Teachers' Lounge

Penguins and polar bears

Movies trailers can be misleading.

Our class watched 10 movie trailers, rating each one on a scale of one to five. (We're going to graph the data.) Happy Feet was ranked #1. The trailer promised an amusing comedy featuring cute penguins.

I saw the film yesterday. Call the trailer bait-and-switch. Call the film preachy propaganda.

Call it anything but a shallow kiddie movie.

I took the lazy way out this morning and found a review of the film which says what I was thinking. Except that I didn't find the film the least bit preachy. And if this is propaganda, I'm all for it.

Lastly, the animation ranks as some of the most impressive I have ever seen.

Go see it.

Ike's warning goes unheeded

The public, seeing through the tissue of Bush administration lies told to justify an invasion that never had anything to do with the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11 or weapons of mass destruction, now has begun a national questioning: Why are we still in Iraq? The answers posted most widely on the Internet by critics of the war suggest its continuation as a naked imperial grab for the world’s second-largest petroleum source, but that is wrong.

I purposely left out any plausible hidden agendas in my rather bleak Christmas Day post. (The reason I titled that post Crayons and construction paper is buried in this long and rambling ditty from June, 2005.) There are two that come to mind. The elephant in the room, of course, is control of the world's second-largest petroleum source.

Former President Dwight Eisenhower years ago warned the country about the second elephant - a military-industrial complex run amuck.

One is perfectly understandable. The other is utterly reprehensible.

That's a fine juxtaposition you've got me into

simple, yet

complex

Crayons and construction paper

Wars are, at times, deemed by man as necessary.

The human justification for war can be theoretical or historical.

The Vietnam War was a mistake propagated by the big lie.

The Iraq War is a mistake, predicated by two big lies.

I support our America forces, but I reject the war they wage at the behest of our government.

Consider the cost of the Iraq war. Who bears the sacrifice in your community?

By the end of 2006, or in the early days of 2007, more than 3,000 of our young men and women will have died on the battlefield. They will have paid the ultimate sacrifice.

Think on these things.

Merry Christmas to you all.

For Julian

Lost a student