:: The Bitch Girls ::

:: Sunday, April 06, 2003 ::

The Bitches Are Moving On In Life
Come visit us at our new digs! We now live at www.thebitchgirls.us. We're still re-decorating the place, but we hope you'll still enjoy your visit.

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:: Bitter 10:13 PM [+] :: (0) comments
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Public School Problems There are reasons that a) I'd like to leave New England, and b) I'm not opposed towards pushing more private options in education. Anyway, I'm not only a product of public schools, but I work in one right now. While I do public relations related work for the school, I have to handle a lot of information on No Child Left Behind. I put together newsletters from the main office that covers all sorts of issues from NCLB to community service projects for the schools. I'm so happy the College "donated" the money for the position because I love it. (And I don't feel bad about taking taxpayer money!) I will admit that a big benefit is the fact that the district is small. People actually care. Anyway, not on to my point. I just found this story in the Boston Globe about the new provisions of NCLB that school districts are quickly trying to meet.

One of the newest pieces of information - and the most controversial - is the evaluation of teacher credentials as the law seeks to hold adults accountable for student achievement. In addition to learning how many of their schools' teachers are licensed, parents also will discover what portion of core classes - such as English, math, science, foreign language and history - are taught by teachers who are ''highly qualified,'' or knowledgeable in the subject area they teach.
School districts also must tell parents that they can request information about teacher qualifications while notifying parents if their child has been taught for at least four weeks by a teacher who is not highly qualified. The reports are to be made available to parents in a variety of ways, including being sent home with students or being posted on websites.
The move to measure teacher qualifications and report them to parents has rankled some in the classroom, who insist there's much more to being a good teacher than simply knowing your subject. The ability to communicate a lesson, for example, is not reflected on the report cards.

I can understand concern that some parents might interpret grades a little differently than they are intended. (For example, reading anything less than an 'A' as not good. I don't know about y'all, but I know many parents out there consider 'A' to be the standard, when it is supposed to be for excellent work.) But the tone of the article seems to me to have a problem with putting the information out to the public. The taxpayers are the people that are picking up the tab. I think they have every right to have this information readily available.

As for the criticisms that it's hard to express the actual ability to teach, as opposed to just what people know, in the form of a grade, I agree with those concerns. However, I don't think this problem applies below middle school. Beginning at the middle school level, what you know means just as much as your ability to teach it. If you have a great repoire with students, it won't change the fact that you might not know anything to teach them. Considering how competitive colleges have become over the last few years, it is vital that we have teachers who actually know content. Call me crazy, but I don't think it is too much to ask.

Now, what does this have to do with leaving New England? Most people here bitch about everything that requires anyone to hold any kind of responsibility. What does it have to do with private schools? There are lots of flaws in public schools and the fact that they are up in arms over this just proves that there are probably many more we will find out in the process of getting these report cards out.

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:: Bitter 5:57 PM [+] :: (0) comments
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Public School Education Indoctrination For the record, I'm not saying that merely showing the film is indoctrination. I just wanted to get that out of the way.

The principal of Lynn English High School stopped a teacher from showing the Oscar-winning documentary ''Bowling for Columbine,'' saying it was inappropriate because it contains antiwar messages. English teacher Jeremy McKeen showed 17- and 18-year-old students the movie, which was directed and produced by Michael Moore and released well before the war in Iraq began. The movie has a strong antigun and antiviolence theme. While accepting this year's Oscar for Best Documentary, Moore expressed his disdain for President Bush and the war with Iraq. Principal Andrew Fila said the documentary sent the wrong message while troops are fighting overseas. English department head Jane Balesta said McKeen began showing the movie to open up dialogue among his students.

I have a sneaking suspicion that the teacher's idea of "dialogue" doesn't include views differing than Michael Moore's rhetoric.

Oh yeah, Spooky and I debated with a reader the other day. I'd like to point out to him that even the Boston Globe thinks BFC has anti-gun messages. Just a point, dear reader...

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:: Bitter 5:17 PM [+] :: (0) comments
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Too Late For April Fool's Day This afternoon when I finally got around to getting in touch with the real world, I saw a post over at Instapundit that caught my attention. I told Spooky about it on our way out to dinner. She thought it was an April Fool's Day joke. When I mentioned it was from the NYTimes, she laughed and pointed out that there's not always much of a difference.

AMHERST, Mass., April 4 - It is not easy being an old lefty on campus in this war.
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Here at Amherst College, many students were vocally annoyed this semester when 40 professors paraded into the dining hall with antiwar signs. One student confronted a protesting professor and shoved him.
Some students here accuse professors of behaving inappropriately, of not knowing their place.
"It seems the professors are more vehement than the students," Jack Morgan, a sophomore, said. "There comes a point when you wonder are you fostering a discussion or are you promoting an opinion you want students to embrace or even parrot?"

Coming from the point of view of a student at a mostly residential liberal arts college, much like Amherst, I don't think I'd be the only one put off by my professors marching into my dorm to protest. There are public spaces on the campus for it. Hell, most have no issue with using their classroom as their personal soapbox. I obviously wasn't there for this protest, but I would venture to say that more students were put off by the invasion of personal space by their professors. I don't go marching with pro-gun signs through the dining rooms of their homes.

Across the country, the war is disclosing role reversals, between professors shaped by Vietnam protests and a more conservative student body traumatized by the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Prowar groups have sprung up at Brandeis and Yale and on other campuses. One group at Columbia, where last week an antiwar professor rhetorically called for "a million Mogadishus," is campaigning for the return of R.O.T.C. to Morningside Heights.

Let's see if I understand this correctly. It's "not easy being an old lefty on campus" because students that don’t lean the same way as you politically decided to start clubs. I also think it is interesting that they flat out say the student body is more conservative because a few conservatives got active on a few campuses. I can vouch for conservative student groups, there aren't many that are large here in New England.

Even in antiwar bastions like Cambridge, Berkeley and Madison, the protests have been more town than gown. At Berkeley, where Vietnam protesters shouted, "Shut it down!" under clouds of tear gas, Sproul Plaza these days features mostly solo operators who hand out black armbands. The shutdown was in San Francisco, and the crowd was grayer.
All this dismays many professors.

People aren't doing exactly what we want them to. They might even disagree with us. Oh, the humanity! I never imagined telling one of my professors to get over himself to his face, but if one were to say something like this then it would probably be said with more colorful language than I typically use here.

"We used to like to offend people," Martha Saxton, a professor of women's studies at Amherst, said as she discussed the faculty protest with students this week. "We loved being bad, in the sense that we were making a statement. Why is there no joy now?"

Why don't you students like to get yourselves arrested? Why don't you like to risk your personal safety in an unruly mob? What I find more amusing is the fact that it's implied in her comments that it's okay to offend conservatives. People like her made it against the rules for me to offend liberals (her). I would face punishment that could include being kicked out of school for offending her. Don't think I'm lying, there's a history on my campus of bringing up students on charges of “threatening the community dialogue” for being openly conservative. It may be a million times better now, but this was within the last decade.

Certainly not all students are pro-war or all faculty anti. But "there's a much higher percentage of liberal professors than there are liberal students," said Ben Falby, the student who organized the protest at Amherst only to find that it had more professors than students.
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"It's a lonely place to be an antiwar protester on the Amherst campus," said Beatriz Wallace, a junior. In the dining hall, students have set out baskets of ribbons, some yellow, some red, white and blue.

Call the President. It's a national emergency. Hell has frozen over. How dare the student body have the audacity to hold their own opinions? I tell you, kids these days are just getting out of hand with their crazy independent thinking.

Prowar students say they feel just as alienated. "The faculty, and events, has a chilling effect on discussions for the prowar side," said David Chen, a sophomore.

Let's go back to that comment I made earlier about professors using their classrooms as their personal soapboxes. Let's reference Spooky's post from the other day about the anti-war, anti-Bush, anti-Yale, anti-our college, anti-woman professor that handed her midterm back with grades in pencil with the warning that the students better behave because pencil marks can be erased. I can't imagine why pro-war students would feel uncomfortable.

Still, he (Amherst Prof. Austin Sarat) and others expressed wistfulness for days gone by.
"In Madison, teach-ins were as common as bratwurst," he said. "There was a certain nobility in being gassed. Now you don't get gassed. You walk into a dining hall and hand out an informational pamphlet."

A nobility in being gassed? Good lord, what drugs were they taking back then? What happened to rational and respectful debate? Am I crazy for looking for an intelligent discussion by reasonable people on an issue? I must be very out of touch with society for thinking such crazy thoughts.

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:: Bitter 12:29 AM [+] :: (0) comments
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Another Thing To Piss Me Off I was so against it when it happened in 2000, so it better not happen in 2004.

John Edwards' presidential aspirations are competing with the equally pressing task of shoring up his political support back home.
The Democratic senator from North Carolina has not ruled out running for a second term in 2004 if his White House bid falters.

You either have the balls to make the run, or you don't. In my own reality you should make up your mind and not run for multiple offices hoping that you might possibly get one.

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:: Bitter 4:46 PM [+] :: (0) comments
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Some Not So Good News I've been out of touch with any kind of news or blogs today, so forgive me if I'm late to this, but I'm pissed off. One of my friends called me this morning to chat for a couple hours about our plans to celebrate her birthday next weekend. She had CNN on and said that they were holding up Jessica Lynch's dogtags. I flipped on the television and just missed it. I saw them swinging some dogtags in front of the camera for just a split second. I couldn't read them, but if my friend was right then I'm pissed off. What the hell would CNN be doing with them?

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:: Bitter 4:35 PM [+] :: (0) comments
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Good News At least the crazy vegan parents that I blogged about a while ago were found guilty yesterday afternoon.

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:: Bitter 4:31 PM [+] :: (0) comments
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Godspeed Someone very special to me is leaving for Kuwait this morning. I ask that you keep him and me in your thoughts and/or prayers.

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:: Anonymous 7:57 AM [+] :: (0) comments
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As Spooky And I Head Out We noticed that a floormate is blasting Barbara Streisand on a Friday night. That is sad.

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:: Bitter 10:44 PM [+] :: (0) comments
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I Am Saved By some miracle of God, the proctor could not locate the exam for my class, and my professor is out of town and can't be reached. I swear my prayers have been answered.

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:: Anonymous 7:37 PM [+] :: (0) comments
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Posting Might Be Light I'm working on a personal project. I had a lot of work to do at work this morning. I need to take my car into the garage later today. Oh yeah, and my wings from last night weren't any better this morning for breakfast. And just to note, girly drinks and buffalo wings don't mix well. I'm not sure what I was thinking.

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:: Bitter 12:49 PM [+] :: (0) comments
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Rumors The Bitch Girls might be growing up and moving on in life. I'll let you know more when I know more.

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:: Bitter 4:46 PM [+] :: (0) comments
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Blah I am not a fan of children. They make me nervous and uncomfortable. There have been 2 in one of my offices today. The second I hear them, I just tense up. Strangely enough, my other job is for a local school district. Fortunately, I don't have to deal with kids in that position, except when I'm going to photograph them. They are actually kinda cute then.

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:: Bitter 3:42 PM [+] :: (0) comments
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One Of His Greatest I have to say, Juan Gato has outdone himself. I don't think he's ever written anything better than this post.

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:: Bitter 3:40 PM [+] :: (0) comments
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Women In Combat Reader Mark Jankus emailed us today with a request for our opinions on women in combat in light of the POW videos and rescue. Most of us have at least a little something to say:

Baby: I can't believe that she is only 19. I'm 19. I am the same age as her and yet she seems so much older because of this life experience. Craziness. While I personally would be scared shitless to have to go to war, I admire anyone, men or women, who do this service to us and should (forbid it!) the draft be reinstated in my drafting years and women were made a part of it and I was called, I would go and not skirt around it.
As for women being in a situation where they can be captured by Saddam's or any other enemy regime, if it is their duty to be there, then so be it. I don't want to see a young man of 19 become a POW any more than I do a young woman of 19. I would say that anyone of that age will be equally terrified and yet equally trained by the Army on how to handle the situation, but on a second thought, I think anyone of any age would be fearful in a situation like that, but trained to "handle it" as best they could. Being a POW is a very real possibility but one I imagine many don't think about when they join up. Besides all this, if we're worried about women being taken hostage by Saddam's "thugs" (hehe. had to throw that one in there), can we also worry about women being abducted every day here. I mean, it's not every day that young American women are taken up by Saddam's folks and put in a POW situation, but it is everyday that young American women are abducted or raped or killed or something... just a little something I wanted to throw out there. Why don't we be "emotionally against" that, eh?
As a final thought, Mark asked us as women what we thought about the Jessica Lynch situation and said that he felt emotionally against it. After reading the story on CNN about the rescue, I would ask that as men, do you think that you would feel differently about rescuing a young female POW than a young male POW? Is there some sort of inherent chivalry involved here? (Not that chivalry is a bad thing) This whole thing is like the ultimate rescuing the princess from the tower mission except that the princess isn't dainty and could probably kick serious ass if her legs weren't broken... And that thought that men would act differently seeing a woman in said situation or in another situation of danger is an argument that I have heard to say that women should not be on the front lines because it would effect the performance of the male soldiers. Anyway, just some food for thought and I would appreciate some male answers.

Bitter: Yesterday Instapundit linked to Phil Carter's thoughts on women's roles in the armed forces.

America's daughters fight hard and they fight well. It's disingenuous and wrong to say that women like SPC Johnson and PFC Lynch don't belong at the front lines. They've earned the right to be there, and so far in our war, they've proven their ability to stay here.

As a woman about the same age as Pfc. Lynch, it's certainly something interesting to think about. I'm certainly proud of all those that serve in the military, women included. (Plus, aren't these chicks hot?) It's hard for me to say that they shouldn't be there.
The first time I thought about this issue for more than 2 minutes was a couple of years ago when one of my floormates was signing up to serve. She told me that she always wanted to be a Ranger. She's one tough cookie, so I have no doubt that she'd succeed. Except she has a vagina. She can't even try to succeed because of her gender, something she has no control over. I can't say that the idea of that kind of discrimination sits well with me. I have a few feminist tendencies, I will admit. I will also say that there are a few arguments against women serving that hit home with me. I don't buy the arguments that we'll be a distraction, nor do I believe that we are physically incapable. Hell, even the NYTimes op-ed from March 24 that got some people up in arms over the issue of women in combat roles said that with the sophisticated machinery and weaponry of today, women can hold their own against men bigger than them.
I do understand the rape problem. It's something that is one of the first things likely to be done to a female POW. However, it happens everyday here. Does that justify women being deliberately put in positions by our government that make it more likely to happen? It's hard for me to say that I support it when I know that the regimes we're going to fight in the future will torture men and women they capture. I can't imagine too many world situations now that will have us going against a regime that will agree treat anyone decently. I mean it's not like we haven't learned to put up with political bullshit. (We haven't bombed France yet.) Our enemies from now on (at least I believe this to be true for my lifetime) will be terrorists or countries that aid them. Right now these enemies just happen to hate women and all the freedoms they enjoy in our country. They have a history of raping the wives and daughters of their own citizens. What the hell will they do to ours? Rape isn't a one-time thing. It's not like a gunshot wound that can heal relatively quickly with proper medical care. It's a wound that lasts a lifetime. I know far too many rape survivors for me to take it lightly.
It's obviously not an easy issue. Because our military is voluntary, in the end, I think women should be able to volunteer for these kinds of risky positions. If a draft that included women were to ever occur, I might feel differently about it. I will still be concerned about anyone, male or female, that has been captured. It will just be a little harder for me to think about the women that have been in a POW situation.

On a side note, there was one thing about that NYTimes article that caught my attention. If women are able to take on men equally with the weapons available to them today, shouldn't these feminists then celebrate women using firearms as a tool of self-defense in the real world? Yay, guns! :)

Look for additions to this post from Spooky and possibly other Bitches later today.

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:: Anonymous 1:34 PM [+] :: (0) comments
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Yup, It's That Time Again, Part II This is a depressing post. I'm scared of the real world!!

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:: Bitter 12:11 AM [+] :: (0) comments
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Yup, It's That Time Again It's the time to go check out Jeff's gun stuff. :)

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:: Bitter 12:07 AM [+] :: (0) comments
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Being A Good Blogger I know we aren't always the best about being responsive to readers. (There's still some emails that have just been sitting in the inbox that no one has claimed yet. Maybe someday we'll get around to replying to them. I hope. I hope you don't hate us if you are one of those people. We get distracted easily.) Anyway, even though I shouldn't cast a stone, I will go ahead and say that Pejman should be more responsive to his readers. You have to read the comments to understand.

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:: Bitter 11:58 PM [+] :: (0) comments
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Gotta Read More Carefully For a moment, I thought Glenn was directing readers to a post on where to find men. I guess it's that whole "been going to a women's college since I was 18" thing catching up with me. But I cried when I clicked the link. Now you should go read it.

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:: Bitter 11:38 PM [+] :: (0) comments
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Good Lord How spoiled do you have to be?

Actor Jim Carrey's ex-wife wants a judge to award her more child support, saying that their daughter must get by on $10,000 a month and cannot afford her own bodyguards, personal trainer or Pilates equipment, according to court papers obtained by an investigative Web site on Wednesday.

Wow. Bitchy Mom and I were expected to deal with $200 a month, and we never actually saw any of that very often. I often think I'm spoiled, but maybe I'm not as bad as I think.

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:: Bitter 11:34 PM [+] :: (0) comments
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Hmmm Sometimes there's news that just makes you go "hmmm." Now I expect to see some improvements for women come out of this news.

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:: Bitter 11:31 PM [+] :: (0) comments
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The F*cking Stupid Dixie Chicks So Bitchy Mom tipped me off to a story on Inside Edition. Natalie Maines did an interview with an Australian television station where she said that she’s more proud that she used her First Amendment rights the more she hears about it. She said that she was shocked that she “wasn’t allowed” to speak out.

What the hell? She was allowed, and people were allowed to disagree. If you want to have more Dixie Chicks related fun, check out this wonderfully nice and polite post by Rachel Lucas.

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:: Bitter 7:11 PM [+] :: (0) comments
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Women In Combat We're putting together a group post on women in combat situations. Look for it later.

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:: Bitter 1:53 PM [+] :: (0) comments
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Who Woulda Thought I'm so shocked to hear that Cuba may not be as cool a place as our buddy Fidel makes it out to be. People keep trying to leave. I just can't imagine why!

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:: Bitter 12:51 PM [+] :: (0) comments
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Grr Well I planned on doing a lot of blogging tonight to make up for the shortage due to Blogger's f*ckups. Now I just got word that our internet connection will be down starting in 5 minutes. Have fun everyone!

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:: Bitter 11:56 PM [+] :: (0) comments
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Not That Any Of You Can See This, but the official response from Blogger to my inquiry as to why our blog has been gone for about 20 hours is:

This problem appears to be a result of a hardware failure. We are taking steps to correct the problem. In the meantime, do not make changes to your template! Selecting a new template will (as it always has) erase any changes you had made to your previous one.
I can assure you that your blog was not hacked and the template you had before the trouble started is recoverable if you do not select a new template and overwrite your old one.

Stupid Blogger. Wasn't the Google buyout supposed to make things better??

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:: Bitter 4:21 PM [+] :: (0) comments
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I Want To Join! I'll be looking forward to this. Can I have a slave girl? Better yet, can I make the girls I go to college with my slave girls?

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:: Bitter 12:13 PM [+] :: (0) comments
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