for pete's sake

One quick question before opening for the day: No matter how much scorn you may have for the president's agenda (for personal, political or purely bandwagon reasons), who actually takes pleasure in his perceived shortcomings? In the time it took to make those signs and stand in the rain to wave them outside Wakefield High, isn't there something else these people could have done to better serve their children or improve the things they're complaining about?

As I understand it, the original speech called for students to think about ways they could help the president. Um, when I was in elementary school, such an assignment would have been called "Social Studies," "patriotic," "civics," "creative." He wasn't drafting them to be mindless little soldiers, he was asking them to think about leadership and community.

And by the way, if you put the technical definition of "socialism" in front of elementary school students - a society characterized by ownership, control and equal access to resources for all individuals - they'd think it sounds pretty damn good. Because in the classroom we call that "fairness" and "cooperation."

And you know what I mean by that, so don't get your panties in a bunch and start picketing outside my classroom.