I am sure this has been national news.  Who knew boring Gwinnett County could make such a stink.  After all, we’re most famous for the Runaway Bride and being known as the place where Larry Flynt (happy Jan) was shot.

But, headlines galore, a math teacher at Beaver Ruin Elementary School, which is across the street from ‘that place where I work’, has been front page news for several days here.

Doing what the school board has encouraged them to do, a teacher gave a math test which combined a social studies lesson with math.

The result was a brouhaha that enraged parents, prompted protests, calls to the Principal, school board, and picketing.

Really getting to work was a bee-atch, and well, in the end, it’s all about me.

After teaching the kids about slavery – which, I might add was a reality – and following direction of integrating (no pun intended) courses, a teacher created a math test with questions such as those pictured below.

Parents were outraged.

Furious, UP in arms, on the phone, in the faces of everyone who would listen.

The social studies lesson was about Frederick Douglas, a former slave, who was beaten, and if not cotton, I’m sure picked something.

Slavery was and remains a horrid thing.  It should be taught as a lesson of what not to do, and the teachers (there were four who used the test) were doing their job by combining lessons as directed, and reinforcing both math and social studies.

Now, one of them as resigned.  Luis Rivera, left his/her (I’m not sure as to the gender of the teacher) job on January 18 amid a personnel investigation.

I would venture to guess, and this is merely an educated guess, that Rivera had a choice, resign or get fired and lose his/her teaching credentials.  It’s happened before.  Teachers rarely get fired, they chose to resign.

The other three are still under investigation, and we…shall see.

The school board is using the old saw that the test “failed to undergo a content review”,  I say, caca del toro.  Tests are made UP every day and very few of them are reviewed.

Frankly, I have in the past made UP test on the fly, asking the questions as I went.  There was no review.

In an elementary school where 88% of the students are either Black or Hispanic – which leads us to the conclusion that fewer than 12% are Caucasian, allowing for Asians, of which in that area there are many, it isn’t the usual Black/White discrimination story.

More than 50% of the faculty and staff at the school is ‘non-White’ as well.

This isn’t a race thing.

It is just an ill-advised plan being implemented in an ill-thought out way, by dedicated teachers who were trying to balance all the balls and dance as fast as they can at the same time.  It was bad judgement, not maliciousness, as some parents would have us believe.  One angry couple, featured in the AJC, were scowling in the picture while their happy, smiling child showed them the paper.

I’ll admit, beating and picking cotton aren’t pretty things, and better examples could have been used, but they happened.

Get the hell over it!

Slavery existed, math haunts us today, and kids need to learn both.  So, if you want an integrated curriculum, plan it better or live with what you get.

…or in this case, Breakfast and a show.

Ah, Christmas morning at the Waffle House can be entertaining.

Who am I kidding, The Waffle House can be entertaining any time.

Christmas Day is the busiest day of the year for Waffle House.  This Christmas morning, as usual, while every one at home was still abed, I slipped out, went for my walk, and hit the WH for my usual breakfast of one and and one piece of toast, and did the crossword.

I wasn’t alone.

There was a Christmas family gift exchange going on.

An entire family was there, Grandma, Grandpa, Mom, Dad, the kids, the sons-in-law, and all the grandbabies.  They were exchanging GAG gifts.  Yucking it UP, taking pictures, taking UP four booths, having a Big Ass White Trash Family Christmas right there in the Waffle House.  It was heavy on the gag, BTW.  All the Alabama fans got LSU crap.  A couple of Justin Bieber CDs were involved, reindeer antlers for the car, and more, much, much more.

Self-made sleeveless Ts were the uniform de jour.  It was all I could do to tell them they could buy them that way.  I mean, really you don’t have to cut the sleeves off any longer!!

And they were noisy.

I could hardly think to do the crossword.

And the “waitri” (that’s the plural of waitress, I looked made it UP.) wouldn’t let me take pictures!!

Well, there is a tree there.  And apparently, the trailer was too small.  And they did tip.

It’s Monday again, and frankly, I just don’t have time for stupid people!

Take for instance Valeska Paris, the woman who was held hostage on the Scientology Cruise Ship “Freewinds” for 12 years.  She was able to leave the boat only with an escort; why in the name of Priscilla Presley, did she not run like the wind the minute she was on shore, screaming and yelling for help?

Stupid!

Or, what about Jesse Demmick of Denver who is serving 11 years for kidnapping a couple?  He is suing them because they broke their promise not to rat him out to the police in exchange for payment of cash.  Since the couple did tell the police everything, and he was running from the law because he was a suspect in a beating death, I find it rather tacky at best that he’s taking our time and tax-payer money to sue the couple for $235,000 to help pay for the hospital bills that came due when the cops shot his sorry ass, and of course to pay for cigarettes while in lock UP!

Not that the couple is all that bright either.  They SUED him for the $75,000 he promised them if they’d keep their traps shut about his wherabouts.  Their lawsuit claims emotional distress, which I’m sure they had, but you can’t get blood from a turnip, and this guy is obviously a turnip!

Moving on.

Former Sheriff of the Year, Patrick J. Sullivan, Jr. is going to jail.  His jail, literally his jail.  It was named after him.  This dumbass was arrested on suspicion of trafficking in meth-amphetamines.  Sullivan retired from the Araphoe County Sheriff’s job about nine years ago, and has been a SCHOOL RESOURCE OFFICER for Cherry Creek Schools, serving as the DIRECTOR of the department!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It gets better.  In 1995 President Bill Clinton named Sullivan to the National Commission on Crime Prevention and Control.   He was also a consultant to U.S. House Subcommittee on Crime, and served on two advisory councils affiliated with the Department of Justice.

Nice, really nice!

Then, Texas Gov. and Republican Nominee-wannabe, Rick Perry couldn’t remember the voting age in the country where he wants to be President!

And while we’re being political, Michelle Bachman comes to mind with her defense and praise of the United Kingdom’s withdrawal of all UK nationals after students stormed the UK Embassy in Tehran.  She said, “That’s exactly what I would do [if I were  president]. We wouldn’t have an embassy in Iran. I wouldn’t allow that to be there.”  Guess what, Michelle, we haven’t had an embassy in Iran since JIMMY CARTER WAS PRESIDENT!  Read a freakin’ news paper once in a while.

And, last but not least, Coach Boeheim of Syracuse was joking at a press conference called to discuss the child-sex scandal at the University!

“This is the first time I’ve been in the press room where there’s more people here than at the game. Is there something special going on tonight?”, just isn’t funny at a time like this, and Boeheim’s usual cynical sarcastic and funny wisenheimerisms just weren’t working.  (Not to mention that his statement was a grammatically incorrect…”there’s”?)

Heck, even I know when to shut UP.

Frankly, I’m just tired of stupid people!

Elizabeth I, Victoria, and Elizabeth II.

Things are about to change in Merrie Olde England.

There is much hoopla about the impending change to the royal succession rule.

For centuries, literally, centuries, the first born son of the reigning monarch gains the throne UPon the death of the ruler, even if he/she had a daughter first.

Now, that’s changing, and so is the “No Catholic Spouse” rule.

The religion piece is actually a bigger deal than the gender bender, but alas, sexism is better press.

Primogenitor, the law where the number one son gets it all has been in force in the British Empire for centuries.  It really doesn’t matter if the eldest son is an idiot, pervert, or criminal, heck, it doesn’t matter if he’s all three, he gets the throne.  Many a better man and woman have failed to rule because of this law. All that’s probably going to change, some would say it’s about time.

England has been ruled by several women in the past, Matilda – who gets no cred at all since she ruled for about 6 months and no one paid any attention to  her anyway,  Lady Jane Grey – the Nine Days Queen, who never should have taken the throne and lost her head because of it, Mary I -crazy, crazy, crazy, Elizabeth I, Mary II and her sister Anne – who along with Mary’s husband William of Orange ran the sitting monarch, their daddy, James II out of town because he was an avowed Catholic, Victoria, and Elizabeth II.

There is much to be said of all the Queens, but only three play out in history:  Elizabeth I, Victoria, and Elizabeth II.

The others were interesting, fascinating really, but only the Elizabeths and Victoria get the books, movies, plays, and such.

I mean, really, have you ever heard of the Anneian Era?

Elizabeth I, “The Virgin Queen”….(pause for the laughter to die down)…gave rise to the Elizabethan Era, gave us Shakespeare, and reigned for 45 years. She expanded the Empire, sent explorers to the “New World”, and made wigs the rage.  She was probably bald, and those big-ass collars came into vogue to cover the syphilitic scars on her neck.  Her daddy had syphilis, she was born with it, so shit things happened.

An entire ERA of literature, art, culture, and fashion was named for her.

Victoria came to the throne by fluke.  Her uncles died childless, her father who was fourth in line for the throne died before her, and viola!  she’s queen.  Her Uncle named her Victoria because it wasn’t a royal name and “she’d never rule”.  OOPS!

Victoria was on the throne from 1837-1901, 64 years. She was a better queen than she was a mother, not enjoying the joys of motherhood at all.  She said “I don’t dislike babies, but the young ones are rather disgusting.”  True DAT!

Her other motherly quotes include, “An ugly baby is a very nasty object, and the prettiest ones are quite frightful!”  Her view on pregnancy:  ”Being pregnant is an occupational hazard of being a wife.”  A hazard she suffered nine times.

Her view of marriage:  ”I feel sure that no girl would go to the altar if she knew all.”

Ok, so Vicky was a little jaded; her kids were the worse for it.  Her oldest and heir was a rake, nearly a sexual deviant, and had more mistresses – 55, than any other English or British monarch!

But the Victorian Era gave us an end to slavery in the British Empire, Dickens, George Eliot, advances in medicine - anesthetics and antiseptics – advances in women’s rights, the automobile, and the Industrial Revolution.  For all the progress, Vicky was hardly a feminist.  Speaking of herself in “the royal we” fashion, she said:  ”The Queen is most anxious to enlist everyone in checking this mad, wicked folly of ‘Women’s Rights’.  It is a subject which makes the Queen so furious that she cannot contain herself.”

Apparently bra-burning was frowned UPon!

Had their been a male sibling, we might have been saved from the shenanigans of her idiot children a completely different British Monarchy today.

Of course, the 2nd Elizabethan Era, which BTW, we’re still in, has given us air travel, Harold Robbins, Richard Burton, 9-11, less comfortable air travel, space travel, really ugly hats, The Rolling Stones, Amy Winehouse and The Beatles.

Hey, a girl’s gotta get some credit!

So, to all the boys out there who are sadly dismayed that the line of succession may be feminized, get over it.

Good Queen Bess, Victoria, and Her Majesty really didn’t do such a bad job!  So, boys, don’t be so old fashioned!  It’s the 21st Century after all!!!

And as to the anti-Catholic part, well, that’s more history than any of us have time for on a Tuesday, and frankly, the Anglican Church or The Church of England is merely Catholic-lite!