Comments on: The Burlington Township S.D. response on the ObamaHymn (Copy-edited.)

By: The_Gadfly

The_Gadfly — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 04:47:50 +0000

In fact, I find a complete lack of rational though more objectionable than maliciousness. Maliciousness implies rational thought, and you can reason with rational thought. This whole incident reeks of an inability to engage in rational thought (only Pavlovian “feeling” responses) which I find abhorrent in an environment which is ostensibly engaged in instructing children about methods of thinking.

By: JadedByPolitics

JadedByPolitics — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 20:11:54 +0000

a school activity in a PUBLIC school with children who were FORCED to learn the song to sing to dear Leader! There is no similarity but nice try!

By: davod

davod — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 20:03:35 +0000

A Fox News commentator on Sunday suggested that Schoolkids did the same for Bush.

You be the judge :

At a White House Easter Egg Hunt, kids from Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama sang this to Mrs. Bush:

Our country’s stood beside us
People have sent us aid.
Katrina could not stop us, our hopes will never fade.
Congress, Bush and FEMA
People across our land
Together have come to rebuild us and we join them hand-in-hand!

Compared to:

Mmm, mmm, mmm!
Barack Hussein Obama!

He said that all must lend a hand
To make this country strong again
Mmm, mmm, mmm!
Barack Hussein Obama!

He said we must be fair today
Equal work means equal pay
Mmm, mmm, mmm!
Barack Hussein Obama!

He said that we must take a stand
To make sure everyone gets a chance
Mmm, mmm, mmm!
Barack Hussein Obama!

He said red, yellow, black or white
All are equal in his sight
Mmm, mmm, mmm!
Barack Hussein Obama!

Yes!
Mmm, mmm, mmm!
Barack Hussein Obama!

By: jeannieology

jeannieology — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 13:44:34 +0000

I heard that the kiddies were outfitted in little uniforms and were taught to march around the outside of the schoolyard in double time step in order to prepare them for the new National Anthem presently being written by Yes We Can writer Will.i.am and the rest of the brainless drones on his video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2fZHou18Cdk

www.jeannie-ology.com

By: derhoosier

derhoosier — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 13:39:36 +0000

I arrived late to this party but I gotta give them credit. This is multi-level pointless, meaning, clearly produced by a State A&M School of Edchucashun graduate. It makes a statement of the obvious (poorly the first go ’round apparently and not much better on the re-do)… and that’s it. If that’s all there is, why bother? What’s next? A letter from the Super telling the parents they’re closed on the weekend? Multi-level pointlessness. How many hit points in D&D do you get for that? Also, not sure that anyone noticed, but if you follow the link to the school district, as an IT professional, it’s my opinion that that is one of the singular worst websites (linked from the original post) ever, so much so that I’m nominating it to WebPagesThatSuck.com.

By: Rightshift

Rightshift — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 01:36:06 +0000

… I’m through giving leftwing ideologues the benefit of the doubt. We’ve been doing that for years, and now look where we are. In my mind, this sort of ‘indoctrination’ is purposeful and deliberate. We’re seeing this across the country such as that DVD that is floating around “The Story of Stuff” by Annie Leonard, a leftwing radical from Berkeley CA, who’s DVD just happened to be produced by the Tides Foundation.

An organization co-mingled with ACORN, the Apollo Alliance, etc…

Nope… this was deliberate… and was attempted under the cover of the trust the parents place in the school district… I’m sure the school board meetings will be quite tumultuous to say the least, and they should be.

By: Steven Willis

Steven Willis — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 23:34:45 +0000

At least use nominative rather than objective after “is.”

By: ocleverone

ocleverone — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 22:56:20 +0000

Either that or an extensive amount of hubris on apodaca’s part.

I am in total agreement on the writings and Moe’s cringement meter getting pegged.

I am one of the worst offenders.

PS – Moe, I apologize for all grammatical infractions past and future.

By: penguin2

penguin2 — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 22:36:00 +0000

in setting up an account here? To criticize a moderator? Obviously ‘nerve’ comes in various forms. MathMom upthread had a very friendly discussion with Moe on the “me” and “myself.” So Apodaca’s second offense is not reading the thread. I’m with you about the size of the dogs around here.

As I noted above, Moe must cringe at some of our writings. He’s entitled to, he knows his stuff.

By: Flagstaff

Flagstaff — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 22:26:54 +0000

You are right about “myself.” It’s just that nobody likes to be told he’s wrong in nine paragraphs.

Moe set himself up for criticism of his grammar by writing a blog that consisted of criticism of someone else’s grammar, among other things. He shouldn’t complain, and he probably won’t. You are receiving the same treatment.

Heck, spell check doesn’t even like the way I spelled “else’s” above (and here). I have no idea why.

By: ocleverone

ocleverone — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 22:06:08 +0000

The big dog also wrote on about an 8th grade level.

I think this dog is about the size of a tea cup poodle.

Moe, eh, he’s a Saint Bernard size.

By: Fred Maidment

Fred Maidment — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 20:58:46 +0000

I love how they say the video was “not authorized.”

Like it makes a difference whether what they did was right or wrong, if the video was authorized…

Neal Boortz has been calling government schools “indoctrination centers” for years. I know Beck and others have similar comments. Never have they seemed quite so correct…

By: Tomlinson Douthat

Tomlinson Douthat — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 18:39:32 +0000

By: Uma Richie

Uma Richie — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 18:14:35 +0000

puts “therefore” at the beginning of a paragraph without a semicolon in sight?

By: Jack_Savage

Jack_Savage — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 18:02:59 +0000

I am so sorry, but I must correct something here. “Copy-editing” and “big dogs” clearly do not belong in the same sentence. A more proper sentence would include “copy-editing” and “smarmy wuss child”, or perhaps “copy-editing” and “pasty white weenie”.

Thanks so much for your participation.

By: DONTTREADONME

DONTTREADONME — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 17:55:03 +0000

listen, if I were you, I wouldn’t write so about someone else’s grammar without reading your own before posting your comment. Next, you were right about the use of “myself” it should have stayed “me”. None-the-less the first sentence is awful, but you get a gold star for the correction of the correction. BTW, I noticed you had no problem with the use of “which” instead of “that”. You also forgot to teach us about who/whom? Wait a minute weren’t you banned before?

By: apodaca

apodaca — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 17:07:26 +0000

Moe:

If you’re going to correct someone’s grammar, first make sure you know something about grammar yourself.

Case in point: “please do not hesitate to contact me either myself, or Dr. Principal King, Principalof B. Bernice Young School, directly.”

The modern conceit is that ‘myself’ can be used as subject, direct and indirect object. It cannot. Its usage in these positions indicates that the user lacks a sufficient knowledge of English grammar.

‘Myself’ is a reflexive pronoun that has a self- or other-referential use for emphatic purposes. It is not meant to be used as a subject or object pronoun but as a sort of appositional after a subject noun/pronoun. Example: ‘I, myself, rejected Obama’s healthcare plan.’ That’s the emphatic usage of ‘myself’ after the subject pronoun ‘I’.

Only subject pronouns (I, you, he/she/it, we, you, they) may be subjects of verbs. Only object pronouns (me, you, him/her/it, us, you, them) may be objects of verbs. Reflexives (myself, yourself, himself/herself/itself, ourselves, yourselves, themselves) may not be either subject or object but (and I’m repeating myself) will place emphasis on either.

Therefore, you err when you modify the above with ‘contact either myself’. The Superintendent may not be a noteworthy scribe, but his grammar is better than yours. The statement is correct as written: ‘please do not hesitate to contact me or Dr. King, Principal of B. Bernice Young School’.

In the first case, the implied subject of the sentence is ‘you’; in the second case, since there are only two alternatives, there is no need for a comma after your error; in the third case, Dr. King, Principal… is quite correct because Principal… is an appositional noun phrase that explains Dr. King, whose quite proper salutation is ‘Dr. King’ and not ‘Principal King’.

I understand that you might feel a desire to do a takedown of this Superintendent. Please manage to do it without making yourself look unknowing.

So, leave copy-editing to the big dogs. That’s me. It’s what I do.

By: The_Gadfly

The_Gadfly — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 13:26:59 +0000

Saying "they did this on purpose" implies they engaged some sort of exercise of at least minimally rational thought. I think they felt this was okay because not only do the superintendent and teacher feel this way, but everybody else they know feels the same way tool. Or as I believe Bernie Goldberg has put it: "while there is diversity of race, there is no diversity of thought." Which leads to a doubleplus ungood educational environment.

By: Rightshift

Rightshift — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 13:05:36 +0000

I’ve been through Burlington numerous times… its a rather run down blue collar town hit by flight of both commercial and residential. Rt. 130 which is the main thoroughfare in town is dotted with abandoned shopping centers and vacant stores and those stores that are left look like they haven’t been redecorated since the late ’40s when they were built. It is a sleepy little town.

Someone used the term enclave in a previous post, and this would be appropriate. The population is primarily African-American and Democrat so I’m sure there is a certain sense of pride to the community for Barack Obama. Unfortunately, this is encroaching in elements that it shouldn’t like school children singing such songs.

To quote the Superintendent… “The recording and distribution of the class activity were unauthorized.” Why wasn’t the activity itself authorized by the parents? In an interview on I believe it was Greta, he said a letter was sent out to the parents and they gave permission, (to that effect)… However, yesterday morning on Fox & Friends, parents from the district were outraged and stated they were never informed. Had they known they would’ve made that known to the school district… in other words… the Superintendent and the teachers did this on purpose.

I’m inclined to believe the parents.

By: tjexcite

tjexcite — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 05:30:12 +0000

and did it bad on purpose knowing that he would not read it as it was just a nuance that needed a response.