Roy Exum: Signs Of The Apocalypse

  • Monday, February 15, 2021
  • Roy Exum
Roy Exum
Roy Exum

There was a glorious meme (think of several pictures with delightful captions) bouncing all around the Internet on Sunday. In the first, you see the most poisonous 80-year-old woman on the planet – House Speaker Nancy Pelosi –snapping hello into a desk phone and then, in her trademark snip, yelling “Who is this!!”

The voice on the other end replies very legibly, “Owen.” Nancy immediately devours bait, hook, and sinker. “Owen who!” until the third frame shows former president Trump laughing hysterically as he delivers his knockout line, “Owen Two Baby!” the parody obvious as the Democrats are “oh-and-two” in their hate-filled attempts to impeach The Donald.

It’s just perfect.

It is also symbolic of how costly, idiotic, and meaningless America has just wasted millions of dollars in man-hours and in units of oxygen that would have been far better used against the pandemic, getting life-saving vaccine to every state in the union, and defying those among us so intent on sewing discord, insults, taunts and a fishmonger’s bitterness at each other. “Shameful” is what it is what it is and please, Lord, help us change the channel when the Legion of the Miserable jockeys for TV time.

Mitch McConnell, the Kentucky Senator who has pitched more losing innings in the past year than anyone in the history of baseball, offered a pious cry on Saturday that Donald Trump was “practically and morally responsible” for the insurrection at the US Capitol in January. Then, in a legendary act of cowardness to those very convictions, the 78-year-old relic of buffoonery votes to acquit the former president in his impeachment trial for that very same act.

McConnell, like the senators who voted in favor of impeachment, was deeply critical of Trump’s conduct leading up to the attack. “They [the mob] did this because they’d been fed wild falsehoods by the most powerful man on Earth because he was angry he lost an election,” McConnell said before tucking his tail between his legs and slinking back under his rock.

My point is that the world, as we now sadly recognize society’s failings, would have been far better served if McConnell would have simply kept his mouth shut. But, no, Mitch had to prove to the world he’s as shallow as the griddle at the Waffle House.

We gotta’ be getting close to the Apocalypse.

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DEFINITION -- This for the majority of our public-school children who cannot read: The “Apocalypse” is a word thought by many Christians and non-Christians alike that means “the complete and final destruction of the world.” Don’t dwell on it; it will drive you crazy as is easily recognized by the fact some PhD writes about a book every week that predicts “the end is nigh” and when they are wrong, even their families agree they are half-a-sack of chipped marbles. Why half-a-sack? They have ‘lost their marbles.’

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MY FAVORITE APOCALYPSE STORY-OF-THE-WEEK

The punsters love to tell us “Math Is the Only Class That Counts.” This is particularly in cities where a fast-food counter worker can’t break a $10 bill and must urge, “Just take it … ‘cause it’s Valentine’s Day …” That’s when you can really light ‘em up with the retort, “I can’t do that, my man,” and hand them the $10, quickly adding, “What’s left will be your tip!”

The story of the week. The Oregon Department of Education (ODE) has just sent a missive to each public school teacher in the addled state that encourages each to register for training in “ethnomathematics.” That’s right … the top educators argue that white supremacy is manifested when children are forced to find the right answers.

A newsletter from the ODE states that on Feb. 21 a course will be offered to all the middle-school students entitled “Pathway to Math Equity Micro-Course” Forget about two-plus-two and three-times-three. A toolkit will be provided to all teachers designed “to dismantle racism in mathematics.”

The toolkit will illustrate a list of ways "white supremacy culture" allegedly "infiltrates math classrooms." Those include "the focus is on getting the 'right' answer," students being "required to 'show their work,'" and other alleged manifestations. A document obtained by a number of news outlets reads, “The concept of mathematics being purely objective is unequivocally false, and teaching it is even much less so … "Upholding the idea that there are always right, and wrong answers perpetuates objectivity as well as fear of open conflict."

A Fox news story revealed such information is important and ODE Communications Director Marc Siegel was quick to defend the "Equitable Math" educational program, saying it "helps educators learn key tools for engagement, develop strategies to improve equitable outcomes for Black, Latinx, and multilingual students, and join communities of practice. "Wow! Just you wait until Hamilton County’s premier superintendent gets his hands on this one!

You’ll remember a couple of years ago education leader Bryan Johnson foisted his prejudices on Hamilton County teachers with a quite bogus “white superiority” requirement. A program was delivered with required attendance during in-service training and one college-educated teacher actually stood and apologized for being white. Not long afterwards that teacher accepted a pay raise and Johnson’s Director of Equity was almost relieved of her duties. Very hurriedly her job description and responsibilities were changed in the firestorm that followed.

The Fox news story read, “An associated "Dismantling Racism" workbook, linked within the toolkit, similarly identifies "objectivity" -- described as "the belief that there is such a thing as being objective or ‘neutral'" -- as a characteristic of White supremacy.

“Instead of focusing on one right answer, the toolkit encourages teachers to "come up with at least two answers that might solve this problem." (Trust me, the ten most famed mathematical minds in the world cannot come up with two answers to any equation.)

“It adds: "Challenge standardized test questions by getting the 'right' answer but justify other answers by unpacking the assumptions that are made in the problem." (Excuse me, but in structured math there is no room for an assumption.)

“It also encourages teachers to "center ethnomathematics," which includes a variety of guidelines. One of them instructs educators to "identify and challenge the ways that math is used to uphold capitalist, imperialist, and racist views."

Please, this hot and fresh from the Oregon Department of Education.

Again, we gotta’ be getting closer to Doom’s Day…

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NOW, COMING RIGHT UP ON THE HORIZON …

Speaking of the Hamilton County Department of Education, I feel certain there are some schools among its 75-school group that be renamed and replaced with far more honorable names and mascots. Look at San Francisco were an 11-person group of modern-day moralists has decreed a good third of the city’s public schools bear the names of the despicable and must be renamed by December.

By a healthy 6-1 margin, 44 schools will be renamed in the most despicable “historic cleansing” in American history. The school board of the “Unified” San Francisco School district has approved that at a cost of over $1 million, schools named for George Washington (“He owned slaves,”) Abraham Lincoln (“He was mean to Indians”), Thomas Jefferson (“We all know he had a deal with “Sally”), and President James Monroe have been kicked to the curb.

Get this: former San Francisco Mayor Diane Feinstein, the 87-year-old Senator who may soon be forced to retire due to memory struggles, will have her name stricken from an elementary school because she replaced a vandalized Confederate flag in 1986. Yes, any school now named for those who had connections to slavery, genocide or oppression must be changed, according to a committee recommendation heading to the school board.

Others on the list include Herbert Hoover High, Frances Scott Key Elementary, Noriega EES, Sherman Elementary, Commodore Shoat Elementary, Garfield Elementary, John Muir Elementary, Paul Revere K-8, Jose Ortega Elementary, Roosevelt High, Daniel Webster Elementary, Robert Lewis Stevenson Elementary, Presidio Middle, and others.

Kind of makes you swell up with pride, huh?

Among new names being batted around are Barack Obama, Michelle Obama, Ruth Bader Ginsberg, Maya Angelo, Richard Brady, and some you’ve never heard of. Who is Richard Brady?

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I’m telling you once more .. the Apocalypse isn’t ignoring stuff such as this.

royexum@aol.com

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