Food for thought

Here's another reason to be concerned about the domestic spying program. One of the criteria is international communications (email or phone).

I've heard reports that since 9/11, certain international relays (international phone calls) were re-wired to use US connections to make it easier to eavesdrop on a call between two people that are in other countries.

Well, have you ever looked at where some of your spam originates from? The easiest way to get ideas is to look at the full headers. Who's to say that these types of emails aren't triggering their "qualifiers", thus adding you to the list of "must investigate further" list?

*shudders*

On that note, I must keep an appointment that's on a public access calendar system. Make it easier for the NSA to find me.

learning english

Arizona having such a large influx of spanish speakers, it is apparently up to the state of Arizona to help the children learn english.

As the Arizona Republic reports today:

In a victory for Gov. Janet Napolitano, a federal judge ruled Thursday that the state must deposit $500,000-a-day fines for missing an English-learners deadline into a special fund to help those children master English-language skills.

The decision by U.S. District Judge Raner Collins could translate into millions of dollars more for students.

It also gives Napolitano the upper hand in further negotiations over how best to meet the needs of about 154,000 children with English deficiencies.

The fine is a result of a lawsuit brought against the state claiming that there weren't enough funds provided to help spanish speaking children learn english. The state eventually lost.

I'm not quite sure why this bothers me so much. I feel that it's discriminatory to other non-english non-spanish immigrants to this country. Since when is it the state's responsiblity to teach these kids enough english to pass the required state tests? It also seems wrong that if the parents want to learn english, they have to pay for classes. But they can dump their children off at public school and expect them to be taught english.

Shouldn't these special english learning classes be a separate program that the children must enroll in, pay some money for, then graduate BEFORE going on to public schools? I don't think in this "it's not my fault society" we can actually do something like that.

I remember when I was in the first grade, I was having trouble with vocabulary. I had to go to special classes after school, and if I didn't make enough progress, they were going to hold me back a grade. Fortunately, the remedial (there's a word you don't use anymore) classes helped, and I moved on. I don't think my parents had to pay for the classes, as they were part of the school system.