Newsweek doesn't really care

Here's a link to FirePower Forward, an Army Major in the thick of it in Iraq. The MSM does us a terrible disservice by not fully reporting on what a "riot" entails in this part of the world. Many people in the U.S. think a riot is just a bunch of people waving political placards, behaving rudely, spray painting buildings, and occasionally breaking windows. So what really happens when 16 people die in a riot? Click on the link above to get a little better flavor for it.

I am tremendously annoyed at Newsweek, especially their international division. Follow this link to learn more about The Day America Died. I wasn't really aware how Newsweek (and, I suppose, other international news magazines) tailor their content to influence the foreign audience. I'm also a little miffed that they would think Americans are so stupid that they can only be served fluff rather than the tripe they serve to other nationalities. But, given theirfar left leanings, I suppose I shouldn't really be terribly surprised.

Every service member is sworn to defend the constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic. Our constitution guarantees free speech. Free Speech, though, also carries responsibilities; Responsibilities that I believe Newsweek has failed to observe and carry out. Can or would I keep Newsweek from publishing? NO. So how does one force a non-natural person (such as Newsweek) to observe their responsibilities in addition to exercising their rights? This is the real question.

Honor Students

This was a quick Bumper Sticker idea that I saw over at Geek With A .45

Apparently they were "Inspired by plummeting standards, and a fifth grade 'honor student' I met who couldn't add 17+7:"

"Can your "honor student" actually read?"

"Can your "honor student" actually do math?"

I have to admit that I wonder the same thing after scoring the New Mexico 5th grade math test.

The Cinco de Mayo real history

For those of you hadn't guessed yet, I have a moderate libertarian leaning. So sometimes I read Coyote Blog, written by a business owner from Phoenix. He has many interesting insights. Though I don't find myself agreeing with him in entirety, I enjoy his well reasoned posts. Anyhow, I ran across a link to this Cinco de Mayo posting concerning the real history of Cinco de Mayo. You might enjoy it too.

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The 5th of May is not Mexican Independence Day, but it should be! And Cinco de Mayo is not an American holiday, but it should be. Mexico declared its independence from mother Spain on midnight, the 15th of September, 1810. And it took 11 years before the first Spanish soldiers were told and forced to leave Mexico.

So, why Cinco de Mayo? And why should Americans savor this day as well? Because 4,000 Mexican soldiers smashed the French and traitor Mexican army of 8,000 at Puebla, Mexico, 100 miles east of Mexico City on the morning of May 5, 1862.

The French had landed in Mexico (along with Spanish and English troops) five months earlier on the pretext of collecting Mexican debts from the newly elected government of democratic President (and Indian) Benito Juarez. The English and Spanish quickly made deals and left. The French, however, had different ideas.

Under Emperor Napoleon III, who detested the United States, the French came to stay. They brought a Hapsburg prince with them to rule the new Mexican empire. His name was Maximilian; his wife, Carolota. Napoleon's French Army had not been defeated in 50 years, and it invaded Mexico with the finest modern equipment and with a newly reconstituted Foreign Legion. The French were not afraid of anyone, especially since the United States was embroiled in its own Civil War.

The French Army left the port of Vera Cruz to attack Mexico City to the west, as the French assumed that the Mexicans would give up should their capital fall to the enemy -- as European countries traditionally did.

Under the command of Texas-born General Zaragosa, (and the cavalry under the command of Colonel Porfirio Diaz, later to be Mexico's president and dictator), the Mexicans awaited. Brightly dressed French Dragoons led the enemy columns. The Mexican Army was less stylish.

General Zaragosa ordered Colonel Diaz to take his cavalry, the best in the world, out to the French flanks. In response, the French did a most stupid thing; they sent their cavalry off to chase Diaz and his men, who proceeded to butcher them. The remaining French infantrymen charged the Mexican defenders through sloppy mud from a thunderstorm and through hundreds of head of stampeding cattle stirred up by Indians armed only with machetes.

When the battle was over, many French were killed or wounded and their cavalry was being chased by Diaz' superb horsemen miles away. The Mexicans had won a great victory that kept Napoleon III from supplying the confederate rebels for another year, allowing the United States to build the greatest army the world had ever seen. This grand army smashed the Confederates at Gettysburg just 14 months after the battle of Puebla, essentially ending the Civil War.

Union forces were then rushed to the Texas/Mexican border under General Phil Sheridan, who made sure that the Mexicans got all the weapons and ammunition they needed to expel the French. American soldiers were discharged with their uniforms and rifles if they promised to join the Mexican Army to fight the French. The American Legion of Honor marched in the Victory Parade in Mexico, City.

It might be a historical stretch to credit the survival of the United States to those brave 4,000 Mexicans who faced an army twice as large in 1862. But who knows?

In gratitude, thousands of Mexicans crossed the border after Pearl Harbor to join the U.S. Armed Forces. As recently as the Persian Gulf War, Mexicans flooded American consulates with phone calls, trying to join up and fight another war for America.

Mexicans, you see, never forget who their friends are, and neither do Americans. That's why Cinco de Mayo is such a party -- A party that celebrates freedom and liberty. There are two ideals which Mexicans and Americans have fought shoulder to shoulder to protect, ever since the 5th of May, 1862. VIVA! el CINCO DE MAYO!!

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New Mexico Math Musings

Any of you who follow my blog will have figured out that I haven't been nearly as prolific as I used to be. Well, I've been grading scoring New Mexico's standardized math test for fifth grade. Here are some of the more interesting observations:

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Test questions ranged from fairly simple pattern recognition to multipart reasoning and basic set theory type questions. To my knowledge, students did not use calculators. I scored only the written/short answer questions, which had a maximum of 26 points available. All questions were to be scored holistically - meaning trying to look at student process to determine whether the student understood the concept being tested.

1) None of the student tests that I scored earned more than 24 points, with the bulk of students earning in the 9-12 point range. Note: I scored about 6,000 separate tests. This was a highly discouraging result for me to see. I've always assumed that most kids can perform basic tasks in mathematics. Simple ordering of 4 numbers from greatest to least also left about 25% of these 5th graders banging their heads against a wall. Stating the range of those same 4 numbers left almost 90% of NM students lost beyond all hope.

2) I was also disappointed at the universally poor spelling. For instance it was not uncommon for a student to spell either "right" or "write" as "rit". Nor did it end with just poor spelling. Grammer and linear thought processes were lacking in about 50% of students.

3) The other scorers on my team were trying to figure out what the root cause of the dismal performance might have been. The usual culprits were trotted out - poor school districts, Native American disconnect, poor socio-economics in the communities, etc., etc., etc. I wonder about a slightly different cause, namely teachers not holding students responsible for basic levels of performance before they are passed onto the next grade. With so many different districts having such low scores, I believe there must be something systemic to NM's education system that prevents so many students from performing basic competencies. I have no idea what the true cause might be.

I sincerely hope that NM students can get their act together some day. But in the meantime, "No Child Left Behind" has blatently pointed out the failure of NM schools to the children and their communities.

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