A lot has been said about the coming year and what is happening with education throughout the country. There is a teacher shortage as thousands nationwide leave the profession. Some governors have attacked this sitting down by forming commissions and committees to study the problem.

Greg Abbot’s first commission included only one teacher. That notion would be like polling 50 white guys about the black experience or women’s issues. A number of people have mentioned teacher pay. Give teachers a substantial raise and I’m sure more would stay. No one is going to turn down more money. However, that isn’t the main problem. Most teachers knew they would never earn a lot of money. So, to say pay is the main problem is overlooking a ton.

I wish I could say that the problems impacting teachers are unique, but they aren’t. In essence, you have a group of people that are trained professionals but aren’t treated as such. Obviously, this can vary depending on local administration in the district and campus, but as a whole this is where things are. My wife is fond of saying two things about educators. First, we love to complain. It’s like an Olympic sport for us. Secondly, she has marveled at how poorly we are treated in terms of professionalism. We have to ask to leave campus. We get 25 minutes for lunch. If we miss multiple days we need to provide a note or ask for permission in advance. She protects our astronauts and still has far more freedom than we do.

What has happened in recent years has been a nationwide breakdown in how subject area experts are treated. Think about how Dr. Fauci has been treated. Suddenly, whether you place your faith in a specialist that has been doing it for 50 years identifies your politics. Do your own research. Here, watch this YouTube video. Listen to this pediatrician that may not even be accredited. Here comes somebody that’s an eye doctor. They know more than stupid Fauci. The obvious problem is that this distrust of subject area experts spreads to other subjects. Now, various states are changing curriculum to remove the parts they don’t like. Teachers don’t have the collective wisdom or skills to teach those things even though that’s what we went to school and hours of professional development to do.

There is a dark irony in watching people argue that we shouldn’t teach certain things because it will make their children feel bad or will be propaganda, but we should give those same teachers guns to protect those same children. Which is it? Are we qualified to be Clint Eastwood or Wyatt Earp or are we just baby sitters that can’t challenge our students to think?

The cold, hard truth is that people don’t do their own research. They never have. So, the question is who you trust for information. That didn’t used to be a problem. We generally accepted the word of experts. Sometimes they were wrong, but they were right more often than not. Now, there is an attack on intellectuals in this country. We happen to be a part of that group. People now look for someone that says something that echoes what they want to hear.

Here’s he deal: TFG has a written list of what the DOJ was looking for and what they took if they found it. He could release that list any time he wants to.

Instead, TFG goes on teevee and whines his butt off. If the DOJ was fishing, the list would show that. Personally, I think TFG won’t release it because he’s under an audit and you can’t release things while you’re under audit.  Or, maybe he’ll release it with his health care plan.

Yeah, okay, it’s been a whirlwind here. So, here’s what I’ve decided to do. I know 90% of you are sick to death of Alex Jones but the other 10% can’t get enough.  I’m going to set up a page with all the Alex Jones information and update it daily if I can. I suspect the most interest will come from lawyers and I am certain I will make mistakes in my re-telling. Here is the start of that page.

So, now I can get back to regular story typing.

But … I need you to know that my time will be limited for a few weeks. I am keeping my grandson next week so his parents can go have some fun. He’s coming to Camp Gigi’s so we can have more fun. Plus I have a couple of deadlines for paying jobs coming up. You know I love ya to death and you are important to me. I’m trying to talk two friends of mine into joining the beauty salon. They used to live in Texas but they’ve moved west. I’ll let you know how that goes.

I am trembling with excitement over the DOJ and hope to get some time this afternoon to write about it.

Okay, so here’s the deal.  Roger Stone is royally scared about what text messages are on the phone that Alex Jones’ lawyer dumped on my son Mark.

The ongoing Stone meltdown follows the notorious self-described dirty trickster calling Sandy Hook family lawyer Mark Bankston a “watermelon head” a day prior.

Watermelon head. Damn, I did not have that on my bingo card.  Poopie face, yes. Thou knotty pated fool, yes. Gutless radical left whack job, yes. Watermelon head, never in a million years.

Through the miracle of modern journalism I’ve known since today that a watermelon head is …

… somebody who melonhead (plural melonheads) (US) One of a group of legendary beings, known in parts of Michigan, Ohio, and Connecticut, and generally described as small humanoids with bulbous heads who occasionally emerge from hiding-places to attack people.

With the exception of being small (he’s six foot, around 200 lbs), that pretty much describes him dead solid perfect.  And of course I wouldn’t have known any of this because it happened in some foreign states.

I do not know what’s on the phone. My son will not tell me because he does not want to make bond for me.

So anyway, if Roger Stone ever challenges you to an insult contest, you take that bet.

Here’s some pictures you may enjoy.

These people were in front of the Travis County courthouse ever day. This guy’s sign said, “The only thing that died at Sandy Hook was The Truth!”  That’s Bill and Kyle after the verdict.

And here from the left is T.J. (Neil and Scarlet’s surviving son) Wes, Bill, Mark, Neil, Scarlett, and Kyle.

And if you want to understand what “caps” mean in Texas, here’s Mark explaining it.

Attorney who just won his lawsuit vs Alex Jones:

“There is going to be a large set of plaintiffs dividing up the corpse of Infowars. … That could get very, very dangerous for Mr. Jones, because there is going to be a new level of financial scrutiny.” pic.twitter.com/6EzLQXcLwS

— Bill Grueskin (@BGrueskin) August 6, 2022

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I did a no-no and did not check out this story before I posted it. It’s probably not true, so if it’s not, just laugh and move on.  We do satire here. If something is true, I will tell you.

The White House forecasted 250,000 new jobs, instead the economy added 528k jobs – this is how Fox News spins this story.

Juanita has done a great job covering this as she obviously has an inside track. So, I will not add any details here. It just doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. Besides, I usually get long-winded here. So, I will offer two rhetorical questions that the beloved community here can chew on if they like. Some of these have obvious academic answers, so this is more on a philosophical level.

1. How is it that people like Alex Jones exist?

Yes, I took Abnormal Psychology and Psychopathology. I know the literal textbook definition of this. This is usually where “well actually” guy comes busting out the DSM-V with the textbook definitions of psychopathy and sociopathy. Yup, we all know that. What we also know is that those conditions really aren’t curable. That makes the second question easier to answer in his case.

However, on a personal or philosophical level it is quite disturbing. He made up to 800,000 a day knowing full well that he was not only lying but also really hurting those people. That takes a special kind of cruelty. I’m not a psychologist and I can’t practice counseling outside of a school setting, but it produces a vexing question. How much do people like Jones really know? He knows that his lies were in fact lies. He knew he was making money off it. He willfully spurred his minions on those poor families. I can’t tell you how the psychopathic brain works exactly. I don’t know how much they are really cognizant of and how much they are able to compartmentalize away from whatever humanity they actually have.

2. How do we decide exactly who gets redemption and who doesn’t

I know two things. First, I know that sociopaths and psychopaths cannot really be redeemed and it is dangerous to try. Alex Jones doesn’t deserve to be redeemed. Donald Trump doesn’t deserve to be redeemed. Tucker Carlson doesn’t deserve to be redeemed. These are people that know exactly what they are doing and are aware on some level of the damage they are doing. As I said above, I don’t know exactly how much they know, but at least a large part of them knows.

The second thing I know is that some people can be redeemed because they already have to a greater or lesser extent. People have turned on these folks after the fact. Usually, they need a little legal pressure to do so, but they have done it. So, how do we draw the line between the redeemable and the unredeemable? If they can be redeemed then what does that redemption look like?

The best analogy I know comes from my own religious education. Forgive me for those not religious. Yet, that word is the very word we are concerned with. In order to get absolution, we first have to admit what we have done wrong. Then. we get some sort of penance depending on the offense. I think a number of people skip one or both of those. Some people admit they are wrong, but expect immediately to be welcomed in without atoning for their sins. Others pull the “why don’t we all just get along” without actually admitting they’re wrong. Both of those need to be present for it to work. Yet, none of that answers the question above. We can’t redeem everyone and yet we also can’t write everyone off either. So, what gives?