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Being a Stranger in a very Strange Land Dear Grumpy Advice on Teaching in Today's Classroom Good News for a change! Interesting stuff This great Nation & Its People

Driving Around in 1946 (what a great time to be an American!)

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World War II is over and instead of the expected Depression. America enters into a Golden Age for most of its Citizens! God how green with envy am I! Grumpy

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Being a Stranger in a very Strange Land Born again Cynic!

I really hope that this does NOT Happen!

The Race War The Left Wants

I posted something earlier today about a progressive Baptist pastor praying at a Baylor graduation ceremony that “straight white males like me” would diminish in leadership roles. You will notice that virtue-signaling white people like this never, ever resign their positions to make way for a person of color, or some other minority with whom they publicly ally themselves. They think that pulling a long face about their privilege is a moral disinfectant.
It really is astonishing to see how the left in this country is working itself into a frenzy of race, sex, and gender hatred. It is moving out of the academic fringes and well into the mainstream. Take a look at what the (Latino) schools chancellor Richard Carranza in New York City ordered the administrators and principals in the massive urban school system to undergo. The New York Post reports:

City Department of Education brass are targeting a “white-supremacy culture” among school administrators — by disparaging ideas like “individualism,” “objectivity” and “worship of the written word,” The Post has learned.
A presentation slide obtained by The Post offers a bullet-point description of the systemic, supposedly pro-white favoritism that Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza claims must be eradicated from the DOE, and provides just one insight into his anti-bias training efforts.
The list — derived from “Dismantling Racism: A Workbook for Social Change Groups” by Kenneth Jones and Tema Okun — names more than a dozen hallmarks of “white-supremacy culture” that school administrators are expected to steer clear of.

Here’s a graphic the Post created, taken from the training. If it’s too small for you to read here, click on this link, and you’ll see a bigger version:

I hope you will read it, in detail. The basic argument is that the fundamental qualities of professionalism, achievement, logic, clear thinking, and literacy are manifestations of white supremacy. The unavoidable corollary is that mediocrity is racially authentic. The NYC schools system adopted the toxic Acting White philosophy as a guide for its administrators. Andrew Sullivan writes:

I’m often told that the social-justice left’s assault on individuality, meritocracy, and achievement is a figment of my imagination, or only true in isolated pockets of super-woke academia. But here is one of the largest school systems in the country imposing this ideology on its most important employees, mandating lessons in “whiteness,” allegedly firing women solely because they are white, and indoctrinating an entire generation into associating the virtues of objective truth, academic excellence, and reason with the worst kind of bigotry. If you want to know why liberal democracy is in peril in America, mandatory indoctrination in critical race and gender theory is a factor not to be underrated.

Take a look at this fantastic passage from the Post story. It’s George Orwell by way of Bonfire Of The Vanities:

“It requires discomfort,” said Matt Gonzales, who serves as an outside adviser on the DOE’s school diversity task force and is a director of New York Appleseed, an advocacy group for school integration.
“Having to talk about someone’s own whiteness is a requirement for them to become liberated.”
Several recent attendees of the DOE’s overarching implicit-bias training sessions — mandatory for all, including teachers — have bristled at the program’s emphasis on the inherent insidiousness of “white” culture.
White employees who object when accused of harboring deep-seated bias are branded “fragile” and “defensive,” one insider who received the training has said.
But [Schools Chancellor Richard] Carranza said on Monday that such skeptics often don’t realize their own biases until they are forced to confront them and that they are likely the ones who need the training the most.
“It’s good work. It’s hard work,” Carranza said. “And I would hope that anybody that feels that somehow that process is not beneficial to them, I would very respectfully say they are the ones that need to reflect even harder upon what they believe.”

Got that? Resistance to the claim that you are guilty is evidence of your guilt. The book I’m writing about resisting the new soft totalitarianism has a lot to do with this kind of thing. I remind you that this is not something from the fringes of the far left, but was the diversity training course for administrators in the world’s largest public school system (serving 1.1 million kids).
A couple of years ago, when I wrote about a (now former) Texas A&M philosophy professor, a black man, and his racist, anti-white rants — including speculating favorably on the idea that black liberation might require killing whites — many people on the left (including the Chronicle Of Higher Education) howled that I was being racist. I don’t think they were being cynical. In their circles, it’s normal to allow persons of color to speak in anti-white terms. They’re completely inured to how immoral, offensive, and dangerous this sounds to people outside their bubbles.
I have said in this space for years that the illiberal left — and this demonizing of straight white men is totally illiberal — is calling forth demons with this kind of talk. What do they honestly expect straight white males — and the women who are married to them, and who have them as sons — to do? Roll over with their bellies up and whimper for mercy, like a liberal Protestant pastor, or an English department associate professor? Every time the left engages in rhetoric like this, or worse, institutes programs (like the NYC schools training) to institutionalize anti-white, anti-male, anti-heterosexual bigotry, they give implicit permission for straights, for whites, and for men to act on their own prejudices against minorities. And they incentivize straight white males (and, um, allies) to vote for anti-left politicians, if only as a matter of self-protection. 
In the wake of Trump’s 2016 victory, prominent liberal scholar Mark Lilla denounced identity-politics liberalism as toxic and self-defeating, and wrote a book about it. He was vilified on the left for his position, and even denounced by a Columbia University colleague for — yep — “making white supremacy respectable again.”
MH, a liberal reader of this blog, posted this 2018 USA Today column by Saritha Prabhu, who is worried about this trend on her own side. Excerpts:

As you’ve probably noticed, bashing straight white men, especially of the conservative kind, is very fashionable these days.

You seemingly can’t escape it — you switch on cable TV, or “The View”, read The Washington Post or The New York Times, and see liberal pundits verbally attack white men for this or that.

It’s become often enough that it is seemingly now normal to just casually attack a broad group of the country’s citizens.

And sometimes race is inserted gratuitously even when it isn’t an issue, like during the Brett Kavanaugh hearings: the Republican senators on the Judiciary Committee were attacked as old white men.

Besides, there is the strangeness in the spectacle of certain white people calling out certain other white people on their whiteness.

What gives? What is happening is that everyone’s id is now not just out in the open, it has gone berserk.

Yes. When I was in Australia last week, I saw a common theme on the left, denouncing Alabama’s strict anti-abortion law, was that it was passed by “straight white men.” As if that were enough to discredit it. As if it had not been signed by a female governor. None of these facts matter. It is enough among many on the mainstream left simply to associate an idea with straight white men to discredit it. More Prabhu:

Whenever I hear someone on TV bash white men, my overriding feeling is “Excuse me, but I really don’t want to be a party to this.”

I am a brown, female immigrant and I can assure these leaders and pundits that there’s no anger coursing through my veins at white people or men as a group.

One can have historical and contemporary awareness of inequities and injustices, without having hateful feelings toward the ordinary white citizens around us.

Today’s Democratic Party is predicated on having and expressing open hostility toward white citizens. They are making the dangerous bet that most minorities and immigrants will jump on the white-male-bashing bandwagon.

But it could backfire and turn off many voters. If you ask most minorities and immigrants, they’ll probably tell you they just want a fair, equal shot at the American Dream, and that they’re not angling for racial payback or Civil War Take 2.

The leadership class of the Democratic Party is not listening to Saritha Prabhu. Nancy Pelosi said last week that the opposition to abortion consists of “guys, guys, guys, guys, just white guys, guys, guys”. In fact, men and women hold abortion views — pro-life, pro-choice, or mixed — in the same numbers. And:

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The Hill

@thehill

Stacey Abrams: “Identity politics is exactly who we are and it’s exactly how we won.” http://hill.cm/4LBtdmg 

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Call me crazy, but I think you’d have to be out of your mind as a person who is straight, white, male, or some combination of the three, to vote these identity-politics Bolsheviks into office. They actually want people at each other’s throats over race, sex, and gender. They actually want to turn America into Yugoslavia. What other explanation could there be? They’re going to find out that the United States is not the faculty Senate.

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Anti Civil Rights ideas & "Friends" Being a Stranger in a very Strange Land Born again Cynic!

Poor Penn. Gunowners!

PA HB 768: DETAILS, MEET DEVIL

I have trouble just keeping up with bills in DC and my own state, so I missed this Pennsylvania victim disarmament bill until this morning. But once I heard about, I knew I had to check for the devil in the details; they’re always there. And I’ve learned that looking for the worst case scenarios hidden in legislation is worthwhile.
I’m not up on the political scene in Pennsylvania, so I can’t say how likely this is to pass and get signed into law. I hope in-state human/civil rights supporters have this on their radar.
First, the bill requires mere private citizens to register every firearm other than some antiques. That’s bad enough.
The registration process would a pain in the nether regions. Two passport-style photos taken within the past 30 days, fingerprinting, background checks. Any crime of “violence” — not just felony, or misdemeanor domestic violence — ever is a disqualifier. There is no “shall issue” in this; the State Police can still deny your registration.
And should they deny your application, you’ll have a mere ten days to get a lawyer and file an appeal. If you lose, you’ll have to dispose of the firearm(s) you naively told them you have. That’s another devilish detail; there is only one legal way to do so: Turn it over to the State Police. No compensation. You can’t sell it, or move it out of state.
Registration would be annual. And being the cynical sort — think of the nastiest implementation of a law, and plan for it — I see another potential problem.

Applications for renewal shall be made by a registrant 60 days prior to the expiration of the current registration certificate.

That’s rather specific. Not within 60 days of expiration, not no later than 60 days prior to. 60 days exactly.
State Police: “Sorry, Mr. Smith. Your renewal application is 61 days before your registration expires. Disapproved! Turn in that gun.”
Sucker: “But your office is closed tomorrow. Can I renew on Monday?”
SP: “Nope. That would be 58 days, past the deadline.”
And then we get to Section 5. Additional duties of registrant. I’ll just skip past the parts about notifying the police of thefts and any change in any detail on your registration certificate (did I mention you have to carry that around with the firearm, not safely stored in your file cabinet?) within 48 hours.

(3) Keep a firearm in the registrant’s possession unloaded and disassembled or bound by a trigger lock, gun safe or similar device unless the firearm is in the registrant’s immediate possession and control while at the registrant’s place of residence or business or while being used for lawful recreational purposes within this Commonwealth.

You might think that’s the usual (un)safe storage requirement that victim disarming politicians have been trying to foist on honest gun owners, in an effort to provide safe workplaces for criminals (hard to shoot a violent intruder with a locked up defensive tool). Read it again. Slowly.
Unloaded, and disassembled or locked away. With only threeexceptions.
1. In the registrant’s immediate possession and control while at the registrant’s place of residence.
2. In the registrant’s immediate possession and control while at the registrant’s place of business (and that has to be listed on your registration application).
3. While being used for lawful recreational purposes.
There are no exceptions for defensive carry. I suppose you could argue that shooting bad guys is fun, but that might trash your self-defense claim.
There are no exceptions for transporting the firearm from residence to work (or recreational shooting area). There are no exceptions for taking it to a self defense class.
I think that was intentional. It looks like it was modeled on the New York City restriction currently being appealed to the Supreme Court, but written to evade any favorable — to gun owners — SCOTUS ruling: We don’t restrict where you can take it, like NYC did. It just has to be nonfunctional while you transport it.
Please tell me Pennsylvania RKBA groups are on this and will stop it.
[Permission to republish this article is granted so long as it is not edited and the author and The Zelman Partisans are credited.]

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Being a Stranger in a very Strange Land

America Is No Longer A Nation

 
Paul Craig Roberts
The America in which I grew up and lived my early adult life was a nation. Over the course of my life I have watched my country turn into a Tower of Babel. Homogeneity and shared values permitted us to understand one another. This doesn’t mean that there was uniformity or that things were perfect. A Baptist wasn’t a Catholic. A WASP was not a black laborer. A female was not a male. Blacks and poor whites had a hard time becoming middle class, but it could be done. It was possible for middle class people to become “well off,” but difficult to become rich. Immigration was controlled, and the reduction of inflows had helped the Irish and Italians to integrate into society.
Police were helpful and didn’t burst into homes with guns blazing or rough you up on traffic stops. On important issues, compromises could be reached and reforms implemented. English was the language. If you telephoned a service provider, utility, or bank, you quickly were connected to a real person capable of handling every aspect of whatever you were calling about. Today you wait through the Spanish language option for the robo-voice listing the options that might have something to do with the reason for your call. The companies save money and make profits by imposing their service costs on customers.
Technology seems to have worsened the functionality of society. Diversity and multiculturalism definitely have. It used to be that taking or giving offense was something that good manners prevented. Today members of those groups that are entitled to be offended are ready to take offense at any excuse. Today it is easy for a white person and a male to give offense without intending or even knowing that what he did or said was offensive.
Diversity and multiculturalism provide a fertile field for Identity Politics. Identity Politics has succeeded in turning everything white into racism. Indeed, the word “white” is now a code word for racist. Western Civilization and science itself are explained as mechanisms of white domination. The other day a black female college professor declared time to be white. She explained that a tendency on the part of blacks to be late was due to the fact that time was just another white racist construct. Time was white because it made blacks late.
According to Identity Politics, white people are in charge, but the evidence is to the contrary. There are no quotas for whites in university admissions, hiring, and promotion. It is the allegedly victimized “preferred minorities” who get to go to the front of the line. There are no hate speech or hate crime protections for whites. Whites can be called every hurtful and offensive name in the book and have no right or power to demand apologies or the firing of the offender. White DNA has been declared to be “an abomination,” and white people “shouldn’t exist.” In America today, the way to get ahead is to claim victim-hood. Jews are experts at this, and blacks, women, and illegal immigrants have learned the same trick.
University education explains white people as the source of all evil. This is especially the case in what is called black studies and in gender studies, which seems to have developed out of women’s studies or feminist studies. A white male professor who gives a low grade to a female or to a black can expect that some charge might be made against him, but a white male who receives a low grade from a black or feminist professor has no such recourse.
As whites still constitute the majority of the U.S. population, what are the consequences for society when it is the majority that is constantly demeaned? What does it mean when white males, still the backbone of the military, are more easily cowed than women and “preferred minorities”?
When whites become a minority, what is their fate when the new majority has been taught hatred of whites for decades?
What does it mean when Americans fall all over themselves to apologize for using some word or term that someone finds “offensive” when it never occurs to Americans to apologize to Libyans, Iraqis, Syrians, Afghans, Yemeni, Somalis, for destroying the lives of hundreds of thousands of them? The disconnect here is extreme. Words hurt but not bombs. Moreover, I can remember when words now said to be offensive gave no offense to anyone. What has happened is that people have been taught to regard the words as offensive. How else did “girls” become offensive? Identity Politics finds more offensive words every day. Before long a white person will not be able to open their mouth. Language itself is being made dysfunctional. If the means of communication is dysfunctional, how can society be functional?
Identity Politics has produced disunity. Disunity is the antithesis of nationhood.
There are in the U.S. many groups that specialize in teaching hatred of whites by pretending to fight “white supremacy.” A new one on the scene is the Center for Jewish Civilization at Georgetown University. Georgetown is, or was, a Catholic university. One might expect a Center for Catholic Civilization or, as Georgetown is located in America, a Center for American Civilization. But no, it is a Center for Jewish Civilization. Who finances it? Why is it focused on “the far right”? Why is it at Georgetown University?
On April 10 the Center for Jewish Civilization at Georgetown University is hosting an all day propaganda session at the National Press Club to work up opposition to white gentiles who are allegedly using Nazi techniques to attack Jews and blacks. In other words, the Center for Jewish Civilization is doing precisely to white gentiles what the center claims white anti-semites are doing to Jews and blacks. The “conference” is focused on “How Do We Deal with a New Ecosystem of Hate and Anti-Semitism on the Far Right?”
We all know what the “far right” is—white people, which as a group are being recast as “white supremacists.” Far right is not a term ever applied to blacks or other races.
Try to imagine a Center for Palestinian Civilization at Georgetown University that was hosting a National Press Club all day event to combat an “Ecosystem of Hate and Anti-Palestinianism in Israel.” The center would be lumped in with the Alt-Right and accused of promoting hate and anti-semitism.
Or suppose U.S. foreign service veterans formed a Center for American Foreign Policy and criticized Israel’s control over American Foreign Policy revealed in Netanyahu’s boast that at his request Trump named Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, a large chunk of the Iranian government, as a terrorist group.https://news.antiwar.com/2019/04/08/netanyahu-says-trump-named-iran-guards-a-terror-group-at-his-request/ The center would be accused of anti-semitic tropes.
How is a country a nation when it cannot have its own foreign policy, when words of its language are proscribed, when alleged victim groups have more rights than the alleged dominant class, and when hate is used to create disunity?
Identity Politics is the ideology that has been used to break America into disunited pieces.

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Being a Stranger in a very Strange Land Born again Cynic! Dear Grumpy Advice on Teaching in Today's Classroom

Bet ya that they did not teach you this in your US History Class!

Image result for first slave owner in america

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Anti Civil Rights ideas & "Friends" Being a Stranger in a very Strange Land California Dear Grumpy Advice on Teaching in Today's Classroom Other Stuff

From one of my Old Teacher friends.

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I am always just amazed at the anger of such Folks!       Grumpy

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Being a Stranger in a very Strange Land Born again Cynic! California

Like they have nothing better to do in my Home-state!

The DMV Reviewed Thousands of Hilarious Vanity Plate Applications Last Year. These Are Our Favorites

Inside the important job of keeping poop puns, dick jokes, and hate speech off California’s roadways

When a DMV customer wanted to supposedly express his affection for his two children, Kyle and Sean, he applied for a vanity plate that read “KYLSEAN.” A sharp-eyed DMV staffer reviewing the proposed plate quickly raised an alarm. “Kill Sean!” he scrawled on the side of the application. Request denied.
KylSean was one of 20,000 requests for personalized plates that the California DMV received that month; nearly 250,000 were fielded by the department in 2018. Applicants are required to fill out a form listing the personalized plate they desire, along with a brief explanation as to why they want it. Whether or not the plate sees the light of day falls to a panel of four beleaguered bureaucrats, who weed through the slush pile and ferret out requests that are racist, tawdry, or otherwise offensive. It’s a tougher job than you might think. Ever since vanity plates were introduced in 1972, Californians have tried sneaking all manner of sly euphemisms and overt obscenities past the department’s guardians of civility.
Official DMV policy rejects “any personalized license plate configuration that [carries] connotations offensive to good taste and decency.” Broadly, this covers anything with sexual, racial, or profane meaning—even if it’s unintentional. When one customer requested a plate inscribed with his last name, Moorehed, reviewers denied it for its potential profanity. Although the customer’s last name really was Moorehead, they explained, “it looks like ‘more head,’ ” as in “a sexual reference.”
Helpful departmental guidelines also warn reviewers to watch out for words like “pink,” “monkey,” and “muffin”—all euphemisms for vagina—along with their phallic counterparts like “knackers,” “anaconda,” and “nards.” Any configuration with the word “hate” gets tossed as well. Porcine references like “pig,” “swine,” or even “oink” are also verboten because they’re deemed derogatory to police. More controversially, the guidelines instruct evaluators to pass on any plate with the word “Jew” in it—indicative of the word’s function as both an identifier and pejorative. (References to Christians, Muslims, and Buddhists are alright.)
There are exceptions, however. While “box” is generally rejected as a “vagina reference,” the DMV will allow it on a plate if the customer owns “a ‘Box’ type vehicle such as a Scion or a Porsche Boxster.” Similarly, only cars built in 1969 can use the number 69 on their plates.
As one of the most diverse states in the Union, California contains an expansive lexicon of offensive, lewd, and inappropriate words and cultural references. (Californians speak at least 220 languages—that’s 220 different ways to say “poop.”) But armed with Google Translate, Wikipedia, and Urban Dictionary, the DMV’s sentries gamely manage to weed out profanity in multiple languages, coded Nazi symbolism, and obscure internet acronyms.
Los Angeles obtained thousands of rejected applications after an official records act request. Here are a few of the more brazen, creative, and accidentally provocative plates, complete with the applicant’s explanation and the DMV’s deadpan response.



Applicant Explanation: In remembrance of me and my girlfriend’s anniversary. Meaning be my bae, before anyone else.
DMV Comments: Bae=Poop in Danish
Verdict: No



Applicant Explanation: Husband and wife initials and year of marriage
DMV Comments: 8 Looks like Hate; JWS looks like Jews
Verdict: No



Applicant explanation: Lit is a slang term which means good, amazing, etc!
DMV Comments: Lit=Intoxicated, Slit=Rude slang for a woman or vagina
Verdict: No



Applicant Explanation: It has no meaning I just want to get it because I like it that’s it
DMV Comments: 420 National Smoke Day 4-20 marijuana
Verdict: No



Applicant Explanation: Schlafer is German for sleeper.
DMV Comments: Also means sleeper in the sense of an inactive agent or terrorist (Wikipedia)
Verdict: No



Applicant Explanation: Playful joke
DMV Comments: BMW hunter, he has an Audi. So he’s hunting down BMW drivers?
Verdict: No



Applicant Explanation: On my way to bang your bitch
DMV Comments: What he said
Verdict: No



Applicant Explanation: Have unwavering faith (4) respect the Day
DMV Comments: Who farted
Verdict: No



Applicant Explanation: Celebration of my son moving out of the house
DMV Comments: Dick
Verdict: No



Applicant Explanation: In support of climate change initiatives
DMV Comments: Looks like no to cooch
Verdict: No



Applicant Explanation: I’m the extension of my dad. My father’s name is “Dick” and I was named after him
DMV Comments: Dick extension. Customer’s name is Brant
Verdict: No



Applicant Explanation: Sad time in my life and my car is blue
DMV Comments: Blew Me
Verdict: No



Applicant Explanation: I have a white cat named “Moby.” I want to name my white car after her.
DMV Comments: Moby dick… Moby cat… Vagina?
Verdict: No



Applicant Explanation: The lettering and numbers in this plate are the same as a chest my grama left me when she passed away.
DMV Comments: Looks similar to a text penis.
Verdict: No



Applicant Explanation: Myself being a middle-aged woman
DMV Comments: Hot and sexy
Verdict: Yes



Applicant Explanation: Funky trumpet in the funk music genre
DMV Comments: Fuck Trump
Verdict: No



Applicant Explanation: We are always getting busy in our home. I’m a single mom, work, school, band, city council meetings, sports, dr appt, etc. Getting busy!!!
DMV Comments: Getting busy
Verdict: Yes



Applicant Explanation: Fish ball
DMV Comments: Fish…Ball…Some sort of sexual?
Verdict: No



Applicant Explanation: I am a nurse anesthetist
DMV Comments: Gas passer, she passes gas (farts)
Verdict: No



Applicant Explanation: Am a gay man who loves playing video games (Gay…Gaymur)
DMV Comments: Looks like he’s saying ‘gamer’ but using ‘gay’…Could be taken offensively?
Verdict: Yes



Applicant Explanation: We love Palm Springs
DMV Comments: Looks like we love pussy
Verdict: No



Applicant Explanation: I’m a professional fisherman and I fish for tuna all over the world.
DMV Comments: I Googled him. He is and he does
Verdict: No



Applicant Explanation: The rock band Tool’s second album title from 1996
DMV Comments: Custom meaning is true, but sounds like Enema
Verdict: No



Applicant Explanation: My nickname
DMV Comments: Shiksa=noun (often derogatory, used by Jews), a non-Jewish girl, dictionary.com
Verdict: No



Applicant Explanation: Saint Anne is an important historical figure, and someone who I model my life after.
DMV Comments: Satan
Verdict: Yes


RELATED: Five Life Lessons to Take to the DMV

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Allies Being a Stranger in a very Strange Land

Florence “Flores” LaDue (1883 – 1951)


The undefeated World Champion Lady Fancy Roper

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Being a Stranger in a very Strange Land Grumpy's hall of Shame

A Sign of the Time

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Being a Stranger in a very Strange Land Dear Grumpy Advice on Teaching in Today's Classroom Interesting stuff Other Stuff Well I thought it was neat!

Just another commercial from the past

https://youtu.be/w-tz-9c-g4A
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I still can not figure out WTF happened from then to now. Any ideas / solutions from my Fantastic readers out there?