Here’s how conservatives see the country. Minorities of color vote for Democrats b/c they give them free stuff – that’s the conservatives’ term for it: (Continue Reading)
Pat’s Polemics
My new Web site
Too much P.C.?
12/23/2018 Pat Barrett Add CommentA PBS/NPR/Marist poll recently found that a good many Americans, while not opposed to civility, believe that “political correctness” is being overdone and pundits believe (Continue Reading)
What a difference an education makes
11/11/2018 Pat Barrett Add CommentYears ago, I think I was still in undergrad school, I began to notice and talk about a distinct difference I pick up between people (Continue Reading)
National Avenatti Day
09/26/2018 Pat Barrett Add CommentTrump has declared today National Avenatti Day after the attorney who is about to blow the lid off the Kavanaugh nomination. His client is a (Continue Reading)
Before you get too self-righteous about our cackling…
09/15/2018 Pat Barrett Add CommentBear in mind the overwhelming horror we felt when Trump won. We not only lost one of the most competent and experienced people ever to (Continue Reading)
How to establish facts
08/30/2018 Pat Barrett Add CommentOver and over again, I’ve stumbled over the resistance to the Right to facts. How do we show people who not committed ideologues (or just (Continue Reading)
No clip board, just a feeling
08/27/2018 Pat Barrett Add CommentEvery principal worth his salt knows the kind of teacher he wants in every classroom and knows how few they are. This teacher can be (Continue Reading)
Two principle sources of bigotry
08/27/2018 Pat Barrett Add CommentOver the years I have often asked people who make bigoted statements about Black people what the source of their sentiments is. After hemming and (Continue Reading)
Well, it could be worse
08/19/2018 Pat Barrett Add CommentReading of the Republican reaction to Truman firing McArthur, my thoughts turned to Louie Gohmert and Trey Gowdy and Darrell Issa and so on. All (Continue Reading)
Real Time blogging
08/18/2018 Pat Barrett 8 CommentsAs I watch the Rev. Al in for Joy on A.M. Joy, I want to blog as I hear the arguments against Trump’s stripping Brennan (Continue Reading)
Euro-American Alliance
08/18/2018 Pat Barrett Add CommentIn The Wise Men I am just reading about McCloy’s efforts to bring Europe together right after WW II. His success in this endeavor was (Continue Reading)
Why numbers are important and how we need to teach statistics
08/15/2018 Pat Barrett 3 CommentsJust heard on NPR: possibly 300 Americans have traveled to join IS, the Islamic State (Al Qaeda, ISIS, etc.) The expert interviewing returned persons can (Continue Reading)
I’m struggling with something
08/06/2018 Pat Barrett 2 CommentsI’ve started reading Lies My Teacher Told Me. I’ve experienced a perspective shift. Others, according to the preface to the book, experienced the same sort (Continue Reading)
Four hundred sixteen!? CONFIRMED!
08/04/2018 Pat Barrett Add CommentThis is a figure I absolutely must check out. I’m reading Max Boot’s Invisible Armies about guerrilla warfare. I noted somewhere how I went to (Continue Reading)
Did Roseanne Barr try to go to Starbucks today?
07/24/2018 Pat Barrett Add CommentWritten the day Starbucks was closed for “sensitivity training” Roseanne Barr tweeted something gross. Actually, it was a calculated racist slur. Barr became an (Continue Reading)
What are we dealing with? Why counselors for kids?
07/23/2018 Pat Barrett Add CommentThe local newspaper has an article on services for students as they return to school. Some are new and some are extensions of existing programs (Continue Reading)
Perfect description of Trump
07/13/2018 Pat Barrett Add CommentSociopaths and narcissists frequently use gaslighting tactics. Sociopaths consistently transgress social mores, break laws, and exploit others, but typically also are convincing liars, sometimes charming (Continue Reading)
Where are the real divisions in our America?
07/07/2018 Pat Barrett Add CommentI just read this in Loving: Interracial Intimacy in America and the Threat to White Supremacy, p. 173: people living in stagnant White communities….”They have (Continue Reading)
If you think people are sane…………..
07/04/2018 Pat Barrett Add CommentGo to on-line newspaper columns, YouTube sites, and other public places for comments and read the comments. The majority are sane but there are some (Continue Reading)
I was an ideological teacher – apparently
05/09/2018 Pat Barrett Add CommentJust as I was getting off the fl listservs, a member wrote in saying she was glad I was no longer in the classroom, referring (Continue Reading)
Generational divide
05/02/2018 Pat Barrett 2 CommentsSo often we hear about the generational divide. This divide supposedly drives a good deal of the strife in our country, with older people blamed (Continue Reading)
Quis imperat? Who’s in charge around here?
04/27/2018 Pat Barrett Add CommentElaine Pagels in Gnostic Gospels, p. 107, brings out the inherent tug of war in any group of people. She writes thus about the early (Continue Reading)
Stay Out of My Business!
04/26/2018 Pat Barrett Add CommentThe reason Trump voters identify with Trump is that he thinks like they do. For instance, they are bedeviled by legalities, the way ordinances and (Continue Reading)