The random political thoughts thread (Part Deux)

[Strangler Lewis]

As an aside, I noted with some interest that when our school district spent several thousand hiring a "positive discipline" consultant to work with teachers and parents, hundreds of parents apparently showed up. Much less interest in attending meetings to address the budget shortfalls that will result in firing teachers that will result in more kids ending up as discipline problems.

[Ghoulish Delight]

So lets see, facts that Lower Merion school district is not disputing:

1) They put software on the laptop that could be remotely activated to record images
2) They did so with zero notice to parnts
3) There exists an image that was remotely captured
4) They viewed that image and used it as evidence to discipline a student.

Their only defense so far is that they claim to only activate the camera if the laptop is reported stolen. As if A) that explains why this camera was activated since the laptop was clearly not stolen and B) having activated it and seen that it was obviously not stolen, used the image against the student.

And now it seems that one of the security people charged with setting it all up had been running his mouth online about all the effort he put in to make it as hidden and un-disableable as possible.

Me thinks the school district is royally b-o-n-e-d on this one.



link for those that haven't seen this story

[Gemini Cricket]

This story dates back to 2006:

A few years ago, Lynn Paddock sought Christian advice on how to discipline her growing brood of adopted children. Paddock -- a Johnston County mother accused of murdering Sean, her 4-year-old adopted son, and beating two other adopted children -- surfed the Internet, said her attorney, Michael Reece. She found literature by an evangelical minister and his wife who recommended using plumbing supply lines to spank misbehaving children.
Paddock ordered Michael and Debi Pearl's books and started spanking her adopted children as suggested. After Sean, the youngest of Paddock's six adopted children, died last month, his older sister and brother told investigators about Paddock's spankings.
Sean's 9-year-old brother was beaten so badly he limped, a prosecutor said. Bruises marred Sean's backside, too, doctors found.
Sean died after being wrapped so tightly in blankets he suffocated. That, too, was a form of punishment, Johnston County Sheriff Steve Bizzell said.

Source

ETA: Not sure why it's in bold. Couldn't un-bold it.

[Ghoulish Delight]

Yes, the Schatz's are not the first to have killed their child based on the Pearl's teachings, and sadly are unlikely to be the last. But even if not one child died, they are still responsible for countless cases of what should be prosecuted as child abuse.

[Ghoulish Delight]

While I worked out in our company gym today, one of the TV's was tuned to coverage of Toyota execs being questioned by a House committee. I learned something very interesting, of which I was not previously aware:

Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) is a blithering idiot.

[Gn2Dlnd]

She's hysterical whenever Colbert gets ahold of her.

[Ghoulish Delight]

That may be, but she was demanding a 100% guarantee from Toyoda that her car will never be recalled.

Blithering idiot.

[Ghoulish Delight]

I have only seen bits and pieces of the 6+ hour health care summit, so I can't form a full picture of how valuable it was. However this moment alone makes me happy it happened (would rather have not linked to the Daily Show as the source, but I can't find the video anywhere else)

Legitimate point

[Ghoulish Delight]

Interesting. It's been ruled that the secretly recorded ACORN tapes, supposedly proving they gave illegal advice to fake prostitutes, were actually edited to fit the story and that the unedited tapes don't show any illegal activity. The DA has closed the investigation with no criminal charges.

[JWBear]

I bet you won't see that little detail on Fox News.