Mr. Peabody’s Way-Back Machine: I-80 across the Utah border.

To what era would you attribute these comments:

“We’re dropping [our] moral and ethical standards in favor of a more national [set], and I don’t like it,”… they contain “code words for socialism.”?

• A) 1950’s U.S. Senate Committee Hearings
  
• B) 2011 Utah Senator
  
• C) Both of the above, because there’s really no difference between the two.

If you chose C) then you are right, because they really sound like something Joe McCarthy would have said back in the 50’s and yet they were said just this week by Chris Buttars, a Utah State Legislator.

Reported in the Salt Lake Tribune article, Buttars was referring to a new set of academic standards that 39 other states also plan to adopt.  Developed by the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices and the Council of Chief State School Officers, not mandated by the Federal Government, the idea is that states need to become better aligned in their math and English curriculum because of an ever increasingly mobile population.

Personally, I agree with the goal.  I’m definitely not for the ultra micromanaging I’ve heard of in other cases, where every teacher should be teaching the exact same thing, with the exact same vehicles, on any given day.  Individualism aside, that doesn’t even allow for adapting to classes that learn faster/slower than others and would mean moving ahead even if the majority of students still don’t get it.  But, at least in math, to know that any student coming into my class has already gone over monomials, inequalities and other things that I have covered, would be quite helpful.  There may still be things that I have covered that their old teacher didn’t, or vica-versa, but at least common standards would help minimize these.

And, regardless of whether or not you agree with them, playing the communism/socialism card is just sooooo 1950’s.

Sign of the Apocalypse?

… Front page of the UTAH section of the Salt Lake Tribune today: “Buttars an ally for gays?”

… The first thing I did was get on my knees and start out with “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil…”

… Then I read the article and thought “Hmm, Buttars is a lot smarter than I thought he was.” He says that he will probably help sponsor a bill that will allow other cities to pass ordinances protecting rights regarding housing and employment, but will, as the article said “forbid them from going any further on gay rights.” 

… As hard as it is to admit, Chris Buttars actually is smart enough to see the writing on the wall, and especially after the LDS Church came out in support of the SLC ordinance, realized the firestorm that trying to overturn the city ordinance would cause.  (The Utah State Legislature had threatened to pass state law to invalidate the city ordinance.)  Personally, I don’t think he had any change of heart from when he said gay activism is “probably the greatest threat to America”, he just realized a no-win situation.

… So what does that say about the brain power of Gayle Ruzicka, who said she couldn’t believe that “her long time ally would run a bill authorizing other cities to pass ordinances that ban discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.”  Not a whole lot.  Even a mosquito knows it’s time to leave when the body is dead.