I wonder whether you noticed the Nation report about online learning companies as players in the right-wing "education reform" agenda? (http://www.thenation.com/article/164651/ho…)

Fun to connect the dots to Tom Cotton's "computer education is liberal idiocy" rant (http://www.arktimes.com/ArkansasBlog/archi…). Turns out that online education is being touted by GOP luminaries such as Jeb Bush. Florida and some other states now require all high school students to take certain online classes. Why? Apparently because the companies selling these products are heavy contributors to Republicans.

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>>Floyd's "Summit" interview with Kristi Malzahn<<

Ronnie got bitch-slapped by Martha as in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf

Ronnie had no creative directing abilities to bring out her 'better angels,'
No wit to bring her around to different views, just an embarrassed Southern
boy who is now foolishly trying to do damage control by censoring the Internet.

How's that working out for you pastor?

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Disappearing posts test.

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I know for a fact that some of you are old enough to remember another Arkansas girl named Martha, who gave some pretty hot interviews herself.

For the youngsters, she was married to Nixon's first Attorney General.

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Mountaingirl and I are both of the opinion that Kristi is on drugs! I would feel comfortable making the side bet that she's been with Cam more times than Sister.

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It's not just you, eLwood.

It's Foundation. The intrepid "content management" people in Portland, Oregon who make sure this site "looks good, works great, and is incredibly flexible."

Site's been hinky in various ways since August, you'll recall.

Foundation is, apparently, the Trifecta Entertainment of alt-weekly content-management sites.

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Coming to a rural area near you? Just a matter of time? You betcha?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china…

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British film director Ken Russell died yesterday.

He began his career in dance, made BBC documentaries on various artists then migrated to film. "Women in Love" (1969) was his first classic. Next came the highly controversial "The Devils"(1971), based upon Huxley's novel, "The Devils of Loudon."
Huxley's work was based upon a case of grain mold poisoning an entire village in 17th century France, hence the entire village had what amounted to a long LSD trip.

If you've seen "The Devils" you can understand why the Catholic church condemned the film and why it had to be edited a few times to get past British censors. Theater of Cruelty had not found a home in Britain or the U.S.

Somewhere along the line Russell did "Tommy," the rock opera and "Altered States."
After those his career faltered. Some critics say it rose only once since with his making of "Whore" (1991), a close-up view of an American prostitute done as 'mockumentary.'

"The Devils" and "Whore" can both be found on Youtube, in their entirety.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/29/arts/ken…

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So, since it's an open line, and any topic is on the table theoretically, just thought I'd throw this out there... there is, in Little Rock, a group of unpaid writers and performers that have been putting on original sketch comedy shows every other month for almost 20 years now. In fact, December 7- 10 will mark the 20th anniversary of Pagans On Bobsleds, their Christmas show. If you're not doing anything, and you enjoy left leaning adult comedy, you should come! It's at The PUBLIC Theatre at 616 Center Street in Little Rock, it costs $10, and it starts at 8. If you're on the facebooks, you can go to www.redoctopustheater.com, and it will take you right to there page for more information. Or, you could go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qqD1Q8qLmo0 and watch a commercial!

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No fools like old fools.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/sports_blo…

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Great, but brief and likely a very censored story on China, Norma.

My dear old, late friend Riki visited the country in 1998-2000 for several months.
She reported that well over half the nation lives in abject poverty, a fact the
Chinese rulers don't want revealed often, if at all. Even in more modern villages
there are shortages of skilled labor since Chairman Mao's revolution to purge
the nation of elites which included people like plumbers and electricians, who
as a class, were sent to re education camps. During her two month stay in a country
side apartment, about 4 hrs from Beijing, the upstairs plumbing was leaking downstairs so the village manager sent a plumber, referred to as an engineer.
Turns out the engineer had been to college, or what they call college. He simply
used some tape to wrap the leaky pipes and then quarreled with main guest that
a wrap was all required to fix it. The next morning water was seeping downstairs.

Many species of birds were considered capitalistic elitism because people with money could plant trees and shrubs to attract such creatures for beauty and entertainmen and thus Mao's wholesale slaughter ensued. Large parts of the nation's countryside is barren of most birds.

But, there's Congressman Griffin and "China knows how to do business."

I'm sure the extreme pollution of the Yantze River wouldn't bother Griffin The Cager in the least. It feeds a large agricultural valley that is home to most of China's famed herbal plants used in their Chinese medicine.

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Norma, eLwood, the fact is that China is still a totalitarian society, and almost no one pays any attention to this anymore. They still use slave labor to make the products that Americans snap up at Wal-mart, and Wal-mart has no twinge of conscience whatsoever. I may be old-fashioned, but I still look at labels, and if I see "made in China," I put it back.

The bigger problem is that they are whipping our ass in the global economic race. We are helping them defeat us, and one of these days, they will own us. I can foresee the day that my grandchildren will live in a totalitarian state here in the U.S. of A.

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Get a DUI? Go to rehab for alcohol addiction and it goes away.

Get caught screwing aorund? Go to rehab for sex addiction and your spouse will forgive.

Go on a right winger religious talk show and act like you are bat shit crazy and think you are better than pretty much every other person who has passed through your life? Go to rehab for a personality disorder and maybe your husband can keep his job. Then you can write a book about it and do the Christian talk circuit.

What did we ever do with all of our problems before rehab?

I have a friend who pretended to be addicted to prescription meds so she could get a month off from her kids, husband and housework in a cushy rehab/spa facility, and her insurance paid for the whole thing. She said it was the best vacation she ever had.

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I must apologize. In my previous list of disaster links (quakes, floods, hurricanes, fires, epidemics, riots, tornadoes, and imaginary disasters [Faux News]), I left out 3 categories.

Previous list:
http://www.arktimes.com/ArkansasBlog/archi…

Sunspots:
http://spaceweather.com/

Meteors & meteorites:
http://lunarmeteoritehunters.blogspot.com/

Volcanic eruptions:
http://www.volcano.si.edu/reports/usgs/

Enjoy! Own your fears.

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Goof,

As an Auburn fan, I was horrified by that video (even though it was edited by a Mullet-sporting Cousin Grinder). I knew she was pretty much a loose cannon based on her outspokenness on FB and Twitter, but dayum. Gus needs to krazy-glue that nutcase's mouth shut.

And, I assure you my Baby Daddy would never be attracted to the likes of Kristi. For one, I'm the only older woman he's attracted to. (Duh, Baby Cam!) Plus, he'd never give a second look to a Xanax-addled blonde who spells her first name ending with an "i.'' That's a big pet-peeve of his because he thinks it's "mall-ratty''...I think he even mentioned it on his Carolina Panthers bio.

Durango,

Have you recovered from the UA ass-whooping yet? Don't get me started on that "running up the score'' bit that I've been hearing about all day on local radio. You won't like what I have to say.

Speaking of routs, I turned off the Iron Bowl at halftime to watch my 'Dores get bowl-eligible with their thrashing of Wake Forest. Show Your Gold!

Maybe you and I should think about sneaking away to watch VU in the Liberty Bowl. We can stay at the Peabody and I promise not to drug you this time (unless, of course, you try that strange move again).

Plus, you may see your all-time coaching hero, Houston Dale, lobbying for that Memphis opening. Time's a wasting...let's make plans! Hey, let's include the Blog Girls too since we know how much they love football.

XXOO,

SissyTJ

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Precisely, James of the Plains!

How many more years, one wonders, of steady erosion of the Constitution by state corporations / the corporate state? Of deliberate undermining of public education in favor of corporate-state-run schools?

Of religious litmus tests for POTUS, the better to eventually blindly worship a totalitarian Father? Of promises to "revitalize" Main Street ever "just around the corner?" Of closing post offices? Of multiplying potholes and collapsing infrastructures? Of offspring leaving Nowheresville for hopeful opportunities in the Big City?

Of militarized local law enforcement to stifle dissent and protest at what's happening and enforce conformity to rigid dogma? Of 24 / 7 entertainment so exciting nobody bothers to leave home to vote?

How many more years of computerization of skilled labor and elimination of human jobs? Of outsourcing? Of exponential unchecked Duggar-like worldwide baby-making? Of more and more youths and adults without paychecks? Of contamination of the seas and atmosphere and food chain? Of unaffordable health care?

Before The Natural State's exactly like that village at the end of that dirt road outside Beijing where grandpa is dying, untreated, of lung cancer and there's barely enough to feed the few remaining people and goats?

Do you LOVE that article's quaint notion that "someday" soon that Chinese village and a thousand others will become tourist attractions? The way the Martha Mitchell home revitalized Pine Bluff?

Interesting times indeed, we live in. Methinks that's the article's subtext.

Gung Hey Fat Choy.

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From a Gayzorbaby who left The Rock for Hotlanta:

http://www.cnn.com/2011/11/28/health/hiv-a…

Whew!

Makes one think.

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.

"There's whole new heads up here. It's a brand new day," said Nolan Richardson while being given the Silas B. Hunt Award, today at UA.
--KNWA.

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Smith's Alternative Arkansas History on this date :

28-Nov 1861 Governor Henry Rector wrote to President Jefferson Davis disclosing a conspiracy of secret peace societies sympathetic to the Union, with as many as 1,700 members in north central Arkansas.

28-Nov 1899 Chicago Symphony Orchestra performed at the Capital Theater in Little Rock.
28-Nov 1942 UMWA District 21 President Dave Fowler sent staff to Ozark to try to quash a "wildcat strike" by union miners that shut down a Quality Coal Company mine in Franklin County.

28-Nov 1954 Senator J. William Fulbright criticized banning student debates on China at West Point and Annapolis, saying, "I think there's no great merit in ignorance."

28-Nov 1984 Pollution Control and Ecology Department ordered the owners of two coal mines to participate in hearings to determine if their permits should be suspended or revoked for repeated violations of state laws.

28-Nov 1985 For the ninth year, Robert 'Say' McIntosh (photo) offered free Thanksgiving dinners--turkey, trimmings, and sweet potato pie--to " the needy, the lonely and the simply hungry" at his restaurant on East Roosevelt Road in Little Rock.

28-Nov 1989 Mayor Carolyn Robinson, denied any health threat existed, held a fish fry, and ate a bream from Lake Pine Bluff, only two years after 7.9 ppm concentrations of polychlorinated biphenyls were found in fish there, exceeding the FDA "action level" of 2 parts per million.

28-Nov 1994 U.S. District Judge Franklin Waters rejected arguments by Rev. Tom Brown, pastor of Our Church in Fayetteville, that using the cannabis flower as a religious sacrament is protected by the free exercise clause of the First Amendment and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993.
28-Nov 1997 Wal-Mart "Associate" Betty Yates sustained a wrist fracture on the job and developed vasospastic disorder of arm, but Wal-Mart would refuse to pay any benefits under workers' compensation coverage.

28-Nov 2003 Debbie Pelley of Jonesboro writes in Democrat-Gazette that Governor Huckabee's plan for consolidation of small, inefficient school districts is equivalent to educational malpractice.
--compiled by Stephen Smith, PhD

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My darlin’ SissyTJ,

Yes, my love, I have fully recovered from that 4th quarter ass-stompin’ in Death Valley. Note that I say 4th quarter stompin’. That’s because we were still doing OK after three, trailing only 24-17.

But I didn’t expect to win, Sissy. Not in Death Valley. Not after that 92-yard return. And the interception. And the fumble. And knowing even before the kickoff that the Tigers were clearly the better team. Hell, every kid in kindergarten knew that.

Which is all the more reason I’m disappointed in Miles. And I think you know why. And way down deep where truth dwells, you know, too, that he shouldn’t have done what he did.

And I’ll just leave it at that. For now, anyway, my love. Because, as you know, I’m a good sport. And a gentleman at all times. Especially around a fine little Southern belle Vanderbilt lady like you. It’s just part of my DNA.

Now all I can say about that Liberty Bowl game in Memphissippi is “Whoopee!” and that we’d have one fine time, you ‘n’ me, sho’ nuff we would. Imagine us, filled with antifreeze (even it’s unseasonably warm) and rootin’ Vandy on to victory!

And then postgame drinks and dinner at Itta Bena whilst listening to Miss Ruby Wilson belt out her oldies but goldies, accompanied at the piano by the inimitable Miss Di Anna Price. Or “Queen Ruby” and “Lady Di” as they prefer us regulars to call ‘em.

Time’s not a wasting, Sis. I’m already making plans. Have only scratched the surface with what I’ve said here. But just between you and me, I think we should leave the Blog Girls home. Just this one time. Y’know, while you and I get to know each other a little better during our Weekend of Liberty.

Guess that’s it for now. It’s about time for the 11-7 shift to take over the blog. Sleep tight, baby.

Love,

Durango

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Just when I thought my opinion of sports fans couldn't get any lower...

I noticed in a sidebar to the Brownback tweet story on the AT site that the Penn State child rape victim has left high school because of bullying due to his speaking out.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/21/a…

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Coming soon to an Occupy Demonstration near you?

http://dncclt.blogspot.com/2011/11/tampas-…

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Steven E, I sentence you to two hours of this---or at least the William Greider parts. He has spent his life reporting and researching social movements in this country. The panel spends two hours discussing whither Occupy---not wringing their hands that Occupy is withering. Greider gives a good history of the populist movement at the turn of the last century at 1:48. Klein is very good immediately following him

http://www.thenation.com/video/164494/watc…

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Max, for probably the fiftieth time, no one except for one local crazy has commented on the Easter Seals mess. The housing group of old hippies has zero say in the matter at the end of the day. I still say they should donate it back to the city for the new and needed homeless shelter. Liberals care for the homeless right?

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This is WAY off topic, but my 20-something nephew in Los Angeles sent this to me last night and it was too funny not to share.

Have you ever wondered what a Honey Badger does?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4r7wHMg5Yjg…

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Gus Malzahn goes to Ole Miss to take Nutt's place and Nutt goes to Memphis? Yesterday at the Little Rock Touchdown Club meeting Rex Nelson during his SEC roundup mentioned the popular rumor that got started last week that Houston Nutt had been contacted by Memphis. Of course, at the time Larry Porter had not even been fired. I called someone I knew in Memphis and they told me that there was no word that the administration was withdrawing their support from Porter. I concluded the rumor was false. Then on Sunday Larry Porter was dismissed. Who knows? http://haltingarkansasliberalswithtruth.co…

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to B ROCK SUCKS - Dude, the City has a NEW homeless shelter next to Union Rescue Mission and as of a month ago not started renovating that one. And you think the Hillcrest People are raising hell now over the Easter Seals - try and put a homeless shelter next door to them! That would be a nuclear!

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