War in Iran

This war has been simmering since 1979. And I do not think President Trump is the right man to lead us in this war. He wants too much to make a deal and end the war. We need someone who will call up the reserves, expel all Iranian nationals (they are suicide bomber threats), crush the IRGC, kill all the mullahs and ayatollahs, and let the non-crazy Iranians take control of their country. We de-Nazified Germany, we can de-Shiite-ize Persia. Who knows, maybe a peaceable alliance of Zoroastrians, Christians, Sunnis(?!?!?), Jews, and Bahais can establish a stable Republic. Or even a constitutional monarchy under the Phalavi Dynasty. (The heir of that dynasty has lived in America since 1979 and has named his daughter, who is a U.S. citizen, his heir.) But whatever happens, the people who for almost 50 years have been chanting "Death to America" must not be allowed to have nuclear weapons.

Meet the New Boss, Same as the Old Boss

In 1971 the British rock band, The Who had a big hit with their song Won't Get Fooled Again. It reminds me of the words I sing in church every week, "put not your faith in princes or sons of men, in whom there is no salvation. His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth; In that very day his thoughts perish." Today Donald J. Trump took over as President of the United States.

I was in a meeting when he swore the oath and when one of the men in the meeting (he was listening to a device in his ear) announced that we had a new Prsident the other 60 people in the room began clapping and cheering. (About the meeting: I quit my job as a teacher after last semester and took a job a a salesman for a general contractor. I sell roofs, windows, doors, concrete, solar energy systems, and insulation now. Much more money than teaching.) I am glad Trump is our President but I don't for a minute think he is going to usher in an age of justice and prosperity. I think he'll do less damage to us that Biden did but that is all.

I haven't been excited about a presidential candidate since Ron Paul ran for President. Although, I must admit that the last time Trump was President he did appint good judges to the U.S. courts, but I think that is mainly because he didn't have strong opinions about judges, and just asked the Federalist Society who they want him to appoint. Admittedly, that is a pretty good way to pick people to be federal judges. Gosh, It was fun campaigning for Ron Paul. It's too bad he didn't win.

Life and Real Life

Life: I have met more politicians and press people and community activists than I have ever wanted to meet. And I am a politician. Everyday someone wants me to carry water for them. Everyday someone tempts me to say something I do not believe is true. Everyday the promise of votes is dangled in front of me if I will compromise. Politics is dirty. BUT the Vietnamese are with me. When I knock on their doors and tell them what I want to do they get excited and say they will vote for me. And the Indian grandfathers agree with me and say things I never expected; "America used to be verdant. Men like you can make it verdant again." But there are some groups who hate me.

I was at a meeting the other night where people were openly talking about Communism as a good thing. I did not engage them on their Satanic ideology but I stuck to my talking points: Student achievement, parental rights, and balanced budgets. The audience hated me. They blamed the state legislature for poor academic performance. They wanted to talk about how excellent it is to have Aztec dancing (The Aztecs practiced human sacrifice. Why are public school students dancing for their gods?), liberated ethnic studies, raises and housing for teachers, and community health clinics in schools. And they know that if I'm elected to the board I will work against all of that because it doesn't promote academic achievement. Over the weekend the teachers union sent out 60 precinct walkers to defeat me.

Real life: Kathleen, my son Basil, and I went to my brother's Celebration of Life. I can't describe it. I was overwhlmed and had to leave early. I am looking forward to pheasant hunting in November.

My first candidate forum.

The League of Women Voters held a candidate forum tonight. It was my first time to go to one of those. It was fun but, wow, the other candidates are not serious people. The house is burning down and they want to paint the walls. They kept talking about music and dance and community involvement while 80% of the students leave the 8th grade unable to read and write English. I just kept hammering away on student achievement.

My Grandfathers

My father's father died when he was 43, I think. He was a lead and zinc miner in and around Commerce, Oklahoma. He died of silicosis of the lungs back in the late 1930's, or at least before WWII. His legal name was Clarence but everyone called him Bill.

My mother's father was a preacher (And an artilleryman in WWI). He served as a pastor in East St. Louis, Illinois. and as a missionarry to Mexico and, at the end of his life, a pastor in the central valley of California. His name was Clovis Cagle, in the United Pentecostal Denomination. That is a Christian denomination that denies the Trinity. His brother was the superintendant of the California district and, sometime in the 1950s, he visted my grandfather's church and put him out because he thought my grandfather was a Trinitarian. Isn't it funny that I, my grandfather's grandson am an Orthodox Christian who hangs all of life, even all of existence on the relationships between the Persons of the Holy Trinity.

Well, now I am running for school board in east San Jose and am trying to get in touch with the pastor of the largest church in east San Jose to get his permission to put flyes on the cars in his church's parking lot. I hope he recognizes the threat my oponents pose to the salvation of the kids in his church. I hope we can work together to save them.

And now I covid.

Seriously, I'm teaching 7 different subjects(Econ, U.S. hist, world hist, current events, college prep, and entrepreneurship, shotgun team), taking one class, and running a political campaign. And I have Covid. I am falling behind. Uggh.

Move-in Day

Basil (Son #4) moved into the dorms at Cal Maritime today.

I found out today that the reason the Secretary of State's office has been rejecting (3 times!) a form I have to file in order to spend money for my campaign is that I have been using an old version of the form. (Question: Why would the Secretary of State have the old version of the form on her website?) Oh, well, I now have the latest version of the form and am mailing it to her today.

Work is going well. I am teaching a new course: Entreprenrurship. I don't know much about it (The only time I attempted start a business, back in the early 90s, I had to shut it down because I received a letter from the District Attorney telling me that my business was illegal.) so I am signing up for an on-line course on entrepreneurship at a community college and will be teaching it to my students as I am learning it.

I haven't mentioned this very sad news yet because my oldest brother is a more private person than I am, but he has cancer and is dying. If you have an opportunity, please, pray for my brother Kenneth, his wife, children, and grandchildren.

What we've done during July

A couple of days after I made that last post about Independence Day, Kathleen and I left for the high Sierras. It was our goal to go over the Sonora Pass on the way to Las Vegas. In the past Kathleen and I had been as far as the Strawberry Inn and the snow mobile area a a couple of miles beyond that, but because of snow the CHP had always locked the gate to automobile traffic when we were up there. But Strawberry is at about 5,000 ft elevation and the Pass is another 4,000 feet above that.

We had lunch in Sonora (Thanks, Jeff, for the resaurnt recomendation.) after lunch we fun looking in some antique stores. And I showed Kathleen where I panned for gold when I was a little boy. Then we headed up to the pass. One of the neat things was stopping and wading in the headwaters of the Stanislaus river, and then, once over the Pass, seeing another river, the West Walker flowing to the east and, eventually, into Mono Lake.

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Oh, I should mention the lightning storm we ran into at the Pass. Lots of rain and snow and lighting. The wind was so stong and visibility was so low we had to pull over to the side of the road for a little while.

We spent that night at the Willow Spring Resort in Bridgeport. I liked it. We didn't use the fishing pond but I saw one Dad with two little kids fishing in it. The rooms for rent are clean but nothing special. I think the real attractions t Willow Springs Resort are the plentiful RV hookups and the proximity to good fishing places. But we were just passing through.

After that we went to Mammoth Lake to find some breakfast but it was super crowded with people, like all ski resort towns, I guess. So we skipped breakfast and went on down the road. Crossed through a Shoshone reservation and wound up in the town of Beatty, Nevada where we happened upon Smokin J's BBQ. HUGE PORTIONS OF MEAT. It ws excellent and it was enough to feed us that day and the next two. I should mention all the wild donkeys just south of town. You have to be careful not to hit them while driving.

The next three nights were spent at a resort in Las Vegas. It was our second time to go there and sit through their sales pitch in exchange for a three night stay. We mostly slept and watched C-Span for 3 days but we did buy into Blue Green this time. We weren't going to but two of the locations are marveolus. Golfing and hunting got us. So we are Blue Green "owners" now. It isn't really owning anything, rather it is pre-paying stays at a couple of hundred resorts. If I live 7 more years, I think, it should pay for itself. The salesman said 4 but, I think, 7 is more realistic.

We drove home over the Tehachapi Pass to the south. It was fun for Kathleen. She didn't know that the Sierras get taller and steeper the farther south you go. And she got to see the oil fields near Bakersfield, something she lectures about in her history classes but had never seen. And we stopped at Casa de Fruta for dinner while driving from the San Juaquin Valley through the Pacheco Pass and into Gilroy.

Oh, while driving over the Tehachapi Pass we came across a radio station playing a decades old recording J. Vernon McGee. I hadn't heard him since 1990. It was Kathleen's first time hearing him. She said, "This is what you listened to on the radio when you were a kid?!" Then a few days after that I took Basil fishing at Pillar Point. And then a few days after that I took Kathleen fishng there and then to The Moss Beach Distillery for fish tacos and iced tea while watching the sunset from the cliffs.

And today I finished all the paperwork for my candidacy and took the oath that qualifies me to run for school board. They make candidates hold an American Flag when we recite the oath to defend the Constututions of the U.S. and the State of California.

Matt Karnes for Alum Rock Union School District Trustee

For, at least, 30 years Alum Rock Union School District has been troubled. For example, reading proficiency has never been above 50% and the school board was seen as a stepping stone to higher office, so board members came and went on their way to city council, planning commision, water board, or other local, county, or regional offices. Thus the mission of the School District was neglected by the board.

When I first moved into this school district 10 years ago it was about the time some of the corruption was being exposed. Since then sutudents and parents have been staging protests, there has been fraud in no-bid contracts, public confidence in the district has eroded, there have been Grand Jury investigations, bonded indebtednes of the district has increased, property taxes to pay for the school district have increased, the county is threatening to take over the district's finances because of a $20,000,000 budget deficit, and worst of all reading proficiencey levels in all grades have decreased, with 80% of the district's students leaving the 8th grade not able to read and write English proficiently. Nevertheless the Alum Rock School District claims to be "Celebrating 90 years of Service, Perseverance, Love, Trust, and Equity!"

What I will try to accomplish by working with other board members includes the following:

1. While not neglecting the State of California's standards in social studies, math, science, et cetera, or cutting any legally required spending, I want to redirect every penny possible and every instructional minute possible to emphasize English language reading proficiency in all classes.

2. To avoid a cycle of failure that sends kids to highschool where they will only fail for lack of preparation, I will put forward a policy of advancing students to the next grade only when they have met grade standards for math and English.

3. I want stop using borrowed money to pay for opperational costs and when I an on the board I shallll always vote against that kind of irresponsible spending.

4. De-emphasize the use of technology in the classroom and return to the use of books to increase facility with the written word and reading comprehension.

5. Implement a Parental Choice policy that includes all district-run schools and high performing charter schools, while revoking the charters of schools that do not perform at district average or higher, as measured by standardized tests.

6. End the practice of keeping students who are proficent in English in the English Language Learner (ELL) designation. Administer the ACCESS test to every ELL every year and move those who pass the test out of the ELL designation and into regular English classes.

7. Implement a totally transparent bidding process that requires a minimum of three bids on every project.

8. I will not vote for a budget or project that relies on state or federal money that the district does not have in hand.

It is very expensive to run for office in Santa Clara County and Alum Rock Union School District. Just getting my name on tha ballot and voter guide costs $2,600.00 For the sake of the kids in my school district I am asking you to support my candidacy. I would appreciate a donation of ANY amount up to the legal limit of $520.

Two ways to Donate now!
Text "read" to (888) 444-8774 or go to our donation website.

Thank you for your support.

End of the School Year

Last week at this time the shotgun team I coach was just settleing into the hotels in Kingsburg, California because the next morning was the start of the state tournament. It was so much fun! We placed right in the middle of the pack, which was pretty amazing considering we are still a you team with only 6 people on t the team. we were right between Willows High School and Turlock Christian, two of the best teams in California. But my team wasn't intimidated at all. I am very proud of them. Also, it was very enjoyable to meet all the coaches from all over California, especially Willows and Turlock who really did a lot to help us, since it was our first time at the tournament.

We got home from the tournament Sunday night, a little sunburned and a lot tired but Final Exams started on on Moday morning and continued through noon on Wednesday. Then came graduation wednesday night. Thursday and today I spent getting ready for summer school, which starts on Monday.

The party called me. Sunday afternoon they are meeting with me to go over campaign management and financial stuff. On the 15th I'll be officially nominated to run for school board.

Radio, Shotguns, and Marriage

I read yesterday that car makers are going to stop putting A.M. radios in cars because the electric motors interfere with reception. I think I dislike electric cars even more now than I already did.

Speaking of radio, I really miss the days when I was a teenager in Florida. I used to lie on the floor doing my school work and listen to WCIE (Where Christ is Everything) out of Lakeland. I'd hear preachers such as Chuck Swindoll, J. Vernon McGee, Karl Strader, and late in the night I'd listen to the music program, The Haven of Rest with Ray Ortland. One of my favorite shows on WCIE was James Dobson's Focus on the Famly and others.

I haven't been listening to radio much for the last few years. I tried to listen to KQED, the local NPR affiliate but it has become nothing but filth. I did an expiriment to see if I could drive from home to work or from work to home without hearing a story promoting drag queens, homosexuality, abortion, or or the mutilation of childrens sex organs (they call it gender affirming care). The drive between work and home is about 15 minutes one way. Every morning and every afternoon I heard of of the vile promotions. On some drives I'd hear two or three. Gone are the days of listening to KQED and hearing Linda Worthheimer, Cokie Roberts, Nina Totenberg, Garison Keilor, Bob Edwards, Click and Clack, and To The Best of Our Knowledge with Steve Paulson and Anne Strainchamps. At least, KQED still has TechNation with Moira Gunn.

I've tried listening to KSFO an conservative talk station but they are so angry and I don't see Conservativeism that way. We are happy becuse we know the truth and see a path to a bright future. I just don't dig the negativity.

And there is no country music anymore.

Kathleen, Fr. Basil and I have set the wedding date for July 16. I'll be a married man again soon. And Anslem Samuel told me he is going to ask his girlfried to marry him.

My school's shotgun team had the last shoot of the season today. We finished 39 out of 51. I am very proud of them.

David McCullough, Dead

I was just looking up something for work (I'm dealing with the close of the western frontier right now) and saw this very sad news. David McCullough was one of the most important historians of America who ever lived. I mentioned on this blog one time that there are different schools of history. In the late 20th and early 21st Centuries there was no more powerful proponent - all the more powerful because he was quiet about it - of the proviential school of historiography, that idea held by some historians that Providence guides history. We are richer for the work he did. We are poorer because of his death. Memory Eternal!

So Excited!

For the past few days I've been writing syllabi and planning my classes. Tonight I made it up to Thanksgiving week in my U.S. History courses. And guess what I am going to do. I am going to have my students read Thanksgiving proclamations from Presidents Washington, Lincoln, and Reagan, and then write a comparitive essay. I can not begin to tell you how excited I am about this assignment!

Judicial Review

It is June and that means the Supreme Court of the United States is announcing it's decisions. Another one was handed down this morning and that prompted one pundit I heard on the radio to opine that the Constitution does not give the Supreme Court as much power as it currently exercizes, meaning the Court does not have the power to limit or abolish the legislation passed by the Congress and signed into law by the President. In short, according to the man on the radio, judical review is an unconstitutional agrandizement of the Supreme Court that began with Marbury vs. Madison in 1803. Over the course of my life I have heard many people say the same thing, that Chief Justice John Marshal invented the power and foisted it on the American people in the Marbury vs. Madison decision, and that the Congress and the President should resist the Supreme Court's usurpation with patriotic vigor. Strangely, even the U.S. judiciary's official website goes with the Marbury vs. Madison origin story. I think this is wrong.

Just as I look to the authoress of the New Testament to expalin the New Testament, I look to the authors of the Constitution, reveranlty called "The Framers", to the Founding Fathers, and the Patriots to explain the Constitution. And among The Framers, Founders, and Patriots, three stand out as explainiers of the Constitution: John Jay, (Member of the Continental Congress, writer of the Olive Branch Petition, ambasador to Spain during the American Revolution, signer of the Treaty of Paris, delegate to the Constitutional Convention, first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Governor of New York, and founding member and first Vice President of the American Bible Society), James Madison (colonel in the Orange County militia, drafter of the Constitution, 4th President of the United States, and respondent in the case of Marbury vs. Madison), and Alexander Hamilton (founding member of the Hearts of Oak militia, officer in the Continental Army, member of the Congress of the Confederation, delegate to the Constitutional Convention, founder of the Bank of New York which is now known as BNY Mellon Bank, founder of the New York Post, and first United States Secretary of the Treasury, and founder of the U.S. Coast Guard) After the Constitution was written, debated, and passed by the delegates it was sent to the 13 States for ratification. It was a touch and go thing as one State, Rhode Island was totally against the Constitution and several were on the fence. Many of the Founding Fathers and Patriots were opposed to ratification and lead a campaign against the ratification. But these three, Madison, Hamilton, and Jay gave themselves the task of convincing the people of New York to ratify the Constitution. They wrote a series of essays for publication in the various nwespapers in New York, that explained and defended the Constitution to the New Yorkers. The essays are now called Federalist Papers.

In Federalist Paper #78, published in the New York Packet 17-20 June 1788, Alexander Hamilton explained the judicial branch of the new Constitution, and was not ambiguous about the Supreme Court's power to define the limits of Congress's power to make laws, and that the Supreme Court is a buffer between the Congress and the People who have to live under the Congress's laws.

"If it is said that the legislative body is themselves the constitutional judges of their own powers and that the construction they put upon them is conclusive upon the other departments, it may be answered, that this cannot be the natural presumption, where it is not to be collected from any particular provisions in the Constitution. It is not otherwise to be supposed, that the Constitution could intend to enable the representatives of the people to substitute their will to that of their constituents. It is far more rational to suppose, that the courts were designed to be an intermediate body between the people and the legislature, in order, among other things, to keep the latter within the limits assigned to their authority.

Furthemore, that the Supreme Court is the final barrier to legilative tyrrany, interpretting the laws pased by the Congress and judging them according to the Constitution, the Constitution being superior to any act of Congress.

If there should happen to be an irreconcilable variance between the two, that which has the superior obligation and validity ought, of course, to be preferred; or, in other words, the Constitution ought to be preferred to the statute, the intention of the people to the intention of their agents. . . .where the will of the legislature, declared in its statutes, stands in opposition to that of the people, declared in the Constitution, the judges ought to be governed by the latter rather than the former. They ought to regulate their decisions by the fundamental laws, rather than by those which are not fundamental. . . [W]henever a particular statute contravenes the Constitution, it will be the duty of the judicial tribunals to adhere to the latter and disregard the former.

Thus we see that the authors of the Constitution considered the doctrine of judicial review to be fundamental to the Supeme Court's role in our government, and, therfore judicial review should not be though of as an arrogancy of Chief Justice John Marshall only invented in 1803.

Teaching High School in the Age of Wokeness

The HR director in the the school district I work in the most has asked me to apply for one of their vacant social science positions. It would be a lot more money (and benefits!) than I get as a long-term sub. And I would LOVE to teach American history, U.S. government, and economics. In fact, because of all of the prep-work I've done for Kathleen over the past few years I've already written all the lectures and tests I'll need if I take the job. That part would be easy. So what is the hard part? Why don't I apply for the job?

There are two problems. The first is something called the Cal TPA. It is a tool the State of California uses to winnow out people who don't agree with the pedagogical philosophy and social mission of the system. I wrote a TPA a couple of years ago and it was rejected. I could do another one, I know what they want me to say, but I think it is wrong. I think, that for teaching history, especially, that reading history and writing history (with Chicago style footnotes and bibliography) is the best way. But the state wants teachers to embrace the idea that different people have different styles of learning and to use all those styles at once, to adapt each lesson every day to every student's imagined learning style, even though there is no evidence that that helps students learn more. But the woke mob doesn't want kids to read and write real history, such as those books written by Thucydides, Julius Caesar, James McPherson, SShelby Foote, Paul Johnson, David McCullough, and Winston Churchill. But the woke mob just sees white male opressors in that list of names. The woke mob only wants Howard Zinn the plagiarizer, the communist, the liar, the perverter of the minds of children. (I do think students need to know about Zinn, but not because he is right. They need to know about him because he is influential and wrong. Very extremely wrong.)

I think that for teaching U.S. Government one must start no later than the Mayflower Compact, but preferably with Moses and Plato for one,really, can't understand The Mayflower Compact without reference to the Bible and The Laws. and deal with the English Civil War, Separation of Powers (No, it did not start with Montesquieu, but with Moses and Isaiah. But I would still have my students read Montesquieu.), John Locke's Two Treatises on Government because they are the foundation of The Declaration of Independence, and the Declaration of Independence because it it is the foundation of the Constitution, and the Constitution (article by article with accomanying readngs from the Federalist Papers for who better to the explain the Constitution than the men who wrote it?) because the Constitution is the foundation of all our laws. But the woke mob only sees white male oppressors. They (according to a recent poll, more than 90% teachers in my area) think training studendents to "change the world" a la Paulo Freire, Saul Alinsky, and Angela Davis is what they ought to be doing, not teaching them what our civilization has learned over the millenia, which is what I think teachers ought to be doing.

My economics class would start with watching two movies. Yes, this is such an enormous departure from the book-based pedogogy of the history and government classes but these are such a good movies for introducing economics and illustrating why economics is important. The movies are I, Pencil and The Road to Serfdom. From there we would talk about the history of economics beginning with Sargon of Akkad, ancient Chinese economic philosophy (special attention to Confucious since he was and reamins so infuential) and coming up through the French Physiocrats, Adam Smith (with special atention given to the impact of coastal geography on the economies of Japan and Africa),William Bradford's diary of telling of the first communist expiriment in the New World, culminating with reading the The Law by Frederic Bastiat. That would all be in the first three weeks of the semester. Then we would read through Thomas Sowell's Basic Economics, one chapter at a time, culminating with an assignment to read and criticize The Communist Manifesto in 10 to 15 pages. The woke mob would freak out at this because it deals with facts of how the world actually works; how people deal with scarcity, how people make decisions to allocate time and physical resources, and how people reckon costs and benefits of economic opportunities instead of the fantasy of a state-coerced collectivest utopia.

But why do I keep saying the "the woke mob"? Well, this brings me to the second reason why I am not going to apply for the job the HR department wants me to aply for. Like a mob they act as one are irrational and dangerous. While working in the distrct I see lots and lots of indicators that I, really, would not be welcome here as a full-time teacher. First there are all the social-justice activism signs, posters, flags, and murals. The people who put up all these eblems of anti-racism, and [insert oppressed group here] pride are a mob that shouts down disagreement, that looks at the ideas I hold as true and beautiful but sees oppression and hate; their reaction being one of attack and censor. I was only here a couple of days when another history teacher told me the classroom I am subbing in had a teacher but that teacher "was never on-board with the social-justice part of the job." They got rid of him. I know the same thing would happen to me. So there is no future for me as a history, government, and economics teacher in California.

But, maybe, you suggest, a private school would hire me. I've tried that but there are three problems I keep running into:
1. All the schools I have looked at require a state teaching credential and that puts me right back in the TPA problem. (See above.),
2. They are as woke as public schools, or
3. Or they require agreement with a non-Orthodox statement of faith.

But today I came across a school that is looking for a 3 month high school history substitute. I know a couple of the founders of the school, one since I was a little boy in the early 1970s. I know one of the teachers. They are all Fundamentalist Protestants but don't require adhearance to an Orthodox-excluding statement of faith, hmmm, at least, it is vague enough that I think I can sign it. It will pay less than I make working for the government schools but I will apply. Maybe, it will turn into something good.

Gun Laws

I used to sell guns. I know something about gun laws. I have refused to sell guns to people who were intoxicated, who failed back ground checks, or just seemed a little bit weird. I have sold guns to transvetites who feared for their safety, to brand new citizens thankful for freedom, old women who lived alone and were afraid at night, to hunters who traveled the world looking for trophies, and to collectors of specific brand names or designers. I know someting about what the American people think about guns.

Over the last few days I have heard politicians making absolutely crazy statements. I have heard bans proposed for guns that don't exist. I heard the President claim that a 9mm bullet can rip a lung out of a human body. (It is physically impossible) I heard the President say that when the Constitution was written a person couldn't buy a cannon. (In reality, up until the 19th century more cannons were owned by private citizens than by the United States government. Even the Washington Post knows this, and they pointed it out over a year ago but the President keeps lying.) I hard a lawmaker describe a gun that holds a 17 cartridges as having a "high magazine capacity clip" which tells me that the lawmaker has never held a gun or read a gun operator's manual. I've heard politicians call for increased and expanded background checks instead of just enforcing the laws already on the books, such as putting the President's son in prison for lying on his background check form. I heard a congresswoman call for the banning of 9mm pistols, as though they are more deadly than 10mm, .45 calibre, .44 calibre, and .38 calibre pistols. All of this does not mean that I am opposed to changing some laws to reduce the number of murders.

Here are some facts which inform my ideas for changes to the law:

1. According to the U.S. Department of Justice "Seventy percent of violent felons had a prior arrest record, and 57% had at least one prior arrest for a felony. Sixty-seven percent of murderers and 73% of those convicted of robbery or assault had an arrest record."

2. According to the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinguency Prevention, the young are responsible for most violent and physically dangerous crime.
2a. 28% of vandalism is commited by people under the age of 21. 12% by poeople 21-24.
2b. 26% of arson is committed by people under the age of 21. 8% by people 21-24
2c. 26% of car theft is committed by people under the age of 21. 12% by people 21-24
2d. 24% of murder and non-negligent manslaughter is committed by people under the age of 21. 17% by people 21-24.
2e. 39% of robbery is committed by people under the age of 21. 14% by people 21-24.

3. I have observed that somewhere between 10% and 30% of teenage boys hate school. I do not mean they dislike it. I mean they utterly hate it. It does nothing but tell them that they are failures and treats them like they are in prison or a mental

hospital. School turns these boys into defeatist anti-social malignancies, who have no regard for their neighbors or larger society. I hear these boys talking about illegal car racing, sideshows, getting high, and vandalism. Many of them seem to be attracted to the apparant freedom and power of gangs, whether those gangs are the Nortenos, Crips, or the Aryan Nation one thing they all have in common is that they disregard the "system" the boys experience as oppressive, and, vicariously (none of my students are actually in the gangs) make the boys feel successful.

4. Because they are legally adults 18 year olds can buy any gun offered for sale. Though some States have recently passed laws reguiring people to be 21 before they can buy handguns, those laws are sure to be stuck down by the Supreme Court on 2nd and 14th Amendment grounds.

5. Most Americans who die from guns are suicides.

6. Most mass shootings in schools are committed by boys under the age of 21.

7. If you can trust the sample survey methodology (I am always a little skeptical of statistical extrapolations.), an estimated 4.6 million American children live in a home where at least one gun is kept loaded and unlocked.

8. According to the F.B.I.s Crime Data Explorer in 2020 there were 17,813 homicides. Of those, 662 were committed by people using only their hands and feet as weapons, and only 455 were commited by people using rifles of any kind.

So what changes would I make to our laws if I could?

1. I would do away with compulsory academic education. If kids can't stand sitting behind a desk and doing mind-numbing worksheets and struggling to learn how to do quadratic equations don't force them to. Let them train to be heavy equipment operators, electricians, farriers, or anything else that involves physical labor. The teacher unions will hate it, just like they hate vocational education in highschools now. (Just try being a master machinest and getting a job teaching high school students to be machinists. You have to stop earning money, for at least, three years and go to college to get a degree, then work six months as a student teacher for no pay, then put up with all the educational beaurocracy bullshit. This is why the school I work at has two vacant vocational education teacher position open since September.) This will help get a lot of kids out of the place that feels like prison and into a place where they can grow and achieve, and hopefully, forestall the building of resentment and desperation that results in school shootings.

2. I would ammend the Constitution of the United States to make the age of majority 21. This will free the states to outlaw the purchase of some guns or all guns by people under the age of 21. Merely keeping guns out of the hands of the young will lower the death by gun rate.

3. Require that guns be stored in a safe, even if there are no children in the house. This will keep guns out of the hands of people who do not own them.

4. Because the vast majority of murderers have a history of felony violence convictions and people under 25 make up such a lage percentage of murderers, I would sentence violent criminals to 20 years for the first offense, no matter the age. BUT (this is a big but.) change the way the prison works. Instead of just locking people into giant concrete warehouses like we do now, assign the young men 12 to 25 to prisoner brigades that live in the rough out in the deserts of Arizona or Utah. Work them hard everyday. Subject them to something similar to the harsh military life of the late 18th/early 19th century. After a few years, after the inclination to bad behavior is worked out of them, train them in more skilled jobs, such as forestry, soldiering, and construction. After 20 years, or longer if their sentence is for more than 20 years, they will will be set free, and with a good recommendation, maybe, they can stay in the prisoner brigades as cadre instead of as prisoners. And even those who do not stay in the prisoner brigades and return to freedom will be older than the prime age for committing murder.

6. Boys and girls distract each other and change their behavior to show off for each other which lowers academic performance. Also, boys and girls, on average, have different academic strengths that are displayed in divergent patters of academic success , with boys on the losing end. Therefore, to keep boys from feeling humiliated in front of girls, which is a factor in school mass shootings, I would make all K-12 schools single-sex.

7. Because an armed society is a polite society, follow the example of Kennesaw, Georgia and require every head of household to be armed. Actually, I am joking about this, kind of. It makes me wonder, why is Kennesaw so much safer than Detroit when the gun ownership rate in Kennsaw if much much higher in than in Detroit? I don't think it's because of guns. I think its because of the cultural differences between those places.

8. Though the evidence linking mental illness to violent crime is sketchy the link between mental illness and suicide is well established. Expedite hearings for temporary removal of firearms from people for mental health reasons, that they are a danger to themselves or others. But I would want them represented by a court appointed lawyer if they can't afford their own, and be able to require the government to prove within a reasonable amount of time (48 hours to a week) that they are not okay in the head. I would want that decsion made by a jury, not by judges and psychologists. And I'd require the government to prove again the danger from the person possessing guns every thirty days or return them to the owner.

These changes won't stop all homicides but it might stop a lot of them.

Equity

For the last few years I've been hearing the word equity used in a non-business/non-finance context but in a race politics context. One of the most terrifyig uses of the word was in a Biden/Harris 2020 advertisement. The ad said equality isn't good enough but that America should strive for equity, which to Marxists means equality of outcomes. Or in the words of the advertisement "means we all end up at the same palce."

I see this happening in high schools. Kids who's parents imigrated from China and who should be doing calculus are forced into elementary algebra classes so everyone stays together as they progress through highschool. I've seen imigrant kids from India with excellent fluency in three langueages, outstandng musical ability, and completion of the whole caluculus series turned down by U.C.L.A. because too many Asians get accepted there. I've seen a black student who can't write a sentence with both a noun and a verb accepted to Cal Poly simply because he is black and his high school teachers felt sorry for him and gave him good grades for the sake of equity.

How are we served by forcing kids to take classes they don't need, by keeping them out of the U.C.L.A. because of their race, and by letting unqualified kids into Cal Poly? California is not served. But the Marxist goal of equity is served. For a little while.

There is aphenomenon that has been observed all over the world, in diverse poplations, even in diverse species: About 20% of a population winds up with 80% of the stuff everyone wants, are responsible for 80% of an organization's sales, get As in the hard classes. No matter how hard the Marxists try to stop it, the cream will rise. Unless, they follow Marxism's internal logic and pull a Pol Pot.

Enemies in the Classroom

“The more students work at storing the deposits entrusted to them, the less they develop the critical consciousness which would result from their intervention in the world as transformers of that world.” - Paolo Ferrar

"Ethnic studies is the critical and interdisciplinary study of race, ethnicity, and indigeneity with a focus on the lived experiences and perspectives of people of color. It centers the knowledge, narratives, and intellectual scholarship of racial or ethnic groups,1 including how groups define and experience social, cultural, and political forces and their connections to gender, class, sexuality, and other intersections of identity. Ethnic studies provides culturally relevant pedagogy that helps students develop inclusivity by fostering understanding of diversity, connecting students with their community, and giving them the tools to identify and change the institutional structures that perpetuate inequity." - Executive Board of the University of California Senate

For decades the Bolshivek Lev Vygotsky has been an insedious influence in American education. He is required reading in California's teacher credentialing programs, and arguing against his ideas is a sure way to kill your teaching career before it starts. Of course, Orthodox Christians know Vygotsky not so much for his ideas about education but for his work in the Soviet system of mental hospitals where so many of us were confined, tortured, and killed. But Vygotsky's is not the only Marxist influence on the American education system. For months we have been hearing people in the news media saying Critical Race Theory [C.R.T.] is not being taught in American schools. I assure you it is. Not by name, but as Shakespeare's Juliet reminds us, the name we give something doesn't change its odor.

This morning I read a document from the University of California's systemwide Senate. Like Hitler's Mein Kampf and Stalin's Communist Manifesto, this document plainly lays out the goals of the twisted people who wrote it. In short, the radicals who control the University of California are going to refuse admission to any student who has not been indoctrinated with the ideas of the Marxist education philosopher Paolo Ferrar.

Before we go on, I think I should explain the A-G requirements. The University of California requires that for a person to be admitted as a student they must have completed certain courses in high school. Those courses include certain numbers years studying math, English, economics, foreign languuages,American Hstory, etc. This is important to know because more than 84 thousand freshmen were completed the A-G requirements last year and were admitted to study at one of the University's nine campuses in 2021, and these students are, in general, the best students from their high schools. These students are, in general, the best and the brightest who will go on to govern California, run businesses, control the media, and educate future generations.

It looks like a pretty good preparation for university doesn't it? But now it gets dark. Now I will show you some excerpts from the document that outlines how the Marxist teaching of Ferrar comes in, requireing that even math and scince be used to spread the C.R.T. venom. What you see below is how the U.C. Senate is polluting the sensible list of A-G requirements and the minds of adolescents. From the U.C. Senate's instructions to highschools (linkd above.) for emplementing the ethnic studies curricula (I actually liked my ethnic studies course when I was in college. I learned about lowriders, Flaco Jimenez, zoot suits, and Cesar Chavez.) for ALL courses in the A-G requirements. Notice, this is not just social studies (e.g. geography, history, government, and ecnomics) but is for all courses. That in itself is curious because California law says ethnic studies is only required for one semester. So, I wonder, why are they mandating that all subject be aligned with the ethic studies curricula? What is going on? What is the agenda? Does someone want to purge teachers, even math and science teachers, who refuse to poison the minds of young people?

What follows are quotes from the Course Content Guidlines and the Skill Guidlines found in the document. Pictures are all from a California 7th grade classroom.:

"CENTER an understanding of Indigeneity, routes, and roots through acknowledgement that the course takes place on stolen, unceded land of ____ Native Peoples and in spaces forged through labor, paid,unpaid, and underpaid. This is taught through anti-racist and anti-colonial liberation, cultural work,self-worth, self-determination, and the holistic well-being of the widest conceivable collective,especially Native people and people of color."

"CULTIVATE communities that foster, acknowledge, and value the relationships of Indigenous and all communities of color for their survival. Place high value on Indigenous knowledges, worldviews, and epistemologies, and those of other communities of color.

[Notice: there is no search for Truth, merely independant and competing "knowledges, worldviews, and epistomologies". Think about what this means. It is a rejection of Aristotle's laws of identity and non-contradiction. Thus it means there can be no science. Futhermore, it is a return to the non-morality of Euthyphro, for what is piety when the gods disagree with one another? And of course, because there is no Truth there is no Christ for he is the Truth.]

"CRITIQUE histories of imperialism, dehumanization, and genocide to expose how they are connected to present-day ideologies, systems, and dominant cultures that perpetuate racial violence, white supremacy, and other forms of oppressions

"CHALLENGE and examine how multiple oppressions and identities intersect (e.g., race, ethnicity, class,gender, culture, nationality, sexual orientation, belief-system, history, language)."

"CONCEPTUALIZE and create spaces that embrace the idea that racial and ethnic groups are not monolithic and model the joy, knowledge, agency, strength, and endurance of Indigenous and People of color communities."



"Because ethnic studies requires that students develop a repertoire of skills for critical analysis and engagement with and transformation of society and the world, approved courses will support them, as critically conscious intellectuals gaining varying levels of mastery, to do the following:

"1. Identify, analyze, contextualize, and corroborate sources, with attention to epistemologies, histories, explicit and implicit biases, insider and outsider perspectives of all course materials andobjects of study (i.e., books; articles; films; primary documents; artwork; media; websites; archaeological “finds”; scientific and mathematical theories, methods, and “discoveries”; mathematical applications, etc.).

"2. Recognize and interrogate power and oppression at ideological, institutional, interpersonal, and internalized levels.

"3. Analyze and assess the impact of systems of power and oppression—including empire, white supremacy, white supremacist culture, anti-Blackness, anti-Indigeneity, racism, xenophobia, patriarchy, classism, ableism, belief systems, ageism, anthropocentrism—across race, class, gender, sexuality, disability, and other intersections of identity.

"4. Critique dominant narratives of power and their claims to neutrality, objectivity, color-blindness,freedom from bias, and meritocracy in order to examine their harm to Indigenous and other communities of color.

"5. Develop leadership, community participation, publicly engaged research, communication, praxis, and other skills to address and dismantle systems of oppression and dehumanization in the many forms in which they appear (i.e., anti-Blackness, xenophobia, ableism, heteropatriarchy).

"6. Participate in Indigenous, Black, and people of color-centered histories, knowledge systems, and pedagogical practices that challenge traditional Western educational approaches and practices.

"7. Cultivate critical hope, community care, relational accountability, and self-determination for past, present, and future generations.

"8. Nurture community engagement in order to foster anti-racist futures and solidarity across communities."

[You might be asking yourself, what's wrong with anti-racism? Isn't racism a bad thing? Yes, it is. And we should not be racists. But that is not what is meant when the radicals use the word anti-racist. They actually mean Marxist.]

An then, because teenagers have not been taught to protect and nurture the deposit entrusted to them, but have been trained by Marxists to arrogantly think they can transform the world, we get to live through a revolution and see the death of the Republic.

Thoughts on Other Gods

This week I finished Snorri Sturluson's Prose Edda. Conclusion: I am glad the Christian missionaries, people such as Saints Alban, Patrick, Bonifice, and Iraneus brought the Gospel to my ancestors. Living under the influence of Loki, Odin, and Thor would be brutal and hellish; no love, only power.

I had similar thoughts when I first read Plato's Euthyphro and Homer's Illiad and Odyssey back in the 1990s.

Lately, Kathleen's children (Kathleen, I think I've mentined her on this blog, is the woman with whom I live) have been given assignments in school comparing mideival European Christian civilization to the pre-columbian American civilizations, Ancient Chinese civilization, pre-Christian African civilization, pre-colonial Indian Civilization. The lessons are invariably designed to show that the Christian civilization of Eurorpe is inferior to all the other human civilizations. There was no mention in the lessons of the thousands of people sacrificed and eaten by the Aztecs, the thousands of people drowned to the Chinese river dragon-god Ao Shun (敖順), the child temple prostitutes in India and the hideous practice of suttee.

The public schools are captive to the multi-culturaists who, in their effort to correct what is wrong, are also trying to overthrow civilization. This is why I am running for School Board.

Election Worries

I woke up this morning and checked the news. All kinds of people in the media and politics and punditry are panicking about the President not admitting he has been defeated. I think there is nothing to worry about, and I encourage all those who might be worried to consult Article 2 and Amendments 12 & 20 of the US Constitution, and 3 U.S. Code ss 1 -18) You will see that in the selection of the President there is no regard for the votes of the people . Though I think he lost the vote earlier this month and is behaving foolishly, I do think his words since Election night provide a reminder to the American people that we do not elect the President ; the Electors meeting in their Sate capitols elect the President. And Electors are chosen by the State legislatures according to the procedures established by each of the legislatures. (The legislatures of Connecticut, Georgia, Delaware, and South Carolina have all in past years forgone a vote of the people and chosen the Electors themselves.) Now, if President Trump keeps saying he won after the Electors cast their ballots on December 14 we might have a problem. Until then there is nothing to worry about. Its all just a bunch of noise from people who want to sell your eyeballs to advertisers.