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Happy Birthday to the Vent Pipe. It’s been four years ago to the day. I was getting ready to start college and was excited about the Republican National Convention and the reelection of George Bush. Boy have things changed…
I thought this cake was funny. It certainly isn’t "traditional."
Here’s to four more years!!!
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I bought a new digital camera a few weeks back. It’s a little advanced for my basic knowledge, so I am still, in essence, using it as a point and shoot camera, but I’m hoping to learn to use some of the features it has. This is one of the first pictures I took with it:
I had to resize it to import it into my Qumana to be posted onto the blog. Yestarday I ordered a DVD from Amazon that is supposed to help teach me all the little tricks and tools. We’ll see how well that goes…
Tags: Digital Photography, Dogs
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In light of Obama’s "8-10 years" of being the President gaffe, the Anchoress posted two interesting quizzes. The first is a "News IQ" quiz from the Pew Center for Research. It is fairly easy; the Anchoress scored a perfect 97% (how is that perfect, anyway?), though I missed one question to come in at 91%. The second is much, much harder. It’s a sort of history of Western Thought/American Governmental History quiz. I scored 54/60 correct or 90% to edge out the national average of 70%. I do, however, take issue with one of the questions:
9) The War of 1812:
A. was a decisive victory for the United States over Spain.
B. was a stalemate.
C. established America as the leading power in the world.
D. enhanced Robert E. Lee’s reputation as America’s most talented general.
E. was confined only to sea battles.
Now according to the quiz makers, the correct answer is B) Was a stalemate. I completely disagree. Many, maybe even most, historians of this time period of American history–including me–would argue that the War of 1812 started badly for the United States, but ended up being a rousing victory; some even call it the Second War for Independence. I suppose the argument could be made that because neither the United States nor Great Britain "won" any land or treasure directly, the war was a stalemate. In my view, however, the War of 1812 not only finally cast-out all British soldiers from the heart of the US, but it also opened the door for the Rush-Begot Agreement of 1817 which led to the mutual demilitarization along the Great Lakes, to the Convention of 1818 which established the existing American/Canadian border from the Lake of the Woods to the Rocky Mountains and which later would create the American claim to control Washington, Oregon and the southern regions of British Columbia. It helped pave the way for a final settlement in the fishing disagreements that had plagued the American-British relations through the early 1800s. Finally, the establishment of a strong United States presence in the area of Louisiana–a presence that had, prior to the war, been weak if not altogether non-existent–allowed for the future annexation of Florida from Spain which would come just a few short years after the war (Thanks in part, if not exclusively, to the daring of the greatest Democrat president ever to live–President Andrew Jackson).
Stalemate? I think NOT.
Tags: American History, Civics, Politics
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Filed under: Education
It’s funny how things work out. If anybody had told me in April or even in May that my top three choices of locations–Jefferson County-WV, Winchester-VA and my home county of Hampshire-WV–would all three give me the opportunity to interview and then that they would subsequently offer me a position at the local high schools, well I would never have believed it. But that is exactly what happened.
I’m very thankful for having been giving the opportunity to decide between these three spots. Although it was a difficult–loyalties at home, loyalties in Jefferson Co-my home away from home for the past four years, and the desire to work in Winchester–I made my decision last week, opting to sign with John Handley High School in Winchester.
I honestly thought all along that I would end up in West Virginia right out of school, and, in some ways, I wish that I would have. But, JHHS was just too good of an opportunity to pass up. I mean look at the place:
Besides being a beautiful facility, it’s also practical. Great space. Great history. Newly renovated. State of the art technology. The reputation as the sixth (or so?) ranked school in the state. It’s privately endowed, even though it’s a public school. An interesting opportunity. Things just seem to work out that way.
Wish me luck as I start preparing for my first year of teaching!
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I don’t think I really need to write much in explanation of this cartoon. I will say, though, that I can’t imagine what would happen if McCain didn’t like spicy food. Criticizing a guy for being a little older? Fine. Opening disliking so called “ethnic food?” Well that makes you a racisit!
[Editor's note: Infrequent blogging for going on a year really makes you a clutz when it comes to navigating your way around the dashboard. It took me 25 minutes just to do this!!]
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It’s been a lazy Fourth of July here in West Virginia. Rainy. Cool. Gray. I don’t think I ever remember such a cool Independance day.
Last fall I took a course on the Jacksonian Era. It was far and away my favorite class I have ever taken. During the course of the class, we read Daniel Webster’s response to Hayne during one of the many arguements over the principle of secession. How can anybody not be moved by love of country after reading Webster’s famous words:
I have not allowed myself, Sir, to look beyond the Union, to see what might lie hidden in the dark recess behind. I have not cooly weighed the chances of preserving liberty when the bonds that unite us together shall be broken asunder. I have not accustomed myself to hang over the precipice of disunion, to see whether, with my short sight, I can fathom the depth of the abyss below; nor could I regard him as a safe counsellor in the affaairs of this government, whose thoughts should be mainly bent on considering, not how the Union may be best preserved, but how tolerable might be the condition of the people when it should be broken up and destroyed. While the Union lasts, we have high, exciting, gratifiying prospects spread out before us and our children. Beyond that I seek not to penetrate the veil. God grant that in my day, at least, that curtain may not rise! God grant that on my visioon never may be opened what lies behind! When my eyes shall be turned to behold for the last time the sun in heaven, may I not see him shing on the broken and dishonored fragments of a once glorious Union; on States dissevered, discordant, belligerent; on a land rent with civil feuds, or drenched, it may be, in fraternal blood! Let their last feeble and lingering glance rather behold the gorgeous ensign of the republic, now known and honored throughout the earth, still full high advanced, its arms and trophies streaming in their original lustre, not a stripe erased or polluteddd, not a single star obscured, bearing for its motto, no such miserable interrogatory as "What is all this worth?" nor those other words of delusion and folly, "Liberty first and Union afterwards"; but everywhere, spread all over in characters of living light, plazing on all it sample folds, as they float over the sea and over the land, and in every wind under the whole heavens, that other sentiment, dear to every true American heart, – Liberty and Union, now and for ever, one and inseperable!
Nobody speaks like that anymore. What a shame!
…Food and family this evening to celebrate and honor our country. God Bless those who lead us, those who defend us and those Founders upon whose vision I am so blessed to live. God Bless America.
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