You can't play football, you're a girl

Kacy Stuart practiced for two months as a kicker with the New Creation Center Crusaders until the board for the Georgia Football League, the association for the private school clubs in the state, heard about it. Then she was told she was not allowed to play football anymore. It seems no one had a problem with it, not the coaches, players or parents on the team Kacy was going to play for and not the teams she was going to play against. But then Hank St. Denis, the executive board president, heard about her playing and he stepped in, telling Kacy she was not allowed to play football. This is obviously a good ole boy thing, girls are not supposed to play football. They can be cheerleaders for football, but they should not be on the field. They might get hurt. This is such bullshit. The mother has said that she will fight it and I am sure the ACLU among many other lawyers would love this case, it seems to be so easy and obviously about the fact that she is a she and not a he. Hell, there does not even seem to be anything in the by-laws that would forbid her from playing, not that even if there were something in the by-laws it would be anymore right, but at least then they could say that they had rules against it. They don't, this is just some bloated, windbag asshat telling her that she is not allowed to play football because she is a girl. Hell, I am surprised that the school is not fighting this too, they apparently granted her a spot and she is apparently a really good kicker. Even if they just let her have the spot because they knew it would be a lawsuit waiting to happen if they didn't, it does not seem to be in your best interest if an outside individual can tell you what you can and cannot do on your own school team. I hope St. Denis gets his ass kicked and is personally sued by Kacy's mother and school and he has to leave the state of Georgia.

It is nationwide

Dcup posted something yesterday about a roadblock when she was driving with her kids. Well, it happened to me last night as GG and I were driving home from seeing the new Indiana Jones film for free (and that is about it is worth paying to see that pile of crap). We got to a point where they were directing all traffic into an abandoned parking lot. They then lined the cars up in three rows and just went along checking drivers licenses. The popo said they were checking license and proof of insurance, but they only looked at my license. GG and I guess it was cause I still have my NC license. So apparently these random stops are nationwide. And of course as we were pulling into the stop and then leaving again, GG and I wondered aloud whether this was a violation of our civil rights. GG even yelled out the window, "hey you violated my rights" as we were pulling away. I responded "quiet till I get the windows up" we were still in the parking lot and there were a a lot of coppers around. I didn't need to get shot that night. This same police force had shot a kid a few weeks earlier, they might be a bit trigger happy. So we just debated the merits of pulling everyone over for supposed license checks, seemed a bit unlikely to us in a heavily Latino area. Maybe looking to illegal aliens? I guess as Bush's term begins to end we may start to see more of this ramping up of police presence so that when McSame doesn't win, Bush Co. can keep their dictatorship alive.

YouTube Fridays

I thought I would share some Dr. Demento with y'all. Hope you enjoy.


The Drunken Scotsman


Fish Heads

The Wide World of Sports

I hope I didn't scare anyone off with my title about sports because yes this post is about sports, but it is about sports in the news and not just sports themselves.

First, the Lady's Professional Gold Association (LPGA) has decided that all athletes who wish to compete on the LPGA tour must be able to speak English. If a golfer is not able to speak English after being on the tour for 2 years, than they will be suspended. The LPGA says that this is so that athletes are able to give acceptance speeches after a win without the use of a translator. This is also supposed to help with interviews if the athletes are able to speak English. This whole idea seems stupid to me. I understand, I guess, wanting your athletes to be able to speak English to promote your sport better, but when you punish individuals and not offer any assistance this would seem to be counterproductive, but maybe this is just me.

Second, a nine year old boy has been banned from playing baseball in a league in New Haven Connecticut. What did you he do you may ask? Did he hit someone? Nope. Did he display unsportsmanlike conduct? Nope. Did he lie about his age? Nope. He is too good. He has a fastball that registers 40 mph and the league has said that this is intimidating and dangerous to the other players. He has not yet hit another player when he pitches, so he does not appear to be dangerous, just too good. In fact, his coach was told he could not pitch anymore and when his coach did have him pitch, the other team's coaches forfeited the game and left. So basically you showed the players on your team that the point of the game is not to have fun, but that the only important thing is to win. If the idea was not to win, than you would have played anyway and let the kids have fun. They are there to play baseball, not to leave if one of the other team's players is really good. You are basically destroying a child's self-esteem here. Isn't the point of any sport to become good at it? So if he is good at it, why is the league punishing him? His parents and coach say that the team and child is being punished because he chose not to play on the defending league championship team which is sponsored by one of the league administrators places of employment. The league says this is not the case, but really have only said there are safety concerns. Well if there are safety concerns than why punish a whole team or punish the child? Why not have him pitch against older players or suck it up as a league for this season and then create a rule for next season that would limit how much one pitcher can pitch or set a limit on how fast a fast ball can be thrown, but deciding mid-season when this team is undefeated and has a really great player seems suspect to me. It seems they just are trying to prevent an outcome they do not want and/or they are just poor sports and so if the good player is not playing on their team than they do not want to play. I thought youth sports were about having fun, encouraging children to do their best and ultimately like any sport about making yourself to be the best athlete you can be.

I get high on baby hugs

This is a really funny video about being a stay at home dad.

Too poor for recess

According to this article, in a survey of the ten elementary schools in chicago that have the highest rate of children living in poverty most of them did not give any recess and had gym only one day a week. Compare this with the fact that most children who went to schools in the suburbs of chicago usually had at least 20 minutes of recess every day and more than one gym class a week. The low income schools face a number of problems with having children have recess. First most of them do not have any outdoor space or playground equipment. Second, they do not have any recess monitors to watch the children outside. Three, it is not always safe for the children to be outside in these neighborhoods. And finally and the one that I think is probably the biggest reason, No Child Left Behind (NCLB) has created an education system where schools struggle to teach children all they need to know for the fucking tests that schools have to pass just to keep getting funding. Research shows (I know I have seen this research, but am not sure where it is right now) that children from low income homes tend to enter school behind their middle class peers. So schools that serve low income families have to make up a lot more time to get their children ready for the same tests that the middle class schools have to take. Because they have to take more time to teach the same material, they have less time to allow children to play outside. We are trying to cram too much information into these children who are not ready to receive the information. There is a lot of research and I would venture common sense that says that children need a break in their day to help them refocus on their academics. They need the time to go outside or play in a gym and burn off the energy that is being accumulated in their bodies as they sit and listen to teachers lecture at them. Children, and not just young children up to at least 8th grade, need time to get up and move around. They need time to socialize with their friends and play games. They need time to just play and turn off their brains or at least engage their brains in a different type of activity than sitting in a classroom. So eliminating recess time is counterproductive. You force kids to sit in a chair for several hours at a time and then you expect them to focus the whole time. Most adults need breaks so why do we expect kids not to need breaks. I have been in a lot of meetings and it seems pretty common for adults to get breaks if they are sitting for a long period of time and if we do not get these breaks, that is the first complaint that most people have. So then why do we expect children to do what we as adults cannot do, sit in a chair for a long period of time. Really good teachers know to change up the activities and keep children engaged in the activities and not make them just sit in one place for long periods of time, but even this is not enough. Children need the time for them to be able to really move around, to run and jump, to laugh and to talk loud. They need that freedom to be a child again. It is horrible that the children who need the safety and security to go outside, those in impoverished areas, are the ones who are denied these opportunities.

And totally off topic, sort of, I hate that we make kids sit down and take tests, not all kids are good test takers so using a standardized test as a sole measure of achievement is asinine. Second, standard tests are written by and for white, suburban, middle-class, male, individuals and hence children who are not exactly this such as Asian or African-American or Latino or female or who live in a lower socioeconomic status or urban or any of the number of non-white upper class males are being tested by tests that they cannot relate to. And finally, what the hell kind of system, NCLB, takes resources away from schools that are struggling and need the resources.

The American education system is fucked up!!

Invertebrate Porn

If you have ever been curious about bug sex, and who hasn't been, the Sundance Channel and Isabella Rossellini have created these 2-5 minute short films about different invertebrates and how they have mate. Yes, they are as weird as they sound, but really educational as well. So enjoy on this fine sunday afternoon.