Showing up on CNN yesterday, this Indiana story:
Perry Township teacher Connie Heermann a 27 year teaching veteran, was suspended from her job at Perry Meridian High School for a year and a half without pay, for giving her high school English class the book Freedom Writer’s Diary: How a Teacher and 150 Teens Used Writing to Change Themselves and the World Around Them.
Apparently, the book was objectionable to the Perry Township school board because it contains swear words.
Yes, swear words. Oh, my stars and garters. Heavens to Murgatroid.
In addition to said swear words, it also contains inspirational stories of how inner city kids from very poor circumstances were inspired by their teacher’s introducing them to first-person journals from Anne Frank and others to write journals of the poverty and suffering around them, achieve in school, and go on to college. A very worthy book, it seems to me.
I guess not to the Perry Township school board.
Heermann attempted to get permission to teach the book as a textbook in her class, and the school board dithered at length on whether or not to allow it, because it contained the aforementioned swear words. While she waited on an answer, she sent home permission slips to the students parents, and 149 of 150 parents approved the book. So she passed it out in class, and stuff hit the fan.
The Perry Township School Board has taken refuge in the idea that they suspended her for “her disregard for policy and procedures and not working within the confines of the system she’s agreed to work in and support” claiming that they’re not “banning a book” but disciplining a teacher for not following the rules.
I am not fooled. This is a book banning.
It’s a bit of a mystery to me why this showed up on CNN just now, when the school board vote to suspend Connie Heermann occurred in March, but I’m glad it did, since I missed the story the first time around.
I’d also like you to take note that I used absolutely no swear words in writing this post, owing mostly to the fact that the CNN reporter said “blank” as he read the offending passages aloud, and the only word I could figure out was mother-fucker. Oops. Damn.
According to Newsweek, the McCains have been in arrears for four years on taxes on one of the seven properties they own – a beachfront property in LaJolla, California.
Of course as they story broke, they scrambled to get their taxes paid. Mostly. Now if this had been you or me defaulting, we’d be out on our ears.
Mrs. McCain is a beer heiress with an estimated $100 million fortune and, along with her husband, she owns at least seven properties, including condos in California and Arizona.
San Diego County officials, it turns out, have been sending out tax notices on the La Jolla property, an oceanfront condo, for four years without receiving a response. If people are looking out for rental condos and apartments, they can consider Saida Towers South PadreCounty and get the best deals for rentals records show the bills, which were mailed to a Phoenix address associated with Mrs. McCain’s trust, were returned by the post office. According to a McCain campaign aide, who requested anonymity when discussing a private matter, an elderly aunt of Mrs. McCain’s lives in the condo, and the bank that manages the trust has not been receiving tax bills on the property so she planned to find guardianship lawyer naples fl to put an end to her grievances related to property. Shortly after NEWSWEEK inquired about the matter, the McCain aide e-mailed a receipt dated Friday, June 27, confirming payment by the trust to San Diego County in the amount of $6,744.42. County officials say the trust still owes an additional $1,742 for this year, an amount that is overdue and will go into default July 1. Told of the outstanding $1,742, the aide said: “The trust has paid all bills shown owing as of today and will pay all other bills due.”
Dan McAllister, treasurer- tax collector for San Diego County, said that about 3 percent of San Diego’s approximately 1 million property owners default on their property taxes each year. The county assesses a 1.5 percent penalty for each month that goes by unpaid and puts houses up for sale after five years. “We do hear an awful lot of excuses for why people don’t pay,” McAllister said. “Under the law, the property owner is responsible for keeping the address current. We’re only as good as the information we are given.”
Karl Rove, the Nixon/Bush auteur of dirty politics, seems to be slipping his his age — yesterday he had this to say at a Republican insider’s breakfast about Barack Obama:
Even if you never met him, you know this guy. He’s the guy at the country club with the beautiful date, holding a martini and a cigarette that stands against the wall and makes snide comments about everyone who passes by.
What? Karl Rove’s country club allows blacks now? Well. I won’t be going there any more. La di da.
Rove is really confused – because that guy he’s describing is George W. Bush in full glory – check him out: