TEACHERS AND COACHES
The difference of commitment to sports versus academics by students and parents is striking, but don't believe for a minute that the same bias is not institutional as well. I have taught now at every level of American academia and I have yet to give a test or assign a project that was so important that it caused a game to be canceled or missed. However, from elementary school to college, I regularly have had class time canceled, projects excused and test times altered to cater to athletics. In fact, it seems any academic activity humbly bows before the holy incantation, “Uh, I'm going to be gone; we've got a game that day.” This explanation is not the bitter ranting of an egghead who was always picked last in gym class. Rather, I'm a former collegiate athlete and high school coach who is intrigued by what could be accomplished if we would bring our athletic commitment into the classroom. And, because attitude is not enough, we should also contrast coaching to teaching, so that we might re-learn some valuable lessons about instructional methods. To this end, I see three prime areas for consideration.
Chapter Fifteen: THE HILL OF TZOMPACHTEPETL
Chapter Fifteen: The Hill of Tzompachtepetl
Accompanied by twenty Xocotlan sub-chiefs sent by King Olintecle, the expedition made its way down the Apulco river valley to a town where Olintecle told them they could wait for the messengers’ return. The King had advised Cortez against going to Tlaxcala. “They are bad people,” he said, “traitors against the Great Montezuma. A more treacherous people you will never find.” But Cortez insisted, trusting the advice of Mamexi and the Totonacs. The town was called Izta Quimaxtitlan (itch’-ta qwee-mox-teet’-lan), and when they arrived, all of the elders and nobles had assembled to greet them, proclaiming they had received word from Tenochtitlan that the Great Montezuma commanded the Spaniards be welcomed in every way the town was able. As the expedition rested and ate, a group of town elders approached Cortez. “They wish to warn you against the people of Tlaxcala,” Malinali explained. “They say these people are very treacherous and cannot be trusted, that the Tlaxcalans know of you and do not care if you are allies of the Totonacs. The Tlaxcalans say many times have armies come to their country pretending to be friends and once inside, tried to destroy them. The Tlaxcalans do not believe the stories of the Totonacs not paying taxes to Montezuma because of you. The Tlaxcalans say this is not possible, that this is another trick, that their whole country is ready to fight you, to kill you and eat your flesh cooked with chilies.”ALLAH’S WAITING ROOM
In the Military Alphabet, AWR is Alpha Whiskey Romeo. In Iraq today, it’s a code term of American soldiers. Whenever they use “AWR” or “Alpha Whiskey Romeo” in their communications, everyone knows what it really stands for: Allah’s Waiting Room. That’s what our soldiers have turned Iraq into for the terrorists, and that’s why our soldiers know they are winning this war. That’s also why our soldiers have more contempt for MSM journalists and Democrat politicians than the Jihadi terrorists – for at least the terrorists are honest about being an enemy, instead of pretending they’re on your side while stabbing you in the back. As the evidence mounts that the Jihadis are losing in Iraq, the more desperate the Democrats’ and the media’s attempts to suppress and deny the evidence. So I thought I would provide you with some direct evidence of how things are really going in Mesopotamia. This is an unvarnished, personal SitRep – situation report – from a Marine who just spent seven months at “Camp Blue Diamond” near Ramadi, Iraq, deep in Apache country.
FALLUJAH IN FRANCE
When, seven months ago, I finished writing my book, The West's Last Chance, London had not been attacked by Islamist terrorists, the Tate Museum in London had not removed an art exhibit because it offended radical Moslem sensitivities, and France had not yet experienced the explosion of violence from elements of its Moslem population in its "no-go zone" communities. The fact that I predicted all those events in my book was not the result of clairvoyance. It was merely the result of a normally intelligent person looking at the facts, and their rather obvious implications, without the blinding effect of a politically correct mentality.
THE WAR FOR THE FREE WORLD
Not too long ago, the conventional wisdom was that Europe would emerge as a unified and mighty economic and political superpower. We were told it would engage in earnest, if friendly, competition with the United States, but that -- thanks to its substantially larger population and productive capacity -- the European Union (EU) would inevitably displace America on the world stage. It took less than a fortnight of rioting in France, and now in several other countries of what Donald Rumsfeld has called "Old Europe," to lay bare the preposterousness of this prospect. Even before Islamists took to the streets of Paris' suburbs, the EU was a house of cards waiting to be toppled or burned down. As usual, underlying conditions are clearer with hindsight. It is now unmistakable that Europe faces a "perfect storm" of socioeconomic, demographic, military and Islamist challenges.
ARE THE HEADHUNTERS RIGHT?
A multitude of events this past week provides convincing evidence that the world in general, including vast numbers of Americans, and the majority of voters in California, is going certifiably insane. That 53% of California voters made it illegal to require a pregnant teenage girl to tell her parents about her having an abortion is way beyond moral depravity. We’re into organisms perilously close to no longer being normally human. Then again, what sort of human bond can you feel towards rioting barbarians in France, savages who behead Christian girls in Indonesia, or suicide bombers in Iraq, Jordan, and Israel? I could multiply further examples of insanity – such as Harry Reid and his Democrats who hate George Bush more than Moslem terrorists – but instead let’s talk about a case that just appeared before the Supreme Court, Gonzales v. O Centro Espirita Beneficiente Uniao Do Vegetal, and the connection between religion and hallucinogenic drugs. Doesn’t that sound like more fun? So get set, for this is going to be a mind-blow.
SONY SPYWARE BACKLASH
In certain movies and TV shows, the background music is almost as important as the show itself. Music plants itself in the mind and memory as no visual image can, so a movie or TV show about life in the Sixties will, as a matter of course, have background tunes to evoke memories of the era. It's amazing how long-forgotten songs can bring back powerful memories - and, of course, sell more tickets. Proving that, in the final analysis, what we really get when we buy a CD is an "experience" - a memory and a feeling that can last a lifetime. And that's all we need, as far as Sony Music (known nowadays as Sony BMG) is concerned. In what can only be termed a "scandal," it was revealed last week that the Sony people took extreme steps, to the point of jeopardizing customer's computers, to ensure that the only thing you'll retain when playing one of their CDs is the memory of the music - and not, heaven forbid, a copy of it.
A YOUNGER BODY
This is a companion piece to A Younger Brain from last March. That discussed how a nutrient called SAM-e (S-adenosyl-methionine) can actually youthen your brain. Now we’re going to talk about it can youthen your body. The older you get, the more creaks and aches and tightness and soreness you get, particularly in connective tissue like cartilage. Our bodies aren’t designed to last as long as we live today, and these tissues wear out. Unlike rheumatoid arthritis, which is an auto-immune disease, osteoarthritis is a mechanical wearing away of joints, cartilage, and connective tissue. I started taking the SAM-e regimen described in A Younger Brain for mental benefits. For some time, however, I was increasingly afflicted with sciatica and a variety of aching ailments. After about a month or so on the regimen, I noticed that the sciatica and ailments were gone. Gone as in completely vanished, gone as in I felt many years younger.
TO THE BIG HOUSE INSTEAD OF THE WHITE HOUSE?
That the Washington Post is traitorously on the side of the Jihadi terrorists and against America was further demonstrated on November 2nd when the paper ran the front page headline story, CIA Holds Terror Suspects in Secret Prisons. To disclose supremely classified information that the CIA operates a number of prisons for Jihadis in Eastern Europe is an unbelievable compromise of national security. The WaPo reporter who wrote the story, Dana Priest, should go to jail for treason, along with the WaPo editors who approved it. The CIA has requested a formal Justice Department inquiry into the source of the classified information to the press. The House Intelligence Committee has announced it will hold hearings to investigate the leak. This is infinitely more serious than the Plamegate farce. Note, however, that the Senate will not, as of yet, hold hearings. That’s because the leak to the WaPo has been traced to.....
DEMOCRAT LYING LIARS
The president went on television to announce: “Earlier today, I ordered America's armed forces to strike military and security targets in Iraq. Their mission is to attack Iraq's nuclear, chemical and biological weapons programs and its military capacity to threaten its neighbors.” “There is unmistakable evidence that Saddam Hussein is working aggressively to develop nuclear weapons and will likely have nuclear weapons within the next five years,” the vice chairman of the Intelligence committee told the Senate. The president was Bill Clinton (Dec. 16th, 1998). The senator was Jay Rockefeller (Oct. 10th, 2002). These statements should be kept in mind when assessing the hissy fit Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid threw Tuesday when he called the Senate into secret session to discuss whether Bush administration officials had exaggerated prewar intelligence about Iraq.