don't you think?

Check out more pictures of fashion statements of the cardinals, along with commentary, at The Huffington Post.

Thanks to Ann V.